Eye Candy

No words are needed!

Huffy toss?

I'm doing a half marathon this weekend....

...on my bike. This event is happening Sunday morning and I'm volunteering to help ride along for assistance. I've actually never been to a marathon(or half) so this will let me see if I ever really want to think about trying it some day. If anyone wants to join me for a long sloooow day in the saddle, I'll be leaving my place around 6-ish am to be out at 108th and hwy 370 by 7am.


On a side note, my latter June/early July trip with my dad out to Pennsylvania just got more exciting. Poolboy and his team of miscreants are shipping back overseas to partake in the Tour of PA. So we'll have plenty to do in the 2 weeks I'm taking vacation.

On a side-side note, the 2nd unannounced part of my great discoveries post was that I thought about getting a "do-all" bike frame and build it up with spare parts I have. I know, however, I'd end up buying extra stuff too. So I have since decided to "do-all" with stuff that I already have. My Fisher Ferrous is one sweet ride and the frame I was thinking about is in the same ballpark as the Ferrous. So with some tweaking, I think I can make it my year round commuter/gravel road rider/mtb bike. The only other biking to cover, fast road rides, will be taken care of by my current road machine, the ever trustworthy aluminum Lemond bike. So I can sell my Bianchi (which is a great bike, just too big, too heavy, and not off-roadable) and make do with what I currently have. I'm starting to make some headway on my huge debt load so that feels really good(if you want want to experience what a financial punch to the gut is like, ask me how much debt I have sometime). Any new bike purchase/racing plans would put a halt to that progress, so I must maintain course and live as simply as possible.

Good luck to all of you doing the TT this weekend. I'll be doing some overtime hours at work that morning wishing I could be meditating about bunnies and lollipops to quell the searing pain of my legs/lungs.

Shabbos: A plan

Since Mike posted a two-part revelation that only included one part, we've all been left panting for the conclusion. Let's all gather and pant together.

That sounds dirty.

Anyway, tomorrow is Shabbos, the day of riding. And since nobody's racing, how about meeting at Bike Masters for the 9 a.m. group ride? If you want to get punchy at the front, we can do that. If you don't ... well, you can ride with the guy who shows up on his hybrid. Kidding, kidding. It'll be a good chance to get some quick work in.

Now, what about rain? Well, if it's raining at 9, I'm going back to bed. I'll just ride later. And no, I'm not riding the trainer or rollers. It's outside or nothing. A day off probably wouldn't hurt, anyway.

So that's the plan. See you there.

What will I think of next??

Sometimes I don't feel like a complete tool. Sometimes I figure things out that really makes me feel smrt.

Ride into work this morning: 43 degrees. Not bad, but needed a long sleeve something, light gloves, a cycling cap under the helmet, and knickers to keep the knees functioning. Since I was in commute mode(strictly riding to and from work), I didn't need any fancy cycling clothes, just comfy looking street wear. I just wore my Shimano sandals with wool socks, cycling shorts under my knickers, a Nike longsleeve running shirt (Bryan, I think I have the one that you've raved about and yes, it's purdy dern good), Nike short sleeve running shirt over LS shirt, my favorite Defeet mid-weight gloves, and cycling cap. I was just right for the 20 minute jaunt in mid fourties weather.
Ride home from work: 80 degrees. All the aforementioned items besides sandals, shorts, and short sleeve shirt were too much for the ride home. At first I tried stuffing my socks, gloves, and cap into my knickers pockets, but it was very uncomfortable. Then I looked at the long sleeve shirt I wasn't going to wear and thought, "That would make a pretty nice fanny pack." So I laid the shirt out, placed the cap, socks, and gloves in the middle, folded up the body part, then used the sleeves to wrap around my waist under my shirt. It worked perfectly. I again, had just the right level of clothing for 80 degrees and was happy as a camper riding home.

So that was my first bright idea of the day. My 2nd one is a much more involved revelation (HA!) that will take another posting tomorrow when I'm not so tired. I'm back to the 6:30am - 3:30pm shift and 10pm is officially calling-it-quits time. Stay tuned for my 2nd amazing discovery that just might involve the conjuring of a new bike.

Hey, do you feel like throwing up?

Come to Hummel Park around 9 on Saturday morning. I'm doing hill repeats. It's gonna be awesome.

Or not. But I'll still be there.

Another big mileage weekend, sortof.

Jonny and I did the Great Plains Bicycle Club Spring Fling Metric Century on Saturday. First we asserted our authority for the first 15 miles and just rode off the front from Louisville to get to the first Sag station in Plattesmouth. After that we had a few headwind sections, so we got together with some strong guys and just rotated at a nice easy pace. The pace was a little too much for a couple of the guys so by the end of the bad headwind sections, at about mile 55, it was down to Jonny, me, and one other guy. At that point, the metric Century route headed back to Louisville. The 24 mile route took this same road, but then went West. (Hard to explain) Anyway, we added most of the 24 mile route and tacked on an extra 13 miles or so to our metric century by heading out to good ol' Murdock, up around South Bend, across the river onto hwy 31, then back to Louisville. They had hotdogs n Brats waiting at the end that were quite scrumptious. So that was 4 hours to do 73-ish miles. Good times.

Then Sunday, it was reality check time. I got a text from Ryan F saying that he, Roxy, Kev, and Shim were going out on a 3-4 hour ride. Now I knew they would go hard since Kevin is as strong as an ox and his long ride days are a little too quickish (by about 5 mph) for my current fitness level. Well little did I know that the fury was about to be brought. On the ride were: Ryan and Roxy, Jeff Bergan(sp?), Kevin, Shim, Jay Chesterman (of Iowa mtb fame), Jim (last name escapes me), Kent, Stephen Jarrett, and me. If you know those names, you know that they are all pretty much MTB specialists. Well apparently, all of them had some steam to blow off since the race down in Kansas got post-poned on them at the last minute. I told myself I was only going to ride with them for a little while since I was super sore after my 4 hr ride the previous day. We took the usual Wed night Trek store ride route which entails going North on the trail, bipping over to Irvington road, out to hwy 36, over to 72nd and the Omaha Trace, Ft. Calhoun, Boyers Chute, then South home some way. The "go fast" parts are always Irvington road up a long grinder hill, Omaha Trace, and the route between Ft. Calhoun and Hummel Park. I was at the front for the Irvington road hill, but then away they went, and I was off the back. We all regrouped to start the next fast section, Omaha Trace. Well we were on it for quite a while and the speed was mellow. I thought this was great and decided I could actually eat some food to keep the fire going. Well mid-bar, with a mouth full of food, the hammer dropped. And off the back I was again. This time I all but sat up and almost turned around. But I figured I was only a few miles from Ft. Calhoun and it would be easier with the group riding a tailwind. This assumption was wrong. After the Ft. Calhoun regrouping, the pace picked up on the flat roads by Boyers Chute. Now what was frustrating about this, and I don't mean to knock all the mtbers I was with, the group did not work well together at all. And I don't want to name names (Shim) but drafting confidently was hard since there were some squirrels among us. Anyway, once the big hills hit, the group split in 2: the guys who were in TT mode to get home on time, and the rest of us who were taking it easy. We rode home at a very mellow pace, but my legs were super hurty. This is the kind of achiness you're supposed to have in the winter when putting in mega mile days for the off-season. But alas, I'm doing my base training in April/May. Hopefully I'll reap the benefits in the late season. I guess we'll see.

Congrats to Bryan for fairing very well at his first out of state cat 4 race - the Iowa City race weekend. He is picking things up and getting stronger with every race, so that's good. Teammate Ryan Legg also did that race and got a 10th place money spot in the RR which is amazing considering the distance, competition, and weather conditions. He had a pack finish for the crit, but has grown a fire in his belly for racing since he knows now he is fit enough to be with the strongest guys. Ryan, you are one fast mofo, give em hell. Kevin, Noah (Kevin's son), and Troy were down in Kansas doing the Velotek Grand Prix. Kevin did very well getting on the podium with Brian Jensen. *(little disclaimer that there was a field of 5 cat 1/2s). This race has been, for the last few years at least, been run without a cat 1/2 field, strictly cat 3/4/5s, Masters, womens, and juniors. I believe it was run this way so cat 3s and Masters could actually get large payouts. This is kind of a good idea since those fields bring in the most people, but I'm sure it alienated a lot of cat 1/2s. So that plus the cost of traveling is my guess as to why the field was so small. Congrats guys, on having a fun successful weekend.

So that was just a brief summary of my weekend, how was yours?

The Cold has now subsided.

Well now that it's not dipping down to the 20s for overnight lows and I'm working the late shift, I've been actually riding a bunch. I've ridden 4 of the last 5 days. Saturday was a 3.5 hour jaunt with some teammates. Needless to say, it got kinda quick in places. That was mid-day so when 7am ride time on Sunday showed up, I was not at all recovered. I hurt from the very first pedal stroke and was happy with just doing 3.5 hours. The compatriots on this newly revived Shabbos + 1 ride were: Bryan, Brady, and Joe S. Everyone was a little tired, except for Brady. He's posted some news on his blog regarding his repositioning and knee issues. I dunno. I think he must have installed a bionic knee, and maybe a side order of whale lungs, because he put the hurt on all of us during some climbs. So that was a great hard weekend.

I took Monday easy with just the commute to/from work. Then Tuesday and today I hit the trails at Swanson for some single speed leg blasting workouts. I got in 3 laps in before work Tuesday, one with Mod. He was taking it easy on his full squish 29er Fisher with gears. Just like always, any technical section we hit and BAM, he's gone. I just can't rip the corners or ride as smooth as the true mountain bike brethren. Maybe someday I'll get it. Today, I slept in and was only able to get 2 laps in. I was just fine with that as I'm going to need a couple days recovery after all these miles on road and bumps off road.

It has been perfect weather recently. Riding to/from work, I've just been wearing everyday shorts and a t-shirt. I just pedal easily and I don't sweat. I'd love to look like an average joe who decided $3.50 a gallon is not worth it and is quietly protesting the use of cars with every ride. In plain clothes, I don't seem to get yelled at by many disgruntled drivers compared to when I'm riding in tight cycling clothing. Kinda weird. I'd love to find a t-shirt that had a pic of a gas pump with a red circle/cross through it to wear while I'm riding. If I could get just one person to try bike commuting, I'd be thrilled.


Oh yeah! This weekends plans. There's a Great Plains Spring Fling metric Century (near bottom of page) that leaves Louisville at 9am on Saturday. I'm planning on it, and I know Jonny Randell's in too. Brady mentioned he might crash the party also. I know the Iowa City races are the destination for most of the racing peeps out there. I do love those races, but man, I'm out of shape and broke. Maybe next year. So that also means Sunday is up in the air. We'll see what happens.

Hope everyone's enjoying the weather!

What's that you say?

Shabbos +1 is back??? From it's original starting location?

That's right my cycling brethren. The coffee shop formally known as Caribou has a new name. I don't know what that name is, even though I've been by it a dozen times or so. But this Sunday, at 7am, the brainchild of one Peter B (only in attendance once and now in California) and Mr. Mitmoned himself (as once seen in cycling sandals and rumored to do so again) will sure as Sheldon, roll on Shabbos.....+1.

Wouldn't it be great if Fred showed up in his wool jersey, ready to sweat out some last apprehensions before his final finals? And wouldn't it be great if Brady showed up with flags hanging off the back of Old Yeller so they can slow down his blazing fast speed since fixing his knee issues?(congratulations on that again, by the way)

Come one, come all to the event of a lifetime(or rather since it got really, really cold).

Meeting time: 7am
Meeting Place: The coffee shop formally known as Caribou (72nd-ish and Pacific)
Ride type: Friendly social ride with speeds averaging in the upper teens.
Distance/time: we'll figure it out based on who shows up and time constraints.

There'll be fun, laughs, and hopefully more than 2 people!! Hope to see you ALL there!!

Knowing both roles.

I've been the biker and the driver. Both actors portray their roles quite well.

This is just mean!!

Ya I gotta ride em! But I can't afford em!!

Lightweight wheels sweet!

You're Welcom Fred, and updates.

Fred, congratulations on the completion of a significant life milestone. Would you say, the later you get that diploma, the more you appreciate it? If so, you must really love it. Sorry, had to go there.

Well, despite Matt's fighting for my cause, the Lemond Zurich is not going to happen. Thanks again, dude, for trying. I will keep trucking on my Aluminum steed with much happiness. It really is a great bike. The opportunity was just hard to pass up. Some day, I hope to finally see what all the hype is about on a plastic bike. I will probably order that Salsa Casseroll later in the year when my relief check actually comes in (mine's not coming till mid August!!!). Hopefully, I'll find that bike more zippy and fun to ride than the Bianchi. There's something to be said about a stable tank of a bike, but there's much more to be said about a bike frame that doesn't squirm under every pedal stroke.

THIS WEEKEND!!! Saturday: 40s for low, 70s for high; Sunday: 50s for low, 70s for high. I think we might need to go practice bikes for a little while being that there's no races to attend or help with and the weather will be perfect. I have yet to confirm, but I think the old Caribou coffee shop has been replaced with a new one. I just drove by it, the other day and saw a new sign and lights on inside. I don't know if it's officially open yet, but that could be a new/old meeting spot again since it's right off the trail? Please post your open hours and preferences for ride time so we can get out there and put in some miles!

Thanks mike.

I was going to post to fredcube, but I thought that might be silly. I haven't even read any blogs for a few weeks. So what a great surprise to see my name in the title Munson's last post.

Oh by the way, I will graduate from the college on May 9th. Lots of people go to college for 25 years - yeah their called professors. Drop by the house in the afternoon/evening, if you'd like. I'm having a big huge party. I will start posting on fredcube about golf stuff real soon.

And Mike - I still have my Zurich if you could use a 59 cm steel frame. Oh wait, I'd never sell that bike. ever.

I'm turning into Fred or Sean

So I haven't posted in a while and kinda been scarce all around. Brady, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you about riding Saturday. I was on a cleaning frenzy (since that's about all I can do that's constructive when on call) that lasted well into the afternoon. I didn't even check my blog or pick up my phone till Saturday evening. I didn't really want to face that wind again anyway.

Sunday's races were fun. I was practice officiating and found it quite challenging. Well, the cat 4/5/womens/juniors race at least. With 28 people whizzing by on different laps with fitness levels spanning the rainbow, it was difficult to keep track of finishing order. Luckily, the very experienced and wise teacher, Neil Weide, got most everything down for us. But it was still fun.

Some more interesting news. After I just put a link to the Lemond bikes website(among other team/bike/sponsor sites), I find this out. I have a Lemond Zurich bike on order that is taking a while, I think. The order did get faxed by the soon-to-be-missed Matt N right before the Trek Store US-wide super sale, March 27th - 30th, so I'm sure all the stores and the company as a whole are recovering from that. If there is any issue at all with me not getting the bike, I'd be perfectly fine with that. I'm stretching the budget and selling current stuff to make this carbon framed beauty happen, but I don't really really need it. So if I find out that they aren't going to take all my money, I'm ok with that. But, my guess is this is my last chance at ever owning a carbon bike. If it happens, I sure hope it's worth all the hype. If not, I'm going completely luddite. Steel frame, either down-tube or bar-end shifters, and 32-spoke wheels. I've been eying this frame/fork for a while and wish I would have seen it before I got my Bianchi. Especially after my successful venture with this product. The Reelight setup has been on my racing machine for a couple weeks now and I'm very impressed with it. On the Bike Master's Century, Doug was in the follow vehicle and mentioned that my rear blinky was as bright or brighter than all the others. I never have to think about batteries or even turning them on. They just work all the time I'm riding and are just about all I need for road riding. I do wish that the front light could mount up on the handlebar and have an option for constant light instead of blinking. I'm hoping the company will explore this possibility. Have your bike shop order you a set through J&B Importers. It's a little pricey, but well worth it to have extra safety that you don't ever have to think about.

This weekend is the Spring Cycling Classic in Lincoln. Come one, come all and enjoy the bountiful sunshine and mild conditions. Oh wait, it's gonna be 30-40, windy, and possibly still raining in the morning. Real recent forecasts have the rain/snow ending early Saturday morning, like before sunrise. So hopefully that will pan out for you courageous racers out there. I will be helping with registration, then following a group with a truck full-o-wheels. Should be good times. If you are racing, keep this mantra in mind. (Warning, harsh lingo in said mantra.)

Riding has been a little scarce recently, just like my posting. I work from 11:30am - 8:30pm Mon - Thurs this month, so it's hard to get up early, eat food, then get excited about riding alone for a couple/few hours THEN going into work. Much depression shall ensue this month. So if anyone has some hours free in the morning and wants to help motivate me to get outside, let me know. Otherwise, I'll see ya'lls on the weekends.

Races, on-call, family rides.

So from the sounds of things, riding on the first extremely nice day of the year is not going to be a huge group gathering? I'm on call in the AM till noon...thirty....ish. I usually skip out of the last half hour since we rarely get calls anyway. Lots of people are heading out of town to either Iowa for road racing or Norfolk for some single track action. Bryan mentioned something about riding with people he refers to as "family" but apparently, that doesn't include us?? What gives bro-skee?

So anyway, I'll head outside for a while in the afternoon if anyone left in Omaha wants to join. Respond or give me a call.

Last night and this morning.

Was only a difference of 3-ish hours for me. I went to bed about 2am, and was at various stages of waking up by 5am. I do not do well with little sleep. I know Bryan is a master at such feats, being that his job forces him to be, and he handles it amazingly well. When I'm on my 6:30am - 3:30pm shift at work, I do best when going to bed around 10:30pm. I went just slightly past that last night.

It started off with me cleaning my bike, which some of you know, I'm just a little finicky about. I started the cleaning process at 7pm and was done at oh, about 9:30pm. Everything is sparkly again, just the way I like. Seriously, if I can't look at my crankset and see it as a potential stainless steel plate ready to eat off of, it's not clean. So I put everything away and remembered I hadn't eaten dinner yet. Oops. I pop in a Kashi frozen pizza since it was quick and easy. Yummy....cardboard crust....

So I scarf down the pizza, watch the weather on the 10 o'clock news and discover that there's no way I'm riding to work in the morning. Especially not on my clean-enough-to-eat-off-of bike. Unless they were wrong about the rain, which has happened a couple times in recent memory. But it seemed like they were pretty certain, so I figured I should drive to work and therefore had a whole half hour more to sleep in, a very nice thing for Monday morning. I flip around the channels and find the World Series of Poker '07 championships on ESPN (8 - the Ocho, I love that channel...can't get enough of it). They were running back to back episodes (each an hour long) of this progression of elimination. This is a tournament where a ton of people start, but eventually, all the chips remain with a final selection of great/lucky players. It was interesting because the guy who is credited with making Texas Holdem poker popular in 2003, Chris Moneymaker, was knocked out early in the tournament. Mr. Moneymaker made the "sport" well known because he, as a 25 year old, got into a poker tournament with $50 and made it all the way to the end to win something like $1.5 mill. I remember watching that and thinking, "Wow, that's like hitting the jackpot, but you increase your chances exponentially by being a great player." Anyway, I watched a few hours of this tournament, so this put me at about 1:30am. My late dinner finally settled and I was ready for bed. Waaaaaaaaaay past my bed time.

Our condo loft has a skylight that sits right above our bed. It's a good thing to have when it's cold out cause the sun shines through and heats the place well. However, since it's right above our bed, when it rains it is LOUD!! I guess some people sleep well when there's a droning sound like that, but with the rain we get, it's quiet for a little while, then comes down in buckets, then quiets down, then pours again. So it's not constant. I sleep much better in silence anyway. So the rain started around 4am and I had my alarm set for 5:30am. There's nothing worse than being woken up before you really want to get up. Especially when you haven't had much sleep to begin with. Very frustrating cause all you want to do is sleep, but you got this rain coming in waves, then your cat notices you're stirring so it must be time for canned food, so she jumps all over you. I angrily drifted in and out of slumber till 6am, got up, got dressed, (lightly) kicked the cat out of my way since I was too groggy and would step on her if she did her normal clingy thing. I got in my car, drove slowly to work, parked in the neighborhood just South of UNMC (free parking is the right price, just not very convenient), and got very wet walking the 5 blocks before reaching the cover of a building. What a great way to start a Monday.

So needless to say, I'm on a lot of coffee this morning. Luckily work is light, but that means I have to do something otherwise I'm going to fall over and start snoring. And now, after proofing this post for the 4th time to catch all my grogginess-induced mistakes, I'm done.

How do you fair with very little sleep and a crappy Monday morning?

Edit: Oh yeah, and a weekend report. Saturday; 3.5 hours with evil headwind/lovely tailwind ride with Brady. Thanks Brady, for sticking it out with me and I hope your position issues are solved so bike practicing is more fun. Sunday; first 3rd of the Bike Masters Century. It was wet at the start, but got pretty nice, Bryan and I broke off early since we both had stuff to do and I found out the meaning of pain as we rode Bryan's work-to-home commute route. Being he rode that route on a single speed, I can see why it was just a little hard on the training. Rollercoasters have less ups and downs than that route. So overall, 3-ish hours each day, not a bad weekend. Man I love riding my bike. I can't imagine doing anything else. Yes, I'm that tired that I'm getting mushy.

Ryan F and Roxy saw me while riding yesterday.

See how I made it look like all 3 of us were riding. Well we were.

I was just creeping home from a jaunt to the Northwest into some abslowtively reconculous wind. I would like wind a lot more, or rather hate it a lot less, if my eyes didn't feel like burning during/after a ride where I cry almost the whole time. I have this problem where my tears are mostly oil so my eyes are usually dry and itchy to begin with. Add some wind and I get the nice 40-grit sandpaper effect right to the retinal area. I tried contacts once, very unsuccessfully.

So I was riding home around the Aksarben area when I saw R and R probably just heading out to face the fun. Hope you guys enjoyed almost being knocked over a couple times. I sure did. Not.

Mounted, pumped up and ready to roll

Interpret that in any manner you wish. But here's the end result.

My own response to Random Thoughts

Topic 1: Well, there's a couple things that Safari fails at.  1. I went into options and selected, "Open links in new tab," not "Open links in new window," however, many pages open up in new windows.  I like tabbed browsing.  I like having one window to work it all.  2. I use google docs and have a couple spreadsheets.  On other browsers, you can navigate web-based spreadsheets normally with tab and arrow keys and such.  Not so with Safari.  O well, time to go back to the regular browsers.  Some pages do load up faster though.  Pezcyclingnews.com most notably.

Topic 2: I'm getting in shape, but not in shape.  Well maybe.  I did the Wed night ride and couldn't hang too well.  There's 3 possible reasons why.  Number one would be not enough food/drink.  I was semi-strong at the beginning of the group ride, but rode solo for 1.5 hours before.  I didn't have an energy drink or food till I got to the shop to start the group ride.  I ate a pouch of Cliff Shot Blocks and filled a bottle with Gu2O.  So I had some fuel to start out with the group.  I really should have heeded my own advice and had more to eat/drink though.  After an hour or so, I was struuuugling up the climbs and getting dropped bad.  The droppers were: Kevin Limpach, Greg Shimonek, and Ryan Legg - all really strong guys.  But in past years, I was always able to keep up or drop them.  Reason number 2 was the intervals I did the day before.  This is not as good of a reason since Ryan said he did pretty much the exact same thing the day before and was still riding away from me on the hills.  The final reason is I'm just not as strong as them......yet.  I guess the past 2 days have been about the only time going really really hard this season so I have some time to make up some ground.  I do need to drop about 5-10 pounds to really fly up the hills again.  I'm probably going to have to give up pop and cut back proportions to accomplish that, though.  Probably a healthy choice in any event.

So my plans for the next few days are: Today, easy ride, we're talking 15mph average tops.  Friday, maybe another easy ride since I'll be giving blood at lunch time.  Saturday, a trip down to Lincoln to help out with the Training race our team is hosting.  Sunday is up in the air.  It's not looking to be great weather, but I don't care anymore.  As long as it's above 15 degrees, I'm just fine with riding.  Last Sunday, Bryan and I started at 8am and it was a brisk 20 at the start.  That was just fine as we had a great ride.  So if you have suggestions for a route/time/meeting place, I'm open to ideas.

Random thoughts

Topic 1: Apple must be trying to take on Microsoft or something.  Now, if you ever updated your Quicktime Player, or downloaded iTunes, Apple asks if you want to do an automatic download thingy of updates.  On some PCs I do, on others I don't.  I usually update iTunes when it prompts me, but I was surprised when the updater asked me if I wanted to install the Safari web browser.  Since I rarely use a Mac, I've never used the Safari Browser, so I figured I'd give it a try.  It reminds me a lot of Netscape(which I haven't used in years), but has all the nice features I like in a browser; auto-spell check, tabbed browsing, unobtrusive nav/settings bar, and simple layout.  I'm using it now to post this, and I may be using it quite a bit more in the future.  Firefox is fine, but it has a bunch of plug-in problems with Active-X, Flash player, and such.  If Safari works better with these things, I will probably make the switch.  Not that anyone out there cares, except for maybe you Mac users, but Apple did pretty good here.  I guess that would be one way to take over the computer industry, slowly make people rely on Apple products until getting a Mac just makes sense.  Apple owns the personal music player industry with the iPod and iTunes has always been the easiest to use of the online music purchase stores.  If they turn enough people on to the web browser and photo management software, I think many people would fork over a little more money for a Mac.  Now if Macs would come down in price......that would be a huge industry shift.  And I don't think Supreme-Master Gates would like it.

Topic 2: Intervals.  I forgot how great it feels to be in shape.  At work, I can leap up a couple flights of stairs and not even breath hard if I've been doing intervals and long rides.  Yesterday, I decided to head up North and do long hill repeats up the steady grinder of hwy 36 (between 680 and 72nd street ).  I start the interval of what I'd say was on the upper end of LT, and got to the top of the climb within 6 minutes or so.  I was feeling pretty good, so I figured, "Hey, why not head out to Omaha Trace to make it a 10 minute interval instead of doing hill repeats."  So I finish that interval going into the wind.  It was pretty tough since I was going against 15mph of chilly norther air.  The 2nd 10 minute interval was along the hilly/curvy section of Omaha Trace with more of that great headwind.  Since I have no HRM or Power meter, I was using perceived exertion.  The first interval was rather tough for my lungs whereas the 2nd was harder on my leg muscles.  I got to the turnaround right before heading down the hill into Ft. Calhoun and did my last interval with a tailwind.  Now that was fun.  I had a hard time getting up into higher LT territory because I was running out of cogs.  Flying at 30-ish mph on that road is a blast.  Some of the hills bogged down my legs, but I still kept the speed up there with the aid of the wind.  I had a nice spin home and felt good about putting in a solid workout.

The Trek Store is officially starting up the Wed. night ride again, so I will probably hit that tonight.  I'll probably do what Jon Randell and I used as training in the early season and leave work at 3:30, put in some time, maybe a few hill climbs then meet up with the group for some more serious abuse.  I'm gonna be one sore pup tomorrow, but it's going to feel great.

Check this out

SHIMANO DURA-ACE 7900 2009!

Tubeless win a Classic!

I'm sure that Bryan has read this. If not it came from Velonews.com

After racing the final 22 kilometers alone, off the front, Francaise des Jeux rider Philippe Gilbert crossed the finish of Omloop Het Volk last week in victory. It was the second Het Volk win for the Belgian; his first came in 2006. The 2008 win was special to two of his sponsors and was a milestone for road technology, because Gilbert crossed the line on a tubeless wheel and tire.

Over four years ago prototype tubeless road tires started popping up in the pro peloton, but it wasn’t until two years ago that Shimano and Hutchinson presented their tubeless system to the public. The technology is well received and should considered by those looking for a happy medium between tubulars and clinchers, including both Lennard Zinn and me here at VeloNews. The technology hasn’t exactly been wholeheartedly embraced, in part because the only manufacturers pushing it are Shimano and Hutchinson.

Het had the perfect roads — cobblestones, wet surfaces and short steep climbs — to capitalize on the advantages the tubeless system offers: Grip and puncture resistance. The week before the race Gilbert and his FDJ teammates reconnoitered the crux sections using the system. After the test Gilbert and three teammates chose to race the system, which is comprised of Shimano’s new WH-7850-SL scandium-rimmed wheels and Hutchinson’s Fusion 2 tires.

The FDJ riders have been training with the wheels since January. But a new sealant clinched the deal. With it, the team was confident the system is even less flat-prone than tubulars, said Frederic Vanoli, chief of technical affairs for Francaise des Jeux.

Even so, Gilbert did suffer a rear flat during the race, which is more likely attributed to chance than a fault of the system. The Belgian’s rear flat didn’t seem to dampen the team’s enthusiasm for continued use of the system through out this spring’s races.

Puncture protection was key, especially considering the rather high pressures Gilbert used (7 bar or 102 psi in the front and 7.5 bar or 109 psi in the rear). Het Volk has only 16km of cobbles, but on rougher course, the system’s ability to run lower pressures would be an advantage.

Despite the successes of the tubeless system on the battlefields of the spring classics and semi-classics, FDJ has no plan to bring the technology to the Grand Tours. There the lightweight of carbon wheels and tubulars outweigh the advantages of the tubeless system’s durability.

“In team Francaise des Jeux [we only use tubeless] in Belgium and the north of France with cobblestones,” said Vanoli, “not in stage races.”

For the rest of us, not racing at the head of a ProTour peloton, the advantages of comfort, grip and puncture resistance make road tubeless a viable technology that’s still worth a look.

The wind is evil.

I forgot how much it takes out of you to ride against a >15 mph wind. Yesterday I got in a little more than a couple hours. I rode into the wind for and hour and 20 min, then made it home in something like 50 minutes. Now today, it's warm out, but even more windy than yesterday. I also didn't get very good sleep last night, so instead of getting sick like everyone else is, I'm going to take the day off.

Who knows when the next time it'll be near 60 degrees, but I'm too pooped to enjoy it now anyway. Yay recovery day.

The Sorry post

Here's some apologies I have to make after todays happenings. I'll go anti-alphabetical.

Johnny - Sorry about the hilly route and dropping you on said hilly route. I think we were all feeling pretty frisky so the speed was un-Shabbos like up those hills. Glad you came out and suffered with us while you could.

Chris (Bryan's wife) - sorry about hi-jacking your hubby for an over-extended amount of time. The route we planned took a bit longer than presumed and we didn't realize this till we were way out there.

Bryan - Sorry for planning a route that made you late. We should have turned around when Johnny did and skipped the Blair Climb. It was fun though.

Brady - Sorry for putting you through the wringer when we discovered how late we were. And also not being able to fix the rear hanger issue. It makes sense that it's bent inwards being that shifting it all the way up can throw the chain into the spokes. Getting it straightened will remedy all the issues you experience today. Well except for the destroyed knee and damaged spirits with having a hard time at the end of the ride. But hey, didn't you get a new PR for distance? Got that going for ya.

Aaron - Sorry that you have to leave for Belgium where you'll get to experience amazing bike races and live a dream that most of us will never realize. Ok, I'm not sorry about that. I'm extremely jealous. Have fun kid.

I had a great time this weekend. On Friday I did absolutely nothing after my commute home from work. Then Saturday, Michelle and I cleaned like maids on crack so the place is much more comfy and clean now. In the afternoon, Michelle's mom and sister came over and we played video games, ate pizza and then topped it off with Stone Cold Ice Cream. Plenty of fun, not conducive to training, but absolutely necessary.

Then today, I get in 83 miles just under 5 hours and felt just fine - fitness wise the whole time. Even at the end I still had some power to fight traffic through construction areas. Some of the hills did take it out of me, but I think if I do some hill repeats at Hummel or where ever, I'll be just fine. Man I wish I could race a bunch this year. I guess I shouldn't feel so confident until I do my first race of the year. That will let me know if feeling good after an 80 mile moderately paced ride constitutes being competitive with other cat 2s. Probably not, but hey, 90% of sport is 100% mental.

Bike There Feature on Google Maps

Check it out sigh or not. I think it's a cool feature for Google to have.


http://www.PetitionOnline.com/bikether/

Grump

This has been an off week.

For the bike at least. I got plenty of stuff done around the house. But that doesn't help keep me in shape. Oh well.

PLANS!!
Sunday: 12:30pm
Place: Crane Coffee - 78th and Cass
Route: Head NW on trails/streets to hit either Bryan's Bennington route, or the Bike Masters route to get to hwy 31 then 30. Take hwy 30 East-ish to Blair. Once in Blair, ride through town and conquer one doosy of a climb on the NW side of town. After a break at one of many gas stops, we'll head SE to Ft. Calhoun. From there I figure the guys who want/can go longer can head to Boyers Chute, downtown, to where ever while the others who need to jet home can take the Omaha Trace to the trail, or head out West (Bryan's and others case).

Sorry to post suggestions so late, but hopefully this works out. I'm up for counter-suggestions if need be. My only constraints are that I will be ready to ride from my place at 12:20-ish and I have to be home about 6pm. So many miles are possible for me. Come join the fun!

Who's doing what this weekend?

The weekend's weather is not looking wonderful, but still ok. Saturday is my main issue. I'd like to have my afternoon free so a morning ride would be the way to go. Unfortunately, the morning is going to start out with a temp of 9 degrees. That's just a smidge too chilly to put a few hours in outside, but I might brave it anyway.

Sunday is where it'll be at, though. I can start riding at 12:30 and go till 6pm if I want. I'm tempted too since it'll be nice weather, and an early season century is always a good idea. I may not make the full 100, but I'd like to put in a 5 hour ride. Anyone up for the challenge??

Weekend update.

Well I didn't quite get in a mega-mileage weekend, but it was still a great time. So here is the report of such times of greatness.

Friday night was the 29er Trifecta. I got there at about 6:15pm figuring I'd catch up with peeps I haven't talked to in a while. The roll-out time was supposed to be 6:30, but Lincoln peeps had to get there and Shim had to put flat pedals on his fixie. Both situations completely understandable. Right. The group of about 35 got going a little before 7pm. Within 6 blocks we had 2 flats. Yeah, that was fantabulous. After we got going, it was really interesting watching the reactions of drivers and passerbys. Some people asked from their cars, "What group are you with," or, "How far are you guys going?" Most drivers that were going in the opposite direction on a 2 way street stopped dead in their tracks. I guess it was kinda weird seeing a group of 30 some cyclists coming at you with insane headlights. Ryan Feagan had a home-made light that had to be the brightest thing I've ever seen. Basically it was like a car's highbeams. He had it on strobe most the night so we could do shadow puppets on the trees as we rode along. Other notes of interest: Nate Woodman and Matt Gersib are magicians on their bikes. Nate had a fixie, but rode the thing like it was 2nd nature to him with skids, bunny hops, and some strong climbing. Matt would put on mini-trials sessions any time we stopped. He can ride his 29er like a BMX bike. On the route, there was this huge climb that I didn't know even existed. Just West of 30th St on Belvedere blvd, it's a 3 or 4 block climb that snakes back and forth. It was murder on a single speed. That is, unless you're Eric Brunt (the guy in the middle) who was on a 46x19 fixed. He made it look easy, along with all the other climbs of the day. I think he lives on his bike though, so that makes sense. So that was about 30 miles in 3-4 hours. Nice easy pace with lots of stops. Plenty of time to socialize and enjoy the night.

Saturday was a group ride extravaganza. I had 6 other riders at my house before we took off to join the Bike Masters ride, Ryan Legg, Brady, Matt, Sean, Ryan and Roxy. I was kind enough to let Sean use my racing machine while I used my commuting tank. We had to hurry to the BM ride since we started late and there was just a couple good climbs getting there. Then we waited as others were more late than we were. I guess that's to be expected when the lot is full of 30-40 people! We took off and the nice weather must have fueled some people's rage as the first 45 minutes turned into a hammerfest. The group strung out for a good mile as some wanted a nice leisurely pace and others had to show their stuff. I was stuck in the middle not able to show my stuff on a 25-ish pound 1x9 geared noodle. Everyone came back together at the Elk City turn, however. We headed towards Waterloo and I was able to keep up as it was mostly downhill. A flat happened right before town, so the group had a long rest break at the convenience store. After significant resting, we got going, but had to split from the group since a few of us had to get going home. Bryan, John P, Ryan L, Brady, Sean, Matt, and I ventured home. It eventually became a death march for half our group as the weather and life schedules have not been kind to most. Overall a fun ride with some very welcomed warm weather.

Sunday was slightly different. I got up and was sore all over. I hadn't slept well or enough the last 2 nights so I was feeling it. The weather outside was nice and sunny, but the ground was a mess after thawing. I knew the weather was going to get miserable, but I had to take Michelle into work so my only option was waiting till after noon. I was just hoping that the weather would hold off it's fury until later. Alas, my hopes were dashed. I was ready to call the day a lazy recovery day until Ryan F. had to call and make me feel guilty. I didn't want him and a visiting out of towner, Larry, to battle the winds alone, so I joined in the fun. We met at Ryan's in mid-town, rode down to 19th, North toward Hummel, did the climb once, then over Ponca Rd and 47th st. to hwy 75 into Ft. Calhoun. The climbing was fun, but man, getting onto hwy 75 and facing the 25-35 mph wind head on was quite brutal. I had forgotten how much drafting matters though. As soon as you would tuck behind the guy in front, it was easy pedaling. But when taking a pull at the front, it was a battle just to keep the speed above 14mph. Once we turned South-ish, we were ok though. We got in about 2.5 hours with some intensity and hill climbing so it was a productive day.

So only about 9-ish hours on the bike for the weekend, but it was a blast all the same. I thought I solved the issue with being inefficient on my commuter bike by raising the saddle some. I don't know what it is, but I can't be "fast" on that bike. I don't know if it's the frame's geometry or design and material that makes it feel like a noodle everytime I stomp on the pedals. I know it's heavy, but 8-10 pounds can't make that much difference can it? My muscles just ache while trying to power up climbs or hit a headwind hard to keep up with a group. Any time I take my race machine out riding, I can really mash without feeling sore at all. So maybe it is my position on the bike or the Q-factor of the pedals (stance width) or something else that makes the 2 bikes completely different ride experiences. Well at least the weather is getting nicer to where I won't need to use the commuter for rides anymore.

Shabbos +1

Yeah, I know Shabbos just ended. But I want to go again. Here's my plan:

Depart from my house (or somewhere else) at 7 or 7:30 and head SW, though to a different place than Shabbos. Back by 10 at the latest, though 9:45 would be better. Short ride, yes, but it's supposed to be 40 by 7 a.m., with 5-10 mph winds from the SSW.

And so it begins again.

Plans for rides: Today I'll be able to get in a couple hours, tomorrow I can ride as long as I want after getting off work at 4:30 and will probably finish in the dark, Saturday I think we'll get a big group together and pummel eachother on some long miles, Sunday is still up in the air weather-wise, but I'll probably ride anyway. So after not riding Monday and Tuesday, then doing my interval session thing yesterday, I'm up for 4 or 5 days of many miles. It's gonna be fun.

What say you all on the blog change? My last one was rather drab, but I didn't want to go way overboard just yet.

California Dreamin.

I read the Pezcyclingnews.com website pretty often. They have weekly training tips, and some laid-back journalism that is fun to read. The website editor has been enjoying the California experience recently and reporting on his rides along the routes the Tour of Cali takes. He's done the major climbs that the tour went over including Stage 6 as reported here. This was part of a route that Jonny, Poolboy, and I rode around a few times on our Cali trip a couple years ago. Here's one of the routes we took that went up Grimes Canyon road.


The Tour, and Pez's editor did Balcom Canyon Rd, but we never got around to experiencing that climb. Although some other climbs we did were just as tough. Here's the Tour's/Pez's route:

Now as you can see, we did a lot of the same roads. And let me tell you, they were amazing roads. To smell those orange groves while riding and have warm humid air in December and January was surreal. I really miss it and would love to live there. Again, I need to win that Powerball...

Another interesting thing on Pez's report was that apparently, this guy rides a bike:

And apparently he rides it well, being he's a cat 2 racer in frickin California. Oh and he also looks like this now:

So that explains a lot. I guess when you work on a show for a few months during a shows' season, then have all kinds of free time to train between seasons, you can do what he did.

Maybe I should pick up acting instead of holding out for that Powerball?

Training on the bike can be so weird.

Here was my schedule the last 4 days:
Thursday: Short intensity session with four 2.5 minute VO2(probably more like upper LT since I'm just starting intensity) intervals on the trainer, followed by 3 bouts of circuit training. It's a tough workout that only takes an hour, but leaves you in a quivering mess afterward.

Friday: I was able to get off early so I left work at 2:30, headed South for Plattesmouth, rode up that great hill to the toll bridge, turned around and headed home. Total time a little over 3 hours with some good hill climbing on my heavy commuter and too much clothing on.

Saturday: Rode South to Shims (48th and hwy 370), did a group gravel ride out to Elkhorn river, came back on the old High Gear Wednesday night group ride route. About 3.5 hours with painful gravel road climbing and a strong group of guys who dropped me more than once. The pain in my legs this ride was intense. I haven't felt that weak, leg wise, in a few years. I was worried about Sunday's long road ride.

Sunday(today): 3.5 hour ride with Brady and Bryan. We left Crane Coffee at 1pm, headed downtown, rode South on 13th to Bellevue blvd, across the river into Iowa, up that long climb into Glenwood springs, North at Pacific Juncion, then back to the Keystone as quick as we could since the guys were running late. I felt awesome on this ride for some reason. Well, at least my legs did. My lungs didn't want to open up enough to take in max oxygen. I don't know if it was my winter padding stuffed inside my summer-weight cycling gear, or what, but it was weird. On the way up the Glennwood climb, we saw heading in the opposite direction, Shim, Kev, Ryan and those guys. Also on the trail close to home I talked to Syd and Marc who were in town picking up some goods from their sponsors. It was an awesome ride and I have no idea why I felt so good. Well, now that I think about it....

I was on my on my racing machine so that dropped at least 10 pounds in bike weight. I didn't wear my Lake boots, and instead went with road shoes and covers. That probably dropped another pound or so (those boots were made for stomping). I also didn't wear wool. Now don't get me wrong, wool is awesome if it's uber cold out. But in the upper 30s and 40s I think it's too much. Sure if you sweat, you'll keep warm while wearing wool, but that heavy fabric is going to make you sweat. A lot. And that's more weight dragging you down and depleting your fluids. I also ate pretty consistently and drank almost enough. Food and fluid intake make a huge difference in performance when biking hard. I keep thinking back to something Aaron's coach from Belgium said. "Americans don't eat enough while riding and then eat too much while not riding." Or something to that affect. Also with a Belgian accent. So I'm making sure to eat a bunch while riding and try to cut down while not riding.

Hopefully I can keep up some large mileage days along with some intensity so I can be ready to, uh, not race. Seriously, I need to win that $133 mil powerball or something. I would be so full on into racing this year if I could afford it. Guess I gotta look forward to dominating the masters fields after I pay off my debt in about 10 years. Ugh.

Strange phenomenon

Since putting in another 3.5 hrs today, I've felt some weird affects. The sore muscles are normal, but why is the back of my neck itchy? And why is my nose reddish? And my cheeks too? I think I got a friggen sunburn today!!!!!

Not a bad one, but just enough to notice. I was scratching the back of my neck wondering, "Man this is a familiar uncomfortableness. Like a hot itchiness. Almost like a rash." As there's no poison ivy for me to be rolling around in, I figured out that I got a little sun poisoning. I'm ok with that though. If I can build up a base of small sunburns, maybe I won't go through the lobster cycle I seem to do once a year. Usually, there's always one early spring ride where it's crazy nice and I haven't thought about sunscreen in 6 months. So I go out for 3 or 4 hours and end up being miserable for 3 or 4 days. I get as red as a lobster, I can't be in the sun since it feels like someones holding a heated iron to my flesh, and any water warmer than ice-cold on the sunburnt skin feels like liquid sandpaper. It sucks. I know a little sun is good, but more than that is bad, mkay? My dad had a itsy bit of the cancer removed from his nose, so I know my genes don't take kindly to UV rays. If only they made highly breathable long sleeve jerseys (or just arm warmers) that were UV repellent for us fair skinned peoples. Come on scientists, why hasn't this happened yet? Get on it!!

Sunday Ride Plzkthx.

Shabbos + 1!!!!!!!
Meet: Crane Coffee at 78th and Cass!!!!!!!
Time: 1pm!!!!!!
Bikes: road/commuters - all pavement - no gravel!!!!!
Speed: as mellow as we can stand considering it's going to be......

Forecast:ALMOST 50 DEGREES AND SUNNY!!!!!



Be there, or miss out on 4 hours of extremely missed warmth.
Post comments if you're joining and if you have a suggestion for a Saturday ride.

There was a cool breeze this morning.

I knew it was gonna be cold. I bundled up well. What I didn't know was that the wind was coming straight from the NW. That makes it a headwind the whole way to work. It didn't help that it was -8 degrees and the wind was 15mph or so. So apparently it felt like -29 or something? I dunno, I was too busy cursing the wind for not letting me ride faster.

I'm not sure how long I could have stayed out there. If I had a better balaclava, and some ski goggles, I coulda gone for maybe 45 minutes. The balaclava I used was one of those with a mesh over where your mouth is supposed to go with the openning for just your eye area. The thing was big enough for Andre the Giants head, so on me, there was way too much open space for my eye area. I tucked my cycling glasses inside the balaclava and that was probably a mistake. The wind was able to travel down to my left ear. I noticed this the most when my ride was done. My ear felt like it was going to fall off. I didn't notice on the ride, again because of the cursing of the wind.

Other than that, I felt ok. I will try to make it out to the trainer ride tonight, but I'm not making any promises. My car may not feel like starting up, which is why I rode. This weekend it's supposed to get up to 40 degrees!!! So hopefully we can get out on another 3-5 hour ride. Let's try to communicate better on this one so plans get made earlier and no one gets left out.

Oh yeah, that's what a 5 hour ride feels like...Ouch.

On Saturday, I met up with Ryan and Roxy around 12:15 and rode the Keystone down to West Papio, then out to Kevin L's place at 163rd and Harrison-ish. That took about an hour and 45 minutes. We rendezvoused at Kevin's ride and headed West on gravel roads all the way out to about 240th St. We went as close to the Elkhorn river as we could. We then ventured back east on Q st, then Harrison.

After dropping off the guys we picked up at Kevin's, Ryan, Roxy, Kev, and I headed back toward the West Papio trail. Kevin, who rode with us for a little more bike time, turned back after a good 3 hours or so for his total. I'd say the gravel part of the ride was about 2.5 hrs. By the time we were on the paved trails, we were at about 4 hrs riding.

4 hours is now my "dipping into the reserves" time on the bike at my current fitness level. That's the point where you hurt all over, no amount of stretching helps, and the only thing you look forward to is a shower, some food, and a place to lay down. I remember a few years ago, that point was after about 5 hours. It takes many painful 4 hour rides to reach that point, but your fitness skyrockets at that point. 2 hour rides feel like nothing and you still have all your power after 3 hours of race pace. Those were the days. The days when it took quite a bit of intensity to get me panting. Alas, that is no more. Some day, when I can afford to race consistently again, I will be back at it. For now, I'm just enjoying the ride and sleeping a ton after the occasional 5 hour ride. Feels good! But still hurts.

Another "You know it's cold when.."

You know it's cold when, while picking up your bike with your bare hands, you touch the aluminum stem and it feels like getting a chemical burn.

I think it was 0 degrees (do I say degrees, or degree?) when I rode in today. I've figured out that riding in with a full gut is not fun. I ate a big breakfast and had to...um...go to the bathroom, but ran out of time. So I rode in with very full guts. It made me much slower and uncomfortable. The cold didn't bother me one bit. I guess I could say I thought about that saying, "keep a stiff upper lip," as my upper lip (and nose I guess), being my only skin exposed to the elements, was indeed quite stiff.

Congrabulations to Troy for completing his 2nd full week of bike commuting. Hopefully this is a growing trend in Omaha. The more that commuters are visible, and the more that gasoline goes up in price, the more people will consider bike commuting as an option. It's just too bad there isn't a more friendly(non hilly) route from West to East. I notice a significant difference between my commute route that has one big hill compared to the flat one. And I only ride 3 miles!! I guess that's why more people commute in Lincoln. Evil are the hills of Omaha.

Shabbos ride!?!?!?! It's supposed to be near 40 tomorrow so outside riding should definitely happen. I'm going to be riding the heavy bike with complete fenders anyway, just because I really don't want to spend an hour or so cleaning my race machine again. Sunday will be warm in the morning, then another evil Northern front comes in with chilly North winds, so Shabbos + 1 may be inside only. Suggestions are welcome!!

A reason to not overdress in the cold.

I got off work at 4:30, but was running late and didn't get on the bike till 4:40. I wanted to pick up my Sigur Ros cds from the Borders at 130th and Maple. So I rode. Quickly.

I had to pick up Michelle from work by 6:30 so I knew I was gonna cut it close regardless. The leg out from UNMC was tough since it was into a wind. I took the Keystone to Boyd street, then the neighborhood route onto Old Military rd to hit 120th. I then hopped onto the shoulder of Maple and took that to Borders. I was HOT by the time I got there. I was wearing winterized helmet, balaclava, wool longsleeve baselayer, Voler themal longsleeve jersey, lobster gloves, bike shorts, Amfib bib-tights, knickers, wool socks and my clod-hopper Lake cycling boots. I was a sweaty mess, which was not smart since any collecting sweat froze rather quickly. I had an especially annoying glob of frozen sweat on the edge my cycling glasses, right on the edge of sight, so it was always there, haunting me.

I got to Borders, got my cds and was back on my way. The wind was mostly at my back, but now the sun was going down and the temp was dropping from a balmy 20 to the mid teens. All the sweat I had accumulated inside my Thermal jersey was starting to freeze also. So anytime I stopped at a light and moved around a little, it felt like I was wearing cardboard or something. Weird.

I made it home with 15 minutes to spare of having to leave to pick up Michelle. I didn't get a drink of water the whole ride since my bottle froze pretty much within 2 blocks of leaving work. Doh.

So the moral of the story is, I need to somehow dress warm enough for the single digit ride to work, but then not quite as warm for the 20 degree ride after work. Or MAMA NATURE COULD FINALLY TELL JACK FROST TO GO AWAY FOR ANOTHER YEAR!!!! grrr....

Tomorrow, I should be able to finally make the trainer night since Michelle doesn't work. Yay, more suffering on the bike.

Sigur Ros

Their music and videos are amazing. Enjoy.

Some videos of the funny and informative.

Uncle Jay is quite hilarious.




Watch some of the "Most-Requested Episodes" for the best ones.



In other news, I'd really love to have one of these on my commuter:



It would be heavy as a brick, but really nice to always have the perfect gear without cassette/derailleur problems or internal gear hub inefficiency.

Now, don't spend too much time watching Uncle Jay or researching internal geared hubs....
.....
like I did.

I'm making a forecast for this weekend

It's gonna be COLD(Saturday low of 19, high of 20, WHAT??) and probably still snow covered.
So, who wants to volunteer their abode for some trainer fun? My place could do about 3 people. I know Bike Masters does a full morning on Saturday of trainer madness, so that might be a good idea for that day. If the snow really stays around, I might venture off road and mtb over at Manawa.

Crap, I just remembered I'm on call Saturday AM from 7-noon. Sucks. Plus I'm gonna go vote in the middle of that. So no group trainer ride for me at Bike Masters. But Sunday is still anyone's call.

Ya know, I'm ready for warmer weather. Do you hear me, Ms. Nature??!!! Get to it!!!!

What a lost weekend

I got out and rode for 2.5 hrs on Friday evening. I thought it was a great start to a mileage filled weekend. Well Saturday was a bust since I woke up late, started cleaning a little, then all of a sudden, it was almost noon. I had the Officials clinic to attend which took the middle part of the day away. Got home at almost 5pm and figured I'd look toward Sunday for some miles. Well, we all know how that went. I had hopes at first that the "light dusting" of snow would end by 11am or so then the sun would come out and melt everything. So I cleaned some more, and waited. Plans changed. I was going to join Ryan and Roxy on a snow ride on the Wabash trace. Perfect!! That would be fun. Well right as Ryan stopped by to pick me up, Roxy, who had went ahead to get some more time on the trail, called and said it was a no go. Pretty much impossible to stay upright for more than 10 feet or so. So Ryan and I visited for a while(thanks for the coffee!), but decided it was in everyone's best interest to call it an inside day.

When Ryan left, it was 1:15-ish so I figured it was too late to join Bryan. Plus I really didn't want to ride a trainer. So I continued cleaning and getting other things in order before the Stupor Bowl. Every year I head to the parent's house to watch the Super Bowl(mostly for the commercials) and to eat orderves (yes I spelled it wrong, I'm not French) as a meal. It's not horrible food like fried wings and mini-weiners, but rather shrimps, veggies, compe'so(fancy bean dip) and other goodies. The game was fun at the beginning and end, but the middle was a snore-fest with the height of boredom being the half-time show. I remember thinking when Free Fallin came out in 1989, "Hey this song is ok because the video has a hot skateboarding chic, but that dude is old." That was almost 20 yeas ago. 20!!! I made the observation to my family that I think recently venues have started to pay "professional audience members" to act really interested, but still behave. Remember in the 90's, there were a couple incidents at major televised shows where the audience was either too rowdy or way too subdued? I believe, being that most of the 20-something audience members who were in diapers when Petty was kinda popular were more interested in actually being on camera looking excited and singing along with the telepromptered lyrics than looking up at the actual show on stage, that they were indeed paid to be there. It makes sense especially at the Super Bowl where they don't want any tomfoolery to happen on national TV so the poor little fragile children can grow up unscathed by images of boobies.

So anyway, some of the commercials were interesting, and the last quarter was fun. I'm glad I'm not a betting man that depends on stats. All I've heard from people is how there's probably guys out there who've lost their houses on that game. Kinda sad if it's true.

Hopefully next weekend will bring warmer temps and NO SNOW. I'm tired of it. Seriously. Bad Nature, bad.

Sunday update

Weather: mid 30s by mid-day, SE wind 15-ish mph. They are saying that a light snow is possible around then also. So what do we do? Meet up at Crane Coffee at 78th and Cass around noon and decide from there? I was planning to be home by 4-ish so I'm up for 3 or so hours.

Post responses for ideas.

Weekend plans

Shabbos: If you'se guy's have a plan, I'm all ears(or eyes, as in the case of teh interwebs). Otherwise, if no outside plans are a go, I was thinking about joining this ride.

Shabbos +1: Cloudy and mid to upper 30s for a high at 2pm. I know afternoon is not a popular time, but I think it'll be too cold to go early.

EDIT: Sunday has conflicting weather forecasts. Local stations say upper 30s with snow in evening. Weatherchannel says mid 30s with snow, and Accuweather.com says upper 20s(!) with freezing rain?!? So I say any plans for Sunday are probably tentative. Unless they involve riding indoors.

Any ideas, let me know.

What a glorious weekend!!

Two rides, both on the fast bike, both with good friends. Headed North-West-ish on Saturday into a chilly WNW wind, then headed South Eastish with a mild SE wind. It's weird because It's been so long since I've encountered temps above 40, I forgot how to dress for it. Sunday's ride was a little messy and since it was warm way into the evening, I just stayed out and completely cleaned up the race rig and took care of my commuters drivetrain. The Lemond is all shiny now and it makes me want to not ride it. I did take a close look at my big chainring and noticed that I may need a new one soon. It's teeth are starting to show some wear. Of course, I discover this after our team night, so ordering one now would be at regular price. Not gonna happen. Wouldn't be prudent. The commuter has fenders, but I've learned that I needed to install a mudflap on the front. Any regular fender is not going to reach all the way to the ground. The very bottom of the tire does kick up a lot of street crud. My chain/chainrings/cassette/rear derailleur were a dirty rusty mess. So I soaked the chain in simple green, and scrubbed the other parts good and not so cruddy. I then took an old MTB tire, cut a just long enough piece out and zip tied it to the bottom of my fender. I believe this will keep my drivetrain from collecting massive amounts of liquid road grime. I hope.

So anyway, today will be warm and windy so I'll probably head out after work on the commuter for a couple hour ride and enjoy the last of it for a while. Tomorrow isn't looking as bad as they had originally thought. No rain freezing over, but maybe a little snow. Some possible snow later this week, but the weekend is looking very rideable, barring a heavy snow.

I'm hoping the 3 rides I got in this week made a dent in my weight. First I dropped a couple with a 14 hour bike week, then gained them back with a 5 hour bike week. This week was about 8 hours so maybe I dropped 1 pound. Hopefully?

Shabbos +1

Crane Coffee on the Keystone (78th/Cass)
Noon -- or very soon thereafter
2.5 hours or so
Civil pace
make changes as necessary

(I have to be back at Crane a few minutes before 3.)

Shabbos double post

Gonna be mid-30s to low 40s tomorrow. Wind from the west under 10 mph. I say we roll.

Noon?
Bike Masters?
3 hours?

Input needed.

Oh, and Mike -- I saved a copy of the paper with your quote in it.

This one is strong with the cycling gods

Aaron Poole has left frigid Nebraska for Albuquerque to do his training camp thing. So in an email correspondence with him the other day, he finished with this:

" I got a ride to the hotel from the airport with Levi Leipheimer."

Just....Wow....This weekend he's riding among the current strongmen of pro-cycling and will have many stories to tell, I imagine. Looking forward to hearing them when he gets back.

A reading from the Gospel of Munson

"I had all the warm gear on I could have, and it was still a little chilly," said Mike Munson, who rode his bike to work at the University of Nebraska Medical Center this morning. Munson's cycling glasses frosted over because of his breathing.

There it is, folks -- Mike Munson, crazy person.

Morning commute pop quiz.

You know it's cold when:

a. your black balaclava is mysteriously white by end of commute.

b. your tires lose about 15 PSI due to slowing of air molecules.

c. you wear the equivalent of a wetsuit on you legs and they still get cold.

d. in the 20 minutes of riding, your water bottle is frozen.

e. the guy who, on a balmy 15 degree snowy commute last week rolled down his window to call you a freak, could only muster a honk of his horn this time.

f. the temperature is actually, well, I don't know, NEGATIVE 9 /NEGATIVE 16 WITH WINDCHILL!!!!!

g. Munson is a freak.

h. all of the above.

The hardest part is hopping on.

I haven't ridden since Sunday's trainer session at Bryan's. Well I rode to work, but that's like two 15 minute mosies. Not real riding. Today I told myself since I wasn't going to make the trainer ride at High Gear, that I should do my own trainer ride. I got home from work as it was snowing outside and cursed the winter. I grumbled to myself, "Well I already have the bike shorts on...but I really don't feel like subjecting myself to the trainer.....but I wouldn't mind watching Pro the Movie again since it's been a couple years...but it's the friggin trainer, it's gonna suck."

So after glancing down at my (slowly expanding) bare belly, I decided to give it a go. It was *gulp* fun. I put in a 10 minute and 15 minute LT interval at intense parts of the show, for motivation. One of which was Horner's massive attack on Manayunk wall. Man, I forgot how it felt to really dig deep and make your lungs hurt in an interval.

Maybe since I don't ride as much anymore, I get a much larger endorphine rush compared to my competitive days. I felt awesome after the trainer ride. I'm going to have to put in some more trainer time.

Random Post of the Day

I need to shave. My face is furry and my hairy legs are making my work pants clingy because of static.

Nothing else to report. Snow and temps below 20 are not my friends. I fear this weeks weigh-in. Fear it, I tell ya!!!

Shabbos ride anyone???

Well being that it'll be around -5 in the mornings and maybe upper single digits for highs this weekend, I'm thinking we should maybe plan a trainer group ride?

Sunday after 12pm, I could get my place all squared away for something like 3 trainers in front of the TV. We could ride for a few hours while watching a one day classic. I have GU to give out to anyone in attendance (hint, hint, Bryan).

Any other thoughts?

The Ride After. Or, Ooh, magical double post day!!

So after work I decided to ride down to HighGear and pick up the Cables I had ordered on Team Night. Thanks again, Matt, for being a glorious team liaison.

The ride was nice. The only thing that got cold on me was my quads. The clothing? Top to bottom: Balaclava under winterized helmet, Smartwool longsleeve baselayer, Thermal longsleeve jersey, Lobster Gloves, bike shorts, thermal leg warmers, knicker shorts, heavy duty smartwool socks, and these:



I didn't order the fancy Dura-Ace wheels, but instead, invested (with my too-be tax refund money) in some really good winter wear. I guess it didn't help that, when riding with all my teammates that weekend nearly everyone had these boots or older models. Anyone who has had these said they love them.

So with the clothing listed above, I was just fine. The ride home from the shop got a little chilly since the sun was going down and I had been sitting in the warm shop sweating with all that gear on.

The verdict after a 1.5 hr ride in 20*-15* weather: the thermal jersey is the best winter clothing I've ever worn since I felt no cold on my core/arms, and the shoes may not prevent my toes from going numb since I pedal in squares. My toes started to get cold near the end of the ride, but I suppose that could also be the temps. I'm also wondering if warm legs would have sent warmer blood down to the toes to keep them warm. My quads were the only part that really felt cold, but it was just fine.

So I'm continuing with training outside even in these temps. Sure I'll ride slower, but that's what I'm building now anyway, base miles.

What was that comment about being a crazy person?

"Freak!!" is what someone yelled out of their car window at me this morning. This means that they saw me, and decided it was a good idea to roll down their window in 15* weather, and voice their opinion about what they thought of me being on the road......on my bike.

Yes I rode to work today. The streets were barely plowed, and I forgot to switch over to cyclocross tires or ride my MTB. I was rollin on 28s (C). Sure that's fatter than normal 23C tires, but still pretty darn skinny in snow. The thing is, I made it to work just fine. It was a little hairy in spots. The side street getting to Center St had frozen snow with car tire ruts covered in a fresh layer of powder. If my wheels got in those ruts, my bike went where it wanted, even if that wasn't where I wanted. No biggie, just wiggled my way to Center then it was smooth sailing. Center wasn't plowed, really, but enough traffic had packed down or moved away most of the snow. All cars that passed me were only going a few mph faster, instead of the normal 20mph faster, so that was nice.

My motivation for doing this was a blurb on the news last night. They were talking about the snow and mentioned that "it didn't keep this South Omaha man from riding home on his bike," and had video of this guy riding. The video clip was short so I couldn't tell who he was or where he was riding, but I thought, if he can do it, so can I. We'll see what tonights ride will be like. I'd love to ride for an hour or so, but that may not be possible with traffic. I might ride down to the Keystone trail and see if it's rideable. Should be fun regardless!

Do I have Adult A.D.D.?

I'm reading a guide on being an Bicycle Race official and no matter what I do, I can't finish a page without wondering off in my mind. Here's how reading works for me: *read, read* Oh yeah, that reminds me about this time... (eyes are still reading, but brain is elsewhere)...Crap, I finished that whole paragraph and I have no idea what it said.

I noticed this problem happening more as my college years progressed. At the beginning, I was fine. I could read through anything and stay focused. Nowadays, if I'm not completely enthralled with the subject, my brain finds something else to do while reading.

This makes my head hurt to think about since reading is sort of an inner dialogue. Reading is your brain speaking words to yourself, correct? So how can you have an inner dialogue over your inner dialogue? Ouch - brain freeze. Or rather brain argument.

So is it just me? Do I have some form of A.D.D? Or does this happen to everyone? Or is this something that most people don't talk about out in the open for fear of being labeled a crazy person?

So Fresh and So Clean.

As promised I'm cutting into prime sleeping time to post pics of our new team kits.

For your viewing pleasure:





It always baffles me to see how much I look like my little brother. You'd think we were related or something.

Oh yeah, Weight Loss Challenge '08 update. Well I first weighed in at 170 with clothes. After a week of about 14hrs of riding, I was down 2 pounds. I don't know if it'll last though. The future weather outlook is quite glib. Snow tomorrow possibly totaling half a foot, then cold as-the-ass-of-death temps for the foreseeable future. Ugh. This does not bode well for my interest in exercise since the outdoors will be almost dangerous. Crappity crap-crap.

I can't feel my face.

So if you want to hear a funny story, just ask me about my experience with 1 Margarita after Tour of KC a couple years ago. The title of this post is included in said story.

That is all.

Putting in time.

I rode 4 hrs total on Sunday, rode to and from work this whole week, Rode 1.5 hrs on Tuesday night, and did the Trainer night ride on Wednesday. So that puts me at....um...carry the 2..... 9-ish hours so far this week. I'm gonna ride at least an hour Friday night , then head over to Lincoln on Saturday for my Team's training camp deal. We're scheduled to ride from 10am to 3pm, but we'll see how long we actually go. So after at least 13 hrs on the bike I can't wait to weigh myself this weekend!!

Here's the goofy part. I gave blood on Monday after work. So I'm starting off a solid training block with diminished red blood cell supplies. I wonder if my body will super-compensate and produce more than normal RBC's. If so, it'll be like taking EPO, but for a good cause and not illegal.

Weight Loss '08 Challenge.

So I don't know how many people really read my blog, but I'm always surprised when someone I seldomly chat with asks, "So you still at 168lbs?" I guess that means more people read my blog than I thought. That's pretty darn cool.

Anywho....

THE WEIGHT LOSS '08 CHALLENGE.

Here's the back story on this crazy idea. The scale is at Trek Store of Omaha as well as a spreadsheet I conjured up with my mad pc skillz. So if you feel like it, hop on the scale and hop into fitness by adding your name to the list(want nachos with that cheese?) . I have 10 name places on the spreadsheet, so if enough people join in, I'll make another list. All you have to do is weigh in the first time as a starting point, then weigh in each week, or monthly, or whatever till the first week of May. I figure that'll give all of us plenty of time to safely lose some of the "winter insulation" that occurs naturally.

We can play for money, or not. I suggested a buck a pound lost, the winner keeps their money and collects other's who agreed to join in the monetary part of the game. I have thought about going to a percentage of weight loss setup, but I'm not sure how that would work. If anyone has any thoughts or experience in this type of fun competition, please respond. Or, just respond anyway with your comments and whether you're planning on joining in.

Here's to everyone having a safe and healthy '08 with as many fun rides as possible.

LET THE GAME BEGIN!!!

Now that's what I'm talkin bout..

Great fun today. With the ride to and from I had just over 4 hrs on the bike. The last hour of hills seemed a little quicker than standard Shabbos (+1) effort, but then again, I was purdy tired.
Missed having Sean and Brady on board, but it was nice having Marco and Matt Pav. tow us for most of the ride. So total headcount was 7 of us: Me, Bryan, John, Ryan, Roxxy, the Pav, and Marco.

Good times all around. We ventured up North then West, then Northwest, turned around, headed back toward Elkhorn and got some of my favorite brick road mashing in before meandering back home. I haven't been on the Bike Masters Wed night ride route in a while. I have many memories of pain on those roads. I really should visit their rides once in a while this coming summer. It's just really convenient to hop into the Trek Store ride since it's right by my house.

So I'm off to a great start of burning calories for the Weight Loss '08 challenge. Ran an hour or so Saturday, didn't do the ride in the afternoon though (Sorry Matt), and put in some good miles today. Now I just have to somewhat watch what I eat and ride just about everyday with at least 2 long rides a week. That'll get me down to fighting weight by May.

Shabbos +1 update.

So according to all weather sources, Sunday is now drastically different than originally thought. High of mid 30s with a N to NW wind only at 7-ish mph(I'm SO pissed at this change). Since wind in the cold is more annoying than in warmth, I say we plan a new route to the North.

Meeting Place: Scooters Coffee at 120th and Blondo. Meeting time still 12:30.

Sound off in the comments if this is doable. I plan on riding from my place (Aksarben area) by noon so if us mid-town folk want to meet up and head out there, we could get more group mileage in. Again, post your thoughts so we can get this worked out.

The Official Shabbos and Shabbos +1 schedule.

Saturday: 8am, Charbucks at 63rd and Center.
Event: 10-12 mile run (ouch)
Also: I'm doing a ride sometime in the afternoon just to work out the legs from running. Easy spin on the trail; give me a call if you want to join.

Sunday: (new and improved time)12:30-ish pm at Crane Coffee, 78th and Cass.
Event: 3-4 hour ride, heading South possibly as far as Glennwood then home.
Also: Much food eating to recover from activities.

Post if times/places need to change.

Shabbos +1: Welcome to 2008

It's gonna be like this on Sunday -- though probably without all the pros. Anyway: sunny, warmish. We need to ride for about 7 hours. I'd settle for 3 or 4, though.

Let's the get the details figured out!

Shabbos +1: The 2007 finale

So here's the deal: I can't do the bike in the morning and run in the afternoon thing. And I can't really wait until the afternoon to ride. So I'm going at 8. Yeah, it'll be cold. Point of origin is negotiable, but I have to be at my house at 11:30. Oh, and the wind will be from the south.

There's frozen Goose poop everywhere!!!

At least on the Keystone trail between 25th St and Cornhusker, there is.

After reading this blog, I got a hankerin for a bike ride. I haven't really been on a true bike ride in about 3 weeks, maybe more. So after work, at 4:30pm, I figured I'd do my 1.5 hr loop down Bellevue blvd to Old Town Bellevue, then back up the trail. I'd have just enough time to pick up my woman from her work a little after 6pm. But wait Mike, wasn't it 23 degrees with a NE wind at 8-ish mph? Why would you head South at the beginning? And wasn't it foolish to try it on your heavy commuter without shoe covers???

Hey, I was jonesin for a ride so I threw caution to the wind (which really made me suffer going into that wind along the Keystone at the end of the ride) and went for it anyway. My core was fine and my feet were good....for the first half hour or so. Then the circulation somehow stopped flowing to the toes on my left foot. This always happens because I have bony feet and my left is my dominant mashing side. It was pretty outside with lots of frost and slow traffic, but man did the foot thing get to me eventually. I think even if I had had heavy shoe covers, they would have eventually froze.

After I got the the Keystone trail at 25th St, I realized the ride was taking longer than normal. I had to get off the bike and run for a while to thaw out my toes a little. After a 5 minute jog, they felt pretty good, aside from my 2nd toe on my left foot. It was the weirdest feeling. It felt like I had a metal toe ring on that was making all the rest of my toes (especially the big toe next to it) get cold really fast. I hopped back on the bike and tried to focus on pulling up instead of mashing. This is very difficult to do when you're tired, hungry, going into a headwind, and worried about getting home as soon as possible. Then the Goose poop came into view. It was all over the trail and was more dangerous than the sheets of ice by the under-bridges passes. I'd try to dodge them, but hit a couple and almost got taken out. Them suckers are like little boulders. So if you plan on riding the Keystone between Cornhusker and 25th, beware. I was late picking up the woman because somehow, the ride took almost 2 hours. I guess the heavy bike and running to thaw the feet made a difference, but man that was a tough one. I think I'm going to stay away from night rides and just do runs during the week. For feets sake.



Here's a looksie at the condition of said feet right after the ride: (warning, gross foot content ahead)





Directly after taking this picture, I hopped into the shower since my core temp was dropping. This was a bad idea because blood rushed to the reddish parts of my left foot and swelled up bad. I was also really really cold. After my shower I got fully clothed and just dove under the covers of the bed hoping the warm comforter would help me out. It did, but only after about 10 minutes of shivering. So can anyone tell me why my left foot does this and how I can remedy the situation. In the summertime, I don't care that the circulation goes away because it's hot and that blood is needed elsewhere. But in the wintertime, frozen feet keep me from riding outside. I think I need to go see an athletic foot doctor who specializes in cycling. Right, like there's such a person out there....

Weekend run or ride?

Any plans for this weekends get together, assuming we have one? I'm free all weekend and need some exercise. This weather better improve soon or I'm gonna give Ms. Thang mother nature a stern shaking of my fist followed by a serious look of disapproval.

Last mass email from dear old dad.

So my dad sends me great forwards from his work email. You know, those fowards where your address is in the middle of about 100 others. Good times.

Well my dad added to a forward today, " Just a Christmas funny to send along. And you can delete this email address. I am retiring from UP and this is my last day."

UGH, that hit me like a ton of bricks. My dad is officially entering retiredom. I can't even imagine the wave of emotions he's going through. All I can say is, thank you dad, for being the greatest dad I know. You have always been there and I hope you enjoy your free time now and I love you.

Thanks again and Congratulations!!

Saturday run

Is this still in the works? Time? Place?