Doge

The Cascade Classic masters leaders used it as the primary race recovery drink. Then Worthy Brewing sponsor and owner was quite the cyclist and I think maybe there was a deal there.

Flatballer

*SPOILERS BELOW*





























How about that Super Bowl? One of the best actual games in a long time, regardless of outcome, plus the local team won, which is fun. The fireworks were going off for hours, even in the suburbs. Downtown looked positively insane, we're lucky they didn't burn the whole thing down.

I moved here and the second season they won the Super Bowl after not winning a championship since 1960 (pre Super Bowl era). Maybe Cleveland should make me an offer (it would have to be pretty good to live in Cleveland for two years though).

TheKillerPenguin

When I was hanging around in Belgium I did a group ride with some of the locals following the E3 route. Like 2hrs into it we stop at this pub in the middle of a farm field and since my dutch was crap I figured we were taking a pee break. I go to the bathroom and am ready to roll out, and when I come back out they're sitting around smoking cigarettes and there is a round of Westmalle sitting there. I didn't really want it but you just like, don't turn down beer in Belgium, it's like a real slap in the face to refuse it. So I drink it, they smoke their cigarettes, I figure we're going to roll out, and then they order a second round. These beers are like 10% alcohol, my face tingled like crazy all the way home.

Roundabout way of saying IPAs drool Trappists rule.

mattm

Didn't watch.

My neighborhood did, for whatever reason. Why do people watch it if "their" team isn't even involved, I wonder.

Football is something I just can't get in to, personally.

TMonk

I enjoy watching football, or most sports games for that matter. I don't really seek it out but I will watch it and enjoy it if it's on TV. We got invited to a viewing party at my Tia/Tio's house so yeah, it was on TV.

Don't really care for either team but I'm tired of seeing the Pats win so I'm happy with the outcome. I think it was objectively a good game too, high scoring, neck-and-neck, plus a few trick plays in there.

Doge

I was being "trained" as an official at the bike race up to the SB start.
I never cared much, I actively avoid watching now.

big john

It's an event, once a year thing that even non-fans will watch. People have parties for their friends, etc.
Championships are supposed to bring out the best play from participants, even though there have been SB blowouts.
I usually enjoy the games just before the SB, regardless of what teams are involved. Also like the NBA but can't watch hockey or baseball.
Olympics are starting this week, gonna see any of that?

mattm

I suppose it was a dumb question.. I just don't see why non-fans would watch it. Basically I just despise 'Merican football.

I mean why won't people watch the TdF as non-fans?! (ok, another dumb question)

Winter Olympics, I'll tune in for some. Love the downhill skiing and some of the bobsledding stuff. Some of it like biathlon (was gonna say "duathlon" but looked it up) & curling just seem.. strange. To each their own I guess. But still. Curling? I mean, c'mon.

tetonrider

Years ago, I used to think biathlon was ridiculous; how about combining a 100m sprint with.... knitting a sweater?

It took a while for me to realize how incredible it is.

* You need to be an amazing endurance athlete.
* You need to have amazing technical skills -- maintaining coordination on skis while anaerobic is not like pedaling a bike.
* You have to nail the ski selection and preparation (at the top level, their are ski techs, but athletes still have a role here).
* In the heat of all this, you need to be able to calm yourself down and do something that requires precision -- firing a shot at a target.

The last part is super interesting because there is also some strategy to it: Do you take 10 extra breaths to get your HR from 195 down to 170? It costs you 20 seconds, but missing the shot means you have to ski a penalty loop. Imagine having to fire a shot after a number of laps of Cat's Hill.

It is said that biathletes are among the oldest endurance athletes to hit their prime -- mid- to late-30s, I think.

Anyway, not trying to convince you, though maybe it's worth a quick look.

I've got a direct connection to nordic skiing, and have gotten my butt kicked by a number of former Olympians -- biathletes -- who are now old but still bad-@ss.

rubiksoval

I usually try to watch major sporting events. I watch the Super Bowl even though I never watch any football games.

In the past, I've watched lots of World Cup games as I traveled, as it was such a big thing all over the world, even though I know next to nothing about soccer. Same with some rugby matches. Tried one cricket match for about 3 minutes. Couldn't handle that, though.

Always watch as much as the Olympics as possible, and many track and field events and major marathons.

I like the sporting achievement aspect; elite talents that have done everything they can to be at their best at that particular time... it's pretty cool. Greatness live and in action.

topflightpro

The thing about the Super Bowl is that it is a one-game championship. Kind of like NCAA basketball. It makes it easy to focus a lot of attention to that one event. The other major pro-sports in the US have Championship Series, so that diminishes the interest. You don't know if it is going to end in games 4, 5, 6 or 7.

As for the Winter Olympics, I've never really spent much time watching Biathlon, but Curling rocks. I can remember sitting on my coffee table yelling at the TV during one Winter Olympics. There is a lot of skill and strategy to it. There's even a curling center a few minutes from my house.

big john

I like short-track speed skating, it's fast and full of action. I marvel at ski jumping and downhill racing.

rankin116

I think I like biathlon for the same reasons I like old school track and field, the history and survival.

Discus, javelin, shot put - all weapons. And if you lived in Norway in like the 1700-1800s(?) and wanted to survive, you had to be able to shoot a reindeer while you're huffing and puffing from snowshoeing/skiing out to find it.

topflightpro

Day 2 of no sweets is going marginally better than day 1. I still can't get all the chocolates that are in various offices out of my head though.

furiousferret

So my Mother in Law finally passed after a few months fighting cancer. The last few weeks were really tough for my wife and her family, so I'm just trying the help them where I can. (Sorry for the buzzkill).

That's the rub being middle aged, the people that raise you leave.

rankin116

Condolences ff, that's really hard. Best wishes to you and your wife and family.

caloso

So sorry, FF. It hurts, I know. But you honor her by being there for her daughter and the rest of the family.

Enthalpic

Falcon Heavy launch was cool.

furiousferret

Thanks for the well wishes everyone.

Probably recency bias but that landing may be one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

Flatballer

Very sorry to hear that. Sounds like you're doing what you should and can.

tetonrider

a bunch of years ago, i was racing frequently in salt lake city. there was one dude who was incredibly strong but a TERrible bike racer. he was racing with a thermonuclear weapon, though he didn't realize it. he'd attack at the worst times (for him).

turns out he didn't spend much time on a bike. he made cat 1. it was just cross-training for him.

took me a while to connect the dots: SLC is near park city, where the olympic training center is located. he (and his brother) compete in nordic combined. unfortunately i think the US only had 1 spot available this year, and the brother got it; he overcame leukemia at a young age.

for those who may not know, nordic combined is the combination of ski jumping with skate skiing; you get an advantage (or penalty) based on how far you jump. the leader starts the ski first, and the first one across the line wins.

there are some competing traits of the best ski jumpers vs the best skiers; nordic combined is an optimization challenge.

carpediemracing 

Condolences FF.

The Missus flew out for a few days to visit her dad, who'd had a heart attack. Brought the whole mortality thing home once again, after my dad passed in 2016 and my mom in 2003. I was looking at pictures off my camera the other day for other reasons (trying to find pictures of my bike or something) and saw what was probably the last picture of my dad, since I was the one taking all the pictures.

Ironically the day the Missus flew out my good friend SOC also flew out, for the same reason. They had a stopover at BWI at almost the same time, didn't quite run into each other (she was landing, he was boarding), but it was quite the coincidence. He ended up in a different state but it was sort of supportive coincidence.

I never made a clip in 2016, the year my dad lived at our house, but the pictures motivated me a bit. I started looking into framing out a tribute clip for him, although based on some lag issues on my computer it's going to take a while.

TheKillerPenguin

So, that doc was thinking PPI, but I was at my GP yesterday and she is 99% sure it's actually asthma, and that it was triggered a few times this year and the episodes have lasted months each because I wasn't using an inhaler and continued training and racing and such which never really allowed the mucus to clear out. I was given a nebeulizer treatment in office and a round of prednisone along with an inhaler, and I'll be seeing a pulminologist so they can perform a more comprehensive airflow test and likely prescribe a maintenance inhaler. I was diagnosed with exercise induced asthma when I was in high school but I never did anything about it, so this may be chickens coming home to roost.

I hope it's asthma anyway, seems way easier to manage than silent reflux. Also kinda excited to see what racing and training are like when I don't feel like I am drowning in mucus most of the time, has a way of taking some of the anger out of your legs when you're on the edge.

Also I have to say, USADA and WADA really seem quite reasonable as far as their substances lists go. Makes me a bit more skeptical of the accidental positives that kick around from time to time.

TheKillerPenguin

Sorry, that sucks

It will get easier with time. I'm positive your wife and her family appreciate you helping out.

topflightpro

As someone on a daily maintenance inhaler and who has a rescue inhaler, I agree, the allowable amounts are fine. I did the math at one point, and I would have to take like 10x the daily dosage of my maintenance inhaler and 18x the recommended dosage of the rescue in haler before I hit the max. (Of course, that presumes that my body metabolizes this stuff normally.)

Also, I also enjoyed that Bebe's Kids reference (FB). In fact, I was a bit surprised when I saw the video clip still that I immediately said Bebe's Kids. I don't think I've thought about that movie in 25 years.