Another week has passed in the saga of Brian’s quest for cat three immortality. Last week, Brian pledged to begin recording his activities with Strava, and has made good on his promise. I can now look at his data in a chart format (charts are my favorite way to interpret the world—nothing make me happier than a long bar on a bar chart—and I’m going to try and ignore how dirty that sounds). Brian’s Strava Profile is here.
Savvy chart aficionados like me will notice that Brian’s chart contains a lot of green, which is the color of not money in this case, but the color of running. Yes, Brian is still running. Even though I received this email from him on January 12:
Gatens You’ll be happy to know that my treadmill died today. I was 49:18 into my run when it began to smoke and burn. Deader than Elvis… Your voodoo-like powers are powerful.
Yes, even though Brian has been sent a definite sign from the heavens he insists on continuing his running fetish. And in addition to his normal emails pestering me about how much I dislike Bear Mountain (the bar for the amount of disliking Bear Mountain chart would be a long one—and probably lavender in color), here’s an exchange from January 13:
Gatens For $600 I can get a PowerTap and a wheel?
schmalz Seems like it. Wattage—the gateway drug to weighing your food.
Gatens I may get it just to get more data to annoy you with.
Gatens Wrapping up an hour on the bike. About 20 miles or so on the rollers. I’m intrigued by using a PT. Who I can I borrow one from? There’s got to be someone we can trick into loaning one to me. It’s for journalistic credibility. In the name of science. Lance maybe?
It seems that even despite his running, Brian is turning into a true cat three racer before our eyes. He wants a wattage measuring device. He’s even found a deal on one, but he’s also angling to get one to borrow. This is exactly how a cat three thinks. "I need something. I found it, but it’s still too expensive. I ride a lot—someone should give one to me." I can only sit at my desk right now and see the darkness growing within Brian. Yes, young Gatens, I can feel your sense of entitlement growing. I am defenseless. Take your free PowerTap, and your journey to the dark side will be complete!
“Wattage leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to category 3.â€
I followed the link to the Strava page. The first thing I noticed is “This athlete has no bikes”. Are you sure Brian is riding his bike?
I had my guy at the shop down the street from me build up a wired PT hub on a DT Swiss 1.2 rim for about $675. The wiring harness and CPU are about another $175, so you can get a complete setup for a lot less than $1100.
PT’s go for around $1100 for the cheapest model, $600 is a great deal indeed, but free is better. I’m trying to talk my bike shop sponsor to give me a free winter jacket if I win a 3 race in March, but they are not going for it.
I had the corner bodega hook me up with an egg white & cheese on a toasted sesame bagel for about $1098 less than a PT, AND it tastes better.