All set!

I am ready for Lake Placid. Over the weekend I got in a flop and two good workouts, a run including over 9 miles at 6:30/mile on the dot at 155bpm avg. and a 70 mile ride including 2 hours at IM pace. My speed was great during the IM paced efforts, and my HR to W ratio was pretty good, too.

I had to call around to various bike shops on Saturday morning to find one that had a rear derailleur hanger for my bike. Luckily I was able to track one down and have it installed. Now my bike is all set to go, or at least it will be once I find my Bento Box.

Check out this article: Slower Traffic, more pedestrians could revive cities. "I can't help you if your community wants to be auto-dependent," consultant Dan Burden told metropolitan Detroit city and regional planners. To attract "the creative class" that can jump-start a region's growth: "You start with paint. You put in bike lanes and get trees planted, and that brings the speeds of motorists down, and then the buildings start to come back, and with that, the tax base. That lets you redesign the streets," he said.

Sorry Mr. Burden, it's never going to happen. I'm going to read the comments to the story later today once more people have read the article. So far, all negative. The commentators look at how lone changes implemented toward walkable communities merely shift traffic elsewhere, and cite that as evidence that the proposed changes would be ineffective. However, there must be a critical mass of changes before habits are altered. Making a single section of road "walkable" while the surrounding miles are still all sprawl is not going to change habits. A single mile of bike lane is not going to get used. However, neither is evidence that the changes are not worthwhile.

Anyhow, I think this area is too far gone, the population too close minded and set in their ways. The local populace can continue spending 20% of their income on vehicles (only Houston, TX spends as much) while everything around them crumbles and they continue their march up the obesity rankings.