Sick?

Not real sick, but I haven't felt right since Sunday. I woke up feeling weak and with stomach cramps. The cramps stayed with me all day Sunday and Monday. I felt better yesterday, but now I have kind a general weakness and a stuffy head. I felt good enough to spin yesterday, but only got in about an hour and a half.

Could be worse.

I'm supposed to ride with the Crazy Bastards tomorrow, but the weather is supposed to be real crap; ice then rain then more ice and snow. Could be epic, or it could just suck. We'll see.

I meant to say "metric century"...

JoeFro and I rode bikes yesterday. I rode the Quiring in full-on mtb mode: Ignigtor up front and nano out back and 34x15 gearing. Joe was sporting a sigulated cross bike with a pretty big gear and cross tires. The plan was for 100 miles of roads.

Well, the wind was blowing at around 20 mph dead out of the east. Our route (Ok, my route) had us going due east for the first 25 miles. It becase clear after about 10 miles that this plan was not going to work for me. We turned off the main road and made some headway by takeing a slightly more sheltered route. We got to a 'checkpoint' and I decided that we needed to ride with the wind for a while. Truth be told, I was feeling pretty bad at this point. My hands and feet started to get very cold, and I was thinking that home was looking pretty good. Joe, however, saved the day by saying "Well, we have to get at least 60 miles in, right?".

An alternative route was created. The chemical heaters in my shoes and gloves started to kick it, I sucked down more of the frozen Perpetum from my water bottle and things got a bit better. The wind was really hellatious; even as a crosswind it was not alot of fun. Eventually we turned west, and at last the wind was out friend. We were able to move along at a nice clip.

We ended up with 69.75 miles and just over 5 hours on the bike. I was a mess when we got back; a little Recoverite and half a frozen pizza were consumed. I clicked on the Tour of California, wrapped up in a couple of blankets and promptly fell asleep on the couch!

I did get up in time to head over to Little Mexico for some food and Clique Lanes for some bowling with the good folks from the Western Chapter of the MMBA. Good times were had by all; it turns out that I can't bowl worth a hoot! But Scott Chambers, that man is a God of Bowling. He has his own ball and one of those fancy wrist brace things. He was en fuego all night.

The lesson from this weekend: Don't get too used to riding a super-light cross bike if you think you want to race a durable singlespeed during the season! I plan to spend much more time on the mtb for the next month.

the b to the i to the k to the e

Did a nice ride with the Crazy Bastards last night. It was a bit chilly, but nothing like recent cold-weather epics. The warmer weather resulted in a longer ride; we were out for around 2.5 hours. Roads were mostly in good condition, with a few soft spots here and there to keep things interesting.

Planning a 100 miler for tomorrow: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=726555

At least one other fool seems game, so I won't have to spend the whole time talking to myself. The weather will be the x-factor: if it gets just a bit warmer than predicted and the snow holds off, this will be a nice ride. If it gets just a bit colder than predicted and/or the snow comes early, this could get interesting. Whatever, it beats working around the house... :)

In other news: Got my confirmation from Barbara at the Cohutta 100; approved the drawing for my new bike from the new bike sponsor; and ordered a shim for Jones HBar #2. Good times...

Training, on the Trainer

I did a massive lunge session on Monday, which put the hurt on legs already sore from the 3.5 hours of skiing on Sunday. Topped off that pain sandwich with two hours on the trainer yesterday. I tried to keep the resistance light and the revs high; it didn't help. I was in pretty bad shape by the end of the night. Nothing a cookie or two couldn't solve, however.

Some nice stretching tonight and riding with the Crazy Bastards tomorrow. I expect lots of mud and slop. Not ideal, but it means warmer weather is here, with actually decent temps in the near future.

Registration has been sent for Dirty Kanza, Ouchita and Cohutta. Race season is right around the corner.

Choices

Today I had to make a choice. I could go to the Y and do a double spin class. Or I could get out the skis and enjoy the great outdoors.

Yeah, I was on skis. I ended up with about 3.5 hours. The weather was great; mid 20's with bright sunshine. I felt good until the last half-hour. I was getting tired and had developed a blister on my left heel. I also did something to one of the toes on my right foot. So by the end, I was about ready to be done.

This should be a good week. Team spin on Tuesday, Crazy Bastards on Thursday with lifting in between. Not sure about the weekend; if the weather is a bit warmer then I'll ride 6-8 hours. If it's cold, then maybe another day of skiing will be on tap.

As I sit here, the Tour of California is on the TV. That reminds me that I will be in Italy during the Giro this year. If anybody has advice about renting a bike in Italy, I'd be happy to hear it. I plan to see Stage 17, which includes the monster climb up Monte Zoncalon. I hope to ride that climb the day after the stage, but after all the hassle I had when I took my bike to the TdF I need to rent a bike rather than haul mine over there. So speak up if you know a good place to rent a quality road bike in Trieste or Venice.

Home Again

I made it home from KY. It was a good trip, but I was ready to get back. I was able to keep my fitness up, but no time was spent on the bike. It looks like the weather is starting to break here in Michigan, so I plan to be out on the singlespeed more often. There are only five weeks till race season!

And I raaaan...

...I ran so far awayyyyy.

Ok, not so far away, since I was running on a treadmill in the hotel gym.

I did my best Dallas Sigurdur impression by running long, or at least long for me. I ran for an hour, at a pace that would have Dallas on the floor in stitches with laughter but felt like a workout for me. I'll lift hard tomorrow and ride the spin bike for two hours on Thursday. This is turning out to be not a bad work-out week, considering I am on the road.

Here's hoping the snow clears in Ohio so I can drive home Friday. There is a 100-mile stretch of highway that I need to use that I hear is closed because of the snow/sleet/flying monkey infestation. I don't got time to mess with no monkeys, is all I'm saying.

Valentine's Day is for Lovers...

...Especially Meat Lovers!

That was the sign that greeted my this morning at Denny's here in Lexington, KY. The worst part of travelling is the need to find decent food to eat. Strangely, that same Denny's served a passable grilled tilapia, rice and vegetables for dinner last night. Not great, but passable. Today I should be able to branch out and find something better.

Any suggestions for places to eat in Lexington, KY would be appreciated.

The gym at the hotel is passable. A couple treadmills, a spin bike and a multi-station weight machine. More than enough to get me through the week, and unlike the YMCA there is no waiting! I had hoped to bring a bike down here, but the weather just didn't justify it; cold rain or worse every day.

Training is coming along well. All I need now is for the temps to get about 32F so I can get in some good 6-12 rides. The power is there; now I just need to make sure the endurance is good to go.

Holy Mary, Mother of God...

...pray for us sinner now, and at the hour of out death. Amen.

Sorry, I'm so sore that I was smacked back to my Catholic upbringing. I just got done with a couple of hours of XC skiing. I have not skied in a year, and I have less than 10 hours of XC skiing ever. My legs are fine; about what I would expect after a couple of hours on the bike. My arms and shoulders are so sore that I can just tell that tomorrow is going to SUCK!

Anyway, I did a couple of hours on the bike on Thursday with the Crazy Bastards. It was pretty cold, maybe mid-teens. I hit the nail on the head as far as clothing was concerned; I was not too cold and I didn't sweat. I think I could have gone another two hours without a problem. That being said, I was just as happy to get to the bar and have a bite to eat and a beer after only two hours or so.

Next week I will be in Lexington, KY for work. I was my hope to bring a bike, but it looks like the weather will be cold and snowy. Pretty much like Michigan. In that case, I will be spending quite a bit of time after work in the hotel gym. I may or may not bring the bike and a trainer; time will tell.

How may I serve you?

Not much to report. It's cold and slippery, so riding outside is problematic. I was on the trainer on Tuesday with Scott and Dan. We watched another fighting movie; this one was called "The Protector". Lots of Thai kickboxing, which I understand is the sport of the future.

Even though it is still cold, I'll be out riding with the Crazy Bastards tonight. Rumor has it that the ride will be short and sweet. I don't like short rides, but I don't like loosing bits of my extremities to frost-bite.

It sounds like a group will be doing 3-4 hours on xc skis on Saturday. I have not had my skis out all year, so I should be hurting like a dog by the end of the day. Monday I'm off to Lexington, KY for a week. I was hoping it would be a chance to get some riding in, but it looks like I'm be sweating my arse off at the hotel 'gym'...

Blizzard

Rode with the crazy bastards on Thursday. It was cold, but not that cold. Good bunch of folks.

Today it is like 10 degrees outside, with lots of snow and 30 mph winds. I've shoveled the driveway twice, and it looks like it will need at least one more go. The weather is so bad that the YMCA is closed. Needless to say, I rode inside on the trainer.

I'm guessing more trainer time is in store for next week. I hope to get outside on Thursday, but otherwise I'll be up in the gym, just workin' on my fitness.

Quick Update

Did gym workout Monday, including lunges.

Rode inside on Tuesday with Dan and Scott for two hours, including three 4-minute 53x11 max efforts. Ouch.

Did a gym workout today, including a bunch of lunges with weights. More ouch.

Riding outside tomorrow; should be interesting. Lows in the single figures. People have been having problems with rear hubs freezing up.

Supposed to ride outside on Saturday. Supposed to be the coldest day in several years. I might have to break out my warm jacket.

4 Hours of Pure Pleasure

Danielle, Jason and I had a nice ride this afternoon. It was mostly sunny, temps in the mid-20's, with some snow. Overall, the weather could have been much worse. I rode my cross bike, which I like a little bit better every time I ride it. Slingshot makes a quality product; if you are in the market for a cross bike, check them out!

Two notable incidents on the ride. First, we saw a bunch (flock?, gaggle?) of turkeys in a field on the side of the road. Jason started yelling at them, and they all took off running away from us. All of them, that is, except the Kamikaze Turkey of Death. This on got airborne and headed straight for us! Jason and I were up ahead a bit, but I thought for a minute that Danielle was going to have a turkey sandwich the hard way. In the end, she just missed it.

Later, we were cutting through a park near the end of the ride. Two kids were sledding, and the trail we were on went right by the base of the hill. Once again, Jason and I were just a little bit ahead of Danielle, so when the Uncontrolled Sledder of Doom came down the hill you know who was nearly taken out. That's right, it was Danielle again.

I'm going to try and post a link to the Motionbased review of the route. If it works, I'll try to post more of these in the future.

Ride Link : Well, it seemed to work. Enjoy!

1x9? Check!

I used the Quiring set up with 1x9 for the Crazy Bastard ride on Thursday. The bike worked well; the chain tried to come of the chainring in front during some very high-cadence pedaling. I was able to save it without stopping. Overall, the 1x9 thing worked ok, but I think I'm going back to ss. The setup with the Jones Bars and the gripshift just doesn't look good, and I don't need the gears for the kind of riding I do.

Plus, I'm a singlespeed kind of guy.

I plan to ride with Danielle and a few other people tomorrow. I think we are looking at 4 hours or so. The weather is supposed to turn to crap, but that is just the way things go...

Trainer-Fu

Did two hours on the trainer last night. It was me, Scott and Dan in Scott's basement. Two hours can be a long, boring trainer ride. Not last night, however. We had a sweet Jet Li movie to watch. It was something about a man battling demons from his past. Or maybe he was trying to atone for some family dishonor. I'm not sure, but the fight scenes were top notch; very good for out-of-the-saddle efforts.

My handlebar arrived this week. That means there are now two Jones bars in the family. The pile of happy fun parts for the new bike is growing. No word on the frame; I guess some delays occur ed on the collect-money-from-the-racers side of things. Whatever, I'm just going to keep on training and riding. The frame will get here when it gets here.

Speaking of frames, the 1x9 Quiring will get it's test run tomorrow on the crazy bastard ride. For real this time. It should be nice and chilly, with temps down around 15F for the ride. At least that is what the weather crone says. Which pretty much guarantees that something on the bike will break and I'll end up walking.

Here are a few shots of the bike:

The obligatory side shot:

And the Funky Bar With Shifter shot:

Yes, the photo's suck. Yes, my basement is a mess. I would say this it only looks this way in the winter, but that wouldn't be true.

The warmest feet EVER!

I went out for about four hours today. It was fairly cold (25F) and snowing quite a bit. There was a fairly large group for this time of year: Me, Danielle, Scott, Amy and Mackenzie. The snow and the wind made for a chilly face, but the big story of the day was my feet. They were the perfect temperature all through the ride. Here is how I achieved this minor miracle:

Warm wool socks from Rivendell,
Lake MXZ301 boots, size 44 (I wear a 42.5 Sidi...)
Size 45 Performance neoprene booties

That's it. No chemical heaters, no plastic bags, no Vaseline. My feet were warm and dry for the entire ride. In the past, strong wind would always cut through the Lake boots. Chemical heaters would do the job, but they tend to run out in less than 4 hours. This new combo is the answer. I think I would have been good even if it was 10 or 15 degrees colder.

Good times...

Project 1x9 and other stories...

Had a nice ride last Sunday with Dan. We did four hours, I was on my Slingshot and he was on his 1x9 Niner. It was a nice recover from the race on Saturday. Observation: Riding gears for four hours is much easier than riding ss for four hours.

Ran Tuesday, rode with the Crazy Bastards on Thursday. It was cold, but not super cold. I was on my cross bike again, and had a pretty good night. I pushed it a bit on the hills, but only went into overdrive on the last stretch of the evening. Tom Burke took off, and three of us tried to stay with him. Dan was on a fixed Crosscheck, and was riding on 30 hours without sleep. He bailed. I stuck with it a bit longer, but just didn't quite have the juice. I'm not sure who the last rider was, but he pulled in a bit after me. Anyway, it was a good ride. My fitness is coming along nicely.

Today I turned the Quiring into a 1x9. I figured I might as well give it a try, since I had Scott put cable stops and the paragon dropout with the hanger. My old Sram 9.0sl twist shifter is perched on the front extension of my Jones HBar, mated to my old 9.0sl mech and cassette out back. These parts have not been used since around 2003; I had to knock the dust and crud off them. I am using the Velocity wheels and Kenda cross tires I won at the last KissCross race; the hardest part of the installation was getting the front disk to quite rubbing. It should take me about 10 minutes to switch back to ss, and 15 minutes to convert to 1x9 now that I know the process. The ENO crank is not the best bet for 1x9, since you can't run a bash guard. I have a jumpstop on the inside, and my brief test ride went well. I will put some miles on this set-up tomorrow, and if all goes well I'll ride it on Thursday with the bastards.

Snowcross and Long Rides

Spent Saturday at the KissCross SnowCross race. I think I finished somewhere around 6th place or so in A's. Lots of DNF's, lots of broken bikes. The mud was as thick as any I have ever seen. In some places, there was firm ground under the mud, in some places you could just keep sinking. Overall, it was fun. I mean, the race was a suffer-fest. But hanging out afterword was fun.

Did a little over four hours of dirt roads on the cross bike today. Dan came along. The weather wasn't too bad, although it was getting cold near the end. Crappy weather is supposed to come in tonight, so the amount of outside riding might be about to shrink.

Good week on tap; more running, riding and lifting. If it snows enough, then we get to ski...

Little Ball of Hate

No ride last night. I was dressed and ready to go; I only needed to reduce the tension on the return spring for the rear brake on my cross bike. When I last rode that bike, the spring arm kept snapping out from the retention stud, causing the brake pad to aggressively contact the rim. The wheel wouldn't spin freely (or much at all) when this happened. So I figured a quick tension adjustment and I would be on my way.

Not so much.

Somehow I broke the tip of the spring arm off. As a result, the spring arm was just long enough to engage the retention stud UNLESS the brakes were applied. So when I would so my quick 'test spin' of the wheel in the bike stand, it was fine. I happened to grab both brakes as I was loading the bike on the rack. Low and behold, the brakes were broke. And I had five minutes to get on the road if I wanted to make the start of the ride. No dice. Instead, I had a nice, angry run.

No riding tonight. Had a nice dinner with some of Becky's friends. Good times, but now I feel sort of full. I don't think I ate that much even during the holidays.

First race of the season tomorrow. Versluis Snowcross. It doesn't look like there will be any snow, but it is supposed to get cold. The mud should be nice and thick. I got the cross bike all tuned up by Jason at Slingshot; new brake, some new shifter cable and houseing, clean chain and tightened chainrings. Geared bikes are a pain, but Jason takes the pain away. Thanks, buddy!

Winter, at last

Snow falling through the glare of HID lights.
Frozen ground crunching under fresh rubber.
Water bottles turning to blocks of ice.
Breath steaming into clouds.

Tuesday was a great ride. Two hours of trails in the cold, cold dark. A local trail (specific site CLASSIFIED) was in great shape for some winter riding. I was running a new Ignitor up front, and it was the perfect tire for the conditions. There was around an inch of snow on the trail, with nicely frozen ground below. It was chilly to start, but my medium gloves and Dan's new Moose Mitts kept digits toasty. The two hours flew by.

Dan was sporting his new "Team Issue" Niner Air9. I'll say this about that bike; It sure is orange. Shouts of joy were heard around the singlespeed world, as the bike was sporting ((shudder)) a 1x9 drivetrain. Dan will still campaign the SS at selected events, but will do the National Endurance Series on gears. The new Niner team jersey looks nice now, but I don't know how well the white color will fare after a few hundies...

The Quiring performed flawlessly! There has been talk about converting that bike to 1x9; it has cable guides and a derailleur hanger. I just can't bring myself to do that until I get my next frame. I don't expect the next frame for a couple of months yet, but that hasn't stopped my from dusting off a few 9-speed parts. Unlike Dan, I would only use a 1x9 for training; I'm SS on race day, and make no mistake.

I'm happy to say that White Industries will be back as a sponsor for 2007. Great parts, but more importantly great people! Even though last season saw less race participation than I would have liked,they decided to stay in my corner for another year. Awesome! People with time on their hands can check the team page for hints on the frame sponsor.

More riding on tap tonight with the Crazy Bastards. The weather is supposed to be a bit warmer tonight, so the mud will be flying. At least this week I will be prepared. Looking at four hours of trail riding Saturday and a nice recover ride on Sunday. Tomorrow I'm at the gym.

I've got one of my Airborne Lucky Strike frames up for sale on the MMBA website. $450 for the frame and a nearly new headset; it's priced to move. Help a brother out and get your neighbor to buy that sucker. I need money for new parts!!