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.