jeremygrant.com

Who is Klaus?

Klaus was a 1968 Olympic swimmer.

Klaus was a German national record holder in swimming.

Klaus was masters world champion Ironman for 3 years.

Klaus once finished 4th behind Dave Scott, Scott Tinley and Mark Allen in Ironman Kona.

Klaus was my Beach club swim coach for 12 years.

Klaus fought brain cancer for like 6 years when the doctors told him he had 1.

Klaus died last year.

He made you swim until you nearly drowned. He gave away a pair of Oakleys if you bested your PR in a meet. He would call you a girly man if you couldn’t finish that 1000 with :58 splits. I absolutely hated him sometimes — One time he said my bike was really heavy (a $150 Univega sport)… Well check me out now I have a slew of bikes — a couple under 19lbs and one is 16lbs. Take that Klaus! But really, he is the reason I still have :58 splits after 1000 meters. I have hime to thank for all the compliments I get on my freestyle stroke. He’s the reason I compete in triathlon and will enter Ironman. I still hear his voice when I’m making it up some godforsaken, unrelenting hill.

This Sunday is the Live Like Klaus Biathlon. A short 3 mile run and 1/2 mile swim to benefit his foundation and the UCLA brian cancer program starts at 9am Sunday. It’s $45 and includes a t-shirt and a luau.

http://www.livelikeklaus.org/

I’ve been off season for swimming and running since October — I get that feeling that Klaus would be pissed if I didn’t at least show up and finish the damn thing. The whole time I can hear him shouting in a heavy German accent “YOU CAN DO IT!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!! DO IT!!!!!”

i was browsing around this weekend and found a goldmine of some very authorative sounding advice in a discussion of a ride I’ve long abandoned — here’s an excerpt

“Trying to train alone won’t really help that much, the only way to get faster is riding with the group.”

Of all the sports I’ve taken up in my life bicycling has got to be the most ridiculous forum for throwing advice around. It seems no matter what you do to avoid advice it gets forced at you like an Escalade into a compact parking stall…

Maybe it’s something about the spinning wheels that draws idiots to the sport

Take for instance the all the wonderful advice I get about commuting on a bike — I’ve commuted for like 20 years with most commutes ranging from 30 to 70 miles a day and I still get advice as if I was new to it. Thanks for that.

For the triathlon there’s always the idiot next to you in the transition area that tells you what you should be doing and going on and on about how his method is the best. Or the guy next to you in the mad dash to the water who talks shit about your entry method. The greatest thing is that I never have to see them again until I watch them cross the finish line — if i stick around that long.

How about walking into a bike store. God forbid someone walks in there and knows what he’s doing… after years of experience I’d hope that I know something about riding a bike. But alas, the fat sales guy has got to know more about it, right? I wanted to get my girlfriend a mini pump and a small seat bag to carry a tube, some tire irons and a patch kit so next time she has a bad day on her 6 mile commute she doesn’t have to walk.

Are there seat bags? Not in this shop… apparently seat bags have been extinct since the wide popularity of CamelBacs — or so says the fatty salesguy…

Ok so she needs tubes… I say get 3… one for now and two for later…Fatty says “if you need two tubes you’re doing something wrong”…hmmm…. really? ok, so if i go out and ride say 120 miles i should just carry one tube?… or if my girl doesn’t know how to patch a tire that, well she should just suffer and walk?… Do you want me to sit and wait for the glue to dry on the sidelines? Should a clydesdale class racer only race on 12$ ultralites? Anyways his shop sucked.

I like to visit bike shops as much as satan likes to sit in the front pew on Sunday. Don’t get me wrong tho… I’ve actually met a few nice bike sales guy / mechanics and they are FEW. Ray at El Maestro, TJ at O20, the part time guy at Helen’s, the guy at Tri-Zone, very few and very random… so random I think I have died and gone to heaven if even an ounce of respect is detected in a bike shop.

As far as the whole “Trying to train alone won’t really help that much” its wrong… we all know that facing the open road alone and solo against the wind is a fundamental step in attaining strength, endurance and confidence on the bike. It also teaches you your most efficient and aero position. Training in a paceline allows you to rely on the efficiencies of the pack while pushing a speed unattainable with out one. Why bother training like that when in a race situation you aren’t legally allowed a paceline’s benefits? But if I ask that question I also have to ask…if you are riding a paceline why are you riding so slow?

The best advice I’ve got from the Pro’s is to listen to your body and train/fuel accordingly — everyone is different and there is no one solution for everybody…

I’d rather buy this and take a gamble on tearing her legs apart.

Those carbon wheels got to go tho…

Its kind of a rule of thumb for me… I don’t “race” unless I am in a race. Take for instance the morning commute — I’m riding my bike for three reasons — 1. to beat traffic 2. to benefit the environment and 3. to fit training into my manic schedule of pushing space and dropping lines on paper. Making my way into work I’m not out there to “race“. I pay good money for challenging closed course races — no need to otherwise prove myself to anyone but me and my training log. I ride how I ride and thats it.

So, its mildly amusing to find someone that feels the need to “race” me on my 20 mile morning commute through the gridlocked traffic that is LA. I can identify these riders from a mile away — literally. So I tend to avoid the whole stupid instance when I can. Sometimes its unavoidable.

This morning was one of those unavoidable instances.

I missed the light at Wilshire and Santa Monica by about ten seconds so I’m stuck waiting for the left green to turn as I watch some roadie making his way ahead to the rolling hills in Century. I thought he was moving pretty slow and my first thought was of the “great race” that was to follow… dreading the inevitable pass …the light soon turned and I kept my pace as usual and ended up on his tail in about three minutes as he trudged his fat ass uphill in his sparkling clean team kit on his spotless all carbon dura ace tricked out bike and his one full water bottle….

ok … so i gave him the benefit of doubt and stayed a bike length back as he slowly made it up the hill… if I was to pass him then it would be the sounding start of the “race” so I waited silently for three miles at a few mph under my regular pace (this gets really annoying to me) until we came to a light and he saw me stop behind him… … LET THE “RACE” BEGIN!!! oh wait… he let the light change, 1, 2, 3… then GO! well it took a while as he hurriedly tried to clip in and missed a few times.

So he was definately trying to drop me with a sprint as I spun seated at a moderate 23mph making my way through stopped traffic on the left as i dropped him as he mashed in the bike lane. I just maintained my regular speed for that stretch… whatever …I’m more worried about idiots in cars here.

Like three miles later he blows past me at like 25 mph in a full sprint in his big chainring, yelling at me, blowing through the red light i was stopping for. he almost was flattened by a speeding BMW convertable. OK good job… he passed me at the red… then he ran another red and another red. maybe he should have been spinning hard all morning and I would have never had to pass. But I admit it must be humiliating to be passed by some skinny guy with one gear in cuffed corduroys wearing a thirdeye and a bag on this back…

But like one mile after his “red light sprint to end all drops” I came up on him again… i wasn’t trying to catch up or “race” him… hell I had a meeting this morning and I just wanted to get in the office… I decided not to bother coming up too close to the douche again — I let him wear the piss yellow jersey that day — come on… if you are going to drop like that at least keep your pace.

Needless to say I never saw him before in my two years riding that stretch and won’t likely see him again… Hey and I made two minutes under my regular time that morning.

edit: i saw this guy about a month later. i dropped him once more. then at the next red light he stopped, looked at me, said something and then turned right up the street real slowly. weird. another clean bike and another clean kit… this guy must be rich.