jeremygrant.com

his TT position DOES look like a praying mantis!

so… the other shoe dropped….floyd landis’ B sample tests positive…i think its smells of BS — not because I like landis or phonak (i despise them both) — but, because of

the french media and their preoccupation with terrorizing every american cyclist with rumors since the 80′s

the french lab that administers the tests has been proven to be biased enough to produce false results

there are many valid reasons a high level of testosterone could be found in his sample

there are many reasons why it would be stupid and/or useless to take testosterone knowingly

that being said, i think that its better to keep my mouth shut and see what happens… its hard to know what to believe anymore…”innocent until proven guilty”, no? well not for one washed up, ex-pro “sportsman of the year”…

…Greg Lemond is and always was a jackass… his pointed accusatory comments about Landis and the rest of the peloton before any proof came back from the lab, any decision from the Tour, or the ICU is in really bad taste…i thought i hated Laurent Fignon more — but not anymore… not very “sportsman like” (what do you expect from a guy who sold out to Trek?) anyways… he’s looking pretty fatty when i saw him at the PMC…fatties get jealous easy…

Minneapolis, MN — Greg Lemond today released a statement that said he has, reluctantly and with great sadness, been forced to add the 2006 Tour de France to the long list of tours that he should have won. Lemond initially believed, and was even quoted in an earlier interview as saying, that this was the first clean Tour de France in many years. However, in light of the recent positive doping test of tour winner Floyd Landis, Lemond has concluded that, in all likelihood, he himself should have won the tour this year.

This brings the total number of Tours de France That Lemond Should Have Won (TDFTLSHW) to 167. Lemond first won the tour in 1986. However, as he has explained many times over the years since, he should have won the Tour in 1985, but was lied to by Bernard Hinault and cheated out of the race victory. Lemond next should have won the Tour in 1987 and 1988, but was incapacitated by a shotgun blast from his brother-in-law. While the incident was ruled an accident by the police, Lemond believes that his brother-in-law was working with Hinault and a young Texan by the name of Lance Armstrong to remove him from the sport.

Lemond came back to win the Tour in 1989 and 1990, but lost in 1991 due to the fact that, as incredible as it may sound, every other rider in the Tour de France besides Lemond was taking performance enhancing drugs. Lemond believes these drugs were supplied by Bernard Hinault, who realized that if nothing were done, Lemond would continue to win the Tour for the next 50 years. The drug-tainted Tour would continue through 2005, including the reign of Lance Armstrong. In the absence of doping, Lemond clearly would have won the Tour from 1991 to 2005, bringing the total number of TDFTLSHW to 21.

Going back before 1985, Lemond believes that in all likelihood, he would have won the Tour de France each year since his birth in 1961 if a) he had known about it and b) he had not had the small stature and limited leg length common to children between the ages of 0 and 10. As Lemond explains, clearly it would be unfair to him to discount the Tour wins he should have achieved were he only able to reach the pedals of his bicycle. This brings the TDFTLSHW to 45.

While Lemond concedes that some may believe him to be “stretching it” by including in his TDFTLSHW years from Tours before his birth, he claims that if one is to think about it logically, the only possible conclusion is that the greatest bike rider in the history of the Tour would absolutely have won the Tour since its inception in 1903, if only he had been alive at that time. It was not Greg Lemond’s fault that his parents were not alive and able to conceive him in time to ride the initial Tour in 1903; thus, it would be unfair to strip him of the Tour wins that he rightly should have been awarded.

Note that there have been 11 years since its creation in 1903 that the Tour de France was not held due to the two World Wars. Clearly, stopping the Tour due to worldwide war would have been unfair to Greg Lemond, had he been alive, and would have in all likelihood, been a move orchestrated by Bernard Hinault, had he himself been alive, to keep Lemond from winning the tour. Thus, Lemond believes that these years should also be included in the TDFTLSHW, giving him a total of 103 wins.

Finally, Lemond explains that he has included the years between the invention of the bicycle to the first Tour de France (1839 to 1903) in the TDFTLSHW. Had the French had the foresight to create the Tour de France in a more timely manner, Lemond would have definitely won it each and every year, again assuming he had been alive (see above). Obviously Lemond cannot be blaimed for the shortsightedness and general ineptitude of the French, and therefore the victory from the Tours de France that should have been held in these years must be credited to Lemond, bringing the final tally of TDFTLSHW to 167.

Note that while Lemond has not yet been able to rationalize including years before the invention of the bicycle in the TDFTLSHW, he has created a company to pursue such an effort. The company is hard at work on a rationalization and hopes to produce one for him within the year.

good news! i had my best swim/run brick last night! i’ve never felt so good!

bad news! i have now learned the mistake of over-reaching and over-training — just when i was reaching a comfortable pace and volume of training my body realizes that the combined factors [too rapid increase in volume, over effort on the brick workouts, some inconsistent nutritional habits, lack of sleep, day after day of hard effort, not enough recover between workouts, and increased stress at work and in my personal life] have left me with some unwanted symptoms… [insomnia, depression, compensating eating habits, quick dips in body weight and delayed onset muscle soreness that lasts for days]

today i paid a high price — i overslept two hours, missed my bike time trial this morning, drove to work instead and was late twenty minutes, had a horrible day at work, had barely any focus, skipped my bike/run brick tonight, and at the end of the day had to admit that if i didn’t take the day off and plan the weekend accordingly i would burn out before i even make it to a starting line.

i traced this back to about a month ago when i started having insomnia and trouble waking early for my morning sessions and in the past weeks of skipping out on supplements half the time because i was too tired. then the past week i started cramping almost every workout (even after stretching) and then i pulled a muscle two days ago after some swim sprints. my legs have been feeling heavy on the bike lately too… i can keep my pace “fast” and do the extra miles but i feel sluggish and fatigued…i haven’t shown any real pace improvement in 2 weeks…endurance – yeah, pace – no

i ignored this stuff when i should have given in and dialed it back…

so the experts say take a couple days off… then limit workouts for the next three days to no more than two easy 50 minute workout a day…. so my plan is to take today off, do my two easy workouts tomorrow (bike/run) and skip the race i scheduled this sunday (5k beach run) and spend some time focusing on a long easy run instead…