Yet Another Decent Weekend

Just mashing around the Muir trails again. There were some wet spots out there, so I didn't take any more time off. In fact, I was feeling pretty slow. Though in the end, my time wasn't really that slow.

After one lap, I ran into Coop and Anne. Anne let me lead out my second lap and never had to climb over me. It was cool to have some like-speeded company. Coop went blowing by at some point.

The win for the day. I cleared the hill just after mile 9. Now I just have a few spots to get right/regular and I'm on the the blue loop clean. Sounds easier than it might be for a bit.

Catch you out there.

Alienating Half My Base

Over the past weekend, I was signed up for the Spirit of Racine Half. I had Friday off to get all my race gear ready. I have done the race every year it has been there, starting back in 2002.

I bagged it. The official reason was my heel had me not running for the last few months. I went trail riding Friday, and again Sunday. I had an absolute blast. I'm getting (oh so slightly) faster. It was totally worth bagging the race. I'm off the hook and never have to go back unless I want to.

On the other side, I saw some folks in the results that I would have liked to have seen, and encouraged.

On to Chequamegon!!

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

This last weekend was the Levis Trow WEMS race. It included the Wisconsin Single Speed State Championship race. Here are some random thoughts with respect to my experience there. No excuses, just observations.

It was only the third trail bound excursion I've had on my new 29er Singular Swift. Yep, love the bike.

Two grueling 12+ mile loops. It was a beautiful, if not increasingly warm day. I rode up with a good group and met a few other regulars responsible for me even attempting the race. I recall last year TmonT saying "you need to check this place out, but might want to get your chops up first". Yet this year there was no mention of chops. So, I went. (probably should have had more chops).

The lead out and the beginning single track was delightful. I was even equipped to handle this part with my beginner riding.

Ascending the bluffs was something else. I had a gear that could do it in some spots, and legs that couldn't in others.

Occasionally, my brain talked me out of a few semi difficult spots. I've assured myself that any one of these spots on it's own would be very doable, but stacked up into this 25 miles of "what did I get myself into?" went slightly beyond my reach.

I rode planks, bridges, rocks, roots, switchbacks, ascents, descents and any number of other fun little obstacles. I had some minor hiccups, to be expected. Thankfully, nothing left me laying there for the ticks to devour me.

Somewhere past 1.5 laps, I went full-on-toast mode. Upon reflection, I was perhaps dehydrated in addition to being cooked. I pushed in spots, cursing my inability to pedal no more. I stopped at the last aid station, grabbing a few orange slices for the coast into the finish.

Not far from the end, I heard "here comes the elusive one". Then an announcer that I know not where his all-day-enthusiasm comes from called me in as the last SS champs racer of the day. I'm sure they were all really happy they didn't have to come out and save me somewhere on the trail!

I'm looking forward to taking my new experience back to the Muir trails.

Last, and most important.. It's good to finish with a smile.


Big thanks to Velogrrl for the photo.

Pictures

Or it didn't happen.

First Ride on the Singular Swift 29er

While it's fresh. This morning I hit the South Kettles on my new rigid, steel framed, Hayes Stroker, Sun Ringle disc-o-flea, Sugino crank, Phil ebb, 19T endless kickass cog, Singular Swift via the Peddler of Prairie himself. Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts.

It was a beautiful day. I abstained from any brewed beverages last night for the full, early rise effect of getting more riding in. I was going to go for a 5am alarm, but once we were home and crashed it was later than I thought. So, 5:30am would have to do. Jump in the rain-box, grabbed my stuff, made some espresso, and one trip back in for my forgotten ipod, and I was out the door minutes past 6am.

At Muir and ready to ride about 7:30, I tweaked things and just made sure it was all ready to go. Tightened up the pedals. Realigned the front brake, fixing the UFO sound. And one red loop just for warm-up and grins.

The momentum of the ride is incredible. The bike wants to go much faster than me. It doesn't lose speed, save when I am braking or heading up a hill. When I'm "just peddling along" I feel like I'm going faster and much easier than I was on my old bike. (insert tidbit about 15 years of improvements in bike geometry advances).

It took me a bit just to get used to how it felt over bumps. I'm accustomed to a squishy old front suspension. I'm much more upright on the swift and could lean in and bend my elbows. Though, I felt I had to duck quite a bit more.

The good and bad of uphills. The momentum factor had me speeding up some hills and struggling on others. It seemed much more difficult for me to buckle down and hurk the rest of the way up the hill once it was too steep. This could just be a matter of finding the right spot to be in when I am climbing. Also, I'll guess the wider bars on my list will help the up hills.

Dare I say, everywhere else was a win/win. I won't talk times because mine are pretty slow. But, my first loop was a medium effort with a few short stops for a sip of water (not long enough to let the mosquitoes gather). It was at least 5 minutes faster than my last loop on my old bike, where I was really pushing it. I went for loop 2 and wore out at the end. I did well the front half, but wore out on the back half.

The big win, I was grinning most of the time. Which is what counts.

If I didn't mention it before, a big thanks / shout out go to the folks that helped me put this together (and listened to my whining waiting for it).

Rick
Russell
Tim
Marty

And of course my wife.

Now I just gotta get this thing out to a ride/race or two before the big Fat Tire. I'll have to chat with my council about Levis.

Riding in the Rain

This morning I took off for my regular 20 miler on the fixed gear. I've been doing this the last couple days and most of last week. It was just below 60 degrees and there was a slight drizzle. This was somewhat cooler than it has been for a few weeks on my rides.

I had all sorts of wonderful ideas of how to make a great post about this. My rush to get home and off to work peels those from me never to be heard again. Here's what's left.

There is such a cleansing effect to riding in the rain. I won't say it was tough to go. It wasn't. Rain jacket or not, I knew I would be soaked by ride's end.

I started easy, with my turnaround point in mind.

Heading north past Silver Spring, the runners I see remind me to wish Robin a "Happy Birthday". Still the rain comes down.

As my Fat Cyclist arm warmers soak to the core, I am reminded "Win Susan". Still the rain comes down.

Once I headed back, I picked it up to medium pace with a few pushes up hills to keep the momentum going. I have to make faster cadence easy on one gear this year. The rain cools me and I am steady.

Returning home, I had time to ditch the soaked clothes and hit the shower before the rest of the family was up.

No, this was nowhere near the post I had in mind this morning.

In spite of a poor night's sleep, it was a good ride today. I highly recommend a regular rain ride.

Evidence

A.K.A. What I've been doing in the dungeon today.



The frame is pretty. After all the painstaking advice giving to me about how to photo a bike, I got to the 11th hour and just had to take an evidence shot. Yep, it's here. I have the parts I have on it. Shortly hoards of folks will come teaming out of the woodwork and help me with the last bits (or are those termites?).

While I have the photo up, yep recently they've been doing some gas upgrades around here and that pipe sticking out of the wall used to be a meter. Isn't it nice how that ugly old meter isn't there anymore, just that beautiful pipe.

Time for bed, been up since 2 AM.

Parts

Oh blog, how I have neglected you lately.

props to Endless for being there and recommended.
My LBS always gets a nod. But the chain was recommended, then the recommendation was refined. Then maybe I got it wrong over the cell phone connection. We'll see.

I gotta say, accumulating the parts is nice. And I'm almost there. But the backbone of the entire new 29er bike project is slated to be in sometime this week. No word yet.

No worries. I will wait out this without concern. It turns out last time I went to the woods to ride, I checked a tree. Thus, this week I'm nursing a hockey injury without ever playing hockey (apparently checking boards can cause such). I hope to have this diversion and on-call all taken care of about the same time the build for the new bike is d-o-n-e. With a little luck, this could turn out well.

I won't tell you I plan to take a bunch of photos of the build process. We know that once I have the stuff, I won't be stopping the grease gun to take pictures. I do hope to have a nice looking end photo I can put up once we're all complete. Bonus if I can take a few pics in between.

See you on the other side.

Cue B****n' Rock Music

Today, I obtained some sweet 29er wheels. Upon getting them home, I recalled my days in the restaurant biz at various cooking jobs. I was making a hot dog for the boy, and mac and cheese for the girl, and oh yeah mounting some 29er tires to my new 29er wheels, with new 29er tubes. Color me excited. All pumped up and there is news of a frame just over the horizon.

If the anticipation stage is any indication, I'm going to have a blast on this new ride.

Anyone Get the License Plate?

I suppose that's a bad title in a somewhat bike centric blog. No specific run-ins with autos here. But man did my momentum get messed up hard. I've been doing the weekend warrior schedule, and it's time to man up and really put some daily miles in.

I've got me a 100 miles to nowhere kit from Twin6 and Fat Cyclist. I'm pretty happy about the goodness it's chocked full of.

I'm bummed I get to go to a wedding instead of fight childhood cancer with my 100km ride this year. So I'm taking my aggressions out on the 100 miles to nowhere ride. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy there are family marriages going on and all. I just like to do a little cash raising and ride in the name of something higher than "it's Saturday" once per year.

Spirit of Racine is looking to be about 2 months away. My heel is not going away, and I haven't been swimming. This ought to be interesting. On the other hand, my mountain biking has been on the upswing.

See you out on the road / dirt.

Wisconsin Weather

It is said here, "if you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes."

In that vein, I went to bed last night with a radar full of green, yellow, and red indicating all kinds of rain and doom for mountain bike racing. Mind you, I'm not much the type of guy to drive a few hours in order to not ride his bike. I could not ride my bike right here.

In any case, I had explicitly asked for an update in the morning. I got a favorable one (or maybe it was an admonishing one). So, I meandered around getting the kids started, dogs fed and walked. I slowly but surely got my stuff in the car. I stopped for gas. And maybe by 9:30 or 10:00am I was headed North just past Green Bay. (the bay didn't look very green today).

At the StumpFarm race, I ran into most of the usual suspects. Coop, Anne, Rick, Liz, Tmont, and MK were all present and accounted for. I must say though, the parking lot did seem a bit light (minus the old city bus).

The course could not have been laid out better. Minus a few mud holes, even I was able to navigate it successfully. In later laps, I walked a few up hills in the interest of making it home.

A good time was had by all. The course seemed fast and packed. Impossible sections were at a minimum if not non-existent. If you showed up, you didn't regret it. For the rest of y'allz, what can I say?

Good pizza after.. Me without my camera.

Impromptu Gary Fisher Superfly Product Review

I rode a Gary Fisher Superfly today. The Trek factorydemo folks showed up at the trail while I was out riding my old steed. They were graciously sharing bikes with folks who wanted to try them out. I thought this was a great opportunity to get up on one of those 29ers and give it the beans.

Now, a bit of background. My current ride has been called "so utterly vile that your eyes instinctively look the other direction when he is on it, allowing him that ultra-kwik window to slip away behind you". It is an easily a 15+ year old Giant ATX 780, converted to single speed. Thanks to Rick, it got a sweet upgrade of V-brakes. Otherwise, it's your basic double butted steel frame with a high zoot RockShox Mag21 on the front.

Enter the Superfly. Which, in all honesty, we can't call this a fair review. There are too many variables. I've never ridden 29er wheels on a mountain bike. I've never ridden a carbon fiber bike. I've never ridden disc brakes. For that matter, it's been a good while (it seems) since I actually shifted gears on a trail.

The helpful staff handed me a size XL. It was quite a bit more roomy than my current setup. Making me think the bike I'm on might be on the small side. Initially I felt like I was driving a bus, but I quickly got over that.. or this was the lightest bus I've ever been near. The last time I rode a bike this size, it was chromoly and 40 lbs (or might as well have been).

It wasn't long before I was ripping over rocks and tree roots. Other than having to get used to shifting again, it was nearly ridiculous how easy it was to just tear over terrain that just one lap earlier I had to negotiate.

The shifting was very responsive. A few times I accidentally bumped it (recall I'm not used to having shifters) and ended up in a way wrong gearing. This thing is all pro. I could not find a problem.

Dare I suggest I could lay down MSRP and lop a good hour off my Fat Tire 40 time by just payin' the man for the new bike. That's not really me though.

While this is a review of the Superfly, it isn't. It's more of a reminder that the latest and greatest equipment can actually be significantly advanced from your older bike. I love to be the guy on the bike "so utterly vile your eye instinctively look the other direction" while bringing up the rear.

Then again, the 29er revolution is upon us. My comfort level at the local trails are increasing. And I anxiously await my new frame.

See you on the trails.

That's Why They Call Them Squirrels

A couple mornings ago, I was testing various pedal cadences at 23-24 mph and a squirrel ran straight into my front wheel. Then proceeded between the two wheels and to the other side of the road. Nuts!

Unfortunately I was without my camera.

Listen up!

It's the last day to sign up for Fat Cyclist's 100 Miles of Nowhere. Now do it.

I'll be "there" riding "with you".

The Difference Between Trail and Road Riding

(at least this weekend)

Road riding you can start when it's already 40F and raining. Whereas with mountain biking you can leave while rain, hail, thunder, lightning is merely looming. It might be waiting to drop like a rock on you at mile 5 of the 10 mile trail.

Saturday it was good to ride with some good folks at Kettles South. I was allowed to take off at "race pace" leading out the group for a few miles (they know this as slightly slower than "easy ride", a.k.a. warm-up). When the rain started coming down, TmonT took the lead while I managed to convert to run-ups on some of the tougher inclines, thus saving the uphill trails from my rear wheel. (note to self, let's try one gear easier). Russel noted something like my bike would be lighter without the pedals if I didn't need them. Maybe I need some trail run shoes for next time. Rick, Liz and MK pretty much left me alone, figurin' R. Tools had the smack talk covered. I thought I was pretty soaked yesterday.

Then comes Sunday. Knowing I've been on vacation and bikeless, I have to get out for regular miles. So I hopped up this morning and did another nearly 2 hours in 40F and rain. This isn't so bad for the first 1/2 hour, maybe even hour. The way home gets a bit tougher. For the uninitiated, it goes something like this:

About 20 or 30 minutes into the ride, your cycling tights are water logged with cold rain, and your legs begin to waffle between cold and stinging. You modify your effort to somewhere between "stay warm" and "able to maintain for the entire ride". The inclines help you stay warm. Speeding up effort is great for warming up the muscles. Keep in mind, as your speed goes up you get exponentially more wet.

Around 45-60 minutes into the ride, your double layer thick gloves are completely soaked. Your hands don't feel too cold, except when you hit a bump and all the water in the gloves moves around. Somewhere around 70-80 minutes, the cold has sapped your energy and you just want to eat / get home. In a past ride, the decision to eat at this point left me shaking on the floor in the fetal position when I got home. It's not the time to have all the blood run to your stomach. Get home, shower then eat.

Speaking of showers, yeah I was in there a good bit just waiting for the itchy red tingling from the cold go away. This is about the least fun of the entire thing. Even when the shower is done, you're bones are still cold. Following up with a hot bowl of oatmeal and an espresso put me back on track.

Ride done. I want to believe these are the days that make racing easy.

I share this not to show how much of a hardened individual I am. Quite the contrary. We can all do a good deal more than we think. I could have easily talked myself out of going today and didn't. I'm glad I didn't.

The Last Day of Vacation

I had hoped to head out to Muir on my final day of vacation. But the powers that be (this week's rain) got in my way. So I decided to collect some mud samples at the local trail recently revealed to me by some biker dudes. There were only a few wet spots. Still I managed to get some good dirt.

While I'm at it, today is the last day of vacation. I had a great time off. It's time to get serious though. Time to keep balance. Time to sleep and eat well. Time to focus. I'm ready.

With that, I weighed myself, logged back into fitday.com for the first time in years, and gave myself a Mach 4 haircut to start with a clean slate. Don't mind the helmet mark, it's just evidence I actually rode. And yeah, the sun was bright.

Happy Earth day.

What I Did on Vacation Part One

With respect to vacation, this is in no particular order. I got plenty crossed off my list while I was "out". Here's one thing:

(photo credits to my brother)

What you see here is out and out evidence I have used a new-fangled style two-wheeled vehicle. Now, regular readers will note I use two-wheeled vehicles all the time. Here we see me sitting on something with a clutch and a motor. You will have to take my word that I actually operated said vehicle, motor, clutch, at least one brake, 2 gears, and neutral. My brother turned the key, so I'll have to learn that later. It was odd as all getout not having any fatigue anywhere (minus my clutch wrist). Oh yeah, and I didn't dump it (knock on wood).

This all seems like small stuff to those who have ridden. One might ask how I made it all the way to 2009 before trying this. Shoot, I don't know.

You can't see my smile in the pictures, but rest assured it was fun.

I like to think like Ferris, "If you have the means, I highly recommend it." Or at least, I didn't wait until 2010.

Glad to be back. I can't wait to start turning cranks. More later.

Better Write Something and Quick

Hey, the loco local folks took me out for a spin on some trails. I was going to go it on my own, but it was nice to have some company. I didn't have time to whip out the camera, cause I was too busy being last. Rest assured, after a few weeks of R&R, I'll be even slower!

I'm going to have to do some running, if I'm expected to show progress at Stump Farm in early May.

I may put my head down here for a bit. Buckle down, if you will. Once we're in swing, I'll try to get some posts out here.

Watch for an up and coming review of some tires I used all winter..

Other news, work has been gettin' their money's worth lately. I'm happy to provide, but likewise hoping this will be fully recognized as the weather gets nicer.

See you all out there.

Coming Together

I said before, this year's goal is a picture of myself at the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40, thinner, faster, and fitter. I'm not sure if I said that picture included a new bike or not.

Well, a cheq cashed to the Fat tire folks.

My weight has had a slight, steady, even, negative slope.

I sent my prepay check to Prairie Peddler for one of those Swift frames.

And aside from this on-call week, I've been pounding the pavement pretty good. Last week marked about 8.5 hours of running or riding. It felt very reasonable.

I'm working hard at work. Sleeping good at sleep. And it's coming together. I hate to post success so early in the year. It's a journey. I'm happy just to be heading in the right direction. Feet, balance and focus don't fail me now!

I'm Not Going to Podcast

I was out for a slowish, longish, short run (10km) on Sunday. Out there on the trail, I had quite a few brilliant ideas for blog postings. This may come as a big shock to regular readers, but it is true. Waves of in bound subscriptions to my FREE bl0g might have caused who knows what kind of massive flapping in the route tables of the Internet.

Alas, we will not be subjected to such writing. My brilliance only endures the run. Once I return home, there is other work to be done.

It occurs to me I could start a podcast where I run and say my ideas. But that is being and has been done. No one needs a windy, heavy breathing, eleven minute mile "podcast" added to the already good selection.

There you have it. I'm not going to do it. Now what the heck were those ideas?