Create your own comeback?

Flipping through the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine while ensconced in the throne room, I see a full page advertisement for Carmichael Training Systems, showing a quite buff Lance Armstrong in yellow, pitching a "Create Your Own Comeback Program".

I have a lot of respect for Chris Carmichael. He's done some really good work for Lance and I'm sure many others. But for the rest of the world, esp. those just barely scraping by in this deep recession, do we really need that high-end designer training? Seems to me a decent intro level bike and some attractive roads or trails (i.e., roads where you don't feel like you are intruding on someone else's dedicated SUV space) ought to be enough motivation. If that isn't enough to get you on the bike, then the shock of stepping on the scale, as I did today, works wonders. I was wondering why Truck Route felt so steep.

With acknowledgments to Patrick O'Grady/Maddogmedia for the self-portrait--of both of us.