3 Months

3 Months = roughly Gravel Worlds weekend.

I here by, do declare, I'm participating in this event.  It isn't official official as I haven't sent in the post card yet, so I first have to find a post card.  Then I can start training for it. Wait, what?

Really, I haven't been training or riding much at all, as if my shape didn't give that away.  I did a couple longer rides (literally, a couple; not the normal "couple" by roadie standards that involves 4+ hour rides once a weekend instead of twice) over the winter and spring.  So my endurance needs some help.  That, and figuring out how the hell to survive 150 miles on gravel.  I need to figure out food, hydration, and comfort.  So I will need to do long rides to test things out and see what works and what doesn't. It's pretty daunting to attempt this within just 3 months, but I need to start somewhere.

And so it begins.

SHABBOS RIDE!!!!!

Fred, Brady, and I are riding from 6:15am to 8:30am as per Fred's time limit.  So no later ride inquiries will be entertained.  Ass crack of dawn, or no dice.  Meeting place is Aksarben - nothing's open then, so get your caffeine fix pre-ride.  Road bikes are the weapon of choice.

I know Brady and Fred are fast, whereas I'm not at this point, so speed will hopefully be near conversational pace so I can catch up both on breath and in talking with good buddies.  Route will be decided as we go, but probably somewhere Southish.

Title goes here.

Not much to report.  Figured I should try to put at least a few blog posts out a year.  Uh, yeah.

I rode in this morning in -10 degree wind chill temps.  It wasn't bad overall except for my nose and the tips of my fingers.  In case you're wondering, here was the clothing breakdown:

Base layers - wool long johns, midweight wool long sleeve shirt, wool socks.

next layer - Bonty commuter pants, cycling wind vest.

over layer - Minus33 lumberjack wool workshirt

Head - Pearl Izumi Balaclava, Bonty winter cap

Hands - wool glove liners, lobster mitten/gloves.

Feet - plain old Addidas Sambas pedaling my flat pedal commuter.

Also, to protect my eyeballs from becoming marbles, I wear some horrid shop safely glasses.  They are huge, but that also protects most of the skin around my eyes that the balaclava doesn't cover.

I was sweating by the end of the ride, but that was because I had a tail wind and was trying to ride quickly on my heavy commuter.

Thanksgiving was nice but tough.  Spent time with as much family as we could.  Christmas will be similar.  At least we'll have my lil bro, his wife, and their cutie pie 1.75 year old in town. She's talking some now so it'll be fun to interact with her.

I really need to clean my bike so I can't use that as excuse not to go on rides with people.  I meant to clean it last week so I could ride on Saturday with a few people I knew were heading out.  Sure wish I had a basement or someplace inside to make a mess with cleaning.  That will be one of my requirements in a house, whenever I get around to buying one - a basement shop with a drain.  Someday.

I need a bike ride

I propose a bike ride next Saturday.  SHOMER SHABBOS!

It's mah birthday that day, so I want to ride for a bit in the morning.  Not sure how far as I haven't been on a real group ride in a while.  The legs may not hold up for a 4+ hours.  Maybe if the pace was mellow.  So if you're training for cross and need to put in some efforts, please do so on a different ride.  It'll be small chainring and large cog selection for this rolling birthday present.

Ride specifics: from Jones Bros in Aksarben at 7:30am (be there early for coffee, if needed).  If the wind's out of the North, we'll head North. If the wind's out of the South, we'll head South. If it's East or West or no wind, well then we'll just ride in circles or something.

How's that for specific?

UPDATE: Ok, more specifics.  I will wait till later in the day on Saturday to see if the rain clears up.  Then I will definitely do a ride Sunday morning also.  Not sure when.

No 7:30am Saturday soppy ride for me.

Le sigh.....

Shomer Shabbos!

True story: I was riding down the Keystone to my bike building job when I came up to a guy shuffling along while hunkered over a stroller and talking on his cell phone.  I of course called out, "Passing on your left" of which I knew he'd be pretty oblivious.  What I didn't know is that there was a very anxious dog behind a fence along the trail that couldn't contain her excitement any longer when I passed between her and the stroller pushing reluctant father.  Lots of barking ensued and I think the guy nearly crapped himself.  I hear from him after I'm leaving the interesting scene, "Go ride on the road."

I continue riding on trying to process what I just heard.  "Ride on the road?"  On the road I usually hear the opposite, "Get on the sidewalk," so I was in deep turmoil as to where my place in the world should be.  Guess I need to invent a flying bike.

Ok, that actually wasn't a true story.  Or was it?  With the other guys writing great stuff I decided to join the party partly.  I read the reply that Fred made on an old post about joining their pact to write once a week.  His reply was a couple days after I made the post, but I didn't see if for a month for some reason.  I wonder if I should tell him that I did see that reply?  What do you think, Brady?

I do enjoy their stories though. You never know if they are telling you their version of real life experiences or just making something up completely.  I guess that's what makes a good writer.

So anywho, SHOMER SHABBOS!!!  I'm proposing an easy 3 hour ride from Aksarben in the morning (7am or 8am start, tbd) this Saturday.  It's gonna be a warm and possibly windy/rainy one, so the earlier in the day the better.. But it will be fun.  And when I say "easy ride" I mean that there might be some punchiness, but don't expect me and Randell to follow all of them. That's right, I said Randell.  As in Jon Effing Randell of cat 1 racing lore.  He has recently come out of retirement from newborn wrangling and brewing/beer drinking.  Well, he's still doing both in abundance, but adding easy riding to the unending list of parental responsibilities.  And like me, he's a little soft of the mid-section and formerly strong of the legs.  But we're working on it.

I imagine we'll head South and maybe do the old Wednesday Night Worlds route, or maybe hit the Glennwood Loop.  However, those routes might delve into the 3-4 hour mark.  We'll see.  2.5 hrs has been our norm for the past few weeks.  Bumping up to 4 might be a tad much.

UPDATE!!  We will be leaving Jones Bros Cupcakes at 7:30am.  Arrive early if you want a cuppa somefin.

So I was at this graduation party the other night and I saw this:

Well actually, I added the knife part, but then I walked over to the bookcase and saw something that caught my eye.  Could it be?  It was a copy of Catch-22.  Where are the snowdens of yesteryear anyhow?  (I added the anyhow for dramatic effect).

Oh, so that's where it went.  Hmm.  Then a few days later I had strawberry sherbet for lunch.

So yeah, I can ride tomorrow at 6.  Sounds good.   Hey do you guys know this Rafal Doloto fellow.  He was facebooking about a ride tomorrow morning.

Maybe I'll take up Hard Liquor

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. What's the old saying? "If you don't have anything nice to say, don'tsay anything at all." Yeah.

Aside from the once easy but now more difficult 3 mile commute to and from work, riding has been on the back burner. Even with all this nice weather.

I have ridden from work to the bike building job for Trek Papio a couple times. But I've been zonked after that, so I fear what a Wednesday Night Worlds or fast weekend ride could bring.

So to get away from the epic pasttime of video games, I wanted to try something new. I also needed a new belt for work as my current one is somehow shrinking. What?

I picked up a basic leather working kit from Tandy Leather. I had tried leather working when I was much younger without great results. Now that I'm more patient (maybe less ADD?) I can put in the time to get good at the stamping, carving, tooling, etc of fancy leather working. Besides, my work belt is just too tight even with the added hole on the end. What?

Would it be cheaper and healthier to eat smarter and exercise more? Well yes. But that would take time away from leather working and drinking beer and Playstation and ....

So anyway....

My big bro and a few other people I know have posted requests on Facebook and gotten great results. Need a cheap beater car to get you through the year? Someone on Facebook might have one. Need baby stuff because you have no money at age 19 and work at a restaurant? A well-to-do couple might have loads of things they'll never need again since all their babies are in school now.

I ask for a simple slate of steel or smooth rock for my leather working hobby on Facebook and get this:

friend 1: Only if you build me a leather mask....

friend 2: can you make me a nice Brooks saddle?

friend 3: Check any counter top company like Martins or Universal. They have remnants laying around I think you could pick up pretty cheap.

friend 4: Stupid granite taking up all that counter space.

friend 5: I have a big piece of concrete in my backyard, I will check the dimensions for ya. It is a little jagged around the edges, however.

Three comedians and a couple helpful responses. Alas, I guess that's the way most internet posts go. Thank you friends, for the suggestions and laughs.

I asked around at work too and found out that my boss used to do leather working as a serious hobby/extra income. He has a ton of tools and books about it. He also brought in a couple slates of granite for me to have. Awesome!

Not awesome was lugging it home in a messenger bag on the bike. I came home and had to know how much I was toting:

Along with that, I had some books. I'm guessing I had a loaded road bike in my messenger bag. I survived, but was worried about tipping over at stops.

So, I'm gonna put together a couple items to get some leather working in. Then I'll get my belt all fancy and nice lookin.

Then I might combine all my new trades and make this:

Anyone know of a good cheap vodka?

Cue the comedians!!!!

Yay new year!

It's 2012 and according to some, we won't be around this time next year. Meh, whatevs.

My last post stated that I was riding more and such and so on, but that has waned. It's tough to stay motivated and ride solo which means on the trainer for those that work till it gets dark. And the group rides sometimes are demoralizing since others can hold a conversation at their easy pace going uphill while I'm above LT and drifting off the back.

Meh. MEH I SAY!!!

I need to lose 10-20 lbs. If only I could go on a bike ride without my bike. That would drop the weight right there!!! I tried to cut out breakfast to reduce caloric intake, but after a few weeks of that, I saw no change in weight. If anything it crept up a pound or so. I think I snacked more in the evening after starving all morning. So that didn't work.

Now I'm going to try to change my liquid consumption. I've tried it before, but I think I really want to cut out beer and coffee. I know that's lunacy to most cyclists if not most the population, but I'm tired of spending the extra mullah on beer and always needing an extra boost in the morning from coffee. I've been off the beer for a week. Yesterday afternoon was rough as I was really craving one, but I made it through with a few tall glasses of water. Now I just have to cut out the morning joe without going into convulsions due to a caffeine headache. I have titrated down to 1 cup each morning this week and will try to be done with it over the weekend. Well, "cup" meaning 16oz or so, not the 8 ouch cup of coffee that doesn't exist anymore. I know beer has a bit of calories, but the way I drink coffee - with cream and sugar - is part of what's keeping me plump. I recently read somewhere that the caffeine in coffee transports sugars to your body quicker. Since I don't burn those sugars while I'm at work, I store them as fat. I know I could just go with black coffee, but doctoring it up makes it barely palatable as it is now, so I don't think I could go that route. Besides, if I want to feel some actual jolt from coffee I have to down half a pot now. I miss the days when one cup made me feel like a meth head. Not that I know what a meth head feels, but I remember first trying coffee and feeling like I could see into the future.

I never remember seeing past 2012 though. Hmmmmm......