There's a perfectly logical explanation for that .... Farrah Fawcett died and went to heaven. God gave her one wish. She wished all the children in the world would be safe, so God killed Micheal Jackson.
I have a sort of secret weapon: I normally run, cycle and play tennis or raquetball and love to ride my road bike. But we have a very cold winter and an extremely hot summer here and I needed some way to keep my fitness up indoors and at night etc during extreme weather. I really hate Greg Lemond and would probably beat the crap out of him if he were in front of me but I have to admit his company makes a quality spinner. I have a Revmaster shown above (mine is all yellow and not quite as cool looking) and have it setup precisely in the same geometry as my road bike. I replaced the seat with a Terry Mens Liberator Y seat and installed the same Speedplay pedals as my bike so I can use my regular cycling shoes (its hugely beneficial to be clipped to the pedals on a bike). So I push it in front of the television and try to do 30-minutes a day. At least half of that is standing out of the saddle and hammering at a high setting. The Revmaster uses a rubber belt so it is completely silent (and it can take all the power you can deliver without breaking). This is not your Dad's Tunturi. Less than a grand for the Pro model with the electronics and a matt for the floor. Another couple of hundred for a decent saddle and pedals so I guess something under 1200 overall. I can actually forget I'm on the thing when its in front of the tv. The ability to skip the gym is priceless. I know, 30 minutes doesn't sound like much of a workout but nothing can pull energy out of your body like a bicycle.
Agreed, although I much prefer the real thing (outside cycling) to the stationary bike. I try to ride at least 3-5 x's/week for the 6 months of biking weather we get here in northern Illinois. As old school as it sounds, I feel like the fresh air is as much a part of the equation as the exercise itself. For this reason I started running this past winter, and I HATE running; but to me it beats anything indoors because at least I'm directly breathing the outside air.
lol you are grinding it out in northern Illinois and I'm complaining about the weather in southern california. But I'm up at 3000' on the northern slope of the san gabriels and it gets Freaking Cold but not that sub-zero stuff you have. In the summer here it can hit 114. When I lived in chicago I was surprised that I could run pretty good down to about 5-deg or so but below that I couldn't breath properly and it was very slippery around my neighborhood (Elmhurst). I didn't even try my roadbike in the winter, those 20mm road tires are treacherous on ice.
A very brisk walk of around 45 mins at dawn is like a ritual to me. I keep changing my route though, commuting by bike at convenient place. It costs overall under 60 mins.
career traders need varied entertainment ... as often as possible. At the Immigration office (Chiangmai, Thighland) these 4 older swiss guys (banking gnomes from Zurich) are complaining vehemently about how slow service is. They had been waiting 45 min. already. They blew a gasket when I came in, went right up to the window and handed my passport with app. to the clerk (and said in Thai, "hurry please") with a courteous bow and respectful kneeless semi-genuflection. They were saying shit in german like, "who does this american think he is? Probably bribing his way to the front of the line or works for the CIA or Interpol. All americans are assholes, they can't be trusted; they're always pulling a fast one on us" I tried my best to make out I didn't understand a word. 3 minutes later my passport is returned to me and the swissies get theirs too. As we walk to the parking lot they asked me how come I was able to get such fast service? I said to them, "all I do is show the US-Thailand treaty document which has underlined and in bold to deliver excellent service to americans at all times" ... no bribes necessary. To this they replied to each other, "see they're always into crooked stuff" Anyway we all agree to go out and get some beers (in the middle of the day ) but I asked if we could go to the local bank first for a few min. as I had something urgent to do. So they accompanied me there. continued ....
I was at the desk of a gorgeous, young (28) Thai beauty with no ring on her finger. The 4 swissies were sitting in a row of chairs about 10 feet behind. They were watching my every move and running a constant commentary on everything I was doing and saying, interspersed with how one can never trust an american Of course I continued to pretend that I didn't understand a single word they said and they wouldn't expect me to simply because there are no americans here who speak any other language worth a shit. So in the midst of doing my docs with the girl I'm hitting on her too and she's receptive; nice smiles and blushes and I'm thinking I could perhaps get her to have lunch and then we'll see if I can close the deal ... all of a sudden, with no fckin warning one of the commentators says, "watch now, she's leaning over and looks like she's going to suck his cock right in front of all of us" I couldn't hold it in any longer - I fckin cracked up like there was no tomorrow. These guys instantly realized that I understood german and they threw a giant tantrum, jumping up and down and yelling how devious I was, etc., etc., - there was so much noise that even the manager came out to see what was going on. Needless to say, the gig was up with the girl, she put 2 n 2 together and figured it was a play. No pussy and in any event it was a long shot. It took several minutes to calm them down. Then we all went out & got drunk. Just another day in superb chiangmai.
The whole thing was a giant fckup, from the little I've read and heard about the fiasco and the total shafting of the poor. http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/763
-------------------------------------------------- re: Note 2 watch gym (stocky+muscleman) versus MMA (deft+nimble+agile) in the Coliseum scene @ 2:00 http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=fqvj0nfydEk&feature=related (copy link from right to left and paste into browser address bar)