Reading, Riding, Drinking

The West Highland Way

2011-02-19T18:54:00.005-06:00

In June of 2010 Robin's brother was getting married in Northumberland, England. Robin and I could both get a lot of time off work and decided to go early and just call it our honeymoon. We'd only been married a year, and since we traveled to Arizona for the wedding itself, we didn't really feel like more traveling right after that.

Robin had been all over the British Isles (and elsewhere), but it would be my first trip abroad. For a long while we planned nothing. About 10 days before our departure I looked through a photo-copy of a guidebook excerpt on the 95 mile West Highland Way. My mom's friend did it with her husband a few years ago and passed the article our way. After reading through it a few times we decided to go for it.

Both of us had done quite a bit of backpacking, but neither of us had done a trip that would involve lots of trail walking and staying close to civilization. As a result, we did a horrible job packing. Of course, it didn't help that the first half of the trip would be us gallivanting across Scotland, and the second half of the trip would involve wedding stuff and fancy clothes. We also did the final WHW packing in our hostel room in Glasgow, while suffering from some pretty bad jet lag.

As a result our packs were probably around 25 to 30 pounds, as opposed to the sub-20 pound loads we were planning on carrying. The list of items we schlepped through the highlands is rather embarrassing, so I won't include it. The surprising thing is that our packs were still smaller and lighter than many hikers who were staying in hotels along the way. We're not sure what they were carrying. What we are sure of is that next time we will go super minimal. Somehow I got it in my head that I might want a few extra items with me since we'd be in a lot of towns. In reality, we needed less than what I'd carried even on my most minimal over-night trips (like 10 pound pack weight kind of trips). You've heard it before and you're hearing it again, don't over pack.

Despite our moderately heavy loads, there were a number of things that made the WHW a wonderful walk. I'll try to categorize these, as opposed to giving a day by day walk report.

Ease of Access

The trail starts in the small town of Milngavie, which is about 8 miles outside of Glasgow. We flew into Glasgow the day before, enjoyed dinner and beer and picked up some stove fuel, and then caught the train from Glasgow to Milngavie. It is cheap and easy. There is no reason to rent (or 'hire') a car, and many hotels will hold your extra bag for a small fee (our hostel charged us a pound a day to keep our enormous duffel bag). Of course, if you don't have a wedding to go to you could do the hike without worrying about an extra bag. And when you finish the trail in Fort William you can hop aboard a ScotRail and be back in Glasgow in a few hours.

Non-Demanding Route Finding

The trail is ridiculously easy to follow. Plenty of people along 'the Way' had guidebooks and maps, but we simply brought the photo-copied article I mentioned above. I should say that the article itself says it is no substitute for a true guidebook. Well, that might be true for some of the other hikes the authors write about, but for the WHW, I'd say save money and weight and leave the guidebook at home.

Nevertheless, we were still a little worried from time to time. When we were on the train to Milngavie we had no idea if we would even be able to find the trail head. Our grand plan was to just ask someone, but when we stepped off the train this is what we saw:

Don't worry, the whole trail isn't signed like this. But it did make for a welcoming and comforting start. Most of the time you'll be following markers like this:

There was only one point on the 95 mile trail that we were slightly confused. We were coming out of Rowardennan after a nice lunch (which included a few ales) and the trail was just kind of meandering through a park and then all but disappeared. It turned out the only way you could go was down a dirt road and lo and behold that was the WHW. Disaster averted.

Diverse Trails

If you do the walk from South to North (which is what we did, and is what seems to be most common), you walk from the pastoral low lands, into ancient forests along Loch Lomond, and get deeper and deeper into the Highlands. The terrain gets craggier and harsher as you go. In some of the moors it seems that hardly anything grows.

Rolling pasture just south of Drymen on the first day.

This little section is along Loch Lomond. It was possibly our favorite.

Soft pine covered trail through a nice forested section before Tyndrum.

Ben Dorain, welcoming us to the Highlands.

Me and a lone tree on Rannoch Moor

Robin in "full Hobbit mode," still on Rannoch Moor

I would really characterize the WHW as a series of really cool day-hike length trails that are connected by old droving roads. At times the roads can get a little boring, like this one:

But at other times the views are rather spectacular, and a little boring section of old road is hardly even noticeable:

The Towns

Most of the hiking Robin and I have done in the past has been in the US, particularly in the southwest of Arizona, Colorado, and Utah and the northern midwest in Iowa and Minnesota. In neither of these places do you have the chance to come across many towns along a trail. But on the WHW you pass through a small town every 5 to 10 miles. And every town has a pub. Many times a pub/inn is the only thing a town has, but that was always more than enough for us.

We camped out all but one night, so our normal day to day hiking routine would be to get up, snack on nuts and raisins while packing up camp, and walk a few miles until we hit a town. There we would enjoy a nice cup of tea and perhaps a pastry if we were feeling indulgent. Then we would walk a few more hours until we hit another town where we would put our feet up and enjoy a couple pints and maybe a hot snack (the meat pies were my favorite). Then we'd walk on a bit more until we wanted to set up camp and cook dinner. This routine made for extremely civilized walking.

The Bridge of Orchy Hotel where we enjoyed a lovely cup of tea and a bisquit

Approaching the Inn at Inveroran, where more tea was consumed.

On the second to last night we splurged and got a room at the wonderful Kingshouse (we were exceptionally lucky as there was a cancellation just moments before we inquired about vacancies). It was a dreary, damp night, so we were thrilled to have a warm room and a cooked meal. We also made sure to indulge in some excellent Scotch (Highland Park, Oban, Ben Nevis, and Bowmoor).

The Kingshouse

Wild Camping

Scotland has a right to roam law, which as far as I can tell means you can camp just about anywhere you want to so long as you don't stir up any trouble, don't leave any trash around, and don't leave any gates open so the sheep can escape (actually the variety of gates you encounter on WHW is interesting enough to warrant its own post, I just wish I took pictures of all of them). There are many excellent campsites, and it seems that most people are staying at inns, hotels, and hostels, so it isn't hard to grab a gorgeous spot and have it all to yourself.

We had two wonderful campsites right on the beautiful, and long, Loch Lomond.

High and dry as we approach the highlands.


Staying out of the mist at the foot of Ben Dorain.

The other wonderful thing about camping on your own is that you avoid most of the crowds. We did the walk in mid-May (which we heard, along with October, is the best time of year to go), and there were quite a few people. However, we didn't see too many while we were walking. We attributed this to starting and ending our days in between towns. The day after we stayed at Kingshouse we ended up starting with the masses, and as a result, that was by far the most crowded and least enjoyable day of hiking we had.

The Weather

OK, this is probably not true for everyone's Highland experience. But we won the Scotland weather lottery. It misted a few nights, and on the second day we walked for about an hour in a light rainfall. That was it. Every Scotsman we encountered told us they had never seen such a string of good weather. Even the sheep agreed.

In Short

This is a very fun, doable walk. The ease of getting to the trail and staying on it, along with the excellent stops, made it a wonderful first international hike for us. We are now ready to get out and explore other wonderful walks in the world.

The only disappointing thing about the trail was the end. After 95 miles you get to a busy intersection that has only this:

Whoop-de-do. It was noisy and not at all picturesque. We were also shocked that there was no pub near that sign. Someone is missing out on a serious business opportunity. In our opinion there should be a fine pub next to that sign where hikers can toss their packs and enjoy excellent cask ales while they catch up with all the other hikers they leapfrogged over the past many days.

But the trail does end right near Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. I got up extra early the next morning to bag the summit before we caught the train back to Glasgow. Visibility at the top was not much longer than the arm's length from which I shot my self portrait.

But things looked quite nice on the way down. And while I wasn't thrilled to get up at 4am to begin the hike in the dark, I was very happy to be off the mountain by 7 as it was already getting very crowded.

It is true, the blog has moved

2010-04-06T08:48:00.001-05:00

And the booksbikesbeer.com address will be no more. For those of you still interested in reading my increasingly infrequent posts, be sure to add ".blogspot"after the beer.

Free Burgers and Beer

2010-03-08T20:49:00.002-06:00

After a lovely weekend with my parents visiting, Robin and I went for a walk to the library and grocery store on a cloudy but relatively warm Sunday afternoon. On the way we found 30 dollars in the street. We didn't really know what to do with it at first, as anyone could feasibly claim it was theirs. And with no one really about, we decided to go out for happy hour.

Our intentions were to go to the Sanctuary, which we have not visited in some time. But they are closed on Sunday. So on to Orchard Green we went. They had a new (to us, at least) Belgian Blonde on tap. I forget the name of it, but I know it starts with an "A" and it is yummy. I recommend.

Even though we stopped at the store for food we decided to save that for Monday and stay for burgers, they were practically free afterall. We left the bar in a happy haze. Kind of like how I felt in the photo below, except the tippsyness came shortly thereafter.

Birkie by Numbers

2010-03-01T16:10:00.003-06:00

10,000 The number of skiers who competed in the various ski events over the weekend.

5,079 The number of skiers who completed the marathon distance.

1,433 Classic skiers went the distance.

298 My overall position in the classic marathon category.

54 The number of kilometers in the classic race.

35 As in VG35, the base binder I ironed into my skis. This stuff is sticky, and it was perfect for the old, hard, and fast snow.

8 Layers of kick wax. I put down 4 layers of Violet Special, put the skis outside to cool for 20 minutes and then put down 4 layers of Blue Extra. Kick was good until the last 8k or so. Then it was herring bone up the hills and a lot of double polling.

7 The wave I started in.

3:43:38 My time. And I'm pretty happy with it. Under 4 was the general goal. 3:30 would have been amazing. So being in the middle is just fine by me.

2 The wave I can start in next year.

I've Been Skiing

2010-02-13T16:22:00.002-06:00

That's my excuse for not blogging, anyways. The season has been great. 48 skis so far this season. That is by far my best year. A few seasons ago I got in 38, but it is not even mid-February and I've exceeded that by 10. Plus we've got about 10 inches of great snow on the ground. So I should have no problem getting over 60 skis this year. That will be a fun milestone.

The rest of my time has been spent horse shopping. After nearly two years of riding Steen with Robin we started to talk about getting another horse. We rode this nice Paint first, but he was big and sluggish and expensive and he might have been lame. Then we rode this very goofy looking and slightly untrained Saddlebred-Paint-Arabian. He was too much horse for me. Finally we went to the Meyer Horse Co. They had a lot of nicely trained ranch geldings. I rode a couple and really liked this big, bay named Shamrock. I decided to call him Sham, for short. He arrived on Thursday, and he's got his own blog now.

It will not be a highly exciting blog. Especially if you're not a horse person and don't feel like reading about someone fumble through their rides and training. But I imagine it will be highly useful for me to keep track of my progress. Unfortunately, it probably won't help me update this blog more regularly. I'll try to work on that, though.

New Look

2009-12-10T19:15:00.004-06:00

When you have a wife who builds websites and knows art, you get cool designs.

After I got home from skiing today Robin said, "I've got something for you." I had no idea what it could be. I just had a birthday, so I certainly didn't expect new gifts.

But when I walked into the study I saw three newly designed icons. And I liked them. A lot. So she put some finishing touches on them and now they're here to stay. Enjoy.

First Ski

2009-12-08T18:32:00.003-06:00

We've been getting some steady, light snow all day. So after work I headed out to Ashton for some skiing. I was doubly excited because not only was it my first ski, but I also had a super cool new camera in my pocket. A great birthday gift from the Stephen family.

A few people got there first, so I had some tracks to follow.

Eventually I caught up to them and was surprised to see it was Sean, Finn, and Grant. I skied with them a bit. Sean and Finn were having super stick issues, but Grant and I were gliding fairly well. The snow was quite wet. Hopefully the temps will drop a bit in the night and firm it up.

Now I'm sipping a beer and basking in the post ski glow. It feels great.

29

2009-12-06T21:29:00.003-06:00

Years Old. Today. That is me. And it has been a great day. I drank many a fine beverage with my wife, rode a horse, went for a run, did a little reading, and generally just relaxed. And I am super excited to see that snow has just started falling. For the past four years I have received flakes on my birthday. It has been great. Only one of those four years was the storm big enough to ski on, but I'm not complaining. And by the looks of it, I could be skiing all week.

Wow the fall has gone quickly. Nearly two months and no post. I have been a bad blogger. I think only for the first year was I a good blogger. Probably more like a mediocre blogger, really. Who knows what the future has in store. Sometimes I think of leaving the e-books, e-bikes, e-beer behind. I will never dump the real goods, don't worry.

But that day has not come just yet. And to catch you all up to speed I can say the last two months were, well, so so. I got the flu. I had my wisdom teeth extracted. I hardly rode a bike. I was temporarily moved up to the oh so inhumane 40 hour work week, which ends Tuesday, thankfully. I went to Arizona for Thanksgiving (check out Robin's blog for a rather dramatic video and the Clegg's blog for some pictures, including some nice desert mountain biking shots (scroll down to the Thanksgiving post)).

And now it is December. The weather reports say ski season is upon us. Perhaps the blogging will come back. We'll see.

Homecoming

2009-10-11T21:03:00.002-05:00

This weekend was Iowa's homecoming. So Robin and I decided to leave town and visit my parents in the Chicago burbs. We think it was a great decision. Our house was not burned down, or even singed, in our absence. And we had a fantastic trip full of immediate and extended family hang out time, amazing dinners, and copious amounts of beer, wine, and hot tub time.

Just before we got back into Iowa City on Sunday we veered north and went to the barn. Last Sunday's ride was so fun we decided to go for a repeat. In general the riding was not quite as good. Our horses did not always agree with us on pace or direction, and we had two big spook sessions (don't worry, we both stayed on), but the grooming and other bonding moments were quite nice. Cal and I are getting a little more used to one another, so with each ride we should see continued improvement.

And though the riding was not quite as good as last Sunday, the light was much better. So Robin snapped a few more pics of Cal and I.

In this next one it actually looks like I'm in charge of deciding where we go.

My New Girl

2009-10-04T20:48:00.004-05:00

I have a horse! Well, I have a horse I can use. She isn't mine, but at the moment, I appear to be the only person riding her. She has been at the barn for many a month now, and her owner has not done much with her. Despite her recent inactivity, though, she is a somewhat highly trained and reliable horse. Her name is Cal, and she is a red dun somewhere between the age of 10 and 15.

A few days ago Robin and I entered into a rather loose agreement that allows me to use Cal as long as we take care of her during the farrier visits. This pretty much entails getting her from the pasture, holding her while her feet are trimmed, and covering the expenses. It is a true a bargain.

So on Saturday, we went out to the barn to see how Cal and I would get along. I would say she tolerated me. After a slow tack up and some very questionable ground work (all on my part), Cal and I went for a nice stroll with Robin and Steen (you can see another picture of Cal and I here) on a misty, gray, October day. And it was great. We did lots of slow walking and a little bit of trotting. Then we called it good.

Today we went out again and though we had a slow start, it was an even more successful day by the time we were done. Cal and I walked, trotted, and even did a fair bit of loping. And we stayed out for over an hour. As time passed she became more responsive to my fumbling cues and I started to pick up on her little habits, like dropping the trot if I would talk to her in an even, relaxed voice (everyone talks to their horse).

Hopefully this is the beginning of a nice riding relationship. But don't worry, I rode my bike and drank some beer today, too. So this won't turn into a horsey blog.

Flying Pigs

2009-09-25T13:05:00.007-05:00

That is what we have in our house, in the shape of tiny airborne particles. Don't come over; Robin and I have been hit with the Swine flu.

OK, so it probably wasn't the swine flu. But it seems that everything in the media is flu = swine flu. Either way, it was enough to lay me out for 6 days and I'm still not 100 percent better. Poor Robin caught it second and is still working through it.

I mostly enjoyed my days off work. I was not so sick that I couldn't do any reading. So I did a whole lot of reading but not much else. Maybe this weekend I'll try to go outside and do something to elevate my heartrate. We'll see.

Cheers to You, Fall

2009-09-22T16:38:00.002-05:00

My favorite season. Of course, I often say that at the start of every season.

167 Days . . . .

2009-09-13T11:45:00.003-05:00

To go.

A Little German in Me

2009-05-06T10:04:00.007-05:00

My beer explorations have steadily continued this week. Monday was my night to cook dinner, and before picking up the food I made a trip to John's beer room for the liquid. One of their knowledgeable staff members was there giving out samples of Weihenstephener Korbinian (a rather tasty doppelbock that I picked up) and their Hefeweizen. It tasted like a pretty good Hefe, but I am not really a fan of those, so I passed on it.

Then we got to chatting about Saisons and Pilsners. I was disappointed to learn that Saisons don't really travel well, hence the reason the three I have had recently were brewed in Kansas, New York, and Iowa rather than on the Franco-Belgium border.

As the weather was a little warm and sticky I asked for some recommendations on a smooth, crisp German Pilsner. He pointed out the Ayinger Jarhundert Bier, which is one of his favorites.
Many of you might recognize the Ayinger name as they are the brewers of that great goat ornamented doppelbock, Celebrator. The Jarhundert was shockingly good. A super clear pilsner that somehow packed in an exhorbitant amount of flavor. I can't wait to pick up another one. It might become one of my favorite summer beers.

The beer man also recommended a Dunkel by Spaten which had just come off the ship and was thus very fresh. This dark lager was quite a shift from the crisp pilsner we tasted first. The intial sips were somewhat dissapointing, but after clearing the pallet (which I should probably do some other way) I found the beer to be sweet and smooth. It had a big malty caramel flavor, quite similar to many Oktoberfests. I will definitely get it again.

While consuming these great brews I was reading Charles Bamforth's Grape vs. Grain, a cultural and historical comparison between wine and beer.

Bamforth is a food science prof at UC-Davis, but is originally from England. He has that wonderful British sense of humour, and he makes no qualms about his goal--to raise beer up to the level of appreciation and sophistication that wine has enjoyed for numerous decades.

And he makes a pretty good case. The book is a quick read, and for anyone who wants a brief but still thorough history of beer and beer making, it is a great place to start. I also found the wine chapters interesting, but I mostly ended up skimming those. They were equally as informative as the beer chapters, but Bamforth's tone is slightly anti-wine (though he still enjoys his fair share of it). So if you want a less scued history of wine, you might want to look elsewhere.

Tonight is date night, and with some damp, rainy weather on the way I'm thinking it might be a appropriate for something Belgian.

Of Bikes and Beer

2009-05-02T07:28:00.003-05:00

Well the rest of April just slipped by and I didn't even get a blog in. That is some bad blogging practice, and I will try to be better in the future. In those two weeks Robin and I went to the Chicago burbs to celebrate my grandmother's 80th Birthday. It was a grand time. And I took a super easy week on the bike, which was very much needed.

In fact, I will credit the easy week as the reason I was able to finish the ride on Thursday night. There were some other reasons, too. It was mostly a straight out into the wind and then a straight back with the wind kind of ride. Those are generally easier to stick with than the rides of many crosswinds. Still, there were hills. But then there was the fact that I only took one pull (not counting the times when we were riding a double paceline). I look forward to increasing that number by many multiples in the future.

As some of you may know, Robin and I have been talking about buying a house (though we have recently talked about waiting, as the market here is a little crazier than we are). This means we have been working really hard at saving money. Some weeks are better than others, of course. On one of the better saving weeks I decided to save on beer. While perusing the hundreds of fine brews in the John's beer room, I could not find a deal that pleased me. But then I somehow convinced myself that a 12-pack of PBR, for just over 8 dollars, would be a worthy substitute for a similarly priced micro-brewed 6-pack.

It was an interesting experience. I, of course, have downed many a PBR, and enjoyed it, too. And the PBR again did a pretty good job. It certainly is priced right. And a cool, crisp, inexpensive lager is a nice thing on a warm day. And as long as you don't directly compare PBR to a brew in another league, you are fine.

But then last weekend we shared some fine brews with our good friends Steve and Cody. We had some quality pilsner, got torpedoed again, and explored the Boulevard Smokestack Series. We had brought the Saison, and Steve and Cody brought the Sixth Glass. About two-thirds of the way through the lovely evening we explored that Sixth Glass (it might have literally been our sixth glass, it was hard to say) and wow is that a knock you on your ass strong brew. PBR will not knock you on your ass. It will, admittedly, increase the likelihood of putting you in a position to be knocked on your ass (like friend bowling or the buffalo crack, but those are stories for another day).

After that Sixth Glass we were not able to fully explore the others. So Robin and I tried the Saison a few days later and absolutely loved it. It was crisp and clear and super hearty with little citris spices. I had experienced brews similar to a saison, but now I am somewhat of a convert.

So after the week of 'PBR,' I entered the week of 'much more expensive beer.' We tasted a much cloudier and wheatish saison from Hennepin. And then we also had a special brew from the good folks at Sierra Nevada called Wet Hop Harvest Ale. Strong, dark, and hoppy. It was another style that I had never truly experienced and I really want to go back soon. Apparently they harvest the hops at a certain time in the season when they are still wet and immediately start the brewing process. Very interesting. Does anyone know a great Cultural History of beer? There is so much I don't know.

Anyways, this is getting wordy enough. And I need to start eating breakfast, because in a couple hours I'll be suffering on the Amana ride out to Maifest, where there will no doubt be some more fine brews consumed. I cannot guarantee that there will be more pulls at the front of the ride, though. That might take a couple more weeks.

disclaimer: After linking many of the fine brews, I am now realizing that they might not work as you will have to verify you are of age. They work on mine, though, so I wish you the same good reader.

9th

2009-04-16T08:12:00.014-05:00

On this beautiful Thursday morning, at about 7:45, I was surprised to see that I was the ninth cyclist rolling down College St. toward downtown, work, school, or wherever. I know part of this is certainly due to the fact that spring seems sprung, but I also hope last night's highly successful bike rally in Des Moines was a part of it, too.

I am sorry I missed it. It is not everyday you get to ride down a street with 8 other bike strangers, but it is even more rare to do so with 500+ riders. Hopefully there are more to come, but hopefully the need for such rallies does not increase. In the meantime I'll keep living the daily bike life here in Iowa City.

For the cyclist's perspective on the Des Moines Rally (since the normal media is not doing much to cover this) check out the write up at 30th Century Cycles.

Take Three

2009-04-14T21:39:00.004-05:00

Tonight I went on my third group ride of the year, and as it happened, the group did the same loop as they did on the other two rides I did--the rather classic Sugar Bottom-Tiffin loop. On the first attempt I opted for the self drop and rode in via the bike paths. On the second attempt some crazy shenanigans occurred involving a tandem and some overly aggressive youngins. On the third attempt I actually did the whole loop, but I didn't quite make it all the way with the group.

I did take a few pulls, though. And a couple of them came when the speeds were quite high. But I'm mostly in high spirits because I felt pretty darn good for most of it (and I have two beers in me).

After getting dropped on the south side of Tiffin I rode in with a couple of Bikes 2 You guys before we picked up Steve a couple of miles later. Steve and I rode through town duking it out with the cars. OK, so it wasn't quite that dramatic. But still, there was a boxing glove.

Hopefully I will be able to make the whole ride on my fourth attempt, but if not, no biggie. In the meantime, while you anxiously await to see if I can finish the next group ride you can check out a selection of our wedding photos here.

Back Up and Running, er, Riding

2009-04-12T17:23:00.002-05:00

For some reason my blog was not online earlier this week. I had my tech person work on it, and now we are back. She is so good I had to marry her.

The weekend has been filled with much socializing and riding. I managed to get in three good rides in three days. On Friday I went out in the howling winds with Sean, the only person I know who has an epic four part blog post on the 2009 American Birkebeiner. I encourage you to give it a read, but make sure you've got some time, or at least are at work.

After the ride we went to the Hudson River Gallery for an opening for Robert Caputo. It was a really fun and busy opening. We talked with many friends and then later in the night got corralled into going out for sushi. Sushi with Nick is always a good time.

Saturday started with a mostly mellow ride from the park. A small group of 7 or so rolled south into the crosswinds for an Eden's Loop. After that Steve, Joe and myself decided to stay out in the nice weather and add on a Sharon Center loop. The sun was shining and I even made the bold move of removing my knee warmers.

At the end of the ride Joe invited us over for a beer. Joe homebrews some mighty fine stuff, and last time he had us over we had a few too many pale ales. This time was not too different. We sat around in the sun reliving old bike riding memories and getting drunk on a super crisp IPA half a pint at a time. I spent the rest of the afternoon in tipsy bliss.

Sunday I woke up early and started reading the Paris-Roubaix coverage until I could get a video stream going. Robin and I watched it in French. Between Robin's knowledge of the language and my knowledge of bike racing we were able to mostly piece together the narrative of 2009's Hell of the North. As always, the race did not disappoint.

Following the race I went out to the park to meet up with Joe and Steve for another Sharon Center loop. It was windier and cooler than yesterday, but it was still great to be out. I have now ridden 8 out of the last 9 days, so hopefully some decent fitness awaits me just around the corner.

A Shock to the System

2009-03-27T07:10:00.002-05:00

Last night I did my first group ride. It hurt. I know I am not in great shape right now, but the ride was more difficult than I imagined it would be. Before the ride started I had pretty much decided to duck out early and take my own, easy way home. So I did not technically get dropped, but there is no doubt I would have been dropped had I stayed.

Still, it is fun to learn where you are at and have some goals. Now I get to work at finishing one of them darn College Green rides again. There is no substitute for consistent riding, and there also needs to be some consistent, fast riding, too. I had been neglecting that last part.

Oh, and I finally received my new lenses for my sunglasses. They make the world pretty and bright and I don't have to squint. Plus, there is no tape in the way.

One Week Anniversary

2009-03-21T14:15:00.003-05:00

Robin and I have now been married for one week. And I can say that I still love the married life. It is easy to say that when most of that time was comprised of partying, relaxing, and not working. But still, I'm looking forward to hundreds and hundreds of other weeks both similar and different.

On Pi Day of 2009 Robin and I said "I do." It was a fantastic day, and we feel really lucky that so many interesting people played a part in it.

My best man Tom came in from LA.

International violin phenom Johan Jonsson played during our ceremony.

The Tortolita Gutpluckers (including father of the bride on tub base) provided the live music once the party really got going .

National Geographic photographer Dave Edwards decided that our union was worthy enough of his camera. And if that wasn't enough, he also gave us a print of his photo that made the "100 Best Pictures of National Geographic" list. Simply amazing.

When it was all said and done, Robin and I ducked away to Hacienda del Sol for some relaxation. We had a beautiful room, enjoyed some desert walks and hot tub soaks, and spent our last night sipping an extremely fancy port (thanks Vic!) on our private patio while we watched the sun set near the Catalina Mountains.

The only down side of the trip was not having sun glasses (mine are getting a new prescription put in). But Robin and I fashioned these lovely temporary sun blockers out of my regular glasses and some spare lenses from her sunglasses:

Not the most stylish things, but they got the job done and were fairly comfortable.

Now we are back in Iowa City and enjoying the early spring weather.

husband

2009-03-09T17:52:00.002-05:00

-noun

1: a male partner in marriage
2 British: Manager, Steward
3: a frugal manager

from m-w.com

Well I don't meet any of those yet, but I did just replace a broken belt on our dryer. And now I'm drinking a beer, so at least I meet American TV's definition of a husband. And in 5 days I'll meet the first definition.

Drinking My Way to Better Health

2009-02-01T08:25:00.004-06:00

It has been a tough week of ups and downs, sore throats, sore sinus cavities, and sore chests. Ok, so maybe those should have all been singular, but I think they all were quite uncomfortable on more than one occasion.

So I've been trying to rest (and have been moderately successful at it) and drink lots of liquids.

Well, I haven't really delved into the last one. I had a wee taste after I won it at Iowa City's first ski race nearly two weeks ago, and it was mighty tasty. Perhaps in the near future I can taste it a little more thoroughly.

Odd . . .

2009-01-15T18:03:00.003-06:00

Today I walked into the John's Grocery beer freezer, and it felt downright pleasant.

Misadventures in Waxing

2009-01-13T14:13:00.002-06:00

We have been getting some good snow falls here in Iowa City. On Saturday we got somewhere between 3 and 4 inches and then on Monday afternoon we got another solid 4 inches. Tonight, we could see another 3 to 5.

With the solid new base I figured it was finally time to try out my new waxable classic skis. I glide waxed the tips and tails over the weekend, and that just left the kickwax. I watched the temps all day as the snow was coming down and it was mostly between 25 and 27, so I figured the Swix Blue Extra would do the trick. After watching lots of Youtube videos, I laid down five super thin layers, corking each one in. After I was done, I thought the skis had a nice finish, but were still tacky. Surely a good sign.

Out at the cross country ski course I was happy to see that they had already started the grooming. I zipped down the hill and glided into the newly laid classic tracks, did a couple of double poles, kicked, and went no where. Shit.

One of the videos said it could take a kilometer for the wax to work in. So I double poled around, periodically adding a kick to see if I could feel anything. Nothing. Luckily I brought the wax and the cork with me. So I stopped to apply more. I nice elderly gentleman with some sweet ski socks came by and we chatted about the difficulties of classic waxing. Surprisingly, he said he was using the same wax as I was. That could only mean opperator error.

After my second application, still not much kick. A little, but not much. I applied one more thick layer and set off to make at least one loop before calling it a day (I wanted to be recovered for the Iowa City Ski Time Trial on Tuesday).

Halfway around I found the Eppens and saw that they, too , had mis-waxed. We talked about kick waxing and all things skiing as we slid around the course. In addition to learning that I should have used a much softer wax, especially since the temperatures were actually warming even as the sun was going down (what?!), I also learned some good tips on "field waxing." Mostly that one should not do such a thing. Thankfully the Iowa City ski community is not that pretentious.

Tonight we are supposed to have our first ski race, but as I type this the temps are still around zero with a stiff north wind. Easier to wax for, but not as comfortable for working a race or hanging around afterwards. So it is canceled. Hopefully next week. There is nothing worse than having to postpone a race for no snow on one week and then postpone it the next week because there is plenty of snow but it is too cold.

Fun in the Sun

2008-12-29T15:45:00.004-06:00

Robin and I have been enjoying a very nice holiday in the Catalina Foothills of Arizona. We've had much wine, beer, bike riding, and even some new books. Still, I am looking forward to returning to the snow and some skiing.

Full trip report, complete with hiking photos and biking videos, to follow. Happy New Year!

1 to 7?

2008-12-18T06:58:00.002-06:00

This is the range of ice and/or snow that we could get tonight. I find it simultaneously frustrating and comforting that no one really knows anything when it comes to weather.

Last night I got an easy ski in with Steve. They had groomed the snow out at Ashton, which made for some iffy conditions on the classic skis. Still, we figure at least ten people were out skiing on it yesterday, one with quite the headlamp.

So now it is a very packed down course with a little bit of grass and some sporadic dirt mounds. Local groomer Wayne F. says that it should help us keep a nice base up regardless of what falls from the sky tonight. Lets hope he is right, because the Iowa City Cross Country Ski Time Trials are abrewin and should happen soon, so we need our snow.

Now Just Waning

2008-12-13T09:17:00.006-06:00

Both the moon and the snow. And I couldn't even get a shot of the full moon rising because of the thick snowless clouds.

I went back out to Ashton for some skiing Friday evening. Since it has been so cold lately the conditions were rather unchanged from Tuesday. Part of the tracks on the upper west side had some more grass poking through, but the other side of the trail offered some decent coverage.

Still, I spent most of my time on the south end of the course working on my double poling. Occasionally I could get some kick, but I pretty much had to time that perfectly and get a little lucky.

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be quite warm with some non-snow precip, so we will not be skiing for a little while. I think next week I'll either suffer through some frigid townie rides or possibly set up the rollers in the basement.

Because tomorrow there will only be grass.

Waxing and Waning

2008-12-11T18:33:00.004-06:00

On our Tuesday ski, Steve and I spent some time talking about wax. Apparently Brian E got some new skis and sent them in to get some serious wax work done to saturate the bases. The Rock says it can take up to a full day of waxing to really get a new set of skis going (and he's Canadian, so that has to be right). Other than easy application waxes, I had never put any kind of wax on my skis, and I could see the pasty white dryness on the bases. Not healthy.

Thankfully my wonderful parents helped fund my continually developing interest in all things nordic by contributing to my new birthday wax kit (tea not included).

Tuesday night was the first time I put it to use. I cleaned up my skate skis. Then I put a thick layer of base prep down,

scraped,

wiped, brushed, and wiped again.

Already I could see some improvement as the bases took on a dark sheen. So I then added a thick layer of cold blue wax (good for 21 to 10 degrees), completed the whole process, and followed that up with some purple (28 to 18 degrees). I figured any wax was better than what I had going, so I tried some exploring.

I had many reasons for my combo. Multiple layers would allow me to practice, and multiple layers of different waxes would prevent me from using up all of one type. I knew Wednesday's temps were supposed to be in the mid 20s, so I thought that the purple wax would be just right. The only problem was that we really didn't have much snow. We had more ice than snow. So I put down the layer of blue wax because it is a much harder (and hopefully sturdier?) wax.

I think the skis were the fastest they had ever been. And that was on some pretty awful conditions and with some iffy technique. The first skate session of the year with fast skis on icy terrain is not something I would recommend. But I only crashed once.

As it got dark I had some trouble seeing the super rutted out trail. So instead of skating some more I just worked on my double poling in the frozen classic tracks that people have been making all week. The new wax kept me sliding really fast, but just because it felt fast doesn't mean it was easy.

For twenty minutes I double poled back and forth along the nicest track on the course. As my triceps and abs burned all I could think about was a moment in Bill McKibben's cross country ski book Long Distance. On a trip near Yellowstone National Park, McKibben and a friend decided to ski over to some hot springs. I forget if they were 25 kilometers away, or 25 miles, but either way it was far. And the track was solid ice that provided no kick whatsoever. So the two of them double poled the entire way there, and the entire way back. I could barely last the twenty minutes I did, and I doubt I even covered 2 K. I am sure as my waxing improves I will no doubt be able to double pole amazing distances as well, but first I just have to get over some soreness.

Editors Note: The waxing pictures are a recreation of Tuesday night's waxing session. And the skis seen here are, in fact, Robin's.

Desperation

2008-12-09T19:02:00.003-06:00

Anticipation can only last so long. I guess for me it is about 10 days or so. In that time we have had many near misses in the storm department. Many of the weather reports talked of nice 2 to 3 inch snowfalls, and one even suggested as much as 5. None of those really happened. One day we got about an inch and a half. That was certainly enough to get started. I skied on Thursday and Friday and saw many people out enjoying themselves.

The snow continued to harden a bit with the dropping temps, but it was holding up well enough. Then last night we had some misty frozen rain for many, many hours. I wasn't too concerned as the weatherperson once again said we should get about 2 inches. I think we ended up with maybe a tenth of an inch. I sat at work watching the storm system swing east of us.

But in the afternoon Steve sent an emailing asking if I was up for skiing. He mentioned that the Eppens were a definite. Well that changed everything for me. If others were interested in seeking some awful conditions then so was I.

It was mostly ice with grass poking through, but a couple of the track sections allowed for some decent kick and glide. So it was better than it looked. And I got to work on my double poling quite a bit, which is good, because it needs a lot of work.

All in all we trudged through the ice for an hour. It was my fourth ski of the year. Not a great ski, but it will have to do. And since the forecast does not hold anything promising in the near future, I just might have to go back tomorrow and see how the skate skis do. We'll see how hte motivation holds up.

Anticipation

2008-11-29T18:55:00.004-06:00

It is the reason I love winter so much. For me, there are no other seasons where I must wait and watch the weather in hopes that something will happen so that I can get out and do a specific activity.

One can ride their bike in any weather. It is not always the most comfortable thing to do in rain, sleet, or snow, but it can be done. However, it is nearly impossible to cross country ski without snow. I've seen some pictures of people doing it on the beach, but that doesn't really count. For a real kick and glide one needs snow. And tonight we have our first winter weather advisory of the season. We could see up to 3 to 5 inches of snow fly, and I'm pretty ecstatic about it. Last year I received nearly 4 inches of snow on my birthday (December 6th), and Robin and I were able to get out the very next day. If this particular storm comes we could be on skis a week earlier than last year.

Of course, the snow might not come. And I will actually be alright with that. Because as much as I love the snow, I almost love the anticipation of the snow more. And if we don't get it tomorrow, then it will be that much better on Wednesday. Or whenever it comes.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of posts. In the fall I usually take a break from the bikes, and that somehow corresponds to taking a break from the blog (despite the fact that I've been enjoying lots of beer and books). To make up for it I will leave you with some of my winter pics from the past.

The view out my back window in Flagstaff, Az after a 3 foot snow storm back in January 2005.

Our bedroom window here in Iowa City on a frigid January morning in 2007.

The beginning of a surprise 8 inch dump that came last February after Steve and I skied on the Reservoir due to sparse snow coverage.

Me, after many of my ski days from last year.

She said, "yes."

2008-10-12T08:12:00.002-05:00

I said, "will you marry me?" Well, I said some other things, too, but you get the idea.

Big FAT Disappointment

2008-09-14T21:47:00.006-05:00

At least in the race department.

The rest of the trip was grand. Robin and I enjoyed a beautiful drive on quiet Wisconsin roads as we watched the fall colors creep into the trees with every mile. We had a quiet, cute, and clean hotel room. And we enjoyed two great dinners (and beers) at the Angry Minnow Brewery, the first night with Steve and Cody, and second with the Eppens (Tandem Champions! Again!). And to make things even nicer, the drive home was significantly faster than the drive there.

As for my race . . . well, I can think of three significant changes to make before next year.

First, I will not eat a big greasy breakfast. I knew the race would be long and hard and due to my predisposition towards bonking I felt I should fuel up with things I know I like. Eggs, potatoes, and toast always work well for me, but the Northwoods style breakfast did not sit well. I had some nice burning acid reflux until just after OO. Yuck.

Second, I will wake up even earlier to get my bike on the start line. In '01 I scored a great spot a little after 6 am. This year I was there at about quarter to 6 and there were already a few hundred bikes on the line. And that didn't include the preferred starters. I saw the sign saying when I could put my bike down, so I will be there that early next year.

Third, I will ride my mountain bike more. I had lots of plans to do this and I have a number of silly reasons for not doing it, like getting Poison Ivy and being lazy about finding the right gear ratio to run. For the most part bikes are bikes, but rigid single speeds do work some special muscles, and right now it hurts to bend over and tie my shoes.

I had a really great time between about mile 15 and mile 30something. I felt strong on the hills and rolled well with some fast, small groups, even taking some pulls on the fireroad climbs. My gear choice felt pretty good, too. At least in those miles it did. I did a lot of "running" in the last 8 miles or so. But I do think this was the year to be on a single speed. The rain, sand, and puddles really wrecked some drivetrains, and in the final few miles I watched one poor young soul look down in bewilderment as his chain sucked the derailleur right off his frame. So at least I didn't have that to contend with. And I shouldn't next year either.

Perhaps I will have some more thoughts later, and if I'm lucky some photos. After perusing the plethora of photos available already I can say that being a mediocre finisher is not a good way to get your picture taken. It seems the documenters all reloaded their camera cartridges when I went by, so I'll either need to speed it up or slow it down to get some photo love next year.

Final Preparations

2008-09-07T16:37:00.005-05:00

This was the last weekend before the big

hugely rolling

and super fast

photos from www.cheqfattire.com

Chequamegon 40 mountain bike race. I have been spending the last few rides on my singlespeed to get used to it. I should have done this many weeks ago instead of days ago, but oh well.

I got some lighter and faster rolling tires for the race and also put a big 36-16 on the 1x1. I'm hoping it is not too tall for me, but other Cheq vets are telling me I should go bigger and just prepare for some running over the crests of the hills. Ouch! I think I'll stick with what I've got. It feels good on the hilly gravel routes I've been testing it on. And I also don't have any bigger options.

Today I met Steve and Jim for some nice riding out at Sugar Bottom. Steve is also doing the Fat this year, and we spent many miles convincing Jim to give it a go next year. Others decided to take a more secretive approach to their final preparations and not accompany us to Sugar Bottom. I have no idea what those secret preparations entail, but they will no doubt involve some fancy razor work.

also from www.cheqfattire.com

The trails were in much better shape than the last time I went in late July. There was still poison ivy everywhere, though. Hopefully I steered clear of it. I pre-medicated and post-medicated, so that could make a difference, too.

The ride was nice and relaxed in the beginning and then picked up a lot when we ran into big Todd on his singlespeed.

photo from Skinnyski

I was worried about pushing a large 36-17 on the twisty, hilly trails today, as I am used to running a 33-17, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I hope that means I'm ready for the race.

Friday Night Threesome

2008-08-29T20:29:00.002-05:00

Robin and I decided to go visit Steen after work today. She normally goes during the day when I'm at work, and I usually tag along on a Sunday here and there. But tonight we decided to have a relaxing Friday night ride and hoped we would have the place to ourselves. And we did. Not a person in sight, just a few little Japanese Chins.

This was my first real ride in the outdoor arena, and it was pretty fun. Steen was OK with having me on his back as long as he got to do some inconsistent figure eights close to the herd. After awhile he got used to me and then explored some more.

Robin rode after I did. She is much faster than me.

Someday I will get faster, too. Tonight I held back, though, for tomorrow is the fall ride of rides to Amana and the brewery. It should be fun and a little bit painful. Hopefully the Iowa Pale Ale will help dull pain on the way back to town.

The First Day of School

2008-08-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

And the first day that I have not had to go to a first day of school in well over twenty years. Sure, work was busy, but it was no school.

Paint Night Date Night

2008-08-21T07:17:00.004-05:00

As many of you know, quite a few weeks ago I joined the ranks of people who spend a large portion of their days in an office. As offices go, mine is pretty nice. I have a nice chair, some shelves, and plenty of cabinets for food, tea and coffee fixings, and I guess some files, too. The only thing my office lacks that I can't really do anything about is a window. But windows come with time, and I can easily get up out of my chair and walk to all the windows I could want. And I enjoy the excuse to stretch my legs frequently.

But still, the office is pretty drab. Beige-ish walls, light wood shelves and cabinets, and a light gray speckled desk top. I knew I needed some art, but then I remembered that I'm picky and poor. So I thought that maybe I would just get some blank canvases and paint them three different colors. I consulted my favorite artist, and she thought it was a fabulous idea. And it was a good thing she did, too, because while I am pretty good at coming up with ideas like this, I am not too excited to commit ideas to paper. It seems so permanent. And my lack of art skills was not helping me get started.

Thankfully, mixing paints and putting a solid color on canvas can be very forgiving and easily changed. So after a cool crisp pale ale, Robin and I went into the basement studio and got started.

I had a vague idea of what kind of colors I wanted, but I really only felt strongly about two of them. So we got started on a sage-like green and decided to see where that took us. For each canvas we (mostly Robin) would mix the color, apply one layer evenly over the canvas, and then mix a very similar color and add a second layer on top with varying brush strokes to create the texture.

After the green we moved on to a blue that was, and still is, my favorite.

For the third canvas I really didn't know what color to do. I originally thought something in a burgundy, and Robin was feeling deep brown. But as we looked at our first two colors we realized we wanted something more bold. So we leaned towards orange.

A lightning fast brush stroke is a sure sign of a competent painter.

And the finished product. I will send an update when I get them into my office.

On Disappointment

2008-08-07T13:45:00.002-05:00

After finishing Frank Conroy's extremely enjoyable Body & Soul, I was left with a desire to read something with a European feel to it. Perhaps it was all the classical music, or the small sections of the book that took place in London, but I really wanted to cross the pond for my next book. But I only ended up going back and forth, and in the beginning, that was all right.

I settled on Zadie Smith's On Beauty. Zadie is a young, popular British novelist who has received much critical acclaim. On Beauty is loosely based on E. M. Forester's Howard's End, takes place in London and the Boston area, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005. So it met many of the criteria I had for my next book.

Unfortunately, I cannot recall the last book that left me so disappointed. I think I can say that Smith is a good writer, and the story was captivating enough early on that I felt compelled to finish it. She also does a good job of asking large questions about race, gender, social action, and the nature of an individual's beliefs. However, none of those questions reveal any new insight, and in the end they are drowned out by unbelievable chracters, cliched academic jargon peppered throughout the novel so as to appear smart and witty, and increasingly unlikely coincidences that are necessary to move the plot forward. If you like books about wacky academics, both Francine Prose's Blue Angel and Richard Russo's Straight Man are much better. And if you are interested in social commentary on race, gender, and social action, well there are too many good ones to list.

On a not disappointing note, Robin and I had a fabulous date night where we enjoyed the smoke free atmosphere of George's and for the first time tried their much talked about burgers. They were simple and not much to look at, but for some reason they just tasted so good. We will definitely be back.

Iowa State Road Race

2008-08-03T12:31:00.003-05:00

No, I didn't race it. But when I showed up to the Thursday night group ride Hopson and Nick Martin roped me into driving a follow car. I was too nice to say no. Since most people on the ride that night were trying to take it easy for Saturday's race, I decided I'd try to be a little less nice on the bike.

My plan worked out a little bit. Coming into Lone Tree it was only Heath and myself trading off hard pulls. About a kilometer or so from the town limits sign I decided to come through hard. Not attack, just put my head down and see how long I could keep the pressure high. As I did this, Heath somehow pulled out of his pedal as he was trying to stay on my wheel. I heard lots of "Oh Shits" from the group. When I looked back I had a big gap, and everyone was still upright. I moved to the side of the road to keep anyone from sneaking into my draft and hammered for the line. I won. No check or anything, but I guess it was my own little State Road race. The rest of the ride was nice, and for most of it, it was Heath and I on the front with a few other non racers coming in to play, too.

The weather for Saturday's race was supposed to be super hot and muggy with temps into the 90s. But Friday evening a cooling trend came in and Saturday turned out to be a very nice day. Still warm, but not uncomfortable.

I was the driver of the wheels truck for the Women's Cat. 1, 2, 3 race. All six of them. West Branch Ford provided the trucks. So there I was, sitting in a gigantic F-150 pickup with two sets of wheels in the back. I felt more than a little silly. I was excited to volunteer for the local race and all my friends, but driving 81 miles in an ugly pick up truck just doesn't seem to fit with what bicycles should really be about. There is no support like this in mountain bike races, but I suppose that is mostly because there is no pack and there aren't really any vehicles that can easily follow through tight, twisty single track. With the nature of the pack in road racing, self supported races might not work too well, but so much of racing is gambling anyways, so maybe self supported races would just force people to be more careful with wheel and equipment selection before a race. Just a thought.

All complaining aside, it was a pretty fun day. I ate a nice lunch of pb&j, grapes, cookies, water, and gatorade while I watched the race from behind. The first lap was pretty uneventful as no one was excited to attack and no one wanted to get dropped. Towards the end of the lap I could see all the ladies chatting and next thing I know they were pulling over into an empty road maintenance parking lot. They had decided to all take a neutral nature break. This suited me fine as I also had to pee. So there I was, peeing on the side of the road next to a ditch with four other women scrambling to get out of their bib shorts. It was highly amusing.

On lap two Kim Eppen and Robin Williams (not my Robin, and not the actor either) started pushing the pace on the big hills in the crosswind. The first casualty was Andrea from Bikes 2 You. Up until that point she had been one of the strongest riders and was almost always on the front. Shortly after Andrea came off one of the two Punk Rock Cycling ladies slid off the back as well. After a few hills she managed to drag herself back to the group. At this point, no one wanted to work, but to get through the race they eventually settled into a fairly even rotating paceline.

This lasted through lap 2 and into most of lap 3 where Robin again attacked on the big climb out of the Cedar River Valley. Only Robin, Kim Eppen, and one Punk Rock racer were able to keep the pace. They continued to ride hard with Robin making lots good attacks. The Punk Rock racer rode a rather smart race as she forced Kim to chase almost everytime. With just over 1km to go Kim attacked hard and only the Punk Rock rider could follow. Kim gave everything she had to try to shake her from her wheel, but it was not to be. On the final hill miss Punk Rock came around and poor Kim was out of gas.

It was a fun event, and I think the promoters did a good job with what looked like a very demanding course. I hope it is here again next year, because I just might want to try my own chances in the race.

High and Dry

2008-07-30T14:54:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I came home from work a little groggy and very unenthusiastic about the group ride. This often happens to me. It is difficult to sit around all day and then try to get geared up for what is almost always a couple of painful hours. Of course, it feels really good when it's over. Especially while sipping beer with my legs up in the recliner.

While trying to decide whether or not I should go on the ride, the sky outside was getting darker and darker. We have had a lot of quick and violent thunderstorms this summer. When I checked the radar it looked almost OK. But I had been burned by this in the past. Finally at around 5 o'clock I remembered those other days that I went out and got pummeled by thunderstorms. The rides turned out just fine, but there were always a lot of worrisome moments and plenty of thoughts like, "this is stupid. Why are you riding your bike into a storm front?"

So I decided to stay home. I felt much better once I made this decision. Instead of riding, I made tea and sat down to read Frank Conroy's Body & Soul. I had started it the day before when I foolishly left my other book (Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale) at work. I was somewhat resistant when I started Conroy's story, as I was really curious about what was going to happen to Offred. But after only a page or two I was sucked in.

The protagonist is a young boy named Claude who has a natural talent for music. He goes from teacher to teacher learning everything from scales and posture to theory and composition. It is very well written and I find the music parts fascinating. They are extremely detailed, but not at all tedious to a non-music person like myself.

There is something simple about the story, too. About a hundred pages in I found myself thinking that it was really nothing new, that there was really nothing special about this book, but I liked it anyways. It was also around this time that the boy's only consistent tutor told Claude that his story of growing up had been told countless times, and that he really wasn't all that special or unique. I love it when authors are aware of these things and share that fact with their readers.

But the real reason I have been enjoying this novel (I'm not finished with it yet), I believe, is that I love the Bildungsroman genre. I have long said that I prefer the beginnings of stories to the other parts. The way the characters are introduced, come together, slowly encounter problems and begin to work through them. I find it all very exciting. And inevitably the feeling changes as the story progresses. But with the bildungsroman, I think the beginning feeling is prolonged just a little bit more. And for some reason I appreciate that.

Returns (Sorry, it's a long one)

2008-07-26T18:09:00.002-05:00

I know, it has been awhile since my last writing. In this time things have been both extremely busy and wonderfully quiet. A few weeks ago I went to Geneva, Il for my sister's wedding. It was a hectic weekend, but both Robin and I maintain that it was one of the most fun weddings we have ever been to. Good food, good drinks, lots of dancing, and good company.

When we returned we did a little housesitting for an awkward pair of shelties. This was a little bit of an uncomfortable week. I think I might have a slight dog allergy, as I was very cloudy in the head every morning that week. Thankfully, the gig paid well, and Robin eloquently declined the invitation to sit again.

In this time I have also done a little bit of riding, but nothing to write home about. I have mostly been working and reading books in my free time. When I announced my departure from Ph.D-dom back in May, I suggested that it would give me much more time to read for fun and leave me more excited to talk about what I have read. In that time I have only talked about one book, Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (which I still think is great), but I have actually read many books these last few months.

When I first stepped away from my studies I was excited to immerse myself in some guilty pleasure reading. Robin and I are both fans of the epic sci-fi/fantasy adventure genre, and she particularly enjoys listening to books of this sort on tape (well, ipod, really) while at work. I suggested that she give Stephen King's The Gunslinger a try and told her that, if she liked it, there were dozens of hours of listening that could follow.

I started reading the massive Dark Tower series when I was a teenager. The first four works delighted me, as had many other stories of King's. But then he took a break from the Dark Tower and I went off to college and started reading different things. When Robin listened to the first book and I saw how much she enjoyed it, I knew I had get back into the series myself. And rather than picking up where I left off, I decided to start over from the beginning.

The epic tale did not disappoint. But after reading the first five books in succession, I realized I needed a little break from the massive story and yearned for some more character-driven tales. Around this time Steve had mentioned that he started re-reading David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, a gargantuan story of tennis, drugs, terrorist politics, and pretty much everything related and not related to those three things. I had forced myself through this dense work (it's a thousand pages and has probably 300 or more intensely detailed footnotes) in the summer of 2005. For the most part, I enjoyed it. But I did not get everything out of it that I should have. And listening to Steve recount the amusing happenings at the Enfield Tennis Academy sparked my interest to give it a re-read, too.

Unfortunately, Infinite Jest is not a great substitute for a seven volume epic story. I read the first hundred pages, and for the most part really enjoyed them, but I had to put it aside. I think I will still re-read it, but it will probably happen in chunks.

Instead I looked to our rather large bookshelf and started pulling things off that I acquired long ago and never read. In quick succession I read two Pulitzer Prize winning novels. Although the major prizes have their problems (I think Sinclair Lewis's explanation for why he refused the Pulitzer is a nice place to start. Although, it should be noted that five years later he did accept the Nobel Prize for Literature), I generally find that they are good reads. Indeed, many of my favorite books and authors are Pulitzer Prize winners (Kavalier and Clay, Middlesex, Jhumpa Lahiri, Willa Cather, and others).

So I sat down to two rather interesting tales of the decline of American values and icons--Phillip Roth's American Pastoral and Richard Russo's Empire Falls. Both have a strong postmodern undercurrent that leaves one grasping for some kind of stability in life. The former does so with a more serious tone of regret and violence, and the latter is a little more flippant and carefree. I am happy I read them both, but I preferred Empire Falls.

This morning, though, I found myself bookless. Well, not completely, there are others on the shelf that I have not read, but none of them called out to me. So I spun on down to the library and returned with Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. It was a finalist for the Booker Prize last year, and I am yet to be disappointed by a Booker. It is a short, powerful book set in Lahore, Pakistan in which the Pakistani narrator recounts his life in the United States to an American traveler. The entire book takes place over the course of one sitting, and I think it is best to read the story over the course of one sitting as well. Hamid manages to convey many details through his sparse prose, and the narrator is a fascinating mix between a wealthy Pakistani interested in American cliches and a brilliant, highly educated financial analyst. I highly recommend the story.

While I have no intention of being a book reviewer, I will try to write about my readings with a little more frequency. And if I don't wait so long before I discuss them, I might be able to say more interesting things about each one. But as always, no promises from this blogger.

Lesson Un-Learned

2008-07-08T20:45:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote about a crazy ride I had with Steve. We set out under nice skies and were then treated to tornado and hail warnings and some of the scariest looking clouds I have ever seen in my life. This afternoon I saw some not so pleasant colors on the radar, but I was optimistic that the group ride would be able to skirt around them. On my warm-up ride down Sand Rd. it was sunny and sticky. on the way back I could see some dark clouds approaching from the west, but I still figured that we could avoid most of it.

When I rolled up to the park Brian Eppen was on his rain/winter bike. An old mountain bike with slick tires, fenders, and a top gear of 42-12. Hmm. Rick Hopson was busily checking his blackberry or i-phone and excitedly showing us pictures of the doom that was headed our way. Of course, all we really had to do was look up.

Despite the impending soaking, the group ride was still really large. We rolled out south on old 218 as many riders had pointed out that the Hill's police have been cracking down and shelling out $75 tickets to cyclists who cross the closed bridge over the river. Catching the group ride would make their summer.

On the way out of town the group was light hearted and joking, but I'm sure it was just to cover up the fact that we were all somewhat uncomfortable being there. I personally clung to the silly cliche "safety in numbers." As if a tornado would have any more trouble with 25 riders than it would with 2.

I took my first pull early on the long-ish hill just south of town. The pace was relaxed and steady. But when we crested the hill we could see the crazy storm was just to our right and sprinkles had just started to fall. I don't know who was on the front at that point, but they drilled it. Hard. The group immediately started splitting into gaps. I leap-frogged a few riders and caught up to the second group only to come to the front and realize that I was in the third group. Shit.

I put my head down and pulled us up to the second group and felt better when I saw that the first group only contained 3 people. We caught them when we turned west and crested the overpass. Right as the skies really opened up. The roads had water running everywhere, and the county had just dropped a lot of chunky black tar to seal up some cracks. This all made for some semi-sketchy rotating. I took a few pulls early on, but then I had to sit in, I was worried about getting dropped in the storm and riding in alone.

But as we crested round-barn hill, the skies started to clear up again and I noticed that our group only contained 11 people. We were now riding a hard, but manageable pace as we continued on to Fry Town. When we hit the Turnpike, though, things lit up again. I followed some wheels and witnessed Eppen make one of the craziest jumps to mark an attack I have ever seen. I came over the final big hill at the front and pulled down the descent. After a little jockying for position the the Bikes 2 You boys took off. Adam Price worked to close the gap but couldn't make it (no one takes more pulls on the group rides than Adam Price). Feeling bad for Adam's suffering, I came around as hard as I could and worked to bridge the gap, making sure that Adam was on my wheel. I brought him and a few riders almost all the way there, but it wasn't enough.

It was enough, however, to earn my a hearty Brian Eppen pat on the back approval. And that made it worth it for me. Plus the Bikes 2 You duo had ridden so hard they pretty much just blew up and were never seen from again.

Onto Black Diamond Rd. and we were looking at the back of the storm that had soaked us. We briefly worried about getting wet again, but the storm had no problem pulling away from our rotating paceline that held steady at 29 mph. I hung on and took as many pulls as I could all the way down Rhoret, where I attacked way to early for the sprint. Again it was OK as I finished the ride in a rather select group of 7 and earned another semi-compliment when Jim Cochran twice accused me of doing "secret training."

Nothing secret this time, though. Just consistent riding. And it led to the best group ride I've had since I left Iowa City five years ago. Of course, I didn't "win" anything, and I couldn't ride away from anyone, but maybe if I start implementing some "secret training" I can get there. And hopefully when I do, the weather will be a little bit better.

A Manure Barrel!

2008-07-07T22:26:00.002-05:00

While Robin is in sunny, hot, and dry Arizona for the week, I told her that I would check up on Steen. I had a wonderful 4^th of July weekend that involved multiple BBQs and nice bike rides, so on Sunday I was more than happy to take an easy ride out to see Steen and maybe even ride him.

The ride out was nice, a little warmer than the past few days, but not bad. Changing into jeans and boots out of wet cycling clothes was not that much fun, though. After that I just couldn’t stop sweating, and my glasses were sliding all over my face. I thought it best to just go outside and get Steen.

He was in the biggest pasture and hanging out in the second farthest corner from me. He picked his head up immediately when I called his name. He then took a couple steps towards me. But that was it. I had to go in and get him. Despite his unwillingness to meet me halfway, he was still happy to see me and had no problem with me putting his halter on and leading him out of the pasture.

After walking out the gate, through the owners’ yard, and up to the barn entrance with no problem, Steen just decided he would go no further. I had never encountered this in a horse before; easy and congenial following, and then staunch refusal and pulling back. And there was no way I could out pull him, any shake of his head brought me stumbling back. So I made him do some backing, just gently pushed on his chest and said ‘back.’ You know, just to show him who’s boss.

And he went back fine. So apparently I was only the boss sometimes. And I could guide him in all directions but forward. At this point I was feeling silly and thinking that I would have to return him to the pasture without any grooming or ground exercises. And right when I was feeling silliest a cute, young horse person comes out and smiles at me. Great.

I explained that I was the novice horse boyfriend trying to work with the experience horse girlfriend’s Paint. She took pity on me and asked if I needed help. I handed her the lead rope. Steen continued to give her a hard time and I didn’t feel so bad. But slowly and patiently she led him up to the door and let him sniff the piece of farm equipment that was sitting near the entrance. A small, insignificant little barrel (compared to a horse) that apparently isn’t always there. That is what freaked Steen out and I didn’t notice it at all.

After that Steen was great. He was still on edge, but he conceded to my slow and clumsy grooming and even picked his feet up before I asked him to. That was rather amazing. I saddled him up and we went into the arena to do some groundwork. After the manure barrel fiasco, I had decided that it would be best not to ride him that afternoon, so we did a lot of walking and trotting exercises. Occasionally Steen would get a little worked up at various noises, but for the most part he was really calm. And when I unsaddled him and took off his lead rope to let him role in the dirt (which he loves), he would only follow me around.

Even though I didn’t get to ride him, and felt silly much of the time having a horse drag me around, it was still really good for our relationship. Despite being nervous(Steen, that is. Well, mostly Steen), he did everything I asked him to and was really happy about it. And when I turned him back out into the pasture, he was semi-reluctant to leave me. What a softy. I only hope on Wednesday the manure barrel is gone so that neither one of us is nervous and we can ride.

Reconciliation

2008-07-02T08:00:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago the ASO and various teams selecting their Tour de France rosters snubbed all Iowa riders. This was a big blow for many of us dreaming to go. A number of Iowa's top riders have even stopped giving it their all on the group rides as a result. One anonymous rider was quoted saying, "what's the point? I mean, I trained all winter long and I've been doing workouts like 31 repeats on 'the wall' [on Sugar Bottom rd.] to simulate Alpe D'Huez, but now I don't even feel like riding at all." Others could not be reached for comment as they were seen turning around shortly after the start of recent College Green rides.

But other riders kept fighting. Most notably was CSC's super domestique Jason McCartney. When he found out he wasn't going to the Tour, he kept doing the rides and he kept taking his pulls. And at least someone took notice. This morning, USA Cycling announced that Jason McCartney, from Coralville, Iowa, was named to his second Olympic Road race team.

So keep taking your pulls people. They just might get you a trip to the biggest races in the world.

A Labor of Love

2008-06-28T18:22:00.003-05:00

Robin has been producing some fine jewelry in her basement studio lately. One year ago she promised our friends Autumn and Efrain matching silver bracelets for their one year wedding anniversary.

For practice, and because she loves me, she made a silver bracelet for me. I have never been one to wear jewelry. There has been no real reason for this, other than perhaps because I did not have any. A little over a year ago, though, Robin gave me a jade stone in the shape of an infinity knot. I have not taken it off since. A little while before that, she made a silver bracelet for her brother, Jesse. Like my necklace, he does not take it off. So when Robin said she wanted to make me one, I was very excited. And I'm also excited with the outcome.

This is not the greatest photo (too much shadow and shine), but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. Plus, it is not completely finished. It needs a little more sanding and TLC. But Robin and I were too excited to wait, and on Thursday she shaped it for me. I find it quite comfortable, even for riding around town on my bike. I'm not sure if it will be a permanent fixture upon my wrist (I neglected to wear it on my ride today), but I imagine it will be there more often than not.

World Class Wheel Sucking

2008-06-24T21:15:00.003-05:00

At least for awhile. I was only able to maintain it for about 80% of the night's College Green group ride. It was better than I expected, though. I had not done a group ride, or anything fast paced, in about a month. So I guess the easy spinning I was able to do 8 out of the 9 days over my surprise vacation was just what I needed.

Tonight I left my house just after 5. I had recently put on a new (well, practically new) Selle Italia Flite saddle on my Teesedale and I needed to make some minor adjustments. As I rolled around the neighborhoods there was a light sprinkle, but the skies looked promising for a nice and dry ride.

When I got to the park there was a small, amiable group of about 10, and that made me quite happy. But as the minutes went by we were joined by the Eppens on their tandem (ouch), Jim Cochran, Ryan Neninger, and finally, Jason McCartney, who was looking very, very tan. In the end, I think we had close to 30 people there.

The roll out south of town was nice and comfortable and I was pleased to see my former teammate Lee was back in town for the ride. We were able to ride together in the paceline for awhile and catch up on things. And then he prodded me into going for the first sprint of the ride, and for some reason I did. Of course, I'm not sure anyone else really wanted it since I got a gap fairly easily.

As I coasted into the left turn and tried to get my breathing under control the tandem train rolled through and dropped the hammer. And here is where my wheel sucking began. For the next 15 miles or so I was able to stay near the front, take the occasional pull, but mostly I just stayed in a spot that allowed me to spin as comfortably as I could.

This was actually not at all comfortable. Though it was a great vantage point to watch Jason roll between the back and front of the group, hands on top of the bars, looking around and smiling like he is on vacation. Though, I guess this is actually his vacation.

A few miles after we turned west into a semi-tough crosswind I lost it on a long climb. Lee kindly gave me a push back up to the group, but it wasn't enough. I was content, though. I made it farther than I thought I would, and I was able to catch up to a few of the other stragglers in the final miles. Maybe if I don't go for any silly sprints on Thursday I'll be able to finish the ride. Maybe.

Biking Against the Apocalypse

2008-06-15T17:37:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates; it is not because I have been on vacation. Though it appears that I have an unexpected vacation of sorts next week (perhaps I'll have time to get around to that Dirty Kanza report). As you all probably know by now, the rivers in Iowa are unified and rising up against, well, against everything. On Friday we all heard that the University of Iowa would be closing early and that we were not to report back to work until June 23rd. Crazy.

Although that Friday was a gorgeous day, the Iowa River was still rising quickly. So I changed into my grubby clothes and went down near the library to set up some sandbag walls. After three hours, my arms were done, so I came home and had beer.

The next morning was equally beautiful and the river had risen almost two feet in the night. So I went back down to the University to help out. It was hectic. A score of us were right on the water rapidly building a wall to prevent the Facilities Building from getting soaked. And we got it up. Hooray for us. After nearly four hours of solid work, though, my body was very tired.

I figured I had earned an easy bike ride, so I called Steve, who had also spent the last two days volunteering to save some much loved local businesses, and we decided to ride some gravel roads. Just before we left a large consolidated storm was developing north of Iowa City. No biggie, it looked like it would stay north (and the weather people said it would, too) so we went south towards the sunshine.

The storm slowly followed us, though. We would occasionally feel sprinkles, and then ride out of them. But we never really reached that elusive sunshine that was oh so close. And after 35 minutes or so of riding south we turned west and saw that the clouds were actually closer than we thought and looked downright tornado-ish.

Our thoughts were confirmed when Robin and Cody called almost simultaneously to inform us that big hail was falling from the sky and the tornado sirens were blasting. Robin urged us to go inside, and while I agreed that it was a good idea, we were kind of on the wrong side of the river to get to any sort of shelter. But since we were on bikes we decided to check out the closed bridge into the town of Hills anyways. As we rolled towards it the fields on either side of the road started to turn to water. They became veritable lakes, and we were only on a tiny stretch of pavement. It was at this time that I saw a series of puffy clouds coming down from the dark blue sky towards the ground. I asked Steve if that is how tornadoes form. He said maybe and brought up that moment in the blockbuster hit Twister when they were driving on a road similar to ours and saw some things in the air that should have been on the ground.

Lucky for us, there was no flying debris. And double lucky for us, we were able to cross the bridge into Hills. Once there we re-assessed the situation and decided to go into Iguana's for Negra Modellos and chips and salsa. It was a nice break, and the beer certainly calmed my nerves.

As the TV weather stations showed the storm moving east-southeast, we decided to ride west a bit before turning north and riding back into Iowa City. For the most part, the storm did not look quite as ominous as it had earlier. But that didn't last long. The wind seemed to be shifting, the temperature was dropping, and we were getting farther and farther away from the friendly blue skies and fluffy white clouds off in the distance. When we turned north we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would get very wet. Not a big deal, but when large bolt of lightening came down a short ways in front of us, we turned back around to re-think our plan.

None of our new plans were very good, though. And we had no idea if any of the bridges we normally ride over would even be open. Thankfully in the few minutes while we stopped to rest and discuss, the storm moved quite a ways to the east. So back north we went. As we crested a hill we saw not only a dry bridge, but also the universal sign that everything would be OK.

From this point on the roads were wet but we could see our shadows. This made us happy and we rolled into town as fast as our tired and somewhat out-of-shape legs would carry us. To aid in our momentum we rolled through a few stop signs and crossed Highway 6 before the light turned. Our luck, or good deeds, or karmah, or whatever, had run out, cuz the cops caught is on that one. Or was it? Steve took care of the smooth talking while I tried to sit and look pretty. And though the cop knew running lights was bad, she didn't really seem to understand bike laws. We decided not to push it. I got home still a little jittery from the whole event and decided another beer was in order.

I snagged these photos from the Press-Citizen and Des Moines Register websites, both of which have been doing a wonderful job of covering the flood. None of the pictures were taken near where Steve and I were, and none of them look quite as bad as the skies above us did, but they give you an idea.

The Bike

2008-05-28T18:44:00.003-05:00

I spent much of Monday morning working on the bike I will ride in the Dirty Kanza. It was not all that fun, as I had not worked on this bike in years. But the outcome feels good.

As bikes go, it is not a very exciting bike. But since I like reading about other peoples' bikes, I figure I should post mine, too.

It is a pretty straight forward cyclocross bike. For the race changes, all I did was put on a (relatively) new 12-27 Ultegra cassette, a new chain, a new 38tooth chainring, and new 32mm Ritchey Speedmax tires. Oh, and I changed the shifter cables and added new brake pads.

For the race we are required to have taillights and headlights, the power level of these is up to us. Since my plan is to finish in the daylight, or just after the daylight ends, I am going with the minimalist approach. So on my handlebar I have a small LED Cateye and an itty bitty, but very bright, Trek light that I got for free from the Bike To Work Week ride. Hopefully that is enough.

My body is feeling good, too. The two weeks of rest and light rides have made my legs feel very refreshed. On today's ride the hills and wind were easy and I felt like I could have kept going for a long, long time without much difficulty. Hopefully I feel the same way on Saturday.

Relaxing

2008-05-23T22:07:00.002-05:00

That has been the theme of the week. Robin's sister Meryl is in town and we have all had lots of quality hang out time. We've played lots of cards, drank lots of wine and beer, and ate some really good meals.

My legs were super tired from all the dirty centuries and group rides of late, so this week I relaxed on the bike, too. On Tuesday's group ride I turned around after an hour so I could spin home on my own. And on Wednesday I did a very slow reservoir loop and was lucky enough to run into Steve and Cody at the end. They invited me over for a beer and I could not refuse. We talked about many scary bike moments, good books, and of course, the fast approaching Dirty Kanza. I think I'm feeling ready, and I hope all of this rest will do me good. Unfortunately, the bike is not ready. But hopefully before the weekend is over it will be.

Today it was wet in the morning and dry and cool in the afternoon. I wanted to get out for another easy spin after work, but instead I took a nice long nap on the couch. But I guess that is good for recovery, too.

Tomorrow we go to Chicago to take Meryl to the airport and celebrate my Dad's birthday. So I have at least a couple more relaxing days ahead of me.

Assault and Century

2008-05-19T20:52:00.005-05:00

On Saturday morning I woke up in the dark before my alarm went off. I felt good, despite having one too many beers once again on a Friday night. At 5:30AM I pulled on my bibs and put sunscreen on while I ate cereal and toast with peanut butter. The crunchy stuff. It was still chilly so I went with arm warmers, but no knee warmers, as I thought the day would warm quickly. Plus I also had two jerseys on. I decided to test the "six pockets, no bags" approach that I got from Steve. And I think he said he got it from Ira.

I rolled out the door a few minutes before 6. I briefly stopped by the public library to return some DVDs and then rolled east toward dirt. I got a little twisted around leaving town and ended up riding the shoulder on Rochester for a mile or so. I didn't think this was a good sign, but the sun was already shining on my face and there were no cars out, so that felt good.

I turned north and followed the same route as last weekend for awhile. Instead of looping east and over to West Branch, though, I decided to keep going north. I got near Sutliff and found myself on a bunch of gravel roads that I had never been on before. These were beautifully treed roads and they were very, very hilly. Not as hilly as the route I will encounter in Kansas, but the hills were large enough that I had to settle into a climbing rhythm on a few of them.

After tacking on a short loop up north I turned west and headed into the strengthening northwest wind. This road was much flatter and took me almost directly to Ely. Ely has a Casey's, and I have really come to rely on these for food stops. I quickly filled my bottles with water (no sugar, bad for the tummy) and downed an egg and sausage pizza before getting back to the gravel.

I continued to ride west and occasionally a little north. I skirted around the Eastern Iowa Airport, found lots of more new gravel, and finally turned south for some nice tailwind into the Amana Colonies. The Casey's in Amana was disappointing. No pizza. So I got some caffeine in the form of a sugary and fatty Starbucks drink and loaded up on cheesy crackers. When I checked out the clerk looked at me, sweaty, salty, helmeted, and holding crumpled bills in my gloved hands, and asked, in all seriousness, if I had any gas too. I was confused and could only reply with, "uh, no."

The gravel back towards Iowa City was sandy and bumpy. This is where I hit a little bit of a low point. My legs and lungs felt great, and my average speed was still going up. But I was grumpy. I just kept swearing at all the bumps and hills. I figured it was best to just keep eating, so I did, and I think that helped. I also had a big rise when I scored this sweet road prize:

I had just started riding on pavement as I finished my 80+ miles on gravel, so the pavement and beer find were definite bonuses. I'm not really a light beer kind of guy, but I sure wont turn them down.

I came in on the oh so popular IWV. Just a couple miles out of Iowa City a beige Ford Taurus buzzed me quite closely. Closer than I had been buzzed in years. His mirror was inches from my handlebar. I flipped him off after he passed to let him know that I did not appreciate his driving style. Normally I am a fan of the smile and wave approach, but this time I was tired and frustrated.

He slowed down and found a place to pull over on the next hill. I was not really in the mood for a rules of the road discussion, as I had about 96 miles and 6 hours in my legs. He stepped out of his car and came rushing at me in the middle of the lane screaming about how if I flip him off I better be able to back it up physically. This was definitely not going to be a discussion, but I proceeded anyway, telling him how buzzing me with his car is playing games with my life. In truth, I didn't really have time to get that out before he swung at my face with his right hand.

Thankfully I had taken Tae Kwon-Do as a sophmore at the University of Iowa. And even though I was tired and that class was 8 years ago, I quickly leaned back and to the right and threw my left arm up in the classic block move. My forearm pushed his punch wide and his fist barely struck my shoulder.

At this point I dropped my bike, jumped into the low ditch on the side of the road, and ran up the other side onto some poor woman's lawn. I had my cell phone out and was dialing 911. This irked the old man and he just kept screaming and then picked my bike up, raised it over his head, and threw it down into the ditch. He did not chase me anymore, but he did throw some dirt at me. He missed.

When the very friendly Sheriff showed up my assailant had already fled. I spoke with the officer and so did a very nice person in a truck who saw the whole thing and gave me his card. He is a defense attorney. I doubt anything will come of it all, but I will be sure to keep you posted if/when I hear back from the Sheriff.

After all that excitement I rolled home with a wobbly front wheel and the lovely Robin had lunch waiting for me. She is so wonderful. I was still a little shaken, but I quickly ate and showered and we were off to Chicago to see my family and pick up Robin's sister Meryl. This post is getting a bit long, so I will have to cut it short, but I will end with a map of the ride. Since many of the roads were new to me, I don't think this map is completely correct, but you get the idea.

Oh yeah, the ride was just barely over a century. 100.3something. It took me 6 hours and 20 minutes of riding and about 7 hours with the whole assault thing.

Ph Imbalance

2008-05-14T07:44:00.002-05:00

Some of you have probably noticed that the "books" portion of booksbikesbeer is horribly under represented. And usually when it has come up, it has been in regards to some brief comments about my job as a graduate student. A job that really has not made me very happy these last couple of years. I have been lucky to spend those years in a nice department at the University of Iowa with some very cool people, but after lots of thinking I have realized that the profession is not right for me. Or perhaps I should say that I am not right for the profession. It is always difficult to tell in these situations.

So I am now a Ph. D-rop out and have taken an advising position at the University's Academic Advising Center. It started this week and I think it will be a really nice fit for me. Even though I will not have a real summer, I am ok with it. I have already felt much better about my increased every-day free time and this new found separation between work and not-work.

In this new free time I have, of course, been riding my bike a lot. Last night's group ride was a fine time. We did the ever fast Eden's Loop and I took all my pulls and made it to the home stretch with the group. At that point I eased off, as I really did not want to ride myself into the ground this early in the week. Steve and I rolled in easily and then had a beer at Robin and my house. It was nice.

And I have also gotten back to fun reading. And it has been great. Even during my breaks from school I was not doing much fun reading these last couple of years. But now it is back. A few weeks ago I read Michael Chabon's The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. It is his first novel and is a wonderful tale of that time in your life when you are between being a kid and an adult and really have no responsibility. The characters are fascinating and the adventures, while generally things I wouldn't want to do personally, were very enjoyable to experience vicariously. It is a quick, enjoyable read. When I neared the end, I really didn't want it to stop. I often get excited about finishing books, because then there is the exciting period of choosing the next book to read, and so I tend to read a little faster. But with this one I definitely slowed down. I have my own tattered used bookstore copy, so thankfully I will be able to re-read it whenever I choose. Mr. LaRue re-reads it at the start of every summer, and that might not be a bad rule to follow.

Two Down

2008-05-11T09:16:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning I woke up at seven with a slight hangover after having one two many beers at Steve and Cody's fire. Thankfully it wasn't anything a little juice, coffee, and food couldn't take care of. While Robin enjoyed her early morning coffee in bed with her book, I went into the basement to set up my computer on my cyclocross bike. After that I got dressed, ate a cheese and egg sandwich, and rolled out the door at 9:15, only a few minutes later than I had planned.

The morning was cloudy and cool, but the wind was light/non-existent from the east. So I took the most direct route to gravel I know, and then more or less followed a path that Steve and I rode last November when I tried to follow him on one of his 100 mile gravel rides. I got a little turned around once, but it worked out in my favor as I just got to add a few more gravel miles to the ride.

The route was beautiful. Everything was green and lush. There were also lots of little purple violets and bright yellow dandylions and plenty of other things that I don't know the names of. At this point it started raining on me. I guess May showers are needed to maintain the May flowers. It wasn't hard, though, just a steady sprinkle, but it lasted for almost an hour. It cleared up a bit shortly before I rolled into West Branch for a pizza and fluids stop. And the sun even came out. I felt great here at the halfway point, I had 49 miles in and 45 of them were on dirt.

After lunch I rolled north a little ways before turning back south. I decided to start eating again almost immediately, even though I wasn't really hungry, and I think this was a good decision. It kept my tummy happy and the winds started to pick up, so I was definitely riding harder at this point. At first it was mostly a crosswind, but after I had skirted Iowa City and continued south a ways the winds picked up dramatically and were coming from the east and the south.

This area had also received a lot of fresh gravel. Combined with the headwind, this made for a very frustrating section. I spent most of it riding all the way to the side of the road, half in the grass at times, trying to avoid the deep sections of chunky gravel. I had originally planned to ride east towards Lone Tree and ride some of the nice roads I remember liking that are south and east of there. But that direction had more fresh gravel, and I wasn't up for it.

So I took a break and got some road miles in. I had hardly ridden any pavement since Iowa City. I decided to continue south towards the Tri-County Bridge and then Riverside. It seems I have been going there a lot lately, but that's ok. When I turned off the pavement the loose gravel and wind were still annoying me, but that ended as soon as I crossed the bridge. My speed and my spirits lifted as I rolled back north on the hard pack dirt I enjoy. Thank you Tri-County Bridge!

Nearing Riverside I was almost 90 miles into the ride and I was having no stomach problems. This excited me. I had almost no sugary drinks on this ride and I ate more food, so perhaps this is the way to go. I was quite starving when I pulled into the Casey's there. They were out of pizza, and this bummed me out. But when my eyes saw a bag of potato chips I realized those salty fats would be fine, too. So I grabbed a bag and a chocolaty, milky, Starbucks coffee drink and headed back to the bike.

The ride back into Iowa City was nice. I had a tailwind almost the whole way and I did a bunch of it on pavement. I ended up with just over 82 miles of gravel (I stopped counting at 80, but I know I got at least two miles in after that). The total ride ended up being 104.5 miles. My on the bike time was 6:40 and the total time was around 7:10. I also had some luck with me at the end, because when I pulled my bike into the porch I noticed the rear tire had about 50psi or less in it. And sure enough, this morning it is flat.
After a shower, some food, and some lounging, Robin and I went over to Cody's art opening. It was very fun. The mural was being painted by so many enthusiastic artists that I was happy to hang back, drink beer, and enjoy some great conversation with friends. I was a little dazed at the end of the show, so Robin and I skipped the after party at the Fox Head and strolled home in the rain.

A Tisket, A Tasket . . .

2008-04-28T17:05:00.004-05:00

My town bike has a basket.

After ordering the thing many months ago, I finally made it into the shop to pick it up. It is a great size (will hold almost exactly 12 bottles of beer) and is also fairly light. Of course, that means I shouldn't load it up too heavily, but I think it will be just perfect for those shopping trips where I can't quite fit all of my items into my messenger bag. Also, the front end of the Kuwahara is not exactly designed to bear a lot of weight, but as long as I drink most of the beer after the ride I should be alright.

While the beer bottles look nice in the basket, they might not be the best thing to put up there. They were a little on the bouncy side. In the upcoming weeks I'll experiment with using the nylon grocery bag I carry around and putting the normal food items up there and the liquids on my back. I think they will be easier to secure.

Back to the beer now. Even though it is almost May, today was around 40 degrees with a stiff northwest wind and semi-frequent flurries. I thought the stout season came to an end a few weeks ago, but I figured I might as well sneak a few more in before moving on to the crisp and refreshing pale ales and pilsners. Cheers.

Horsin' Around

2008-04-27T18:45:00.003-05:00

On Saturday Steve and I met for a medium length mixed road ride. The only goals we had were to ride around four hours and stop by the church in Sharon Center to see some of the Iowa City road race action, and we easily accomplished both.

It was a beautifully sunny day, but unfortunately the winds were blowing out of various westerly directions at about 30+ mph. I actually managed to bring a camera on this ride, but I never took it out. I thought about it a few times, but I generally needed two hands on the handlebar. There were even a few moments where I thought I just might get my bike blown out from under me. But we managed to keep it upright. And I have my lack of pictures to prove it.

We rolled through the finish line ahead of a few dropped riders from an unknown category. We gave the full salute and were welcomed by both fans and officials. We didn't have "official" numbers, though. So don't look for us in any results.

After chatting with a few people and watching Jim Cochran sprint to a second place in the masters division, we enjoyed a healthy dose of tailwind and made our way home.

About that time Robin was buying a horse. Yes, a horse. His name is Steen and I got to go see him today. He was a little nervous in his new place, but I think we all bonded nicely.

Steen wanted to run around, but I was a little tired from yesterday's ride and decided to just snap a few pictures.

Coming into Some Form

2008-04-22T21:01:00.003-05:00

This morning I woke up with a crazy allergy/sinus headache and the sound of our windows rattling as a rather large thunderstorm passed over us. The rain ended shortly thereafter, and with some coffee, breakfast, and a short spin to class I was feeling better too.

The rest of the day was downright gorgeous. We have now had three days in a row of beautiful, sunny, warm, low wind days. So it was no surprise, then, that tonight was the biggest group ride of the year. A long string of us in shorts and short sleeved jerseys headed south and west of town for the Fry Town loop. It was quite controlled early on and there were some frustrations in a few riders as no one seemed to want to play. But after some persuading from Hopson we got it going.

I did my best to stay near the front and take my pulls. Unfortunately, after one big stop ahead sprint I got gapped off with Duethman. We chased hard and had the group in sight the whole way down Black Diamond Rd. So I didn't quite make it with the group, but a lot of people were behind me, and two days after my dirty century I am feeling rather pleased with my ride.

Throwing My Hat Into The Ring

2008-04-21T19:07:00.012-05:00

Yesterday morning Robin and I drove over to a little town called Blue Grass to look at a young white quarter horse. He was big and friendly and I liked him. The recent rains made their pasture way too muddy to ride him, so Robin was a teeny bit disappointed, but he could still be the horse for her.

I was certainly curious to see the horse, but I was also happy to have Robin take me fifty some miles outside of town and let me ride my bike all day. I had briefly looked at some maps and figured I could get myself to Lone Tree. From there I would figure out what to do.

The ride started off very cloudy and foggy. It was a little bit cool too. And the part of Iowa I was in was dead flat. I saw no cars, dogs, or people for over an hour.

As I neared Lone Tree the sun was coming out. And there were more hills. That was nice too. The super flat is a little bit boring. I stopped at the gas station there for some cheesy crackers and looped south with intentions of riding over the ever-popular Tri-County Bridge.

It was grand. The B road just after it was a little less than grand. Slick, soft mud greeted me at the bottom of a steep hill. I didn't think it was too bad, and it wasn't at first. But as I kept grinding it got softer. I had a lot of wheel slippage, but I persevered with the spinning and made it without a dab.

I jumped onto some pavement (up to this point there had been almost no pavement) and rolled into Riverside, the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.

I grabbed a coke and a piece of pizza at the Casey's and refilled my bottles.

It was about two in the afternoon, the wind was still light, and the sun felt great. I couldn't have felt better. With close to sixty miles of gravel in, I decided to keep it up. So I went back south and worked my way west and south and south and west through the little town of Richmond and on towards, but not all the way to, Washington. It was a nice figure eight loop that brought me back to Riverside.

At this point my stomach felt less than ideal. On the last long ride I blamed the sugary sports drinks, on this ride I had less sugar water, but still some. And my stomach was not as upset as the last ride either. So perhaps I should cut back on the sugar water even more? Still time to see.

Anyways, I had a banana and drank some water and pointed my steed towards the hilly dirt roads south. When I got to Hills I knew I had plenty of gravel behind me so I took the pavement in. There were cyclists all over the road and I got lots of smiles and waves.

In the end I was a hair shy of 101 miles and 81 point something of them were on gravel. It took me 6 hours and 45 minutes to do it, including my three brief stops. Sounds kind of fast, but I had a lot of gentle breeze and a lot of favorable tailwinds thanks to Robin letting me take my bike on the horse viewing trip.

Here is a map for those of you who like maps.

So now I have one dirty century complete. Eleven more will get me one of these:

Tired

2008-04-20T21:20:00.002-05:00

I rode a hundred miles today. Most of it on gravel. It was fun, but I'm too tired to write the report. You will have to wait until tomorrow.

The No Sleepies

2008-04-20T00:32:00.002-05:00

I find myself unable to sleep tonight. Perhaps I have a mind full of stuff. Or maybe it is because I have been riding a lot these past few weeks, and then did almost nothing for four days in a row.

Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, though. And I'm going to follow the lovely Robin to look at horses and then hopefully get a nice long bike ride back to town. I hope I am very tired afterwards.

Weekend Update (long version)

2008-04-13T19:14:00.004-05:00

It has been a truly tremendous weekend. After an extremely wet week, I managed to ride my bike twice, hang out with friends, and not do any homework. How did I manage to skip the homework you might ask? I will just say that my method for getting work done is not advised.

Yesterday morning we woke up to a very chilly and cloudy day. The weather people said there was a good chance for snow/ice/rain mix later that afternoon, so I spent some time convincing myself that I should go out and ride early. By the time I finished my breakfast and got dressed it was half past nine. And as soon as I stepped outside snow pellets were falling on me. Shit.

But it wasn't raining, and I spent so much time finding my warm cycling clothes and putting them on, so I decided to ride anyways. This was the right decision to make. The sky continued spit frozen stuff off and on for the duration of my two hour ride. Despite this, I had a wonderful time and saw three other riders who looked like they were having as much fun as me. One of them was Steve. We rode together and chatted for a few minutes, but I was on my way in and he was heading out, so we parted ways.

The afternoon was nice and relaxing. I read all the pre-race coverage for Paris-Roubaix as I watched the snow and ice fall outside. Later, Robin and I rode down to the Bike Library to look for a front derailleur and hang out with Steve and Cody. We scored a slightly used fd and made plans to meet Steve and Cody at the Red Avocado for dinner. From time to time we let them borrow one of our cars. They like to repay us with a nice dinner. We think this is slightly unfair, since we are not put out at all by them using our car and because we have so much fun at dinner.

When we got home Robin and I were excited to try some Sherry. Port is one of our all time favorite adult beverages, so we decided to give Sherry a shot too. They do have a lot in common, but if you really love Port for its complex mix of sweet and dry flavors and a wonderfully full bodied aftertaste, then you might not like Sherry. I would say Sherry is more like cough syrup. Only sweeter. There will be no more Sherry for us.

Sunday brought nice sunny weather when I woke up. It was cold, but the lack of frozen rain was very nice. I was meeting Steve at the park at 8, so I quickly ate breakfast and read the live updates for the first 180km of Paris-Roubaix. There were some crashes, of course, but most of the favorites were at the front and making it exciting.

Steve and I had a decidedly easier ride. We hit a couple of gravel sections, but mostly rode pavement. We encountered a few reckless drivers, but we made it back safe and sound. And Steve even scored a nice yellow-handled screwdriver. I was slightly jealous, as I actually spent much of yesterday's ride looking for road finds.

In the afternoon I enjoyed some really good coffee, read about Boonen's very exciting second victory at Pari-Roubaix, put up a very exciting gift from the wonderful Robin (read about it here). And tonight we are eating chicken enchiladas with red sauce, made more as a casserole. Steve and I decided blogs are much better with pictures, so if you've read this far, here is your reward.

Ok, so it isn't really that exciting. But I can tell you that the reward is better tasted than seen.

I Am One Year Old Today!

2008-04-06T19:03:00.004-05:00

Booksbikesbeer has been around for a year. And a good year it has been. Books were read (though I didn't write much about too many of them), bikes were ridden, and beers were drunk.

I decided to celebrate by sleeping in a little bit and then enjoying some nice coffee while reading the live updates from de Ronde Van Vlaanderen. It was a truly exciting race. There was sun, rain, snow, hail, tons of crashes, and the biggest race in Belgium was won by the current Belgium Champion.

Stijn Devolder, powering his way to a solo finish in the Belgium Champion jersey. It doesn't get much better than that.

After the race and some breakfast Robin and I went out for a nice hilly loop on our road bikes. We made sure to hit some brick streets to keep the spirit of the classics alive. It was mostly sunny and very windy and we thoroughly enjoyed it all.

So, a big thanks to those who read this. I have had fun with it, and I hope you have too.

Cheers,
bbb

First Century of the Season and Past Racing Memories

2008-04-05T18:55:00.004-05:00

Yesterday morning I was pleasantly surprised to find an email in my inbox telling me my outrageously long take home quiz for my seminar class was canceled. I decided to celebrate by riding my bike all day long. The temperatures were supposed to be in the mid 50s, but it was very windy and closer to 40 when I left the house a little before 11. So I made sure to bring some extra food and my wind jacket.

I started riding north and west out towards Oxford. It was slow going and I felt sluggish, but I just kept spinning and eating. From Oxford I continued on to the Amana Colonies via the "Highway 6 Trail." In the middle of a weekday, the traffic was not bad at all, but how it got the description "trail," I will never know.

I went through main town Amana (skipping the brewery this time) and continued on north. I had never ridden this way before. Highway 151 was a little busier than Highway 6, but it had a much bigger shoulder. I only rode it for a few miles before turning back east and enjoying a wonderful tailwind. The sun was also feeling warmer and I was finally able to unzip my jacket.

I was on the main road heading into Swisher and then Shueyville, and after a few miles I came across the mile markers from the time trial Conn Day holds out there. This was the sight of my very first bike race. It happened way back in October of 1999. Lee Venteicher had befriended me on the Iowa City group rides and gave me a ride to the race. On the ride up, I distinctly remember him saying, with all seriousness, that I could possibly win the race. I don't remember what my response was, but I do know it included a very puzzled look, as I was yet to finish a group ride with the actual group.

In the out-and-back 20k time trial, I had one of the middle start positions. I was riding hard in the beginning, mostly to warm by body up, and I was feeling pretty ok. But at some point before the turn around, when I was shifting from the big ring into the small ring, the chain fell off the ring to the inside of the frame, was snagged by the big ring and looped all the way around the crankset, finally jamming into the chainstay. I know it is hard to picture, but the chain basically made a figure eight. It took me about ten whole minutes to wrench the chain free. Luckily the frame only received a few minor scratches, and I was able to finish the race. Needless to say, I did not win.

Thankfully it was one of those three-part Conn Day races, and we still had match sprints up a big hill and a circuit race left. I remember being very pleased with the hill sprints as I made it into the final four. In the circuit race I finished somewhere in the top 10. I don't remember my overall race placing, but I do remember that Lee won.

With Friday's strong tailwind, I was probably riding into Swisher faster than I was in that race. It was a good feeling. But I was starting to get quite hungry, and I had eaten all of my bars. I took a left at the Shueyville intersection hoping that it led to the Casey's (and pizza) that I remembered. It did not. The Casey's must have been in Ely. So I just continued north and looped around to hit Ely while heading back south. This, incidentally, was the loop of the only road race I have ever won.

Also a Conn Day production, the Ely Road Race was an all category race of maybe 40 miles. It was sometime in the Spring of 2001, and my Cannondale-Midwest teammates and I decided to ride out from Iowa City. On the ride to the race, Lee, Thad, Josh, and Jim all decided that I would be the team leader for the race. This was a little surprising, since all of those guys were faster than me, but they pretty much left me with no choice.

The first lap started off at a hard but doable pace. After a couple of miles someone attacked and got a good gap. I felt pretty good and, having no idea what it meant to be a team leader, decided to bridge up to the lone breakaway rider. I made without anyone following and we were actually able to extend our lead over the next few miles.

But as we were nearing the end of the first lap I noticed that my front tire had a slow leak. As this was a small race with no support, I drifted back to the pack to see if my teammates had any bright ideas. We figured I could make it to the next corner, and hoped that some kind of wheel would be there.

And right we were. One woman came thinking she might race but decided to volunteer instead. I rolled up to her and begged for her wheel and she was more than happy to donate it. Lee, being the extraordinarily unselfish team rider that he is, decided to wait with me. Trying not to panic, I changed the wheel, and we proceeded to chase.

It took a few hilly miles, but we were able to get back on. At this point, my teammates proceeded to launch attacks. One by one they would jump away from the pack, and the rest of us would wait for someone else to chase them down. This was usually Jim Cochran. With a few miles to go Josh got caught, and I jumped very hard and got a good gap. I was able to hold it, but just barely. I won by about 8 or 10 seconds and I was followed by Thad and Lee, making it a 1-2-3 for our team.

But on Friday there was no rush, so I just cruised through the finish line and opted to forgo the victory salute. I had just finished some pizza and a coke, the sun was shining, and I had plenty of miles to occupy the rest of my afternoon. I took a detour through Lake McBride State Park, rode out to Sutliff and its 111 year old bridge (again, I skipped the beer), and then headed back home through Solon and then good old Sugar Bottom Rd. 101 miles and 6 hours of reliving the past.

Hair Loss

2008-03-29T11:52:00.003-05:00

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

2008-03-23T18:09:00.004-05:00

Over Spring Break Robin and I were in Arizona and I let Steve and Cody borrow my car. When we pulled into the garage today we saw they left a nice present on my door.

Arizona was mostly sunny and very nice. The first two days had a some clouds, rain, and even a teeny bit of snow. But after that it was all sun. I spent everyday but one on the Stephen family's spare bicycle. The one day I didn't spend on the bike I spent on a horse, and then later on an airplane.

As much fun as Robin and I had in the sun with horses, bikes, no homework and her sister Meryl's new dog Romeo

(he is a 10 week old Great Dane), we are very happy to be home again.

Group Racin'

2008-03-11T21:35:00.003-05:00

The first group ride is in the books, and it went well. With the recent warm temperatures, I expected a large group but was surprised to see that only 12 of us rolled out from the park. I guess a lot of people were concerned about the wet roads and the fact that the frigid winter kept most of us from working on our handling skills. But, the roads outside of town were great, and there wasn't anything even close to a crash. Well, there was a flat, but he stayed upright and we waited for him to change it.

We did the Fry Town loop and it was very enjoyable. We rode a double paceline at a rather easy pace for quite awhile. No one even contested the first three or four "Stop Ahead" signs. It really felt more like a late winter group ride than the first College Green race of the season. But once we headed north and hit a few hills things got a little bit faster. My legs did not have the kind of power it would have taken to keep me in the front. But I spun quickly and was able to stick with them. At the first real "Stop Ahead" sprint it was Jim Cochran who took home the victory for the Atlas/Discovery team. This is not a huge surprise, as Jim is super fast. However, it should be noted that he spent close to three hours riding with The Thrilla before the group ride. It should also be noted that Jim was riding a rather stout cyclocross bike with very beefy (read-heavy) tires. Oh, and full fenders. Almost everyone else was on super trick race bikes.

As we headed back east into town on Black Diamond Rd. the pace quickened and about eight of us kept a nice rotation going. I was happy that I was able to take just about all of my pulls. As we neared the sprint for the creek, though, the group was pulling away from me ever so slightly. Jim, for some reason, was behind me. He bridged the gap to the leaders easily enough and then proceeded to drag Hopson away from the group and then pulled off, letting Hopson get the V. A truce offering between the bitter rivals of Atlas and Mercy? Difficult to tell.

All in all, I would have to say this is one of the best first group rides of the season. I hope it is a sign of things to come.

Back to the Bikes

2008-03-10T19:50:00.005-05:00

It appears that I might have skied my last ski of the season Friday. If my counting is correct, I got in 37 days this winter. That is certainly the most skiing I've done in a season, and it is especially good when you consider we had a number of meltdowns and I spent a week in sunny, snowless Arizona. Needless to say, I'm pretty happy about all the skiing and the nice fitness it has brought me.

So this weekend I got two very nice bike rides in. I had planned on skiing on Saturday, but I was pretty sure the conditions would not have been very good. Plus I am very tired of driving around town. The only time I seem to drive my car is when there is snow to ski on and for long trips; so I am looking forward to some car free weeks. Anyways, I called Steve since I knew he was up for a ride. We made plans to ride the mountain bikes as they would probably slow us down and keep us warmer. Steve ultimately made a smart call suggesting we ride our town bikes in comfy street clothes. It was a great time. We got about two hours in and the big hills north of town made my legs tired. Quote of the ride, "I just want hair; I don't want to have hairstyle"--Steve.

The next morning brought more sun and warmer temps. Steve called to let me know that the Eppens and former I.C. fastman Nathan were all slightly hung over and looking to ride at 10:30. When the fastest people in town are hung over and you are not, you do everything you can to get on that ride.

The five of us rode nice and easy on a bunch of gravel roads and a gravel path that only had a couple feet of gravel, the rest was snow and very wet, slick ice. I biffed it right at the beginning. My hips do not have much padding, and as a result, I'm a little sore on the left side today. The rest of the trail, which was really all of it, was a blast. We briefly paused at the Solon Casey's for Coke and Pizza and then took more gravel roads into Iowa City. This was the first ride of the season that did not end in frozen toes. Quote of the ride, "I woke up with the sensation of water running all over the sheets, but I just said 'screw it, I'm drunk' and slept in it anyways"--Nathan. (Nathan claims he rolled over a water bottle in the night. But he is a lawyer, and as GOB would say, "lawyer is Latin for liar.")

Tomorrow is the first group ride of the year. Temps should be nice, so I think I'll give it a go. I might even try the new Teesdale on real roads.

All Together Now

2008-02-25T19:28:00.004-06:00

On Saturday afternoon I decided to put the new (old) Teesdale together. It took a little while, but it was generally a painless process. Some afternoon tea and listening to Robin read definitely helped the wrenching. The weekend brought nice, sunny weather, but it also made things rather wet, and I didn't want to get the new bike all dirty. So I went into the basement to ride the rollers for a little while.

Rollers are not my favorite things, and they are very easy to get sick of. But with the new bike I was quite content to spin in our chilly basement with an old dvd of the '02 Tour de France playing on my laptop. The rollers do not give any indication as to how a bike handles, but I do believe the frame fits me very well, so I'm excited about that.

We are currently in the process of receiving 2-4" of heavy, wet snow, so it does not look like I will be riding it outside anytime soon. In fact, with the way things are going I could be skiing right up until spring break. And that doesn't really sound all that bad.

Obligatory new bike shot:

Reasons to Celebrate

2008-02-22T17:22:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow Robin and I celebrate our two year anniversary. It feels like it has been both a long and a short two year period. I do know for certain that it has been a very happy two year period, and I hope there are many more to come. We will most likely do some serious relaxing, maybe a little skiing, and then go out for a rather nice dinner at Taste on Melrose.

In other news, I scored a Tom Teesdale frame on ebay for a rather economical price. It came last Friday and I since there is still so much snow here I have just been admiring it in its frameset state while I come and go from cross country skiing. I may or may not build it up this weekend. I will offer photographic updates if I do. In the meantime, there is this nice little snapshot.

Doin the Dirty Deed

2008-02-10T18:36:00.000-06:00

Tonight I officially entered myself in the Dirty Kanza, a 200 mile bike race on the gravel roads through the Flint Hills of Eastern Kansas. I'm pretty excited. Last year's winner said it was great.

Here are some photos of the lead pack in the light of the rising sun and a great view of the rolling grassland.

It is less than zero degrees outside right now and it is hard to believe that warm sunny days will come back, so in the meantime I will just keep skiing. And that's pretty alright with me.

Snow Day

2008-02-06T12:38:00.000-06:00

Just minutes after beginning my Spanish test this morning, the class got word that we would learn no more that day. It was an exciting moment; it is only a shame that it did not happen sooner. I did not really mind the walk downtown, and the test would not have been too bad, but for all the people who work at the university and have a longer commute than me, it is a big bummer. Everyone knew the storm was coming, so why not cancel class early in the morning?

Oh well. I have a day off. And these were the pretty views I had on my walk home.

This is the view up my street. Note the snow covered shoes hanging from the phone line.

A foot of snow can even make garbage cans look good.

Later this afternoon I will be enjoying some hot coffee with Steve, Robin, and possibly others. After that I will try to head over to Ashton for a late afternoon ski. They started grooming right away, so conditions should be quite nice.

Hooray For Skis

2008-02-04T16:34:00.000-06:00

I had a ski-tastic weekend, my second in a row in fact. Now, if we could only manage to keep the snow during the week somehow?

Thursday night we were somewhat surprised with an inch and a half of very fluffy snow. It made for a beautifully picturesque evening for Robin and my date night. Friday was warm though, and much of that got sticky. But at times I can be a skiing fool, so I went out to Ashton anyways. One other skiing fool had made tracks there earlier that day, but the conditions were really not that good. There was either light snow over sheets of ice or light snow with a healthy portion of grass peaking through. I spent fifteen or so minutes skiing around the course trying to find the sweet spots. I ended up just staying on the south side near the trees going back and forth, working on form and glide for about an hour. It was not great, but it was surprisingly satisfying.

Sometime early Saturday morning we got some more snow. This little storm truly was a surprise. It brought about two inches or so. So our local trails now had three and a half inches of snow over blocks of ice. Steve and I drove up to the MNRA thinking it would be groomed, but it was not. No worries though, for we brought our classic skis too. The temps were great, but it made for very sticky snow. Our skis seemed to either be caked with snow, or getting no grip. I think I can say that it was the most frustrating ski of the year. Slightly more frustrating than Friday's. But that said, it was a truly amazing day. We skied some great trails, found the nice spots, and we both managed to stay upright on the super steep and dangerously icy downhills.

Sunday did not bring more snow. I was going to go checkout Ashton, but we got word from the Eppens that the Reservoir was in great shape. So Steve and I headed back up north for some flat, but truly great, classic skiing. Here is how happy I was.

Note: photo property of bikeiowa (I suggest you go there, because there are lots of others too).

The skiing was great. We went out to the spillway that I vaguely recall crossing on my bike many years ago. The whole ski was about fifteen minutes shy of four hours. I plugged our route into a map. The whole ski was a hair over 16 miles.

It started snowing heavily right before we got back to the car. It continued for many hours and left us with 8 inches of fluffy goodness. Monday though, brought us some brief thunderstorms, but many inches still remain. So there will be more skiing. And word is brewing of a possible 6 to 10 inches Tuesday night. Think snow.

Iowa Games

2008-01-28T18:14:00.000-06:00

On Saturday morning Robin and I drove up to Dubuque for the Iowa Winter Games cross country ski race. They were at the Mines of Spain State Park. The classic race was in the morning, and it was about 9.5k. The skate race was held in the afternoon, and it was about 12k. The extremely cheap entry fee of fifteen dollars signed you up for both races, so I more or less felt obligated to do both.

For the classic race my only goal was to not start too fast and to ski fairly hard and consistently. When the gun went off, which was really a loud "go," I found myself in about 11th or 12th place out of maybe 30 or so skiers. A lead group of four or so got off the front rather quickly, and the rest of us were strung out behind them. I followed a guy for half of the first lap before I felt that I wanted to go a little bit faster and came around him on one of the many short steep climbs. From there I just kept skiing as smooth as I could and slowly passed a few other skiers and ended up in 6th place. My time was 44 minutes and change, and each of my laps were right around 11 minutes.

Here are a few pictures that my photographer and support crew snapped of me.

Here I am getting ready to pass a guy who apparently thinks that Robin is taking his picture.

And here I am all by myself.

The race was tiring but very worth it. After it was over I got changed and we went into town to eat at a tasty little coffee shop called Jitterz. I really like the city of Dubuque and look forward to going back. But on Saturday we really didn't have much time to sight see and had to get right back to the Mines of Spain for the day's second race.

The skate race was much more intimidating. For one, I was exhausted. My arms felt like jelly and my body had no pep in it. And for another thing, there were a lot of fresh skiers that did not race that morning and also looked like they had been doing the skate ski thing for many more years than I have. My goals for this race became to not crash and to not get last.

At the start I lined up in the back third of the pack. In hindsight, this was not a great move. It turns out that I am a little bit better on skate skis than I thought. But in the end it worked out. Despite crashing twice on the first lap, I was able to pass a bunch of people in the first two laps and then ski the final two laps with someone in front of me that was close enough to keep chasing after but just far enough away that I could not actually catch him. I ended up in 12th place and it took me 53 minutes. Again my lap times were very consistent, so I was happy with that. I suppose it made up for the crashes a little bit.

Here is a picture of me skating.

And here is a picture that suggests skating is easy. It is not, and there was actually a big headwind on this section.

Sunday I went out to Ashton for some easy recovery skiing. It was a beautifully sunny morning and I was worried about Monday's meltdown temperatures, so I felt I could not pass up the opportunity. I met Steve out at the course. He had ridden his bike out there earlier and was having a good old time. We skied around for awhile. Then I skied with Bart, creator of the new IowaSki site. And after that I just skied by myself. It was a very enjoyable ski. Today though, my body is really tired; so I will just be relaxing for a day or two and hoping for more snow.

Skiing and Resting, and Skiing Again

2008-01-20T17:20:00.000-06:00

The snowfall that I was recently oh so excited about was on the disappointing side. I think we only ended up with an inch and a half or so. Nonetheless, Robin and I zoomed over to the Finkbine golf course on Thursday morning. It was very windy, and that made the snow coverage very inconsistent. Still, we picked a fairly nice route and followed that around for awhile. The wind was dying down right as we were leaving. Figures.

The next two days, Friday and Saturday, were bitter cold. My body was a little wrecked from the consistent exercise of the previous week, so I had no problem staying in for awhile. I did some reading, wasted time on the computer, watched a movie, and we made a white chili that turned to have a really nice flavor.

But today was much warmer. I think it got up to 8 or so. The really nice thing about today's weather though, was the lack of wind. That makes all the difference on a winter day. Robin and I took advantage of this "warming" and went skiing at the McBride Nature Trails. There were quite a few people out and about on skis and even just hiking around. The trails up there might have gotten just a teeny bit more snow than we did in Iowa City, plus the groomer did a really nice job of smoothing things out. But the snow was a little on the slow side. It had an energy sapping quality to it that wore us out. Perhaps this was due to the extreme colds, but I'm not snow expert, so I will cease to speculate. We are supposed to get some more snow tonight and tomorrow; either way I am going to go back to the trails to celebrate MLK day.

January Training Camp

2008-01-16T17:29:00.000-06:00

For the past 5 days I've had a nice steady block of bike riding with Steve. It's been really great. Each ride seemed to get better than the previous one. We also managed to add more dirt, snow, and gravel to each ride.

I think today's ride was my favorite. We had been riding our cyclocross bikes all week, but today we went with the single speed mountain bikes. We rode up north, mixing roads and gravel roads, and then took the five mile footpath that begins in Solon and goes west along the shores of Lake McBride. It was pretty snow covered and the visible and invisible ruts and sections of ice kept us on our toes. The going was a little slow, but it kept us really warm.

After kicking around the trail for awhile we jumped on some more gravel and rode over to one of the snowmobile trails. I had only been on this section two or three times before, but this time the trail was in the best condition that I had seen. Our freezing temps kept the ground solid and the small pockets of snow, both packed and drifted, kept things clean and very fun. I made it through all the partially frozen trickling streams, over all the potentially treacherous bridges, and up all but one of the short but super steep climbs. Near the top, just when I thought my rear wheel had regained some traction, I tipped over on my left side. Don't worry, I'm ok. And that was the only mishap of the ride.

On the ride back to town the temps started getting a little bit colder and we were riding into a headwind. We were getting rather hungry, as the gels, bars, and cookies we ate were not quite enough for this ride. But we made it home safe and sound. Not having any fenders on my singlespeed, I had some pretty wet feet and a mud speckled jersey, but Steve looked pretty clean.

Tomorrow we'll take a break from our rides. Steve is heading over to Des Moines for the Iowa Bicycle Coalition's fundraiser Bike Night. The brilliant bike blogger Tarik Saleh will be giving a presentation. Should be a great time.

I will be staying in I.C. though. After a pleasantly mild afternoon the temps are getting colder again and the skies should be dumping 4 to 6 inches of fluffy and skiable snow. So the rest of my mid-January training camp will be spent gliding instead of rolling.

Back on the Web

2007-12-08T18:08:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure if any of you had any problems, but BooksBikesBeer was not working on any of our home computers. Thankfully our in house technician was able to get to it.

In our absence though, many exciting things have happened. I turned 27 on Thursday. It was exciting and relaxing and, in many ways, I'm still celebrating. For my birthday I got a bunch of snow, some cool argyle socks, a travel coffee mug that I can drink out of, lock the top on, and then carry upside down in my bag should I get the notion. There were also a few other fun things like Scotland Yard and a magnificent dinner made by the wonderful Robin.

And with the birthday snow I have made it out to the Hawkeye XC course twice. Yesterday Robin and I swung by the bike and ski shop so she could purchase her very own cross country skis, which were a semi-belated birthday purchase. From there we went directly to the course and skied until our arms and inner thighs were quite fatigued. This morning we got up, enjoyed our coffee and breakfast, and went back out for more skiing. This time I used my skate skis instead of my classic skis in order to more evenly distribute the soreness.

We did not get a lot of snow in the storm, perhaps about three or three and a half inches. They (I don't really know who they are, but I appreciate them) groomed the course though, and it is pretty nice. Thankfully it has been cold enough to keep the snow from getting too soft, but not cold enough to turn it into ice chunks. Today my skating skills improved rapidly thanks to some short drills and pointers from Bart. And Robin was also making great improvements.

The bikes are on hold now (except for the usual transportation from home to work to store etc.) as we will continue to ski everyday that we can. We are supposedly getting some kind of snow/ice mix tonight and tomorrow; hopefully it is more of the former and less of the latter.

Metric Century

2007-11-19T16:49:00.000-06:00

Early this morning I met Steve at the park for a hundred mile gravel road ride. I had my doubts about finishing the whole ride. I figured there was a chance I could do it with proper eating, but it turns out the 8 minute commute to the EPB everyday is just not enough to get one prepared for a dirty century. But that's ok; it was a great ride anyways, hopefully Steve's final forty miles were great too.

It was a whacky weather day. When we started temps were in the high thirties, there was a light wind, and a super heavy fog. It was like riding through a cloud. The forecast said it would be in the lower sixties later with the sun making an appearance. Some of these forecasters felt the fog would burn off by nine A.M. or so. That particular person was wrong, but others happened to be right. Steve and I had our doubts, but we still both dressed in intricate layers so that we could peel off the the warm pieces and stuff them in our pockets if the sun ever decided to actually show up.

We started rolling to the East, as it is one of the quickest ways to get to dirt roads. After just a few miles we were riding up and down gravel hills and I could not see a thing. My glasses were full of condensation, on the outside and inside of the lenses, so I decided to take them off. My vision is not horrible, but I do prefer to keep my glasses on most of the time. In this case though, my fuzzy vision just matched the natural surroundings. It did, however, lead to a little bit more disorientation for me as I was often a little but unsure of exactly where we were.

After forty or so miles of riding I was definitely starting to feel my lack of fitness. I was hungry, still not seeing clearly (it was long after nine and still no sign of the sun), and the headwind we were fighting was making me a little bit grumpy. But a few miles later we arrived at the West Branch Casey's, just ahead of the lunch rush too. I had a couple pieces of pizza and a coca-cola classic and got some cheesy crackers and gatorade to go. That made me feel great. Going outside though was a little bit tough. Riding through clouds makes one extraordinarily damp, and putting the wet gloves back on was not good for morale.

But we headed out of town on a nice, quiet bike path. We had some shelter from the wind and it was also flat. My hands warmed up and my body was feeling great as we chatted about W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, one of my all time favorite books.

Unfortunately the path did not last, and we were soon back in the wind and hills. It was about this time that my legs decided they were in fact tired and didn't want to play these silly pedaling games anymore. I told Steve that I would have to be heading in. He understood.

Luckily we were only about five or so miles outside of Iowa City. So I turned West to take some pavement back home and Steve proceeded East and South towards Lone Tree and another Casey's. At this point the weather was not much different than at the start. It was a little bit drier and a little bit warmer, but still very, very dreary.

Overall it was a great ride. I came home wet and mud spattered and took a nice warm shower. It was sometime during my shower that the sun did in fact come out. The day warmed rapidly and hit 65 degrees. Hopefully Steve had to make use of his many pockets as he finished his ride in the warm sunshine.

Super Social Weekend

2007-11-18T14:07:00.000-06:00

This was a people intensive weekend that involved no reading or writing. It also involved no bike rides, but I'm hoping that accompanying Steve on one of his hundred mile gravel road rides tomorrow will make up for it.

My sister Jen was visiting for the weekend. She teaches math to highschoolers in the Chicago burbs. For the most part she had a very relaxing visit. Saturday morning she borrowed Robin's singlespeed and we rolled over to Hickory Hill Park. She ran and I walked around. It was a beautiful late morning. Cool and crisp with lots of leaves on the trails. I wish I brought a camera.

Later that night we went out for Thai food and then had a few friends over for beer and silly games and conversation. We also pulled the hookah out. It was quite nice, but then we had a hose mishap and some coals fell to the carpet. It got a little singed, so this morning we went out and got a new piece of carpet. Now we have a hookah party piece of carpet.

And then this afternoon we had a somewhat surprising visit from my old college roommate Chad and his fiance Cara. It was fun to catch up; I had not seen them in over four years. We hung around and had some more nice conversation.

I was going to grade this afternoon, but I think I will stay home and have a nice hot cup of tea and watch the dreary drizzle outside.

Happy Birthday Robin

2007-11-15T07:51:00.001-06:00

Today is Robin's birthday, and for the next three weeks we will be the same age (26). It is a very exciting time.

Last night we went to a nice little birthday celebration at Katherine and Scott's that involved four people. Well, there were more than four people there, but there were four people celebrating a birthday too. Paul, Scott, Erica, and Robin. Amazing. Good drinks and tasty treats were had by all, and Robin walked out with jelly beans, some wild wild west figures, and a whole lot of chocolate bars.

Today we will continue the festivities. We will have birthday coffee and crossword puzzles. And later tonight we will have a nice dinner and more nice gifts for Robin.

Hooky

2007-11-06T19:30:00.000-06:00

-noun. unjustifiable absence from school, work, etc. (usually used in the phrase play hooky): On the first warm spring day the boys played hooky to go fishing.

Well it was not exactly warm, but it was sunny, so I played hooky. There is certainly more to it than that, but I will just say that I was not mentally ready for class and I really wanted to ride my bike. So I skipped and went for another reservoir loop. It was extremely windy and I think I can say that it was the first cold ride of the year for me. I had my snuggly long underwear top under my new Don't Quit Your Day Job fleece lined long sleeved jersey. The combo worked great for the chill and wind. The legs felt great on the ride and they continue to feel better about my plans to ride more.

Unfortunately, I was not as productive this afternoon as I told myself I was going to be. But that happens. On the plus side I voted and went to the bank and the grocery store. The Co-Op had a new New Belgium beer there that I had never seen. So I bought it. It is yummy. Though I find it a little bit misleading. The packaging and name make it look like a true red ale, yet it is quite hoppy and reminds me more of the hearty hoppy ales that come out during the winter. It is still good, perhaps partly because it is actually cold out now, I just don't think it should have this picture on the label:

And as promised, here are some pictures of the new non-team kit. Pretty outstandingly ugly, but in a stylish way. Unfortunately for me though, these bib shorts are the only piece of medium sized cycling clothes in existence that do not fit me. Robin got an extra pair of them because of this and you possibly could too. If they look cool to you (and you are perhaps 5' 9" or less), drop me a line and we'll see if we can work something out. But enough about the size issues, here is the style:

Oh, and if you are reading this Mr. Stewart, first I would ask why? But then I would say I'm sorry; sometimes you just have to skip class. At least I haven't skipped yet this semester.

Extra Hour

2007-11-04T21:31:00.000-06:00

Last night while most of us were tucked away in bed we lived the two o'clock (or is it three o'clock?) hour twice. In the morning I kept telling myself that I used my extra hour in bed. It certainly did feel nice to sleep in a bit. But while I spent the rest of my morning reading I decided I needed to force myself to spend that extra hour on the bike. So I went out into the sunny and windy Fall day for a quick reservoir loop. It was quite a nice way to end the week, and it marked my third ride of the week. I love being back on the bike with some regularity.

The other rides of the week were group rides, of a sort. This was the last week of the "official" Iowa City group rides. I met Steve, John, and another dozen or so riders for the Tuesday night version. We set off into the setting sun, lights on our handlebars and seats, and made our way to gravel, then B-roads, and then a short stretch of four wheeler trails. It was great fun, and I had not ridden that hard in quite awhile.

The other group ride was a bit smaller. On Friday night I met the Eppens at the park for a single speed ride up to North Liberty for enchiladas and Negra Modelos. This was the first time I've made the ride since I built up my single speed town bike. Single speed town bikes are more or less a requirement for these Iguanas rides. Other bikes are welcome of course, if you can handle a little bit of teasing. Anyways, the ride was nice. It was a beautiful and slightly cold Fall night. And despite the large plates of food and adult beverages, the Eppens made it quite the workout (my legs were still a little sore on Saturday). Perhaps there will be another Iguanas ride in the next couple weeks before the real cold sets in.

Sweet Pump!

2007-10-26T20:16:00.001-05:00

It has been a little while since my last post. This is mostly because the weight of the grad school world has been crushing down on my shoulders. Bike rides had dwindled to less than one a week. Despite getting new cycling clothing from my new non-team, Don't Quit Your Day Job (photos coming soon), I thought about quitting all the time anyways. And I still do. But the real point is I'm riding my bike more again and it feels great. I got four rides in this past week. I haven't done that since the beginning of August.

Fridays are generally tough. I get up early and teach one class to a bunch of extremely unenthusiastic freshman and then I go to my office and try to read until five. Today I got sick of it in the early afternoon and decided it would be better to keep the ride streak going. So I called local fast guy Brian Eppen. I'm certainly not in shape to ride with him, but he is a very relaxed guy and I haven't seen him in awhile. Plus I knew that the Iowa state cyclocross championships were this Sunday and I was pretty sure that he would be going there to defend his title.

Sure enough, he was up for an easy spin. He suggested riding mountain bikes on some of the local "secret" trails in Iowa City. We met at the park and rolled to the woods at a leisurely pace. Brian had gears, and I was on a single-speed. The first stretch of trail we went to was new to me. It was covered in pretty yellow leaves. The singletrack was so new it was difficult to follow. It twisted and turned and had a lot of short steep climbs. This exhausted me right away. As you can imagine, my fitness is not great.

But by the second half of our first loop I was starting to get a little bit of a rhythm. I was smoother over the logs and was keeping my speed up through the turns and into the steep drops. And then I hear Brian a little up the ways talking to someone. I catch up and see Jason McCartney, hacking and coughing, in his Discovery kit. Olympian. Recent Vuelta Stage winner. New signee with the #1 ranked team in the world, CSC. This is great. I do love seeing Jason. But I was already struggling, and MC with a cold is not enough to allow me to keep up. A minute later other local fast guy Ryan Neninger rolls up to. Jason says, "Sweet, lets just roll up this way."

For the next hour and a half I struggled to follow those three. My legs and back burned as I entered the red zone for the first time since summer. The hills were so steep that I was dismounting and running up them cyclocross style (I also haven't run since the summer either). Eventually we took the path over to the other section of local, and flat, trails. This was much better.

Except that my driveside crank was loose. Shit. In my haste to meet Brian at the park I had left my allen wrenches in my road saddle pack. No one else had the right tool either. Brian did have some wrenches that we tried to make do. While the two of us were crouched around my crank trying to bunch up three small allen wrenches to tighten the large crank bolt, Jason says "Hey man, sweet pump!" I glance up at my old black Zefal frame pump velcro-strapped to my top tube. Nowhere near de rigeur for singlespeed mountain bike style. But then I look over and see an identical black Zefal pump velcro-strapped to the top tube of Jason's bike.

Pro style. That is the only way to describe it. Sure, my bike was failing me due to lack of maintenance. And my legs were burning despite the lengthy break. And I didn't ride road shoes and road pedals on my mountain bike like Jason. But I had the frame pump. And he noticed.

Welcome to the Family

2007-09-28T18:41:00.000-05:00

I would like everyone to take a moment to offer a warm welcome to the newest member of the booksbikesbeer family. The Kuwahara Single Speed Townie. It was ready to go last weekend except for one final detail. I know I could have posted a little something about it, but I'm a mix between overworked and lazy. It is a weird place to be.

Last weekend though, I finally decided to get the bike put together. On Saturday I rolled down to the wonderful Bike Library to get some wheels. The place was hoppin. At least 15 people were in line ahead of me to check out bikes, and many of those people rolled away happy. I also rolled away a happy owner of a new (old really) set of 27 inch wheels. And they are actually fairly light.

Sunday afternoon Robin and I went down to Geoff's Bike and Ski to get some big and squishy tires and an 18 tooth freewheel. Robin loaned me her old busted ten speed dura ace chain and things started to come together.

All until I tried to clamp the rear wheel into place. At first I thought the skewer would not screw down tight enough. But closer inspection revealed that the axle of the wheel was actually sticking out beyond the dropouts on the frame. Hmmm. Was I going to need a new wheel? I worried so. Robin and I decided to walk it down to the Bike Library to consult with townie guru Steve G. Like us, he was perplexed. But then he said, "well, we could just hack saw off some of the excess axle." Really? Would that work, I asked. Steve shrugged and said that it should, but if it didn't there was a pile of wheels in the back.

So I held the axle in place with a wrench while the guru lopped off the precise amount of axle, measured, of course, by his own eyes. The wheel now fits perfectly. Cheers to you townie guru (if you were here you would see the raised pale ale in my hand).

The final items I was waiting for were some nice orange grips. I thought they would compliment the bike in an odd, somewhat ugly and endearing way. You can decide for your self.

And the final token on the townie is the goat. This is the very goat that adorned the wonderful brew Steve gave me the night he introduced the Kuwahara and I. They were truly meant to be together.

Gettin Fat

2007-09-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

Nerdy Me

2007-09-14T18:49:00.000-05:00

I stumbled on this internet nerd test. Sure enough, I'm a nerd. At least I scored well in literature, I'd feel pretty stupid if I was a non-literate nerd.

Good Times

2007-09-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

Much has happened since my last lament about summer ending. School is in full swing and I'm ok with that, mostly because fall is fast approaching and I love sweater weather. It makes it easier to read books and drink coffee in the afternoon. And all the Oktoberfest brews come out too, yumee.

If you are interested in my happenings these last couple of weeks I will give you a rundown in topical order.

Books: I read a lot now. Too much. Some of it I don't understand, like Georg Lukacs, but the big Victorian novels are good. I am particularly enjoying Miss Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I have never been to Northern England (or any part of England for that matter), but the descriptions of the windswept moors make me want to wander through the rough rocky landscape for many days, or even weeks.

Bikes: I managed to ride my bike twice this week. I think that will become my goal for every week. There is a chance I could get more in, but with my teaching and class schedule twice a week will be hard enough. Yesterday I got out for an hour as part of my efforts to get rid of a hangover. It worked. And Tuesday I went on part of the 'B' ride with Steve and John. Just as we were leaving the 'A' guys showed up, but it turned out to be a good thing since I got to catch up with Brian Eppen for awhile. When we reached Hills Steve, John, and I turned around and spun home at a nice, easy pace. I went over to Steve's to check out an old Kuwahara frame that he found in the trash. It was quite nice and should make a great townie. We stayed for a really nice Double Bock, and by that time it was getting dark, so Steve suggested I leave the frame for another time. Being the nice guy he is though, he delivered it to my house this afternoon via his cargo bike. Hopefully in the next week or two I can get it up and running with some help from the Bike Library.

Beer: Well, I guess I already started talking about beer in the last section. Those two categories have a habit of blending together sometimes. But Friday night Robin's work, The Hudson River Gallery, hosted an opening for the paintings of Steven Erickson. The work was great and so was the turnout. Robin and I invited all our friends back to our house for beer and a couple hookah sessions. It was a grand time and I drank more than I had in a long time. Not horribly bad, but enough to feel pretty shitty for most of Saturday.

And tomorrow marks an extremely momentous beer occasion in the state of Iowa. New Belgium brewing will now be sold here. John's Grocery is having a little party for it all which includes a short bike ride and adult beverages. Unfortunately this starts at 7:30 in the morning and I have to teach an hour after that. But you can show up anytime during the day to sign up for a drawing for a candy-apple red New Belgium cruiser, complete with rear rack and a case of beer. If I win then I will have two townie bikes, just like Robin.

The End of Summer

2007-08-26T17:40:00.001-05:00

My summer is officially over. The end started last Monday, when I started learning how to be a teacher again. But tomorrow is the real end. At 8:30 in the morning I will be standing up in front of 23 sleepy undergraduates trying to convince them that understanding the rhetorical process is indeed important for a happy and fulfilling life.

Anamosa/Stone City Century

2007-08-17T18:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was gorgeous. The temperatures were in the low 70s. It was dry. The winds were light and out of the northeast. And I had the day off. So I decided to set out on my bike towards Anamosa. I figured I'd get around a hundred miles in and get to see some new places. Numerous times I have been very close to Anamosa, but never all the way there. So it certainly held some sort of draw for me.

The route there was beautiful rolling farm land and I saw very few cars the entire ride. A few miles south of Anamosa it started to get significantly hillier. When I rolled into town I had not quite reached fifty miles and I still had some fluids so I continued north a little ways and came to Stone City. The road dropped steeply down towards town, with a quarry and and nice slow moving river. Like the name suggests, everything was made of stone. There were stone houses, farms, and churches that looked to be well over a hundred years old. They had so much stone there that parts of the road were lined with gigantic slabs of limestone. I did not have my camera with me, so I don't have any pictures. But I did find a painting of Grant Woods called "Stone City." He was born in Anamosa and used to run an artists community in Stone City during the summers.

On my way back through Anamosa I stuck to Main Street rather than the neighborhoods I zig zagged through to get to the county road that led to Stone City. The first thing that stood out was a sign for the Anamosa Penitentiary. Only about a block away from downtown, this eerily beautiful monstrosity houses numerous criminals, and has for well over a hundred years. I don't know anything about the complicated nature of the prison system, and I wont pretend too. But it was odd to think that the stone used to construct this prison came from the quarry just up the road in Stone City that most likely supplied the stone for the houses, farms, and even the churches. They were quite possibly built by the same people.

This is the view on the ride up the street.

And here is a nice aerial view to give you an idea of how big the stone structure is.

The rest of town had small shops, bars, and restaurants. It was quite nice. I would definitely go back again. They also have the National Motorcycle Museum there. I didn't stop in, but I looked through the windows and noticed that they also have a few interesting samples of the motorcycle's great predecessor, the bicycle.

The ride home was nice and uneventful. I had chocolate milk, gatorade, coke, and a tailwind. I had one low spot that lasted a few miles, but I came out of it and felt quite good the last twenty or so miles. I got home with 102 miles in 5 hours and 55 minutes. Pretty good for a hilly, solo century.

Fighting Gravity

2007-08-15T18:20:00.000-05:00

Many moons ago, Robin suggested that we hang some of the bikes in our basement. Well, that day finally came. We have spots for five bikes, two frames, and a set of wheels or a bunch of tires.

We snuck two others (including Robin's newly reclaimed Jamsis) between the stairs and the washing machine.

And after you walk up the stairs and into the kitchen you will be enticed by our newly hung wine rack, courtesy of Robin's parents.

Travels With The Radler

2007-08-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

Last night, while walking along the streets of downtown Iowa City, Robin and I were astounded to run into her Jamis that was stolen from our porch three months ago. Due to our detailed description in the police report, the cops sided with us, chopped the lock off, and let us walk away with it. You can read more about it here.

That was a very welcome surprise in general, but coming on the heels of a very nice Friday made it even better. Late that morning I took off on my new Brooks saddle (firmly affixed to the Pacer, of course) for a long ride. I had gone on a short ride with it on Thursday and it felt pretty good. I loved the smoothness of it, and my sitbones felt very secure on the back of it. The only thing that was a little different from my Selle Italia Flite was the higher and harder nose. So I continued to play with the tilt and the fore and aft adjustment, but I think it will continue to loosen up.

Back to the ride though. It was quite warm out, but not as bad as the few previous days. And I was intent on getting a long ride in. With a few snacks and three bottles of water and gatorade I rode north into the hills. My legs were a little sore early on because for some reason on Thursday's ride I thought it was a good idea to sprint up a bunch of the hills. Oh well. They loosened up shortly.

I took Sugar Bottom rode out towards Solon and then continued north and east on Sutliff Rd. I really enjoy this route to Sutliff. It is quiet, pretty, and hilly. When I neared the famous old bridge I resisted the urge to stop at the bar for a cold beer and turned north to ride up to Lisbon. I had never been to Lisbon before. It was nice. Upon riding into town I was greeted by a large banner welcoming me to Sauerkraut Days. The town was full of vendors and carnival rides, but none of it was starting until later that afternoon. So I had to pass on funnel cake and cotton candy and settle for refueling at the Casey's. I skipped on pizza this time and went with the potato wedges, cheesy crackers, and more gatorade and water.

I rolled back south towards Sutliff. Again the bar was calling to me, and it was stronger as I rode right by it this time. But it was really hot out and baking in the sun with beer or sitting in the smoky bar did not sound like fun. Instead I found myself on some dirt roads outside of Sutliff. I was hoping that I would be able to find a paved road that would lead me to Cedar Bluffs, but that was not the case. After a few miles of poking around on gravel I decided to head back to Solon, the way I came, rather than blindly picking dirt roads and ending up riding hours longer than I intended.

When I came into Solon I was hot. Damn hot. The kind of hot that makes your head throb. I had been riding for a little over three hours and I needed a short break. My mind was conjuring up memories of the Millstream pilsner that I had the day before at the brewery. This time I decided I did need a beer and sought out the Savvy Cafe that I had heard about but never visited. When I walked in it was cool and empty. I strolled over to the big beer cooler looking for the closest thing to a true Czech or German pilsner. The friendly owner mentioned that they had some beer on tap too and suggested I try a Leinie's Summer Shandy. I skeptically asked if it was a wheat beer, as heavy wheats don't wholly agree with me. She said it was a light wheat, but infused with lemons and was very refreshing. This description reminded me of the German beverage the Radler, which literally means bicyclist. In Germany and Austria thirsty cyclists would drink a mixture of about two-thirds pilsner and one-third lemon-lime soda. In England the term for a similar beverage came to be known as Shandy. The Savvy owner's suggestion did not disapoint. I quickly downed one and ordered a second to savor. The cafe is an excellent place to stop for cold or hot drinks, depending on the weather, and I have every intention of returning in the near future.

The rest of the ride home was still hot. And having only consumed beer and no food on my resent stop, I started to get the weak pre-bonk feeling. I quickly downed the rest of my cheese and crackers and bottle of gatorade and made it home five hours after I left, with four hours and fifteen minutes of riding. Oh, and my butt felt great too.

And here are the pictures I promised. Only a day or two late.

Of Bombs and Saddles

2007-08-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

I always question names, particularly of things. In general they are meant to sell a specific object. Cars have some of the more silly names out there. I'm sure Ford would like the buyers of their Escapes do believe that they are in fact capable of escaping life's challenges and those paved roads that "society" tells them they need to drive on. And my Ford Focus could mean anything from the small size of the car and its supposedly meticulous craftsmanship to the way drivers like me approach a road, or a problem, or some such nonsense. Then there are others that seem to make no real sense, like Celica, which Don DeLillo, in White Noise, lumps with Toyota's Corolla and Cressida, marveling at the fact that they are "surpranational names, computer-generated, more or less universally pronounceable" (155). Very strange stuff. And equally as strange are the models that come with numbers and letters, like Acura's RL, or the computer I'm typing on right now, the HP dv1000.

So when I ordered my Brooks B-17 the other day, I wondered about the letter and number designation. What does that mean? They also have saddles with names, like the "Swift" and the "Finesse," but then there are also others with letters and numbers like the B-66 and the B-72. These strike me as surprisingly militaristic, and I was not at all surprised to find that the B-17 was in fact an aircraft in World War II. It was known as the "flying fortress" and it participated in numerous strategic bombing offenses over Germany and other countries. I could not make any connection between saddles and bombs until this afternoon though.

My own B-17 came in today, my last day at the shop, and it was definitely a bright spot on an otherwise disappointing stretch of summer. But I wont go into specific details here, I will just say that there are some people and some places that you respect for their actions, and others that you do not. And today there were a number of bombs dropped that I wasn't comfortable with, but would in no way describe as strategic. Nevertheless, they were destructive and left a few lasting marks.

Back to the bright spot though (and I would like to point out the my particular B-17 did not do any of the actual bomb dropping). It looks great. The leather is extremely smooth and stiff, and I look forward to breaking it in. For the next few weeks it should ensure that I do not ride more hours than I think I'm capable of. I can't wait to see it on the pacer. I think the classic silver will go very well with the antique brown leather. I promise pictures in a day or two, but at the moment I'm preparing for some visitors. Robin's parents and sister are flying in from Tucson. They will be staying with us for a week. They understand bikes though, so I should have some time to tinker and post more pics.

The Post Where I Get Soft Things and Announce Silly Intentions

2007-08-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

Sorry for my lack of posts. For the most part my life has not been post-worthy. I doubt many of you are interested in the fact that we got new pillows for the couch (though they are really soft and cushy) or that I got a new bath towel (also soft). And yes, those are the highlights.

I have been doing a better job of riding my bike though. Over my four day weekend I managed to ride three days. I can't remember the last time I rode three out of four days, it might go back to Spring Break in Az. Anyways the new tires are really great. They do not offer the gravel traction that I hoped they might, but that is alright. They work well off pavement so long as the gravel is not fresh and loose. And they are a dream to ride on the road. Very sticky rubber, a wide and plush footprint, and they are light. For the protection they offer I can't believe how light they are. So they are definite keepers.

Today and tomorrow are my last days at the bike shop and I'm looking forward to being done. I like the shop, and I like the people I work with, but it can be hard to be around bikes all the time but not have time to ride. So now I will have a few weeks before school stuff really starts to get back into the pretty good shape that I was in this May/June. And while I do not know my teaching schedule yet, there is a good chance that I will have three day weekends and can use one of those days for a very long bike ride. This will help my sanity. And it will also help me prepare for the somewhat difficult and silly task of riding a double century. I am still a little bummed that I missed the big ride with the Eppens earlier this summer, so I'm going to shoot for a late September or early October double. Maybe by informing you of my intentions they will actually happen (it worked for Robin and her novel). And this way if any of you would like to come along you are welcome too.

Bike Goodies

2007-07-31T19:43:00.001-05:00

The QBP order came in at the shop today and that included a few new things for both Robin's townie and my Surly. Robin has been patiently waiting for me to get her a new seatpost and is thinking about a possible bar tape switch to blue or tan. My Surly is getting some tan bar tape (over the existing black, of course) and some new tires, Continental 4 Seasons in 28mm. They look pretty beefy and could be the perfect in between tire that will function well on both gravel roads and asphalt. I also got a very stylish Salsa Cro-Moto stem in 100mm. It's zero degree rise and shorter length should bring the bars a wee bit closer to me and end some of the stretchy feeling I've experienced in my back and shoulders the past couple weeks.

The order also included some CO-two cartridges, a box of spare tubes, and a front derailleur clamp. I've only got another week to decide if there is anything else that I should get. I'm feeling pretty satisfied at the moment, but I also think a Brooks B-17 would look quite nice on the Pacer. But we'll see. If I get too much at once, then I wont have exciting things to look forward too later.

Rescue Me

2007-07-25T19:10:00.000-05:00

Those were the words I said to Robin on the phone while I sat hunched over my handlebars some 30 miles outside of Iowa City. Being the wonderful person she is, she dropped Harry Potter and picked me up instead. So I gave her directions to a gas station in Lone Tree and hoped that I would make it there before she did. After I hung up the phone I limped north at about 11 miles per hour, on a flat road, and with a tail wind. Each seam in the concrete brought a pang of nausea. Both of my quadriceps had been cramping for some time, so any attempts at standing brought little lightening bolts through them. And just recently, my left hamstring started to cramp also. Dealing with cramps from both sides of a leg is not much fun. Plus couldn't stretch my back by riding without hands or my hamstring would cramp. And of course, I was out of water. This is not what I had planned when I left the house hours before.

It was a beautiful sunny late morning, with light winds out of the south. I had just finished watching a rather grueling mountain stage in the Tour de France. I had not been on the bike for a week and I was excited to have nothing to do that day but ride. I headed out on a Lone Tree loop with a vague idea of heading further south and east, perhaps to a town called Letts that I had scoped out on the map. Letts is about 38 miles out of town, so riding there and back would make for a nice mid-distance ride.

My initial thoughts on the ride were that I would just cut it short and take the lower mileage route. But when I approached the edge of the loop I was feeling quite good and still had some food and water, so I figured I would at least go a little more. I continued on towards Muscatine with the intention of turning south and going towards Letts. From G-28 I turned onto Cranston road. I was not sure if this was correct, but it looked quiet and inviting, so I went. It turned to sandy gravel a few miles later, but it ultimately got me to the correct road and eventually to Letts.

Letts is a quiet town with a population of 398. There are a few blocks of neat old houses and a very nice looking city park. The town was rather dead though, I saw two kids outside, and that was it. And for a town that size I was expecting perhaps a general store or a gas station, what I found was a Pepsi machine that had a giant hole in the plastic front. Thankfully it still worked. Unfortunately it was out of water. So I got a Mountain Dew and a Sierra Mist. They tasted quite good, and kept me feeling good too. But with only these sugary drinks and no more food I thought I should look around the area for something more substantial. Knowing Lone Tree was quite a few miles away I foolishly road just a bit further south in search of something that sold cheese and crackers and Little Debbies, or if I was really lucky, slices of pizza. No luck, just a large, crowded state highway.

On my way back through Letts I double checked the streets to make sure there was no establishment that I had missed; but the results were the same, Pepsi machine, closed bar, closed Post Office, and a closed Library. I did see an extremely large funeral procession heading towards the cemetery. This explained why I did not see any person or open signs in the town.

Riding back towards Iowa City started out pretty good. I had a small tailwind, a couple sugary drinks, and little bit of water. Only the tailwind lasted. The demise crept on slowly over the next hour or so. It was not nearly as dramatic as I made it sound earlier, but I still felt thoroughly rotten.

All in all I ended up riding 70 miles in about four and a half hours. Pretty close to my original goal, of course I was still over 20 miles away from home when my ride came. From this I learned that I need to drink more (I wasn't too dumb on this one, I did have three large bottles with me) on hot days, which I guess for me is anything starting around the mid to high 80s. I should look into bail out options when attempting to ride to unknown towns, or at the very least bring more food (again, I had three granola bars, not enough though). And finally, don't try to ride your bike for four or five hours when your fitness levels have been declining for the past many weeks from only riding about 1.35 times a week. Not enough.

Visitor

2007-07-20T11:10:00.000-05:00

Right now Robin is picking up her brother Jesse at the airport. He'll be spending the weekend with us and we are very excited about it. I believe it is his first visit to Iowa, so we will be busy making sure he sees a lot of stuff and gets some beautiful photographs that he can distribute to the various corners of the globe that he frequents.

Bikes, Beer, Bikes, Beer and More Bikes (but no books)

2007-07-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today was a wonderful Sunday. The morning started out a bit rushed, as Robin and I slept longer than we expected, but I made it to the park to meet Steve, Joe, and Ryan for our ride and I was only a few minutes late. We headed out south and west for the Fry Town loop. The ride was a perfect pace, a little on the fast side in the wind and easy spinning in the draft. It was fun to ride with Joe. I had not really seen him since I've moved back to Iowa City, so we had a lot of things to catch up on.

After the ride Joe invited us to his house to sample some of his very fine homebrew. Ryan declined, as he had family matters to attend to, but Steve and I were not going to pass up such an offer. Inside Joe's spacious garage approximately a dozen bikes hang from the ceiling. He has a geared bike and a singlespeed bike for just about every occasion, and a few extras thrown in just for good measure.

Sitting below the hanging bikes are about a dozen small kegs (a keg for every bike? Perhaps a good rule to live by). Many of them are full, and four of them are hooked up to a tapper that runs the lines through a refrigeration system. Joe switches them around to meet his tastes. We started by sampling a very hoppy, and very tasty, IPA. We enjoyed these out on the porch with Joe's cat Harry. We talked about everything from racers and drugs to morons and bikes. It was lovely. I cannot remember the last time I had a beer at 10:30 in the morning, but I doubt it was as good as this one. Joe's IPA is perfect for early drinking on a sunny day. The brewmaster kindly offered us samples of his other fine brews, but I had to be at the bike shop to work in a few hours, so Steve and I rolled home before we got really carried away.

The afternoon went by slowly. The shop has been packed recently as RAGBRAI is looming large on the horizon, but today was an extremely quiet Sunday and it seemed like forever before I could leave. Now I sit resting my weary legs in the recliner with a sweet wheat beer at my side. Tonight should be a relaxing one as the replay of the tour starts in ten minutes. It has taken all of my strength to not read any cycling related pages this last hour. So if you know who wins this first mountain top finish, please keep it to yourself.

Morning Productivity

2007-07-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

In the past few weeks, or maybe a couple months, Robin and I have been struggling just a bit to get out of bed at a descent hour and get things done. So we decided that two mornings a week we would go for a short run right away and two mornings other mornings each week we would take advantage of our very nice and very close recreation center and go swimming. Today was the first day of implementing our plan. We went running.

I had not gone for a run in over a year. It felt awkward at first. And my legs got a little tired of the pounding at the end. But there were a few minutes in the middle where it felt great. And the rest of the day I felt quite good. Breakfast and coffee after the run were fantastic. Work was better than yesterday. And my afternoon bike ride was also good, though in the final hills my legs were feeling sluggish. All in all I am very happy with this new plan.

Tonight we are going to bbq. Tomorrow we have no plans other than to watch the first mountain stage of the Tour de France. We have found a way to watch it online for free, if this sounds good to you, go here, download the player, and look for the channel Versus. They air it four or five times a day, but the live one is in the morning.

Test Ride

2007-07-13T13:52:00.000-05:00

It has been a long while since I last wrote. I can’t necessarily say that things were busy in Arizona, because for the most part, we relaxed with bikes, horses, and a beautiful pool. I also had plenty of time for updates, but something about being away from home makes me less likely to do the things I normally do. It was a nice vacation though. A bit on the hot side, but that’s Arizona in July. We attended a mildly stressful, but exceptionally beautiful and sincere wedding. For some pictures and a bit more info (and animals) see Robin’s blog.

After a few days of being tired and working I have finally had a chance to really test the new Pacer. I have been playing around with all the available stems in the house and have almost decided on what size I need. It now has a 115mm on it with a pretty big rise, so I have it flipped upside down. I think I will end up purchasing a 110 or a 105 with a small rise on it, say 5 or 6 degrees. That should be about perfect.

But the 115 was good for my ride the other morning. I headed out Sugar Bottom way with the intent to go through North Liberty and Tiffin and come back in on Melrose/IWV to test it in the hills. There is a small weight difference, which is to be expected as my old frame was made of really light aluminum, but for the most part it felt the same going up. I think the biggest factor was that I have lost some of the fitness I had in late May and early June. So my lungs were burning a bit when I tried to charge up the hills.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was some light construction on Sugar Bottom road. I’m not saying I’m a fan of what Edward Abbey would call the progress of civil engineering on one of my favorite roads to ride on, but in its current stage I was able to test the Pacer on a bit of dirt. At the moment I only have 23mm tires on it, but it felt great over both the packed gravel and the loose gravel.

By the time I crossed Mahaffey Bridge and started the climbs to North Liberty my legs and lungs were feeling great and I had a nice rhythm when climbing out of the saddle. The handling was slower than my old road bike but quicker than my cyclo-cross bike, so basically exactly what I was looking for. I weaved around seams in the concrete and had no problem jumping onto the shoulder when large trucks came a little too close.

The stretch shortly after North Liberty and north of Tiffin is also one of my favorite sections of road. Smooth blacktop, low traffic, twisting turns and rolling farmland make it aesthetically pleasing and easy to make as challenging or relaxing as I want. On this ride the traffic was particularly low, as in I did not see a single car. This had to do with some more construction on the three short hills just north of highway 6. This time I could not ride through. Well, I probably could have, but large dump trucks being filled by numerous earth movers changed my mind. So I turned around and road the nice stretch of road again and it was still traffic free.

The detour routed me over some very smooth gravel roads. Even on this longer stretch the skinny 23s still felt pretty comfy. There were a few rough, washboard sections though. So I’ll have to put some slightly larger, higher volume tires on for a serious dirt road test.

Coming in on IWV with a slight tailwind I kept it in the big ring and hammered up the hills. It felt good and the Pacer felt considerably better than my old aluminum racer on all the fat, open seams on that road. In fact, it was on a big, fast group ride this past April when we were coming into town on that same road that I decided I had had enough of my butt and hands being beaten up. So it was fitting that this ride finished up on the same road with me feeling much fresher. The Pacer is definitely a keeper.

Of Crashes and Titanium

2007-07-01T11:03:00.001-05:00

The bike is all together now. I'm quite pleased with both the look and the ride. The stem I have on it now is not ideal, so I'll have to play around with that a bit. And I'll most likely get some wider, squishier tires, but other than that, it is great. I took it out on its maiden voyage last Thursday. It was a beautiful and cool evening. The bike felt great. Very smooth. I noticed an immediate difference over the aluminum. Unfortunately the ride was cut a tad short by a little mishap between Robin and I. The short version is that I stayed up and she needs a new helmet.

There were a few moments of disorientation and short term memory loss for her, but we got home alright. And aside from a few small scabs and a little bruising on her hip, she is just fine.

I have not been able to get back on the new pacer since then because we are now in Arizona for a week. They are having some slightly higher than normal temperatures, but it isn't too bad. The mornings and evenings are beautiful, and the Stephens allow me to use their spare Titus on all the trails that surround their house. It is quite nice. The full squish titanium frame and XTR components take some getting used to after riding the rigid 1x1, but they both have red stems, so that makes the transition a little smoother.

Mostly complete

2007-06-28T08:35:00.000-05:00

Well the frame is here and almost entirely put together. The silver paint job is cooler than I thought it would be. And I dig the new pacer graphics.

Half of it went together quickly, the other half took some ingenuity. The front derailleur clamp from my C'dale is too big. I solved this by creating a shim that is one parts electrical tape two parts aluminum A&W Root Beer can. It seems to work fine and should last at least a few days until I can get the correct sized clamp ordered.

The biggest road block came from the derailleur hanger. The threads were not in great shape. I had cleaned them out to the best of my ability but the derailleur did not want to call that hanger home. For the next few minutes we put the derailleur in and out from the inside of the rear stays. That helped, but the screw was not long enough. We looked for other screws of the same size but longer. We found one from the scrap parts of Robin's Fuji. Why did we save those? We have no idea, but we're glad we did. A few turns of that screw and everything was just fine.

I still need to cut the steerer tube and figure out which size stem would work best, so I haven't taken it for a real ride yet. It does feel nice though.

Here I am sitting in a chair pondering my derailleur dilemma.

Bigger, more complete photos to follow.

It is somewhat funny that both of my setup problems came in the form of my derailleurs and that Robin's best picture was of our derailleurless bikes. Hmmm.

Slackin on the UPS

2007-06-26T22:19:00.001-05:00

The UPS people did not bring my frame today. They brought the rest of my order, which was comprised of very unexciting things like a seatpost, seat clamp, and a headset. I'll spare you the boring pictures (plus I left them at the shop).

I had planned on doing the group ride tonight, as it has been awhile since my last attempt. But it was damn hot and riding hard did not sound fun. Instead I met my coworker Andy and his girlfriend Kristin at Sugar Bottom. It was still hot out there, but we rode nice and easy. Conversational pace on mountain bike trails is a wonderful thing.

Tomorrow I should have the frame, but since UPS didn't make any promises, I won't either.

A Change of Pace

2007-06-25T08:26:00.000-05:00

For the past few months I have spared you, my readers, the numerous thoughts that I have had regarding new bicycle frames. I have been disenchanted with my cannondale CAAD 5 for quite some time now. When I got the frame seven years ago it was more or less the cream of the crop for aluminum racing frames. I raced quite hard on it for over three years and then continued to train as if I were racing for another three or so years. But I can no longer handle the rattling in my butt and hands. For the past few months I have found myself riding my cyclocross bike more and more. It is also aluminum, but it takes nice big squishy tires.

So, in brief, I think the perfect frame for me would be a steel road bike that has clearance for larger tires, say up to 35 maybe, but wouldn't look stupid with a faster set of 25s on it. There are very few frames around like this. Sure, there are lots of cyclocross frames, but as I have no intention of riding around twisty courses and bunny hopping barriers I don't need their geometries or higher bottom brackets. I want the stableness of a bike that can comfortably be ridden all day. This is hard to come by. Rivendell makes a few, though I don't believe they emphasize speed quite enough for me, I mean, just because I'm not racing doesn't mean I don't like to go fast on the occasional Tuesday/Thursday group race. Then there is Ebisu, beautifully crafted Japanese bicycles named after the God of Good Fortune, the Ocean, and Fishermen. From there the list drops off rather dramatically with Heron and Velo-Orange, great bikes, but I'm not sure they are what I'm looking for. And beyond that you must enter the realm of custom builders like Ira Ryan. I'm leaning towards the latter, but even if I went with a production frame like the others, I couldn't afford it for a little while.

So I have decided on an interim frame so to speak. It is steel. It takes pretty big tires, so it can handle dirt roads with the best of them. And I was able to purchase it through my shop for a very very low price. It is a Surly Pacer. It will be the perfect step between my super stiff and pingy aluminum frame and my perfect custom steel all day road/dirt/brevet frame. And when the new frame comes this could shift right into an amazing commuter or even become a 650b project.

The frame should come tomorrow. I'll post pictures when I get it.

Oh, and if you were worried, I fixed my headset. I put one of the many pieces back incorrectly, but it is all better now.

Keep Both Hands On The Wheel At All Times

2007-06-22T15:15:00.000-05:00

Today I did some work on my cyclocross bike's headset. It is not in good shape. There is an unhealthy amount of rust on the outside, and for the past few rides it would creak while I was climbing out of the saddle. It would only creak when I would lean the bike to the left though. This made for a relatively enchanting rhythm and is perhaps the reason I've waited so long to clean it.

But today I pulled it apart. I cleaned all the innards up and re-greased the important parts. I even used some fine sandpaper to get most of the rust off. When I put it all back together the creaking was gone and it felt smooth. But now I can't ride without hands. I don't understand it. The steering seems to stick and the bike becomes very intent on veering off course. I have loosened and tightened everything numerous times, but still no easy no-handed riding.

I can also feel a subtle difference when riding with hands. In general, the bike just feels more sluggish, particularly at low speeds. If any of you other bike people have thoughts on this, please let me know. Riding without hands makes me feel like a big kid, and now I feel like I'm getting older by the minute.