New Orleans

There is no way the general public can be aware of the challenges that are ahead for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Keeping in mind that a large part of the neighborhoods that were destroyed were inhabited by people living in poverty, who has the incentive to rebuild?

Most of the residents were probably renting. Those who were probably highly leveraged, with minimal equity in their houses. We know that county records were destroyed: how will people even prove they had ownership? Insurance policies, if they pay out at all, will go to paying off mortgage holders, not residents. Again, who has the incentive to rebuild housing for a group of people who are unlikely to qualify for new mortgages? Aren't insurance companies likely to avoid highly leveraged loans, which many people would need to buy a house in the first place? And what about income? Most people in this area probably are without jobs currently and will have been without jobs for months by the time they might be re-employed (jobs will be scarce as businesses try to recover from their un-insured losses). No recent job history. Given the lack of income most are probably experiencing where ever they are right now, either no credit or bad credit.

What company would ever invest in this situation? The possibility for return is small and the risks are huge! The answer can only be the government. This is what government is for. Either through well monitored and well conceived incentives to companies to invest or through direct investment.

More importantly, it is the job of the government to be proactive when it is not in the private commercial interest to do so. What do I mean by that? That there is no incentive for private businesses to invest money in re-enforcing levees. There is no incentive for private companies to buy unused weapons grade fissionable materials from foreign countries. These type of activities, preventing disasters, not recovering from them, is government's economic responsibility to its citizens.

Cat. 4

Monday I received the official approval of my upgrade from Category 5 to Category 4 for both Road Racing and Track Racing. I know it shouldn't be a big deal. Both are just about experience, not results. Completing the Track class gave me the Cat 4 on the Track and 10 mass start races is all it took to become Cat 4 on the Road. No requirement of how well I finished or anything else. Still, it's an accomplishment.

I started the season thinking that I would probably be racing category 4/5 races for as long as I was into bicycle racing, and probably switch to 50+ when I turned 50! Now I've finished 2nd and 4th in two different Criteriums. Joe Hamlin, who I barely edged out to win the 2nd place, is now a Cat. 3, and he finished in the top 3 in his group at Sunday's SPBRC Dakota Crit challenge. Makes me realize I'll most likely be racing Cat 3 on the road next year gives me the crazy idea I might even upgrade to Cat 2 at some point. What am I thinking? I started this sport at 39; I should just sit back and enjoy.

But I've also learned something incredibly valuable. Accomplishing a goal that you really care about makes things that seemed impossible before (racing Cat. 2?) seem possible. Now I want to share that with others. I just don't know how yet.

2nd place at the Northfield Crit 

MN State Road Race 2005 

Track Racing

Man, do I love track racing! I started the track class at the local Velodrome the beginning of June. It was supposed to be four weeks, but after the first class, we had 3 consecutive rain outs. Not cool. After the first class, I was dying to go fast. I could feel it. And I couldn't get the stupid grin off of my face.

Last night was a development race for Cat 5 track racers like myself. I got there thinking I'd do the group start races only. The track director looks at me and says, "your doing everything, right?". So what the heck. "Everything" consisted of a 200 meter flying start time trial, 1k Time Trial (the "kilo"), a Scratch Race, Miss 'n' Out, Team Pursuit (which we did as a team time trial), and a 20 lap points race. The track is 250 meters, so the 20 lap race is only 5k, about 3 miles for the metrically challenged.

I was so toasted by the time I was done, it was amazing. Basically every race involves at least one maximum effort. It was basically a 2 1/2 hour long sprint interval work out.

I had a new experience during the kilo. The kilo is the track cycling equivalent of the 400 meters in Track and Field: just short enough you have to sprint it but just long enough you really can't. I ran the 400 meters (it was the 440 yards back then) in Jr. High School and I remeber how much I hated it. I have no idea why I liked the kilo given that comparison. Other riders have talked about getting tunnel vision or seeing stars during hard efforts. Last night was my first experience with tunnel vision. For one, you're concentrating so hard on the black line (the lowest line on the track) to keep your distance to a minimum that you start to not see much else. But when I finished, I sat up and realized my field of vision was widening! Amazing. Maybe I'm not sprinting hard enough on the road.

The Team Time Trial was awesome. I love the working together, the rhythm, it was great! I'm looking forward to riding it as a pursuit sometime.

I got 3rd in the scratch race, 4th or so in the miss 'n' out. I learned strategy real fast on that. I had been out front for a couple laps and dropped back to get a draft to recover, then got boxed in and couldn't sprint to keep from being eliminated! Even getting dropped, it was cool.

I was tanked by the points race and picked up 4th on the first sprint. After that, I was just haning on to be sure I wasn't lapped. I will definately be there in spades for the first Thursday night I can. Even better, I think it's something my wife and kids can watch and not get too bored.

More later. Thanks for reading.