Reading, Riding, Drinking

Ph Imbalance

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

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

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

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

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

Two Down

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Tisket, A Tasket . . .

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

My town bike has a basket.

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

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

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

Horsin' Around

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Coming into Some Form

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

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

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

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

Throwing My Hat Into The Ring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tired

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

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

The No Sleepies

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

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

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

Weekend Update (long version)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Am One Year Old Today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,
bbb

First Century of the Season and Past Racing Memories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hair Loss

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

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

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

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

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

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

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

Group Racin'

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the Bikes

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

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

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

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

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

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

All Together Now

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

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

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

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

Obligatory new bike shot:

Reasons to Celebrate

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

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

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

Doin the Dirty Deed

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

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

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

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

Snow Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hooray For Skis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Iowa Games

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

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

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

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

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

And here I am all by myself.

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

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

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

Here is a picture of me skating.

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

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

Skiing and Resting, and Skiing Again

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

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

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

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

January Training Camp

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back on the Web

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

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

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

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

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

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

Metric Century

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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