Laziness induced single speed

Two weekends ago we (uh, almost too many people to name - Rafal, Miles, Limpach, Shim, Larry, Ryan, Roxy, Jarrett, anyone else?) had a great gravel road adventure. Rafal and I got separated from the group at the end and forgot to turn in toward Shim's house. We just putzed home instead. I got home and both me and the bike were covered in gravel mud. I cleaned myself and my clothes, but went on to neglect my bike completely till this morning.

I had the week of Christmas off, did all my shopping and prepping then, so no riding happened. I took the bus yesterday in hopes that the major streets would get another good passover with the plows. This morning, I hopped on my bike and found that a week and a half of neglect is not a good thing for a bike. I tried shifting and nothing happened. The bike was stuck in it's easiest gear (34x23) so I wasn't going anywhere fast. I hopped off and messed with the derailleur until it moved a bit. I settled on a decent enough gear combo and called it good for the ride in. There were a couple spots that my 32C road tires did not like (or rather, I didn't like as the bike floated around beneath me), but I made it ok. I should have swapped out to my studded snow tire at least on the front, but again, the laziness struck....

I hope everyone had a fun Christmas and maybe got out of their house at some point. Our new CR-V has been amazing in this weather so I'm very happy with that choice. Of course I probably won't be saying that when the the first payment comes due.

It looks like the next week at least will be too cold for any melting to happen and the highs predicted for the weekend are only in the teens. Maybe we can get that trainer session going this weekend? Anyone? It's always easier to suffer with friends rather than alone.

Hibernation and Rest Week

So, this forecast looks conducive to some activities but riding a bicycle outside isn't that high on the list in my opinion, some of y'all have a different viewpoint as to what constitutes decent weather for outside riding, but the weekend highs combined with this purported snowfall lead me to think that the trainer will be the safest place to hide this weekend. So this weekend, you can find me in my basement watching the 2006 Tour, knocking out a power test, and possibly eating some Christmas cookies... its my rest week anyways so why not...

Munson hasn't posted this week, so I'm not entirely sure he made it back fr0m our gravel adventure last Sunday. In case he didn't make it back, I tried to pay a small homage to him in that extremely long run-on sentence above.

Anyways Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone. If anybody wants to suffer together maybe we can post up a trainer session somewhere.

Weekend plans and being all growed up.

I fail at friendship sometimes. Friends ask to get together, I agree, then sometimes don't make it. Case in point: Peter was in town from Texas. He drove here in 1 day. He probably almost died several times. We did hang out on Saturday and that was fun. He wanted to get together again during the week. I had some fiascoes and then money issues, both tied together, so I didn't make it happen. Probably the worst part is that I didn't let Peter know what was going on. I just flaked out. I don't really have a good excuse other than being all weirded out that the wife and I got a newish car.

Our 16 year old Honda Civic was rusting (not a big deal) had 175k miles on it (not that big of a deal, except...) and had one too many upcoming mechanical issues. It still ran great, got upper 20's mpg, but the tires kept going flat, an eminent $800 repair was coming, and getting around in the snow was ridiculous. So over last weekend we found a decently priced, mid-mileage Honda CR-V. I've heard great things about this small SUV and so far we've been really happy. The fiasco part was that the battery died 2 days after we got it. But Superior Honda, the place we purchased it from, did right by us and took care of it. They also took the old Civic off our hands too. So we're still a 1 car family, but this vehicle should serve us well for quite a while.

So back to being a horrible friend. Being that the buying a car thing is a new experience to me (we sort of inherited the Civic) I'm having a little bit of sticker shock. To most people, a car payment is almost as standard as paying taxes. We had yet to experience that. So with the down payment, and upcoming monthly payments, our budget has to be extra toight now. I had some fantasies about getting back into racing next season, but I'm just fine jumping in with some group rides and generally having fun on the bike. I'll be doing the bike building thing again next season, so I'll be working some 12 hour days a couple/few times a week. It'll suck, but getting out of debt and getting on with life is priority 1 right now.

So that was a long way for me to apologize to Peter for skipping out on him. Sorry good buddy. We'll hang out more when you come back in January(?). If your knee injury doesn't get better, we could just hang out with Jonny and do some Call of Duty nights. Good times.
*******************************************************************************

Weekend plans. Friday night you should decorate your bike and go here. Scott's got a cool setup that I may mimic if I get my act together tonight. I figure more lights on the commuter bike, the better anyway.

Saturday and/or Sunday: gravel? Road? MTB? Post your plans and we'll try to come to a consensus.

An Exercise (or lack thereof) in Futility

I've been on a bike 2 times in the last 7 days. That is not normal for me at all. I rode to work last Friday, which was fun, but the rest of the days I was either off work or took the bus. Took the bus today since there's a nice layer of ice under a fresh layer of snow. I would've had no issue getting into work on the bike, but I'm leery of drivers.

I guess you could say I'm becoming more cautious (and/or pessimistic) in my older age. I just don't trust motorists in this weather. I made it fine the last few winters, but for some reason, I feel like the bus is just as good, and much safer, than riding into work.

Mr. Miles and I attempted to ride Manawa on mountain bikes on Sunday. It was not happening. Apparently, snowmobiles don't pack down snow, they just glide over it. We tried but gave up after too much hike a bike. We opted for the paved trails around there. We went one way till the trail was plowed no more, then went the other way till the drifts were again impassable. We got maybe an hour in on the bikes. So that whole trip wasn't quite worth the effort, but it was fun to hang out with Mr. Miles anyway.

Speaking of having fun hanging out. Fred, his friend from highschool, Peter, and I ate some good burgers at 5 Guys Burgers. It was pretty good, but not outstanding. But talking with the guys was fun. Peter if you read this, we should hang out again on Tuesday evening. Let me know if you're free.

So anyway, it's December 14th, and I'm tired of snow already. Supposedly this is going to be an El Nino winter in which the beginning is rough then gets mild later. I sure hope so. I gots the spring fever now.

Studded snow tires

Aside from feeling guilty for being in the way of a few motorists and still feeling weak from my cold, the ride in this morning was great! Studded snow tires make it seem too easy. I look at the conditions on the ground as I easily roll over it and just chortle quietly to myself (cqtm instead of LOL?) .

Guess who's coming to eat burgers with me and Fred on Saturday!?!? Mr. Boyd himself. I guess he got tired of the tough weather conditions of Cali (or wherever he resides now) and wanted to feel "at home" in Nebraska. So that's happening at 1:30 if I can convince the other 2 hooligans to nail down a time. If you're out at 132nd and Dodge, we'll be eating at 5 Guys Burgers. Never been there, but I look forward to a good burger.

Mr. Miles and I are trying to plan a snow trail ride at Manawa. Anyone know if people have broken in the trails there yet? We might shoot for a Sunday ride just to let the first suckers...I mean...adventurers pack down the trail a little for us.

Please respond with confirmation of burger consumption or trail conditions.

Getting sick and strength

Have you ever noticed that right before and right after a cold you feel invincible? I have an annoying cold right now. Runny, alternating with stuffed up nose, slightly achy, a little on the dizzy/groggy side. Besides the nose, all of those symptoms could be from the riding this weekend.

On Saturday, Mod, Mr. Miles, and I journeyed down the Keystone all the way to the end at Hayworth park and back. About 2.5 hrs with 4-ish big gear workouts mixed in. I MISS BIG GEAR WORKOUTS!! It's been at least a year and I forgot how much I loved getting into the 53x12 and just grinding it out for 10 minutes. I was feeling rather spunky, so I tended to get ahead of Mod and Mr. Miles. Whoops. At least I'm feeling better after my flat pedal fiasco of 2 weekends ago.

I was sore the next morning, of course, but it was mostly in my neck and back(?) I'm not sure if this was my lymph nodes going into overtime to fight off the oncoming cold, but it was nice to think that I could muscle some big gears and not hurt much afterward.

Then on Sunday, Mr. Miles and I visited Swanson before the snow fell. It wasn't that cold when we went at 1pm and the trail was in primo condition. I had my singlespeed, so after a good couple lap warmup, I hit it kinda hard. Mike was having a bad lap, with some bonking, so again, I was off the front. Our final lap, Mike was right on my tail and feeling better as I was pretty much done. 3-ish laps is all I could usually muster at Swanson anyway. My core and legs just can't last for that long. That would be a good thing to work on this winter though.

So after 2 really strong days on the bike, I'm left now with a cold and really crappy weather. I guess it all works out.

What's the time?

No, it's not time to get ill. It's all about the 1 pm.

Saturday - road ride - meet at Scooters on 63rd and Center at 1pm. 2.5 hrs with some big gear workouts. Good times.

Sunday - 1pm meet at Swanson for some dirty fun.

Sorry to the guys who have earlier plans. It's all about the 1pm (and the temps the go with....).

Weekend 12/5-12/6

So Finally its starting to feel a bit like winter. I may get blasted for saying this but I really am glad to finally see a few flakes on flying and everything else that goes along with it. I hate the cold but I like being a good stimulator of the economy and that is heavily predicated on cold, so I'll wear another layer (or sit in my basement) and continue to pedal.

This weekend looks cool but not awful, so lets get out there, eh?

Saturday: Road ride around Noontime in order for anyone? 2-3 hours
Sunday: MTB Ride... someone want to chime in with a location?

Futuristic bike.

This bike looks amazing and the handlebar/lock idea is ingenious, but changing a flat would be interesting.

Wytze's graduation project for Cannondale from Eelke D. on Vimeo.

Going flashy.

Well my blog isn't going flashy. It's going wide and simple. I imagine there's going to be many more videos in 16x9 format in the future and I'm tired of having to size them down. So, in short, get used to this format.

But, if you wanted to go flashy, you could go here on this date. Since I'm too lazy to change my lettering into different colors and sizes and such, I'll try a cut and paste to see if it works:

Bike Omaha is inviting You, to the first annual Bike De'lights ride.

Who: You and your family on bikes

What: A 13-mile social ride (distance is approximate)

When: Friday, December, 11th at 7:00pm (bad weather reschedule date Dec. 18th)

Where: Ride starts at Midtown Crossing Marcus Theatre at 3201 Farnam St (Meet Inside)

Why: To spend time with friends enjoying the lights and activity of downtown Omaha

We have made the following updates. We will keep this post updated if we make any additional changes.

Update 1: The updated route (see below) is approximately 13 miles. Let us know if you think that is too long for any of the riders you would like to have join us. We are still fine-tuning the route and we can adjust a few things to bring the distance back down if we need to.

Update 2: A route map was added to replace the scarry list of turns. Riders will not need to memorize the route unless they plan to go off on their own and meet up with us at one of the stops. We will have people leading the ride and keeping the group together.

The Bike De'lights ride will be family friendly and we will all be riding together at a casual/conversational pace. We will be making stops along the way to warm up and relax. Children are welcome and encouraged to participate. The ride will take 2 or 3 hours depending on how long we stay at each stop. Bike De'lights will be a social ride, so we will not be in a hurry.

Participants are encouraged to wear WARM & casual street clothes. You should dress like you would for walking around downtown in December. There will be several chances to get off the bike, go inside, and warm up. However, you should dress warm and bring extra layers in case it's colder than you expect. Participants should also ride with lights on their bikes if at all possible. Plus, we can be a rolling holiday lights show at the same time.

Meet inside the Marcus Theaters Lounge to start.

My epic failure ride.

A cycling career is a series of experiments. Some things work and some things don't. After many saddles I found the one that works with my bum is a Silverado by WTB. There's others out there I'd like to try, but I don't have the money to test saddles.

One experiment I've been trying recently is riding in plain clothes. Or rather, not lycra and such. It's worked out perfect on my short jaunt to work and on some half hour to hour rides. I've even gone so far as to put flat pedals on my commuter and wear my comfy shoes. No more clackity clackity walking into work.

So this particular experiment went too far on today's ride. The plan was to meet at Ryan F's house, ride to the Wabash trailhead, take that down to Malvern, then ride home. I hadn't really thought it out, but that was going to equal about 75 miles or so. Ryan said it would be a nice mellow ride. So I figured, what the hey. I'll go in near plain clothes, flat pedals, and comfy shoes. Maybe I'll discover that my cold feet issues can be solved this way (that issue is a whole post unto itself).

I met Ryan, we get going, and I feel pretty good. It was mid 30s at the start with a brisk Northish wind, so it was at our backs or sides most of the way. Well after an hour, my toes did their normal winter going numb thing. The only way I can avoid that is to use those chemical toe warmer deals. I got some hints from Ryan and Mr. Bixby that I may try on future long rides.

After we met up with Martin and Tom at the Wabash trailhead, we headed South west with a nice tailwind. After a couple miles, Tom all of a sudden realized that he didn't have his cycling glasses on to protect his contact covered eyes from cold wind and trail debris. He said we could keep going and he'd catch up after going back to the car, but I figured I'd offer my cycling glasses as I had my regular glasses to use. So that worked out fine. We kept right on trucking.

As we kept going Ryan and I would creep off the front sometimes as we were both feeling pretty good. I had forgotten how far Malvern was, though. It's 22 miles down the trail. We left the trailhead at 9:10 and pulled into the C and A cafe at 10:35, just in time to miss breakfast. DOH!! So that was another failure. Martin had wanted to leave the trailhead by 8am, but that would have meant Ryan and I leaving mid-town when it was barely light at 7am and colder still.

Anywho, we ate some great food and Ryan, being the lightest dressed of all of us, decided he needed to get going pretty fast on the return trip to warm up. I felt like going hard too so I went with him. This meant we bid farewell to Tom and Martin at Malvern. This is also the first apology I'm announcing publicly to Tom because I sorta needed my sunglasses back as I didn't see a way for us to cross paths again soon before I'd need to use them. So he had to ride all the way back into a 20ish mph headwind with no eye protection. Tom, I'm very sorry for not thinking that through. I owe you a beer or a beverage of your choice.

Ryan and I got going pretty darn fast. Too fast for my stomach and tired quads to handle. See, when you ride flat pedals, pretty much the only part of your pedal rotation getting any power is the down stroke. I've heard from various places that you don't really pull up on the backside of your stroke as much as you unweight your non power phase. This proved wrong in my case. So after a while of hammering into the wind, uphill, with no blood in my legs due to the digestion of food, I had to back it off. From there on, it was a steady decline into the worst thing a cyclist can do to end a ride - call for an early pick up. Yup, that is the 2nd and consequently 3rd apologies I owe. Ryan, I'm so sorry to turn what could have been a great epic ride into a horrible epic failure by having you call your dad to pick us up at the Wabash Trailhead. And Doug (Ryan's dad) I'm sorry we had you drive over to come pick us up. It was pretty much my complaining (and snail like pace) that led Ryan to call you.

So that's pretty much it. NEVER EVER EVER go for a ride over an hour on flat pedals. Especially if food is involved that will take away the blood you will need to keep your quad only pedal strokes going.

I think I'm going to take a nap now.

Here's an oldie but goodie

Unfortunately this holds true for some cyclists on paved trails too. There's just a mentality of, "I'm going faster and am more important, so get out my way," that happens among some.

Treat others as I'd like to be treated is my rule.

By the way, anyone have any riding plans this weekend? Post em if ya got em!

Anyone not going to Lincoln this weekend?

The Lincoln Cyclocross races are this weekend. If you're fit, go race them. If you want entertainment, go watch them. I think this may be my first year of not attending them. After sucking at racing them (even at my fastest) I would either volunteer, officiate, or just show up to the Lincoln races. Hooligan hill is a good time. Lots of shenanigans going on there. I am not proud to say that I've snatched taped dollar bills from the crotcheral regions of spectators/donators in past races. But after being lapped a few times by the leaders, I didn't care anymore.

So, if you aren't going to join the festivities in Lincoln and want to put in some road/gravel/whatever miles, let me know.

It was fun, is the ride report.

So after failing to read my blog Sunday morning, (sorry bout that Jim and Mark) a group of 6 peeps met up at Scooters for some adventurous times. That's the largest we've had in a while. Which was good since the biting North wind was not fun to battle against.

We headed over the Bob bridge just like last week and instead of hitting the Wabash right away, we took Mark's suggested Woodbine Drive route. This was after Bryan and Jim both had to head home. So then there was 4.

Woodbine Drive was an amazing hill. According to Google, it's a mile and a half climb - a nice steady grinder. I predict future visits to the bluffs. Too bad you usually have to ride along busy roads to get to some of these climbs.

Anywho, the route Mark picked dropped us off right by Dumfries on the Wabash, then we headed around Council Bluffs to ride the Northeast wind home. It was only a total of 47 miles, but with the climbing, it seemed like more. Plus my feet were pretty much frozen blocks of ice by the end. That part was also not so fun.

Thuper Thunday

Scooters at 63rd and Center is the meeting place.

1pm is the meeting time.

3 hours is the ride time (roughly)

Mellow to moderate is the pace.

I will be there is the correct response.

Weekend?

So anybody got anything on tap for the weekend (other than Cranksgiving)?

For Saturday:
Here
For Sunday:
Post up, we'll get something going... weather's going to be iffy so maybe a good day for some gravel?

One hundred and eleventy

After uploading my many commutes and few group rides since I bought the Garmin Edge 205, I have raised $111 for the Rails to Trails Concervancy on behalf of Trek. All possible through the Plus 3 Network website. They have really streamlined the uploading process to make it easier and since I commute to work everyday, I have a lot of files to upload. I wait till my Garmin is low on battery and recharge it through the PC's USB line after inputting all my data.

I got used to this after training for racing. Back then, I had the Polar 725 connected to it's power sensor dealy. The software that comes with Polar is awesome and I sometimes wish I still had the power data. It probably wasn't very accurate, but at least it let me know when I was really on the rivet. I remember ramping it up to around 320 watts for time trials and loving the burn for an hour. But not much more. Ah, those were the days. To be in shape again...

Eleven Eight O Nine

Sunday Ride Details are below... I may or may not be in attendance but I'll be there in spirit at the very least (which means I'll be sleeping in if I don't show)
Place: Scooters @ 120th and Blondo Street
Time: 9 AM Central Standard Time
Duration: 3 Hours
Pace: In the words of one confirmed participant "steady" so I'd say not super easy but its pretty well assured nobody will get dropped.

That is all.

Update on Weekend rides.

Mr. Miles, Randell and I are leaving from my place at 8am to meet up with the Rafal group down at Scooters by 8:30. We'll then ride with them (unless they take off without us) and take the Wabash as far as time will allow. We will probably not do the gravel road route that Rafal has planned.

So that's Saturday. Anyone got plans for Sunday? Post em if ya got em!

Wabash Saturday... 11/7/2009

I am taking the cross bike out on the Wabash Saturday, but you can probably do it on the road bike without a problem. Pace should be pretty relaxed (175-200W with no surges over 250W) for me so I can't think anybody will get dropped. If you want to go faster I'll probably Venga, Venga, Venga but I will let you ride me off your wheel and I will not care. Strictly headed out there for base miles as its that time of the year.

Time: 9AM
Place: Council Bluffs Wabash Trailhead
Duration: 3ish hours of riding

Cold turkey

When I got into cycling, I was bombarded with a new lifestyle. My new friends quenched their thirst with liquids I said I'd never imbibe. When they wanted to get going, they'd order up a coffee. When they wanted to stop and relax, they'd down a beer (or 2, or 3..).

My first foray into drinking was after a race weekend down in Kansas City. It was Fred, his daughter, Ryan Legg, Jon Randell, and Megan Hottman. I think those were all who were in attendance. I'm not saying I blacked out or anything, that was just 4 or 5 years ago, so my memory is fuzzy. Anyway, we stopped at a steakhouse (see, I can't remember which one) to refuel and celebrate the weekend. Ryan knew that I was a lightweight, so he used his race winnings and ordered me up a huge Margarita that was REALLY strong. Getting that buzzed was a new experience for me. Everything was quieter and I felt kinda numb. So of course I had to announce this new discovery to everyone. Instead of saying something like, "Wow, the affects of alcohol have dimmed some of my senses," I blurted out, "Hey guys, look, I can't feel my face," as I pulled on my cheek and pushed on my nose. This was apparently quite hilarious to everyone.

I don't think I've gotten that buzzed since then, but I have taken to drinking beer. The main reason younger people drink beer is to get hammered. I never wanted to get past the buzzed sensation, so cheap crappy beer has never been my thing. I do, however, like the taste of a couple dark lagers. Sam Adams Black Lager and New Belgium's 1554 are a couple of my favorites. But at $7-$8 for 6 drinks, I couldn't keep that in my new aggressive debt defeating budget. I tried the $6 Michelob Porter Beer, but that was still $1 per day I was drinking it. By the way, I only drank 1 per day. Two beers just seemed crazy to me.

So I have cut out the beer. I don't really miss it, but I may drink one every now and then for special occasions.

Next up on the chopping block - coffee. I know some of you are gasping right now. "But Mike, how can you give up coffee?" Easy, stop drinking it. Today is the first day of none whatsoever. I'm not feeling it yet, but I've also sipped some Mt. Dew throughout the day. The main reason for giving up coffee is because it's too is expensive and I never really liked the taste. It was something I drank just for the caffeine. I know you can go cheap with Folgers made at home etc, but I'm the only one at home that drinks coffee. So making sure we have filters, going through the process of making it and all that for just me seems a little too much. Plus, I'm lazy and since we meet at coffee shops for our rides, I just order there. So that's at least $1.50 if not $4 as I like the foo-foo drinks. If I didn't depend on the hit of caffeine to get me going, the money and starting from a coffee shop would not be needed.

So if you've been keeping track, I had been spending anywhere from $1 to $6 A DAY on liquids. There's a water faucet down the hall from my desk and my water bill at home is taken care of by the landlord. Why am I spending money on flavored water again??

From here on, I'm cutting out the unnecessary drinks to save money. I don't need it. It's an expenditure of which cutting out will show great returns. Like I said before, I may, occasionally enjoy a brew for a celebration, or have a coffee if I go out to a big family breakfast, but the daily consumption must stop. If I ever really want to get out of debt and get on with life, I have to strip my budget of frivolous spending.

Ok, now that the declaration has been made, let's discuss the weekend. 3 day weekend!! WOO HOO!! The wife is going on a trip early Friday AM so I took that day off to take her to the airport. I'll probably finish up some bike work that needs to be done the rest of the day, then head over to Randells house to help him setup a home network. YAY New toys to play with!!

So that's pretty much Friday. Saturday is completely up in the air. I do need to come up with some sort of costume for a Halloween party I'm attending Saturday night, but other than that, I'm free if anyone would like to head out for a ride.

Sunday, I need to be home around noon so I can pick the wife up from the airport. So an early morning ride would be best. Right now, it's looking to be around 37 degrees with a below 10 mph South wind at daybreak. Daybreak being 8am. If we want to meet somewhere at 9am and get a few hours in, that would be awesome. If you have rights to post on this blog and want to suggest something, post away. My cold turkey haze induced run-on could stand to be shuffled down the list...

Any Sunday ride plans?

I know Mr. Miles is out of town, but if anyone else wants to get something together, let me know where and when.

Sprint finish on every training ride?

A new article from The New York Times suggests that cooling down has absolutely no benefit for moderate athletes. Now us higher trained cyclists could risk getting dizzy from blood pooling in our legs if we just come to a complete stop after a our last sprint of a workout. But otherwise, there's no physiological benefit of the 5-10 minutes cool down process.

In fact, the lactic acid produced from hard exercise, which used to be considered bad for muscles, is actually a fuel that converts to glycogen for muscle's use. So doing a sprint or short interval could possibly provide your muscles with some fuel naturally instead of the need to immediately find food after a workout. I think another study should follow this up. That would be very interesting to find out that all those recovery mixes could be replaced with a simple sprint finish on every ride.

Holy soreness.

The ride: Shabbos +1. The attendees: Mr. Miles, Bryan, and Big Puma (aka Mr. Fenster). I new Bryan was going to be feeling his oats since he was running a Trek Madone finally after putzing along on a heavy steel Bianchi for a couple months. Mr. Miles always is a power rider, and then Big Puma shows up who I've heard has been putting everyone in the hurt lockers recently.

Well crap. I hadn't done a long ride in a couple weeks and my whopping 6 mile round trip commute sure isn't much to get fast from. However, I also had a secret weapon. I had been riding a heavy commuter for about 3 weeks and I showed up on my pared down racy Lemond Bike. Ha ha!!

We left the coffee shop and headed straight into the wind. Of course the speed gradually ramped up but we were civilized to each other and traded pulls. However, the ramping up was just too much after a while. Bryan was having fit/saddle issues and I sure wasn't comfortable holding 18 mph into a 15-ish mph headwind. But luckily we were near our Southernmost destiny. So we headed East to do some climbing in Bellevue. Of course the eventual serious climbing wasn't planned, but it's difficult to venture into Bellevue and not think, "I wonder how much that one crazy hill will hurt?" The first climb was a steady grinder to reach Bellevue Blvd. This thing is deceptive since it doesn't seem steep for the first couple of blocks, but then it curves to the left and goes UP. At the top of the climb, Bryan read my mind and said, "Hey, should we go climb some crazy hills?" Why yes sir, I do concur.

So we hit up Fontanelle Hills neighborhood and did a double decker climb on which Randall and I used to do competitive hill attacks. Basically, you hit the bottom of the climb, one guy leads out at a fairly fast clip, then about a third of the way from the top, the 2nd guy comes around and attacks. Whoever get's to the top first is better, er, wins that round. We would do 6 repeats of these. I think I died a little each round. But it was fun!

So our group got to the top of the double decker and promptly fell over. Well not really. Big Puma had a slow leaking flat that was needing a change, so we waited around for that. At this point, we were pretty much out of time so we headed back toward home. Of course the only way to do so was still really hilly, but we made it ok. Mr. Miles let me know in a text later that we "normalized" out to 265 watts for the ride. My guess is that means averaged 265, which seems high, but I don't train with power, so I'm probably way off. It was painful though. Even after an easy spin this morning, my legs are still all toight and sore.

More coffee please!

Weekend Plans

Now that I can breathe again after Munson's response to the cliffhanger.... I'm going to post up a weekend plan request since nobody else has. Anybody thinking about riding? We'll have 50's and sun...

To answer the Cliffhanger..

If you were at all wondering what the outcome of the car verdict was; $200 later and it's good for a while. The right tie rod was possibly the culprit of a noise that's been concerning us. We'll see if the noise comes back, but I believe it's gone. There are other issues with the car that are of concern, but that's a few thousand miles down the road.

Our car setup works for our budget at the moment. It's old, rusty, has old parts that need replacing about once a year, but still starts every time and get's us around. It's paid off, and doesn't cost much to insure or license. We live at about 60th and Center and I ride my bike a whopping 3 miles to work at 42nd and Leavenworth (UNMC), and the wife drives a whopping 2 miles to work at 84th and Center. Other than that, we go out occasionally and buy groceries. It's been 7 months since my last oil change with less than 3000 miles during that time. I know you're supposed to change every 3 months just to keep the oil fresh, but I'm cheap and lazy, otherwise I'd do it myself more consistently. Plus I like taking my car into Honda Exclusive. They are about 4 blocks from my work and are a great shop. Todd, the owner and person you usually deal with, gives you the things to worry about in order of safety. At one point a few years ago, I was looking at $900 worth of upkeep to make the car safe. He worked with me on a plan to stretch that out over a year so my wallet didn't take such a hit all at once. If you have a Honda, I highly recommend their shop.

Ok, enough car talk. Man, the difference between my commuter and my fast bike is crazy. It'd be interesting to put a powermeter on both and see how much more energy I'm expending just to get up hills with an extra 10 pounds worth of bike. 10 pounds doesn't sound like much, but man it sure feels like it. Either that or I'm really losing my strength. Or my position on the 2 bikes is different enough that my muscles don't like the change. Or maybe it's all in my head???

I suppose I should post something

This last Sunday's ride was a great time. It was kinda short being it was pretty cold and Mr. Miles' bike was giving him Italian problems. Long story...

I think it's too early to be this cold, but hopefully it's a sign that the winter will be very mild. That would be awesome.

I'm on call this Saturday morning, but Sunday looks to be a nice day to ride. Last report said that it's supposed to get up to 60 degrees. That will feel awesome. Or make me sick. Drastic changes in temps generally make me feel lousy for a few days after the swing.

In non bike related news, I took my 94 Honda Civic in for an oil change and to find the cause of a bad noise it's making. If the news is real bad - as in money bad, I may just find someplace to trade it in for a newer car. I really don't want the hassle of finding a new car, and all the costs that go along with it, but I'm worried my Civic is going to nickel and dime me to death. But then again, no car payment, cheap insurance and licensing is pretty nice.

Sunday ride? Possibly indoors?

The forecast for Sunday is mid 30s and cloudy. I don't know if I'm ready to ride in that kind of weather yet. I'll have to dig out all my wintery clothes if we do head out.

Or we could all meet at someone's house and break out the race dvds? I'm up for whatever. I'd like to take a poll and see what everyone thinks. Indoor/outdoor and timeline also.

RESPOND!!!

Awesome bike race.

You must watch this video. The one thing that does bother me about it, is who won the event. Must be nice to retire from pro bike racing after being caught doping, then go on to win such an event.

Oh running, why do I ever give you up?

After a long day on Saturday officiating the Manawa Mountain bike Mayhem race, I got up early to visit the parents house and have a big family breakfast since my little brother was in town. Apparently though, no one was up and ready yet. My dad was, I guess. He went to the store to pick up food stuffs, and my mom was just waking up with coffee and the paper. Apparently, my little bro stayed up way late and drank joyously with his high school reunion attendees. But, the plan was to get up and go running around Standing Bear lake at 10am. So Clark, my little brother, got up by 9am and we both loaded up on some delicious breakfast, compliments of our great dad.

After not completely finishing our blueberry pancakes and sausage, we jetted out to Standing Bear. Clark, himself a frequent runner, had 3 other friends coming, only 1 of which ran with any consistency compared to the rest of us. So he and his running friend took off while the other 2 and I ran/walked and talked. Which was awesome! I'd forgotten about the "runner's high" that comes with pounding the pavement with your feet. I felt pretty good throughout the whole 3-4 miles (not sure about the new trail distance), but the occasional walking helped that issue I'm sure. Now I'm reinvigorated with the option of running!

I think, at first, I'll designate Mondays and Fridays as running after work days. That way I can start and end the week with some great exercise. It's fall now, and the weather's just going to get colder from here on out. Some people like to run since it's way easier to spend a half hour to an hour outside keeping warm while running compared to a few hours freezing your toes/fingers off while riding a bike. So the Shabbos (+1) rides might turn into runs eventually. Some of you might know my abhorrence of indoor training, so that will be reserved for when I get convinced (conned?) into joining a few people to do that while watching race dvds.

Going back to the Manawa Race, I really want to thank Rusty (forgot his last name) from the Velo Veloce team. He made the race run smooth for results and such. While I was busy taking down numbers and times, he would fill in the many sheets of the different races with the times I wrote down. So by the end of the race, he'd get the last few timings, plop them in the right slots, and we could post the results right away. My last mtb race, I didn't have someone doing that, so after each race was over, I'd have to fill in the blanks myself, while still keeping tabs on the Marathoners and answering questions, and starting the next races, and so on and so forth. I felt so bad holding things up at that race, but didn't even think of this method that Rusty had created. He was a real trooper even though he was going cross eyed toward the end with all the numbers he had to sort through. I also want to thank all the other people with Psycowpath and Velo Veloce for hosting a great event. I'm glad we could work together well to put on a timely, accurate event for the riders in attendance. It was a great day!

There was an abundance of Sweet Bacon.

The Bacon ride was definitely worth getting up at 5:30am for. It was a little chilly and very dark at that time, but the pace was easy, there was no traffic, and the friends were....um....friendly. Of course there were many pictures taken by Scott and Sean just to confirm the ride did happen through eventual blog postings. Keep an eye on their reports. Total count for the ride were 5 peeps, including me. Rafal; the ride leader (and route adjuster), Scott; the taker of many pictures, Sean; the bestower of knowledge and a few pictures, Chris; the trouble maker, and me; the one with the duct tape.

We took a fairly tame route even with gravel out to Platte river state park and inhaled some delectable morning nourishment. From the Lincoln side of things, Corey and Wes(?) joined us after most of our bacon had been devoured. We left a couple scraps for them.

After a relaxing feast, we slowly pedaled on mostly flat surface toward home. That is, until we got to Pflug Rd. Does anyone know exactly how to pronounce this, by the way? We were keeping a good tempo along the gravel road next to the interstate, than BAM, we head uphill. Rafal, of course on his single speed, had to hoof it up at a decent clip as not doing so means you either murder your knees, or walk. The annoying part about Pflug is that you have the first monster climb, then another 3 butt-kickers, one right after the other. After the road mellowed out (as much as a gravel road can mellow out), Chris decided he wanted to give the group a prolonged rest break in the form of a very frustrating flat. Oh, and just so everyone knows, the proper way to use one of the little green boxed patch kits is: sand paper the area around the hole in the tube, spread on a little bit of glue around the hole, let it dry, then stick one of the appropriate sized patches over it and hold for a couple seconds. I won't mention any names, but this procedure was not followed correctly resulting in a lot of fruitless pumping action. WAFFLE!!

So anyway, after I used some of my invaluable duct tape to cover the offending protruding spoke, we got Chris's flat fixed and all was right with the world again. He repaid us quite handsomely with a round of libations and finger food at Blue Planet Natural Grill when the ride was done. Overall, it was a great day of food and riding with good buddies. Too bad next weekend, being the last one where the bacon dispensing place is open at Platte River SP, is pretty busy with a few other cycling events. There's the Omaha Alley Cat race mid-day, then in the afternoon, the ride to the movies to watch A Sunday in Hell. I'm not sure what plans I have for that day as my little bro will be in town. I may do and early couple hour ride though, possibly both days. Let me know if anyone's interesting in joining in!

Could it be??

I replied to Bryan's coffee review a week ago Thursday that I discovered an afternoon cup of joe is doubly amazing as the first one of the day. This feeling was re-emphasized on this last Wednesday night's jaunt to the bike shop to build more bikes. I guzzled a coffee down at about 2pm and was flying down the trail and up the hills of Ralston to get to the bike shop. I felt no leg soreness and it seemed as if the time it took to breath hard took longer. As in, I could redline it, but not have to gasp for air right away like I have done this whole year. This was great, but I could see down a long bleak road that didn't look promising. Pretty soon, I'd be drinking 2 16 oz "cups" of coffee every day until I went on vacation or something and had to go without any caffeine. I could seriously see myself dying. Like caput. Done.

So I tried an experiment yesterday evening. I went without the afternoon shot, just to see how I'd ride and feel heading to the bike shop, wrenching on bikes for 3-ish hours then riding home. Riding there, my cruise speed was just like the coffee days, a monster hill I climb was done at the same speed, I wasn't quite as strong lifting bikes and such, but my arms are weak anyway, and then my ride home was just as fast as any other I've had with or without coffee. What I discovered is that, instead of the coffee making me faster, I may just be getting......

IN SHAPE!!!

The beginning of this summer was pretty tame as I didn't really do many weekend rides and didn't seem to ride during the week at all (minus commuting). Then I had a couple family vacations and a 2 week honeymoon. This led to a gain of a few pounds and a serious lack of fitness. When I would go on group rides, I was always falling off the back, even at medium tempo, and hard efforts had me panting right away. So now, I can maintain 18-19 mph pretty easily, I can go hard and recover fairly quickly, and my weight is finally starting to come down. All great stuff. However, I do think I'm starting to feel my age. The coffee blocked any achy signals, which is why I felt so good with afternoon shots. But last night, without the caffeine, I was pretty torqued by the time I crawled into bed.

So now that I'm getting stronger and faster, the days are getting shorter and my part time job (which gives me weekday rides) is going away. Next month I'll also start working a 9am-6pm shift so that'll give me even less time to ride during the week. sigh...

I think I need to take up running. Maybe weight lifting too.

Since it's on every other blog..

This Sunday will be one of the last Bacon Rides of this year. I plan on attending since it starts so close to my house and I've never done one. If you want to join us along the route, one of the earlier posts about the ride contains a cue sheet within a bullet point. Let us know where you plan on joining us so we can call if we get to the rendezvous point early or whatever.

Hopefully we'll see you guys on the gravel!

Uh, Late post much?

In the honor of Fred's latest blog post, I had to pick an appropriate title.

So anyway, I figure we should probably do a Shabbos +1 ride. Any takers as to starting place/time? I could suggest 120th and Blondo's Scooters so we can all get somewhat of a ride in before our real ride. Or we could do Scooters on 180th and Q, or even Crane coffee on 78th and Cass. I'm up for whatever and don't really have time limits.

Post your response for your choice.

Many miles weekend.

After a failed (in more ways than one) trip to Lake Manawa on Saturday, Mr. Miles, Randell, Brady, Scott, and first time Shabbos +1 attendee Jim Maaske went on our Loess Hills adventure. The first part of the ride was fine although a little fast. Jim was our ambassador to the Council Bluffs side since he lives there. He told us about a couple climbs that were going to hurt pretty bad. One right on Badger road and another heading home on Monument road. I know Monument road has some doozies as we rode up it to get to Lewis and Clark trail on our mountain bikes during the Metro Single Track tour. However, we didn't even get there. We, instead were done in by the Badger road climb. Holy Moly this thing was a killer. It had to have been in the teens percent wise of elevation and about 2 to 3 blocks long. Now, it wouldn't have been so bad had we had this happen to us(stolen from the Good Problem blog):



Good stuff. Anyway, after that climb and some subsequent large rock gravel sketchy descents, we packed it in and took Old Lincoln Highway straight back into town and rolled across the pan flat-ness of Council Bluffs. So we got in 80 of the real 90 mile route. That ride may not be happening on road bikes again.

Then on Shabbos +2, Miles, Randell, Bob and I met for an easy ride and to play our "Most Expensive House" game. This is a fun thing to do for recovery rides or just to put some miles in. You and some friends ride to a subdivision where the houses are new and/or huge. Preferably on flatter terrain so you don't have to climb as much. You ride along the streets and look for "House For Sale" signs with brochures available. Once you get to that block, you do a seated high cadence sprint to the house and whoever get's within the vicinity first gets to pick up the flyer. The person who picks out the highest priced house wins. This, of course, creates some strategies as you can choose not to sprint for certain houses if you think their price is not high enough. But don't wait out too long otherwise you may not find a house at all. That makes you the biggest loser. And no one wants to be the biggest loser. We're still figuring out all the little rules, but that's the basic premise of the game. Fun times and good for just tooling around on bikes.

After all the miles though (for me), my legs are pretty dead. I'm ready for some time off or some real easy spins. I will be working next weekend in the AM on Saturday, so that day may be out. But I'll be sure to post some more Shabbos +1 goodness.

3 day weekend!

And we have plans for 2 of those days.

Shabbos(Saturday): 8am mtb ride at Lake Manawa. (earlier if needed??)

Shabbos +1(Sunday): Loess hills extravaganza
meeting place: the new Scooters at 63rd and Center (unless we want to meet downtown somewhere??)
meeting time: (EDIT) 1:30pm
Distance: 90 miles
Pace: probably all over the place. Slow at times, fast at others.
Bikes: It'll be 60% road, 40% gravel; bring what you want. A few of us are rolling the skinnies on road bikes, but run what ya brung.

Shabbos +2: Now taking suggestions, plus any other input on the other 2 rides.

I'll just mention in passing..

My blog about my wedding is finally up.

See it at: http://mnmswedding.blogspot.com

I had too tough of a time figuring out how to post backwards or on different days to get the order of this right, so our honey moon and reception pics will probably be hosted on picture hosting sites. I'll have those linked at the right.

Shabbos Field Trip?

So the state road race is coming up here in 2 weeks time and we've got a long weekend coming up as well. I think we should journey out to the course and do some laps and since its 50 miles each way from my house I think driving out there would be the order of the day. Any takers? Open to date and/or time Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.

Edit: I could be convinced to ride out there...

Costume idea for the Halloween Pub Crawl?

The Halloween Pub Crawl is always a good time.

Here's music to play and a costume to wear:

More rapid fire posting!

Shabbos ride.

Randell and I are heading out around 12:30 from my place. Probably up to Blair, climb that wicked hill on the North side of town, eat at some restaurant, then head back home. Nice easy ride.
Except for that hill. That's gonna hurt.

Post if you plan on showing up, otherwise we're leaving without ya!!

Rapid fire Posting!!!

Shabbos +1 ride.

Place: Crane Coffee at 78th and Cass.
Time: Leave at 7:30am, be there early to drink the wakey juice.
Terrain: road bikes on road.
Tempo: Mellow with an occasional chance of punchiness.
(edit) Duration: 4-5 hrs if everyone is up for it. If the majority want/need to do less time, we'll adjust accordingly.

DO IT!!!!

You know what's awesome?

Yellowstone Park, family trips, and a good camera.

Man I wish I was in better shape.

Oh, and also not being on call would be nice too.

This Saturday is the Good Life Gravel Adventure around Lincoln, NE. It looks like so much fun. I know Mr. Miles is planning to attend as well as Rafal. Alas, my lack of longer rides recently and forgetting I'm required to be on call on Saturday means I'm out.

Randell and I are cooking up a 4-5 hr ride for Sunday though. It'll probably be on the road and I'd imagine that the GLGA riders might be a tad too sore to join us, which is completely understandable. Meeting time and place will be decided on and posted by the end of the week.

Happy birthday, Mike

The proprietor of this website is 32 today. Wish him well.

Or else.

Doh, Shabbos riders are out!

The woman pulled the hubby card, so I gotta be somewhere earlier than we'd get back from the Bacon Ride.

Hope you guys have fun and I look forward to doing a gravel ride with ya'll soon.

3 for Shabbos, do I hear a 4th?

Jonny, Mr. Miles, and I are meeting at the Scooters on 180th and Q to head out for a 2-3 hr ride on Saturday. Meeting time of 7am. Mr. Miles is going to set the tempo for a workout he's doing, but it shouldn't be too crazy to sit in and catch a draft.

So road bikes with some up tempo parts if you're interested.

Just in case you hadn't read it on other blogs..

Sunday's Shabbos +1 will partake in some gravel and bacon. Or just gravel for people who don't eat the flesh of aminal.

6am at Wohlner's on 65th and Center.

70-100 miles depending on which route you take, or what the group decides.

That was the most I've ridden in a while

So with the marriage, a mini-family vacation and such this past month, the 2 rides I did this weekend were quite an accomplishment.

Saturday, Randell, Miles, and I headed Northish with a tailwind for about an hour, then turned around and battled a headwind home. Just a couple hour ride and I was seriously toasted.

On Sunday I joined just a few more people for the Corporate Cycling Challenge. A bunch of us were originally planning to meet up at a coffee shop downtown then ride all together at a medium pace, but that all went up in smoke after the start. The Kaos guys needed to stick with their group, Randell and I were burning off our coffee fixes, and others (such as Rafal, Nick, Noah(sp?)) all were traveling at different speeds. It was a great time anyway. However, I was pretty worthless the rest of the day. My bike still needs a good cleaning after all the wet weather riding. Le sigh...

Pretty soon I'll be posting pics of our family mini vacation and then finally make a blog about my wedding and honeymoon with pics to go along with my long story a couple post ago.

Morning warining

So the forecasters say that the storms of tomorrow will happen in the AM. Stay tuned to the weather before heading over to my place at the booty crack of dawn.

Pre CCC ride.

Jonny, Mr. Miles, and I are meeting at Scooters at 120th and Blondo on Saturday at 8am.

2 hours with Mr. Miles going up the road a few times for structured intervals. We'll catch him on his recovery.

Come one, come all!

HILARIOUS!!!

A call to arms

So, the Corporate Cycling Clusterfook is on Sunday. More than anything else, this is the event I fear. Aquafina bottles everywhere, aerobars on comfort hybrids, squirrels dodging potholes ... jesus, it's scary.

To properly prepare, we need coffee. Strong coffee. Let's hook up downtown at the Starbucks across the street from the library (where Old Yeller was stolen). 7:15 a.m. Get there sooner if you like (I probably will), and then we'll roll toward the quagmire around 7:40.

So ...

Sunday

7:15 or earlier

Starbucks by the downtown library.

Go!

Wabash Adventure - Repost

So this Sunday I'd like to ride the Wabash from end to end and back. I know a few people have expressed a passing interest, please firm up whether you'll show or not. I'd like to think I'm not the only one crazy enough to do this. The plan is to leave from the Wabash trailhead in Council Bluffs @ 8 AM and head south. It'll be a long day, bring water, food, and money. It will be good times!

Wednesday, the 5th of August

Since we've got a mountain bike race coming up at Tranquility this weekend, I intend to skip the BM group ride Wednesday night and ride Tranquility for 2.5-3 hours to get a good feel for the course and make sure I'm ready to put in a decent showing on Saturday. I am probably going to park @ BM chat till the roadies roll out at 6 PM then cruise down the hill to get in some laps until dark. If anyone wants to join the fun, feel free. May be some hard efforts but mostly just endurance pace riding.

Also, lets not forget about the Wabash Adventure coming up this Sunday. A good group will make the time pass quicker for all.

And 4500 miles of driving later...

First off, please skip this long post and read the next post about Mr. Miles riding the Wabash (down and back) on August 9th. I will be out of town so I can't join, but it's an awesome adventure and would highly recommend it. Plus, Mr. Miles is great company, so that makes it more worth it.

Friday the 10th - I got married. Had both of our immediate families (plus my Aunt) join us down at the courthouse for a wonderful ceremony administered by Judge (Larry? - I need to look this up). Went out for lunch afterward with more family and had a great time. Fast forward to Sunday and, as some of you know, had a fun little get together in Elmwood Park. The food was great, company was very welcome, and a good time was had by all.

Monday morning..er rather... 1pm... we took off for Denver. Saw some storms, enjoyed the sandhills area, visited my small town house where I grew up (Windsor, CO) then stayed in a hotel. Next morning, we ate breakfast with my Uncle Dale (hope you feel better soon!!) then headed into the mountains. The first stop was Hanging Lake near Glennwood Springs. I've been to this area twice, but that was many years ago, when I was younger. I had forgotten how tough the hike up to the lake was. You could almost call it a mild mountain climb. Michelle was not happy about it, but she soldiered on and was very impressed with the view. That view (in my opinion) was slightly tarnished by a group of Spanish foreign exchange students who did not read the sign saying it was illegal to swim in the lake. They had a great time, but the pristene quality the lake is supposed to have was amiss. Anyway, we then headed to the next town over, New Castle, to stay at relatives house(Thanks again, Bruce and Joy). We were tempted by their offer to stay another day and go rafting, but this was the very beginning of a long journey, so we had to keep on keepin on.

We next traveled across Utah and saw many great scenes. I will make a later post of pictures or creat a link to a flickr site or something. That will come after we get fully unpacked and settled back down. Utah was pretty quick, but most noteably there was beautiful canyons and Lake Sevier. Very odd to bike ride on. It had a hardish crust, but underneath was sand, and moisture. I really liked the landscape of Utah and I want to visit more of it instead of just pass through like I have the past couple times.

Nevada was D E S O L A T E along Highway 50. By this time, we'd hopped off the interstate to make our way straight across to Lake Tahoe. Highway 50 was the way to go and I see now, how it came to be known the lonliest road in America. The image about halfway down the linked page is one we saw often. You'd go up and over a mountain pass then see a valley many miles wide with just a straight road going across it and not much else. One cool place we stopped was Sand Mountain. I'm really kicking myself for not getting pictures of it, but hour camera had run out of power by this point. We saw a couple of Black Widow Spiders and some lizards on a little trail hike we took. Very fun stuff.

After surviving the Nevada leg, we got to Lake Tahoe. South Lake Tahoe to be precise. Very busy touristy town, but we had relatives living there. We visited with them and were quite jealous of their house which (itself was amazing) sat across a beatiful field where they went hiking about every day. They had a sailboat that needed some repair, but once we got that taken care of, we set out to sail away. Well we tried at least. The wind wasn't quite right. At about 3 knots, we got going, at most, 2 knots. FULL WADING SPEED AHEAD!!! It was nice to get out on the water though.

At the recommendation of the relatives at Lake Tahoe (Thanks again Tom, Jean, Nick, and Betty!) we headed for the coast and Highway 1 after a stop by Yosemite park. It was free entry weekend at Yosemite(which we didn't know) and the place was PACKED! So that potential stay was nixed. We enjoyed the views and almost made it to one of the great falls, but Michelle did not want a repeat of the mild mountain climb up to Hanging Lake. This is where the traffic of the West Coast really started to hit us. The amount of people in Cali is just mind boggling. Fun place to visit, but I don't think I could live there.

After Yosemite, we stopped by Monterey Bay to eat and try to see the ocean, but there was way too much fog to enjoy the view. Along Highway 1 and Big Sur, we saw some of the bridges the Tour of Cali goes over, but again, with so much fog, it was just so-so. We kept on down the highway till we got to the town of Ragged Point. It was basically just an Inn on the highway. It was a great place to stay and I'd highly recommend it when the fog isn't in full swing. After a great night's sleep, we got going to make it down to Laguna Beach. We stopped by to see the Sea Lions near the Hearst Castle. They were quite funny to watch. Again, I have many pics and videos that I hope to be able to share once I figure out the best way to do so.

Michelle, being an avid online game player, wanted to visith the World Of Warcraft art exhibit at the Laguna Beach Art History Museum. I just tagged along, but she was quite happy to see everything. Our next stop was Sea World by San Diego. We didn't get to see all of Sea World because of Shamu. We stopped by the Penguin area, the Arctic area, and the Shark place. Then, a show to see Shamu the killer whale was coming up, so we got a good spot. And by good, I mean in the "soak zone." This is where that blasted whale uses his huge tail to splash the crowd. They were selling towels and ponchos but we figured we'd tough it out since we were hot anyway. That was a mistake. After some amazing acrobatics with the whales and their trainers, the splashing began. Shamu must have had a thing for Michelle because I didn't see anyone as soaked as her. It was a blast and Michelle had fun, until the salt water, sun and crappy food got to us. Soon we were uncomfortable and just went to the hotel to relax.

Another short trip North and we were in Las Vegas. We got their in the afternoon when it was 105 degrees out. I have been there before, but I don't remember driving down the Strip. So, of course when I wanted to show Michelle a "quick rundown" of the Strip by car, there was traffic compounded by construction made worse by the heat. So we fled that scene and stayed at the Orleans casino/hotel which was a good half mile off the Strip. This place was an all in one deal - bowling alley, movie theater, multiple restaraunts, casino, sports arena, etc. We had planned to go back to the strip in the evening when it was only 97 degrees and not sunny, but it started to downpour and lots of lightning kept us away. So we again just relaxed in the hotel and gambled a little at the casino.

We were pretty much ready to be done with the trip at this point. We were both tired and just forgetting things. So we made a mad dash for home from Las Vegas, stopping by Green River in Utah, then home the next day.

It was a long journey and we got to see way more than if we'd flown, but I don't know if I can do one of these trips again. Maybe with more drivers to share the load. Definite places to go back to eventually are: Glennwood Springs to go rafting, Utah to see more of the state, Yosemite when it's not so busy (doubt that'll happen), Sea World with a change of dry clothes, California coast when it's not so foggy, and Las Vegas to stay at a place on the Strip. I'll update this post or create a new one when I figure out what I'm going to do with the pics and vids.

Thank you so much to all who sent us well-wishes, joined us for the wedding celebration, sent gifts/cards, or helped us out for our honeymoon. It was a great time and I look forward to taking many more road trips and maybe eventually family vacations in the future.

Wabash Adventure

On August 9th I'm planning to ride the Wabash from end to end (and back) in 1 day. It'll be fun and ridden at a moderate pace. I need the hours and would like some company. Any takers?

T minus 4 days.

I'm gettin hitched soon. Friday will be the small wedding deal at the courthouse, Saturday will be spent visiting with incoming relatives/friends, Sunday will the celebration to which I hope everyone will stop by if they can, then Monday will begin a.......

ROAD TRIP!!!!!

We are heading Westbound for adventures unknown. Well we kinda know what we're doing. We have a rough estimate. 2 weeks of driving, visiting other relatives, seeing some sites, and just relaxing. I may be getting in touch with a couple of you to ask about borrowing some camping equipment. We might visit Yosemite, so camping there would be fun.

It's gonna be a blast, but that means I'll be off the grid for a while. Please be kind to this blog and post ride plans or just talk about whatever. Other wise it'll be a lonely blog.

Shabbos +1

Sunday Morning - 8am

Meeting place: Scooters coffee at 120th and Blondo

Ride plans: A Fremont Loop that Mr. Miles has found will probably be around the 4 hr mark from Scooters. I need the miles, so I'm good with that.

Come join the fun if you can, or ride part of the way if ya like. Otherwise have a good rest of the weekend!

Shabbos - 1??

So Friday should be a holiday for most people since the 4th of July falls on Saturday. Jon Randell and I are planning an easy couple hour ride in the morning that day. Time and place for meeting is still up in the air, so we could start discussing that now to get a consensus.

Mr. Miles and I had a revelation this last Sunday on our mellow Shabbos + 1 ride. And that revelation is that Crane Coffee sucks. At least neither of us like it. I just thought it was me, but when he mentioned it, I felt vindicated. So maybe we should try to start our rides from some other location? I'm also up for ideas on this aspect. Depending on who shows up, a meeting place more out west would be wiser for those guys who live out that way? There's Scooters on 120th and Blondo which is right off a trail. Is there a coffee shop in La Vista that's anywhere near the West Papio trail?

Back to life..Back to reality

I've been "out of the loop" for about a week. On Thursday of last week, my brother, mom, and I headed off for a weekend of family happenings. 2 surprise birthday parties and a funeral. All within 3 days and all in very different locations. Let's just say we drove a ton over the 4 days.

For some reason, my phone was not working till we got to Denver. I then found out about Bryan's horrible mishap. I called as soon as I could, but wasn't much help. Brady had the great idea of visiting him with a video game system to pass the time. Brady's such a good friend, ain't he? I did tell Bryan that I was planning on stopping by as soon as I got back into Omaha. Well Bryan, if you're wondering why that hasn't happened, I have a very good excuse.

I hab a code. I'm sick with something that involves a runny/clogging nose, and a bad cough, with overall achieness. I really didn't want to share the wealth with someone trying to heal a broken back. So once I'm no longer coughing/sneezing/sniffling, I'll come over and visit for a while. You'll probably be back at the bike shop by then, so maybe I'll visit there.

Anywho, I don't think I'll be up for any long rides this weekend since I'll still be hacking up a lung occasionally and the humid air does not do my gunk filled chest any favors. So that's my update. I'm back to reality, but in a cold-fog induced state.

Weekend Plans...

So, its only Tuesday but I want to get the banter going for the weekend early.

Saturday:
I am not going to the MTB race on Saturday so my first choice would be to do a (somewhat) abbreviated version of the metro singletrack tour and ride at a pretty spirited pace to do it. Second choice would be a spirited road ride. Not married to the two ideas above so if there are alternate ideas out there, throw them out there and we'll see what sticks! I know there's a MTB race at Ponca but I need a longer day than that so I'm going to sit it out.

Sunday:
Trek's Ride the Best tour is coming to Lake Manawa, hopefully it'll be dry and a great chance to demo both some road and off-road Trek branded machines. Could be a good day to meet at Crane head over to Manawa, ride some bikes for a couple hours then head back west. The other option would simply be to show up over there and ride for a few hours on test rigs.

Gonna be pretty nice weather, we should all take advantage of it.

-Mike

June? With this weather?

Current weather forecasts - 70s for highs, 50s for lows, mild winds, some random storms possible.

IN JUNE.

What I'm used to in June - 80s with humidity and 20-30 mph South winds.

I'm not complaining, but it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the Summer pans out.

Shabbos - people are racing and I'm registering - for our wedding that is. JCPenny will be the place and I'm guessing we'll be spending most of the day there Saturday to get it all done.

Shabbos +1 - Meet at Crane at 7am on mtbs unless you want an easy paced short jaunt with Bob. He's taking it easy to mend his knee and Mr. Miles and I will be on mtbs. We'll depart from Crane as soon after 7am as everyone's ready, head South on the Keystone at a leisurely pace. Then once we get to Cornhusker, I believe Bob will turn around and Mr. Miles and I will jaunt over to Swanson and get a few laps in, then we'll ride back to Crane.

That's the plan.

EDIT: Here's the change in plans:

Road bikes. With all the rain we got yesterday and semi-cloudy cool conditions today, Swanson is probably iffy to ride. So we'll all ride road bikes and have a nice easy jaunt. Not sure where or how long, but we'll figure that out when we meet at Crane at 7am.

Maybe it was the coffee and tailwind.

Recently my rides have been consisting of: short commutes to and from full time job, medium commutes to and from part time job, and 1 or 2 long rides on the weekend. Do I now qualify as a weekend warrior? Who knows.

Anywho, after reading the adventures of Mr. Cronin with these guys, I decided to build up a gravel monster ride(this frame, but roadish parts) for the Shabbos +1 we did last Sunday. I figured it'd be nice on gravel to have a more upright position, so I used a short, steep stem. After some tinkering at the beginning of the ride, I had a real comfy position. Mr, Miles, who was in attendance, mentioned that I was riding rather strong. I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't done a long ride in quite a while so I had fresh legs, but I did feel quite plucky during the ride. I rode the gravel monster to work Monday and Tuesday, but then switched back over to my race machine yesterday. The aggressive lowered-stem position of the roadie just didn't feel right, especially standing up to sprint/climb. So I real quick switched the stem to the upright position for the ride between UNMC and High Gear in the afternoon. I WAS FLYING!! I felt more comfortable and stronger on that bike than I had for a long time. Granted, a couple hours before I had just downed an Italiano from the local Charbucks kiosk (espresso shot mixed with coffee), and I had a decent cross/tail wind.... But man I felt good.

Well it must have been the coffee and tailwind. Cause on the ride home into a slight headwind, I was nowhere near as strong. I felt comfy... until my rib muscles did a weird spasm thing a half mile from home. It was kinda like a side-ache like you get when you swim right after eating, but more like only when I breathed all the air out of my lungs. It reminded me of the crash I had in Norfolk a few years ago. Very weird.

So I like the more upright position cause I think I'm not as flexible as I used to be. And I surely don't have the core strength needed to comfortably lean over in an aero/aggressive position for hours on end. I also have been contemplating a near complete cleaning out of my bike stable. I've been working for a few years on finding the "perfect" commuter bike. Guess what I figured out? Any bike can be a perfect commuter bike. And it only took me 3 bikes to figure that out. I've said to myself after each one was done, "I've made a huge mistake." But yet I went back for more....such is the life of a bike tinkerer.

Bikes are meant to be ridden in all kinds of weather, on all kinds of terrain. If the Lincoln/Rapha guys can ride road bikes for 150 miles on gravel, so should I. Sure, some bikes are better suited to certain conditions than others. Being that the majority of my riding is on road, that's probably what my bike should tailor to. So I think I'm going to sell my commuters and just have one roadish and one mtb bike. Once parts fail on my roadie, then I'll replace with parts that are more geared toward my current riding needs. I'll run my current Bonty Race X-lite wheels into the ground and replace with something similar to these. Simple, strong, lightweight. I have no idea how long my Lemond Frame is going to last, but I do really like the Rapha guys take on bikes. A well built lightweight steel frame will replace the aluminum Lemond I current use. That's probably not going to happen for quite a few years since Lemonds are/were good bikes. So hopefully I'll be way more out of debt by the time that happens and I can actually "afford" to go for a custom hand build steel ride. Hey, maybe by then, War Axe bikes will be up and running and I can support some great local guys.

And that's enough rambling and linking for today, campers. Have a good one!

One of the funniest vids evar

Stolen from Syd's blog. Thanks Syd and good luck at Nature Valley!

Shabbos +1

Gravel time.

7am is leaving time at Crane on 78th and Cass.  Get there early for wakey juice.

We'll head North out of town, and hit a gravel road I've never seen, so no promises.  

I'll be on a gravel bike, Mr. Miles is bringing his mtb, so no mashing - just easy riding.

Done.

Post em if ya got em.

I know quite a few peeps are heading up to Norfolk for the races up there. So anyone left in Omaha who want's to go on a ride, let me know. I have found from last week's group ride, of which I was too lazy to do a write up on, that my current limit on the bike is about 60 miles. That's pretty sad. Granted, we were going pretty hard, so at an easier pace, I would probably be able to handle 70 to 80 miles.

After reading a few Lincoln blogs, I kinda have a hankering for gravel. There's a couple familiar routes to the South, but one North/West route that I've never been on. I may go splorin' by myself if no one can join. Saturday would have to be an early ride, and Sunday could be anytime. Looking at the weather, we'll probably get rain overnight tonight, and again overnight on Saturday, but hopefully the daytime will be good.

Post a comment if you have some ideas.

I have a very important announcement to make..

CANNONBALL!!!!

Just kidding.  They've done studies, you know.  60% of the time, it works every time.

Ok, in all serialness, here's an interesting article.  I'm sure most of you, my readers, know this already, but I figured I'd show that they have actually done studies.  You know.

Formal emails have been sent.

I have sent out my formal email asking peeps for their home addresses so I can send out invites for my wedding celebration.  If you did not get an email, get back to me so I can send you an email, so you can send me and email about your home address.  (Does that make any sense?)  You can contact me at cyclery88 at the gmail email.

Shabbos +1

Time: 7 a.m.
Distance: 3-4 hours
Rallying point: TBD
Pace: I make no promises

More information to come.

This bike is HAWT!

Cinelli XCr.

Pure hawtness in my book.

Meh...

I gots nothin.  I work most the day Saturday (time and a half, baby!!), then on Sunday early AM, I'm volunteering for the Papillion half marathon.  It'll be a wild time of riding 13 mph back and forth along the course.

If my rear's not sore from sitting on my bike for a few hours, I may be up for an afternoon ride on Sunday.  

Meh....

I'll be watching golf, but ...

I thought you might want to know that NBC's Universal Sport channel will be broadcasting the Giro - Starting tomorrow at 7:30. Uh that's channel 120 on cox. Or 6.2 if you have Rabbit Ears and a digital Television.

It's that time again.

Weekends here.  I'm tired.  I just started working the early shift at the full time job (6am to 3pm) and added on a part time job building bikes 2 days a week (4pm to 8pm).  Coffee is being taken intraveniously.

Saturday - I'm oot.  I'm on call till 12:30pm, then I have a wedding planning lunch to go to.*  I know some peeps are going to Platte River SP for the mtb race, which is an awesome idea.  Great trails there.  Others will probably join the local shops group ride.  If any of you followers of my blog (all 3 of you) want to plan something for Saturday am, post in the comments.

Sunday - the ride plans are: Crane coffee at 78th and Cass at 9:30am.  Show up early if you want to partake in some wakey juice.  I know I will.  We'll ride for a few hours, nothing fast pace, just base mileage type stuff.

*wedding plans - Yup I'm gettin hitched.  It's only taken Michelle and me 18 years to get around to it.  The date of our "going to the courthouse" is Friday, July 10th.  The date of the, "We finally did it" celebration is Sunday, July 12th from 2pm to 6pm(actual time may vary) at Elmwood park Pavillion.  I know there's a race that day, but we'll have plenty of food to refuel with so drop in and get your grub on.  It's not formal at all - there'll be background music and food.  Come in your shorts and stinky jersey if you want.  That's just how we roll.

Weekend review.

Saturday - The River City Shootout MTB race at Swanson was great.  I officiated to the best of my abilities and most seemed pretty happy with the race day overall.  I tried to be as quick with results as possible, but that's tough when your hopped up on caffeine and really needing lunch.  Overall, it was a good time.

Sunday - easy ride with Randall in the AM.  Did a couple hours and got 34 miles in.  I was 6 miles short of winning one of my Plus3 Network challenges.  So I rode to the store to by cat food and stopped by the Trek store too.  I will be the proud owner of some Ritchey Socks and, after June, have my name in a drawing for a Ritchey Stem.   If you have a Garmin on your bike, and/or just want to donate to a cause by riding your bike, check out the Plus3 site.  I've raised $50 for Rails to Trails Conservancy just by commuting and riding around.  Pretty sweet deal.

Racers I know - Well there were a ton of people at the MTB race that I wish I could have talked to more, but I was officiating.  So I had to talk when I could, but keep my focus on the race.  There were some Lincoln and Omaha guys that did the TI 5 - Um, anyone that even looked at the starting line of this race has the right to use the term EPIC!  

Mid 30s? - 2 other racers, Syd Brown and Aaron Pool did a wee race called Tour of Gila.  You know, the one that Lance, Levi, Horner, Kristen Armstrong, and all the fastest racers in America did?  Yeah well, Pool ended up 35th (out of 180 starting PROS!!!) and Syd finished 36th!!!  All I gotta say is - Nebraska's got talent.  Great job you two.

I start work building bikes at HighGear on Tuesday.  So it'll be nice to have some extra income, but my riding will suffer.  Well actually, I'll probably be riding more now since I'll be riding from my daytime job, to the part time that's 10 miles away.  So maybe my weekly mileage will go up.  I need the miles.

English racer?

As I was taking my bike into our office, an Environmental Services gentleman stopped in the hall when he saw my bike and said, "Ah nice, an English racer."  So I stopped and chatted with him a bit.  I guess he called it an English racer because it has skinny tires, chrome fenders, and drop handlebars.  He had a Mongoose.  He was happy to report that after switching to hybrid tires, his ride was much easier, but probably not as fast as my bike.  I said, "Hey, as long as you're having fun, that's all that matters."

This weekend: I may be up for an early Shabbos ride.  It depends on the trail conditions.  "What's that?" you say?  Why would mountain bike trails have an effect on a road ride?  Well I'm officiating for this weekend's Psycowpath River City Shootout at Swanson park.  If the trail is too muddy after today's rain, they will postpone the race till Sunday.  Unfortunately, that call will be made tonight sometime.  So I won't know about the weekend's plans till.......well, this weekend.

If the race is tomorrow, I'd like to ride on Sunday in the afternoon.  Or in the morning.  Whenever.

If the race is Sunday, I'd like to be done with the Saturday ride earlier in the day - by about noon?

My thoughts on the Metro SIngle Track Tour.

Epically epicness of all that is epic!!!!

Ok, it wasn't that bad.  Never mind that I hadn't been on a mtb since August.  Never mind that the last time I did more than 60 miles was back during Crank N Camp in November.  Never mind that we changed a flat in the cold rain, outran a train (ok so maybe it was only moving at .5 mph and a guy was standing there telling us we could go around it), or did a total of 80 miles, 4 different trails, and finished up the ride on the Keystone going north directly in to a heavy, rainy, 15-20 mph wind.

But it was all fun.  Today was the kind of ride where, after you're done and sitting in the shower going on half an hour (10 minutes past total prune status), you contemplate if they'll ever create time travel.  If it ever came to be, the only thing you'd want to do is go back and give the person who created hot showers a hundred dollar bill.  Cause you know, that would've been like a billion dollars back in their days.

I met up with Ryan F at Crane, had some wakey juice, then we scooted up to Tranquility.  We met up with Mr. Miles and Dale.  I was already falling off these guys cause, well I'm not that stellar at bike handling.  I'm good enough to go at normal mtbers easy pace.  But as soon as they start picking it up, I'm left fanagaling the technical stuff.  Even when Dale goes on his fixie 32tx16(?), I can't keep up.  Sigh.  I'll get better with practice.

So after Tranquility, Dale bid us farewell so we could travel at people-with-gears pace.  As we yammered about all staying together, he stopped us with, "If you wait up for me, I'll stop."  Oh.  Ok.  So that decided that.  So Mike, Ryan and I headed downtown, over the BK Bridge, and up North to Lewis n Clark.  I had forgotten how hilly that place was!  It felt like you were going up hill all the time.  Also, it was on this trail that I figured out that changing the chain did not help my skipping issue.  So maybe I need a new cassette.  Worse still, it could be a freehub issue.  In the latter case, I'm not sure what I could do as I think that would be a pretty expensive repair.

Anyway, as we were just leaving LnC, Dale was just arriving.  We all said "hi," in passing and us 3 guys were headed Southbound to Manawa.  After a quick stop for water refill, we got to the trail and I started slowing way down.  My back really started to feel the different position, the wider foot stance, and the jarring of the trail.  I was watching Ryan and Mike go up the trail, threading through the trees like it was nothing, and I thought to myself, "Man it'd be nice to have a full suspension 26er."  I have a fully rigid 29er and I was feeling it.  My pressure was down to the low 20s, but still, at this point in the ride, I was needing a break. 

So break we did.  We stopped at the Caseys general store right North of Manawa and at some Pizza and guzzled soda.  MMMMMMmmm. Perfect refuel stuff.  After a quick trip over the South O Bridge and some getting wetter rain, we did our final stop at Swanson.  We cut out Jewell since I complained enough and we really didn't need to head any farther South since the North wind was going to kick our butts pretty good.  Plus I'm glad we did that since by the time we would've gotten to Swanson after Jewell, the trail would've probably been un-rideable.  So our lap was not bad, but still really slow to normal standards.  This is where Ryan got his flat.  He got that changed in time before we complained too much about getting cold. 

Then was our slog into the rain spittling wind.  Ugh.  I was pretty toasted by this point so maintaining 15mph was not going very well.  Ryan was apparetly in great shape since he had to keep looking back and sitting up after pulling away from us.  Glad you're riding that strong buddy.  Give em hell this year at the races.

So after getting cleaned up and not so pruney, I'm feeling pretty good now.  And by good, I mean ready for a nap.  

The weekend.

Metro Single Track Tour.  Epicly fun fat tire adventure all day Saturday.

On the mountain bike: new chain? Check.  Old front derailleur to act as chain catcher for my 1x9 setup?  Check.  New upright position to make for more comfortable ride?  Check.

Bad weather forecast that could possibly cancel the whole thing? Check.

Crap.

I'm hoping the 50% chance of thunderstorms ends up changing to 0%, but we'll see.

Sunday is also looking iffy.  It is Spring and we do need the moisture, but why can't it happen during the week over nights when it won't ruin anyone's plans?  Come on, Mother Nature! Get with the program!

Catch me ridin durtay

I rode my mountain bike to work today.  I have mixed feelings about mtb.  I love riding in the trees where the wind won't bug you, but I don't like getting to and from the trails.  Have you noticed that most mtbers drive to the trail?  The main reason is a mountain bike is way inefficient on paved surfaces compared to a roadie.  It'll get you there, but you're probably going to work pretty hard before your ride is supposed to even start.

When I first got into mtb, I was super fit from racing.  So I hopped on my single speed mtb, whirlied my cranks down to the trail, did a few laps, then whirlied home.  I don't have that kind of endurance now.  Or strength.

I really like the single speed for trails, but it takes quite a bit of strength to punch it up those short steep bumps.  Jewell park is near impossible for me on the single speed, but all other trails are doable.  Like I said though, as my training/racing went away, so did my strength and endurance.  Last year I found myself driving to the trail head, riding a couple laps, then driving my sore, beat-up body home.

Well now I get to learn it all over again.  I just setup my mountain bike as a 1x9.  So I have a 34t chainring and a regular 11-34 cassette in the rear.  Plenty of choices to get me going on the roads and also not have to use my entire body to get a single gear over some steep stuff on the trail.  We'll see how that all works out.  I already made a mis-shift this morning on the way to work.  Right after a stop light turned green, I tried to push a pretty big gear, but instead, my chain popped off.  Crap.  So I moseyed over to the curb.  Nothing was broken, but I guess I can't punch it like I do on my roadie or when my mountain bike was setup as a single speed.  Very interesting.

In other news; please donate thoughts, prayers, money, bike parts, good luck, bandages, or skin to Bryan. He's had a couple of rough months so he could use any help possible.  Cause that's what friends are for.

And here's Ollie with the weather report...

IT'S GONE RAIN!

Thanks Ollie.

So Saturday is looking pretty crappy weather wise and I need to do some spring cleaning.  So Saturday is out for riding.

Shabbos +1: couple options here.  Meet at the Bike Masters Century by 8 am and ride some or all of it?  Meet at Crane at 7am for some wakey juice then ride out to the Century and do some or all of it?  Or, meet somewhere sometime and ride someways?

Please respond with your availability and we'll decide by Saturday what the plans are.