The case for following traffic rules.

There are some cyclists who feel bending or out right breaking traffic laws are just fine since, while riding a bike, you are not an automobile. I heard from fellow bike builder CT Thongklin that last Saturday night's OWL ride was a good time, but saw a few motorists frustration as some cyclists blew past them at stop lights. You could say the owl ride brought out a lot of new cyclists, but I'm sure if you ask around among the more experienced cyclists, there's a few scofflaws out there.

Yesterday, I was reminded of why us cyclists need to follow traffic laws both out of safety and wholesome courtesy. I just left the bike warehouse which is located in Papillion. It was dusk, so I wanted to hurry home to avoid the dark. I rode through the neighborhoods like I always do. This one particular stretch involved taking a wide swooping right hander, descending down a smooth road to a stop sign at the bottom of the hill. As I descended, I did hear a car coming up to me, so I sped up slightly since I was a block from the stop sign and didn't want the "impatient car swerving around me to get to the next stop" scenario.

Like every time I come to this stop sign, I come to a complete stop and look both ways. The car that was following me came to a lurching stop behind me. I did a slight glance back just to let them know I knew they were there and impatient, however, I didn't actually see that car. I continued on around the bend of the road and signaled the left hand turn I was going to make since the car was following me, but not right on my tail. I started the climb out of this little valley, still wary of the car that was a block behind me. This was a narrow road with cars parked along one side, so at least this car was nice enough to wait till I could get over before it passed me.

As it passed, I found out why it was on my tail at the stop sign - it was a police car. Had I not come to a stop at that stop sign, my guess is he would have ran the lights and whooped his siren to pull me over. And I would have deserved the ticket for blatantly ignoring the law.

So to all you who are on the fence about whether bikes should follow traffic laws or not, I would highly recommend it.

Shabbos + X

where ((X > 1) && (X <= 6) && (rain == 0)); // Hey, it compiles.

Start Time 4:45 A.M.
Starting point: My driveway

End Time 6:15 A.M.
Ending point: My driveway

Route: Whatever. Rosenblatt is often in the mix.

Saturday, Sunny Saturday?

*Edited and now with finalized time.*

Guess what time it is, kiddies?

It's Shabbos Ride time!!!! (That's Saturday for anyone knot in the now.)

The ride: Wabash Trace Trail from CB to Shenandoah and back.

Distance: 44.4 each way, so total of 88.8 miles

Leave time: 1pm is departure time from the CB trailhead.

Pace: steady gravel grinder - Not too fast, not too slow.

Plan on eating maybe at Shenandoah, but definitely ice cream at Malvern(?) on the way back.

DOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIT!!!!!

Observed Independence Day Morning Ride

Edit: by Fourth of July, I meant its observed holiday, Monday July 5th.

Roll call for an early Independence Day observed holiday ride. All are welcome.

Route: Forecast calls for winds to be light (5-10 mph) out of the Northeast. Perhaps Mod's route through Crescent, IA will be the way we go. Plan on around 60 miles.

Time: 7:00 AM

Meet: Crane Coffee at 76th and Cass

Pace will be easy with a few up-tempos if we're feeling our oats. Afterward, we could crash Fred Hinsley's neighborhood bike parade. 'Roll with Jack and Abe (and Fred).

Decorate your bike accordingly.

I can't wait for July.

At work, we've been experimenting with 4 ten hour day weeks. It sounds nice on paper with the whole 3 day weekends and all, but in actuality, your extra day off is pretty much just playing catch up with what you couldn't do during the week.

Which, as a cyclist needing to put in consistent miles throughout the week to even be considered a "cyclist," doesn't work very well. It's not like I can ride 8 hours on the Monday I have off to make up for the few 1-2 hour rides I'd put in during the week. I can't even remember the last time I rode for 3-4 hours let alone 8. It's been at least a month since I've done any real "bike practice" as Jesse Lalonde calls it. Since I'm more of a social biker, and there's been races or family happenings, I've missed the calling out for Shabbos rides.

But in July, that will hopefully change. We're going back to regular work hours and my schedule is 7am to 4pm so I'll have my afternoons back. A couple of those days will be spent at the warehouse building bikes for The Man. Man, if I didn't have that part time job, I wouldn't be putting a dent in my debt since I'd be buying bike stuff to tinker around with. It's very therapeutic going there, listening to music and wrenching on bikes. I don't get paid a bunch, but it definitely keeps me sane. Then the days I don't build bikes, I'm going to try some bike practice again. I miss being in shape. Walking up stairs should not make me winded...

So I think I'm going to jump the gun here and call out a Shabbos ride early. Make that Shabbos +1. I'd be fine doing an early morning before the heat ride, or an afternoon scorcher ride. But I'm probably not in for 60+ miles. 40-50 miles would be pushing it for me nowadays. Gotta work back up there. Respond if you have a preference and if I don't hear much by Friday, I'll make an executive decision and post the official Shabbos +1 ride plans at my discretion.

That is all.

Bleeding for the cycling gods.

Two fellow cyclists have recently appeased the cycling gods by donating flesh/jersey/shorts/pride on recent rides. Heal up quickly fellas.

I fought gravity and lost a couple months back on a mtb ride. My shoulder has given me some problems since then, but it comes and goes.

So hopefully enough sacrifice has been given so all riders in Nebraska can be safe the rest of the year. Hopefully.

Gravel Worlds is open for more registrants. I like the idea of doing this ride, but I should probably start some training, being that as it's just 2 months away, eh? My work schedule is all kinds of crazy, plus having the part time job means that any sort of consistency is lacking. Life was way simpler when I had a routine of work on a set schedule year round. Oh well, debt is coming down slowly. I'll get there. In a couple years...

Quality family time.

Not much to report from my end of things. Miles and I got a good 3-ish hour ride on Saturday then I spent the rest of the weekend with the family. On Sunday we had brunch at Amatto's restaurant, then took a quick gander at the new Aksarben Farmer's Market. Holy shamoly that was awesome. The wife and I will be spending many more Sunday mornings there in the future.

It was nice having all of my family together for some quality time. I didn't get as much riding in as many others had, but riding can happen any time, full family time, not so much.

....the real culprit is laziness

I just liked that title so that's what I'm going with. I don't think this weekend's going to be about much laziness.

Saturday: I've got 4 hours on tap with intervals that some of y'all will scoff at and say something like 'merely recovery pace for me'. I could be convinced to do them on gravel, but road or gravel would work out fine with me.

Sunday: This may be where the laziness could come into play. Bacon ride from Wohlner's @ 6 (right Rafal?) Sorry Jeremy and Brady, bacon is calling my name.

Monday: Somebody fill in the blank here, its an off day for me but I could probably be convinced to go for a coffee ride or something.

So that's it.

Sunday

MOD you leaving from Wohlner's @ 10AM? Anyone got ride plans? I'll be back strung out from travel and sort of a rough 3 weeks and looking to ride. I may get beat up riding with y'all but it'll be fun.

So if you got ride plans, post up.

Watch this whole thing.

Absolute hilarity at 8:50.

Put This On, Episode 2: Shoes from Put This On on Vimeo.

I smell cheap foamy bar tape.

That's what I kept telling Mr. Miles on our 65 miler on Saturday. He couldn't smell it at all. Hm?

We started at his place, SW Omaha, and headed out toward Linoma and Ashland. We dipped South to cross the interstate, then headed into the head wind on Church road and had a ton o fun on some minimum maintenance roads that weren't quite dry. After lots of mud scraping (I rolled 28c tires on my roadie and Miles had his full squish mtb) we got going again and meandered home. The ride had been about 60-ish% gravel, so it was a bunch of fun. The gravel was large and chunky in places, but we both fared well, with no biffs aside from the MMR mud bog that caught Miles off-guard.

Miles mentioned that he thought I was riding strong. Well, here's a couple counter arguments - 1. I was riding an 18 lb roadie compared to his lower 20s full squish bike, so I was way more efficient on hills and such, and 2. I used the power of the pre-cold to get me going.

I now have some sort of cold or allergies going on. My throat is scratchy (like it used to feel when I would get Strep throat every year) and my nose is running. I'm generally achy all over, but there's a chance the ride could have caused that. So cold or allergies - take your pick, I got one of them. I've never really had allergies before, but maybe my smelling some weird scent in the air most of the ride was some sort of pollen that my body didn't like. Who knows?

Sunday was spent mostly on the couch since I felt like crap. I'm only slightly better now at work, so I may head home early and just sleep more to hopefully knock out whatever this is ASAP.

Shabbos +1

Looking like a 10 a.m. or so start time. Starting out west, probably heading south.

Jeremy and I are in so far. We've made basically no plans other than this. Chime in.

Or don't. Either way.

UPDATE: 11 a.m. at Bike Masters. 3 hours. Parts west and south will be charted.

Not much to report

Haven't been riding much - just between jobs and that's about it.

This weekend, on Saturday to be precise, Mr. Miles(end of the post) is hosting a ride from his house. Gravel, 10am start from 180th & Q, 4 hours.

No plans for Sunday yet. Post em if ya got em!

Unforeseen Circumstances

Guys, I'm out for the weekend. Munson I'm sorry. I'll be back in town next week.

Mike Miles.

Weekend 4/10-4/11

So it is Monday. 5 days removed from the weekend mentioned above. But here's the plan.

Saturday: 5 hours of Gravel from my house (180th and Q) post up if you need directions. 10 AM start. The pace will be reasonable, we won't be pinning it. If drilling it is your goal for Saturday go elsewhere, I'm serious. I don't want a 5 hour hammerfest that detroys everybody but one or two of us. Nobody will get dropped for long, if it breaks apart we'll regroup and continue. I need a good solid day but its not a day for slaying my riding companions... at least not with intensity.

Bring some cash, we're going to find some food along the route, because I like to eat lunch.

Sunday: 3 hours @ Platte River State Park @ 9 AM. Why? Because I need 3 hours of solid mountain bike skills practice. Once again, nothing crazy but we can let it hang out if we get towards hour 2 and have something left in the tank. Besides its a loop, we can't 'lose' each other under such a scenario.

I think that's it. All of y'all going to Twin Bing... enjoy it but its not in the cards for me this week. I'll be out @ Tour de Husker next week.

That is all. Except for a shameless plug for my blog... check out mikemilesii.blogspot.com for some entertainment daily.

Mmmm Tasty dirt.

Well, dirt's only tasty when you ride on it well. And I was riding well till I ate it. Not that hard, but I still ate it.

Here's a recipe for a fantastic Monday: do a ton of physical work (sawing, hammering, hoisting things, and moving heavy stuff) on Friday and Saturday to complete your garage bike workshop. Then on Sunday, get up, go ride your mtb bike and crash hard. I tweaked my left calf muscle trying to unclip, my left hip is pretty bruised up, my left elbow has some skin missing, and my entire left shoulder area hurts. Guess you figured out that I landed on my left side. Had I been able to unclip, I might have did a little tuck and roll maneuver, but alas, I just let my left side take the brunt of it.

It's weird, cause pretty much all the crashing I've done on the bike have been left hand turns. I've had this same kinda crash twice on my mtb - I think I don't lean enough and just turn the handlebar, causing the front wheel to slide out. Then on the road, the crash in Fayetteville, AR that knocked me out for a while was on a left hand turn; a crash at a Norfolk crit was a left hander(though not my fault, I couldn't avoid the tumbling bikes/bodies in front of me); and a LONG time ago, I crashed on my left side and seriously hurt my wrist. That last one happened near the end of a season with only the Omaha Corporate Cycling Challenge ride left in the season. So I showed up to the start anyway with a brace around my wrist and of course Shim had to make a guess as to how I injured my wrist. His suggestion had nothing to do with biking. I'll let you fill in the blank...

So I don't know what's up with me and left hand turns. I better not get into NASCAR or anything.

This month I'm back to working early days - 6am to 3pm. So once I heal up from this weekend's adventures, I'll probably join some of the group rides.

I rode my bike this morning before work.

Just to ride. No destination. No point a to point b. No group plans were involved either.

I just put on my cycling clothes and hit the Keystone for an hour. I did some sprints. It felt awesome. Well the first few did. The last few, not so much. I haven't really done a solo ride for quite some time. It was very refreshing.

I'm also going to try something different, or rather, retry something old. I've been using Shimano touring shoes for about a year or so now and I love that you can walk around semi-normally and not sound like a lady in high heels. They are not the stiffest shoes and I got them a size too big so I could wear them in the winter with a few wool socks for warmth.

I went old school this morning. I dug out my old 2002(3?) Sidi Genius shoes. These things fit like a glove and are stiff enough for racing. They are kinda snug on my feet since I bought them before I knew what I was doing in cycling, but snug is not such a bad thing when you're sprinting. The other noticeable difference between these and my Shimanos is the cleat is a bit more forward, even though it's as far back as it can go on the shoe. On my Shimano's I have the cleat pretty far back - like almost a centimeter behind my forefoot. I did this as a result of reading various places that doing so might alleviate toe numbness. I've always had toe numbness problems, so I gave it a try. It felt like a completely different, more powerful pedaling position, so I stuck with it.

Well, after this morning's jaunt with cleats more forward, I'm switching back to that position. I don't know if I was using very different muscles because of the change, but I felt snappier with my pedaling. It's hard to explain, but I'll give this a try for a while and if it doesn't work out, I'll switch shoes again.

So what the heck am I even blabbering about? Uh, I don't know. I guess sometimes you gotta go backwards to go forwards.

Edit: After watching the rides of these guys, I have new motivation to get out there. Watch all the short videos along the right hand side to get some amazing views of our country. And you may recognize from this vid a couple guys who ride/blog locally.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I kept repeating that phrase in my head as I watched all but 1 other guy from our Sunday ride pedal away from me. Multiple times.

I was never really that mighty, but in my hay day, I was usually top 10 at the races in our state. Sunday, I was utterly done after just an hour and a half. Problem was, we still had 3 hours to go. My legs had no more "go" halfway through the ride.

I know it's a lack of consistent riding and the extra 15-20 lbs I'm carrying around. It still doesn't sit well with me. Speaking of weight, you ever notice that you don't really acknowledge the pounds you need to lose until you see a picture of yourself wearing not very flattering clothing? This picture taken by Mod made my mind blurt out - "Damn, I got a fat ass!!"(I'm in the middle wearing a white/orange jersey) So, I need to work on that. I mean, 15-20 lbs is basically a 2nd bike. So I'm riding while carrying a 2nd bike on my back. Not very helpful when trying to go fast.

I guess I shouldn't be sipping on this soda then.... DOH!!

Yay commuter intervals

I'd never experienced the "bike ninja" scare before this morning. As I was groggily riding in the dark near the old Chili Greens golf course (simmer down, Fred), I could barely focus on what my light was illuminating 10 feet in front of me.

I looked to my left at the first signs of the sun undarkening the horizon and WHOOSH, some person on a bike with no lights flies right by me in the opposite direction. That woke me up better than most cups of coffee.

After I shook off the fear that the bike ninja was coming around for another buzz, I decided to put in some effort - ie do what they call an "interval." I picked up the pace till I was breathing faster than normal and held that effort till I hit an area that had many stops/starts. I pedaled lightly for a while, then on the next notable climb, I raised my effort again and continued after the climb for a while.

After the easy spin into the part time job and the subsequent bike builds, I had a formidable headwind to deal with on my way toward my full time job. The wind had a pretty chilly bite to it, so I used the direct headwind sections as recovery and went fast on the crosswind lengths. Nothing feels worse than going all out at 15mph into a headwind. It seriously messes with your mind.

I am happy to report after the longer ride this weekend and the harder efforts in commuting I've lost 5 lbs in a mere week. I imagine some of that is probably water weight, but at least I know now that if I put in the work, I can turn things around.

This weekend is looking iffy-ish. At least Saturday is not ride-worthy, in my opinion. Sunday will be cool with a Northish wind, so back up to Blair/Arlington/Canada we go. Of course I'll always agree to starting out at Wohlners at 10am, but if we want to meet somewhere else, I'm cool with that too.

Do the Cranky Leg...

So apparently there's a newish dance craze called the Stanky Legg(watch at own risk of bad music).

After today's 65 miler I have my own dance - the Cranky Leg. Basically, you hobble around since your leg muscles are twitching and continuously threatening to cramp up.

Met Mr. Miles, Jeremy, Mod, and Rafal at Wohlners to start the day. Rode North on the trail to meet up with Bryan. We took the hilliest route available to the NorthWest. Thanks Bryan.

Mod and Bryan were pushing the pace and feeling good while Miles and Jeremy had previous day's workouts hindering their freshness. Rafal kept up great when he wanted to. You can never tell when he's feeling bad since it has to get epically serious before he looses his cheerfulness. Always a great riding comrade. I have no excuse. I haven't been riding and that's my own fault. But my one goal for the year is in August so I have plenty of time to work up to it. And I've already gone almost have that distance and I didn't die, surprisingly. And knowing is half the battle - G I Joe!!!

So I plan to become a more frequent attendee on the weekend rides. That and the mad 30 minute dashes between my 2 jobs should get me in decent enough shape.

With this forecast...

...I'm glad I'm a little fat right now.

I think I'll need the insulation come the weekend. Snow/Rain on Saturday and pretty dismal temps forecast for Sunday.

Who's racing Saturday (if its raining, not me) and who wants to put in a nice ride Sunday. Don't think I am wanting to do another 100 with Mod, but I'd probably be game for 3-4 hours. Maybe we can plan it so there's a coffee stop in the middle. We'll likely need it. I don't necessarily mean its gotta be a chill, recovery ride type of thing, just something in the middle that has decent coffee and maybe a pastry.

Post up any thoughts. I'll do some figuring and try to come up with some kind of route myself. Maybe something different... I'd like to say we can go to Iowa for the hills but I'm not sure we can fill the coffee requirement in that scenario.

Mod had talked about starting a firm ride start time/loc on Sat or Sat and Sun so maybe he can chime in here.

Alas, I won't be yelling at any of you this season.

With working full time at UNMC and doing part time at the bike shop building bikes, I need some me time. So this year, I won't be at the races officiating. No more yelling at riders to respect the yellow line, and no more frantic race results postings.

I'd recommend giving officiating a try, but expect to have an experience like this one:



It happens, trust me.

Instead, this year I hope to actually ride some weekends and maybe participate (unofficially) in the GLGA. But I have plenty of building up to do just so I can finish the event. Should be fun though.

Missing the PCL today

But I've got my own plan for Sunday.

The Route:
http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ne/omaha/172126822930294091

100 miles with one opt out in Missouri Valley if your legs are cranky. Be prepared for a 100 yards of gravel into Ft. Calhoun, 23c's will be fine.

The Start:
Wohlners, Aksarben Village, 10am

The Conditions:
As of 7:30am Saturday...Areas of drizzle before noon. Areas of fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 45. North northwest wind between 10 and 14 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Weekend 3/13-3/14

Ride plans?

Discuss.

All this talk of Embrocation

Pardaig says it all here

I rode with people instead of cars

This weekend was my first group ride since the beginning of January. I think that was my last really long day in the saddle too. The result - a nice saddle sore for my efforts.

On Saturday I met up with a few folks at Bike Masters to test my legs. And tested they were. I kept up ok at the beginning, but by the end I was keeping a slow tempo in hopes to save myself the the next days ride and to ride with another fellow struggler. We were off the back of Puma, Ryan F, and Mr. Miles (who has a new blog - YAY!!). We chatted and just limped home, but that was fine.

I was planning on doing a Sunday ride, but the aforementioned saddle sore and other house work kept me away.

It's in the Fricken Forties this week Mr. Bigglesworth!! After so much time spent in the 20s, the warm weather just feels weird. I have to figure out how to dress while riding all over again. Mod had some interesting perspective on embrocation. I think it sounds like a great idea, but I believe that stuff is purdy expensive. So if I can find some cheap stuff, I might have to give that a try. On the hands and feet sounds most interesting. Just need to remember to apply chamois cream before embrocation, unless I want to ride really fast.

Weekend

So someday, maybe I'll sign up for a Twitter account but really I don't want to...

Anyhow for now I'll stick to IM's, emails, and blog posts.

Plans for the weekend? Post up lets get something going. Its going to feel like Florida this weekend.

Winter says, "With my last breath..."

"I stab at thee."

And then I yell, "Cry "Havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!!!"

Anyone else in a Star Trek mood? I don't think I've ever been in a Shakespeare mood, but I guess that could count as well.

I swear it was colder this morning than yesterday. My face and legs were so much more frosted than yesterday's record breaking low. How does that happen?

On a related note, I'm not riding my winterized beater anymore. I'm riding my Lemond race bike and IT IS AWESOME!!!! Man how I missed the light stiff ride of my 28C tired, aluminum frame, 5 year old bike. I have no reason at all to get a newer bike. Want would be a reason, but then I'd risk not feeling right on a new bike. My Lemond is the only bike I've felt "just right" on. Ok, enough of me gushing over my old bike. Brady's got his Old Yeller and I have my Old Blue. You're my boy, Blue!!!

Man, I'm just full of movie quotes today.

Low 30s for the highs this weekend. But with low wind and the weather we've been having, it'll feel really good. Any ride plans? At that temp point, my guess is gravel is going to be way too sloppy, so mellow road rides would be nice. If anyone knows of a route that's safe to ride in relation to snow/snow melt/salt/sand and traffic, I'd like to hear it.

"KAAAAAAAAHHHHHHNNNNNN!!!!!"

Mike Miles's Crazy 2010 Nebraska Time Trial Challenge

So, I was looking @ pictures from the Tour of Oman and I really dug the fact that everybody was TT'ing on regular road bikes without crazy aero equipment. Personally, I think such a move should be made in local/regional time trials for everyone outside of the P,1,2 (and maybe 3) ranks. It levels the playing field a lot. I don't think you could advocate folks going back to 32 hole box section rims, but no aerobars, disc wheels, etc could go a long way towards ensuring those in the lower categories have a level playing field without the need for a TT bike and several thousand dollars in wheels, accessories. The article I've linked below kind of quantifies what I'm talking about. 300W for same speed as 230W on a full out TT bike. That's not what I'd call inconsequential.

Article

I'm going to up the ante and say that I'll show up on a regular road bike, with regular wheels and a regular helmet to every Nebraska Time Trial in 2010. Right now the calendar shows 3 of them... I'll also contribute $100.00 to a pot that will given to the top 3 of the best 3 time trials completed in such a fashion. Winner will be chosen based on combined time of the 3 time trials. To be part of the pool you too must throw in $100, though if you think you are a real bad ass you aren't throwing in $100, you are only stealing my (and hopefully others) money. I look @ it like this, if I put this challenge out there it costs me exactly $100, if I do not it costs me 4-6k. Seems like a fairly easy trade even for me. I do love bikes, but I love bikes that have more than limited practical function.

Why do this? Because its awesome, and a lot more fun than going down to the bike store and ordering up $5,000 of speed.

Why $100? Well $100 is enough that it makes this attractive to enter yet at the same time isn't going to make you choose between entering or eating dinner this month. It's also enough that you will break your back (no pun at you Mr. Redemske) to put in good times at the 3 TT's to win it.

Who is this open to? Well I guess anybody that will compete in TT's in Nebraska in 2010... If you are PRO, sure come steal our money if you want, but I'd reckon that most PRO's that will be in Nebraska for 3 TT's will just go for the regular TT category wins and not some wild category that Mike Miles has constructed. If we get more than 10 entrants I'll reconfigure the payouts to go a bit deeper than 3. (Think 30% of the field will get payback).

Rules:
#1)Regular road bike with drop bars
#2) No wheels deeper than 30mm
#3)No Skinsuits
#4) Regular road bike helmets
#5)Entry to the pool requires $100, that will be split among the top 3 (50% to 1st place, 30% to 2nd place, 20% to 3rd place) if there are less than 10 entrants, if more than 10 enter I'll reconfigure the breakout.
#6) Reply to this blog post, email me, or tell me prior to the first time trial of your intention.
#7) There's a bit of gentlemanly honor in this, I'm not going to measure your wheel depth or anything stupid but you'll know if you try to circumvent the rules and when time comes for me to hand out money are you really going to take $ from your friends in a dishonest fashion? If you're that hard up for a little cash, lets talk outside of the challenge.

That's it.

Saturday Gravel ( how did he get access)

First Shim, then MOD then me they let anyone post here... oh well
Anyone up for some gravel Saturday morning? Gravel might be a bit better shape than road conditions. Modified bacon route going to linoma beach light house and maybe stop at springfield gas station on way back. Meet around 10 am at wolhner's parking lot. that should be about 50-60 miles or so. I'm open to other suggestion as well....

So in Summerization

Rides this weekend:

Saturday - Aksarben Village's Wohlners at 10am for a ride to the Loess Hills.
OR - Shim's road route on hwy 66 to Ashland (?) at noon.

Sunday - 1pm gravel ride from Shim's house. (I'll be impressed if this one happens.)

I'm off the bike for the weekend with a tweaked knee. I highly recommend not aging. Not knowing how you injured yourself is more than a little scary.

Oh Snap!

I'm on MITMON!

Is too early to start talking about the weekend? Saturday or Shabbos or whatever you call it here, is looking pretty 'normal'. High of 30, north wind of 10, anyone want to go big on the road? Blair? MoValley? Loess Hills? Let me hear it.

Next Weekend

So it looks like when I go out of town the weekend plans die. I'll be back next weekend and would like to ride. Maybe we can get something set up? Forecast looks iffy but the 7 day's always subject to change. So let's post up any thoughts, dreams, aspirations to carry us through the weekend of 2/6-2/7?

Yesterday was a solid 4 hour slog thru the rain and today's road race was 45 degrees , overcast, with a 20 mph N/NE wind today with 60-70 other like minded cat 4's. Kind of reminded me of Norfolk '09 without the fog/rain but similar temp and wind. So don't think I got off with perfect weather with my temporary escape...

Now I could consider a Mac product.

The new Apple iPad sounds like it's made for me. If I had the expendable money for it. Anywho...

At $500 for the 16 gig model, it fills a gap that has never been successfully done. It's not overkill/way more portable than a laptop, it's not too dinky/annoying like an iPod or iTouch, and it's not an aweful compromise like a netbook. I can see this thing taking out the netbook sales real quick. It's a little more than netbooks for the performance, but that's the way Apple's always been. And it works if the price reflects the usefulness.

Personally, I could never see spending twice as much for an Apple laptop than a Windows based laptop. I did start to change my tune on that when I found out about the Trackpad of the Macbook Pros. Again, a feature that made it worth the extra money.

So anyway, I think this little gizmo is going to do big things. It's a product that makes sense for the common computer user. No wires and it's way more "hands-on" than a keyboard and mouse.

I think I need to get a 3rd job.

Moving and shaking.

I didn't touch the bike this weekend. I take that back - I touched one of my hanging bikes to move it out of the way. I had a 2 stage process of cleaning over the weekend that sort of got done.

Stage 1 - clean out my closets and either throw away/recycle old stuff and then reorganize the remaining stuff for better space savings. I've gone through and found a few things I'd like to sell. Here's the list so far:

-1 Camelback hydration pack similar to this. It's dusty, but fully functional and ready for use.
-1 Platypus Typhoon hydration pack with a 70 oz. Camelback reservoir.
-2 pairs of Shimano bike sandals size 44-ish(I tried real hard to find a matching recumbent)
-1 book - Simon Burney's Cyclocross
-1 bag o' bike clothes - old High Gear jerseys and thermal jersey(medium size), a couple base layers, a hi-viz yellow Pearl Izumi Jacket, etc.

If you or anyone you know is interested in anything listed, let me know. The prices are going to be ridiculously cheap since I mainly want to get rid of it.

The 2nd stage of my cleaning process was to dig out the stuff from the garage that's been stored since we moved into the place. I got through most of it and threw away/donated lots of stuff. I still have to figure out what else I can get rid of or use otherwise.

My main goal is to turn the back of my garage into my bike workshop. Currently, I have bikes hanging in the back next to my stored stuff, my workbench along one wall and my wheels, currently used bike along the other wall. How the wife and I get our CR-V in there without dinging anything, I'll never know. So with enough shuffling(and hopefully selling of stuff), I should be able to fit most everything bike related along the back and part of 1 wall. That would be ideal. I still need to get rid of a couple frames, and figure out if I can make due with just 1 road bike and 1 mountain bike. That would really give me a ton of space. Then I'll just need to figure out how I can sort out my workspace to let me work more efficiently. I need to find some cheap dressers or something like that on craigslist so I can organize all the crap I've gathered over the years.

I guess you could say I'm already yearning for Spring as I'm starting the cleaning thing early.

Fog? What fog?

Now that I'm back in the routine of commuting by bike every day, my mood is much better. When I was taking the bus or getting rides, I was mopey and just angry at the weather. Yet, after my ride in this morning, I was in a great mood and felt healthy. I was talking to my boss about the weather and realized that we've had fog and heavy cloud cover for about 5 days. I think if I wasn't riding nearly every day, I'd be one depressed soul. Yay bike commuting!

Weekend report: Saturday I met up with Sean and Vaughn to head up North for some gravel. After struggling through a couple miles with gunk caught in my fenders, making it feel like I had my brakes partially applied the whole time, I convinced the guys to head back onto asphalt. After this it was smooth sailing. We got far enough NorthWest that we saw the sun. It's out there, just past Elkhorn. So that was about 60 miles of hills and fun. I hadn't been on a long ride for almost a month, so I was kinda sore.

So of course on Sunday I helped shovel a ton of snow, cause that's what you do when you're already sore all over. I loaded up on the caffeine and Aleve and pushed on through (pun intended). It was fun and I got a great upper body workout. It was worth it once a few trail users thanked us. I'm hoping to get up early before I go into work at 11am and hit the Keystone soon. Maybe Thursday - clear some of the area around Nebraska Furniture Mart? Anyone want to join?

Upcoming weekend - I have no plans as of yet, but supposedly it's going to be 48 and rainy on Saturday. That sounds kinda miserable with the rain and all. Plus, since it's a large change in temp, it'll probably be windy, so that's a triple threat. Anyone got any plans for the weekend? Post em if ya got em!

Gravel Conditions

Rode the gravel today (one way), it started out fine, but there were definitely some sloppy spots and they got worse as the day went on. We ended up bailing and riding hwy 370 back from Gretna. On the other hand the roads outside of town were pretty dry. I'll probably try a road ride (cross bike) tomorrow no details at this time. I'll try to post something later if anyone is interested.

Hey guys.

They got this new thing called twitter? I joined up. Whatever you do, don't tweet me.

NO, no. DO NOT tweet me.

And by no means should you "follow" me either.

Seriously.

.....


@MunsonedinOmaha





DON'T DO IT!!!!

Shabbos plans

Sean has a swell idea for a ride that I will be joining. Bring out the cross bikes and meet at Wohlners by 11am to start the ride. Sean, want to add anything else?

Shabbos +1 is still undecided so if you have plans, let them be heard.

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY (use your big monster truck voice when reading this)

Or Shabbos plus one or what ever you MITMON guys call it. The gravel road is calling and the weather looks good enough to break that cabin fever that is bringing you down. This ride promises to be 10 x more exciting then the dribble you'll find on Sweet Home Alhomoha, i.e."I'm in base three, I rode two hours on my trainer in zone 2, blah, blah, blah, zzzzzzzz. Yes, Brian I am calling you out.

Specifics: we'll leave from my house at 1:00 and take the long route, 50ish miles, approximately 4,000' of elevation gain and depending on the group three hours of ride time.

So whose in?

If I can't take the cold...

Do I get out of the freezer?

I haven't ridden my bike to work in over a week. That's kinda baffling to me. I was Mr. dependable commuter to the point where my co-workers are giving me crap for not riding recently.

I know that if I get bundled up and get out there, it won't feel that bad. I just have a little mental block I can't shake. But next week is supposed to be warmer and I'm going to get my bike in order to commute with. No more excuses about lack of shifting and such. I must get back out there!!

Mark didn't see me while he was riding on Monday.

At least I thought it was Mr. Savery riding to the Trek Store. I was getting a ride to the bus stop as the wife was going into work. I was commenting to the wife about not riding into work since I thought that -15 degrees would be uncomfortable. Then we both see a guy riding down 63rd st on his bike.

So I was wrong. If that was you, Mark; good on ya. The main excuse I have for not riding is that my bike still won't shift and it's too cold to work on/clean it. So if I figure that out, I'll be back out there too. Maybe tomorrow...

Dang it's cold!

OK, so I'm planning a gravel ride on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. leaving from my house. I'll have coffee and expresso if you need it prior to the ride.

I know it seems kind of selfish to start here, but I live a block from the starting point. The light winds should make the weather bearable.

Please respond here so we know to wait, plan on two hours or until the first person starts to cry about frost bitten toes. Kev, Webb and I did this ride last Wed and it was very scenic (with all of the new snow). This ride has been given two thumbs up by Luke, so you know it's gonna be epic.

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: