new ride

Picked up a closeout X-Caliber a month ago. I got pulled in by closeout prices and jumped the gun ahead of the (improved) 2008 models.

So, now I've got to move from the tried and true Stumpjumper to the wild world of 29ers.

Inaction

A lot of inactivity on this blog lately, that's because I'm too lazy to write much.

Needless to say, I've been riding and working. Pack fodder. Closer to the slowest than the fastest. SPDs are toast. Ordered a new set but they are not here yet.

Really want a new mtn bike. Fisher, Gunnar or Niner? Something with the big wheels.

Will try to post more often.

Running

I've started running, mostly to jump start my fitness for this year. Running has several advantages and disadvanges over cycling.

Advantages

1. Easy to get your heart rate up
   
2. The impact of striking the ground id good for bone density
   
3. Cheap - just need to buy a pair of shoes
   
4. Can easily put the hurt on your legs
   
5. Can do it almost anywhere
   

Disadvantages

1. Kind of boring
   
2. Puts the hurt in your knees the next day
   

Hopefully the trails dry and the temperatures go up so I can get out on the bike more. In the meantime, I hope this running thing helps my fitness level and leg strength. Who knows, I might even try a dualathalon this summer!

Too nice outside for this

It was 50 degrees today, but because the sun is still setting before I can leave work, this is the photo from my ride today.

Fun times... yeah, fun times.

dead letter office

I listened to my vinyl (record) copy of Dead Letter Office the other day. I hadn't put a record on in quite a while, and it was a good experience. Taking the album out of the plastic bag, taking the record out of the dust jacket, dusting off the record, dropping the needle into the groove and hearing the opening strains of "Crazy" coming out of the speakers. And the cover -- its huge compared to the tiny CD cover. I guess a CD cover is better than what you get with a MP3, which is nothing.

There's something special about playing a record versus playing a CD. Besides all of the extra steps to actually play the record, you aren't skipping ahead to your favorite tracks, and for me at least, I listen closer because I know that everytime I play the record it gets a tiny bit more worn, a tiny bit closer to being all used up.

I don't have much music on vinyl, just a handful of albums and a small box of singles/45s. But I'm going to get them out more often now. The only downside is that it's harder to put on a record than a CD while holding a baby...

The Longest Hour

I rode the longest hour today - 60 minutes on the mag trainer in the basement. Averaged 144 BPM on the heart rate monitor, with a max of 160. Not too bad for the first day of riding the trainer this winter. I Guess I am paying for not really doing anything on the bike since November. It was pretty cold in the basement, probably inthe 50's (but then again the high was -2 outside today).

Going to start working on core strength too, exercising on the ball to help increase my endurance.

Time to build some more playlists for the iPod. Tomorrow is another day with the trainer!

Basements

Why do basements collect so much junk? Do I even know what's down there? Do I want to know?

For example, here are some of the odd things that I have found during recent cleaning sessions.

• A copy of Codewarrior development tools from 1999. Hey, it runs on Windows NT and Mac OS 8-9!!!
  
• A copy of the game "X-Wing" for Macintosh. I think I bought this in 1997. I remember that I was never any good at it anyway.
  
• A Star Wars calendar from 1996
  
• The brake sets from my old 1992 Park Pre mountain bike that I no longer have.
  

And these are just the things that I had forgotten about.

Looks like it is time for a garage sale...

Ride today

Did an hour on the road bike today, haven't ridden it in quite a while. It was chilly, about 40 degrees. First ride at that temperature in a long time, and I wasn't as prepared for it as I should have been. Forgot to caulk the holes in the bottom of my shoes, so the cold wind was blowing over my toes the whole ride, couldn't feel my feet by the end.

The rest of my clothing wasn't too bad. Baselayer, jersey then wind jacket. Shorts and tights. Layered gloves. Any colder and I will need to start using the chemical heat packs, or get some proper booties and cycling gloves. Your hands aren't doing anything except catching wind the whole ride, so they get cold really quick.

Plumbing (Old and Cold Don't Mix)

The recent cold snap put a snap in my water pipes again, this time taking out the cold water line to the troublesome downstairs bathroom. Fixing this will be a chore, because there is almost no access to the plumbing internals of the bathroom. A meager crawl space that cannot be crawled into runs under the bathroom.

The plumber is going to try fishing some flexible Pex tubing under the floor, to avoid us having to break open the tile floor. Hopefully that works.

Next issue, our 6-month-old condensate pump decided this would be a good time to develop a crack in the reservoir, resulting in water pooling up beside the furnace. Fortunately, it was replaced under warranty, but the check valve seems to be leaking on the new one. “Made in China”.

Finally, some non plumbing / non cold related breakage. The ten year old headset on my Stumpjumper gave up. I guess this is to be expected. The upper bearing race was broken in two when we removed the old suspension fork. Looks like a new headset is in order, before installing the new (to me) Sid Race. Hopefully the new fork doesn’t mess up the handling of the old-school Stumpjumper. Went looking at new rides over the weekend, but I don’t quite know what I want. I think I want a full suspension competitive XC type bike, like a Trek Fuel or a Specialized Epic, but they are so $$ that the simple value of a hardtail is compelling. I need to figure out what kind of riding I’m going to be doing for the next five years.

What will happen?

Mac World SF is tomorrow. What will happen? All of the rumor sites are talking about new laptops using the Intel processors. I'm hoping not, because I was thinking of getting an iBook this spring, but if they are moving to Intel, I don't want to be a part of the first versions of those. Better to wait it out until the bugs are fixed and the software is ported to the new platform.

Speaking of software, that would be another expense, getting native versions of everything again. But, if they stick with the G4 for a few more months, then just maybe an iBook is in my future... I guess it will all be made known tomorrow.

What I really want, rather than a computer, is a bike. But which one? My Trek road bike has a bad case of "the shakes" when hitting 29 MPH going downhill. I don't know if something is out of alignment in the wheels/fork, or if the frame is just wearing out (it is a 1992 bonded aluminum frame), or what is going on. I bought is used a few years ago and I can't recall if it has always done this, or it just started when I replaced the rear wheel. Why would the rear wheel cause a frame shimmy?

But, there is the temptation of a new mtn bike, which is what I really kind of want.... but all of this stuff is $$ and $$ needs to pay for things like heat, (ouch) mortgage, home repairs, and the eventual decline of the Saturn.

Really Cold

OK, forget my previous post. Now its cold. As in, time to turn off the water to the downstairs bathroom and drain the pipes so they don't freeze cold.

Fortunately, I have such a bathroom system. After the a pipe burst two years ago on a -30 degree day, we had a plumber install shutoff and drain valves, so we can completely turn off the system when the temperature is slated to drop into the artic regions. Last nights temp was only -4, but I was extra cautious and shut it off anyway.



The big question is, who enclosed the porch and decided to build a bathroom (a room with a lot of water) with no crawlspace under it! This is the upper midwest, you know, and it does get cold...



Speaking of the cold, a couple of projects for the near future include caulking the windows with some rope caulk, and adding more weather stripping to the doors. But, I think I'll wait for the temps to reach the double digits before attempting those tasks.

Cold

Its officially winter now. Multiple inches of snow on the ground. Cold air coming in through the windows (yes, I still need to weather proof my 110 year old windows). Even with the storm windows on, the 1/8" crack between the upper and lower pane is allowing a breeze to come in. And last night I took a good fall outside the bowling alley. I was walking up to the car and next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground. My knee and elbow have been hurting all day from the fall. And I didn't even have a good score bowling either.

Lots of projects that need to get done. I'm not sure that the fridge water line isn't still leaking, but nowhere in town has one of those electronic devices that warn you when the water line leaks. More painting, wallpaper removal, electrical outlets to wire up, dust bunnies to vacuum, basements to clean, etc. It never ends. Such is life.

Procrastination

Today's entry is all about not getting things done.

Back in April, we got a new fridge. Really stepping into the modern times. We got one with the built in icemaker and the water dispenser in the door. Of course, this requires a water line to be run to the back of the refridgerator. Two weeks ago (October 22) we finally got around to hooking that up.

Two years ago after we moved in, we had a new furnace installed. The old one was 20+ years old and needed to go. Anyway, this new furnace came with a programmable thermostat, so that we don't have to turn the temperatur up in the morning and down at night. Its been two years, but I still haven't taken the time to program the thermostat so that it automatically changes the temperature when we want it to. The funny thing is that I work on computers all day, so it isn't because I'm intimidated by the programming process, I just haven't gotten around to it.

Oh, and about the fridge, we noticed that some of the boards in our kitchen hardwood floor were cupping this weekend. Pulled the fridge out and the water line was leaking. We had some standing water there - the floor was good and wet. I tightened up the nut on the connection and it has been dry for 3 hours, we'll see in the morning. In the meantime, there's a fan trying to dry things out. So, I guess it wasn't too bad that we didn't hook it up for 6 months.

NFL

Recently we had a friendly contest involving choosing a winning NFL team each week. The premise is that each week you had to choose one team which would win, with the restriction that you can't pick any team more than once during the whole season. If your team wins, you're through to the next week. If your team loses, you're out.

Week 1 I really didn't put much thought into it, I just picked the team playing against Chicago, because I thought Chicago was bad. I made it to week 2, but 17 people were out. Now the stakes were higher, I was already better than half of the people in our department. So, I took a look at the Vegas odds before making my pick. Myself and 7 others made it through to week 3. Now the pressure was on, there were only 8 of us left. So, look at the Vegas odds, and read some sports writers commentaries about the games. Week 4, week 5, week 6... We were all making it. By this point, I was actually watching some of the games on TV, looking at the Vegas odds, and reading sports experts columns to try to find my next winner, in addition to planning out a 2-3 week strategy of what teams to pick based on who they were playing and where the game was located. We would make a short list of teams we thought had a chance then ponder before making a final pick.

Then came week 7, and I was out on a last second touchdown by the Giants to defeat Denver. So now, I'm left with no picks to make, no reason to watch the games on TV or read the Vegas odds... I was really kind of down about it, but I guess the pressure is off now and my Sunday afternoons are free again.

RAGBRAI Day 4

Day 4 started out cool. When we stopped moving I began shivering pretty quickly. Again, why didn't I bring my cycling jacket? I'm stuck with this Gap anorak that gets the job done, but it doesn't really breathe, so I'm either too hot with it on or too cold with it off.

We stopped for breakfast at this 140+ year old farmhouse. It had "an addition" that was added in 1895, the year my house was built! They had bagels and coffee. There were lots of people around, and the owners were giving tours of the house. I thought the stairs in my house were steep, they were tame compared to this one. I can't imagine trying to walk up the stairs while carrying anything. It was quite a challenge in with my Look cleats.



Next up was a stop in Dan's hometown of Titonka. The red carpet was rolled out for Dan. We stopped at his parents house for a super breakfast, before heading downtown for some more breakfast. Then it was back to his parents for photos, and to pick up his sister and his niece for a portion of the ride. They did 14 miles or so with us that morning. The sun was shining, the air was warm, and the birds were singing...



Overall it was another long day, we pulled into Northwood and had a shower lined up with a friend of a friend. Dinner was at a local church, here is one of their decorations out front.



Finally, a photo of the camp. We were camped at the county fairgrounds. Not as good as camping at a school, but this was better than our camp to be tomorrow, where we were pitching tents inside of a dirt race track! The white bus is Team Dragon, our team for the week.

RAGBRAI Day 3

Things are kind of back to "normal" today, if you call getting up at 5:00 AM and riding your bike for 80 miles normal.
A much better day today, we all slept good last night because the cold front came through and temperatures are much more reasonable. It was actually chilly in the morning, you can see I have my arm warmers on. I almost didn't bring them, but I wouldn't have made it through the week without them. I'm kicking myself for not bringing my cycling jacket, I could have used it for the first hour this morning.

Not too many pictures today. The highlight of the day was the town of Ringstead, where we had abelskivvers and other Dutch food. We met Victor from the Netherlands, he was dressed as a cow. We're not sure he even knows why he is dressed as a cow, just that he is on team cow so they made him do it.

Some town I forget, a little town halfway between somewhere, had Cornelius the giant corn man greeting the riders:

We were moving today, it was our fastest day of riding. A nice tailwind helped out, and we made it to Algona early in the afternoon. At Algona, we had to ride through a volcano to get to the camp. Their theme was something to do with the Survivor TV show. They did have a nice goodie bag with water, asprin and a banana in it.

Our shower contact didn't pan out, so we had to take a cold shower at the school. You never really get a clean feeling in the school showers, because it is about 500% humidity in there. You just can't get dried off...

Tonight was our first night of "vendor food". We wandered downtown to see the entertainment. While downtown we came across the coolest pet store any of us had ever been in - Pet Kingdom. It was in a reinovated old building downtown, and all of the decor was done really well. If you're ever in Algona, stop in, even if you don't have pets. Its just that well done.

RAGBRAI Day 2

(July 25)

Today is the hardest day, for several reasons. A big thunderstorm rolled through last night about 1:00 AM, bringing winds up to 70 miles per hour. Not fun when you're in a tent. The police didn't come through soon enough, so we didn't get the evacuation order until the storm was right on top of us. My tent was collapsing on itself under the wind! I was really getting worried, the lightening seemed right on top of us, and I didn't know if my tent was going to stand up to the wind, or if I would be rolling across the campground. I heard a police siren and a message to get into the school. I decided to run for the school building. The door I (and about twenty other people) ran to was locked, so we had to run to another door to get in. The rain was sideways.

I was absolutely soaked... and cold. After a few minutes, Dan and Bridget found me in the school, and at that point we figured out that we were sleeping in the school that night (along with everybody else). Dan's tent had blown down and a lot of their stuff was wet.

There was a lull in the storm, so I went out to my tent, which was still standing somehow, and brought in my sleeping bag and a few clothes. We camped out in the science lab and got a few hours of sleep.

The next day we surveyed our camp. Dan and Bridget decided to sag that day, they were going to try to find a laundromat in Esterville to dry out their stuff. Tim's tent was fine, he stayed out there through the whole thing. (Note to self, buy a tent like Tim's) My stuff was dry except for what I had carried through the rain to get into the school, so not too bad. We packed up out stuff and Tim and I set out for Esterville, about 80 miles away.

The mood in the ride was kind of down, everybody was tired, wet, and we had heard that one rider was killed when a tree fell on his tent. The only thing we had going for us was a big tailwind that let us cruise along at 24 mpg with no effort. Of course, the wind shifted and we made a turn, so we had a good 30 mile stretch straight into the wind. Our speed then dropped to about 12 mph.

Not too many pictures from today, but here is the little town of Melvin.

Lunch today was at the "Lovely Looney Luthern Ladies" food stand out in the country. Good hamburger, but the corn was overcooked.
Here is a photo of another roadside vendor from today, don't remember what they were selling.

RAGBRAI Day 1

Day 1 started out hot and humid. We left around 7:00 am, in a large pack of riders. At this point, I'm wondering what I got myself into, and if my preparation is going to be enough. The riding is pretty flat, so no problems there. We are crusing at a comfortable 16 MPH with no problems, except for the number of riders to contend with.

Breakfast today is Farm Boys breakfast burrito. Very good. Here is a photo of folks waiting in line for food in the morning. Its a long line and everybody justs lays their bikes in the ditch while they wait and eat.

RAGBRAI brings out the nuts from the woodwork. Its known for weird costumes and wild parties, but I think it has calmed down a lot, because we didn't run into any wildness or loud parties the whole week. We did, however, get passed by this group of riders wearing tutus.

Due to the heat and humidity, it felt like a long day, even though it was a shorter mileage day. Here's a shot of Dan taken in Orange City.

RAGBRAI Day 0 (July 23rd)

Le Mars, Iowa. Ice cream capitol of the world...

This "art" is made out of old bike frames and wheels.

This was also my introduction to "tent city"... The photo below shows about 20% of the tents in the campground this first night. It was hard to sleep due to the heat and humidity that day.



Its hard to imagine the amount of people hanging around on day 0. Riders and non-riders everywhere. Vendors selling all manner of bike accessories and making repairs. Isn't it a little late to be making repairs to your bike? I mean, you're starting a 500 mile ride tomorrow morning!