Beautiful day

Good day today. Took off at 7 AM with my son Conor for a 25 mile ride, with a stop at the Saylorville Township Fire Department for a pancake breakfast. This was Conor's first ride of the year, and I was really proud of how well he rode. He was smart and asked to take a break when his legs or butt were getting a little weary. He kept a good steady pace for all of the ride, and didn't complain about the hills we rode up. Leaving the breakfast we rode home into a pretty stiff SSW wind. I let him go first as we were on riding on 66th Street, which is a pretty busy two lane road, and he kept trucking into the head wind. I hope to get out on more rides with him as the year progresses. For me, they are generally recovery level rides, but I enjoy spending the time with him. The scary part is that he can wear most of my clothing, and is getting close to me in bike size.

During the afternoon, I attempted to install the fenders on my LHT without much success, then rode with my wife to the grocery store to put our first load of groceries (and a 30 lb box of cat litter) in the Bob trailer. The Bob is going to take some getting used to. I like how it tracks when unloaded, but with heavier loads, it really tries to drag the back end of the bike around a lot more than I expected, especially going around corners. Headed to Denman's tomorrow morning for some trail work, so I'll hook it to the Monkey and see how it handles. I'll toss some tools in the Bob and head out for coffee in the morning, and then make my way to the trails for the work at 10:00 AM. If anyone else has nothing going in, we can always use an extra hand or two. The more the merrier.

Two words: Incredibly Hot

Photo credit: Scott Schuman

What is better than a beautiful girl on a bike? There is just something about this photo. Her eyes, the jeans, the coat. Simply scrumptious. Scott Schuman has photos of many stylish people on his blog, The Sartorialist. Click the title to this post to see all of the stylish people with bikes. Oddsmakers place my chances of being on his blog at about 50,000:1

Unique experiences

Left the house at 7:30 AM. Temp was almost 40 with a slight wind. Rode towards the office and made a detour up the street to Amici Espresso to snag a scone. I noted rain in the forecast, but wasn't too concerned about it as I'd just be getting wet on the way home. Rain started failing pretty heavily starting around noon, and didn't show any signs of letting up for the remainder of the day. I peered outside about 2:30 PM and was greeted with the sight of snowflakes that appeared to be the size of my palm raining down from the sky. No ordinary snowflakes, these apparently had weight due to the speed they were falling at. I decided to leave the office at 3:30 since I hadn't taken a lunch break, and the snow was getting heavier, and it was, despite the assurances of the weathermen, starting to accumulate.

I suited up, let some air out of the tires on the LHT and headed out into the mess. The roads were very wet, and sloppy. My Oakley's were quickly getting covered in a thick layer of snow and steam, and my eyes were getting pelted by huge snow flakes. I stopped briefly to clear my glasses and continue my ride home. As the vehicles pelted me with slush as they sped past, I missed the accident occurring at the intersection up ahead. I arrived on the scene at the same time as the police officer and proceeded to thread my way through the accident scene while the cars were forced to sit and wait. Leaving the scene, I look ahead at the cars coming down the hill (too fast for conditions) towards the accident scene and I'm confronted with something I hoped to never see: A school bus fishtailing downhill towards me. As I considered my choices (keep riding straight, or dive to the ditch) the driver managed to get the bus under control and not hit any of the cars stopped ahead of him. Cresting the hill, I was forced to pull over for the paramedic, fire truck and ambulance headed towards the accident. It was interesting that I pulled over and stopped immediately, while the automobiles continued to travel forward until the last possible moment. (As an aside, what is it with people and not pulling over for emergency vehicles these days?). At this point, I turned onto a side street and finished my ride home.

Sitting here now, my lawn is completely covered in snow. Hopefully it's gone by tomorrow morning, so my commute is dry. Lucky for me, my fenders show up tomorrow.

I'm feeling Surly today

My Surly Long Haul Trucker was ready to pick up from Rasmussen's last Thursday. Due to the lovely spring mix of rain, sleet and snow that was blanketing the fair city of Dead Moans, I decided to return on Friday to pick it up. I have used it as my commuting bike the last two days. I also managed to take a nice hour and a half ride on it. My impressions about it so far are positive. Surly really hit the nail on the head when naming this particular bike. You sit high, just like you would in a truck. You get a chance to look around at your surroundings a bit more rather than concentrating on the wheel or the pavement directly in front of you. javascript:void(0)

The bike has a pace and momentum that is all its own. It feels slower to accelerate than any of my other bikes, including the Karate Monkey. Once you get it moving the bike automatically settles into what I consider "the right pace". This pace is not too fast, nor too slow. It's a pace that really makes you think that the time you arrive at your destination will be the right time, no matter what the clock might say. It's also a pace that doesn't want to make you dive into corners aggressively either. Once the bike has the racks on and loaded, or I have the Bob trailer (which my wife told me to order) attached and loaded down, the gearing is going to be about right.

The Brooks saddle and bar tape were two things I changed out from the stock bike. I really like how the honey Brooks B17 looks on the bike, and the extra expense of the Brooks bar tape was worth it to make the bike look complete. The Brooks will take a bit of adjustment to get so it feels good. Everyone complains about how hard the Brooks saddles are, and after my ride yesterday, I can understand it to some extent. However, I also know that issues were related to my position on the saddle, rather than something about the saddle itself. I moved the saddle forward a small amount before this mornings commute, and I hardly noticed it was there. I'll put a few more miles on this weekend and see how it feels. I ordered some nice wide metal fenders from Velo Orange earlier in the week. They should be here on Friday. Having commuted without them in the light snow on Tuesday, I'm anxious to get them installed. They definitely keep the bike cleaner, and my feet drier.

My GRAID: An F

In short, I ended up bailing out on The GRAID at about mile 100 or so. With my self imposed "ride of shame" into the headwind from Dallas Center to Grimes, I ended up with about 115 miles for the day. Not bad, but not the intended target. My cardio system was in good shape, my legs felt fine, but my (lack of a) pre-trip shakedown ride caused me the most issues. 

I had purchased a seat post mounted rear rack to use on the ride. With my panniers full of stuff that I took "just in case",  I was right at the weight limit for the rack (which was 20 lbs). I hadn't bothered to read the installation instructions, which would have let me know that there were proper shims to use with the rack. Instead I opted to use some bits of inner tube I had laying around. While this worked (somewhat), it also meant that I could not stand while climbing, or the rack would move enough to hit the rear tire. I sat on all of the climbs for the day, which really caused my back to get tight, and by the time we got to Dallas Center, I had experienced enough, physically and mentally.

On the bright side, I think I have figured out most of the things I need to make this ride successful.

I need to eat more food, more often. I had Gu and other stuff with me, but none of it was within easy reach. Carrying it isn't any good if you can't use it. I was in the middle of a pretty bad bonk towards mile 100. Chicken sandwich and potatoes at Casey's certainly helped. I think a small bento bag on the top tube like Dennis had, or putting some stuff in my windbreaker seems to be a wise move.

I brought way too much stuff "just in case". Two changes of clothes was way too many. First aid kit was a good idea, but probably unnecessary with the level of riders we had and the speeds we were going most of the time. Rain suit is a maybe depending on the weather. The extra tire was a good idea. Extra batteries for the lights were a good idea too. After some thinking, I am sure that I can pack everything that I need into a small rack top bag.

My butt seems to get pretty sore about mile 100 or so. I may end up putting another Brooks on the mountain bike if the one on the LHT works out. My other choice is to just take the LHT on the next ride and not worry about it. 

The sitting while climbing worked out well for my heart rate never exceeded 166 for the entire trip, not bad considering we had over 6000' of climb through Dallas Center. 

Weather for the day was just about perfect. Temps between 30 and 50. Sunny. Winds out of the SE at 19 with some slightly higher gusts. Could not have asked for a better temperature range to ride in. 

My promise to myself is that I will correct these issues and give this another shot again this year. I might take a small tent and figure out a place to take a nap along the route as well.

Photos from the ride are located here

Yer OUT!!

Went downtown to meet up with folks for the Wednesday night Ritual Ride, which was cancelled. Strike one. Took off for a solo ride and planned on just riding loops at Waterworks park. Half of the big loop is covered in gravel due to the floods last year. Gravel and 23mm tires do not mix. Strike two. Waterworks personnel have not deemed it the proper time to unlock the bathrooms on the large loop. Strike two and a half. Proceeded down the Great Western Trail, with plans to ride to cumming and back to spin my legs out from last nights ride. About a mile or so in, two pieces of glass in the rear tire. Strike three. It's obvious I'm not supposed to ride far today. As I'm finished changing my tube, Dave Lippold rides by and asks if I need anything. I recognize him, call him by name, and he waits for me to get my wheel back in the bike. Rode back with him to the Art Center where we parted ways. Stopped to see our old neighbors, Jason and Carla. Jason is a huge bike geek and wanted to see the Paramount, so it all worked out. Rode back to Ritual, threw the bike on the truck and then stopped by Palmer's deli for a turkey sammich on the way home. Hoping to pick up the LHT today if I get the call from Rassy's. Maybe the potential rain will make the store a little more quiet.

Last day of work today. Will spend tonight and tomorrow getting the KM, and myself, ready for The GRAID this weekend. Took Monday off as well. Will likely need it to recover.

Tuesday Night Wrecking Crew

Made my first ever appearance at the infamousTuesday Night World Championship ride tonight. This is central Iowa's hardest weekly ride. I went there with a little bit of trepidation. I've heard stories about the brutality of this ride, and I was definitely not sure I was up to the challenge. With temps in the mid 50s, and a wind out of the WNW at 20 and gusting to 30 this north loop out of town was set to be pretty brutal. Got to Bike world early, added some long tights, skull cap and a windbreaker to my attire and proceeded to put my bike together. About 25 - 30 riders showed up, with a good showing by the girls of PRC and their scarlet clad team director, Donny Quixote. I saw some familiar faces (Lou, Cam, Pig, Troy, Kim, Stirling, Mable, Sweet Jane and Kelli), plus lots of people I'd seen on some other rides but not met. I also noticed that I was the only person on a steel framed bike. Not a good sign.

We took off at a relatively sedate pace, headed over towards Euclid, and then turned north onto 12th and Morningstar. Now out of the shelter of the houses we were really feeling the wind. By the time we got close to Saylorville Reservoir the wind was starting to show it's effect the group. The first hill saw a few of us fall off the back, and that would be the last I would see of the peloton for the rest of the night, other than watching them disappear into the horizon. Riding out north of Ankeny, I realized that I was going to be pushing into the wind for quite a while by myself, it was starting to get dark, and I didn't have a tail light with me. Jim Rubidoux was coming back towards me, so I turned around, introduced myself, and rode back south with him. We picked up Stirling from Rassy's. He and I cruised back into town on 6th together until passed close to his house. I rode the remainder of the ride back alone, enjoying the evening air and the sunset.

All in all a good ride. 1:47 ride time with an average heart rate of 152. I felt like I could have kept riding, but I am glad that I turned around when I did, as I was getting harder to spot on the road without any reflectors or lights.

On the ride back in, Stirling mentioned that my LHT was delivered Monday and is waiting for the shop to calm down a bit so it can be built. Hopefully I can pick it up tomorrow, and still make the Ritual Ride at 5:30. Otherwise, I probably won't be riding it until I get back from GRAID.