Kind of a Big Deal

I just read a comment on my last entry from a local Colorado blogger. I guess you can now say, "i'm kind of a big deal." Aside from my close family and close friends, I always wonder who reads my ramblings, who even cares what I have to say.

The other day I opened a new bank account because my old bank which I have been using since the 80s has decided Colorado is not worth doing business in. So that left me with quiet a dilemma. One thing I have always hated about banks is the usage of fees. A fee for this, a fee for that. Before you know it you are dropping serious coin just to have the priviledge of cashing a check for money owed to you and the crazy idea of getting your money when you want it. Banks never seem to lose except a few that were stupid enough to lend billions out to those who had no way of ever paying back those enormous mortgages, but I have digressed.

So during my account opening session, I was presented with their most popular account, a savings and checking combo. Great, I can have two accounts that are linked together. This is what I wanted. If you have paid attention to the radio or tv in the last 2 years you will remember a program started by BofA called Keep the Change. It works like this, spend $1.25 on your debit card(which is your checking account) and BofA will round that amount up to $2.00 and put the extra $0.75 in your savings account to help you save. WTH?! There is no savings, b/c the net is zero. They are just taking money from one account to the other. You save nothing. Then when your checking account goes below your low-balance threshold they charge you a $10.00 low-balance fee because that money you thought you had in your checking account got to "keeping the change" in your savings account and now the bank is decreasing your account by $10 because they say your account went too low. So this "personal banker" who was helping me told me about this great savings plan. Ohh goodie I thought. Before this guy could finish, I unleashed a fury of questions and comments deploring this idea of "savings" that the bank machine told him to say. I don't think he ever met someone so passionate about this. I'm not really passionate, I just think such things are stupid. Its really all a way for the bank to put you into a position to pay an additional fee when your account goes to low-balance.

Now back to some good stuff here like cycling and cooking...Yesterday was my first "full-day" of nanny duty and personal assisting. I provided breakfast, school drop off, errand running, my own training, school pickup, house work/duties, dinner prep, dinner cook, dinner eat and cleanup, then home. It was fun. For dinner we made teryaki chicken stir-fry with lo-mein noodles. He helped with vegi prep. Gave him some knife skill pointers. Food was pretty tasty. I'm thinking next time I will have to show him how to make chicken tikka masala. Since they have an outdoor grill it should be good. The morning was pretty hectic because the snow was coming down pretty good and the Diagnol(Hwy 119) was jammed. Not being totally knowledgable yet on the roads I wasn't as crafty about circumventing the traffic. Nevertheless, we made it to school in time. Pickup in the afternoon was a breeze. I feel like my life has gone full circle now. It wasn't too long ago when I was the one getting picked up at school, now I'm the one doing the pickup. When did I grow up? Leaving school yesterday morning, I heard something very bad on the radio. The host was talking about dating and the use of phone/email in dating. One caller said its okay to email. The host disagreed and said that maybe this new generation is okay with it. But our listening audience is of an older crowd, the 25-40 yr olds. WTF!? I'm now part of a labeled crowd!? No!! I will not be labeled =)

With the wicked winds and snow yesterday morning, I subjected myself to the rituals of winter training, the Cyclops Fluid Trainer. Previously, my trainer usage was limited to recovery efforts of 30-60min. But I needed to do some threshold work before this weekend's time trial and criterium. I mustered up all my psychological strength for this one. Fortunately, I had The Weather Channel's "When Weather Strikes" and the Food Network to keep me occupied. And a nice cooling fan to remind me of what going fast meant. Warmed up for 20min then proceeded to do two 20min LT intervals. Lactic Threshold(LT) as I have mentioned is the max effort you can sustain for 15-60min before lactic acid buildup in your muscles causes you to painfully retreat. LT is also one of the primary tools to measure your fitness. Its very trainable unlike VO2, which is largely limited to genetic code. Since moving to altitude, my LT is slightly lower but has been rising over the last few weeks as my training is paying off and I am acclimating. Now back to the workout...Since Saturday is the TT, I worked on staying in the aero bars for the entire workout. Riding flat out for 20min on aero bars is tough for most but adding it to the trainer I knew it was going to be tough. At the end I was pretty satisfied with my workout. Legs felt like they got worked over pretty good and I put out some good numbers. Of all the interval workouts, LT workouts are probably my favorite. Although they are long, I like finding that rhythem and getting into the zone of nearly blowing and trying to hold it.

Tomorrow its a race tune-up workout. Hoping no snow tonight.

Chow,
matthew