T-Minus Something

T-Minus less than a month until the Decorah Time Trials. I've wanted to do this race for a few years but always had something going on, or failed to be ready.

Strangely enough, this year of all years, I am going to be ready. Sleep deprivation training is going better than bicycle training, but I think both will be enough for me to survive the race.

Looked very windy today, so I opted for a 2 mile run rather than a 20 mile ride. I'm hoping that was a wise choice. Need to hit up the trainer or road hard over the next 2 weeks to get ready.

Trying to figure out how I can upgrade my wheels...

First Ride of 2009

Got out for my first ride of the year. Took the mountain bike to do some recon to see how the ice was melting. Also got to try out my new lobster gloves. The gloves were very warm. The roads were mostly dry, but the drivers were bad today. In 75 minutes of riding I had two close calls.

Why do drivers that if they honk their horn, then they have free reign to pass in a no-passing zone? I am now going to ride in the middle of the lane rather than to the right, just for protection from people who pass too close.

Resume

Time to resume posting I guess. I will be posting about the things in this house that are driving me crazy. Not the people in the house, but attributes of the house itself. The photos will tell most of the story. You'll see...

Sun is Out

5:15 AM alarm goes off... hit the singletrack by 6:00 after a warmup ride up the bluff. Other folks had the same idea. It's the start of summer and the sun is out at 5:00 AM, making pre-work rides easier this time of year.

I had the day off, so I rode the whole loop and back home by 8:00.

First ride on the new Ergon grips. I am liking these grips - they take the pressure off of my hands. No more ache after the first 15 minutes. Also switched to a Bonty Big Sweep bar, not sure but this may be too wide at 640mm. Wonder if it can be cut down?

Next up, new seatpost needed so that I can take the current post as the "tag-along" post and permanently install the trail a bike hitch kit there.

Not sure if I am getting faster, but I am feeling better.

Close

Survived the first time trial of the season - improved my time by over 4 minutes from last year - only about a minute off my goal time for this summer. Not bad for a "slug" rider not seriously training. I guess I really don't like racing that much, but it was a good challenge. I've got to get more base miles in, my HR was too high for the entire loop.

The good news is that I am finally feeling comfortable on the 29er. Steering is acceptable, getting over logs and rocks is great. I'm learning to not use the brakes as much and just let the bike do the work. The wheels are pretty heavy and I can really feel it when climbing up the rollers, but I'm not going to complain. Overall the bike isn't that much heavier than my old Stumpjumper.

Some photos coming soon of bad house ideas the previous owners had. Like using fiber board to seal up the dryer vent. I really don't like fixing their past mistakes, everything takes 3 times longer than it should - not that I know what I'm doing anyway.

Ugh

Didn't want to get up at 5:30 this morning for bike practice - but managed to roll out of bed and get dressed. Even remembered my water bottle this time. Hit the road at 6:00 but was so cold. Why is 40 degrees colder in May than it is in February? It's all in the expectations.

Anyway, shivered for the first 30 minutes of riding, decided to take the easy road and skip climbing today. Total ride time of 75 minutes and 20 miles. At least I got out I guess. Going to try to hit the 5:30 AM MTB ride on Thursday, better set the alarm and get to bed early.

Fizzle Out

This week is fizzling out. Failed to take advantage of the good weather tuesday morning, attempted to make up for it this morning but I forgot my water bottles so the ride was cut short. How short I do not know since the battery in the cateye decided to give up today as well.

Hoping to get the X-Cal out tomorrow morning for tractor driving practice - that is what I have heard moving to the Fisher is like. Should have waited for the '08 models but I was too frugal. Now I have to make it work - no new bikes for a long time.

Time to Rise and Shine

The weather seems to have finally turned the corner to spring. The local MTB trail is finally open, and the sunrise has broken the 6:00 AM barrier. All three point me to the reality that it is time to rise and shine for early morning training, the best time for training for those of us with kids.

Not that I like getting up at 5:30 or earlier to ride my bike, but it fits my schedule better than trying to ride after work.

So... hoping to hit the early morning singletrack at least once this week, and put in some early morning road miles as well. I forgot my running shoes at the in-laws, so no running for a while :)

Happy Easter

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.