Off to school

I skipped the ride to work today (I have Tuesdays off, but I was going to pick up some extra hours) but I still have a 48 mile round trip to school. I am going to time the ride and use the MP3 player to distract myself from the pain that sometimes occurs when I try to make it under a certain time limit. I am shooting for an hour and twenty minutes on the way there and one hour fifty on the way home. I have a half hour to get ready so I need to pack a change of clothes, hit up the ol' toilet, charge up my light and fill water bottles now. I'll report back.

No rides in the last three days. I attended a wedding on Saturday, I wanted to ride into work, work for a half day and take the train to meet up with Amy. But the train was canceled over the weekend for rail maintenance. Luckily I noted this valuable info the night before, thus driving in to work instead. Sundays have lately become my days off the bike and it remained that way again. Today I was all set to ride into work and then ride home, but realized my shoes were in the car, parked at Amy's parent's house. I thought I could jump to the backup shoes, then remembered pillaging a cleat from them last week. I was upset that I was disorganized and missed a ride, but at least I remembered two minutes before Amy left so I carpooled to the train station.
I will no longer be able to leave things in my car, I am selling it. I had planned on buying a cheap motorcycle and saving up my car payments for awhile. But I may be buying a nice roadbike instead. Banning (the shop owner) offered me a spot on the race team, which would also mean a free carbon frame. I would still have to put a few hundred dollars of parts into it, but they would be at wholesale prices and could be paid off interest free over a few months. This off course means I would have to start having to taking my riding rather seriously. I wouldn't have to change my mileage by a huge amount, but I would need to stick to a regular training schedule. Of course if I have no motorcycle, then well...
I worked out a schedule:
Mondays I would ride at a hard pace into work (1 hour 20 is my best time right now, 25.5 miles) and them hard home (1 hour 40 thanks to climbing the hills.)
Tuesday is my day off and I normally don't ride much lately due to school, but I would add a long mountain or road ride of 3 hours or more at a moderate pace.
Wednesdays I would drive my bike into work, but leave it there and ride home at an easy pace. I think it will be about 2 hours 10 a night.
Thursdays I would ride into work at a moderate overall pace but turn certain sections into mini sprints or climbing each hill as fast as possible to keep my time within 1 hour 35. Then I would drive my bike to school (Or pedal) an d then home (or if pedalling, have Amy pick me up after her workouts).
Fridays would be an easy ride into work, taking about 1 hour 50. Then I would probably have Amy meet me for dinner or a ride home. I took Friday nights off for years and it is hard to ride or workout still.
Saturday i would leave open to either the motorcycle or a ride at "Saturday pace."
If I have a motorcycle, I would still have to pedal every other Saturday. "Saturday pace" varies and depends on the other bike traffic. There are always more rides on my route than normal, but sometimes I still only see riders on the opposite side of the road. But sometimes I see four or five riders and end up chasing them down. And I never like to be passed. Saturdays on the way home are the same, but I generally back off the pace, but the other riders out seem to be doing the same.
That adds up to a weekly total of 230 miles plus another dirt ride or 40 road miles if I don't end up with a motorcycle, which is actually pretty close to the amount of miles I should be riding to compete at the level I want to.
Anywise, I need to get some sleep and ride in tomorrow morning and then off to school.

This looks like a fun course...

Back on track

So since my last my last post I have been back on the bike. The very next day I rode into work. It was a good ride, I felt strong and pedaled well. I wasn't sure what time I left the house, but I thought it took about an hour forty. I took the train and met Amy at the station. The next day I rode in with a watch on. I kept it running as a stopwatch. It was awesome, but I think I will have to limit myself to that once a week. I ended up pedaling my ass off. I kept glancing down, estimating my mileage (I refuse to use and computer, and this reinforces that decision) and then trying to make up the time to get to work in an hour and a half. When I was about five miles away, I noticed I might be able to make it an hour and twenty minutes. Which I did… with twenty seconds to spare. I was very excited, especially when I realized I averaged over 19 miles an hour including stoplights and other road crossings. That day a coworker asked if I wanted to go watch speedway motorcycle racing, which is racing smallish single cylinder motorcycles on a very tight oval. It sounded like fun which it was, a lot. Check it out:


More details on the wacky, brakeless, bikes later.
But getting to the races involved another ten miles of riding in under forty minutes. I did, but I was dead at the end of the day.
I didn't ride on Sunday, but I rode partway into work after carpooling with Amy. It was only ten miles and I kept the pace slow. That night I took the train and met with Amy.
The next day I was all set to ride the 40 mile round trip to school and back but I broke a spoke within five minutes of starting off. That is the one drawback to rough commuting miles, it really beats up your stuff. I fixed the wheel tonight, did some homework, and got my mountain bike ready for some dirt tomorrow morning.
Woo-hooo

Redhook ESB (Redhook Brewing; Seattle, Washington)

I had it for lunch today on tap. Smooth with maltiness and hops, but not bitter. Not as malty as Fat Tire and much hoppier. It's awesome.

Blah

So I was a lazy ass this morning and didn't pull myself out of bed in time to complete my checklist, and therefore ride. I felt down about not getting out to ride, but I managed to make a healthy breakfast of whole grain hot cereal for Amy and myself.

Ended up driving my car in with my bike in the back. Work went really quickly, and I looked at the clock and realized I had 15 miles to change a tube and get to the train station...

My plan was to leave my car at work (also forcing myself to ride in the next morning) take the train a few miles closer to campus, and then ride my bike the remaining five miles at a wicked rate of speed, sit in class, and then continue once again at a blistering pace a few miles further and carpool with Amy homeward.

I swapped the tube and hauled ass out, got jammed up and at a street crossing thanks to the two ton death boxes, missed the train and ended up driving to school.

Leaving my car at school invited logistical nightmares and possibly financial consequences, so I drove home as well.

One last chance invited itself once I finally did make it home, saying, "ride up the hill, out to the end of the road." I turned it away.

So, I rode: 0 miles

In the morning...

I will wake up early, shower, eat breakfast, pack a change of clothes, change he flat on my bike and ride to work. (Total: 25.5 miles)

Then I will ride the train from work to the train station and ride to school. (3 miles)

Then to eat free pizza and beer with Amy's softball team. (7 miles)

I need to wake up by 6:00 AM, at the latest!

I am putting this in print to make it so.

The reward is 35 miles in, spread out over 12 hours so it is a soild way to build mileage.

WAKE UP!

I wish I was a diurnal creature, but I am wired to stay up all hours of the night typing and clicking away in front of this computer.

Results

So I rode after I set my goal last post. I only ended up riding 20 miles or so. I did a three mile warm up in 8 minutes and 17 miles in 50 minutes. I felt really good about my time. It is one of the first ocassions I have timed myself. I also did an eassy pace 10 mile ride with my sister last week and a 5 mile sprint. Yesterday I rode 24 miles but without the clock. I was glad to be riding despite it being 104 outside.

Today I will ride home 25 miles from work.

Training plans

So I am committing myself to posting my training log and plans for the upcoming race season. By race season I mean the cyclocross season. If you don't know what 'cross racing is, it is basically riding a road bike through a park with obstacles that require you to get off the bike and run. I plan on racing on September 29th, and three to four others into the month of December. It can be wet, muddy and cold in most parts of the world during this race season (check this out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=PXQMw4n29qU ) but in southern California it is pretty tame.
I was inspired to post my plans by a good friend who tracking fitness goals on his blog: djeepp.blogspot.com

SOO...
For Tuesday, August 21st:
Ride 31 miles and record my time.

Woo-hoo

Blah.....

Sooo...
'tis been a mighty while since I have posted to this damn thing, not that many may care. However, it has served as a useful outlet in the past, sorta like a diary I guess. Firstly, (as the title may suggest) I am physically, mentally and emotionally drained due to a multitude of reasons.

The short list reads as follows:
The death of a very close friend
I am planning a wedding
I just moved, BUT
I am house hunting
Working 55 hours a week at a rapidly yet inefficiently expanding small business
Catching a shitload of flak from a future bitcher in law as well her daughter for reasons that I have no control over

I dunno, I am really really down right now, at a time in which I should be very happy. I guess life sucks sometimes, but it sucks much worse when it feels like you have no one to turn to. I know I always have God to turn to, and I should fell comfort in that but it seems as even if that connection has been strained to the limit. (Add that to the upper end of the list)

A death is always tough, it especially hurts when you are just starting to understand the true nature of a person. It while it sucks no matter what the age, to lose someone when they themselves are just understanding that they are a unique and mature person is crushing. I had always considered Galen as sort of a little brother, but was realizing more and more that he was teaching me more things about life than I was him. It is funny how younger brothers have a way of doing that.

It was also difficult for me to look inward and find that I have neglected so many others that I should have an even closer relationship with. I realize that all the bullshit about "being busy" or "not having time" is just a fucked up way of saying I am lazy and desire to emotionally detached. While I still reject the cliches spouted at memorial services like "time is short" and "live every day as if it was your last" Galen's death has made me realize I am too out of touch just because I don't want to feel the pain that sometimes results from other people's decisions, illness or deaths. Basically, I have been hurting others, and myself because I am self-centered. (That is a hell of an oxymoron)

Wedding planning sucks. Sorry to all you future brides who have spent you entire life dreaming about "the day" but it S-U-C-K-S for this groom. The combined effects of constant conflicts with soon to be family as well as the strain of coordinating the visit and attendance of my own family are just way too much for an affair which I had always considered to be a simple day of celebration and recognition of a bond sealed with God's blessing and has placed a very bitter taste in my mouth. Kinda like coco powder mixed with chewed acorns. It sucks to say, but I just want the whole thing to be over, NOW.

And I am too tired to type any further (severe emotionally stress has always induced drowsiness for me) and I am going to end this on a whoa is me note. (Yeah, that shit is spelled wrong, I think)

Life sucks, sorry.

The proud new owner of a Crosscheck!

Yes I am!
I set the bike up as a single speed super sprinter. It is gerared with a 52 tooth chainring (the biggest road ring) and a 18 tooth rear. It can be a pain to pedal up long steep hills, but I mainly use it for the 20 mile, hour and fifteen minute haul ass to work. Pictures to follow...
The welding also started on my full custom 29" wheeled single speed mountain bike. Oh yeah, two new bike in one year! I guess this makes up for riding the same bike for the last five years.

Pictures below...

Okay, before this turns into a bike only blog, a little update on what is new and exicting off a bike and outside of the shop...
School is sucking, which is especially disappointing since it is the first semester I have been enrolled Bio-only classes. Nothing great to report; no papers, no research, no projects, basically no challenge.
The wedding plans are moving along. The wedding party has been set, bride and bridesmaids dresses have been selected and invitations choices have been pared down to a chosen few. Amy says hello to the three people that may end up reading this. We are thinking we are flying home in early to mid May, we'll start planning that trip soon.

Below are some pictures of a ride two Sundays ago. It was an epic ride, that included many crashes, tacos and beer, and me on a bike with no gears or suspension riding the shit out of it.
The bike is a singlespeed 29" wheel size (the same as road bikes) mountain bike. The group started a dozen strong and worked its way down to 6 guys on five and six inch travel full suspension bikes and one hippy on a steel rigid. I outclimbed everyone, but I even think I did a great job keeping up on the downhills. But Amy did an even better job staying with the group and rode a bunch of sections that suprised me, anf maybe even her.

Enjoy the photos!

Tacos seemed like a good idea... until the 4 mile climb up a giant hill. 

It's really steeper than it looks!  

Amy picking up some speed. 

Joel already had some speed . 

Rolling the Kona Unit 29" singlespeed through some rocky stuff. 

Me at Interbike on a funky titatium bike built by Jeff Jones 

The Dirt Demo

Ok, time for some more.
Vegas was a blast. I had to take a test and a quiz on the first day of the riding demo, so I ended up leaving here at 10:00 pm, driving to Vegas by myself and then sleeping in my car at the parking lot of the site. The guys from the shop had been up partying the whole night so I they slept in, then woke up and got breakfast, etc. I was anxious to ride so I headed in as soon as the gates opened. The first bike I rode was a Surly Crosscheck cyclocross bike. Basically, a 'cross bike is a heavier version of a road bike that you can ride on dirt, gravel, and easy trails.(http://www.surlybikes.com/bikes.html) I rode it on the 3 mile closed road loop they had set up fopr road bike riding. After that brief warm-up I returned to the Surly tent and checked out the most unique bike at the show, the Pugsley. This bike has giant 3.7" tires (I run 2.1" or 2.3" tires on my mountain bike) so you can ride it on sand, snow, loose gravel and if you pedal really, really fast it can probably go across water. I took it out for a really short ride, but it was fun to ride across loose gravel that would sink a normal bike. And you CANNOT burnout the back tire, no matter how hard you try to pedal. The Surly guys were really fun to hang out with and after talking about riding around the Cities (they are in Bloomington) I headed over to the Redline booth to ride another cyclocross bike. It was ok, but I liked the Crosscheck much better.
Now that I was warmed up, I headed over to the Turner booth to ride the newest version of their 5 Spot mountain bike (dual suspension with 5 inches of travel) I wanted to try out a 19" bike (which is generally considered too small for someone who is 6'3", but I like smaller frames.) The woman working insisted on a 22", so I took it out. The dirt riding consisted of 3 loops of varying distance and difficultly, with the number 1 loop being about 1.5 miles with rollercoaster type hills, some pretty sharp corners and some fast banked turns as well as a few little jumps.
The very first turn, I came into it too fast and the long ass bike did not react like I am used to, so I went straight through it. I wasn't hurt, but I felt like a dumbass, especially since I had sat and waited at the start for some chubby dude to get a headstart, thinking that I was faster than him. Anyways the 5 Spot experience sucked, due to being unfamiliar with the trail and the bike feeling really big and unresponsive. From there I headed over to the GT booth. Our shop does not carry GT but I wanted to try them out. I rode a I-Drive 5 4.0 which has the same 5" travel, dual suspension set-up as the Turner, but costs the about $300 less as a complete bike than the Turner frame alone costs. After climbing up a gravel road for a mile or so I turned around and took it out on loop #1 and ripped through it twice, even catching some air on the jumps. I liked this bike and it was really easy to jump. I went back and picked up a I-Drive 7 2.0. This bike has 7" of rear suspension, and a triple clamp front fork like a motorcycle, meaning the front fork is held in place by three clamps, not just one like most bikes. This thing is heavy and is meant to go fast and jump high. I peddled it up to loop #1 and did a lap. The jumps at the end were so sweet, (I was higher than I have ever been on a bike, which isn't saying much but it was a awesome feeling.) I decided to do the loop and again and really hit them. The first one was fine, the second bigger one wasn't so fine. I pulled up on the bars at the lip of the jump and realized right away that I was way too sidewise. I tried to correct it but pretty much fell 6' out of the sky going 20+ mph and ejected myself off the sidewise bike. I didn't get hurt too bad other than some nasty shin and arm road rash and a big bruise and sore ribs. It must have looked bad because the rider behind me dropped his bike and came running up to me as I was dusting myself off and laughing. My jersey, shorts and the bike all suffered though. Rips in the clothes and I twisted the fork and handlebars pretty badly so I rode back with the wheel pointing straight, and the handlebars about 40 degrees to the left. I located a booth that had good old plain water and not some new fangled sports drink, washed my wounds out and took off on a Norco Shore 2. http://www.norco.com/ts/pass/templates/bike_model.php?lang=en&loc=fs&sloc=fr&tabloc=1&id=shoretwo&col=matteblack
I thought I was getting on a 5" travel bike that was just built heavily. It pedaled around very well, which surprised me because it looked and felt very heavy. I did the #1 loop and yes, I did try the jumps, and felt so good on the bike I took off on the 4 mile #2 loop. I stopped at one point to let some riders on lighter bikes get a headstart down a hill and noticed I the bike I was on was actually a 7.5" travel beast! And I had been catching people going up hills while they were on hardtails and short travel bikes on this thing! Needless to say, I was impressed. Going down hills and into rough sections was unreal. It was like a motorcycle, and I could FLY. I went back to the booth and talked to the reps and met some of the guys from the shop who were getting ready to ride the shuttle truck up to the top of the big downhill run. I didn't have and pads, and the thought of waiting in line for 2 hours to ride a truck up a hill and then come down really didn't interest me. I like to pedal bikes, that's why the have them. So I wandered around, grabbed some bars, gel packets and sports drinks, tried to choke down a beer and then rode the Redline 'cross bike again. I was starting to feel tired and hot (I wonder why, riding for 4 hours non-stop in 90 degree weather.) so this little "break" was nice. After that I found a booth serving some turkey dogs so I chowed that as I walked to the Marin booth. I took out a lightweight, four inch travel Mount Vision. I climbed the long gravel road that lead into the canyon and the steep, twisty trails back there. This bike was a a lot of fun and really is the only mountain bike that I rode that I would consider buying. It is was a real climbing machine and you can lock the rear shock and front fork so it doesn't bounce around (and rob power) when you pedal hard uphill. It was a lot of fun and I rode it probably 50 minutes or more before heading back. The wind had picked up at this point and there was only about an hour left (some booths were already closing) so I picked up the Crosscheck again, but this time took it out on the #1 loop. Once again, I was surprised. I could ride this bike very fast on a rough, winding mountain bike trail. Fast enough to catch other riders and have them pull aside to let me pass. Fast enough to pull away from some leg-shaver on a hardtail racing type bike. It was a kinda scary experience riding through corners on dirt all hunched over and using the drop bars of a road bike, but fun. And yes, I did jump it! I even hopped off a 3' drop-off with it. After two laps, I was tired, dirty, bloody, and was ready to go home. BUT, I am buying a Surly Crosscheck.
Bye for now, I will report on the tradeshow and other events next time.

Another mostly worthless update

Hmmm.... what's new?
Not a bunch work is going very well. I really enjoy working on and selling bikes; this week is the InterBike trade show in Vegas. After class tonight (a quiz and a test, I should be studying) I am driving out there. The rest of the shop is already there and spent today riding on the latest '06 bikes and gear. The riding is held Bootleg Canyon (one of IMBA's "Epic Rides) has become the meca of product testing for the industry. Tuesday is more of the same, so all and all it adds up to two days of great trails, open roads, and thousands of bikes and products. The trade show portion opens on Wednesday and fuses 1,000+ brands with 10,000+ buyers from 60+ countries - the ultimate blend of industry leaders with innovative products in the bicycle business, should be a lot of fun.
I spent the day in Sacramento last Friday for a wedding. It was short but very fun. We flew in early in the AM so we had time to explore a bit and grab some lunchg before the wedding which was held in a converted Victorian mansion right near the governor's mansion. No, the Governator doesn't live there, it is now just a museum.
Other than that... school is going well, nothing exciting though. The wedding plans are moving smoothly. While in Sacramento we stopped in a sweet jewelry store and looked at some very unqiue rings for myself. Nothing else to report, back to hitting the books. And I am so sick of studying, I probably will punch and possibly punt them.
Later