Where the heck am I?

So I haven't been around much. No weekend group rides in about a month, and no evening group rides in about...um....a year? Maybe 2.

Ugh.

No, I'm not in some musty cave obsessing over a ring, although I am kinda obsessed about something else shiny and hopefully very long lasting(more on that later). In case you didn't know and to cram it down everyone's throat yet again, I'm in deep doggy debt. It's not the average, run of the mill household debt of $8k. It's a few multiples of that. Not to mention my car loan. And my student loan. Those last 2 are, I guess, what people expect to have most their lives. But the first needs to change. And I'm working on it. I'm doing overtime at my main job when I can and building bikes pretty regularly. If I'm really moving, I can do 2 bikes an hour which equals a $16 an hour wage. Not too shabby since I can build any time I want and don't have a boss telling me what to do. Well, I guess Miah and Bryan sometimes ask me to build a certain kind of bike, but in my mind, I'm telling myself I was gonna build that anyway. So there.

So since there's no race report, epic ride details, or anything else of huge interest, my blog has become pretty stale. Sorry about that. I can't promise that's going to change in the near future either. I definitely won't pull a Fred and post some partial brilliant story, then leave everyone hanging to curse my name. Actually no, Fred, we aren't cursing your name. We just want to know how the Proudest Moment is going to tie in with part one and two?

Now on to shiny bits. Through bike building, you get to see different bikes. Mostly it's just cruisers, low-end mtbs, "hybrids," and kids bikes. Sometimes you'll get a few high end road, TT, and full squish bikes. Those are all good with their complicated builds and fancy parts that don't impress me much. Mostly because they're difficult to work with - in a mechanic sort of way, and so far beyond my reach economically, it's not even funny.

But my eyes have been opened to a wondrous thing. I have recently built up a few bikes with some tasty bits. Quality, ease of use, durability(if it's standard holds true) and good looks. I'm speaking of the newly released Shimano 105 group.

Shimano got this one right. Well, for my tastes anyway. Dura-Ace, aside from being purdy costly, doesn't look good, especially the crank, and is a serious pain to install. Again, this is all my mechanic induced opinions. 105, on the other hand, is affordable, hopefully durable, sets up easily, and is silvery shiny. The cranks are a little ho-hum, but I have a 7800 crankset that's near perfection to me. And the front shifting is B U T T E R. Like seriously, I've never felt anything shift this smooth. Very impressive.

I may or may not save up the money to buy most of this groupset. What I have right now works, but just so. It's a pretty messy hodge-podge of Campy and Shimano, but I like what it offers compared to everything else. That is, until 105 came out. What I use now is an 11-28 eight speed cassette which works surprisingly well with Campy 10 speed shifters. With 10 speed, I was always chunking 2 gears at a time to get where I wanted to be. That's what happens with single tooth cog increments on a 12-23 cassette. With the 8 speed wide range cassette, I have11, 13, 15, 17, etc which is single click heaven to get where I want to be. There was only a couple times in the past year where I wished I had a gear between the 2 available. That was usually on a slight incline into the wind, and guess what? It's never going to be easy. Just pedal harder or spin more. But with the new 105 having an 11-28 cassette, I think I'll get the best of everything. Gear range, shifting precision, good looks, and ease of setup.

So that's my post of the month. I'm not sure many will read this as it seems most people mainly follow Twitter and Facebook now. Just can't seem to cram all my thoughts into short, few sentence postings. I guess I could try it:

In bad debt. Too busy working, no riding. Fred, finish story. Building bikes fun. New Shimano 105 the shiznit. Facebook and Twitter too sho

See. Even highly condensed I can't say everything.

12045

That's how many days ago I was born. I should say, minus a few since there' s leap years in there, but I'm too lazy to figure out how many. I coded a mini program in college that told you how may days were in a year that you entered. It wasn't easy since it's not just every 4 years. I think you skip centuries and years that are multiples of 10? Google it if you must.

So I'm 33. Kinda weird. I feel pretty young, but time is starting to move faster as it does when you age.

Today has already started out pretty nice. I woke up at 5:15am, rode to the bike warehouse to build some bikes. Got a few done while listening to great music - a couple No Doubt albums and a couple Prokofiev Violin Concertos. Good stuff. I pushed the pace hard to get from the bike building job to UNMC. Felt great in the cooler weather. I was sweaty by the end, but I just stood outside in the shade for a bit and dried off quickly. Love the lack of humidity.

I'm in great spirits now, but that's probably the 3 cups of coffee talking. I'm here at UNMC till 7pm, then I'll ride home, eat some dinner, veg for a bit, then come back to UNMC to run camera for a late night event - 10pm to 11pm. So a total of 13 hours of working today. Yay.

Happy coffee-induced feelings already seeping away...

Oh, thanks to all who wished me a happy b-day on Facebook. Not sure if my response got through to everyone. I guess if I used it more, I'd understand it better. I have a hard time compacting my thoughts into short blurbs. So Facebook, and to a worse extent, Twitter, are not my cups of tea. Or rather coffee since I like that better - which reminds me, I should drink some more. But anywho, it's probably just my long windedness that's to blame.

Corporate Cycling Championship

The race ride starts tomorrow morning at 8.

Rallying point: downtown Starbucks (by the library) at 7:15.

Have a coffee, roll over there, start a block ahead of everybody else so the doorknob on the TT bike (probably Shim) doesn't kill us.

That is all.

Mills County Gravel

Hey PCL worlds are right around the corner. I have been of bike for about 2 weeks so in order to get some time in saddle I will be riding mills county gravel roads. This Saturday meet around 7:00 am meet at scooters downtown.

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.