"Work From Home"

Had a conference call with India this morning at 7:30, so I opted to work from home. There was a time, a few years and jobs back, when working from home meant a couple hours of work in the morning, then spending the rest of the day preparing for some motorcycle race somewhere along the east coast. Sometimes those preparations led me to Dover where my shop sponsor was. That usually led to drinking, then driving home an hour and a half all sleepy.

But that's no longer. Mostly when I work from home now, I bust my ass. Having a lot to do is part of it. Also network technology is to the point where my boss knows when I'm online and working and when I'm not. That's ok, cause it's still nicer to work from home then in the office.

Today after busting my ass for 6 hours and it only being noon, I asked if I could head out for a short ride. Got the ok from the boss and I took off. I didn't have any particular place or plan to accomplish. The temperature was in the forties and I wanted to ride. I headed up to the north end of Marsh Creek and was surprised at how close my house is. I can get to either end of Marsh Creek (and it's trails) within 15 - 20 minutes. That's nice. Provides variety.

Though in the forties, the lake was still very frozen.

After the lake I headed to busier areas. That wasn't as much fun. Too many SUVs and commercial trucks rolling by. The roads also seemed to be wetter and my fenders not as effective. My feet were soaked, so I headed back.

Turned out to be a nice little ride. Still no knee pain. Sure they were tired and groaned a little after the climbs, but otherwise no pain.

-b

Turning Point

Holy Crap! So I've been having this little knee pain thing while riding for most of the winter. First I thought it was the old Shitmano pedals I was using on the commuter. Then I thought maybe I started too hard too early. Then I built the fixie, and well hell, it's a fixie. Of course it hurts.

I kept riding. Knee kept hurting and I kept riding. Every now and again I'd get a little concerned. Would this be a problem for the entire season? Was I causing permanent damage? Was i wasting my base? I'd half-heartedly read some articles on the internet about bike fit, have a good day and forget about it. Though that only lasted till the next day, when I would ride and it would hurt again.

I guess I'm stubborn or just stupid, but I pretty much knew it was bike fit. I knew my position on the fixie wasn't setup for road miles, but I kept riding. I tried a few things with the seat position and height, but nothing made that big of a difference. The only option was to take it into the shop and get fitted with the bike. The problem was when? I figured weekends they were too busy. To do it on a weekday, I'd have to take half a day off to do it right.

I got lucky. Saturday, after a painful push in the direction of the shop, I stopped in. They were kind of slow, so I took the chance. Within minutes Sean had some suggestions - longer stem and move the seat forward. Ideally your knee should be directly over the ball of your (left) foot when the pedal is in the 9 o'clock position. My knee was in a completely different time zone.

Today was the test. I think I could feel the difference by the time I made it to the end of the driveway. It was amazing. Everything about it was different, more comfortable and easier. By the time I was nearing the office, I had my hands in the center of the bars just tooling along like it was nothing. Barely a twinge of pain in my knee. Once at work, I was completely surprised to see I dropped 5 minutes off my time. I wasn't even trying. If anything I rode more cautiously for all the icy spots along the shoulders. The ride home had similar results. I even added an extra mile to the route and still did it 5 minutes faster.

Wow! I'm an idiot for waiting so long, but Wow!


-b

Liquid Dinner & Lessons

Still tweaking my Spot, so I headed to the shop last night to exchange one size stem for another.

(Can anybody tell me why blogger sometimes loads my pictures sideways? Stupid Fing free program! Sorry. You get no photo. It was cool too.)

I guess they were closed or were about to, because beers started working their way out of the fridge and into my hands. I had some dance lessons in forty-five minutes (nearly above the shop). It was my intention to grab a bite to eat at the double Wa beforehand, but the beers got the better of me.

Now adequately looped I headed to the lesson. Threw two breath mints in my mouth and a Waltzing I went. Luckily it was a group class, the lesson was fairly easy and I didn't have to change partners. Group lesson 1 over, it was time to take a beginner class. We decided recently to take a few beginner classes again, though switch things up a bit. Jen is now learning lead and I'm following. It's kind of interesting. Though I don't actually plan to formally dance in the follower position, it gives each of us a better perspective of what the dance and dancers are supposed to do. Specifically I'm hoping it teaches Jen to have a stronger frame (you absolutely need that to lead and should have it to follow) and for myself I get to work on style and footwork. Things I don't concentrate on as much as I should when I'm spinning Jen into oblivion.

After the beginner lesson, we had our private lesson. The instructor was all excited because she learned new ways to teach this weekend at a workshop and wanted to try them on us. They were very helpful. Now in the cha-cha instead of me thinking 1,2, cha, cha, cha and hoping my feet do the right thing, I'm thinking: first position, second position, third position, third position, first position, first position, second position, third position, third position - repeat. Yeah I know. It makes no sense here, but it helps me to write it down and memorize it. It also really helps put my feet where they're supposed to be.

And why go to all this trouble? The studio really wants us to compete. They've heard I race mt. bikes. I'm assuming they assume we're both really competitive and would enjoy it. I'm not so sure.

Tonight were off on a different pursuit. We've heard the indoor rock climbing gym we used to go to has opened a new facility down the road from us. It should be cool as long the arm pump doesn't get ridiculous.

-b

Sunday Century

So the pressure's on. I've been reading all these other blogs about guys getting 12 - 20 hours a week of base training. FatMarc got 4 hours in on a Thursday. He's married and has a full time job. WTF?

That's cool. I can ride too see, so I planned a century (Sunday Century) for today. From my house to the Art Museum and back. Should be close enough to 100 miles and 6 hours to make any base monkey happy. The original plan was to start at 6am. Cold temperatures and black ice on the roads pushed the start time to 9. In hind sight, we shouldn't have pushed it past 8, but what's done is done.

At the start we had Ryan, Chris, Rob, Craig and Mark.

We rolled out in the direction of Valley Forge to pick up the rest of the bunch. From the start I realized the "base pace" I requested wasn't happening for the group. Soon I began to wonder if I could do 100 miles at all. Then I slowed down and let the group go. I knew where I was going and knew what pace I had to go to get the whole ride in. I started to wonder if doing a century the day after a 12 1/2 hour week was such a good idea. I realized, at the right pace, things would be fine. They rode off. After 28 miles we picked up Rick, Sean, Scott, Evan, and Kevin in Valley Forge, though I was so far off the back I didn't get to see many of them till we got to Norristown. Oddly enough, about the time we rolled through Norristown (nearly 2 hours into the ride), I started to warm up. My legs and lungs got the hang of things and I was pulling off the front. We rolled on.

At the Art Museum, we stopped for the obligatory photo op,

then rolled back to Manyunk for coffee. By this point we had lost Mark and Rick. They had to ride off to other engagements. Full of double-shot lattes and scones, we headed out. On the hill on the way out of Manyunk, we had our first and only casualty. Evan flatted.

That's ok. He's a bike mechanic. Besides loaning him a tube and pump, he got it back together fast and we were on our way. Back on the Schuykill trail it didn't take long to get the Bean's "Train of Pain" going and speed our way back to Valley Forge. The only problem was about Norristown it started to sleet. We sped on.

At Valley Forge, Kevin, Scott, Evan and Sean peeled off to head home. Craig, Chris, Rob and myself continued. It was sleeting harder now. Then it started snowing - big fat fluffy wet flakes were coming down and coating the road. It was colder now and we were getting wet. I pushed on. I wanted to set goals, reach them and re asses the situation. My first goal was Frazer. There's a nice big WaWa there. If we could just get there, we could refuel and re asses. Never made it. Probably for the better too. We pulled off in Malvern at a bar called Pogey's. Craig called his son, who had a large pickup, to come rescue us. The bar, which was closed, was nice enough to let us wait inside. In the 20 minutes we waited, my bike looked like this.

Stopping was a good idea. Craig's son showed up, we loaded our five bikes, then all climbed into the warm dry cab. It was nice. So nice I didn't even notice the traffic, salt trucks, plows, etc. poking down the highway. I was dry(er) and warm.

Chris and Ryan were warm and happy too. In the end, the ride was just short of 5 hours and 80 miles. That's not bad for this time of year I guess. Hopefully it will hold us over a few days while the snow melts and we can get back out and try it again.


-b

Clean Office

On Monday we replaced our UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) in our server room. This basically involved me sitting around while our electricians worked. What can you do for 7 hours with the power out? Clean out 9 years worth of papers and crap, that's what.

I wish I had a before picture to show you, but when some people saw my office and didn't see me, they asked if I had quit. Nah, but there's something about a clean desk...

-Jen

Man Overboard!

Weekend routine has become, well, routine. Ride in the mornings and work on the house all afternoon. Though this weekend was slightly different. Rode Friday night instead of Sat. morning and didn't ride any roads as they're all crappy with snow, ice and slush. But the woods were great! The snow remained frozen through the weekend and there was more "top riding" to be had. This time it was Valley Forge for some snow riding fun. It began as Ben, Scott and myself. We later met up with Craig for a short while, though only a very short while. It turned out to be a ride of thrills and spills. We each took turns with spectacular crashes. I was first with a huck off a log that stopped dead when I hit the snow. Somehow of all the frozen spots, I picked the one soft spot to land and stuck my front wheel. The bike stopped and I kept going. Luckily no damage done. The second was Ben. Down a treacherous chute, he lost control and knocked his elbow against a rock. It was gnarly enough for me to decide the chute was above and beyond my ability. The third crash was Scott. He went to do a log-over, but stuck his front wheel on the opposite side and very slowly went ass over tea-kettle. It was slow enough I thought to myself "Look Scott's falling." Then a second or two later - "He's still falling." Banged up his shoulder pretty good - enough to be able to push on it and make lumps appear and disappear. Fourth and final was Craig. Not anywhere near as catastrophic as his shoulder blade dislocation at Middle Run, but definitely more entertaining. We were trying to ride/traverse a trail they call Washington's trail (some other bikers called it Ho-Chi-Min) that runs on the river bank below the train tracks. It was an off-camber Russian roulette kind of thing. They described it as very hard under normal conditions. Now that it had snow completely frozen across it at a 60 degree angle, it was impossible. We tried it anyway. For a brief while we could ride, slide and drag ourselves along. Then it got nutty. Ben and I were out front daring our way across the ice. Ben took the low line and I went high. Craig, emboldened with his new Sidi cleats decided he'd try walking straight across. I didn't see how far he got, but I did see him spiraling on his back toward the river. Splash! He and his bike went in - only up to his shins, but enough to get him wet, cold and home. From there the ride was less eventful. Though I will say, for every moment I wished I was heavier Friday night for more traction, I was glad I was lighter to stay ontop of more of the snow on Sunday. Ride done back to the house to work.

This post was inspired by a tasty product called West Coast IPA. Brought to you by the brewers at Green Flash Brewing Co.

Thank you and goodnight

-b

Vacation Countdown

Exactly four weeks from today, Jen and I will be here.

In the evenings (actually most of each day), I'll probably be here drinking away all my base training.

-b

Great Ride Marcus

The combination of some snow, freezing cold temperatures and a week cooped up on the trainer, led to an incredible ride last night. Mark and I headed out about 9pm to hit the Dtown trails. Before leaving the house, I did some test runs through the yard and found the traction and support of the frozen snow to be superb. I could ride just about anywhere.

Marcus showed up and we took to the roads. Where the traffic or black ice got ugly, we took to peoples front yards. We could ride anywhere and everywhere. We found a drain culvert and rode it like skateboards carving up and around the banks - until I found a softspot and got stopped dead in my tracks. We road through town, around the high school and into the woods.

It was amazing. It was like someone paved all the trails with concrete. At the first fork we chose the downhill with swooping banked turns to carve up instead of another climb. Lightly locking the brakes, you could put yourself into awesome two-wheeled drifts through the turns. At the railroad bed, we decided to climb up to the school via Marks' newest off-camber creation. This is where we ran into the first bit of treachery. The off-camber slickness sent me falling over backwards and sliding uncontrollably down the hill. It was kind of fun actually, though I had to grab something to stop before I slammed headfirst into a tree or over and off some drop.

From the school it was down the old dirt road and up and over on the yellow trail - another off-camber challenge. The dirt road was a blast with its dips, gullies and snow covered banks. The yellow trail provided another lesson in traction and brake control. Mark seemed to grab hold pretty well and rip it up nicely. My front end kept slipping from underneath me or cracking through a couple of times. If your front broke through, your bike was done. It stopped dead and threw you forward. If the rear broke through, and you didn't have the momentum to roll on, a similar body tossing fate occurred. Needless to say I went down a few times as Mark rolled on. I chalked it up to him being heavier and having better tires for our fun. He was running 26" 2.5 Weirwolves up front and an Octopus out back. Damn things nearly left ruts. My Exiwolf up front and Motoraptor out back didn't seem to get the same cut in the surface. Or maybe I'm just rusty. Who knows?

Done with the yellow trail, it was time to suffer on Mark-d'Huez. The first half is a relentless series of switchbacks taking you up to the top. Once at the top it's quick up and downs across the slope to the rutted dirt road downhill finish. The bottom half of the switchbacks kicked my ass. I fell a few more times, banged my knee and tweaked my wrist. Mark again rolled along like he had chains on his tires. Then the tides turned. I think I just got angry and focused my concentration, but I passed Mark on a slip in one of the switchbacks and powered on. I dabbed a couple of times, but otherwise powered my way to the top with little incident. I even had time to sit on a log, take a few swigs of my Cytomax/Tanqueray mix and wait for Mark.

Though only riding it a few times now, I think the Spot is half goat.

At the top of Mark-d'Huez I let Mark take the lead down the first and worst descent. Again, his exhibition of traction was phenomenal, so I headed down. At first it wasn't so bad. Things were rolling/sliding smooth, then my front sunk and over the bars and down the hill I went. Get back up, ride a little farther, then loose the front again - not sinking but completely sliding out from underneath me. A few more repeats of that process and I made it to the bottom. We road on to the Sonoco lands.

At Sonoco we decided to go up Clay and finish with the Middle climb. The first half of Clay things were going well, then all traction was gone and we were down. Even Mark lost all hopes of grip and fell flat on his face sliding off into the thorns. Precariously we walked (smashed the heels of our shoes through the ice) the trail to the near end where traction was found once again.

After Sonoco it was onto Skelp Level. The way the trails swoop across the hillsides in a roller coaster flow makes these trails a favorite regardless of conditions. I was giddy with anticipation. Didn't last long. Mark railed it and I fell. I tried everything. I thought maybe I was using the brakes too much, so I let off. A couple of turns it worked. The extra momentum in the turns forced my tires to dig and grip. A couple of turns it didn't. There was nothing to grab and I slid. Wham! On the ground again. By this time, with all the falling and sweating, I was getting pretty wet. Wet in 20 degree weather means cold - not yet, but it was coming.

The other side of Skelp Level is climbing. Again the Spot took over, I passed Mark and cranked my way out of there unencumbered with traction issues. A jaunt through town, a temptation to stop at Victory, and we were on the Struble trail headed for Marsh Creek. The Struble trail is a cold flat 3 mile paved rail/trail. People had tried walking/running on the center of it in the snow, but the outside edges were otherwise smooth. Mark took to the left and me the right. Here's where we started killing each other. The pace quickened, the cranks spun and we pushed to the end. My quads burned and throbbed, but my lungs had plenty of air. The base training is working I thought to myself. I couldn't hear if Mark was breathing heavy, but knew by his pace he wasn't hurting too bad or backing off anytime soon. Onward we plowed our way to the end, then climbed Dorlan Mill to the entrance of Marsh Creek. At the top we stopped, took a few swigs of winter concoctions and dropped into Marsh Creek.

It was late, we were getting tired and I was getting cold. We hit the Sole trail climb up to the resevoir, headed across the frozen tundra of the fields and rode out. After 27 miles I got home a little after midnight. Too tired and beat to make the Sat. morning ride and too tired for that post ride beverage. It really was a great ride. A winter epic for sure.

-b

Green Flash

Wow! Great stuff. Heard lots about it. Saw it at the distributor and had to get some.

Should make for a nice after-ride beverage tonight.

-b

Slizzard 07

It started Tuesday nice and fluffy. By 7pm we had two to four inches of fluffy white snow. At 6pm I started putting the plow together. By 8pm I had everything clear and was done. The white fluffy stuff continued to fall. 3am (or earlier) I'm awakened but what sounds like gravel being thrown against our bedroom window. It was ice and/or sleet. Though it sounded like gravel, all I could think of was the scenes in Salem's Lot where the vampires scratch their fingernails against your bedroom window to let them in. All night I thought this as I heard the ice against the glass. I hardly slept at all. Finally at 6am I gave up and got out of bed.

Jen actually considered going to work. Her office doesn't have an inclement weather policy and it's generally expected they show up regardless of weather. I told her no way. Get fired. I don't care. It's better than dying trying to get to work. When we saw the weather forecast and the hazardous driving conditions warning, she agreed. Though some people at her office still gave her shit (maybe I can get someone to scratch at their windows tonight).

Around noon I decided it was time to get back out and clear the driveway. We'd have to go somewhere at some point. There was a bout four inches of snow with a crust of ice on top. The crust was so thick and strong I could walk on it. Oh boy, this should be fun. I fired up the tractor and rammed it out of the garage. I got maybe a foot before the ice-concrete stopped me cold. The shit has heavy. It would pile in front of the blade and just stop me. Backup and take another run. Wham! Only slightly further. Holy crap this is going to take a while. The only way to get anywhere was take two runs, make a pile, then raise the blade and drive over the pile - repeat. It took three hours to get out to the road. Many times I didn't think I was going to get it - either run out of gas or just give up.

Afterwords I threw on the new xc skis and tried them out in the soccer fields behind our house. I've only skied once before and the conditions were much nicer. The hard crust let the skis (or me I'm not sure) wander more then I would have liked. One would go one way, while the other was totally going another. I fell a few times, the wind picked up and I decided to try it another day.

Today I'm sore. Not sure if it was the skiing (more like falling) or the plowing. If I knew which, I'd count that time for my base training. Anything that makes you hurt like this (besides a car wreck) had to of been a physical endeavor enough to be counted.

Snow Ride

With a sky like this, you know bad things are coming.

That's a front moving in for those that don't recognize weather patterns. Fronts in the winter generally mean precipitation in the form of snow. Ya snow! Snow Ride!

Unfortunately not for me. I've been putting off the installation of our tractor plow all winter. With four inches of the white fluffy stuff in our driveway, I had no choice. My friends were off ripping up the trails, while I had a snow ride of my own of sorts.

The tractor in all its snow warrior glory. And the driveway, why is it such a big deal?

It's long. Way too long to shovel. Last year for each of the two snow storms we got, we had to pay someone to plow. The tractor and snow equipment came with the house. Like most things in that deal, we didn't get all we expected and it didn't work out so well. This year, though dreading it, I was prepared. I had all the missing pieces and parts. I just needed the motivation. Four inches of snow and missing an awesome ride, was motivation enough. So now it's together and it's done.

Maybe there will be something left tomorrow night.

-b

Trainer Days

Funny obsession this cycling thing is. 5:30 this morning I was up and on the trainer - riding my bike for two hours and going no where. The original plan was only an hour and a half, cause that's what the movie length said. Turned out to be two hours exactly. Oh well. Won't argue with time and can't complain with leather and latex at 6am or agent Smith and Neo at 7.

Why trainer time? Weather is getting really nasty the next couple of days. I have the equipment and ability to keep commuting, but drivers are freaked out enough by the white stuff. They don't need to be more freaked out with me too. At least now I have the days ride out of the way. I can concentrate more on a possible snow ride tonight, cross country skiing (with enough snow), or the responsible thing - install the tractor plow and get to work on the driveway.

Again why trainer time? All of you sharing this obsession know. We ride and read each others reports sharing in the pain of base training redundancy. Some of it's fun, but mostly it's ride - repeat. In the end there will be no sharing. In the end there will be only one winner and that winner will have gone the farthest the fastest. I know it won't be me, but at least I will have put in enough training to not be too far behind the one who does and maybe share at least a post race beverage.

"Beer? You're training for beer?"

Not quite. It sounded cool. I can't explain why. I don't completely understand it. Sometimes it's like a body in motion stays in motion and I don't ever want this body to stop. Other times I just go crazy if I don't get out (or stay in) and ride. Jen knows it. She'll tell me to get out. Go ride and get out. Then it's better. At least for a little while.

-b

Animal Kingdom

Cat. Have you seen who's been walking on the pool in the snow?

"It wasn't me. I swear. I've just been laying here in the sun all morning.
Really it wasn't me at all. And those greasy cat prints on the
kitchen counter, the dog made those. He faked them
to look like mine. Really I swear."

Dog is this true?

"Total bunk. The cat lies. Full of lies. The greasy paw prints on
the counter are totally her. Saw her do it. Saw her lick the stove
and grease up the counter. No manners that cat.
Your house = her world. Now what was that
about a pool?"

Somone is walking on the pool when we're not here!
We leave you two here all day to watch and
take guard. Someone is not upholding their
end of the bargain!

Any ideas?


"Er, uh boss? What's a pool?"

"Oh yeah. It's the neighbor cat. No manners those cats."

-b

My Name is Luca

Wanted to ride the regular commuter today. Was late already. Had to switch out the studs for street tires. Switching isn't very easy.

Made a mess actually. Bent skewer. Bent fender. Missing trunion and twisted chain.

Drove instead. I hate driving. Now I have to put the studs back on for this weeks "weather". So how bout that vacation?


-b

Untitled

I guess the weekend recap has to start with Thursday night or was it Friday morning? Actually a little bit of both. I stayed up till two or so chatting with the testers in India trying to figure out what was so wrong with my stuff. Apparently I used the wrong configuration for my screen reader when I originally built and tested my software back in July. With the correct configuration, sure enough, everything was broken. Thanks fellas. Good night.

When I finally got up Friday to head into work, I saw the temps were in the teens with a pretty stiff breeze, so I donned the cold weather extreme outfit (windstopper hat, neoprene face mask, goggles, extra fleece, wind tights, etc.) and rode off to work. About two miles in I was on the side of the road stripping everything off. I looked like a hypothermic lunatic throwing clothes every which way. Too hot! Way too hot! Either it wasn't windy enough or not cold enough, but I was boiling. Then I head downhill for two miles or so. Now I'm freezing. Oh well, the four mile climb to the office evened things out. Eventually I came to a happy medium with the outfit that looked something like this in the end and for most of the weekend.

The regulators for this outfit are the neoprene mask, which I can pull down or put back in place depending on wind/cold, goggles (extreme cold) or glasses. Pretty simple, but effective to keep me warm at long base pace miles on the road. More on that later.

Friday night we watched An Inconvenient Truth Pretty simple really. Carbon dioxide emissions are going up and taking the global temps with them. When the temps get too high, bad things will happen. The part I'd like to add is GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! I'm not saying everyone has to ride their bike in the middle of winter, but carpooling helps, getting cars with better gas mileage helps. Putting on a sweater and turning the heat back a little goes a long way (there's a house down the street from us with huge picture windows, every night I ride by I see the family all hanging out in t-shirts ARE YOU KIDDING ME?). Fluorescent bulbs, etc. Do your part. Do Something! Moving along.

Got up early Saturday for a fixie ride. Marcus came along on gears for the first hour and a half. That was a mistake - like a knife at a gun fight. I was killing myself to keep up. Not the kind of base pace I was looking for. Wasn't a very good route either. I was looking for an easy straight way to the Schuykill trail from my house. I thought 113 to Phoenixville would work out well with it's wide shoulder, but no. One nasty section didn't have any shoulder and the rest was covered with salt and gravel. Two hours in, down in Norristown, it was time to turn back. Wham! Headwind. I was looking at two hours back of headwind on the fixie and very unhappy.

I plodded along.

I tried taking a picture of the Schuykill river in mid freeze, but my camera phone sucks. Back in Phoenixville, I stopped at a WaWa and refueled - mmmm bacon egg and cheese on a bagel. I was quickly running out of time.

The weekend deal is if I get out at 7am, I get till about noon to ride/play/travel, before I have to get home to chores. It was quickly approaching the deadline and I still had an hour and a half of semi-hill-less headwind riding to go. The alternative was up Hopewell road. It would save thirty minutes, but after three and a half hours of fixie riding I wasn't sure I could do it. Screw it. Walking up the hill would still be faster then riding all around town to avoid it. Upwards ho! About three quarters of the way up, I considered getting off, but was only a quarter of the way to the top. I kept at it. Near the top is a false flat with a side road. I pulled into the side road to catch my breath and spin a little, then back to Hopewell to finish it. Holy Crap that hurt! Got home, changed and working on the car.

Yeah the car. Jen's car started leaking coolant a week or so ago. The main hose from the radiator to the engine was old and ragged. Like everything about cars, they're dirty and everything's a pain in the ass to do. Surprisingly it went pretty quick. I did the hose and tried to replace the mirror she broke in about an hours time. Unfortunately the used replacement mirror she got, was broken as well. Oh well. The car at least runs and runs nicely for 180,000 miles.

After the car it was back to the trim project. Finally moved out of the kitchen and into the office. You can see more of that here. A few hours of sawdust and nails, then it was time for bed.

Up again Sunday at 5 for another morning ride. This was a three hour hill ride with Craig and gears. Craig's been training/recovering pretty well on his cross bike on the bike path, but this would be his first day on hills and on real roads. We met up with Scott (I toured with Megadeath as their Spin photog) and took to beating up on Craig (and myself, ouch). It was much colder Sunday morning, then past mornings. My 2 oz. mix of Tanqueray didn't last long in the cytomax and it all froze to slushy. Craig and Scott both had frost around their balaclavas. Luckily we found some hills and Craig's mother's house for coffee to keep us warm. Yeah just riding along the countryside and Craig says lets stop at my mothers.

Now I know where Craig gets his energy from. His mother is seventy something, but doesn't look/act a day over fifty. She's nuts. She sleeps with the windows open at night. It gets so cold in the bedroom, her glass of water freezes - so she says. I didn't stay the night - even if Craig offered. I just hope she turns the heat off when she does that.

Back home after the suffer fest and back to trim work. Blah, blah blah, very busy.

Weather looks nasty over the next few days. Have to find time to ride and get the damn plow on the tractor. When is vacation!?!?!??!?!

-b

Bitch, Whine, Bitch, Whine

That's at least a little better.

At some point I or Jen will have to relate the "Dancing With the Stars" sham.

-b

I Hate Cars

Mine specifically. They're a pain in the ass. I have a truck with an exhaust leak (chance of asphyxiation), a Mazda with a broken side mirror and coolant leak (chance of being stranded), and a Subaru with some steering/suspension issue in the front (chance of crashing). Some of them I can fix. Actually all I could fix, but it takes way too much time. Sure bikes need repair too, but it doesn't take nearly as much time or hassle. My mechanic (the one I trust) is four towns away. Coordinating dropping a car off, getting rides home, then picking it up is difficult.

On top of the cars, my house seems to be leaking water. Not much and only intermittently, but I haven't figured out why or where exactly. All I know is there's a little puddle that randomly appears on the floor in the basement.

While I'm at it. Work has been kicking my ass this week. Our software went into "Accessibility" testing this week. Accessibility is the software's usability for handicapped people - mostly blind it seems. I've never developed software for blind people, so it's all new to me and failing horribly. The part that really kicks my ass is I was given a loosely defined guideline back in the summer to make the software accessible, but the testing appears to be more strict. Way more strict. The people doing the testing are in India, so every morning I come in to a bunch of emails that say my stuff doesn't meet the standard, but still don't clearly state what the standard is. I spend all day trying to fix what I think is wrong, send a bunch of emails and hope for the best tomorrow. After a few days of this, I've decided to stay up and get online tonight around midnight to catch and chat with our Indian counterparts in person. We'll see how it goes.

Haven't ridden much this week. Too many errands and reasons to get to and from work quickly have kept me off the bike. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get back to riding. I miss the fixie.

Still plugging away at trim. Got things setup for primer on the office trim. Hoping to at least get into that this weekend and finish up most of the kitchen cabinet trim. I also have two bags of attic insulation nagging me in my basement as well as two boxes of insulated duct work that hasn't been ducted.

Needless to say. I won't be going to Killington this weekend.

-b

Bad Day

"I sure could use a vacation from this bull -- shit -- three -- ring -- circus -- side -- show"

Tool Aenima

-b

Inaccuracy

The thermometer I've been using every morning before rides currently says this

After some discussions at work today, I threw this thermometer outside for confirmation

So I guess it wasn't 15 degrees when I headed off to work this morning. Probably wasn't 23 when I headed off for my ride yesterday morning either.

The Mailman's Smarter

I'm a stupid little kid. Faced with the opportunity of riding in sub zero temps with all my gear and my new "extreme weather" tights, I rode in this morning despite the discomfort I was still feeling in my knee.

Actually let me back up a bit. My knee was feeling fine. I was feeling fine. The meds I took seemed to have worked their magic and I was ready to roll. At least until I went up and down the stairs a few times in last minute preparations before my ride. The pain came back, but I ignored it. I was all geared up and ready to go. To hell with the pain.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Within a half mile I was literally screaming in pain. Did I turn around? No. I actually took a different route that was going to be longer. Was I cold? Couldn't tell. My knee hurt so bad I didn't notice. I thought standing up would help alleviate the pain - only minimally. Every turn of the crank, sharp screaming pain shot up from my knee. Even with no pressure on that foot, my knee was killing me. Fits of fury ran through me as I struggled to tolerate. I started to notice I was getting warm - really warm. Cursing myself and screaming out I moved along the wind swept roads.

My head started to throb. All the crap I had wrapped around my head caused me to hold it a certain way that made it ache. This sucked. I wasn't riding home after work. I was calling Jen and having her pick me up. This was the worst ride ever. Eventually I pulled my foot out of the pedal to rest it on the rear skewer and let the pedal spin without my leg interfering. I noticed something very strange when I did this. With every pedal revolution the bike felt like it was moving in two separate pieces. I thought I was going crazy. Was it hypothermia or pain induced hallucinations? What the hell was going on? It felt like it did the week before I realized my frame was cracked. Two frames in a year? I looked down at the bottom bracket and chainstays to see any extra movement. Nothing. I looked down at the steer tube for the telltale crack. Nothing. My head was throbbing.

I pedaled (one footed) on. Down the hills I would use the brake and rest my ailing leg on the skewer. Up the hills I pedaled. I only saw pain. At one point on a downhill, a cross wind caught me and moved me laterally two feet toward the icy shoulder. Wo! Steady.

Finally at the bottom of my commute, protected from cars on the bike path, I reevaluated. I slowed things down. I slowed things way down. I put my foot back on the pedal and relaxed. Slowly I let it turn with the crank. I relaxed my shoulders, my core, legs and my feet. I applied only the pressure necessary to move the bike forward. I was warm and didn't need to go fast. I started to feel things other than pain. I could feel my toes. I could feel my thighs flexing. I began repeating to myself "slow it down." "Go slow. There's no race. There's no hurry. Slow it down. Zen thoughts. Think zen thoughts. Relax it out. Relax out the pain."

It started to work. The pain in my knee went from grinding glass to dull throb to a simple sensation. Over and over I repeated my mantra. Slowly I cranked my way to work. Relaxing and enjoying the simplicity of going slow. I felt like I was going slow enough for birds to land on me as they flew by. The road was quiet. There were no cars. I was protected from the wind. I pedaled on. If I had to climb, I stood up only inches off the seat and pedaled smoothly - keeping everything relaxed. Sit back down and pedal smooth. It was beautiful. I couldn't tell it was cold and my knee was no longer screaming. Slowly I pedaled onto work. The throbbing in my head remained. Because of that, I was still going to let Jen take me home tonight. Then for some reason, I decided to loosen my helmet. Voila! The throbbing disappeared. My helmet was too tight. Every thing was now perfect. I rolled on.

At an intersection, as I waited to turn left, a woman driving the other way was staring at me like I was from outer space. I stared back and she whipped her head the other way to mind her own business. I got a chuckle out of that. After defeating my pain, I guess I got a little cocky. At the office I decided to head in the front door. A bunch of fat slobs usually stand out there smoking all day and I was looking for a fight. I wanted to hear the "You're crazy." I was ready. My mantra was gone. I made it. No need to relax anymore. I was all fired up with "You stand there all day sucking cancer into your lungs and you think I'm crazy?"

Lucky for me, no one was there. I walked in and went to work.

Young Ho?

I don't feel so young. As a matter of fact, I feel beat, burnt and busted. You know it's an ass kicking weekend when you look forward to Monday to sleep in and relax a little at work.

Friday started with a 7:30am conference with Bangalore, India. From that point on it was balls-to-the-walls work till 6:30pm. They're testing our software's "Accessibility" (can blind people use it), and they weren't real happy with some of our implementations. Being that it was the end of day for them, we had only Friday to get the fixes done and checked-in for them to test on Monday (which would be now). When that was done, I jumped right into our trim project here at home.

The first on our trim list is the kitchen cabinets. For some reason, they were never completely trimmed out. An ugly gap was left everywhere between the cabinets, walls and ceiling.

A little quarter round fixed it up nicely.

So I cut and measured nearly everything twice, but what the hell? I don't do this everyday. Ok, so that's not exactly true either. I did trim Friday night, Saturday and today. I'll be doing trim from now till who knows. It's tedious and takes me a while. But damn it looks good and makes Jen very very happy.

In the middle of my Bob Vila tasks, I got some riding done too. Went down to Delaware and rode Brandywine with my Mighty Mighty Spot Brand/TwinSix teammates. It wasn't an easy ride. Les Leach led and kicked my ass pretty well. I hadn't done much intensity lately. Climbing the icy hills down there was a little rough on the lungs. More info here.

This morning I got up at 5 to wash some dishes, eat some breakfast and meet Craig for a four hour freeze fest. The thermometer said 23 or so degrees when I left. Didn't seem too bad, though I was secretly hoping Craig wouldn't answer the door when I got to his place. Nope. He's crazier then I am and met me with a smile through his balaclava. We rolled out shortly after 7. It was cold. The sun wasn't up high enough and the shady areas were chilly. The route was to the art museum in Philly, back, then up to Collegeville - roughly four hours (on a fixie for me). Besides a few icy patches, the ride down wasn't too bad (very bad sign). Got to the art museum, put some toe warmers in and headed back. BAM! Right into a headwind. Dumbasses. No wonder it wasn't bad getting down to the city - the wind pushed us the whole way. We struggled with our heads down (literally, the wind bit so hard at the exposed skin on our faces it hurt) till Manyunk, where we stopped at Starbucks for refreshment. I got a coffee and a blueberry muffin. Make that two blueberry muffins. One simply wasn't big enough. Refueled we pushed onto Valley Forge. Feeling somewhat ok (besides both of us being nuts), we headed on to Collegeville, turned around and made it back to Craig's with all our fingers and toes. Can't say the same for my face (I think the insides of my eyelids are wind burnt). I did some more trim work this afternoon, but it was a struggle. Every thing's been a struggle this afternoon. I'll eat. Get some energy for an hour or so, then crash again. I should just go to bed.

Not sure if I'm making the commute tomorrow morning. The forecast is something like single digits with subzero windchills. Unfortunatetly that's not what's keeping me from riding. The struggle in the wind today, tweaked my knee pretty good. Unless the drugs work some serious magic in my sleep, I'll probably be polluting tomorrow. Damn not so young knees.

- b

Fuel the Fire

After five weeks of base training, my metabolism has really kicked in. Unfortunately I haven't successfully made the jump in calorie intake. In the beginning I was fine. I had a few "extra" to burn. Using FitDay, I can see what I'm burning, what I'm consuming and when and how I would lose or gain weight. The trend the last week or so has been down. Burning more then consuming, the weight goes down. Being already at a decent weight, down isn't exactly good, and I've started to feel the effects. The rides to and from work have been sluggish and weak. I skipped last nights ride because of it. Some would call this burnout and they would partially be right.

My nutritionist friend here at work confirmed my suspicions and prescribed the fix. More food, about 1,000 calories more a day should get me back on track - especially if base is supposed to continue and increase.

-b