That's a Medium?

I stopped at Wendy's today to grab a chicken sandwich and a diet coke while running errands. On this stop I had a "Super Size Me" moment. I ordered the chicken club and a medium diet coke. The dude fills this cauldron of wax paper and sets it before me.

I ask, "Is that a medium?"

He looks at me with a smile and says, "Yes."

It's huge. Really huge. So huge, I bring it home for comparison. Here it sits next to a pint glass holding, well, a pint (that's 16 fl. oz).

The medium Wendy's cup swallowed the pint and another - Yes that's two pints! 32 fl. oz.! - with room to spare. I don't get it. Why do they do this?

-b

Work, Work, Work

The next big project on the bike front was fixing my road shoes. I've had my roadbike, shoes and this setup for four years. This winter things started to hurt in my left knee. Whatever bike I got on, my knee hurt, so I started inspecting and fitting each of my bikes and their setups to get rid of the pain. While (re-)fitting the roadbike, we noticed my shoes and cleats were a little screwy.

The left cleat, which is on the right in this picture, is moved up at least an 1/8" more then the right and the cleat baseplate isn't installed correctly. Honestly I'm not sure if it's been this way since the beginning or what the hell happened, but it's likely part of the problem with my knee.

We also noticed my left leg is visibly shorter than my right, so Sean (at the shop) suggested I get some shims/wedges to help make the difference.

What the box and instructions for the shims mostly talk about is foot alignment on the cleat. The shims are actually wedges made to align your foot properly. Apparently most riders feet angle to one side or the other on their pedals. For some, this can cause knee pain and discomfort. As I rode around all week, I started to notice that my left foot and knee were kind of angled the wrong way. So now I'm faced with too short a leg that's angled funny. Was it angled because it was too short or truly angled? Would setting two wedges opposite each other to fix my length issue also fix my angle issue or would I need three wedges, two to make the length and one to set the angle? Hmmm a dilemma. And not the kind I enjoy dealing with.

I decided the hell with it. Let's try three and fix everything at once. I get them all stacked up and placed on the shoe, but the screws won't reach. They're too short to get through the wedges and cleat. Now I'm back to the original dilemma. Which do I fix, the shortness or the angle? I decide on the angle. I put one wedge in and screw it all down.

You can't really see it, but that's a new cleat and a purple wedge between. I should replace the cleat on the right shoe too, but no time now.

The reason I was doing all this, other than I'd like to ride my roadbike without pain, is I want to try the cleats and pedals on my fixie century. This also meant moving the pedals from my roadbike to the fixie, but when I took the drive side pedal off it felt like crap. The bearings were rough and crunchy. I noticed in the cleat install instructions there were also instructions for rebuilding the pedals. Having all the time in the world, I started disassembled the pedal.

Wiped some parts with brake clean, spray others with Wd-40, wipe it clean, blow out with compressed air and reassemble. The pedal was good as new. At least as new as I could make it. Threw it on the bike and ready to go.

If I was smart (or had the time), I would have done this sooner and tried the wedge/pedal combo on the fixie for my commutes. Alas, I am not. The century will be the test. Stay tuned for a report.

-b

33

Another year older and another year slower. Not quite. So yesterday was my birthday. One of the best things about my "special day" isn't so much about me, but more about Jen. As with most birthdays, you get gifts, but gifts for me can be tough. Sure I have a list of things I want or "need" all the time, but generally I get them myself, or they're too complicated to find and very impersonal to give as gifts.

"Happy birthday honey! Here's that wool insulated boot liner you've been wanting all winter!"

Yeah not so nice. So Jen has to figure out things I'm not expecting, are quite personal and appreciated as gifts. It's not an easy task. Each holiday, miraculously, she succeeds. This birthday was no exception. She got us tickets to the Mountain Stage, which is coming to Philly May 15th. For those that don't know, or take the time to click the link, the

Mountain Stage® is an internationally-distributed weekly, two-hour live performance music radio program produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting featuring some of the world’s greatest artists in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere with a live-broadcast edge.

Taken directly from their site. I'm not a loyal weekly listener, but if I'm around and have access to the show via XM or XPN, I enjoy listening. Though produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, it's not a hillbilly redneck country show. It's gifted performers doing intimate shows for live audiences. There's something really comforting in it for me. Maybe it's because it is a West Virginia thing and I have roots there. Maybe it reminds me of folk shows and small performances I saw in the hills of WV when I was a child, though the show obviously isn't always recorded in WV. I'm not sure, but I like it and I really like the fact Jen recognizes this and provided us a means to be a part of it.

Yeah she's the best. I guess the true gift every year is her.

In addition to the tickets, we went to see 300. We hadn't been to the movies in two years. It was quite a treat. At first we weren't sure about 300 with all it's blood, gore and action, but looking around, there didn't appear to be much better. It turned out pretty good. We both enjoyed Sin City and 300 being another Frank Miller story, how could it be bad? It wasn't as gory as I expected, though my perspective may be a bit twisted in that category. The cinematography was awesome. The shots were how I would imagine different scenes in my head - huge, bigger then life only in the movies (but for real) kind of scenes. The glory, heroics and fierceness for which the Spartans stood (at least in this story) was inspirational. It will be good to remember the Spartan creed this summer - Spartans do not surrender and Spartans do not retreat - when I'm suffering away on some ridiculously long race in the ridiculous heat and humidity.

-b

Bike Work Update

The wheels are awsome! Granted I was running some pretty crappy wheels in the past, but these i9s are very impressive. And the Weirwolf, it's everything the exiwolf wasn't. Repeatedly I through the front into hard turns the exiwolf could never hold. Everytime the Weirwolf tracked true and sped me on down the trail.

Also Scott, who's had experience with NoTube's rims before, found a neat little trick on the Arch 29er rims. There are a series or pairs of tiny holes on the inside of the rim, probably used for assembly, that his previous NoTube's rims didn't have. After filling these holes with silicone, his sealing process went a lot faster then mine. I'm assuming now the seeping air I heard, was air traveling through these holes to the inside of the rim. Sure the liquid latex will fill and seal them eventually, but prefilling them helps the inflation/sealing process go faster.

-b

Bike Work

With only a week and a half till the first race of the season, I'm running out of time to work out all the kinks and idiosyncrasies of my Spot setup. The last big hurdle was getting my i9 wheels setup and on the bike.

The rear SS hub came with a quick release axle, so first up was converting that over to a bolt on axle. Not too difficult, but I did lose a tiny set screw in the process, and not the kind of set screw you can pick-up at the Home Depot.

Second task was converting the wheels over to Stan's tubeless system. The rims are Stan's ARCH 29er tubeless rims, but this was the first time I've worked with this kind of setup. In the past I've slapped Stan's rubber rim strip in any old rim, filled the tire with liquid latex, air and I was done. This new setup was a little more complicated. First you cover the spoke holes with Stan's special nylon strapping tape. The wheel has to be perfectly clean and the tape has to go on perfectly straight.

Of course it doesn't just do this on its own. I had to tape and retape a few times to get it right. The toughest part was trying to get it smooth and straight wearing latex gloves. They recommend you wear gloves to keep the oil of your fingers off the taping surface. Running a latex covered finger over the tape to smooth and tighten the tape against the rim doesn't work so well. The trick I figured out was to get it as tight as possible by pulling on it, then use a wadded up paper towel to smooth and flatten as you applied the tape around the rim.

After the nylon spoke hole tape comes the yellow rim strip tape. I think the purpose of this tape is to take up the last little bit of space between the rim and the tire, so the liquid latex has less gap to fill and seal when inflating. The rubber strip I used in the past served this purpose. It was used for any rim you wanted to convert to tubeless. It's job was to fill the gap between the tire and rim, so sealing would be easier. With the new NoTubes specific rims, you don't need the rubber strip. The new rims are made to have less of a gap already for the tubeless conversion. The yellow strip fills and seals that last little bit. It goes on like the nylon strapping tape.

Yeah. It looks like the first picture. The process is the same. Here's the finished product.

And with tire mounted.

Each wheel took about an hour. With the old system you were worried about sealing the tire to the rim. You would hold and spin the wheel a certain way to get all the latex into the seal between the rim and the tire. With these new rims, my problem is the seal around the spokes. With two layers of tape, I could hear air coming around the spokes. I couldn't feel it or see latex spilling through, but you could hear it seeping. Trying to get the latex inside the tire up to the spoke holes was a challenge. I did a bunch of goofy tosses and squeezes trying to get the latex to fight gravity and get to the holes. Eventually it worked and both wheels held air at pressures greater than 45psi - not that I'll ever run that pressure.

With the tires mounted, it was time to mount the rear wheel to the bike and align the chain.

And it's done.

A few rides, hopefully nothing blows up, I'll get them retentioned and be ready to race. I'm interested to see how the WTB 2.55 weirwolf does up front. Everyone else has been getting Rampage's for the front. It's definitely a good tire (the rampage). Looks meaty and I hear corners really well, but it's really knobby, hence the grip. Really knobby is great for the fall and winter, but I don't want to race on it. When I was running my Surly 1x1 I ran WTB Weirwolves in the 26" variety. They were awesome! I did things with those tires I shouldn't have been able to do. When WTB finally came out with a 29er version, I had to try it. It's not the grippy meatiness the 26" version was, but it covers the sidewall more then the exiwolf I'm running now does. My biggest complaint about the exiwolf is lack of confidence in the corners. I'm hoping the Weirwolf cures that. If not, it's the Rampage for sure.

Yeah so that's a lot of shop talk, but there's a lot of shop time spent keeping these things running. Between all the riding, maintenance, my job, home, home life and sleeping, I need a longer day.

Next up is changing and adding shims to my road shoes. This one is going to be a doozy.

-b

Nice Weather

A guy here at work asked me if I was itching to get out and ride in this great weather. I looked at him for a bit, thought for a second and said no. I don't mean to be a dick, but the nice weather doesn't really make me want to get out and ride more. Simply riding makes me want to ride more. Nice weather makes it easier to do so, but it's not my motivation. He looked confused for a second, then understood - I think.

I've ridden in all kinds of weather and will continue to do so. The simple act of spinning those cranks and the freedom I achieve by propelling myself to where I want to go is my motivation. Nice weather just means I don't have to wear as many layers.

Anguilla pictures and commentary are up. At least the first run. You can find them here.

-b

Your Boinger is Here

Yeah it's another one of those "look what bike parts I got" posts. We'll see how much energy I have left at the end for more quality commentary, but don't hold your breath. First on the list is the new wheel for the fixie. When my old home-built jobby started looking like this,

I figured it was time for the real deal. Sure it could have gotten worse (the picture really doesn't do it justice), but why put off new stuff? Since Jen wasn't feeling too well in dance class and the shop was right next door, I decided to hang out and bug the guys while they were stringing things up for me.

Mmmmmmm new tight wheel. Just the way I like 'em. At least I hope. We'll find out soon enough. In addition to the wheel, I picked up my new Reba. Yeah, we've all seen a Reba, but this is my first Reba Race. It's sure to be an improvement over my last Reba. (Ha! I keep adding fake sarcasm html tags and blogger keeps removing them. stupid program!)

Anybody got some "Goof Off"? I need to get rid of those stickers. Actually, I find the new head I got for my weed whacker more interesting. It winds the string without tangling - and a hush goes over the crowd followed by a long "ooooooooooooooooooooh, aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh".

And with that I'm done. Too tired and too stupid for more.

I will say Jen's first day on the new job went well. It's nice to see her dreading work because it's just work and not because everyone she works(ed) with drives(drove) her nuts. Sort of like the rest of us, maybe, though I can't even agree with what I just said.

Anyway, Anguilla pictures coming soon.

-b

Chasing a Pileated

So we're back from vacation. Anguilla was beautiful. I should have a picture page up soon. In the meantime, here's some teasers.

When I uploaded this to YouTube, it was twentyfive seconds long. Once YouTube did it's "processing," it's now four seconds long. Hopefully I'll get it worked out.


So yeah, more on that to come.

Now we're home and the reality of being away for a week sets in. I'm 4 - 6 pounds heavier and nothing got done while I was gone. First on the priority list is draining the pond that's shown up on our pool cover.

Then there's the gear room. Not a priority, but it's really hard to find anything and the mess has started moving to other rooms.

Did manage to get out for a ride this afternoon. I was too late and too tired this morning to make any group rides, so I was by myself. Well, except for the Pileated Woodpecker singing his song in the woods.

-b

Rum/Punch

There's two kinds.
Rum and Punch, then Rum - Punch.
The first is tasty.
The second is a knock-out.

-b

Snorkeling

Out the front door
Walk to the beach
Across the beach
In the water, put your fins on and go.

No charters
No surly captain
No hassle

The fish are beautiful.

-b

Red Stripe

You've all had it.
It's light and sweet.
In the Caribbean, it's more accessible then fresh water.
In the Caribbean, I'm loving it.

- b

Bye Bye Beard

With a few warm days behind and a few ahead (at least for me), it was time to shave the beard.

Bye bye beard. You've been a great companion on these cold winter rides.

Jen said the Allman Brothers called. They want their beard back.

Am I cool enough to ride with Rob?

Ah. This is what I wanted for the ride last night. Didn't have time to do it then.

All done and ready to race - down to the beach that is.

-b

"Engine of Pain"

For me, each race season starts off with a couple months base training. Base is usually a progression of longer and longer rides or weekly accumulated hours of rides with very little intensity. When March hits, I blow that shit up and ride hard. I ride a lot and I ride with intensity. Every time out it's a race to the pain. A race to see how long I can withstand my burning lungs, cramping quads and my will to simply give out. Last night was one of those rides. Weak from the weeks earlier efforts I pushed hard. I wasn't feeling rested and I wasn't fine, but I pushed. The trails were soft and impossible to ride in some places. In those places I got off and ran. I ran through the mud with my toes sinking and and my heart pounding. Every climb ended with my head spinning, breath wheezing and stomach queasy. We'd regroup. I'd swallow some sport juice and push again. My goal was to break - to drop off and fall to the back struggling to keep in sight. Never happened. I never felt strong, but I didn't break. Maybe I didn't ride as hard as I thought earlier in the week. Maybe things are going well. I don't know. Overall I still feel like the struggling schmuck I've always been. Just trying to "do it right".

This morning I saddled up on the fixie for the ride to work. My legs were tired. I had to stand in many places I usually sit. After last nights rain, it smelled like worms. Slowly but surely, my legs loosened up, my hands moved to the center of the bars and I was pushing again. The weather was warm. I got hot. I took off my helmet, untucked my base layer and unzipped my jersey. Corny as it may be, some Tool lyrics came to mind;

Saw the gap again today
...
...your pushing me
and i'm shoving you
and your pushing me
and i'm shoving you
...
pushing and shoving and
pushing and shoving and
pushing me
there's no love in fear

starring down the hole again
hands are on my back again
survival is my only friend
terrified of what may come

Though out of context, it made a nice mantra as I spun the cranks. Broke my time record for the morning commute. Not by much and not completely trying. Not bad for being tired.

As a side note, the intensity training has provided me a fun little game. It's called How much can I eat without gaining weight? I've been stuffing myself all week. Just yesterday I had an english muffin, 4 pieces of bacon, 2 sausage egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches, turkey club, chicken cheese steak Stromboli, a dinner plate size pizza, some hot wings, two large high alc% beers, two cytomaxes, two protein shakes, some sport beans, swedish fish and a cliff bar. I gained a pound. As long as I maintain that weight or maybe lose some of it today, I win!

- b

Spring Peepers

Heard them tonight. Not a full-on spring peeper chorus, but enough to notice. For me, that's the first real sign spring's around the corner.

Did the Tuesday night ride with the Dtown boys. They're an older, slower, but respectable group that rides Dtown Tuesday nights and Marsh Creek Thursday nights. They're the group I originally started riding with back in late 2002. Always learning something from those guys.

Tonight was atrocious. Most everything was silly soft. We pedaled three times the distance as we spun twice for every move forward. Wasn't slick, just thick. Still nice to be outside.

Made it a whole hour before my knee started hurting (not too bad) tonight. I need to take all my bikes in and get them fitted. Considering the number of saddle sores I have this year, I'm riding way too much to have poorly fitting bikes. The garage style fittings I've been trying to do myself aren't cutting it. Yeah the fixie was fitted and worked nicely for a couple of weeks, but I cannibalized some of its parts to fit one of the others and broke the fitted fixie. What I need is a full time mechanic. Anyone interested? I've got a spare bed and lots of beer. Must work for free, since my bike budget this year doesn't include a mechanic salary. Must like dogs, cats, and cleaning the pool. If this sounds like the opportunity you've been looking for, long-haired freaky people apply within.

- b

Saturday Century

We did it. It wasn't easy. We started with 13. Finished with 12. No flats. Good group. Good hard ride. Some stats below. Scott didn't turn the GPS on till nearly 3 miles into the ride. My bike computer said 100.4 when I rolled back into the driveway. My legs said ouch.



A few more.


I have an unatural love for data. Now I have to figure out how to swing one of these cycling GPS toys.

In other news, I got the pictures up from last weekends adventure in the Adirondacks. See them here.

Hop Walloped

Wednesday night ride was fun. We got roughly 1 - 2 inches of fluffy white snow that day, so everyone was real excited to get out and hit the trails that night. So excited they all left as I was rolling into the parking lot. Luckily (or not really) Marcus was late as well. We through on our stuff and started the chase. With fresh snow on the ground, it wasn't hard to follow.

So Mark and I are hauling ass in their tracks. No time to get cold. No time to really do anything other than pedal and pedal fast. I start to notice, but not comprehend, my bike (or me) is handling very poorly. I can't get any traction in the rear and the front keeps drifting on me. On the railroad bridge, near the end, Mark's front completely washes out form under him. There was a solid sheet of ice under the snow on the bridge. I chalked it up to being 200 ft in the air. The open sun during the day and open space below the bridge must have frozen the old snow there. We keep on.

In the woods again the handling gets worse. I start to think it's the new setup. The longer stem and swept-back bars are throwing me off. Or maybe I just haven't ridden on trails in a while. I mention something to Marcus. He's having problems too. That's when we figure out the ice on the bridge under the snow is everywhere. Unlike the bridge, which was a solid smooth sheet, the ice on the trail is lumpy and crunchy. The new snow covered it just enough to disguise it, but not enough to provide traction. You could be sailing along, slip and regain traction in an instant. If your weight was one way, you lost it on the slip. If your weight was another, you lost it on the regain. It was menacing and fun. Challenges make you better.

We caught the group. They were coming up a climb that was nearly unridable. Mark decided to go down and come back up. I stayed with the group. From that point the trails were hit or miss. If it had been ridden in the previous snow, it was likely to be chunky ice. If it faced south, it was probably clear.

We climbed to the school, did some ice burnouts in the parking lot, then headed down the yellow trail to Mark D'huez. At the bottom of the yellow trail there were some kids parked in a car with the windows all steamy. Can't imagine what they were thinking when all these bike lights come streaming out of the woods.

With the conditions the way they were, we decided to do the old Gates of Hell road climb to the top, then bomb down the treacherous D'huez. The Gates of Hell were named after a driveway with two large brick pillars at the top or bottom. It's been so long, I can't remember which. The story goes there used to be quite a house at the top. One day the owner went nuts, killed his family, buried them somewhere on the property, then killed himself. They never found the bodies. They raised the house and left it that way for some time. Weirdos would go up there for seances. We just climbed the driveway to access more trails on the other side of the hill. Recently some developer bought the land and has started building McMansions up there. It's ridiculous. The place is creepy.

Anyway, we tried the road/driveway. It was a solid sheet of ice. Nearly everyone ended up flat on their backs. It was quite the sight to see. We walked up the edge instead. At the top, we headed into the woods and started the decent. Ben led it out. It was nice. He created some ruts I could track through, then he lost it. I got around and put my head down. It was like a dance, but I wasn't leading. The trail led me. It pushed, pulled and slid in various ways. I had to be careful and pay attention to its lead or end up on my ass. I started to gap the group. Sometimes the center of the trail was good other times it wasn't. You could ride the edges in some places, others not. I became completely focused on not putting my feet down - leave only tire tracks. Leave everyone bewildered.

I got caught up in myself, made some mistakes and went down. Buddy and Mark were on me in seconds. I got back up, threw my leg over and hammered off. The trail had a series of switchbacks at this point. For some reason I was riding the switchbacks well in the snowy ice and pulled away again. I came to a climb I new was unmakable, so I got off and ran. (March is intensity month. Run bitch run!). The lights of the group were in the distance now. I could barely even hear them. A herd of deer rain across the trail in front of me. Must have been 10 or so. The last guy was little - nearly flipping himself as he frantically bounded through the uneven terrain. I turned another switchback and could see 10 pairs of eyes staring back at me at the end of the trail. The eyes shook and moved as the deer adjusted their heads to hear what the blinding light approaching them was all about. I made another turn and the deer were gone. A log-over without a dab and another hill to run (actually used some toe kicks (a mountaineering technique) to get up it's icy slope) . I was nearly home free. The last off-camber section gave me problems. I couldn't get traction to save my life. I was tired. My brain had slowly stopped processing. Around another switchback and I lost the trail. I couldn't figure out where to go. Everything covered in snow looked like a trail. The group was approaching. I lost my gap, my lead, my zone. Ben pointed out the trail and we finished it off together.

Damn this is long. I've got to get to work.

With all the falling and walking, everyone was getting wet and cold. Fortunately for me, my Lake winter shoes do an excellent job of keeping my feet dry and warm. It was decided we'd do the road climbs back to the bar. This was the same route we took a few weeks back. Ride down 322 a little ways, go backwards over the covered bridge to Skelp level, then up. After the covered bridge there's a little climb to warm you up. On Skelp there's a huge climb to win and get bragging rights.

I let the hammerheads go on the first. I wasn't interested in any amateur glory. We turned onto Skelp and pooled together at the bottom. Everyone got quiet and really close to one another. The pace slowed a little. The hill was looming in front of us. Our lights weren't bright enough to see it clearly, but you could tell by the lights on the houses along the sides and at the top it was long and steep. Still together and still slow, we waited for the attack. I'm not sure who it was, but someone jumped and the group exploded. A few dropped back, a few pulled ahead and others stayed together. Off the front was Henderson spinning wildly on his SS. Mark was close behind on his. Ryan surged by me with gears. I stayed close to Ben, Buddy and Rob. At that point I wasn't sure how much I had, then Ben dropped off, Buddy and Rob. Suddenly I was close to Mark. He was pushing Dave Matunis up. Henderson was still out front. Ryan dropped and Mark jumped ahead of Dave. Henderson got the top. Mark shortly behind. It was Dave then me. Over the top I watched Mark move up and stick Henderson's wheel. Mark was smart letting Henderson do the work while he recovered for the finish. My head was spinning and my breath wheezing. I knew I had to bridge up and catch that draft. I powered past Dave and caught Mark's wheel. Henderson pulled off tired of all the work. I stuck Mark's wheel and planted my light in the center of his back so he couldn't tell how close I was. We started up the last rise. I waited catching glimpses off to the side to measure how far we were from the top. I had to wait till I knew I could pull out and hold the sprint to the top (if you're sprinting Marcus, you better be damn sure all the cards are in your hand). I picked my spot and went for it. I completely caught him by surprise or just out gunned him (my guess is the first).

I got over the top and started the bomb to the bottom. My face was freezing. I could feel the sensitive areas on my cheeks from the Adirondack trip burning. Snot and breath were icing up in my beard. I couldn't let up if I wanted the downhill win, but it was over before it even started. Mark came flying by. More weight, less friction, whatever the physics, he rolled by and got the downhill win. Henderson caught up and now it was a three way sprint to the bar. We made the last turn and Henderson dropped off. I guess winning the initial climb (the most important) killed him. Mark was too far ahead and won it to the bridge. My head was spinning and I felt like puking. It was the hardest I'd gone in a while. It was an epic fight or at least I made it out that way. Henderson with the big dog win, Mark the overall and me with a little sneaky move in the middle. We changed, headed to the bar and drank ourselves silly.

This weekend is shaping up nicely. I've got a large group century planned for Saturday. People from all over are coming. I'm hoping the size doesn't become a problem, cause I don't know where we're going. If you're one of those involved, bring spare tubes and a sense of humor. Lots of patience and a serious appreciation for riding bikes is all that's asked.

-b

Bike Stuff

Picked up my Industry Nine singlespeed wheels today.

Should round out the Spot build nicely. Need a few things to get them together - time at the very least. Speaking of which, got a new bar for the Spot.

(stupid Fing program loaded the pic sideways!!!)

Rode it around the driveway. Feels like a truck, but then again feels real stable. Looking forward to getting it out on the trail. Hell I'm just looking forward to the trail. Also got a new (new to me) seat for the Spot. I've been running $5 Fuji seats for years and they're finally dead. No cushion all pain they were, so I picked up this WTB.


It's the profile I like with good stable padding, but the stupid seams at the back run right through my saddle sores. Ouch! Maybe the last few days off the bike have smoothed things over enough to ride comfortably on the seams. If not, it goes in the ebay pile and I'll suffer some more on the old Fuji.

I had one last photo for this picture show, but blogger loaded it completely upside down. Screw it. Lame post anyway. Just a bunch of pictures and gripes. Now it's late and still no ride.

-b

ps. does five hours of snowshoeing count towards base?

I'm Back

Jeff and I survived our weekend in the Adirondacks. Can't say the same for others. There was one rescue and one recovery this weekend. Should have a picture page up soon. In the meantime...

Big news! Spot has a new website. Check it out!

mmmmmmm ride.

-b

It's On

Got the call from Jeff. He made it home from Denver, so we're packing and heading to the Adirondacks. Time to dust off the boots

build some pulks and head out.

- b

Tired & Beat

Woke up this morning feeling pretty good. Hungry, but good. Showered, ate, did the dishes and went to ride to work, but had a flat. ok fine. Fix the flat and roll.

Whoa! Didn't feel so good. Actually felt pretty tired. Legs were heavy. Decided to take the short way. Took as long to go the short way as it normally does to go the long way. Ok, so it's a slow day.

Get to work and things get worse. I was supposed to have a bunch of fixes done a week ago, but have been distracted with other fixes and they're just taking longer then expected. Then all of a sudden my stuff completely stops working. We spend the rest of the day diagnosing and threatening to uninstall my entire development environment to reinstall when finally at 5 o'clock we get it working again. Another day lost. Trying to make up some time, I stay till 7 to get at least something done.

The whole time I'm watching the radar to make sure the storm they're predicting keeps its distance. As I walk out the door, it starts to drizzle. Oh well. What do you expect after a day like today? I decide to ride home in the dark - in the rain. At least I take the short way. Didn't feel as weak as I did this morning. Felt kind of strong actually. Maybe it was all the leftover lunches I raided in the fridge after everyone left? No I'm not that guy - not exactly. We get free lunches at my job. Some people order, but decide to go out instead, then leave their free lunch in the fridge. If it's there more then a day, it's mine. Sorry, but this guy's got a furnace to feed.

Home now and starting preparations for the weekend. While all you flatlanders are drowning in the rain this weekend, I'll be chilling (literally) in the Adirondacks. Jeff and I are headed up to the High Peaks region for a little backcountry R&R. Yeah hauling 50lbs worth of gear on our backs for 4 - 6 miles in the snow doesn't sound like relaxation for most people, but we enjoy it. Coincidentally it was two years ago this weekend, Jeff and I first went to the High Peaks region in winter. See more of that here. We tried Mt. Colden on that trip. Didn't work out so well. This time we're going to do something a little more manageable and hopefully hike up through Avalanche Pass and onto Lake Colden. Sort of like the disaster Mike and I did three years ago. That was my first serious winter camping trip. Learned a whole hell of a lot on that one.

Just got word from Jeff. He's stuck in Denver. Unless he gets home soon, he probably won't have time to pack and go this weekend. That would suck. Then again, there's no risk in falling trees. Stay tuned for updates.

Quick February base training stats (seen this on a couple other blogs):

- better than January

That's it for February. March should be a little different with vacation and all. Maybe add some intensity for racing that starts in April. I guess at some point I should put up a race schedule too.

-b