Saturday at work

Yup, so I'm in on a Saturday. I can't say as it entirely sucks since it's my own fault I'm here. I at least made the effort to bike in today. I broke out the MTB to give it some love since it hasn't seen any action for a couple of weeks. I also figured since I'm still on the fence about the cross bike this would give me the chance to explore a bit if I felt the need after work. I do feel a bit guilty in the fact that this was supposed to be my afternoon to watch Corley since momma is working. I'm sure we'll get some good time in tomorrow though. Of course, tomorrow, I may be working again depending on how efficient I can be today. I'll just have to play it by ear.

The ride in this morning was something of an exercise in finding out how commuting on a regular basis would be. I chose a cotton tee and baggies with a built in chamois for ride attire this morning. I also won't plan on commuting in my road shoes unless I'm riding the road bike. For commuting I'll either be going with MTB shoes and my crank brothers smarties or going way old school and sticking some platforms on so I don't need to keep another pair of shoes hanging around. It's been a while since I road platforms. I did ride them at Burning Man last year on my cheap ass Toy's R Us death ride, but that was all on flat terrain and never for more than a few miles at a shot. I'm probably also going to switch to a more comfort oriented saddle such as a Brooks or possibly the updated version Selle-anotomica which essentially is a Brooks with a cutout. The upside to that saddle is they make a waterproof version which would be handy for a multi-use bike.

Speaking of Burning Man... I pulled the plug on going again this year. After I got back last year, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to go again until wife and baby girl were able to go with me so we could share the experience. Then our friends at Freddy and Eddy tried to entice me into coming out and helping run the art car they want to build. They bought me a ticket to get in and everything. As much as I appreciated the thought, I couldn't bring myself to spend the extra $ and take the time away from the family again for something purely about me. Instead the time and cash will be put where it should, by doing a family vacation sometime later this year.

I suppose I've droned on enough and procrastinated at least a little more time away with you good folks, so it's time to clip this short. I'll try to get some photos uploaded to my Flickr tonight so you can see some of my pics of the flooding from this morning's ride in. One of these days I need to update my sidebar links too and get some of the great blogs I read daily listed in there as well as some things like Flickr. Enjoy the weekend!

Burnout

Anyone here ever experienced it? I sure don't know what to call this funk I'm in, but burnout seems to fit quite nicely. I'm not quite sure how this post is going to go, so if you want to save yourselves from self pity and wallowing, you may want to turn around now.

There's nothing really wrong with my job, but I can't get my head around it any more. I can't beleive I possibly have burnout after seeing my coworkers struggle with lower volumes of work while I seemed to breeze through my projects. I think it's a stress thing. I keep a lot of things very close to me and while they might not be on the forefront of my mind, they all add up in the back of my head. Usually riding my bike hard and working myself into a pulp is my way of coping. It's just not going to work anymore though.

I've operated for a long time on the cusp of risk/reward. Walking that tightrope seems to be the key I have for making my projects profitable. I wait until the last moment before squeezing the trigger and getting stuff done. For those not familiar with construction, the general rule seems to be that you always are behind the eight ball in regards to time and schedule. While I know it pisses some people off and makes it look like I'm in a constant state of chaos, it's proven profitable. It seems there isn't much money to be made in getting stuff done early. It's weird how that works and I don't profess to even understand it. The problem really lies when you know you've lost your edge and are falling into the backside of being too late. I'm there. I can't lie and say that thoughts of just walking away haven't crept inside my head, but I'm not that type of person. I do think it's pretty imperative that I find a change here though or it won't be long before the type of person I am comes into direct conflict with maintaining my sanity.

I sent an email off to my boss last night letting him know I was in trouble. I hate that. I'm not the guy to ask for help with things. I'm usually the guy everyone else asks and I help when I can. Maybe it's time for a change. Anyone know of a good paying job that a guy with a business degree and mostly construction management/estimating experience can transition into (that doesn't deal with construction)? It's time to sit down with my boss this morning and have a serious discussion of what I'm going to be doing here. Enjoy your Friday the 13th.

All work and no play...

I'm not sure if it's fortunate or not, but all work no play, hasn't been my motto for a while. I've definitely been playing plenty hard and now that I look at it, too hard. Funny how a simple little voicemail can elevate your heart rate as much as a good finish line sprint or time trial effort.

It appears I'll be getting my ass kicked for at least a couple weeks until I can get back on top of things at work at the very least. I'm even folding my plans for the Elkhart TT tonight in favor of staying at work late. Ya, it's going to suck hard core and make me want to jab a fork in my eye, but it must be done. I've been taking advantage of suckling the easy money teat for too long and well, it's time to pay the piper.

I don't know if I'll even get any rides in during the upcoming weekends so if I see you, I see you, if not, have fun.

Orange crush leaves me blue

Or should I say Celeste? As part of my evil plan to take over the world, I have been lusting over the Salsa La Cruz. I stopped down at Rassy's to get a bit more info and pricing on the Salsa. I knew it was a bit pricey for a steel cross bike, but overall I really liked the spec and think it would be a great combination for commuting, gravel riding, and possibly some actual cross racing should that bug bite me.

Sterling brought up a point that I hadn't considered. The La Cruz is a disc only bike. It doesn't have mounting points available for any other type of brake setup. As such, he was pretty sure that discs aren't allowed at most cross races. Can anyone shed some light on this for me? While I really like the bike, if I can't use it for cross racing, then it fails at one of the possible intended uses I have for it. (Update: from a cross racing buddy it appears the no-disc rule only applies to UCI races and then only to the expert classes). Anyone else able to verify this?

Instead, he brought to my attention a poor lonely little Bianchi that is looking for a good home. It's the right size and pricing is a lot better than I could get for the Salsa. I took the Bianchi out for a quick spin and all seemed right with it. Of course only a long ride will truly tell. I'm taking opinions and feedback if anyone has any outside suggestions.

Pricing will probably pay more of a role in my decision than I'd like. With my plan for buying a scooter and trying to turn the rest of my budget along with selling my road bike into a two new bikes, I'll be wringing out every penny. I'm guessing that my pipe dream of being able to upgrade my road bike at the same time is going to fall by the wayside. I'd love to get something with a little racier geometry and nicer components than my current ride. At a budget of $3000 total, I have a feeling that's going to be a tall order to fit a couple nice bikes in there unless I manage to find one of them used.

A kinder gentler TNWC?

I decided to brave my lack of training and suck it up for the TNWC ride again last night. Considering it's the best show going and Tuesday night looked to be one of the few dry nights to ride this week, it was pretty much a no brainer. I also wanted to check out the levels at Saylorville as we crossed the mile long bridge.

A stiff south breeze let me know we were in for a fast ride out and some suffering on the way back. The ride definitely didn't disappoint on either cue. I made it the furthest yet with the pack before getting chewed up and spit out like a piece of overcooked steak. I made the north side of Ankeny and fell off once the pack accelerated over 35 MPH. Somehow I ended up out in front of the pack as we headed up the sprint hill and nobody sprinted. I came to the top of the hill and was still at the front of the group. I think the pack got slowed down for traffic turning off of Morningstar drive so they all slowed down while I kept on trucking. Whatever, it kept me hanging on to the pack through Ankeny for the first time so I was stoked. Talking to Lou after the ride it sounded like speeds reached the mid 40's at one point. That's just smokin fast considering this was all on the flats. I hooked up with a couple various riders that were also out the back and finally ended up by myself as the route turned back south into the wind.

Time to dig down and suffer. I stuck it in the middle ring and worked on keeping my heart rate at roughyl time trial effort (180ish BPM). I recovered slightly on a few downhills and pushed harder in other areas, but overall worked myself into a pretty good lather. The ride across the mile long bridge was pretty cool. It's wild seeing the water levels at this point considering there is usually around 100' of space between the bridge deck and the water.




I even managed a smile. Of course, it should be known that if you're able to take pictures on the TNWC ride, you're probably not hanging with the group... A hard push back to the truck had me peg out my heart rate at 190 again in the last block, but hey, that's what this ride is all about, right?

Money pit

With gas prices hovering near $4.00 and I pesimistically assume they'll go higher, it's time for change. While I actually do use my truck for more than just basic transportation on a regular basis, I can and should give it a rest for basic commuting duty. My vehicle commute amounts to 20 minutes and 8.5 miles one way on a daily basis. My bike commute runs about 9 miles and takes 35-40 minutes depending on several factors.

I spent some time running gobs of numbers since I love to geek out on that kind of stuff. I ran various options of adding on a more fuel efficient car, buying a commuter bike, buying a scooter, or buying a scooter and commuter bike. The biggest influence in the numbers was plugging a guesstimate on how much time I'd use one of the other forms of conveyance versus my truck. Obviously a car would be used the most and the bike would be the least used. While I love biking, I haven't fallen in love with commuting just yet. As we have no shower facilities in my office, I'm mostly required to be dress casual (nice jeans and polo type shirt), and I don't necessarily enjoy having to dress a certain way to ride in only to change again at the office, it makes it difficult for me to commit to commuting by bike only. As I ran the numbers, I amortized them out over a 5 year period because it was the only way to give the new car a fair shake on cost.

The car being the most useful still lost out on the cost analysis as it would cost me roughly $1200 over the 5 years. The scooter was actually the best cost savings as I'd be more likely to use it than a bike alone and showed a savings of roughly $7000. The bike only option was next in line at $6200 and the bike/scooter combination came in third at $6000. All of these are actual savings based on 5 years of usage and purchasing new equipment has all ready been taken out of the costs. How can I save so much? Easy, I drive a vehicle that averages 11 MPG year round and put roughly 13,000 miles per year on it. At $4 per gallon, it doesn't take long to add up.

Although I'm a frugal person (read cheap bastard) for the most part, I also recognize where I can take advantage of certain situations to buy something I've had my eye on. This particular situation would normally dictate I go buy a scooter and keep on trucking. Now that wouldn't quite be fair in the light of how much I'm enjoying my cycling, so why not take the opportunity to save money yet increase my bike count by 1 as well?! Evil genious I tell you. Sometimes I amaze even myself. Stay tuned for a rundown of some bike(s) and scooters I'm considering. Feel free to post up recommendations if you like.

I'd lose my head if it weren't connected

Notice anything missing from this picture? It's pretty obvious when you look at it that there's no bike in my bike rack. Unfortunately, that wasn't quote so obvious until I was most of the way to work this morning. This just means I'll be headed home to grab the bike over lunch or after work so I can hit TNWC tonight. I'm sure it will be a long ride tonight with my riding taking a back seat the past couple of weeks. Hopefully I can pick up another straggler or two to ride with and at least make the time out a bit more enjoyable.

Last night was spent fortifying the domicile with a new deadbolt and picking out privacy fencing for the area between the house and garage. Hopefully this weekend will be dry enough that I can get a few hours of work put in on making things more secure around our place. I'm still a bit mixed on the idea of putting in a motion light on our garage though. If I mount it out front it will guard the cars and driveway, but offer no coverage for the area between the garage and house. The other issue is that whenever we head to the hot tub, we'll be guaranteed of setting it off. I'm no prude by any means, but I don't necessarily think being illuminated by a million candlepower spot light as I try to sneak into the hot tub while wearing a fuzzy white bathrobe is in the best interest of my dignity (or the neighbors retinas for that matter).

I am looking forward to the ride tonight. I haven't really had a chance to push myself on a hard ride for a while. I am a bit worried about my legs though as my shins are aching for some reason. As near as I can figure, I stressed my shins by sprinting to my truck during the downpour at the tri on Sunday morning. Amazing that my body is falling apart so quickly... I've never been much of a runner, but dang this sucks. Maybe I should look into a little jogging as a good cross training exercise. Hell, who am I kidding, I barely take/have the time to train on a bike, let alone do any weights or other training.

A surefire way to piss me off

Lucky readers, you get a twofer today. I'm sure you can guess by the title that something is amiss here in paradise. My wife called this morning with an odd question about the FM transmitter for the Ipod. Did I take it or had I seen it? Hmm, considering she's the only one with an Ipod and I hadn't used it since the Almanzo race, I was pretty sure I didn't have it. Ah well, I figured it would turn up sooner or later. Then there was the passing comment at the end of the conversation about some of the papers from her glovebox being askew. Odd, for sure.

Next, comes the part that pisses me off. Another call an hour or two later. Did you take the radar detector today? Now I was pissed. Obviously some douchebag had decided to pilfer our stuff. Considering there weren't any signs of forced entry to her car, I'm pretty sure one of us (probably me) left it unlocked after we came home last night. A quick check of the handle and they were off with several hundred bucks worth of stuff. Easy electronics and a scan of the glovebox and they were gone like a fart in the wind. Assholes!

We've been having some issues lately with what I'm sure amounts to a bunch of pissant kids roaming the neighborhood drinking and being miscreants in the middle of the night. Nothing too bad and unforgivable thus far. Some random beer cans and liquor bottles in the yard, our daughter's plastic playhouse disassembled in the drive, a suddenly hard to get my key into lock to the garage, and some neighbors with damaged mail boxes. OK so the mailboxes may have been a bit for and trying to jimmy open my garage isn't cool, but the other stuff is typical kids bullshit that I may or may not have been a part of during my own age of misguided intent. Now stealing stuff from me is cause for measures to be taken. The police will be called and a report filed. I doubt I'll turn in the loss to my insurance so we're just out the money. I'm going to put my new deadbolt on the garage tonight and soon enough there will be fencing around the rest of the yard.

I hate having to do this. I live in a pretty decent neighborhood. I have no doubt that it's a bunch of high school kids that aren't old enough to drive, but have managed to score themselves an alcohol supplier so they have to roam the neighborhood and wreak havoc. Stealing is such a petty thing too. Now I've got to hurry my butt up and do a bunch of stuff just to make sure they don't strike again. My wife, bless her heart, seems to think we'll see it hanging from the mirror in one of the passing kid's cars that are currently roving the neighborhood with school being out for summer. While I don't doubt that they're this stupid, these kids are stealing to get cash for stuff. It's sitting in a pawn shop somewhere as we speak. Should I catch someone with it in their car, I can't wait to call the cops.

Poppa's got a new pair of shoes

OK so these aren't really new shoes and for that matter, who calls themselves "Poppa" anymore? I'm actually wearing these shoes today because my other shoes are still a touch damp... Soaking wet really. You see, I, like hundreds of other volunteers arose at the butt crack of dawn to volunteer for the Copper Creek Triathlon. I swung through Altoona to pick up Matt from the Rassy tri squad who was in town from Fort Dodge. The skies looked pretty threatening and I'd run through several rain showers all ready. Optimistic, we got his gear loaded and headed for check in. I took off for the bike repair tent to rendezvous with Donny and find out my assignment for the day. As he wasn't around, I shot the breeze with Squirrel and geeked out on some of the tri-gear.

Then the rains came... And that was all she wrote folks. Around 7, Jenny made the announcement that the race would still be on and that we'd get final instructions at 7:30. 7:30 rolled around to wind whipped rain, whitecaps on the lake, and a veritable river flowing near curb deep in spots through the parking lot (and the reason my shoes are soaked). A few minutes later the race was cancelled. Now I'm sure that no race director wants to cancel their race so I can't help but wonder if there weren't some outside influence in this decision. The talk we'd heard all morning was that if we couldn't do the 8 start time, it would be pushed back hourly in attempt to make the event happen. Now, we're at 8 o'clock and headed home. I wonder if the safety crews from Pleasant Hill pulled the plug on the event. I know this winter, the Des Moines police caused the cancellation of a 10K run due to icy conditions and they wouldn't provide the necessary support. Seems to me that something very similar could have happened here. In any case, bravo to everyone for showing up mostly ready to rock and roll and hopefully they'll be able to reschedule for this year.

Saturday for the most part was a lot better day. I met up with Tom and Steve for an early morning ride. I anticipated heading south to Carlisle and then on to Summerset park before heading towards Martensdale and finally downtown for a stop at the farmer's market. Alas, if you check out the route here you'll see several reroutes before we even reached Carlisle along with a short stint on the Highway 5 bypass just to reach town. I guess that would make Kim proud for riding our bikes where we needed. All was for nought though as both the trail and roads were flooded a couple miles outside of Carlisle.

A decision to still shoot for our goal of 50 miles was upheld so I meandered us down through the south side of Des Moines and out to Pleasant Hill for a preview of what was supposed to be the bike leg of the triathlon on Sunday. The hill up to Doane's Park would have been fun to see some people suffer on. Probably would have been reminiscent of the Grand Hill at the Hy-Vee tri. We passed through the setup area at Copper Creek and shot our way down for a well deserved break with a farm boy's burrito at the market. FYI- for anyone familiar with these amazing burritos, they have a new stand at the north end of 4th Street past Java Joes. They're not at the corner of 3rd and Court any longer. One final 5 mile stretch back to my place and we finished the day with a shade over 50 miles on the clock.

Other than a few hours spent at work, I was pretty lazy this weekend. Time to start getting on top of things here soon.

Duathlon cone

Duathlon cone, originally uploaded by buckshot77xx.

I'm seeing if I can join the 21st century and blog from my new phone so please bear with me. This is a shot I took of the cone at my checkpoint for the PRC duathlon last Thursday. As you can see my night was filled with excitement...

Where it's at

As Beck would say, two turntables and a microphone is where it's at for him. In my case, there's a little less flash and glam. I think I've figured out where it's at for me. I like to help out with things that are bigger than me. I'm sure if I had money, I'd probably donate or sponsor certain things. As it is, I have no extra cash, so instead I volunteer. It gives me a sense of belonging as well as getting the chance to help out in things that interest me.

Last night was a perfect example. PRC held their rescheduled second installment of the training duathlon series. It was supposed to be last week, but as anyone in central Iowa knows, we have been getting dumped on with rain and last Thursday was no exception. As it turns out, last week I wasn't available to help out and I was a bit bummed, but this week I had the time and could lend a hand. 20+ brave souls didn't let the threatening skies or Sunday's Copper Creek Tri stop them from coming out to enjoy the pain.

Kent showed up to try his hand at a duathlon for the first time. He kicked some serious butt coming in 4th overall against some pretty good competition. Sweet Jane showed up looking especially racy in her full aero kit, just to announce that she was only there to do some training. I think she managed to ride up to the corner and back as her only training and was given the appropriate amount of shit to go along with her effort! Overall a great time and a few of us enjoyed a couple brews as we loaded the trailer back up.

Hopefully I'll see a few of you at the tri on Sunday. Actually, scratch that as if you're doing the tri, you probably don't want to see me. I'm supposed to be doing roving bike repair/help out on the course fixing flats and such. So here's to hoping all I see of you is a blur as you shoot by at ludicrous speed. Maybe you'll even be going straight to plaid. Bonus points if you can tell me the movie I'm referencing.

Ritual reroute

With all the rain and flooding going on, the dirt ride was out this week and probably will be for several more. Instead, I hit up the Ritual ride last night. A few of my fellow dirt riders showed up for the ride as well.
(Images stolen from Kent Carlson)


Another change due to flooding was the routing of the ride. We headed straight up Fleur and cut over on Bell before heading up Park to the trail head. We were supposed to roll up Fleur as a group, but as I cruised along at a comfortable pace I quickly moved out to the front without realizing it. I slowed back down and got to the front of the group. I don't think I heard a single horn honk at us going down Fleur which was pretty amazing as we made sure to take a full lane for our group.

A few more people met us at the trail head and I realized the dirt guys had shown up as well. Kent riding fixed on the route was pretty impressive considering the speeds we tend to carry for the front group. Speaking of front groups, I managed to keep on further than I have before and due to a small stop by the few that broke away, I managed to hook back on and finish with the front group for the first time. Usually I'm a minute or two behind.

We rolled the loop pretty quickly and headed back to Ritual Cafe where they were just closing down for the night due to being a bit understaffed. That really wasn't a bad thing as the ride numbers were way down tonight. I think a combination of the threat of rain and a some alternative options for the tri-people to do some training kept a pretty good group of people away. We hung out for a few more minutes chatting and then with a lap of thunder resonating through the buildings, I figured it was time to head for the shed.

I have noticed that with the amount of riding I'm doing going down, my knees seem to ache more. Normally, I'd figure the opposite of this, but I guess with them being stressed less often, now they ache when I do put the pressure on. I still need to double check my saddle height and make sure it's where Donny set it for me at the fitting last summer. Carbon bikes are notorious for letting the seat posts slip. I will say that everything felt really good on the bike last night. I was just feeling it and didn't overwork myself on the first half of the ride. I did manage to get my heart rate to hit 190 going up the soccer hill and didn't completely die off once we were over the top. Of course I was chasing a couple of the tri guys who I think were mostly toying with the speeds they were running while I was wide open just to hang on.

We've all lost it

Yesterday was a pretty bittersweet day around here. I had the opportunity to see some cousins and other family members that I hadn't visited with for several years. Considering it was in the middle of a Tuesday morning, that meant I was also at a funeral. It was for my great uncle. I hadn't seen him for a couple years either. Funny thing was, I had probably seen him more recently than some of my direct cousins, aunts, and uncles. In any case, I joined my mom and grandma for a drive up to Nevada for the funeral.

Funerals just get to me. I never used to be such a sentimental guy, but a big shake up a few years back seemed to open a direct link with my ability to empathize and find some link to whatever event is going on within my own personal life. Things like funerals hit home pretty hard now. The funeral was pretty much the same as most others I've been to, but I really enjoyed the eulogy that his 4 grand kids took turns giving. It showcased what a truly unique spirit and energy he had and how he lived his life.

That really brings me to the topic of the day. I've heard a lot of talk lately about the "greatest generation" and how their numbers are dwindling further and further. I never really considered what the term meant until yesterday. I think we're losing something special. My grandparents are part of this generation and I've been privileged to know a number of other people in this generation as well. There's just something that sets them apart. I think it's their outlook, resourcefulness, and ability to make the most out of any situation. This in turn makes them what we used to call "good people" down on the farm.

My great uncle was most certainly one of those people. While I only knew him in a very narrow sense, it was interesting to hear how his friendliness and wish to help others extended to pretty much everyone he met. Even talking with Squirrel this weekend and another time on the bike, it was mentioned that people just aren't friendly anymore. We're all too self absorbed and centered. Even our own families come second to what we want. Everyone is chasing the golden ring and those be damned that get in the way or are forgotten along the way. I think we're riding closer and closer as a culture to losing a lot of good things about humanity.

I was discussing this with my wonderful wife on our way home from an impromptu night out for coffee as my mom stopped by to watch the little one. The question we came up with is which is the cause versus the effect. Are we less friendly because we're afraid of all the weirdos and strangers out there or are there more weirdos and strangers because we're less friendly? Either way, it's a circular problem that spirals further down as we go along. That's my food for thought today.

I will say one additional comment though. I've been pretty damn lucky in the past year to meet some awesome new friends. It's refreshing to see there are still some people out there that family and friends are important to. Seriously, there are some kickass people in the cycling community and I can't wait to meet more of you and hopefully make a few more friendships along the way.

What a weekend

Don't you hate it when things like work get in the way of recapping something that's way more awesome? That's been my day in a nutshell. However, the bright spot that was this weekend definitely helps to ease the pain of getting back to the work week.

Friday night kicked off the festivities with some good family time. We ate a quick and early dinner and beat feet over to a special event at the zoo. They were having an after hours event for season pass holders. Corley loves the zoo and with my schedule, I really haven't taken the time to go with her to the zoo. She was bouncing everywhere like a typical 2 year old, but loving every second of it. The culmination was seeing the unveiling of the travelling elephant exhibit. The show area was packed, but it was well worth it. We spent a little more time doing some activities and listening to the music before it was time to head home for a snack and bedtime.

Saturday I was up before the crack of dawn to meet up with the DM Cycle Club for the annual ride out to watch the dam to dam runners. We had a nice group of people show up for it being 5:30 in the morning. I even experienced my first bout of fame... LOL, I actually met two separate people that read my blog. It was nice meeting both you guys. The ride out was nice as I kept a good steady pace without breaking too much of a sweat. Once we hit the top of the dam it was about a half hour wait for the start of the race. I met some new people and talked with a few others I knew.

The runners made their way by as we cheered and clapped. Cyclists clapping for you is a funny thing. Since the majority of us all had gloves on it was pretty muffled! After the runners had gone by a group of the Rassy guys that had been at the other end of the dam showed up along with Kelly from PRC. We headed back towards town at warp speed. I flew along trying to hang on to the back of the train running 25+ MPH for the majority of the trip downtown. I finally fell off just before the Euclid bridge, but they waited up at Birdland Marina so we caught back up and then rolled downtown to watch the finish. Man the lead runners were flying! A little coffee break and then I headed home as Miranda strained something in her back and needed all the help she could get with Corley. 40+ miles and I was still home before 10 including time spent languishing at the coffee shop. A good start to the weekend! The rest of Saturday was spent hanging around the house for the most part as Miranda's back was giving her fits.

Sunday morning we woke up with some home made chocolate chip pancakes. Corley was all about that and ended up wearing a good portion of the chocolate on her face! With the threat of rain all week I had to mow the yard lest I have to convert it to pasture by the time the rain lets up. For some reason we also decided it was time to spring clean and rearrange little one's room. She now has her very own toddler bed which is going good so far. By then it was nap time.

Sunday afternoon is what weekends should be made of. After she was up from her nap, Corley and I loaded the bike and trailer to meet up with Squirrel and Kent for a trailer road train to the local parks. I'm sure we made quite the site making our way along the bike trail. 3 guys with 3 trailers all hauling 2 year old girls. Needless to say, a great time was had by all. After sampling 2 different parks it was time to head back for some grub and refreshments. Hopefully this is the start to a great way to spend an afternoon. Miranda met up with us to share in the festivities and we spent the evening enjoying the conversation and laughing at the antics of a couple little girls. Awesome.

Just chillin'

Best paceline I've seen in awhile

We were swingin...

When you've got the bubbles and you rule the world

Focus

Focus is an important thing. Whether you're talking about something as simple as taking a picture, picking your way through technical singletrack, or just looking at your path through life. If you don't focus, chances are you're going to run into something you didn't see coming. One could argue that I'm lacking focus right now and have been for a while. the picture I've put up is a pretty good representation of my life at this point in time.

At first glance, it's a snapshot. Things look good, I'm happy, I'm motivated, and I'm moving in the right direction. However, when you start looking closely, you'll see the edges are blurred, I'm looking at the camera instead of following the line, and the smile is mostly put on for the benefit of others. It's pretty amazing the similarities I can draw in my life to those items. While I can't complain too loudly as I'm healthy, have a great family, and am gainfully employed at a job that pays well enough for my wife to stay home, there's turmoil under the surface.

The same job that affords us the life we want does so at a cost to my mental well being. I know everyone has a job that's a grind and that's the tradeoff we make to have the enjoyment we want in other areas of life. But when you are on the verge of dreading going to work on a daily basis, go out of your way to not do your work, and can see the apathy towards your work spreading into other areas of your life, I think those are pretty good signs that something needs to change. I have no clue about what else I WANT to do, but I'm pretty sure it's not this. My job really isn't even that hard, but when you're not interested or stimulated, it can seem like the biggest drag in the world.

So what does all this have to do with focus you ask? I'm not exactly sure, but I think my job is the center of things beginning to fall apart. I ride to escape from work and in doing so I also escape things that I shouldn't be running from. I skip out on my duties as husband and dad. I skip out on other commitments that I have made. I skip out on taking on my own demons. I just escape when I ride. I push myself to go further, faster, harder, and in the end I tire myself out to the point that everything else really doesn't matter. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the riding immensely, but the reasons I ride now aren't what should be driving me. An enlightened and surprising discussion with my own dad on Memorial Day led to this revelation. He suggested that I should take a look at the reason I'm biking to escape and work on fixing that rather than work so hard on wearing myself out on the bike that the other things don't matter. He was right.

Damn, now I had to actually set down and figure out what I need to do. At least in my case, it was relatively clear for most of the things I needed. The biggest thing is that we need to find ourselves as a family. With our current setup I'm a paycheck and Miranda is a parent and we don't do a whole lot of overlapping. That's pretty sad when you really look closely at it. I've got a wife and 2 year old little girl that I love to death, but I'm spending my time avoiding them. I've let my own personal goals become my focus in lieu of working on the things that are going to be a constant for the rest of my life. Definitely near sighted of me. As much as I'd like to shoulder the blame all alone, I can't. My dear wife has very similar issues to me. We're both living to get done with our day and then escaping into our own little worlds as soon as that day ends- mine with leaving work and hers with putting Corley to bed.

All of these thoughts and ideas finally came out in a multi hour discussion last night. We talked about the things we need to change, the things we want to do, and the things that just aren't working for us. We put together a plan and we both came away happy. We each had to make certain concessions to bring us closer as a family, but I can't see how that is a bad thing. I'm sure I'll reap more in the long term than I could possibly ever gain in a short span.

As such, I'm giving up a few things that really didn't matter that much even though I'd made them into something big. I'm not going to Burning Man this year. I'd love to and even have a free ticket, but I'm not doing it without my family. I'm hanging up my pipe dreams of getting fit enough to try my hand at bike racing for the time being. I'm even talking about getting rid of my car (which for those that know me know that's something huge). Miranda is going to dedicate herself to working on our business and selling product rather than just ordering. We're going to take an evening each week to focus on our relationship as a couple. I'm going to not take on any more commitments until I get all of my current projects cleared up.

While all of this may seem overwhelming, it's a long term plan. I really feel like I'm not swimming alone now and I've got a partner in working through some of these things. I'm excited about seeing our family come together. I'm sure I'll miss out on some activities, but it's going to be worth it.

Under where?

I'm on the fence here. It's great having new people reading the blog, but at the same time, I've actually met or might sometime in the future have a chance of meeting a number of you. As my focus of the blog has shifted to roughly 95% about my bike, I've posted less info about personal items. On that note, I've been debating on whether or not to start a separate blog to talk about things of a more personal nature: sex, toys, lingerie, etc. For now, I think I'll just keep things together and preface those posts of a more personal nature with a slight caution. This really isn't for my protection, but your own. I'm just not sure that many of you want to really know me that well. Hey, if you do, great, but if you don't, you probably should stop reading now.

OK, warning given, here we go. I mentioned a while back about our last trip to the International Lingerie Show in Vegas. We've received pretty much all of the test pieces we've ordered and had a chance to give them the initial once over. A few disappointed and won't be carried in the store, a number met the basic expectations and we'll select a few of them, and a few broke the mold for kickass pieces. As I'm not into trying on women's lingerie (at least beyond throwing the occassional pair of panties on my head and dancing around like a fool), I'll stick to reviewing some of the new men's line. Frankly, I never thought a pair of underwear would do much for me or my wife for that matter. I mean, it's just a layer of clothing meant to keep your junk from free swinging into orbit while you're ensconced in the daily grind, right?! Women typically get all the cool stuff when it comes to underwear and I'll be damned if I don't love all the choices we get to see, but us guys are stuck with roughly 3 choices- boxers, briefs, and the hybrid boxer-brief.

I'm pretty sure I started like most typical kids with the whitey tighties that mom picked out from K-mart or wherever. Why she wouldn't go for the colored ones and save some of the skids from showing up is beyond me, but whatever. I transitioned to boxers in high-school when it seemed that I should grow up a bit. Then I finally got tired of the riding and bunching associated with boxers and jeans so I checked out the boxer-breif and have been rocking those ever since. Where the hell am I going with this you ask? Let's just say, while the boxer-breif definitely has my highest regard for fit and function, the fashion is drab to say the least. Sure, if I were rocking the 6 pack abs and had a roll the size of a hard salami stuffed down the front, they might be a bit more exciting to the opposite sex, but suffice it to say, I'm not that guy.

This leads to our discovery of a vendor in one of the small rooms at the lingerie show. A gentleman hocking some pretty cool looking men's underwear. We stopped and talked to him for a bit and grabbed his catalog. Pretty cool stuff inside. We stopped again the second day and did a bit of chatting with him. The guy manning the booth wasn't just the typical sales simp sent to the trade shows, but the owner and designer of the line (along with the model for a number of the pics). He explained the thought process, extra attention to detail, and virtues of his product to us. We came back later in the day and put in an order for a number of his pieces to try out.

Fast forward to last week and the arrival of said test pieces. I managed to intercept the package while Miranda was out with Corley and snuck a pair under my jeans. As the evening wore on, I tried vainly to interest my wife in what was under my pants. Finally, she noticed I had something different peaking over my waist band beyond the usual gut (at least that's been shrinking). She asked me to model them and I obliged for as long as I could suck it in at least. Her approval was swift. She loved the design, the colors, and the "enhancement" look. Then came the question: "What do you think?"

At this point, I'd only had them on for an hour or so, but thus far they were comfy, didn't ride, and best of all, it would seem that filled out look suddenly appeared. Apparently, when a designer cares enough to put in the right details, the clothing you put on can actually accentuate and enhance certain elements of your body... We both were enjoying the enhanced version of me even if it were an optical illusion! As we ordered roughly enough test variations for me to rock a different pair for almost a week, I can give you some feedback now. Not only are these things visually appealing, the dominate everything else I've ever worn for comfort, fit, and support. I've tried some high end silk pieces from Italy and while they were nice, I'd say these still handily beat those. Now here's the real kicker, these things are manufactured in the US in Portland, OR, the fabrics are mostly organic, and the price, while seemingly a bit steep for men's undies, isn't out of line for what women pay for nice bras and panties. A bigger kicker is the reaction from my wife. A certain rugby styled pair managed to entice her and start up a bit of playful grabass that hasn't been seen for a while and a flurry of pix/text messages that we've never done before. Of course that all leads up to what else, but sex! Gotta love a product that delivers on all counts.

I hope that wasn't too much information for some of you. I promise I'll try to restrain myself from posting my own pictures so you're probably safe on that account, but I can't be held responsible for any mental images! Look for these to be online shortly in our store or if you're interested in seeing the catalog and possibly ordering a pair direct, shoot me an email rick@thepossibilitiesroom.com

No race like a girl for me (or anyone else)

I can't say I was completely surprised by the race being cancelled last night since the call had to be made roughly by 3 to get everything and everyone halted in time and at 3 it was drizzling pretty decently. Add in the fact that this weekend is arguably one of the biggest race weekends in the midwest and it was almost a no brainer that people weren't going to want to race in the rain for what's pretty much training purposes with the big weekend on the line. Definitely disappointing, but completely understandable.

Having an open Thursday night did give me the opportunity to catch another ride I'd been meaning to this spring. The Thursday night DMCC ride is run by a friend of mine. It was Tuesday nights last year and one of the staples of my weekly rides. I had yet to make it this year, but with the threat of rain mostly passed, I jumped on the opportunity. Of course, one of the reasons I haven't been doing many of the DMCC rides is the pace most run at. I've been working on my strength and speed this year so unless I need to plug along at recovery pace, I'm usually off the front and mostly on my own. I rode a few miles with the group until another rider took the lead and I jumped on with him. Soon enough we were cruising in the low 20's and just kept the pace all the way to Martensdale while doing a bit of chatting. I managed to keep the pace high as we came the last few miles into town and put a decent gap on him. Score one for the work I've been putting in. We rested for about 10 minutes or so before the rest of the group came in and then headed back a few minutes later. I pushed again as my legs felt pretty ugly starting back up, but soon enough I was working well and trying to keep in my drops more than usual. I blasted my way up to Bambino's in Orilla and made the stop for dinner and beer. Another rider joined me and we passed an hour sucking down a couple of brews as I enjoyed my Italian Grinder. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a stop on the Great Western Trail.

The pace was a tad bit slower as we headed back to the trail head. It was getting dark and now fueled by beer and sausage, plus fighting a calf cramp, it was time to ease up. I still managed the out and back in under 2 hours which is pretty close to my best time and no drafting. My best time included a 4 person pace line and really was only a few 10ths of a MPH faster which I probably would have beat if it weren't for the refreshment stop.

For some reason I had a calf cramp last night which is something new for me. I don't think it was hydration or food related. I'm wondering if it was due to spending more time in an "aero" position by either riding in the drops or doing a deep arm bend while holding the hoods. I probably spent 45 minutes or so in those two positions which is probably 30 minutes longer than I ever have before. Any of you wonderful readers have an opinion? Speaking of readers, damn, my readership was way up this week. I'm sure a good portion of it is due to Squirrel and The Almanzo both posting links to my blog, but it's great to see the numbers up after averaging only a reader or two daily on average.

Taco Ride, whoops...

The Taco ride was on last night. Numbers were down a bit, but we still had about 10 total riders. We hopped the berm over to Denman's and took off. I stayed to the back as I just wanted to ride pretty easy and enjoy myself. I tagged on to a couple other riders and managed to fall down on a single log crossing as I was going to slow. Nothing hurt but my pride, I got back up and just kept the pace nice and easy. I did make an effort to tag back on to the tail of the group by the end of Denman's and found everyone else stopped at Dirty Express.

The railroad track crossing into Squirrel's nest saw the only major crash of the night with a rider shooting over the handlebars after tangling with the steel tracks. More easy flow and swoop through the back sections and it was time for Hillside. I've been working on keeping my breathing even and rythmic as I raise my heart rate so that was the plan for tonight as well. The group turned left at the top of the first climb while I went for some bonus climb to the right. After a short stint I stopped for a second to get my bearings. I looked back and noted that I hadn't zipped my seat pack up before leaving the shop. Hmmm. A quick inspection noted only one item missing- MY KEYS! Shit. Time to turn around and hope for a miracle in finding them along 6 miles or narrow singletrack with mostly grass covering both sides of a 12" path.

I tracked back down Hillside and took a quick swing up to the parking area to let the other guys know I was headed back and hopefully would catch them at Gif's for tacos and beer. I rode off in hopes of finding my keys. After back tracking through roughly 80% of the trail I stopped for a young kid riding a hybrid bike on the trail as he was walking across the log bridge in Denman's. Sure enough, I looked down and my keys were sitting about as perfectly as could be at the base of a tree right after the log bridge. There were situated so perfectly, I couldn't tell if someone else had found them and set them there or if luck was on my side. Either way, I counted my blessings and called of the search and rescue message I had put into Miranda's voicemail.

I swooped back through Denman's in reverse soaking up each foot of singletrack and enjoying every second I was out there. Off to Valley Junction to meet the guy's for refueling and all was right in the world again. I will put one note of caution in though- be prepared for your backside to be inhospitable to anyone in a 20' radius after consuming several Old Styles and tacos after the ride. Wow, talk about a brown cloud!

Just a quick reminder for tonight- hit the Race Like a Girl series in Union Park as long as the weather holds out. I'm planning to make what I'm sure will be a quite unspectacular showing in the men's B race as my first road racing experience. Also, Saturday is another work day for CITA at Summerset park in Indianola. I'll be headed down for my first work day of the year and hopefully see some other people there. I'm looking forward to checking out some of the singletrack for the first time after we're done.

TNWF?

Nope, no Tuesday Night World Championships for me last night, it was Tuesday Night With Family time. Being that I had spent pretty much all weekend doing my own selfish things and the girls are going to be gone for a trip starting tomorrow, it was time for some family things. Monday night we sat down and made stepping stones from a kit Miranda had bought as an activity. Corley even decorated hers with a footprint. After that, we let her run around in the yard barefoot which was pretty funny in itself. She'd holler "Ouchy" every time she stepped on a stick or hard spot in the ground. Guess we need to let her run more often and get those feet hardened up.

Last night was a mad rush to get everything in, but it was all worth it. We did the usual chiro deal where I go in first on my way home from work and then the girls meet me after I get done. I take the Escape back home while Miranda has her appointment and get dinner started. Had some damn fine squash ravioli and some peas for dinner before loading up the tandem and trailer. Corley was pretty excited to go for a ride with mom and dad. It was only the second tandem trip of the year and the first hauling the trailer. I was still feeling the effort from this weekend and knew my better half wouldn't be up for too much hard work, I opted for the ultra flat Summerset trail. We road a shade over 5 miles out to the turnoff to Summerset park and had an impromptu picnic and ran around being goofballs. It was awesome! It also reminded me I need to get on picking out a small camera to have with us so we can record these great moments. We rolled back to the truck by 7:40 and headed home with a scant 11.5 miles and a whopping 80' of climb logged!

Definitely some great family time in there. Speaking of such, one of the guy's at work apparently has it in his head that I'm a total fuckoff that doesn't care about spending time with his family. I'll admit, I'm still adjusting to the fact that I should be spending more quality time with my family, but I think in the whole scheme of things, I'm nowhere near being a deadbeat dad. This guy has gone out of his way it would seem to point out that while I'm biking, etc, that I'm losing precious moments with my family that I'll never get back. Maybe I wouldn't be offended if it were a close friend giving me some advice that I'm spending too much time on the bike or doing other things. I've been guilty of it before. But to be one of my co-workers that is seemingly injecting an unsolicited opinion, it raises my hackles a bit for sure. You do what works for you and I'll do what works for us.

Almanzo 100 race report

Almanzo 100- May 17, 2008

100 miles of gravel should be tough, it should challenge you, but it should also reward. Almanzo 100 didn’t disappoint on any of those counts. While I could ponder and pontificate on the additional training I should have put in, the missed turns I made, or how much the headwind sucked, it is what it is and that’s all part of the race to the finish. As my buddy Squirrel so eloquently has put down in permanent ink- “Suck it up” is the only true option.

I tried to set no expectations for myself other than finishing as strongly as I could. This being my first true race, I just needed to finish. I’m too damn competitive for that so as last week focused my attention on the race I picked a few goals to shoot for. I wanted to finish in less than 9 hours total time out, in the top half of the field, and average better than 12.5 mph moving average. Considering my last gravel grinder put me at 10 hours out with over 8 hours of actual riding time, I thought these were good set points.

Friday afternoon found me picking up Squirrel for a dash north to Rochester. We’d be camping out in the race director’s (Chris Skogen) backyard. We arrived in plenty of time to take a quick spin to the shop that was hosting the start/finish line for the race. A stop for some supplies for the evening meal and we headed back to our host’s house. Calling it an early evening we turned in before 10. I tossed and turned most of the night regretting that I hadn’t brought any type of pad for my sleeping bag.

Saturday morning dawned early, chilly, and slightly overcast as I fought off the shivers and tried to decide the best clothing options for the day. I chose a sleeveless base layer, bibs, my new Rasmussen Death Squad five thousand short sleeve jersey, and arm and leg warmers. A breakfast of a homemade waffle offered up by an awesome host was downed and off to the starting line we went. Roughly an hour before start, we wandered around the host store and met some of the other competitors.

The weapons of choice were as widely varied as the competitors. Being that there were 3 categories- single speed, fixed, and open, the hardware ranged from simple to complex. One of the more interesting combos I ran across was a cross style bike with mono shock setup, running deep section HED rims and cross tires with a mustache type handlebar. I felt a bit outgunned with a hard tail mountain bike and 2.1 tires. The sun started to creep out as we inched closer to the 8 AM start time and I started warming up. Just as the race director was making the announcement to start lining up I made the decision to peel off the leg warmers and stuff them into my hydration pack. If there had been a few more minutes to spare, I’d mostly like have tossed the arm warmers as well.

The start:


With a field around 60 strong, we rolled to the start line for a mass rollout. As we had the first few miles rolling through downtown Rochester, I made sure to stay in the top 20 riders to guarantee I wouldn’t be dropped by any errant stoplights. The first little miscue came as the lead pack accidentally turned to cut through a parking lot only to find no outlet. A number circled back, but I chose the path of least resistance by hopping the curb and going across the parking. Score one for the mountain bike! I was in the top 3 for the first, last and only time of the day.

As we warmed up and rolled into the start of the gravel, we hit a couple small rollers to get us ready for the first climb of the day. A 200’ 8-10% grade blew the group into pieces. While I had gears and could easily make my way to the top, I quickly learned that I could only put power down by being seated. I had too much pressure in my tires with pretty small knobs that wouldn’t bite on the hard pack with loose pebbles on top. This would be a pretty common occurrence for the rest of the day which forced me to either climb seated or really work on smoothing my pedal stroke while standing. The main group of riders totaled somewhere in the low teens and were off like a shot from the top of the hill.

Squirrel enjoying the gravel early:


I worked into a steady pace trying to keep my heart rate in the lower half of zone 4 and began rolling off the miles. I tailed Squirrel and a few other riders in the first section and witnessed a rider go down. A very brief slow down to make sure he was ok and we picked the pace right back up. The miles now varied between flat and rollers with no major climbs for a time. Mile 25 found us rolling through the town of St Charles and enjoying another short stretch of pavement along with another climb as we headed up to and beyond I-90. This also turned us into our first real foray with the headwinds as we headed back west. After enjoying cross tailwinds strong from the northwest for the first jaunt, the headwinds hit hard.

We now stair stepped our way south and west varying between cross tail and head winds. Outside of the next pass through town of Chatsfield, we found the longest climb of the day. Close two 2 miles long and gaining over 300’ of elevation, we transitioned from tarmac back to a wide packed gravel road. I kept my pace up on the climb and slowly put some time on a couple fellows that had gained on me in the downhill into town. At this point in the race, seeing other competitors started coming mostly in areas where I could see more than a quarter mile in front or behind. For all intents and purposes, I was now riding alone.

Now focused on getting to the checkpoint in good time without making any stops, I made my first miscue of the race. I easily made the un-marked turn noted on the cue sheet, but was befuddled by a road sign that noted a turn to the right while there was also a route going straight. Convinced that the road turning sign signified that the route we were on also turned, I pushed ahead. I noted several riders that were coming up on me at the time, questioning my decision, but ultimately following me. Damn, it was a wrong turn. I paid no attention that all the bike tracks had gone straight being that I was so convinced I was right. After a mile, we all pretty much realized the mistake and doubled back down the road for 2 bonus miles on the route! At least I only drug 3 other souls along with me.

Squirrel and another fixed gear rider had caught back up to me at this point and pulled ahead for a short time. However, the road soon was to my benefit with flats and a few long downhills with very short rollers at the ends. I soon passed them and put time in the bank as well. I pushed along and rolled into the only checkpoint on the route in Spring Valley at the 62 mile marker. I was averaging well over 15 mph at this point and while I was starting to tire, I still felt good. It was time for a brief stop to reload on water (70 oz in the hydration pack and 24 oz on the bike), take some ibuprofen, and reapply the chamois crème. In retrospect, I spent too much time at the checkpoint as I was stopped near 30 minutes.

My legs felt strong and slightly recharged as I pulled out of the checkpoint and into the wind. This leg was to be almost entirely north into a steady 15-20 mph wind from the northwest. I pulled away from some riders on the first section out of the checkpoint only to start the downhill slide to bonksville around mile 75. My heart rate freefell by 30 beats per minute, my legs ached, and although I could tell myself just to stay on the bike, it wasn’t happening. On a small incline, I finally hopped off the bike and walked for roughly 100 yards until I could force myself back on. I felt like hell and knew it was going to be a rough finish with 25 miles of headwind yet to fight.

I struggled through another 7 miles and finally took a quick break for another gel and more ibuprofen. I stopped completely this time for about 5 minutes and focused on stretching out and getting my head together. I kept expecting riders to start streaming past me, but they didn’t come. I wasn’t the only one suffering the winds! I resigned myself to start back up and gladly found my pace slowly picking up. I was working through it.

Around mile 85 I made my second tactical mistake of the day. Not realizing that we were doing two turns in quick succession, I instead focused on the large figure dotting the center of the road ahead. Setting in the middle of an intersection was an ominous figure of a large farm dog. He was waiting ever so patiently for me to slowly crawl up to his turf. As I took stock of my options, out-sprinting him was quickly dismissed and the water bottle plan was put into action. As I approached, another large dog joined him. With about 20 feet left to go, I realized the main dog was indeed panting, wagging his tail, and friendly as could be. Whew, disaster avoided, or so I thought. I was so engrossed on finding a way to fight off a possibly hostile dog, I missed that fact that he was indeed directly ensconced in the middle of the intersection I needed to turn at. I rode 2 miles down the road before realizing I was indeed off course once again. If you’re keeping track I’m now at 6 bonus miles for the ride, woohoo….

I doubled back to find my mistake and was at least thankful for the tailwind that propelled me back. I couldn’t help but wonder how many people had just passed me while I was out exploring off course. The mistake helped fuel some determination back into my legs and I began riding with intent instead of desperation. I downed another gel and got back to work.

We finally hit pavement with about 8 miles left to go. I kept expecting there to be a turnoff to more gravel somewhere in there, but mercifully we were done. The torture was quite over though as the pavement turned to some short, but wicked rollers as we headed back to Rochester. I succumbed to a single rider in this section and couldn’t keep pace as he slowly pulled off the front. As we hit the city limits, I began to feel that bit of euphoria of knowing that I would make it to the finish. The final mile found me in a whole new world. I was physically and mentally drained, my emotions let go and the evidence starting pooling under my sunglasses. I made the final turn, the cowbell, the cheers, the finish line. I shot through and stayed on my feet long enough to check in until I could collapse against the building with my head in my hands. I was done.

The finish:


7:54 was my final time. 14.5 mph moving average. 31st place overall. As the field narrowed to 59 official entrants, I only missed my goal of top half of the field even though I handily exceeded both my average speed and overall time goals. I loved it, I hated it, I want more.

Link to more pictures and total results. All photo credits to Chris Skogen!

Ritual and Reward

Last night was another installment of the Ritual Ride with the PRC squad. I'm absolutely stunned at how quickly this ride has grown. I managed to make it to the first "pre-ride" and the first ride itself and the turnout has been nothing short of awesome. I think last night's count was around 55 riders total with at least 50% being women. If nothing else, this should tell you how sorely an event geared towards getting women involved in the sport has been missed in the area. The beautiful weather didn't hurt much either.

We took off a shade past 5:30 and did the usual rollout with the group splitting into A & B where the A group does an extra loop through part of Waterworks in order to keep the overall group a little spread out on the bike trail section plus keep us closer to arriving back as a single group. The A group wasn't attacking by any means, but the pace was nice and fast at 20-22 mph average for most of the ride. As per usual, once we hit the couple rollers outside of Orilla, I dropped off the back a bit and wasn't able to close back up by the time we hit the soccer hill. A couple red lights as we rolled back into town played in my favor though and eventually i caught the few riders left from the front of the group as we crossed Fleur. 34 miles on the legs and I felt pretty good when I hit home. Amazing how much easier it is to push skinny tires and a light frame after riding the mountain bike for a few days.

Today actually marks the 5th day in a row I've gotten to ride my bike. It's my 3rd commute in this week and I'm definitely starting to consider taking a more proactive approach to doing some commuting the rest of the summer. I've got about a 18-19 mile round trip depending on the detour I'm currently taking. Overall it runs about 35ish minutes on the mountain bike without pushing too hard. My biggest problem is that if I tried to ride slow enough to not sweat, it would take me almost an hour to ride in and that's too long. So, I'm set with taking baby wipe showers once I get in and just sweating it out once I get home.

I mainly rode in today to get a few shakedown miles on the mountain bike after tearing it mostly down on Tuesday night to clean and prep it for the race this weekend. The good news is that everything seemed spot on this morning with a new chain, greased and clean rear hub/axle, and a good general cleaning overall. I did find some loose spokes which I put a bit of tension back into. They were casualties of me tweaking the rear wheel during an endo this spring. The rim was tweaked just enough that we really had to tension one side and loosen the other. They apparently finished loosening on their own so I'll be keeping an eye on them in the future. I'll probably need to keep on the lookout for a good cheap wheel sometime this year and put this one into reserve.

I've been trying to avoid setting any goals for this weekend beyond finishing. However, I'm just too damned competitive for that idea to hold water. At least I'm going to try to set some hopefully modest goals considering my current conditioning and lack of long distance rides this year. I really would like to finish in the top half of the field which would currently mean about 30th place give or take. I'd also like to finish in under 9 hours total time out. I'm shooting to stay on the bike as much as possible and be self contained beyond a single water stop somewhere along the way. I'm carrying 70 oz of water on my back and another 24 of perpetuem fuel in my bike bottle so I figure I'll be good for 2/3 or better of the race on liquids. Obviously part of my fueling will be liquid, but I'm also planning some Clif bars, and various other goodies stuffed in somewhere. Beyond that, I'm going to try to carry a sane amount of spares and parts and keep my total pack weight under 15 pounds. We'll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

One Sixty

An interesting title for a post for sure. But it also is a milestone of sorts for me. That was my weight as of this morning after a little urine slinging and other morning rituals. I've been bouncing around the 163-165 mark for a month or two now with an occasional dip into the 161 range, but hadn't hit 160 yet.

Following Kim's patented skip a meal fatass plan and cycling to work the past two days, plus Monday's hard effort I'm sure put me over the top. Actually, I really haven't skipped any meals and just have been a little more aware of what I'm actually eating. Considering I started riding seriously just a shade over a year ago and weighed in at 183 when I started. I'm pretty damn happy. I can't remember when I last weighed in below 165 on any type of a regular basis. There may have been a period for about 6 months back in 02 when things were a bit messy in my personal life and eating didn't even sound appealing, but beyond that, it has to be back to high school or possibly earlier than that considering I was a tab "chunky" for the first few years of high school.

Ideally, I'd like to bottom out around 155-160 and keep it there while building a little upper body/core muscle strength up. I'm thinking some yoga and a few free weights would really help out with that. Now if I could just find a free or really cheap yoga class to attend. Any suggestions?

One of those days

Ever have one of those days? Yesterday was one for me. Everything just seemed to click and although work is work, my time on the bike was out of this world for the most part. I know, I zigged and then zagged, but hey, that's just me.

I commuted in yesterday in record time of just a shade over 30 minutes. Not bad for the mountain bike. I'm riding it this week in prep for this weekend's Almanzo 100 race in Rochester that Squirell and I are headed to. I figure some good miles getting back used to pushing wide tires and a heavier frame would be good practice versus zipping along on the road bike the whole week. It also gives me a chance to shake down seeing if anything needs tweaked before I head out Friday. The commute home was a bit harder with a nice stiff headwind all the way home and the detour I cut through in the morning was sealed off with the presence of workers so I had to tack on an extra mile or so.

It was off to the races almost literally as soon as I got home. Squirrel and the boys were meeting up at 6 for race pace riding at the entrance to Denman's woods. I boogied from home in the truck at 5:15 and was back on the bike 20 minutes later. I figured with almost 20 miles on my legs they might be a bit lethargic tonight, but that definitely wasn't the case. It would seem I need almost that many miles just to warm up good. I road the new exit to Denman's to see how it was rerouted. It was actually just a very slight change in route that kept you out of the muck getting to Dirty Express and worked out well. While I was waiting for the boys to show up I ran into Pete and had a good conversation with him. He gave me some pointers on clearing some obstacles and by then, everyone had shown up.

We hit the entrance to the trail and it was on. I wish my heart rate monitor had been working as I know I kept my rate in the low 180's for pretty much the entire ride through Denman's. I'm betting it was an average of 175 or a few beats higher. I had one rider chasing me and the rest were off the front. I put Pete's advice to good use and cleared the big log pile that's thrown me down twice for the first time in the dry. Victorious, I let out a whoop and instantly felt silly, alive, and amazing all at the same time. It was the start to a great night. The trail was mostly empty in Denman's so we hauled ass through there and I fought to stay ahead of the chaser. Jumping logs faster than ever before, taking turns too hot at times, and just accelerating for all I was worth out of every slow down. I worked myself over big time. We finally hit the end and I stopped to talk to my chaser. He was trying to catch me as much as I was trying to not be caught, awesome!

A quick shot down Dirty Express led us to Squirrel's nest and Rhythm before jumping across the trestle to the Science center side of things. I dropped my pace down a bit in both of these areas and just focused on keeping another rider in sight in front of me with an occassional slow down to keep off his wheel. Not bad considering he was riding a Karate Monkey on cross tires! As we hit the paved trail and headed towards the Science center, I saw Squirrel and the other two fast riders hitting J11. Seems Squirrel had a partially broken freehub that was intermittently turning his ride into a fixie. That's great if you're expecting it, but not so much when you need to coast and it tries to fling you over the bars! I hauled butt to catch up to them and then hung on the back as they were taking it a bit easy nursing the broken hub back towards the shop.

We parted ways at the end of J11 and I headed back down the trail to the center trails. I opted out of suffering the climbs on Hillside and took a turn through Rollercoaster. Rollercoaster has been the one trail I have yet to come close to taming. Tonight would be different. I was feeling it and decided to not be so damn cautious on the water crossing and just nail it. Amazingly enough it worked. I soaked my ass with water on two of the crossings, but only had one slight bobble as I spun on a rock climbing the middle crossing. I even managed to ride up the switchback area I'd previously only been able to walk up. I was just crushing it (at least for me). I really wasn't working on riding hard, but more staying upright and making it through the trail at this point. Then, another set of riders came up and I hollered rider up. Unfortunately we met at a small bridge and we just about passed each other when I caught my pedal or wheel on something and flipped over the bars at a whopping 2 MPH! Nothing hurt but my price, I bounced right back up, told the other riders no worries and got right back on. I rode the rest of the ride with no other mishaps.

A quick shot back down J11 and then hit the pave trail over to Rassy's. Squirell was just headed out after dropping his bike to fix later this week. I sat down and cracked open a cold one with Greg (the owner). We had a damn nice time shooting the breeze and sucking down the brew. I mentioned that I was racing this weekend with Squirrel and wondered if he might have any of the team jersey's left in a large. Open popped the boxes and just like that I've got my first team jersey and and damn proud to promote the shop. Granted, I have no illusion that I'm part of any of the "race" teams they sponsor, but I'm happy to fly their flag and will do what I can to give them a good showing. It was the perfect end to one of the most kickass rides I've ever had.

Easy like Sunday morning

Wow, what a nice overall weekend. After the hard effort at Thursday's time trial, I actually felt just fine on Sunday. One recurring theme I'm noticing is that I run out of lungs before legs. I think it's time to work on some tempo rides and breathing exercises. As I've said before, my long mileage rides have suffered greatly this year so I think it's affected my aerobic fitness.

Friday was an unexpected pleasant surprise. My mom and wife had planned on going to see Stomp at the Civic Center. I was to hang with my beautiful baby girl and was planning to make a nice homemade card for Mother's day with her. At the last minute, mom decided she really didn't feel well so offered up hanging out with Corley (and sticking close by a toilet) and letting us take the tickets since they were freebies anyway. The show was way cool even if I did battle a shot of drowsiness in the middle. Anyone else have a recurring problem where they get about an hour into something like a movie/show/etc and hit a bought of sleepiness and then recover after about 15 minutes of trying not to nod off? That's a typical event for me which I still find pretty strange.

On Saturday morning I was looking forward to grabbing my bike to work week packet with socks (I was in the top 70 registered this year!) and then meeting up with Lou and a bunch of the Rassy death squad for some hill training and racing techniques. Mother nature decided that wasn't in the cards and the ride was cancelled out and rescheduled for early afternoon which put me out of the picture. We headed down to a friend's daughter's birthday party. It was a 3 year old princess party if that gives any indication... Actually, I had a good time hanging with the various other male figures doing our duty to grill meat and drink beer! After that it was presents galore and time to head home by 1. I surprisingly had a pretty damn good time. Saturday afternoon found me doing some chores like changing oil and going to the store. After an extended store trip, Miranda was a bit on the cranky side, but she'd get over it on Sunday...

Sunday being momma's day, I didn't plan any activities for myself. I got up in the morning and made some kickass pancakes that included ricotta cheese and orange zest. I've had this recipe bookmarked for over a year and finally got the chance to make it. I wouldn't call them exactly healthy, but the flavor and texture was awesome. Even Corley ate one and a half pancakes. Considering I could only finish 3 myself, I was pretty impressed. We'll definitely be doing those again. After breakfast it was card and present time. Not having the time to do a homemade card, I had Corley color one I had picked out and then we gave momma her present. My extended trip the day before had resulted in finding the DVD/VCR combo she's been wanting for the past couple of months. I installed it and now we have access to digital broadcast TV which kicks total ass! Miranda now has access via our old VCR to do her Tai-Bo down in the basement now which should yield some good results along with her other exercise class she's starting up.

Sunday afternoon was a double bonus. Miranda apparently hit her head on something and told me to take a couple hours to go riding. In shock, I waited a bit to test her resolve, but it held fast and I hurriedly changed and took off before she could say no. As my workout from Saturday was put on rain delay, I decided to make up for it on my own today. Hill repeats at Mcrea park were the order of the day. After a warmup/recon loop, I made it through 5 repeats before I felt my ass had been kicked. 100+ feet of climb on a .8 mile loop definitely was hard work. Word is that the Rassy guys are looking to hold a crit there next year. Damn... I can only imagine the pain some of the racer's will be in for that one. All told, I need some serious work on breathing and climbing skills. I took a leisurely ride on through parts of downtown looking for signs of additional biking life at the coffee shops, but didn't find any. I headed back home and treated myself to some additional hill work in the form of taking South Union street home from downtown in lieu of my usual ride up SE 5th. 1800' of total climb in 20 miles definitely gave me some work, but I felt really good when I got home and even hammered some of the hills on the way.

This morning was my first commute of the year. It was much easier than I remember it being last year. Of course, 4,000+ miles on the legs since then and a nicer ride (even though I rode the mountain bike this morning) might make a bit of a difference. I'm hoping to get more commuting in this year other than just during this week's Bike to work week, but we'll see. I have started riding to and from more rides this year in lieu of driving to them. I know that saves some gas and I get the bonus mileage so I'm happy with that as a good start.

Mileage update

Just a quick note to let you know that I made my first big rollover of the year on Monday's ride. I rolled 1000 miles for the year thus far. Considering I didn't start riding a road bike until early May last year, I am pretty excited about having that much mileage in all ready. I'm hoping to break 4000 miles this year as I ended last calendar year with 3200ish. I definitely need to start hitting the 4+ hour weekend rides now that the weather is starting to cooperate more. Those were the mainstay of my miles last year and probably will be this year as well.

One other thing of note, of all my mileage, I put less than 20 of those on indoors! I rode all winter long, which was huge for me. It was a lot of fun playing in the snow and cold this year with the right gear to keep me warm. If I decide to do more racing next year, I might have to up the indoor training a bit though. I'd really like to try a trainer as opposed to my rollers though. I know rollers are great for form, but I just couldn't stay on them longer than 20 minutes without getting numb nuts going on. Personally, I think I'd probably do better on riding a stationary trainer where I can zone out into my own little world and just put the hurt on.

Elkhart TT #1

Last night was the first installment of the Elkhart time trials this year. Actually the first one was rained out so this was the first time we actually got to ride. I pretty much confirmed my suspicions last night, yup, I'm slow! Actually, I'm sure there are a host of reasons I could use as an excuse, but overall my body and fitness just weren't up to par.

I did a 10-15 minute warmup getting my heart up to zone 4 for a little bit and could tell it was going to be a rough night. My legs just felt heavy and the harder I pushed the more I wanted to slow down. Once I got to the line I felt slightly better, but after the first mile or so I was all ready feeling it. I concentrated on putting my head down, keeping my heart rate close to 175-180 and pushed on. I tried different cadence and everything, but it wasn't doing.

Roughly 1/3 of the way in, I was passed by an All 9 yards guy named Jerome and he was flying. Unfortunately for me, he was in the same class: Eddy Mercxx. The rules of the class are pretty simple- no aero gear and go as fast as you can. I figured I'd sign up for this one as I'd at least be up against guys with similar gear as I figured that it was about as likely for me to lose to them as the cat 4/5 guys with full aero rigs. I also figured there would be fewer people in this class. I know I was right on that count, I just need to see how I finished out overall to see if it was the right choice.

In any case, after Jerome passed me, I had sight of the woman in front of me and concentrated on realing her in. I managed to catch her about a mile after the turn and kept the gap opening further up. I can at least say I passed a person on a TT effort now. Of course that's still not worth much when you only average 20.7 mph for the effort. I hammered as much as possible fighting a slight head/mostly cross wind on the way back and crossed the line just about crosseyed and heaving like no other. At least I didn't feel like I left much out there.

I do need to check my seat height though as I felt like there was a disconnect with my positioning and leg extension. I really need to work on my core strength as well. I noted when I made the turn that my back/stomach/sides were all ready hurting due to the effort I was putting in to keep my upper body tucked and still. I also need to get some longer tempo rides in. 1 ride of 50 miles on the road thus far this year is definitely not enough to get my endurance where I want it. Gravel grinders don't do much other than prep you for a long ass slog in the saddle and pounding out some slow miles.

Overall I think I was almost a minute slower than my effort last year which had an average speed of almost 22 mph and was just shy of breaking 20 minutes. My goal this year is to break 20 minutes. I know it's easily in my grasp, I just need to put the work in to get there.

Info dump

As I've been pretty slow to write on a regular basis lately I figure I'll just dump a bunch of info all at once and get it off my plate.

Last Wednesday I opted out of the Ritual Ride and chose to do the Taco ride with the CITA boys. The trail was in pretty great shape with just a couple muddy spots and the requisite creek crossings. I managed to stay upright more often than not but still took a few spills including the coveted "first rider down" prize! I still need to work on my obstacle clearing skills as I always hang up on the chain rings on steep or large obstacles. I have yet to master hopping the rear tire up and over obstacles and am content with the seat jumping up and slapping me in the ass. I definitely need some help and work on that skill. Hell, I need work on all my skills...

This weekend found me slaving away on the yard work, friends visiting overnight, working, and a potluck with other friends. Friday night found us hosting some friends from out of town. They were headed to Adventureland with their kids on Saturday so we put out the invite to drive down the night before and stay overnight so they wouldn't have to get up at the buttcrack of dawn on Saturday. We had a few adult beverages, spent some time in the hot tub, and had some good conversation. As the evening activities were winding down around 1 in the morning, their youngest son sprinted upstairs and proceeded to get sick in the bathroom. Awesome job on having the ability to make it to the bathroom in a strange house! They were in for a long night with him being sick, but still made it to the park and had a good time on Saturday. It was great seeing them again, but dang we need to get our activities rolling earlier in the evening as anything past midnight is getting rough on this old man (LOL)!

Saturday was the first lawn mowing of the year. I was actually a week late on this due to our mower being out of commission. I tried last week to get the parts to fix it only to find out that all mower shops apparently close at 1 pm on Saturdays?! What the hell??? I'm guessing, I'm not in the minority by mowing my yard on the weekend and would halfway expect a mower shop to cater to their customers by at least being open until 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Guess I lost that bet. In any case, the yard work got done, along with the brush cleanup and a couple of brews consumed. After dinner I hauled the load down to my parents farm and hung out with them for a few minutes before heading back home.

Woohoo, Sunday was going to be a banner day. 70 degrees and sunny meant I was in for some long hours on the bike. Alas, I wussed out. I awoke to mid 30's temps with slightly overcast skies and decided it wasn't to be. I opted for a couple hours extra sleep, a side of nookie, and getting an early start on the work I knew was looming in front of me. Yup, I spent most of my Sunday at work. I stayed there until 4 o'clock rolled around and we headed over to our friends grandma's house on the east side. She and her husband were in town from Arkansas with their son who is only 4 months younger than Corley. The kids played, the house was packed, and we had a good time hanging out with everyone. We rolled the weekend up with some relaxing in front of the tube.

Monday was a red letter day! I hit the DMCC Monday night ride for the first time this year as I opted out of Tuesday and Wednesday this week to do the Elkhart Time Trial on Thursday. I also chose to save gas and ride to the start plus I got the bonus miles in. Long story short, I logged almost 50 miles Monday night and though the numbers weren't very impressive in regards to average speeds or total climbing, I still felt pretty worked by the time I got home. Once home, the red letter day really started with some new toys having come in the mail from our friends at F&E. Actually, we only got one of the toys we ordered, but it was the one I was most looking forward to putting to use. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it! Overall it's a great toy and we'll probably be carrying it in the store, but didn't quite fulfill every fantasy I'd managed to conjure up about wild drapery tearing, paint peeling sex. I'm sure part of that was at least due to not getting started until somewhere nearing midnight as both of us had a busy day. We'll definitely be testing it more in the future though.

Damn, I think that catches me up to everything. Hope to see some of you soon.

TNWC #3

I know, I know, I'm pretty much a week late getting this post put together, but such is life. Actually, I'm shirking my work duties at the moment to put this together, but I'm sure I'll pay the time back in working late tonight and taking work home, so it's all good.

Last Tuesday was a great ride. I set a personal best, had an excellent ride, and managed to not feel like throwing up by the time I was done. The group was smaller than the previous one in which the accident occured. I can't really say it was any better behaved on the part of obeying all traffic laws, but at least we did more double file pacing in lieu of the mass swarm that I'm sure helped foster the accident the week before.

In any case, I was thinking all day about how not to get dropped on the climb past Cottonwood. I read on someone's training plan, blog, or somewhere that if you're a week climber, position yourself at the front and attack on the climb. As I all ready redline my heart rate going up that climb, I couldn't quite see how I could attack it any harder. However, by positioning myself at the front and hitting it just a shade earlier than everyone else, it allowed me to stay within the pack at the top of the climb. I was still totally gassed, but I now had people around to draft and recover with. I made it across the highway and through one set of S-curves before I was off the back again. I wasn't severely disappointed as it was still about the furthest I've made it thus far.

I had a few people off even before I went, so that made me happy in not being the first person off. I also was able to help pull them a little bit. The main group got stopped at the light in Ankeny and we were able to catch back up. As the light turned and we went, the pack strung out a bit. For some reason a number of the Pink Biker Chicks hit their brakes and pulled off into the elementary school at the north end of Ankeny. Not such a big deal, but the few of us towards the tail end had to slow and then were gapped off the main group which was accelerating away from us.

With no chance of catching them, I started to pull with one of the women I knew on the ride. We worked together to reel in Paul Black who I'm not sure was even on the TNWC ride, but happened to be in the right place at the right time. We started rotating pulls, but eventually lost Kristen off the back (sorry!) leaving Paul and I chasing one of the Rassy boys. We caught him and again started a pretty agressive 3 man rotation trading pulls every 30-45 seconds and hanging out with the tailwind and a draft!

Eventually, Paul and I started pulling away from the man in black and I was still feeling pretty springy. We made the turn on 142nd and still had a cross/tail wind at that point. We slowed slightly to let the other guy catch back on, but he wasn't able to hold it so we took off as two. Paul is an amazingly strong rider and I'm pretty sure he wasn't working nearly as hard as I was considering he's done RAAM and several UMCA events. We shot straight through the turn to Slater/Sheldahl and made the 40 mile loop. As we headed back south a nasty headwind greated us with gusto.

Pulls were again traded with Paul going longer up front as I was starting to weaken. Finally as we were almost to Camp Dodge I started to fall off, but Paul being the consumate drafting partner, soft pedalled long enough for me to hang on and recover just a bit. We split ways at Merle Hay as I headed back to the shop and my truck. It was at this point I knew it was going to be a fight to maintain my average speed. I hammered it as much as possible and somehow managed to keep my average at a new personal best. 20 MPH average for the 40 mile loop. I was stoked to say the least. Back at the truck I was tired, but happy and amazingly didn't hurt too much.