bike destroyer

Hello World! ...and Cleveland Rides

2011-11-21T15:38:00.010-06:00

While I'm not in the business of posting nearly as much as I used to, I do feel justified in that I'm riding my bike much, much more, I feel much healthier, and I've been working on starting a family.

Lately I've had numerous people in my cycling circles ask me about the rides in/around Cleveland, and I've referenced some posts and Garmin Connect activities from 2008. Cleveland has a lot of great riding around it if you only know where to go.

I've consolidated the links to my posts as well as the Garmin Connect activities below. I didn't ride these in successive order, which is why they're broken up into sections and don't always flow in the same direction.

Posts:

Cuyahoga Valley National Park / Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath

Rocky River Reservation

Rocky River to Downtown

Relaxed/Family Riding:

Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Adventure, Vol 1.

Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Adventure, Vol 2. (Train!)

Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Adventure, Vol 3.

Cleveland's "Emerald Necklace" (These generally go west to east)

Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway - Rocky River to Downtown

Downtown Cleveland to Euclid Creek Reservation

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - Rocky River - Bagley to Detroit

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - Big Creek Reservation - Valley Parkway to Brookpark Road

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - Mill Stream Run - Bagley to Brecksville

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - Brecksville Rd to Bedford Reservation

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - Bedford Reservation to North Chagrin

Cleveland Metroparks Ride - North Chagrin to South Chagrin to Bedford Reservation

Happy riding!

A Clean Drivetrain Is ________

2010-10-08T06:17:00.001-05:00

Someone posted the above question on Facebook, to which my immediate response was "orderly".

That word inspired me to adapt The Rifleman's Creed as such:

This is my drive train. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My drive train is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My drive train, without me, is useless. Without my drive train, I am useless. I must shift my drive train true. I must shift more crisply than my enemy who is trying to outsprint me. I must pass him before he passes me. I will...

My drive train and myself know that what counts in this war is not the attacks we make, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the podium that counts. We will win...

My drive train is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its derailleurs and its cables. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my drive train clean and ready. We will become part of each other. We will...

Before God, I swear this creed. My drive train and myself are the defenders of my team. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life. So be it, until victory is ours and there is no enemy, but peace!

Keep fighting the good fight, all.

Standing in the Bike Lane

2010-06-04T09:16:00.003-05:00

Dearest teenage girl pedestrian,

I'm the guy riding southbound in the Kedzie bike lane, right towards you. You're completely not paying attention, yelling something to someone across the street. Situational awareness? What's that? (psst, they don't sell that at Hollister.)

Whoa, I'm closer now since you're standing still, in the bike lane, and I'm still riding. You step forward. Progress, I like it.

You step back into the bike lane. Shit - make up your mind.

I'm closer now, about 20 feet. You FINALLY look to your left, and you take a step forward, where you freeze like a deer in headlights...that's standing in the middle of the bike lane.

Knowing there's someone behind me, I manage to scream "UP UP!" and dive to the right, hoping my friend follows my lead. Unfortunately, he doesn't have time to react.

You two collide. I don't see it, but I hear the unmistakable sound. Stop the bike, look back to see a pile of humanity and bike. No good.

Everyone's shaken, stirred, and scraped up but no bones are broken. Your dad calls upon deities in various languages, yells at you. Apologizes to us, tells you to apologize to us. You're crying, but manage to get the words out.

Accepted, on one condition: Next time, DON'T STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO TRAFFIC.

Thanks,

Road users.

New Indoor Velodrome in Cleveland!

2010-01-27T16:44:00.001-06:00

This doesn't happen very often, so I wish the folks in Cleveland the best in executing their vision.

http://velodrome4c.blogspot.com/2010/01/velodrome-plans-announced.html

what have I broken/what haven't I broken?

2009-12-07T09:53:00.003-06:00

I'm excluding consumables (tires, bar tape etc)...

What haven't I broken on a bike?

fork
stem
handlebars
seatpost clamp

What have I broken?

Aluminum Frame (cross frame, yesterday, sad trombone)
Carbon Frame
Speedplay Pedals
ISIS-Splined Bottom Bracket
ISIS-Splined Cranks
Front Cyclocross Chainring
Garmin Mount
Shimano R550 Wheels
Mavic Open Pro Rim (don't buy wheels at Performance!!)
Spokes (numerous)
SRAM 9-Speed Chain (2)
Shimano 9-speed 105 Chain
Shimano 9-speed DA Chain
KMC 1/8" Track Chain
105 Front Derailleur
Ultegra Rear Derailleur (2)
Shimano Ultegra Shifters
Carbon Seatpost
Saddle (Rails)

I really don't want to move anything else from the top list to the bottom. Breaking any of those items while riding would be quite... unpleasant.

"the road rage incident heard 'round the cycling world."

2009-12-03T14:06:00.001-06:00

Like any other thing that is used to cause harm to another person, whether due to ignorance or negligence, a vehicle is a weapon.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120457877

I'm definitely a better driver for being a cyclist.

Indian Lakes Cyclocross Race Report

2009-11-15T06:38:00.002-06:00

Since South Chicago Wheelmen decided to deviate from the ChiCrossCup formula and host the Indian Lakes race on a Saturday, I was able to sleep in and generally have a lazy Saturday morning - something that hasn't happened in several years. It was great! Pancakes, Awful TV, Newspaper, Coffee. Yes.

It was already 62F outside when I packed up the car to head out to Bloomingdale, and once there it was indeed a perfect day. I forgot the camera so no pictures, sorry. After pre-riding the course a couple of times and watching the 3's, Juniors/Women, and 1/2/3's race, I'd decided that heckling was far too much fun to miss the hecklespectacle of the 4b's race and went to registration to up my category to 4a.

Right off the bat, I was in a bad spot - 4th row before callups. Ugh. As we scooted forward from the holding pen to the start line, I was able to gain a row, but that wasn't of much comfort. This course didn't have much of a hole shot unfortunately, the first 100m or so were just a straight on sprint into a quick and technical 90 degree right, 180, 90 degree right section, followed by another fast 100m before a barrier and the run-up. With the tape staying wide throughout all of this, the first few minutes of the race were a battle to keep your wheels away from others while staying upright and making sure you weren't behind a bad wheel.

I ran the hill the first time because there just wasn't enough space to remount the bike... probably should have run it every lap. After descending and a quick loop around to the back side, there was another barrier and another trip up the hill, albeit the steeper side. The race was a little more strung out at this point so I found my rhythm and settled in. The first sand pit was rideable on the first lap, but I couldn't ride the last meter or so on subsequent laps - I ran the second sand pit every time. On the third(I think) lap, I got to my fateful last meter of the first sand pit, stalled, and attempted to dismount. In my haste, I felt my shoe make contact with something hard - helmet, perhaps? I looked back and saw there had been a guy on my wheel, and I'd just kicked him in the head. After a winded, brief exchange and apology we were off once again.

Pacing is difficult for me in Cyclocross because it requires a pretty immense effort for me to just make the bike move, but I was able to make some progress in this race. With 2 laps to go, I backed off just enough to only let 2 people pass me - this let me get some recovery time in for the last lap, where I drilled it as hard as I could. Coming in on the back stretch, there was a fairly long grass/pavement section where I dialed it up to about 30mph and passed 5 or 6 riders. I wasn't entirely sure that my brakes would slow me down in time for the 180 around the tree that followed, but I was able to bleed enough speed to negotiate that turn without problem.

In picking those guys up, I finished 48th out of about 70 starters. Not in the points or cash, but respectable enough for me.

In all - a great race hosted by the South Chicago Wheelmen. I'm hoping the ChiCrossCup can return here next year, especially since the amenities at this race were the best out of the entire series (Hot Tubs and a Heated Locker Room!).

Oh yeah, and I didn't break a thing, despite numerous heckles encouraging me to "destroy that bike!"

Christmas Cards for a Sick Kid

2009-11-13T08:57:00.004-06:00

I'm not normally one to spread stuff like this via my blog, but I think this is a pretty noble cause.

"Noah Biorkman is a 5 year old boy, in the last stages of neuroblastoma cancer after a 3-year battle. His family is celebrating Christmas next week and all he wants is Christmas cards. Let's try and see how many we can get to him from all over the world."

Mail cards to:
1141 FOUNTAIN VIEW CIR
SOUTH LYON, MI 48178-1568

alternate address:
Noah Biorkman
c/o Scott Biorkman
3480 Petoskey Way
Milford, MI 48380

Found on All Hail the Black Market.

I like Christmas Cards, they're a fun way to stay connected with all the people that you should be calling and visiting far more often than you possibly can. I'm hoping this little guy can get bags of them - pass this on.

Guilty Road Rager of the Day

2009-11-03T05:15:00.004-06:00

(with apologies to The Great Humongous)

Full Story at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cyclist3-2009nov03,0,761131.story
or
http://www.velonews.com/article/99800/dr-thompson-is-found-guilty-of-all-counts-in-la-road-rage

Christopher Thompson, 60, is convicted of [6 Felonies, 1 Misdemeanor, including] mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon and other charges in the crash that injured cyclists Ron Peterson and Christian Stoehr on Mandeville Canyon Road in 2008.

Rear Derailleur Carnage

2009-11-01T21:39:00.006-06:00

Fitting that this bit of horrific news comes right around Halloween. After successfully completing the St Charles 4b's race today, I was riding back over to the area where most of the other xXx'ers were... when I hear a pop, feel the tension on the cranks drop away, and my rear wheel jams. I look down.. to see this.

I think to myself, shit! Another drivetrain failure at this race! Last year, I tore the bead on a tire and had to run half a lap, then finally popped a chain for a DNF. I initially thought that one of the pulleys in the derailleur had failed, bending the derailleur hangar and destroying the chain and derailleur... but upon further inspection:

waaait a minute. the hangar still looks straight?

yeah, that's right. the derailleur itself broke. hell if I know how that happened.

Apparently Shimano has a 2 year warranty on all components (aside from Dura-Ace, 3 years). Here's hoping their warranty process isn't overly cumbersome and/or time consuming.

Thursday Hate (apologies to The Car Whisperer)

2009-10-29T10:05:00.004-05:00

I'm co-opting thursday hate from The Car Whisperer because there's just so much to hate.

Before that, a word from my sponsor: Starbucks Coffee, 5406 W Devon.

Wanted: Barista With a Sense of Humor

Are you a morning person? Are you a morning person only after you've had a bunch of coffee? In either case, you'll do well here because we're open at the buttcrack of dawn and you can have as much coffee as you want. The pay probably sucks considering you're mostly dealing with assholes who want gas-station cappuccino flavor from our carefully roasted espresso beans, but there's a good chance you can get health insurance after you work here for a while. At no time are you allowed to be surly with these assholes. They're the lifeblood of our business and the money that goes into your pocket will be coming straight from theirs. If someone cracks a joke (especially a not funny joke), suck it up and stroke the customer's ego a little about them being "a funny person". You can make fun of them later if there's down time.

Ok, now that the hate disguised as fake advertisements is done... THE LIST.

- You rode your bike to work?
- Dog Snuggies (that's why they come with a built in FUR COAT, fuckface.)
- "Get on the Sidewalk" from a single occupant in a whale of an SUV.
- "You're blocking traffic" from a non-practicing member of the Illinois bar who is a single occupant in a whale of an SUV
- Single occupants in whale-esque SUV's
- Nosing into parallel parking spots when I have 200 lumens of blink on my handlebars
- Mozzarella and Marinara Pringles. So much wrong about shaped, flavored, dried potato slurry.
- 70% Chance of Rain and 43 degrees Farenheit

Hump Day Cyclocross Hump Awesomeness

2009-10-28T11:48:00.005-05:00

This photo sums up how totally awesome Cyclocross is.

Bartlett CX 4B's
Originally uploaded by Luke

Bartlett Chicrosscup

2009-10-26T14:46:00.008-05:00

Why do I look pissed, angry at the world? Not because I've managed to isolate the source of my lower back pains and have resolved it, not because I just got passed... because I totally screwed up the sprint for the hole shot by not clipping in quick enough and not being as aggressive as I should be.

As seems to be the case, I was slowly and steadily picked up and dropped by several riders through the three laps in my 4b's race, which wouldn't have bothered me if I hadn't been 20th+ at the first corner. I almost puked three different times, and every time I looked down at my Garmin, it further confirmed that I was "doing it right", with an average 183bpm on the course.

I finished in the top half, 37th our of 73 starters. 7 places away from points that would have helped the team's overall standings, but it was still a fun race. I've found my ability to corner at speed while staying off the brakes, and seem to have figured out what kind of tire pressure I can run in order to keep the tire on the rim. Those two combined to give me some pretty good efficiency through the technical sections - I was making ground on people and felt really good about the race. The "heckle hill" run-up was a different story - A knobbier rear would have helped as I was spinning out 3/4 of the way up the hill pretty much every time. I'll definitely be throwing my other set of tires in the trunk just in case the St. Charles race is similarly muddy.

Looking at me next to the other guys out there, it's safe to say that I'm the biggest guy in the race. Sure, I've got surplus kilos on me, but don't we all this time of year? Right after I finished and was dry heaving, a Bicycle Heaven rider dismounted and laid in the grass next to his buddies. As he's laying there, panting...

Rider: "Man, I couldn't catch that big xXx dude..."
Buddy: "Which one?"
Rider: "The fat fucker, on the Yellow Trek, man - I just couldn't get him!"
Me: "Uh, are you talking about me?"
Buddy: "Dude, he's right over there."
Rider (Rolls over to see me standing 15 feet away): "Oh yeah - dude, I couldn't catch you! Good riding"

I can only imagine where that conversation would have gone without my interjection. All I have to say about the situation is that if I had the body mass of that guy, there's a lot more people who wouldn't have been able to catch "the big xXx dude...on the yellow trek".

In other news, I didn't break anything!

stop not stopping? stop!

2009-10-20T14:25:00.002-05:00

If you didn't already know, Idaho recently amended its' traffic code to allow cyclists to legally roll stop signs when the way is clear of vehicles and pedestrians.

Here's a video summary:

Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

Slate published an article about the concept last week, and the Active Transportation Alliance here in Chicago has posed the question, "Are you a vehicular cyclist or a facilitator?"

I see myself in the grey area between being a vehicular cyclist and a facilitator, how about you? When drivers yell at me for rolling a stop sign, I wish there was a way to say "seriously, have you ever rolled a stop sign in that car EVER?!" in two or three yellable syllables. Bike lanes are great, though I see drivers give no respect to them on a regular basis. Bike paths like Chicago's Lakefront Path can be good, but they're no place for bikes traveling at 17-20mph, not to mention that path intersections like those around Montrose point are the scene of many a collision between cars and path users.

Last, here's a great article about a dutch town that took a hard look at the way people moved around town and actually did something about increasing everyone's safety... notice there's no mention of "safety-enhancing" red light cameras (and red lights!)

Cyclocross = Awesome

2009-09-24T09:51:00.002-05:00

Excellent Article from Luke in Today's Chicago Tribune...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/events/chi-0924-cyclocrosssep24,0,2801142.story

Go buy a paper. When you're done reading it, use it inside your jersey instead of a namby-pamby wind vest.

The Car Whisperer: AR Friday

2009-09-05T07:55:00.000-05:00

I couldn't have said it better myself...

The Car Whisperer: AR Friday

Seriously, though... two 8 point bucks within a mile or two of each other in this tiny little stretch of forest preserve?

Track Powertap

2009-09-04T09:33:00.004-05:00

I've heard rumors that the WheelBuilder.com crew had been working on a track powertap conversion for quite a while, but this is the first I've seen of it.

drool.

I want one. Laced into a Stinger 90. Haut.

More Info: http://www.wheelbuilder.com/store/wheelbuilder-track-powertap.html

I'd better water my money tree, it's looking a little sickly.

The Small Stuff

2009-08-24T10:12:00.002-05:00

I get "Tips of the Day" in my work email. Here's today's:

*** Today's Tip: DO SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF!
Sweating the small stuff may not be good advice when dealing with daily stresses, but experts say it may be the most effective approach when it comes to weight control. Try setting small, specific goals such as substituting every other soda with a glass of water or committing to a one-mile walk three times per week after dinner. Procrastination also gets in the way of forming healthier habits, so start today! For more useful tips, go to http://www.blogger.com/www.smallstep.gov.

While I agree with a lot of these weight management tips, maybe I'm just too harsh on myself when it comes to these sorts of things... small, specific goals sure are easier to attain, but is cutting soda out of your diet really that big of a deal? There's no time commitment, no equipment to buy, and there are immediate (relatively) benefits that you can see and feel that are immediately connected to stopping drinking carbonated acid-water.

I don't even want to get started on the whole "I'll start my diet next week" crap.

an open letter to Blockbuster's marketing team

2009-08-19T14:20:00.004-05:00

I got this in my email today... I was a Blockbuster Online customer a few years ago, when they first started the service. I figured I'd try it out and see how it compared. (That story ends with me still being a happy Netflix customer some years later)

One of the things I did like about Blockbuster was that you could return/exchange DVD's in the store - a significant advantage over Netflix since there aren't any Netflix stores. In the offer (below) they state plainly that they're still doing this.

As a direct marketer with an appreciation for the medium, I figured I'd click through the offer and see what they had for me. I was mostly curious about where the closest Blockbuster was, since I've not had to find one for quite some time. Here's what the store locator shows for my ZIP Code:

In looking at the map, I thought that there were quite a few more stores close to me, though I'd noticed that a couple of them had closed lately. I figured I'd search "blockbuster" in Google Maps to see what I could come up with.

Sure enough, there's a bunch of stores that apparently aren't there any more. I recall that there were also stores in several locations (School & Lincoln, Irving & Lincoln) that don't show up on either map.

So, Blockbuster - here's my question to you. What are you trying to accomplish by marketing an overall inferior product (Blockbuster's suggestion engine is AWFUL!) in an area where you've recently closed a BUNCH of stores when your only competitive advantage relies on the physical presence that you just diminished?

Cedar Point

2009-08-18T23:33:00.004-05:00

My first visit to America's Roller Coast... holy shit I forgot how much I love Roller Coasters!

I went for a ride from our hotel in the morning, what a beautiful morning to ride. Close to the end, I was confronted by the Cedar Point Police (park security)... the guy was yelling something out the window, I kept pedaling and yelling "what!?" at him (I now assume he was telling me to pull over), then asked if he was pulling me over. At that point, he hit the brakes, flipped on the lights and hit the siren. I found a spot to pull over on the side, then he told me that I wasn't supposed to be riding on the causeway. I legitimately hadn't seen the signs, told him this, then he told me he'd "have to escort me the rest of the way" off the causeway. I was on my way back to the hotel so I dialed it up to about 31mph (in a 30mph speed zone, hehe) into a seriously nasty headwind, spiked my heart rate, and got the hell out of there. I know the guy was doing his job, but at 7am who's LEAVING a theme park? Just coaster-loving cyclists.

Tracy was a good sport about trying out a few of the rides, but after a harrowing front-car trip on Magnum XL-200 she decided that her Coaster days were behind her. I'm glad she was willing to wait the lines with me, even if she'd take the chicken exit once we got to the platform.

I took some video of the "Top Thrill Dragster"ride in operation that I'll post in an update later... holy hell it looked like it would be quite a ride, too bad it broke down when I was 5 minutes away from getting on.

I'm not the only one!

2009-07-22T09:19:00.003-05:00

D'oh!!

Found: Wrench

2009-07-09T08:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I posted one of these...

I'm now the proud owner of a 10mm wrench. Handily timed since my cantilever brakes need adjusting.

Happy Friday!

2009-06-26T10:56:00.002-05:00

Between Critical Mass and Taste of Chicago tonight, traffic's going to be a total clusterfuck. If only there was a place you could ride to and share a delicious hot dog with friends...

Oh wait, there is.

See you at 5:30.

The Car Whisperer has been PEZ'd.

2009-06-24T11:00:00.002-05:00

Congrats to The Car Whisperer.

Soldier Field Cycling

2009-06-18T12:56:00.002-05:00

Soldier Field Cycling #1

I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at the south parking lot last night. The http://www.soldierfieldcycling.com/ site was well put together and showed a lot of promise, but designing a website is quite different from designing a race course and playing host to a bunch of twitchy roadies with calories to burn.

When we rolled up, I was impressed by the inflatable start/finish archway courtesy of SRAM as well as the Kozy's Cyclery and Pepsi Max presence. There was a good amount of signage around the start/finish that indicated financial support from other businesses such as Chipotle. For a group who hadn't promoted and hosted a bicycle race before, they seemed to be way ahead of what some well-established teams manage to coordinate.

The registration table was a breeze since I had pre-registered, though the USAC waivers weren't already filled out with my information. (Race Organizers take note - you can make your lives and ours easier if you pre-fill the waivers for preregistered riders!) I whipped out one of my handy pre-filled forms, added the race name and date, signed and recieved my number. With the Women's race down to 5 laps to go, I pinned up and noticed that there sure seemed to be a lot of people warming up - it was later confirmed that the 4/5 race had indeed sold out via pre-registration.

Soldier Field Cycling's course was well marked with cones, barricades, and fencing - and the appropriate medium was in the appropriate place- rather than barriers in tight corners, cones or snow fencing was used to minimize injuries in the event of a crash. Well thought out, Soldier Field Cycling. Recognizing that race organizers can only go so far in preparing a course, I can't complain about the parking lot's surface too much... except for the huge hole in between two of the hairiest turns on the course. I'm convinced this hole is what kept the race so strung out. Between turns 3 & 4 was a 5 foot long, two foot wide gash in the pavement that was filled with water. I'm hoping that Chicago Park District is able to get out and patch this thing before the next race on July 1st.

Racing went well. Being a brand new course and a 4/5 race at the same time, the first two laps seemed rather tenative as people seemed to be sizing up the competition. I started out about 10th wheel and quickly decided that I wanted to use this race as an opportunity to work on things I struggle with and to try something I've never done before... I started with the latter and decided to take a flyer.

With a strong xXx presence doing quite a lot of work at the front, I moved from about 20th wheel to the front at which point I realized that I was going about 5mph faster than my teammates and I'd have to hit the brakes to settle in with them. Rather than letting friction undo my hard work, I shifted, stood, and rocketed off the front to see what would happen. Having watched many, many of these unsuccessful efforts in the past, I expected to be chased down rather quickly. To my surprise, I managed to stay off for an entire lap while a chase effort was put together by the field, no thanks to my blocking teammates I'm sure. I managed to get about 1/3 of a lap on the field at one point, but after passing the time clock with 18 minutes to go, I knew I couldn't time trial my way to victory and soft pedaled until I was caught.

The remainder of the race I shifted from hanging off the back to mid-pack and with single digit laps to go I seemed to find myself on the wheel of the next guy being dropped... I'd realize what was happening and have to sprint to make up not only the rubberband but also make up the gap that had formed between the pack and the dropped rider. Each time I managed to catch the pack, but I also towed a fair number of riders back up with me, who showed their gratitude by accelerating around me as soon as we caught back on.

I had a blast at the inaugural Soldier Field Cycling race last night and I'm very much looking forward to the remainder of the series. It was sketchy at times, but no more so than most 75-rider 4/5 criteriums.

Many thanks to the folks at Soldier Field Cycling and all of the sponsors who helped make it happen. Here's to a Chipotle burrito prime next time!

Corsica Photos

2009-06-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

A fantastic trip with an incredible woman at my side.

More Pictures on facebook... if you can't see them, you need to friend me!

A Decent Proposal

2009-06-05T20:28:00.002-05:00

I asked, she said yes. Woot!

You think she was excited? :)

Eric Sprattling Memorial Ride

2009-06-04T14:52:00.004-05:00

I've wanted to do this ride every year but haven't ever felt like I was in shape enough to hang with the group past Old School. I'm hoping that Saturday's epic will agree with my body.

There's something about how you feel after something like this... food tastes better, the sun feels warmer, and you're oh so very glad to be alive. That sounds like the perfect way to kick off a vacation.

Eric Sprattling Memorial Ride
Find more Bike Rides in Chicago, Illinois

For more information on Eric, click here.

Wonder Lake Criterium

2009-06-01T11:32:00.004-05:00

I'd waited until the last minute to decide to race Wonder Lake, and I'm very glad that I made the drive out there for the race. The course was easy to find, the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

When we arrived, I wasn't surprised that the course went through a residential area, though the mailboxes lining every street were a little disconcerting. No attacking in the gutter on this one! I took a preview lap of the course - smooth pavement, no sealant-filled cracks to get your tire stuck in, and a nice little downhill immediately before the finish. Despite all of these positive characteristics, I couldn't help but think that this course was quite narrow for the advertised field sizes. With the road as narrow as twelve feet(a guesS) between turns 1 and 2 I'm not sure what the officials would have done had the 4's field reached the limit of 100 riders - no way you could get that many out here without some carnage. With 24 starting riders, we still had a few issues but overall the 4's kept things safe.

In the past, I've had problems in staying at the front and have always been dropped. I knew that I'd be able to move around in the field since it was so small, so I allowed myself to move back and forth a few times. My track experience suits me well because I'm more comfortable in tight situations than I ever have been, but I found myself braking into turns several times and having to put considerable efforts in to make up for it. Backing off the brakes in lap four I found it much easier to keep my speed even and was grateful to keep my position through every turn.

Throughout the beginning of the race, I managed to stay in the top 10 wheels despite being on the brakes, but had been slowly drifting back. Around 10 minutes into the race, we came across the start/finish and a kid on a BMX bike cut across the course only feet from the lead rider. This really freaked a bunch of people out since we'd been coming through around 28-30mph, and many riders sat up. Capitalizing on this, a few people attacked, entirely mixing the field up. Within the next few laps, we came around turn 4 and got another "present" - someone had backed a white minivan out of a driveway and was sitting in the middle of the course as we came down the hill at 30mph right before the finish line. A rider yelled "we need to cool it a bit guys this is too much" and the race did seem to slow a bit.

Despite the general slowing, I wasn't interested in the probing attacks being thrown off the front by Bob, Dave and Tom so I allowed myself to drift back. The rubberband effect was noticeable but wasn't so bad because of the small field, but it was there. With the pace slowed, I moved up a wheel or two each lap to make sure I was placed well. Positioned in the middle, I noticed that people were starting to jockey for position, including the rider that decided to move up on my outside right before turn one. I felt handlebars in my hip, and noticed a mailbox coming up on my left so I took a quick glance - I heard a wheel rub and saw a flash of blue heading through someone's front yard. I pedaled HARD through turn one to distance myself from that lunacy.

With three to go and a predictable pattern of slowing/accelerating, I carefully chose my efforts to maximize positioning on the last five laps. Many props to the teamwork shown by Dave Dokko, pulling the entire field HARD and stringing things out for two or three solid laps. Sitting near the middle with with one to go, I made my move up the inside between turns one and two, then up the outside between turns two and three. I didn't make it up as far as I'd have liked on that last effort, but seeing four teammates ahead of me I knew that we'd have some good results on the day. Coming around the LONG outside of a sweeping turn four I put the hammer down, pushing my Tiburzi into a 38mph sprint and netting 10th place. Tom Briney closed a decent gap to take the top of the Podium, with Bob taking a respectable 6th place finish.

I'm hoping that Wonder Lake will be on the calendar for next year, but with some field size limitations and some additional staff to marshal the course. It's a fantastic area with great scenery, but isn't suitable for large fields.

Ride the City

2009-05-06T11:00:00.003-05:00

Seems that this site's been up and running in NYC for a little while, now they're spreading the love to us here in Chicago.

Essentially, it serves as the "bike" option that Google Maps doesn't offer alongside "Public Transit" and "Walking" when searching for directions. Hopefully this will help people choose safer routes - I cringe every time I see someone riding down Ashland or Western... there are such great alternates like Damen, if only people knew it had a non-shared bike lane on most of it!

An Alpha for Chicago is available here: http://geos.ridethecity.com/chicago#

Lance and Bowerman meet on the LFP

2009-04-27T22:05:00.015-05:00

As usual, Mondays are a 60 minute Active Recovery ride for me - tonight I set out on the Lakefront Path (LFP) to get my easy hour in. Keep in mind that AR rides are sloooow. It's taken me quite a while to really get the hang of it, but now I actually enjoy riding under 120bpm at 13-15mph.

I'd ridden down to the Oak Street Chicane and turned around after seeing nasty skies, figuring it's better to be closer to home than not if the skies rip open on me. On my way back north, just barely north of Belmont, I call out 'on yer left' to a guy jogging on the path's yellow line at belmont... let me present:

meets

me: on yer left!

jerk: ...no room for you assholes...

me: (Slowing) What's that?

jerk: Yo, Lance - you guys think you can... (I'm still too far away)

Lance: (I've apparently been renamed) Sorry?

Bowerman (tit for tat. I can rename him to a famous runner): Like, where were you in February, huh?

Lance: Me? On this path, right here. By the way, my name's not Lance.

Bowerman: Yeah, Lance. right here, baby. I run yeeear round. Lance.
(editor's note: editor is not in peak physical condition, but being around a LOT of very physically fit people, I "know it when I see it". He wasn't it. He did, however, point to the ground and himself in a fashion similar to this douche on the right.)

Lance: Um, ok. I'm out here all the time, man. I even have Gore-Tex winter boots.

Bowerman: ...Lance.

Lance: Why all the hate, anyway?

Bowerman: You guys think you're such... (inintelligible aside from another Lance)

Lance: I'm not just some pathlete, dude. I'm pretty serious...

Bowerman: Ha. Pathlete. That's a pretty good one, Lance.

Lance: Ok, whatever, douchebag. Have a good night.

With that, I rode away and finished my Active Recovery ride, though my HR was around 130 because of my frustrating conversation with this idiot.

I'm still not entirely sure why I slowed down, I guess I thought he might have something interesting to say? FAIL. Whatever. I should work on ignoring idiots like this, especially since this kind of heckling will never, ever cease. People don't get cyclists, we're a strange looking bunch, shaved legs and Lycra and the "little seats and weird pedals". Like most people, they ridicule what they don't understand... and they definitely don't understand a wet, snowy lakefront path ride in February when it's 28 degrees outside.

Maybe I pay attention to them because I just want to put them on a bike, especially at the velodrome, and help them understand a bit. I guess I can let Peak Oil put them on a bike. There's enough people at the velodrome already, we don't need a bunch of jerks ruining our fun.

Violence against Cyclists

2009-04-27T16:16:00.006-05:00

From Bob's blog: "Cyclists ambushed with wall of flames"

Yikes. Let's hope this kind of crap doesn't start over here in the US.

I've noticed a great amount of aggression from drivers lately, maybe because it's because I'm putting more commute miles in that in years past, maybe it's because of traffic, fuel costs, or just the economy being a drag on people's constitution.

The other day, The Car Whisperer and I were on our way home when we noticed a Woman trying to cross Elston/Grace with three kids and a stroller... she was at a crosswalk but there wasn't a stop sign for quite a distance. As I notice that she's starting to cross, I look behind me to see an SUV about 200m back, hurtling towards us all. I swerve out of the bike lane to make sure they're paying attention, and I get a honk out of it. At least they saw me because of my swerve. They're upon me shortly, screaming at the both of us "you have a bike lane, this is the car lane, stay in the bike lane! eeeeediot!" After this inital volley of pleasantries, neither TCW nor myself are really inclined to proceed gingerly, so we lob back a few "there were pedestrians in the sidewalk, slow down, wtf! etc"

The mother shoots me a glance as if to say "thanks!" then gets her kids and stroller quickly away from the situation lest it escalate. TCW and I roll forth, then the SUV starts tailing us, honking like crazy. In a stroke of genius, TCW replies with a gesture the likes of which I've not seen in response to a driver's honk, but certainly one that I'll use going forward... let's just say it went a little something like what's 1:00 into this clip:

SNL - Alec Baldwin Playing with his Wii - watch more funny videos

Yeah. Something like that, but less wii, less basement-living room, and done while on a bike at 15mph. That guy's got mad skillz.

In either case, he got a laugh out of the angry driver, most of the drivers sitting at Elston/Kimball, as well as a few pedestrians who saw what was going on.

I doubt it'd be as effective against a wall of flames.

Allvoi Cup

2009-04-23T08:31:00.003-05:00

Track fans, rejoice... the Allvoi cup is closing in on us, first date is June 20th.

Event Flyer (PDF)

This is definitely going to be a fun event and I'm looking forward to seeing how many people show up and from how far away - with $7000 in prize money it's sure to attract racers from all over the midwest.

Many, many thanks to WDT-Allvoi for putting this on, I can only imagine the countless hours it's taken to get this up and running.

WDT-Allvoi Event Website

garmin

2009-04-20T12:20:00.000-05:00

Sunday's weather was typical April Chicago weather. Total shit.

48F and raining, I need two hours' endurance... I look at the track bike sitting on the trainer in the corner of my living room, then I look at my winter northwaves in the middle of the bedroom floor... sorry, trainer. you lose.

15 minutes into the ride, I notice there's water under the screen of my Garmin Forerunner - this has happened before, so I don't worry about it.

At 45 minutes, water is visible covering most of the screen... it's never moved that fast before.

1:30 into the ride, the display is completely full of water starts changing contrast on it's own - bad sign. I take the unit off the handlebars and as I do, it shuts off. I stick it in my pocket and finish the ride.

Once I got home, I tried using a hair dryer, a ziploc bag with silica gel, anything - no luck.

Garmin's tech support has once again been unbelievable. I've had products of theirs meet untimely ends in the past and they've always stood behind the products, this time included. I'm shipping it off to Kansas today and will hopefully have a refurbished Forerunner in a week or so.

this hasn't been my week

2009-04-15T10:56:00.013-05:00

this hasn't been my week, for serious.

I hope bad things do come in threes, because yesterday rounded out #3.

It all started when I walked out to my car to head to work last Monday... I notice that the Gas Door is open - Strange. I look in the window, the contents of my glovebox are strewn about the front seat/floor and the center console's contents are in the driver's seat. Fantastic.

I unlock(at least they didn't want anyone else getting in!) the car and cram everything back into it's spot, trying to figure out what was missing... hmm. Electric Razor, Maui Jim Sunglasses, Thule Rack Key (you think you're clever!), Watch, $20 emergency gas cash, two umbrellas (it was sleeting that night), and a bike multitool.

Nice little haul amounting to $750 or so.

I replaced the Thule locks that night so I wouldn't come out to find the rack missing the next day.

The rest of the week wasn't too bad - managed to ride almost 265 miles with little problem, until mile 264.7, three blocks from home. I'm just south of Belmont on Sheffield and reaching for a water bottle when the perfect storm of who-knows-what broadsides me with some serious instability. Feeling the pending loss of control, I put my left hand onto the bars as quickly as possible - right on top of my powertap computer. Anyone who's ever used a powertap has probably wondered how durable that bracket is. Notsomuch.

Powertap bracket snaps, sending my hand over the bars and my right hand forward, shoving the front wheel to the left and my shoulder into the pavement. Two wheels untrued, derailleur hangar bent. I drag myself up out of the street, snap my Garmin back onto my handlebars (it popped out of the bracket also), and find my powertap computer in the other lane, smashed. Fantastic.

After I'm home and cleaned up, time to get the bike back in action. The trusty cross bike helps me get the Stallion Hed Ardennes into Roscoe Village Bikes (fantastic shop, btw) to be trued up (same-day, RAWK!) then head out in search of a derailleur hangar. After hitting 3 or 4 shops, it's apparent I need to order one. The crazy italian guy over at Pet Ego who's responsible for our team's fantastic relationship with Hed and Max Lelli says he's got some on the way from Italy, it'll just be a few days.

Easter Sunday, I head out on the Cafe Deluca ride on my 'B' bike, the orange Cannondale. No incidents.

Tuesday, I head to xXx Sprint Practice down at Northerly Island, where Coach Randy takes us through various sprint drills. On the 6th sprint of 7, I was to be trackstanding at the line when another rider passed me, then I had to accelerate and catch his wheel. Since I was on my 'B' bike with my always-before-stable Mavic Open Pro/Ultegra Hub wheels, I gave no thought whatsoever to putting every ounce of effort into catching The Car Whisperer as he blasted past me at the start line. About ten kicks into the acceleration, I hear a bunch of sad bike noises and a loud crack as I am hurled over my handlebars, my face and helmet smashing into the ground. Ow. Face + Asphalt at 26mph.

Instincts kick in immediately and I get up and drag myself out of the "street" (we were on a closed course) to go sit on the curb. As I'm walking over I hear someone say "oh man, he's bleeding!" and notice a drop of blood fall from above my left eye. I sit down, take off my helmet, and people converge around me. I never lost lucidity, nor passed out, but I was definitely shaken up. After about 15 minutes, Matt gives me a ride home and Tracy and I head to the ER at Illinois Masonic where the great staff hooked me up with seven stitches for my lightning-bolt shaped scar.

this is the prettiest it's been.

Job well done, Rudy Actyum.

My Rudy Project Actyum helmet did its job and cracked at the point of impact. I'm sad that I've lost the nicest helmet that I've ever owned, but I'm glad the helmet cracked instead of my skull. The cut on my face was most definitely caused by the jagged, sharp frame from my glasses... I suppose the lenses have to be shatterproof, but the frame doesn't?

I'm quite glad that Tuesday's wheel incident didn't happen on the Sunday DeLuca ride where we were double paceline all the way out on Ogden. Eight spokes were left de-tensioned in that wheel, and I just can't figure out how the hell that happened.

I told the tale of the Saturday crash to the great folks at Saris and they informed me that they'd warranty replace my powertap computer and mount, then provided me with an RMA # and address to send it to. This is what customer service used to be and should still be. Saris, you've most definitely turned me into a customer advocate for your products.

Smith Optics has been similarly cool about the whole situation. I called and they informed me that they don't make the white V-Ti's any more, but the guy I spoke with said he'd seen a few in the warehouse and that they'd sell me the frame only for $50 even though they don't normally sell to consumers, nor do they even sell anything other than full kits. Thanks, Smith Optics.

The shop where I purchased the wheels was pretty suspiscious that I was lying about not running that front wheel into some kind of an object, but I stuck to my story and mentioned that fifteen people saw the wheel buckle underneath me which pretty much struck the tale into stone for them. I'll update once I've heard from Mavic and the shop - I'm hoping that they'll help me out with a new helmet and glasses since both were destroyed as a result of the wheel failure. Hopefully this shop will provide a high level of customer service and I'll keep shopping there, but

I really doubt that I'll ever purchase wheels from them again - too important a piece of equipment to trust "just anyone" to. I'll stick to handbuilt wheels either from Hed or known local reliable wheelbuilders such as Alex or Marcus.

Speaking of Hed's wheels, my good Italian friend and cheese-pusher relayed this story to the folks over at Hed, and they're interested in coming up with a set of wheels for me that will not only be strong as hell, will look smooth and be fast. I'll update with more information on that front later.

Weight, Lifting.

2009-04-08T10:24:00.002-05:00

As I usually do whenever I'm at the office's Fitness Center, I weighed in.... to my pleasant surprise:

Looking to achieve balance in life, I moved the big weight down to the "200" mark and the little weight over to the "49". Success.

This day just got a hell of a lot better.

2009 Hillsboro-Roubaix Race Report

2009-04-06T15:33:00.005-05:00

Going into this race, I had no plans to win - I've come to terms with the fact that I don't stand a chance in races with climbs. My goal: stay with the pack for the first lap, at least through feed zone hill. The race started out as expected, the "neutral" rollout from town being anything but neutral. With fields this size and a centerline rule in effect (more on that later) people were taking any chance they had to move closer to the front. I was about halfway back at the start but was trying to make space for teammates to move up and lost about 20 spots through the first 20 or so miles.

As we wound our way through the Illinois countryside, it became pretty obvious that people weren't too concerned about the centerline rule. Numerous times I'd be riding "too close for comfort" when a rider or two would move past me. At one point, the Commisaire was on the course and stood out into the road, yelling "GET OVER, ALL OF YOUSE!", slowing the field down considerably. For the next half mile or so we tightened up, but then it was shitshow as usual once the officials weren't around. As we started to turn south into the roller-esque section, the speed modulation started... in awful fashion. At one point I became the cheese of a wheel rub sandwich, but we all kept the rubber side down, though I'm sure the everyone's heart rates spiked as a result. I managed to keep my wits about me and stay in a decent echelon draft through most of the crosswinds, though I found myself on the "wrong side" several times as the result of a quick series of turns.

As we hit the feed zone my arch nemesis Gravity started to tug at my seatpost, pulling me further and further back within the group.

I felt like I was riding one of these.

By the time I hit the bottom of the second climb, the leaders were at the bricks and the back of the group had already crested... my race was over, yet far from over. At the top of the second climb, I noticed that riders were strung out, casualties of the attack between the climbs. As we bounced our way through town on the bricks, I started calling out to the far-flung riders that we'd need to work together if we had any hope of surviving the this race with any kind of dignity. We were 3 men strong as we rolled past the start/finish. As we rolled out of town, I saw a photographer on the side of the road and decided that a downnhill sprint was in order... at least look good while you're losing, right? The group sensed an attack and followed, so we caught a few more as we crested the first climb out of town, when a Ghisallo rider attacked. We all agreed that we didn't want any part of it, so we let him go.

As we turned into the first crosswind, I polled the group to see if they knew how to rotate through an echelon draft. 2 of us did, so I put myself on the other side of the rotation from him and we got it going smoothly. As we'd make turns into variying wind directions, I'd command "straight line!", "echelon right!", "echelon left!" etc, and we made some seriously good time, picking up 5 or 6 more riders in the first 8-10 miles out of town. It felt great to be able to organize the group like that, and a few riders thanked me for directing the group.

Once on the back stretch, we picked up another group of 5ish riders and it quickly became clear that they were looking for wheels to suck. At one point, a rider pulled off and started digging through his jersey pockets for something... to my surprise he pulled out... a completely sealed Clif Bar. In a Race. His fully open vest flapping in the wind, I ask him, "dude are you seriously eating a bar?" His response: "I'mstarvinghaven'teatenanything". Since we were 1:20 into the race at that point, I said "Welcome to bonktown", took a pull, and we dropped him.

The remaining 10 miles back to town, the original group and one or two of the newly caught riders would pull through the Echelon, but the rest were there for the ride. As we approached feed zone hill, the Ghisallo rider who had taken that early 2nd lap flyer attacked, and I chased along with a guy from Wheel Fast. About 3/4 of the way up the hill, my legs were cooked... I looked down at the powertap to see 800 something Watts and 194bpm. I looked behind me and didn't see any shoulder numbers starting with a '4' so I settled in and started to recover. I tried to bridge up to Wheel Fast and Ghisallo on the bricks, but they had too much space on me and finished about 150m ahead - I came in 62nd. After the race, Wheel Fast rolled over and told me that he'd gotten the Ghisallo rider at the line, he was intent on doing so because "that guy sucked wheel for the last half and never took a pull", which I hadn't noticed from my obstructed view cheap seats in the pain cave.

In all, it was a successful Hillsboro - I didn't get pushed into the gutter like last year, and I was able to stay with the group to the point that I had set out to. I'm also quite satisfied that I was able to lead my group through some pretty tricky draft formation changes despite not knowing any of them from Adam. Until next year, Hillsboro... maybe I'll figure out how to climb and it'll be a different story.

New to Bicycling?

2009-03-31T13:45:00.002-05:00

Got this facebook message thread from a friend...

Bicycling

Between You and Someone Else

Someone Else
Today at 12:42pm

Hi

I understand you are quite the cyclist/athlete so I ask you this:How can I get faster and or lose 40 pounds by riding my bike and how do I change spokes and how can I GO FAST ON MY PIECE OF SHIT HYBRID SCHWINN????? Websites? Secret-Crank-sets that give you super speed?? And how bout shorts for my jock? May jock gives up before my legs.....HELP a dillatante(me) become the real deal (you)...

Thanks for any advice and/or insults that you can throw back this way,

Someone Else

You
Today at 12:59pm

I am glad to help...here's my $.02:
Obligatory insult from a racing snob. You have to look PRO to be PRO. Get rid of the shitty WalMart-Chinabike and get your fat ass to a real shop and spend a modest $1500 on a Specialized, LeMond or a Trek. It's worth it. Get a bike fit before you leave the store. It's also worth it. More so even.

A. Ride faster even when it hurts. Greg Lemond said, "It never gets any easier, you just get faster." this morning I rode 9 three minute intervals as hard as I could until I nearly puked. I do it once a week...then tomorrow I go on a suicidally fast "training" ride with a bunch of spandex clad psychos out of an Evanston Bike Shop, Turin...30 miles in about an hour and half. Great race training.

B) While you're riding fast, eat a bit less. Don't diet, but eat out a lot less, cut out the fried foods, and cut out the alcohol during the week and when you're alone. A LOT of excess calories in there. DON'T DIET. this is a lifestyle change, not a get-skinny-quick change. If you diet you won't have enough energy to ride faster. aim for 2 pounds a week. If you plateau, take a look at your routine and change a few things.

C) oh yeah...get more sleep. Like at least 6 solid hours. Alcohol (and caffeine) fuck up your sleep patterns...

As the weight goes down and the power goes up, you get faster. Self-esteem goes way up. Full-disclosure: your current social life will probably suffer...but if you are really enjoying riding and want results to enjoy it even more, you gotta do what you want.

D) shorts. Go to Performance Bike, Get a Grip, Pony Shop or Turin (last two are in Evstn) and get a GOOD pair of shorts, bib shorts. Don't go completely cheap, but you don't need the $200 pair. $50-75 oughta do it. And get chamois creme. Prevents chafing. Don't be afraid to ask how to use it, and don't let any snobbery from the employees get in the way. It comes with the territory of delving into serious cycling. They treat every newbie like shit. It's nothing personal. Just don't let them sell you the farm.

In a nutshell? Ride more, ride with people you like, eat healthier, drink less, a get a pair of bike short...one pair of GOOD bike shorts.

Good luck.

Training with Power

2009-03-27T12:48:00.002-05:00

I'm very satisfied with the Ardennes' performance so far, enough that I decided to have the my new Powertap PRO+ laced into a Hed Ardennes rear wheel so I have a matching set. Neither wheel is out of true, even after ~700 road miles. My 32 hole ultegra-hub open pros didn't even last this long.

My new wheel arrived today and I'm taking it out for an AR ride... I'll have to do some quick jumps just to see the wattage numbers spike... I wonder how high I can make it go?

--
Update:

1436 Watts :)

xXx 2009 Winter Camp Report

2009-03-18T12:24:00.004-05:00

2009's winter camp was a success - I feel much stronger and faster every year, though it seems that everyone on the team is stronger and faster. I'm not immediately off the back when we're climbing Men's Colony Hill, which tells me that I'm making progress.

Weighing in at 260 on the Friday before we left was encouraging, but weighing in at 258 yesterday morning was MORE encouraging. Most people GAIN weight at camp because we're riding so much that you just have to eat like a fiend. 38 pounds to go and I'm in Carbon Wheel territory. Lighter Me + Heds + Track = Fast.

Several of my teammates have written day-by-day accounts that I can't hold a candle to - I suggest you see their blogs for all the juicy details:

The Car Whisperer
Race Your Bike
Seth-Meyer.com

What I can offer you, though... is data. Below are links to my GPS tracks from each day, embarrassingly slow climbing speeds and all.

Day 1: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7750814
Day 2: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7760829
Day 3: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7767260
Day 4: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7776365
Day 5: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7776372
Day 6: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7781518
Day 7: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7784904
Day 8: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.mb?episodePk.pkValue=7800994
(my Forerunner started giving out on me on Day 7, mileage on Days 7 & 8 is shorter than actual)

I'm very excited to say that I successfully rode Peachy Canyon AND summited Black Mountain this year. Black Mountain is one hell of a climb (Day 5) and I'd attempted it once before but wasn't able to summit. It cost me a quicklink (FSA Quick Links SUCK!! Buy SRAM) but I did make it to the top:

How sweet it was.

The rest of camp was great, but after Peachy and Black Mountain I was satisfied with the week's successes and just didn't want' to crash or break anything. Saturday's (Day 8) climb up Prefumo Canyon did give me a scare - I crossed a cattle guard and hit a big hole on the other side... and heard a rather loud "pop" from the bike. I stopped to check for cracks/problems and everything seemed solid so I continued. When I reassembled the bike at home in Chicago, I inspected both the fork and seatpost and didn't see any problems... I'm hoping it was just one of the "funky carbon noises" that people tell me happen from time to time.

The Stallion Build Hed. Ardennes performed wonderfully, so much that I've decided to build my powertap into them. If a lightweight wheelset can take the beating that I've put it through (especially through Prefumo Canyon's cattle guarded kermesse-style summit) and still stay true, they're more than alright by me. Trips to SLO in years past have knocked my Ksyriums out of true, so I'm quite happy that the Ardennes are as good as the reviews all say.

Hopefully I didn't break the new bike before I've even had a chance to race it.

Hillsboro-Roubaix, two weeks. Hoo yah.

SLO

2009-03-06T14:03:00.003-06:00

xXx Racing is off to San Luis Obispo today. It'll be an awesome 8 days of riding... here's hoping that the new bike, new wheels, and newly trained engine are up to the task.

Can I get a hell yeah for that forecast?

The Wall :) (keep in mind, I hate climbing and I think this is fun because of the sheer ridiculousness of it)

Here are motionbased links to the 2007 trip:
Day 1: 27.5mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2169636
Day 2: 69.1mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2177780
Day 3: 46.8mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2183072
Day 4: 12.2mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2192979 (Rest Day)
Day 5: 71.5mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2192980 (Black Mountain, I didn’t go all the way up though)
Day 6: 39.7mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2252515
Day 7: 81.7mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2252679 (The Wall)
Day 8: 27.4mi http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2252676

Thank You, Sponsors.

2009-02-03T15:45:00.005-06:00

Your support is going to make this year better than ever.

Normality, or something like it

2009-01-30T07:31:00.005-06:00

Google Developers have quite the sense of humor...

In the past year, I've been a member of 4 different gyms, have lived in three different cities, and have collected a god-awful number of United miles. It's finally coming to an end. I'm going to be home, finally. I'm hoping that this new found stability will allow me to focus on the things that are really important to me, like... my LIFE.

Here's to slow food dinners with my lady on Sunday nights.
Here's to stability in training.
Here's to not knowing which city your spin shoes are in.
Here's to not wasting my life delayed at ORD.

I'm not looking forward to my 18-mile, 60-minute commute, but in a few months I'll be able to ride that once or twice a week, keeping me sane and most certainly extending my tenure with my employer.

Camp's coming soon. I'm still MUCH heavier than I would like to be. I'm hoping to drop 10 lb in the next month. I don't know if that's possible, but I'm going to try like hell.

2008 Year in Review

2008-12-31T09:48:00.005-06:00

I attempted to meet up with teammates this morning for the "Hump Day Hump", a Wednesday morning ride that I've only been on once before (working in the suburbs, you miss a lot of stuff like this). Being that it's 9 degrees outside, it took me a little longer than I planned to get layered up and out of the house... then when I'm outside, I find that I've got a cleat full of ice. FYI, road cleats and ice don't mix well. I get to Irving/LFP at 8:12, find out later that the crew took off at 8:10. I rode up to Hollywood, then back home - just under 10 miles but not too shabby since it was so brutally cold and I'm supposed to be off the bike. I don't know that my toes could have taken it much longer anyways.

I've had some computer problems lately and was worried that I might lose my workout data from the past several years - thankfully, I had backed it up in numerous locations (iPods are not reliable backup media!) and was able to resurrect my Garmin Training Center data for 2008...

Runs: 231.54 miles, average pace 10:15.
Rides: 4076.77 miles, average speed 16.6mph.

Not too shabby. That's more than I've run/ridden in a year's time. Ever.

I'm thinking that next year's average cycling speed will be greatly increased since I'm planning a full summer at the velodrome... that and the fact that I've got a white/red/black bike, which everyone knows is faster than a white bike AND a black bike combined.

So for 2008...

I fell in love with the velodrome.
Escaped from Alcatraz
Broke 4 chains. (three 9-speed, one 1/8" track)
3rd Place at Sherman Park Criterium
Moved in with a hottie.
Crashed twice (once at Proctor, once on the North Branch Trail)
6th place post-crash at Proctor (I caught back on)
Won my division at the Chicago Triathlon
Tried Cyclocross and loved it's pure, sweet hell.

In all, it was a damn good year, and I'm proud of the fact that I accomplished all of the above and more while living in two cities at the same time. I'm almost through with that crazy travel, and I'm hoping that less time in airports equates to more time spend with the people and activities that I love.

Here's to a successful 2009!

Imagine the potential

2008-12-29T12:42:00.002-06:00

for destruction. Ghost rider?

I've never crashed at the Velodrome, but I've come damn close numerous times... axle nuts hitting mine, wheel rubs, elbows knocking... I even popped a chain going into turn 1 at 28mph and stayed up long enough to make it down the wall (was at Stayer's line) and into the infield.

His knee is gonna be soooooore.

who remembers...

2008-12-14T01:00:00.003-06:00

Burple?

Seems like something you could stuff in a jersey pocket easily!

Thursday Linkapalooza

2008-12-10T23:39:00.003-06:00

http://spidermonkeycycling.blogspot.com/2008/10/after-kicking-some-ass-on-track-zack.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xADJoFpXNN0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xDEIsCT64

Photoshopped images of this will be circulating soon...

BlagojeDOUCHE is more like it.

It's Here!

2008-12-09T19:59:00.004-06:00

This one gets to stay in the living room, at least for a while :)

It needs a name.

HED Ardennes durability testing to come... look at all those spokes! Stallion Build, baby!

New Bike!

2008-12-02T22:25:00.003-06:00

It's been ordered.

Teh sexy.

Ultegra SL and HED Ardennes.

I need to pick out bars and a stem... suggestions? I'll need 46cm bars and a high rise stem (likely 17 degree up).

I hope I don't break it.

Yield Sign Go Sign Stop Sign Whaaa Sign?

2008-11-20T06:03:00.004-06:00

John Greenfield's "Vote with your Feet" has a very interesting article up about the Lakefront Path's signage through Uptown:
http://votewithyourfeetchicago.blogspot.com/2008/11/strange-signage-on-lakefront-path.html

I've gotta say, I was confused by these signs when riding up there this weekend - who's supposed to do what? I recognize that the rules of the road make it pretty clear how road and trail users should interact with this intersection but if all of the users of the road were clear on the rules of the road, we'd never have accidents.

Road users (cyclists, peds, and drivers alike) speed, roll through stop signs, blow red lights, illegally pass with a double yellow line, merge across double white lines, etc etc. People are pretty selfish, and that's evident in how they operate a vehicle. When confronted with the LFP/Montrose intersection, I can see cyclists not yielding to stopped cars, and I can see cars thinking that path users will be stopping because the driver can see the back of the Yield sign. (See pictures at linked story, above)

Once Chicago's back in full swing this summer, these intersections are CRAZY. You've got mulitple cars lined up in every direction, waiting for path traffic to clear while path users approaching the intersection see that traffic's stopped, speeding up to get through the intersection while cars are still waiting for the path's crosswalk to clear.

The best solution here is an overpass/underpass situation, but those are rather expensive, certainly more costly than a sheet metal Stop or Yield sign. Everyone using these intersections should approach them with greater caution now than before - if drivers are under the impression that path users will be stopping, that places path users at an even greater risk of injury while negotiating these crossings.

Be smart, be safe. Everyone should treat it like a 4-way stop. If there's a car approaching the path, trail users should assume they're invisible to the driver, that the driver is going to roll the sign. Drivers should be mindful that trail users are going to treat the yield signs similarly invisible and blast across without blinking an eye.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of court cases come out of this signage situation. Having argued both sides of the argument from an insurance adjuster's perspective, this intersection is kind of a nightmare when it comes to liability determination. I just hope that cyclists with a legitimate claim don't find themselves holding the short end of the stick because of an overly defensive insurance company.

New Stuff & Next Sunday's Torturefests

2008-11-04T20:43:00.003-06:00

Yay for voting day. I showed up at the polls at 5:40am, was 4th in line for my precinct... when I left at 6:15a (so many judges!) there were at least 100 people in line. I'm glad I woke up on time!

Hopefully, my cyclocross mech problems are solved... to the tune of almost $100.

Dura-Ace/XTR 9 Speed Chain, $40.
Wire bead Ritchey Speedmax tires, $18 (x2) plus $14 shipping.

This is the first time I've used a Shimano chain. Here's hoping it's what I've been looking for.

I spoke to the team's SRAM rep at our Team meeting last night and he said they'd like to look at the chains to see why/how they failed. I wonder if they'd let me guinea pig some experimental stuff... I'd be all for it.

Next week's race will not be pretty. I'm climbing 103 floors of stairs in the Sears Tower at 8:10am, then brunch... Cross race at 3pm. I haven't trained for the stair climb like I have in the past, and I'm +15lb from where I should be. The cross race is so close to home, I just gotta do it.

I think I'll take next Monday off.

Compton Destructocross

2008-11-02T18:30:00.007-06:00

This week's ChiCrossCup race was in St. Charles and the course was set up wonderfully - kudos to the organizers! I made the pilgrimage out to Kane county with two teammates for the 4b's race - we didn't have a chance to pre-ride the course due to lack of time, but I figured that my lack of fitness would outweigh any advantage that the pre-ride might afford me.

I'd been to Randy's to get this bike fitted to me, and we changed the whole cockpit around, so I was really looking forward to how I'd feel on the bike for this race. That said, I had my first DNF ever... and it certainly wasn't for lack of spirit or trying. The bike fit felt pretty good though.

I was in a good spot at the start - managed to stay top 20 for the first half of lap 1 when... BANG. Front tire blowout. I didn't know it at the time, but it seems that the bead on my front tire decided to give up the ghost. Whee.

can you even GET wire-bead cross tires?

Right after finishing at Carpentersville, I had noticed that my front tire was behaving strangely - the bead was atop the rim rather than hooked inside it. I quickly deflated the tire and popped it back onto the rim... I suppose I should have been more diligent and checked the condition of the bead.

The bang was loud enough that several teammates ran over and asked me if I had wheels in the pit... I responded that I didn't, and they yelled back that they'd meet me in the pit with a wheel - since this course's pit was right at the start/finish and was single sided, that meant I got to run the second half of the course rolling my bike aside me. As I passed the officials, I commented "it's a lot more fun when you can ride the bike" to which Dave Fowkes replied "i'm with ya on that one".

I grabbed the new wheel and set off again - the majority of the field had passed me just after I flatted so I knew that I had pretty much no chance of catching on - this had become a workout. When I came back through the chicane where most of the spectators were, ~~my hero~~ Mike Seguin was there with the beer handup. SWEET. I certainly wasn't expecting it, so I was moving too fast and crushed the cup, sending most of the beer into my glove, but I did get a good bit of it in my mouth. With a delicious right hand, I powered through the remainder of the lap - this was my only full lap of the course.

I was passed by the race leader after the first barricade - this served as a motivator. I cleared the sand pit and went into the backside's off-camber chicane when I was passed by #2. Atop the hill, I could see that most of the riders were opposite my position on the course, so I stood a decent chance of catching one or two of them if I'd just get my ass into gear. I powered through the spectator area and was approaching the last barricade when the chain gods saw fit to punish me... POP. Since i'm now a chain-breaking veteran I managed to keep the bike upright, thought I'm pretty sure that my knee hit my bars, it's pretty pissed off at me right now.

Since I had a SRAM chain on this bike, I figured I'd see if the break was close to the powerlink and I might be able to piece things together... no luck - the pin that snapped did so leaving only the outer plates so I knew my race was over. I then walked back to the officials area and let them know that I was DNF for a mechanical, then went back to the spectator area for some brats and a beer while watching the end of the race.

the day's casaulties.

I suppose I'm now in the market for another chain, does anyone have any suggestions? I've popped three PC-971's in 2008... there's gotta be a better solution for a clydesdale drivetrain. I snapped a KMC 1/8" track chain earlier this year - that's how I found out about the heavy duty Izumi chains. Is there a road equivalent?

Although I only rode one full lap at Compton, I am quite proud that my lap included a successful beer handup. When you've got race priorities like these, cyclocross is WAY more fun.

the never-ending battle

2008-10-29T20:20:00.016-05:00

I've battled with weight for a substantial portion of my life... in 2001 I hit the weight equivalent of "rock bottom" - alcoholics and addicts use this term to indicate the turning point in life where they recognized there was a problem that could only be resolved with some serious life changes.

November 2001. 317 pounds. Three hundred seventeen pounds. It's hard for me to believe I was ever that size, but it's true. I wish I had more pictures of that time - I'd use them as cues, inspirational tools to keep me on track. (If anyone reading this has some, send them my way - you'll be doing me a favor.)

How, you might ask? Several things:

Beer
Sedentary College Student Lifestyle
Beer
Unlimited Meal Plan in the Dorms
Beer
Daily Sonic visits - 44oz drinks = ridiculous, Frito Pies aren't health food.
Whiskey

Combine those with a guy who's already ~30lb overweight at 250 and you've got a ticking time bomb. Wash, rinse, repeat for five semesters and you've got your payload.

In the fall of 2001 I lost a grandfather to a heart attack. He was, by all accounts, healthy as a horse. Grandpa Clay was no gym rat, but he was a wise man that recognized the benefits of a lifestyle that included proper nutrition and exercise... this made the circumstances of his death all the more relevant... if a guy like this, a guy who's doing everything the way he's supposed to can have a heart attack, someone who's in my position at my age doesn't stand a chance in forty years.

It took a couple of months, and I don't even think it was a conscious decision, but I decided to make a change.
I wasn't going to destroy my life before it started.
I would start using my body.
I would stop filling it with garbage that made me feel like crap.
I would find balance.

Balance takes a long time to find.

March 2002. Skiing, Lake Tahoe. You can see it in my face. ~300lb

June 2008, after crossing the finish line at the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. 240lb.

I'm in the best shape of my life in the second picture. It took me six and a half years, but I did it the "natural" way, no surgeries, no pills. I wanted it, fought for it, and through trials and tribulations made it. It wasn't easy, there were many plateaus, peaks, and valleys... the details of these aren't important, but the lessons learned are - at least to me.

Lesson 1 - short term weight loss goals are not a means to an end. I'm no expert, but I figured out that you can't just keep losing weight gradually over time. it all looks good on paper, but it just doesn't work that way. you get burned out, frustrated, and need to let your body rest in the new shape it's discovered. I didn't take a scientific, nor guided approach to doing this - had I done so, I'd probably have accelerated my timeline. I'd lose some, gain a bit back, lose some more, level off, lose some more, gain some back, and on and on.

Lesson 2 - diets are for quitters. How many people do you know that are "always" on some fad diet or another? Low Carb, No Carb, Beach, Cookie, Drink, Grapefruit, blah blah blah. I'm a marketer, and I think that helps me see the integrated, multichannel campaign that you're eating, one forkful/packet/bar/shake/cookie at a time. There's tons of money to be made in this space - it's evident if you watch off-peak television. I wonder how much money has been made on ab gadgets alone... it's gotta be in the hundreds of millions.

Lesson 3 - this shit isn't easy. It's a struggle. Candy doesn't get less delicious, chicken wings are just as tasty... if anything, those things taste BETTER because you're not eating them all the time. After a long workout, you want to pig out - but you can't. Weight loss doesn't work unless you run a caloric deficit... burn more than you shove in your mouth. It's impossible to out work your mouth (especially my mouth!) at the gym. The human body was designed to feel "full" based on a given volume of food, assuming that food is of a reasonable caloric density. Many modern foods (like mayo) FAR exceed what I call a "reasonable" caloric density.

Lesson 4 - you need to want it. reasonable goals and reasonable timelines are key here. training for an endurance sport is a fantastic way to set a long term goal. I've used the Chicago Triathlon as my long-term improvement metric. in 2006 I finished in 03:13:53. 2007 I cut almost 14 minutes to finish in 02:59:17, and in 2008 i cut off another 2.5 minutes to finish in 02:56:42. I plan to shave time in each subsequent year to gauge progress.

My weight has fluctuated and will continue to - but fat and muscle density vary substantially. The 265lb I am at now is MUCH more lean than the 265 I was at several years ago, and I'm able to athletically perform at a level that I never dreamed I'd get to. I'm thankful for the fact that my young metabolism allows me to make these changes over the course of months, not years. I'm cognizant of the fact that it's only going to get harder, and that's intensifying my efforts.

I'm setting a "stretch" goal for myself now - I want to be under 230lb for xXx's winter camp come March 2009. I've 35lb to lose and five months to lose it. I'm going to start tracking calories, something I've never done before. It'll be hard to resist all the candy in the office, but I need to figure something out there. I want this. I want to not be the last person atop the wall this year. I want to summit Black Mountain. I want to win a cat 4 race, look good in a skinsuit, and not think twice when I take off my shirt to play volleyball at North Avenue Beach.

In short, it's on like Diddy Kong. Let the losing begin.

Door!

2008-10-07T23:11:00.005-05:00

I've never been doored, and for that I consider myself lucky. I do know people who have lost bike-door battles, thankfully I don't know anyone who's died from it... but that doesn't make diminish the reality that it can happen to anyone.

Drivers, look out your mirror before you open your door. Make sure your passengers don't open the door until you give notice that it's clear to do so (this IS your responsibility as the driver!).

Cyclists, be vigilant and ride defensively! Look ahead into parked cars, into mirrors to see if there's a person in there. Make sure your position in the roadway is one where you can take evasive action to avoid a collision. Stay out of the door zone as much as you can, and don't be afraid to take the lane if it's not possible for a car to pass you safely!

the good folks over at anti-dooring are running a collection to print up another batch of stickers based on the below design... click this link if you'd like to help out.

As a driver and a cyclist, I find that there are a good number of shitty cyclists out there - there's a good number of shitty drivers, too. Just because your mode of transportation does or doesn't weigh a couple tons/use fossil fuel/go fast/make you feel protected/get the girls/look good shouldn't infringe on other's rights to using the roadway. Some people are going to ride no matter what, some will drive no matter what. We all just need to learn to get along to our destination, and safely.

please visit www.anti-dooring.org for more information.

a tip o' the helmet to dispatch 101's j.dot for posting this first...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park / Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath

2008-10-04T16:39:00.020-05:00

This weekend I came to a few conclusions:

1) Summer is over, It's Fall.
2) The journey can be the destination.
3) Fun comes at any speed.
4) Crashes come at any speed.
5) These kick ass:

I struck out to Century Cycles in Peninsula, OH this morning with my lovely lady at my side - we rented some Electra Townie 3's ($8/hour, what a deal!) with plans to explore the Erie & Ohio Towpath through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Century's Peninsula store is adjacent to the towpath and right in the middle of the park - ample parking, easy to find, and great to deal with.

I hadn't ever ridden a bike equipped with Shimano's Nexus internally geared hubs before, and now I wonder why I don't own a bike with one. Holy Fun. When you get on the bike, you find yourself immediately laughing as soon as you take your first pedal stroke - it's like you've been transported back to your childhood... I think Electra's "flat foot" geometry does a great deal to make the bike FUN first.

We set out northbound on the towpath and were treated to nature's fall fireworks show in progress.

Peak color in this area will be in a few weeks, but the maple trees have already started changing. About 10 minutes out on the ride, TK broke this one out of mental "storage":

Erie Canal

I've got a mule, her name is Sal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal

We've hauled some barges in our day
filled with lumber, coal and hay
And we know every inch of the way from
Albany to Buffalo.

Chorus:
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor, you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

We better get along on our way ol'gal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal

'Cause you bet your life I'd never part with Sal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal.
Git up there mule, here comes a lock,
We'll make Rome about 6 o'clock
One more trip and back we'll go, right back home to Buffalo.

That continued for about an hour... I continued our reversion into childhood with the "50 States" song where you sing them in alphabetical order. Yeah, these bikes were THAT MUCH FUN.

on our way north: you can see one of the locks at the end of the clip

We then started into a discussion about how damned fun it was to ride these bikes, and how we were glad that we'd left the helmets in the car... we certainly weren't being good role models, but with our speed averaging around 8mph we figured "what could happen!?"

We figured that one out about 5 minutes later. I was cruising behind her and went to smack her butt as I passed... I passed a little close, she freaked out a bit, and our handlebars struck... next thing you know I'm face down in the gravel with two bikes on top of me, and she's on top of both bikes. We're both happy that nobody saw it happen, though I'm sure it would be youtube gold. My stem was rotated around and the bike had a few new scrapes on it, but it was otherwise ok. I scraped up the palm of my hand, my knee and a couple knuckles, and tore some holes in the elbow of my baselayer (saves the day, every time!). TK was fine, having had the benefit of using ME to cushion her fall. I was kind of surprised nothing broke on either bike.

We rode in silence for about 3 minutes until the bickering started about who caused the crash. This would continue for quite some time. We kept at it for the next 8ish miles until we reached the Canal Visitor's center in Independence, Ohio. We stopped to check out a lock that NPS still uses for demonstrations on how the water could raise/lower barges... pretty cool considering that this was built around 1825, and that labor was paid with a jigger of whiskey and 30 cents an hour.

we make this lock look GOOOOD.

At the canal visitor's center we rode over to the Depot to board the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad which works with the NPS to provide cyclists with one-way fares of $2. With multiple stations along the towpath trail, this is a great option for individuals who may want to explore one direction by bike, but another direction by rail.

We hopped on the train for our trip south and bought sandwiches for lunch. The trip south took about an hour, though there were 5 or 6 stops where the train would sit for a few minutes to allow for bikes to be loaded/unloaded. The railroad offers tours through the valley, including Murder Mystery rides and "Grape Escape" wine tasting events.

the view from the train: the towpath trail goes through the wetlands in the distance via boardwalk.

Once at Botzum we hopped on the bikes and set out northbound to peninsula once again. Parts of the towpath in this section were very close to roads, and you could see that the locks had been destroyed to make room for the road to travel through.

We discovered a produce stand and corn maze about halfway there...

We stopped and were promptly attacked by giant spiders. Shouldn't have stopped.

Since we didn't have bike locks we didn't want to leave the bikes in order to explore the produce stand, so we kept moving. The remainder of the trail passed some very interesting areas between the farm and Peninsula, mostly areas where the canal's engineers had to deal with wetlands and streams bisecting the route like Furnace Run. Flooding was apparently a major problem and would destroy critical sections of the canal, but it was the railroads that destroyed the canal's business model.

Peninsula

In all we had a blast. I highly recommend the towpath for anyone who's looking for an actively lazy saturday activity where you can enjoy a beautiful day. The opportunity to learn something about the history of the area you're pedaling through is always a plus, too.

For anyone who's thinking about this ride, know that going northbound on the path is at a slight downhill, where southbound is a slight uphill... make your day easier and ride north, let the train take you back south. If you're looking for a workout, check out my posts on the Cleveland metroparks rides.

Beagle v Debate

2008-10-02T21:09:00.005-05:00

Far more interesting than the second half of the debate that's going on right now.

http://election.twitter.com/topic?t=%23vpdebate for the live tweets.

are you registered to vote? get it done soon.

$700B

2008-09-29T09:23:00.003-05:00

Seven hundred billion dollars.

Jeezus.

The comparisons between "Main Street" and "Wall Street" notwithstanding, I think people would be more likely to consider this an option if it weren't for a few pesky items:

1) it doesn't seem like ANYONE will commit to the benefits of the packagethe money.
2) nobody's been able to describe what these "toxic" assets even are!
3) we've uh, been kinda burned on this whole "its gotta happen now now now, its good for the country, trust us" thing before. PATRIOT Act, anyone?

Update: the house just voted it down. Dow down 600ish points. Oh hell.
Update: MSNBC's got an interesting newsvine feed going... looks like 70% of respondents are saying "No it's not a good idea". http://tinyurl.com/48834e
Update: time to start drinking

Jackson Park Cyclocross Race Report

2008-09-22T20:36:00.012-05:00

See the race on MotionBased: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6817646

after 30 minutes of pain

xXx's Cyclocross offering in Jackson Park kicked off the Chicago Cross Cup for 2008. I arrived plenty early so I could watch the hour-long Pro/1/2 race - I wanted to see how experienced cross racers would ride the course - what lines they took approaching barricades, etc.

Heeding Randy's advice from the previous week, I pre-rode the ~1.25mi course twice. Generally flat, it provided some rather technical off-camber turns into barricades, 180 degree turns transitioning pavement to grass, and long straightaways allowing for passing. The course was generally narrow enough to make passing difficult outside of the straightaways, so I knew that positioning at the start would be critical to avoiding the inevitable traffic jam as the peleton headed into the first narrow section.

I managed to line up on the second row, inside at the start - at the time it seemed like the 4a group was big when I watched the start of that race, but now it seemed like there were MORE guys in the 4b race.

Dave Fowkes gave us our pre-race speech and started us off. The rider ahead of me clipped in properly and was off like a rocket - I was able to do the same and followed his wheel out of the start/finish area. I charged hard into the first narrow section, somewhere around 8th wheel. As I wound through, I caught the jam-up in my peripheral vision and charged ahead. I approached the off-camber-dismount-into-a-barricade and popped off the bike perfectly, somehow. I suitcased the bike up to the next barricade instead of rolling it (was yelled at for this), cleared the second barricade and remounted, clipped in, and was off again. Never had I so cleanly mounted/dismounted before. I was about 10th wheel when I came to the third barricade and dropped my chain... tried being uber-PRO and shift it back on, but it wasn't happening. I grabbed the chain, pitched it onto the small ring, and got back on the bike. I dropped my chain on that same spot 2 laps later... not sure what I was doing wrong. After the first chain drop I knew I was mid-pack and that it was unlikely I'd catch up, so I settled into a tempo and rode, trying to keep from being passed any further.

On the last lap, the intensity caught up with me and I just had no gas left in the tank but I pushed it out as hard as I could. On the back half, Guy Graves yelled "MOVE YOUR ASS ITS THE LAST LAP" which found me with more energy, somehow... knowing that there was a decent pavement section before the finish, I shifted into my 53x24 and stood on it, sprinting like there was no tomorrow - I hit the pavement and worked through the gears, hitting the grass again around 22-23mph and passing 2 or 3 riders in disbelief. I almost puked about 15 seconds after that last effort but held it back. Puke smell doesn't come out of bar tape, so I'm told.

My goal for the race was to survive, finishing without breaking anything. The bike's ok, I'm ok, and it was fun.

Before I raced, I wasn't sure if I'd like cyclocross. I found that answer in Jackson Park. :)

Luke's Race Photos

crossposted at: http://www.xxxracing.org/index.php?/site/reports/jackson_park_cyclocross/

Winner!

2008-09-19T17:30:00.005-05:00

I got a facebook message from the girl who moved into my old apartment... apparently a package had been delivered to my old address and vintage clothing store out front was holding it... hrm, I'm not expecting a package, ok.

I get to Shangri-La (cool place, cool people that run it btw) and the guy behing the counter points to a 2'x2' box... wtf? Then I notice "Accenture Chicago Triathlon" on the return address... coolio, it's my prize pack. Since I rode over there and had a half-full bag already, I figured I'd open it up to see what was inside.

I'll say, this is a pretty decent prize pack - I don't know if the regular age groupers got anything different than the clydes, but this is still pretty decent. Inside was a TYR Tri backpack big enough for a helluva lot of stuff - easily would work as a race bag, especially nice because it's got separate pockets for wet/nasty stuff. There was also a $50 gift certificate good towards Sidi product at Village Cycle Center.... but the best thing in the bag:

bling.

Hells yeah. I've got two of these bitches now. Maybe I shouldn't quit triathlon quite yet?

Wednesday Link Dump

2008-09-17T07:37:00.002-05:00

I haven't done one of these yet, let me know if you hate it.

Palin Baby Name Generator http://politsk.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah_13.html

$85B is a shitload of cash. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a6QAz6YiyRAI&refer=home

90B gallons is a shitload of water. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/debra-shore/storm-of-the-century_b_126341.html

Interesting proposal as an alternative to "deep tunnel... fascinating. http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/ourtown/070511/urbanlab/

Indoor MTB Park. Rad. http://www.raysmtb.com/index.html

Chicagoist is losing it. http://chicagoist.com/2008/09/16/margaret_and_marcus_turn_to_the_int.php

Yeesh

2008-09-14T23:31:00.003-05:00

As less-than-ideal-situations go, I thought I had it bad with the cross bike problems on Saturday.

Nope. Pants off, passed out on the beach in the morning. Never been there, I don't wanna.

Fun with the Cross Bike

2008-09-13T18:46:00.012-05:00

Today was quite the day. Since Gustav's remnants are dumping copious amounts of water all over the midwest you'd think it wasn't a good saturday to ride... au contraire. The original plan was to meet at the Lincoln/Damen Starbucks at 6:30 and ride from there. Since my contact about the *$ meet was Jeff and I had gotten a bail-text from him around 6:05 I had my reservations about leaving the house at all. I got in touch with Boggs who was still waiting at *$ and decided to kit up and get moving. It was completely worth it. I met the others and we rode up Lincoln a ways until I asked what route we were taking that involved so much of Lincoln... nobody had an answer so I took the lead and steered us westbound onto Lawrence en route to Devon/Milwaukee. When we got there, we noticed that the field below the toboggan slides was covered in water - some small patches of grass still visible though.

I've never been disappointed by Randy's clinics and this was no exception to that rule - we covered dismounting, mounting, dismount-barrier-mount, as well as group starts. I'd hoped for better results in the group starts but couldn't seem to get my damned shoes to clip in - I'm spoiled by SPD-SL and it's easy cleat-pedal interface. A normal portion of this clinic involves hill run-ups, but the growing lake in the field below us didn't allow for it. Too bad, shouldering the bike for no apparent reason just isn't quite the same.

At the end of the clinic, this is what we saw at the entrance to the N Branch Trail.

When we arrived, the picnic tables in the pavilion were visible, though water was covering the concrete pad below them - the dumpster serving the pavilion had some water around the base of it... when we left, water had all but topped the dumpster, and the tops of the picnic tables were covered. The North Branch Trail had at least 4' of water over it. An intrepid group of us tried to go north via Milwaukee>Harts Road but found Harts to be covered with rapidly flowing water... not sure exactly how deep it was, but you could definitely feel it pushing on your wheels upon riding through it. Since it would prove difficult to find decent non-flooded trails, we opted to grab a coffee to warm up for the ride home. Along the way we saw several railroad underpasses where cars were being towed out of the water - we also discovered that potholes lie under standing water several times, but luckily none of us flatted.

After I got home, I lounged around a bit and dried out since I had been wet for ~5 hours straight. Around 4 I set out to run some errands and took the cross bike back out. Nothing's quite as fun as putting sopping wet shoes onto dry socks, let me tell you.

As I was heading north along the deserted LFP around Belmont I figured I'd take advantage of the space and continue to practice dismounting/mounting the bike. After several successful rounds, one round that failed miserably (messr bag caught on saddle, oops), and another attempt that led to me face down in a puddle, I figured I'd get moving and finish playing in the mud. As I shifted, I heard some sad noises from my rear derailleur and felt my chain tension against something - not good. I looked back to find this gift from the cycling Gods:

Yeah, that's my rear derailleur. Fuct. Hardcore. Hangar bent 90 degrees all to hell, upside down like it's a trapeze artist or some shit. Sweet.

At this point, it really starts to rain. Thanks.

I snap a few pictures (naturally), whip out the multitool and get to work - hangar needs to come off, cabling removed from shifter & de-routed from lugs, you name it. I stuff everything into my bag while looking for my chain tool... which isn't there. Rock. On. So much for a cassette singlespeed solution to get home. I try to tension the chain across the 53x26 but that's just not happening - every time I put pressure on the cranks, the chain jumps around on the cassette all crazy-like. Chain's gotta come off. The rain lets up a bit.

Solution? Put this morning's skills clinic to the test. I tried running and mounting, but that's all kinds of hard to do when the crank is spinning freely - pedal smashing into my opposite shin, which is pretty cool. Next option, clip into one side and kick myself along with the opposite leg... this option worked best... one leg gets tired, coast it out and switch, the kick along some more. I made it to the Roscoe tunnel and hailed a cab on the other side. Cabbie not so thrilled about muddy wet bike-dude getting into his cab and he made no effort whatsoever to get my bike into his cab. After aborting that attempt at getting to a shop I realized I was only 2 blocks away from Belmont... as I'm scooting along I see a #77 sitting at the light... who knows when the next one will come, so I hop off, shoulder the bike, and run.

Pedestrians really don't know how to react when they see a sopping wet 6'6" dude with a bike on his shoulder running at them. Some, wisely, get the hell outta the way. Others stop like deer in headlights.

I made it to the bus, got the bike to a shop, and it's there for the night. Hopefully they can call me tomorrow with a full assessment of the damages. I need this bike up and running for next Sunday's race, so here's hoping the repairs are relatively straightforward... and that I don't need a new rear derailleur.

Pieter

2008-09-11T20:27:00.004-05:00

As I was riding yesterday I took a look at my jersey and saw the names printed on my sleeves - it was then I realized that today was significant for a reason other than most remember 9/11 for... it's the day we lost Pieter.

I couldn't not get out and ride. I'm not typically one to "enjoy" climbs, but for some reason they weren't so bad today. Maybe it was the fact that they were there, I was there, my bike there between us.

and back

Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway: Rocky River to Downtown

2008-09-08T20:22:00.011-05:00

This evening I decided to head west along the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway to see what it had to offer. I searched for maps/cue sheets online unsuccessfully so I figured that I'd just find my way out there. The westbound route from downtown out to Rocky River is essentially the same, save for one stretch through Ohio City where you're on one-way streets for a few blocks. Signs along the route aren't the "standard" green bike route signs w/ a white bike on them, but they are placed just before each turn in the trail. That said, there are a few spots where you've been pedaling along for quite some time without seeing a sign; it would be nice if there were a few more signs to reassure riders that they're still on the right track. The beginning of this review is designed to take you from the Northernmost point of the Rocky River Reservation along roads suitable for an experienced cyclist. If you're not comfortable with riding on roadways and/or with moderate traffic then you may want to try using a street parallel to the one I took. The below route review is written with directions eastbound from Rocky River to Downtown, but should be fairly easy to adapt for westbound travel.

Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway: Rocky River to Downtown

From Valley Parkway & Detroit Road, continue Northbound on Sloane Ave but prepare to make a left turn after ~150m onto Sloane Subway. This short yet very interesting street seems to be the only way to cross an abandoned set of railroad tracks, and spits you out onto Clifton Rd. You'll be traveling along good pavement here, with wide undulating residential streets lined with beautiful homes - this is the case for your entire time spent in Lakewood. You'll cross Rt. 2/US 60/Clifton Blvd, continuing North onto Lake Avenue for a short time until you hit Webb ave and will need to make a quick right followed by a quick left as Lake does not cleanly cross Webb.

Lake Avenue is not an ideal road for recreational cycling, but it's definitely the best option in the area. Traffic is not particularly heavy because of Lake Ave's proximity to US 60. You'll continue for approximately 3.5 miles where you'll make a left onto Cove Ave, approaching many large midrise apartment/condo buildings overlooking Lake Erie. Follow Cove for a block and make a right onto Edgewater Drive. Continue along Edgewater and you'll leave the midrise buildings behind and return to single family homes along both sides of the street. You'll reach the beginning of the Cleveland Lakefront Bikeway at the intersection of 115th Street and Edgewater Drive, almost exactly 4 miles from the start.

Edgewater drive continues eastbound, the pavement along this portion is rough at times but in generally good condition. You're on a very gradual downhill here, but you'll soon drop down to lake level. At Edgewater and West Ave, follow the bikeway signs into Edgewater park where you'll continue on a 8'-10' wide path that snakes through the park. Take some time to refill your bottles here if necessary, but be sure to check out the view before you go down the hill.

At this point, check your brakes because you're going to need them - you're in for a 5%-10% descent down to lake level, and there's beach sand blown all over the path. Take care not to hit sand at speed, even experienced cyclists have trouble with staying rubber side down with sand under the tires. The path diverges at the bottom, if you'd prefer to explore the park take a left turn, the path is a loop through the park and will bring you back. If you're heading downtown, keep moving straight and head towards the Rt. 2 underpass. Stay alert here and obey your stop sign, there are cars moving on and off an expressway here and they may not be aware that there's a bike path at the base of the ramp. Put yourself in an easy gear, you're about to climb up about 40 vertical feet in a rather short time.

From the park you'll climb into Ohio City through a subway beneath railroad tracks. Be alert through here, there's quite a few turns in addition to a fair amount of glass in the tunnel, so watch where you're pointing those tires! Once out of the tunnel, there's a bit more twisty climbing to do, so stick it out and you'll find yourself in a light industrial/residential part of Ohio City, @ the intersection of W 65th Street and Father Caruso Drive. Continue south on 65th for a couple blocks and follow the sign to make a left onto Herman Ave for a block, then another right onto 58th followed by a quick left onto Tillman Ave. These turns are all well-signed, but some trees should be trimmed to make finding the signs a little easier. Tillman ave is the eastbound route, westbound riders at this point would use Herman Ave one block to the North. Follow Tillman for two blocks then make a right onto 49th and a quick left onto Detroit Ave.

Detroit Ave is probably the "hairy" section of this ride, but it's really not that bad. The right lane offers parallel parking, which provides the cyclist with 4' between parked car and the dashed lane line divider where traffic flows. Follow Detroit Ave the rest of the way through Ohio City and over the Veteran's Memorial Bridge. A note about the bridge - it was widened beyond the original steel structure at some point and there's a lane to the right of the steel. This is NOT the best place to ride. If you watch the painted lines carefully, you'll notice that the bike lane requires you to cross over the rightmost lane of traffic into the bike lane which is then adjacent to the center travel lane. Once past the main span of the bridge, the center bike lane ends and reappears on the right shoulder once again. This isn't an ideal situation, but with proper signaling a cyclist shouldn't have much problem getting through this area.

Once over the bridge, it's only a few blocks further East to Public Square, Tower City, or anywhere else downtown you'd like to go. Put your bike on the RTA and find a new place to ride, or maybe grab a bite to eat somewhere on 4th ave or the warehouse district.

Making this site better.

2008-09-03T13:51:00.000-05:00

Per

your instructions,

Patron.

Derailleur Hanger, Maybe?

2008-09-03T10:36:00.000-05:00

I took the new wheels out for a ride on Labor Day... great fun. Leonard, Peggy, Alberto and I took the team route up to Highland Park. Wheels are stiff and roll VERY smooth - the rear's freehub is very quiet, especially compared to my Ksyriums.

At one point on the way back, I shifted into my 26... and hear a faint "cling cling cling". I've heard this before: rear derailleur cage hitting spokes. Damnit. My hanger's probably bent just slightly - who knows how long it's been that way, probably from the last time I shipped it? The Proctor crash?

Grr. Here's hoping this doesn't turn into a fiasco of parts replacement.

New Wheels!

2008-08-31T21:28:00.000-05:00

I've been eyeing a new set of road wheels for a while now - my backup/training wheels were lost to my cross bike over the winter and I've never made up for it... until now. I was between a set of Neuvation R23 Aero4's and "Traditional" Ultegra Hub/Mavic Open Pro wheels. Each had pros, the Neuvations are lighter, both are known to be very strong regardless of how you torture them, and they both cost under $300/set.

Through much consultation with others and many people as fans in either camp, I decided to pick up the Ultegra/Open Pro setup... mostly because I got them locally and didn't have to wait, but also because they ended up being $220 since they were on sale at a certain store that's in cahoots with a secret website where they have ridonkulous prices on things. I couldn't pass them up for 40% less than the Neuvations.

64 spokes of fury!

This evening I set out on a quick test run... planning to ride early in the morning and the last thing I want is a wheel problem so I figured I'd give them a spin. I threw on some FSA rim strip (I normally prefer VeloFlex cotton tape, this is an experiment), some tubes and tires off my destructorated Mavic Cosmics and off I was. As soon as I put weight on them, I heard the spokes pop into place... great. This is one disadvantage of hand "finished" wheelsets, but for the price I can deal with it. Wheels felt nice and stiff for standing sprints, accelerate well but definitely not as easily as my Ksyriums - those will be a lighter weight "treat" for race day from now on. I headed north to Hollywood on the LFP, where a Fred grabbed my wheel around Addison and sucked wheel all the way to the Irving Park tennis courts, at which point I looked back and kindly informed him that I'd appreciate him announcing when he's on my wheel - all too often you need to take quick evasive action on the LFP and if some Fred is overlapping your rear wheel without your knowledge... bad news. I made it to Hollywood and hopped off the bike to check the wheels - true and round. Sweet. I did, however, notice that the nose of my saddle was pointed up a tad. I'm hoping I can torque that bolt down to keep this thing from moving, time will tell on that one.

On the way back, a Fred on a double squish was on my wheel. What's with these guys? First, it's flat here. Second, the LFP is PAVED AND SMOOTH. If you were riding on Lake Shore Drive you might need the full suspension, but it's entirely unnecessary. Whatever. Since I was out for a short ride to test these wheels, I wasn't looking to drop anyone nor was I feeling competitive. I maintained 18-20mph all the way south to Belmont, where I peeled off... at which point Fred exclaims:

"Thanks for being the rabbit".

Oh, Fred. You're so welcome.

Douche.

In other news, I like my new wheels :)

Chicago Triathlon Race Report

2008-08-26T19:50:00.001-05:00

2008 Chicago Triathlon Race Report - Aug 24 2008

Going into this race, I knew that I hadn't put the effort into it this year like I had in the year prior - my training schedule in 2007 was entirely focused on this race, with bike races as secondary. When planning this year out, I really thought that I'd be able to "do it all", mixing triathlons in with a full schedule of road races and crits... not so much. Over the winter I became much more comfortable in the water - a requirement for a race like Escape from Alcatraz. I hadn't been on a strict training regimen since June, so I knew that I would be "coasting" on residual swimming fitness since I'd only been in the pool a max of once a week for the last few months.

Tracy arrived just in time for me to hand off my flip flops and get lined up - I had tucked a GU into the ankle of my wetsuit but by the time I zipped up it was nowhere to be found. Great. Looking around, I noticed that the wave was MUCH bigger than it had been in years past... all Men's Clydesdales were starting in Wave 27. Great. We started getting into the water and I positioned myself in the middle, only having to tread water for about 30 seconds before we were off. I started my Garmin and flattened out into the water.

oblivious me.

For as many guys as there were in the wave, the beginning of the swim wasn't too bad. I quickly made my way up to the front third of the wave, only having to swim over the top of two or three people to get there. About 300 yards out my goggles fogged to the point where I couldn't see a thing, so I moved over to the seawall where I could lick the lenses - this did the trick and I was fine for the remainder of the swim. We were at the Shedd Aquarium before I knew it, while turning around the buoy I peeked back and realized that I was pulling most of the group - there weren't too many pink caps ahead of me! I stuck it out for another 200-300 yards and started feigning fatigue - no point in letting these suckers draft me for the entire swim - it was their turn to do some work. It only took a few "soft" strokes in the water to be passed, at which time I promptly jumped into the leader's wake and matched his rhythm. With 100yd to go, I kicked into high gear and oxygen debt, even managing to breathe bilaterally in order to get out of the water as quickly as possible.

The run from the water always sucks. My first year I did it without stashing shoes. Mistake. I had my shoes in a good spot this year, so I stopped to put them on, along with my xXx jersey that I had laid on top of them. I fiddled with getting my Garmin onto my wrist, something I shouldn't have wasted time with since it was going to be clipped onto the bike anyways... but who's thinking logically during T1 anyways? Tracy was right there to lend support - I don't know if she was talking to me, yelling, screaming, or had signs - I knew she was there but was so "in the zone" that the world was on mute.

this run always sucks.

I got to transition and my bike with ease - I had prewalked it and knew exactly where I was going. Not many of my wave's bikes were gone and for that I was thrilled and thankful... I've not had that happen before since my swim has always sucked. I put on my socks and shoes, donned my helmet and rolled out, putting my gloves on while maneuvering the bike with the other hand (that's really hard to do, by the way).

Starting out onto the bike course I knew my legs just weren't in prime shape - they felt sluggish even when I passed through the Oak Street Chicane. Sunday's headwind certainly wasn't helping, I could barely maintain 19 mph regardless of how I positioned myself. Encouraged by the spaceship sounds of my borrowed Zipp 606's (thanks, Mission Bay!) I tried my best to put the hammer down and get myself up to Foster Ave for the turn back south, figuring I could make up the lost time on the southbound stretches. Once turned south, I found that the pavement was somehow in WORSE condition than it was for Bike the Drive. Great. Tanks to Da Mare for dat won. Hizzoner could have had CDOT put some effort into Lake Shore Drive, especially since this will likely be the Olympic Triathlon course if/when Chicago 2016 happens and the IOC was likely watching this event. Potholes, cracks, rough patches... and a BIG ASS HOLE FULL OF SAND awaited us on the southbound stretch. I managed to recognize the inconsistent pavement far enough in advance to avoid most of it, but it was hard to find a rhythm when constantly swerving to avoid people/holes/aero drink sponges/water bottles. Southbound, the wind helped a great deal but it just wasn't enough for me to average the 40km/h I needed to come in at an hour for the bike leg. As I passed Chicago Ave on the way to T2 I ate another GU to prepare for the run. While coming down the suicide ramp before dismount, I heard a bunch of people yell out for me - I presumed these were xXxers who saw me coming down the ramp (I had my team jersey on).

"suicide" u-turn onto lower randolph

Transition still wasn't terribly busy... and there were few bikes on my wave's rack. I still wasn't going to celebrate too much as the run is BY FAR my weakest event. I took off my helmet, threw on my shoes and grabbed my crack pack (Enervitene) as I was already feeling that I'd need it just to get through the run. I headed out with apprehension - on last year's run I experienced some of the worst foot pain I've ever had... it felt like a needle being shoved through the ball of my foot... pretty sweet. Around Mile 2 the pain kicked in, both feet this time but the left foot being far worse than the right. As last year, if I alternated between running and walking and stayed in the gravel/grass I knew I'd make it. Keeping in mind that I was targeting 2:45, I had started on pace to hit that number but having to walk some would prevent me from achieving that goal - the pain was sufficient that I didnt' care. I found another guy who I had started the race with while running, he was having problems with chest congestion and just couldn't get enough air. We leapfrogged each other doing the walk/run drill until around mile 3 we started to encourage one another to get moving. I knew that I had to beat last year's time... I had a fever, and the only prescription was to HTFU and more cowbell. Someone was ringing it, because I came out of the LSD tunnel with some energy for the last 200m and finished strong.

Overall, I managed to place three full minutes faster than last year at 2:56, also first in my Division - Men 250+ Lb Under 39y/o. I'll take that.

first in my division. didn't know it at the time.

Here's my splits from the past 3 years (click to embiggen).

2008 Chicago Triathlon, FTW!

2008-08-25T21:43:00.000-05:00

I won my division. Holy kick ass sweet.

The guy who came in behind me was 4 minutes faster in the swim, but I was 4 minutes faster on the bike... he was 50 seconds faster than me on the run. He lost the race in transition. My T1 was 2:47 faster, T2 was 13 seconds faster.

It totally pays to roll your socks off so you can get them back onto wet feet faster :)

Full race report pending.

Paid! (DHL Broked my Bike, Part 2)

2008-08-25T07:51:00.000-05:00

In an earlier post I noted that DHL had broken my bike on a whirlwind tour of the eastern US... looks like they've owned up to it, there was a check in my mailbox this morning. It sucks that they lost my cleanest, whitest 2007 xXx jersey, but I suppose the funds can go towards buying a 2009 jersey.

I will say, DHL's claim process could have been much more of a painful process. I've processed insurance claims in the past and all too often the adjusters have a mountain of claims to handle on a daily basis, with many claims having quite a long tail on them due to inspections, missing paperwork, etc. I probably made it easier on both my adjuster and myself by providing a ton of pictures, narrative, and documentation with my original claim submission... still, two weeks from filing the claim to having a check in hand is a pretty quick turnaround.

Still... it seems odd that DHL chose to send me the check via USPS. Why wouldn't they deliver it themselves? Fear of being damaged?

Cleveland Metroparks: Rocky River Reservation

2008-08-18T18:57:00.002-05:00

Let me say this... Cleveland's got some SWEET riding. When I found out I was coming out here I spoke with Jeff who informed me that he was jealous... I'd be able to ride the metroparks. I'm inclined to agree.

Since I'm not here on the weekends and my work schedule makes a 5-hour ride impossible during daylight hours I broke the "emerald necklace" up into chunks so I could ride the whole thing. I'm sure I'll find a portion that I like best, but it's all pretty dayum cool so far.

Rocky River Reservation

From Bagley Road to the lake you'll find some of the best riding I've come across in a while - especially considering your proximity to a major airport and metro area. Valley Parkway is two lanes with good pavement, though you will occasionally come across a rough section from the right tire track to the shoulder. Northbound is a slight downhill, not enough to really recognize unless you've got a computer that tracks it. Having a slight tailwind and this downhill, I thought I was just having a great day out on the bike until I turned back south and reality washed over me.

There aren't many stop signs or lights on this section - 4 or 5 stoplights at most. It's truly a place close to the city where a recreational cyclist can get a quality workout with minimal traffic hassle, especially since the road's speed limit is 30mph and visibility at the intersections is very good.

As amenities go, you are riding through a park so there are restrooms and drinking fountains aplenty. There is a golf course with a snack bar just south of Lorain road, but that's pretty much your only convenient food/drink option so be sure to bring everything you'll need along with you.

At the north end, Valley Parkway abruptly ends at Detroit Road and there's no signage to indicate which direction a person might go from there based on your ultimate destination - Cleveland's bicycling network seriously leaves something to be desired on this front. I had my Garmin GPSMap60CS with me so I was able to navigate through some of the neighborhoods closer to the lake, where I discovered that the majority of the shoreline was privately owned with little to no public access. Apparently there is a public beach here at the end of Columbia Road (at Lake Road, Route 6), but I didn't attempt to venture over there as I was losing daylight. On that note - if there's a chance that you'll be out at or after sunset, you will need lights on this stretch of road as it gets quite dark and drivers are unlikely to expect cyclists on the road at night. Should you be stuck without lights, I'd suggest taking the bike path adjacent to Valley Parkway as a safer alternative.

I'll post more sections as I get a chance to ride and review them.

Kashi

2008-08-15T15:23:00.000-05:00

I was out of cereal, and my Cleveland apartment doesn't have much around it for grocery stores, so taking a cue from my lady, I went "grocery shopping" at CVS... ended up with a box of Kashi GoLean! Crunch.

I should have heeded The Car Whisperer's Advice. I sat down watching the olympics and decided I'd try a handful of it - before I knew what had happened I had eaten half the box.

I'll say one thing, ~24 hours after you eat a bunch, you sure as hell feel like you've "Gone Lean!". It's powerful stuff to say the least.

It's ironic that a colonic roto-rooter cereal might cause you to have to call roto-rooter to deal with the aftermath.

DHL broked my bike.

2008-08-07T10:52:00.000-05:00

In shipping my cross bike from Seattle to Cleveland, DHL decided to send it on a whirlwind tour of the USA.

Yeah, you read that right. Seattle to Ohio to Virginia to Ohio to Pennsylvania to Ohio. Logistics are complicated. What's efficient doesn't always make sense to those not close to the operation. I'm guessing that the Virginia trip was completely unnecessary... and people might wonder why DHL is in dire financial straits, looking to have UPS carry freight for them.

In the process, my bike suffered injury... you've gotta do bad things to a boxed bike to bend a derailleur hanger and knock a wheel out of true. I don't know exactly what happened, nor do I want to know. Along with the bike being hurt, a team jersey must have fallen out somehow, because I packed ALL my clothes (clean and dirty) in the bike box for shipment. The jersey was the only thing dirty because I missed it when I did my last load of laundry, so it was in a separate bag on top. Grr. I'd rather have my jersey than the $69 I paid for it, especially since it was the only 2007 jersey that I hadn't crashed in.

I found a Trek dealer online, took it in for them to install the new hangar and true the wheel - they tried telling me that I should go for a super tune-up ($129!) since I also wanted to have the rear brake re-cabled (not DHL's fault) but I figured that would just complicate the damage claim process to not have a separate receipt for the shipping damages. $63.87 for the wheel true, new hanger, and derailleur adjustment. Not unreasonable.

I'm sending the claim form in today... I figured 2 hours at $30/hour was pretty reasonable since it took me about an hour to figure out what the hell was wrong with the bike, plus I had to drive the bike to and from the bike shop, which took about an hour total. I'm guessing they'll dispute this portion.

A Cyclists Prayer.... and Pray you check those Keos

2008-08-06T22:49:00.001-05:00

swiped from:
http://cyclelight.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html#5028003999837287830

Well said, especially the "silence until peaceful words policy" post-crash.

A Cyclists Prayer

I say a few prayers while riding and racing bikes. These help me keep things in perspective and keep it real. Here are a few of my common prayers that aren’t too personal.

Allow these bike racers not to rage against each other but to strive with each other. Amen

Let these racers not get injured so they are able to continue to do purposeful work off of the bike and be able to do all the goodness they can with their families and friends. Amen

Keep me from lusting after these bicycles. Help make my bicycle a tool for goodness as I pray while riding. Amen

Help me not get angry at riders who don’t hold their line. Especially do not let me get angry when riders force their way between me and the racer in front of me because this is just a competitive move in racing bikes. Amen

I know that the act of bike racing really doesn’t compare to more meaningful acts but at least let this time be enriched by prayer. And more importantly let this time be one of harmony between racers. Let us show support for each other and not trash talk or gossip. Amen

Help me not get angry at this guy who is opening up gaps and riding at an uneven pace. Rather let me turn this anger over to energy toward catching the pack. Give me similar energy toward purposeful goals in my life. Amen

If a racer causes me to crash may I not say anything until I can speak some peaceful words. Amen

Riding Look Keo's? Check them for a recall. Makes me glad I chose SPD-SL's.

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/prhtml08/08354.html

Tour of Elk Grove 4's - Where's my power?

2008-08-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

Chicago residents are no strangers to traffic, but it was quite a surprise to find the Kennedy at a standstill as we headed out to Elk Grove from the city... so much for a pre-race warmup, we figured. When we arrived, it was clear that this event was as well organized as last year - 40 minutes prior to the start of the first race, barricades and cameras were in place, the finish line was striped, and not to be outdone by Da Mare, Elk Grove had a Jumbotron!

Registration was another story... Race organizers: Pre-registration benefits organizer and racer alike. One of the ways you can make everyone's life easier is to pre-fill USAC waivers on behalf of your participants so the check-in process goes much smoother. You get a legible form, we don't have to scramble to find a decent writing surface. Deal. It took almost 20 minutes to sign my form and get my numbers... and there was no line when I walked up to the table. By the time I walked away, there were at least 10 people waiting.

While changing for the race, the 5's were off and it was strung out from the beginning... I thought it was a preview lap at first, but when I saw the leaders' speeds it was apparent that the 5's were strung out from the beginning. No such luck for us. When we got to the staging area to line up, everyone was antsy - it was getting quite warm out and first race had gotten off a few minutes late. Once the pace car confirmed the course was clear of the previous race, we were told to head to the line, no preview lap. At the line, the referee announced that our race was being cut to 25 minutes + 2 instead of the prescribed 30 minutes + 1. Positioning at the line is critical in this narrow course, so I moved up as far as possible. We started fast, and the group strung out a good bit due to some poor clip-ins at the line. Having raced the 5's last year, I knew this course. Elk Grove's L-shaped course features 180 degree turns that create a nightmarish accordion crashfest if you're in the back of the pack, somewhere I planned to stay far away from... plans change. For the first several laps, I stayed in the front 10 wheels, even chasing down a few attacks on the backstretch. For a bit it seemed that a break might get away, but despite my efforts to block they weren't quite far enough out to hold. Having been off the bike for most of July due to moving, vacation, and my insane work schedule, I knew that these August races would be tough, but I hadn't anticipated having little to no power coming out of the corners. For whatever reason, I just couldn't accelerate like I used to - a serious detriment in this race. With two to go I was spit out the back with a fellow teammate. We worked together to finish strong, determined not to let a pack of ~10 or so catch us. We managed to stay away, finishing in the bottom of the results.

In all, a well organized event despite some challenges at registration. I just need to figure out where the hell my power went. If anyone finds it, let me know - I'll have you overnight it to me. I could use it.

Seattle Critical Mass Clusterfuck

2008-07-28T16:40:00.000-05:00

Apparently everything went to hell during Seattle's Critical Mass ride on Friday. A car got corked, mean words were exchanged, car was damaged, bikes run over, people hurt.

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/07/the_driver_speaks

“I’m gay, the person with me was a lesbian and we were a attacked by eco-terrorists. It’s the most Seattle thing that could have happened."

I've ridden CM a few times in the past and it definitely instilled a LOT of confidence in my ability to ride through the streets of Chicago... but I've grown up. On the Advocacy front, there's little if any positive impact from the event, other than the participants' having a hell of a fun time and bikes being involved. I'm all for a good time, but when the group grows to several thousand riders to create a polluting traffic jam, it only serves to anger drivers... and they take it out on any cyclist they see... which could be your friend, loved one...

Chicago Criterium Race Report

2008-07-27T23:38:00.000-05:00

Between being off the bike for three weeks and this being my first proper 4's race, I knew that my result in the Chicago Criterium wouldn't be pretty, but since it was the inaugural event and the start/finish was only 6 miles from home... you just gotta race it!

This course, wow. Holy awesome. A little something for everyone - small climbs, a technical backstretch, and WIDE sprinting lanes. These are the elements that criterium dreams are made of. I'm not sure if Chicago stumbled across this throu dumb luck or if they had experts design it, but this is what a crit is suppose to be... the fact that it's almost half a mile away from the closest Burger King sits well with most riders, too. It was clear that Chicago was on display for the IOC, with banners and inflatables touting the Chicago 2016 Summer Olympics bid. In all, for the first year of the event, things seemed to be set up and staged well from a race execution perspective.

After hearing about some of the carnage in the earlier races, I decided that I didn't want to crash a third time this season so I figured I'd sit in the middle and see how things looked from there. Bad move. I should have known it was going to be a hammerfest when Dave Fowlkes announced that we were racing 30min + 2 rather than the scheduled 35+1. A minor difference, true... but throwing a wrench into things by cutting the time always seems to move a race a bit uptempo. From the get go, this was F A S T. I've ridden with a lot of these 4's when we were all 5's and/or in 4/5 combined fields... but never on a course this wide open. 25mph on the short ends, 35mph on the front and back stretch, including the Congress Parkway semicircle. I floated from the middle of the pack to the back quarter, where the accordion effect was terrible. Several times I'd try to move up, but the 119 riders in the field managed to fill the spacious course and made moving up quite the chore. I managed to hang with the group for about 20-22 minutes until I popped off the back when everyone accelerated with a prime sprint. I did get lapped with one to go, but managed to get out of the pack's way in choosing the "wrong" line through the course so they could safely pass. I'm pretty sure I was DFL, but at least I wasn't pulled.

In all, the race was smooth and safe, with only one crash that I didn't witness as I was off the back - apparently someone went down on the Michigan/Balbo corner, causing many riders to slow themselves out of contention.

I look forward to this race next year - hopefully I'll be in better shape. I was dissapointed in my result, but I still had a blast.

You did good on dis one, Da Mare.

Slipstream's Motionbased Site

2008-07-24T22:51:00.000-05:00

I use motionbased to track my outdoor workouts... very cool that Slipstream has uploaded this year's Tour stages.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/user/slipstreamsports2008

Enjoy.

Alaska: Kenai Fjords Tour (July 20)

2008-07-23T23:24:00.000-05:00

The morning after... still a little blurry but all appendages still intact for both of us, so it was a successful night of drinking. I'd booked our cruise as we were waiting for the wedding shuttle to pick us up, so we didn't have much on the agenda for the morning.

Soo's breakfast was stellar once again - pancakes with a berry compote toppping - perfect little alcohol sponges that did the trick. Knowing that we were going on a boat ride, Tracy and I were able to successfully eat enough to get rid of the hangover but not so much that we'd get seasick if things got rough out there.

After breakfast, we headed back to the room - I blogged one of the previous entries while Tracy was getting ready, then we made our way to Seward's small boat harbor to catch the boat. Seward's harbor was drastically different than Homer's, to say the least. It's less fishing-centric and definitely has been made very tourist-friendly (there's a Subway, ha) to accomodate the numerous cruise and tour passengers that come through the area. It's unlikely that many of them make it to the proper downtown area, it definitely has a lot to offer. We picked up our boarding passes and made our way across the pier to the awaiting Kenai Star.

We had two options - a 3-4 hour bay cruise or an 8 hour glacier cruise. Since we'd hiked to Exit Glacier a few days prior, we'd thought about doing the shorter trip but we're certainly glad that we went on the longer dinner cruise. We got our seating assignment and decided that we'd go out on the deck instead of sitting inside right away... everyone else did this as well. Luckily as the cruise went on, more and more people declined to brave the wind coming off the cold Pacific waters and decided to sit indoors in the warm cabin - more space for us.

Over the course of our 8 hour cruise, we saw humpback whales, orcas, several tpes of seals, sea otters, lots of puffins and other sea birds, a big freakin glacier, and some dall's porpoise... and after dinner (Prime Rib and Red Salmon) Tracy spilled coffee all over her pants.

No seasickness on this boat ride, whee! We spent some time near a glacier, and it got MUCH colder, apparently the water temperature drops to ~34 degrees in close proximity. There were enough large pieces of glacier floating in the water that the captain had to steer around them in a zig-zag pattern in order to get us close.

The above video gives you some idea... It was pretty creepy to hear the ice screeching against the hull. The "thunk" noises you hear are "berglets" (little icebergs) that the boat is running into. Visions of "Titanic" flashed through my mind... but it was well worth it.

Once we headed away from the glacier, the crew made an announcement: they had fished a piece of glacier ice out of the water and had chopped it up for drinks... glacier margaritas were on special for $4. What a great way to sell a bunch of drinks!

After we returned to Seward, we walked back to Soo's and got ready to go out - the Seward Ale House awaited us; those still in town had agreed to meet up for one last time since most of us were heading in different directions on Monday.

It's hard to beat a dog-friendly bar that serves draft beer in mason jars and has free hot dogs. We took advantage.

In all this was a great end to a wonderful trip - we had a blast, A and B got hitched, and we brought home some fish. It's a little disheartening not to see mountains whenever you look for the horizon, but I suppose the Chicago Skyline's not half bad either.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Sorry...

2008-07-23T13:44:00.001-05:00

I'll get my final post up about the Alaska trip soon... it's been a whirlwind of flights and I'll be in one place for the next few days.

If you need something to stare at... http://letour.fr- alpe d'huez is today.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Alaska: Seward & Wedding (July 18-19)

2008-07-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

After our fishing expedition the day before, we were glad to be traveling on dry land for the next few days. We packed up in Homer and made our way around the Peninsula to Seward where our friends were awaiting us. Aleta's the first friend I made in Chicago and I certainly credit her with founding many of the relationships I still have today. (awwwww.) When she and Ben called last summer I was flattered - they definitely wanted me to be able to make the date and were considering my schedule in setting the wedding date. The drive from Homer to Seward definitely showed the variety of climates that can be found in Alaska, from coastal plains south of Kenai to Alpine meadows and forests north of Kenai. Tracy and I leisurely made our way across the ~130 miles between towns, stopping to check out small streams in the hope that we'd see salmon running, but we didn't come across any.

Tracy and I arrived into town a bit early and checked into our Bed and Breakfast. When we arrived, the lady of the house was outside to greet us. I had stayed in a B&B once prior, but it was nothing quite like this - I must say that this is the nicest accomodation we experienced ANYWHERE in Alaska, and it was also the most reasonably priced. If you're heading to Seward, I highly recommend Soo's.

(Soo's Website)

Shortly after checking in, we met up with another of the wedding guests who was staying at our B&B and decided we'd carpool up to the the BBQ hosted by the bride's parents. We connected with a few others who hadn't rented cars and gave them a lift to dinner as well. At the BBQ It was great to be able to see many people in advance of the wedding - it gave everyone a chance to stuff their faces with absurd amounts of fresh red salmon (less than 24 hours dead, yumm) while catching up and having a few drinks. While catching up, I introduced Tracy to those she hadn't already met and we started talking about plans for the next morning - some had decided they wanted to hike up to Exit Glacier on the north side of town - we had decided that was something we wanted to do while in town, so we made plans to meet up the next morning for the hike, being sure to leave enough time to get ready prior to the ceremony.

The next morning at Soo's we were treated to a better breakfast than we could have imagined. Soo had laid out quite a spread, and this was the case every day. She always had "berry crunch", a blackberry/raspberry bread pudding that we ended up taking a "to-go" container of on our last morning.

After rendezvous with Nate, Les and Courtney, we headed out of town towards the road entrance to Kenai Fjords National park. After turning off of Seward highway and heading up the road about 4 miles, we came across this sight:

We knew this was going to be awesome right away.

Dork that I am, I strapped my Forerunner onto my wrist for the duration of the hike. The track and associated data can be viewed here: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6293744. Our 5.5 mile hike afforded us beautiful views, some great exercise on an absolutely gorgeous, azure day that couldn't have been better.

I got to lick a glacier! Halfway up to the Ice Field

The 5 of us
(Les, Courtney, Nate, Tracy, and Me)

In all, it was a beautiful morning to go for a hike and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. On the way back to town, we had to drop Courtney off into the bride's domain as she was no longer ours - bridesmaid duties were calling.

After lunch and a nap, we made our way to the Shuttle stop and went out to the Seward Windsong Lodge where the ceremony was to be held.

Ben was appropriately gussied up in a suit, and Aleta appeared in a dress (first time most people had seen her in a dress), the ceremony was traditional yet telling of the couple's personality... though I think Ben would have gotten some Bjork in there if Aleta wouldn't have killed him for it.

At the reception, Tracy had Halibut and I had Caribou. What else could have been appropriate for an Alaskan wedding? After eating, A&B cut the wedding pie (blackberry mmmmm) and it was served to all with a scoop of ice cream on top - delicious!

There was "dancing".

After pie was served, the crowd started to turn on one another... scotch was bought, shots were bought, embarrasing shots were bought for the groom to consume in front of his grandmother, shots were licked off of the groom... standard wedding fare, of course.

The rest is a blur. Soo's breakfast the next morning was pancakes - delicious little alcohol sponges.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Alaska: Kenai and Homer (July 15-17)

2008-07-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

After arriving in Anchorage and melee fighting for our luggage, we secured a cab to the Airport in order to pick up our rental car... at the Hertz counter we were offered either a Taurus or a Minivan. Decisions, decisions! We opted for the Taurus, and to our surprise got a brand new one... brand new as in 7 miles on the odometer. Shiny new wheels beneath us, we made our way to The Car Whisperer's mother's house, where she so graciously offered to put us up for another night. We stopped for groceries along the way, and I managed to buy some of the most expensive apples in history... $4.49/lb. Yikes, $2/apple.

The next morning we set out for Kenai, an apparently beautimus day ahead of us. At the innermost point of the turnagain arm we stopped at a wildlife center that was much more like a zoo than we had expected... there's something unsettling about going all the way to Alaska in order to see moose, bear, etc behind bars. We snapped a few pictures but then quickly made our way up into the mountains towards Kenai.

The drive from Girdwood to Kenai was by far the most gorgeous countryside we've ever seen - the turquoise blue water of Kenai Lake and River are spectacular, add in the mountains and lush greenery and it's truly a gorgeous place.

We made our way into Kenai and were 3 miles on the other side of the town before we realized that we had driven through town - not much there at all. We swung back through and checked out our hotel... to our dismay it was in between a Home Depot and a Carls Jr. Since we weren't planning on fishing in Kenai and the town didn't have much else to offer, we decided to spend two nights in Homer and got back on the road.

Somewhere between Kenai and Homer, Tracy needed a restroom break... and we came across this place:

Why this sign indicated this was a reasonable place to stop, I'll never know.

We saddled up to the bar and ordered a few beers, then Tracy went to the restroom... while she was in the restroom there was a good bit of jeering and some snide comments about our attire (I don't think either of us own Carhartts, the apparent attire de rigeur). I drank my beer as quickly as possible and hinted to Tracy that she might do the same. Shortly after we made our way outta there.

Upon arriving in Homer, we decided we'd made the right decision to stay there for two nights. We drove out onto the spit and recognized that there was quite a bit to do there, and that we definitely wanted to go fishing. At The Car Whisperer's suggestion we stopped into the Salty Dawg, an infamous establishment out on the spit.

Words cannot describe the Dawg(maybe "low clearance"?, but you've just gotta go there if you're ever in Homer.
Bring a $1 bill to leave behind.

We checked into our hotel and wanted to go for a run, but the rain deterred us - we went out in search of food. We went into a liquor store for some wine, and the guy behind the counter suggested we head over to Duggan's since we were in the mood for burgers and beer. Since we're not used to smoky bars anymore it was a little off-putting at first, but it certainly didn't deter us. A guitar/singer duo were performing in the back room, so we made our way across the uneven floors and found a table in the back.

(On the topic of uneven flooring... what the hell? Why does it seem like buildings here are so slipshod? Is it a lack of care, skilled contractors, or building code?)

The next morning we slept in and decided we definitely wanted to fish that afternoon. I made a few calls and found a half-day halibut trip that had space on it. We knew it was going to be a bit of a rough ride, but had NO IDEA what we were actually embarking upon. We had a 1:45 trip out to the fishing grounds, which was no small feat in 4 foot seas... the tide was on its way out, but we were sailing into the wind, which combined for quite a rough ride. There were about 20 people on the boat including the three crew, and 12-15 of us ended up getting seasick. A few people started puking over the sides while on our way out, but after we dropped anchor the chunks really started to fly... it was quite a challenge to stabilize your body AND stomach with decks pitching and cookies being tossed. Neither Tracy nor myself had ever been seasick in the past, but these conditions proved too much for us and we fell victim to the conditions.

Despite feeling awful, Tracy managed to get the first fish of the trip! She landed a 20lb halibut - a freaky looking yet tasty seabeast that yielded 9lb of fillets. I managed to get a bunch of bites and had my bait (delicious herring) swiped numerous times, but only landed a rockfish. Once the tide had completed its shift, the seas got noticeably rougher and the Captain let us know that we needed to head back in - we pulled in our lines and headed back in. By the time the boat made it back in we were both feeling MUCH better, so we headed to our hotel, went for a run and called it a night.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Mopeds and Bike Lanes

2008-07-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

I saw this post from Lawyer Jim at Chicago Bike Law and was inspired... He's spot on - with gas prices escalating there are an increasing number of people riding scooters and mopeds in the bike lanes, and the drivers seem to be under the impression that it's their right to do so... I encountered a scooter in the bike lane when Southbound on Damen at Montrose, the exchange went something like this:

Me: "dude, you can't have that thing in the bike lane"
Dude: "what?" (we were at 17-20mph)
Me: "get that shit out of the bike lane, no motorized vehicles allowed"
Dude: "it's 49cc!"
Me: " doesn't matter, its got a motor. get outta the bike lane or I'm calling your plate in"

At that point, he did merge into the regular traffic lane and I kept on southbound... when I looked back a block later he was in the bike lane. I think he might have realized that my threat of calling in his plates was thinly veiled as he hadn't even registered the thing... it's likely he thinks that his 49cc scooter is exempt from all sorts of laws - perhaps due to an overzealous scooter salesman, who knows.

(to clarify, the only exemption provided by a 49cc you don't need a motorcycle endorsement on your license in order to operate it.)

Chicago Municipal Code:

9-40-060 Driving, standing or parking on bicycle paths or lanes prohibited [as of March 2008]

The driver of a vehicle shall not drive, unless entering or exiting a legal parking space, or stand, or park the vehicle upon any on street path or lane designated by official signs or markings for the use of bicycles, or otherwise drive or place the vehicle in such a manner as to impede bicycle traffic on such path or lane. The driver of a vehicle shall not stand or park the vehicle upon any lane designated by pavement markings for the shared use of motor vehicles and bicycles, or place the vehicle in such a manner as to impede bicycle traffic on such lane. In addition to the fine provided in Section 9-4-025 of this Code, any vehicle parked in violation of this section shall be subject to an immediate tow and removal to a city vehicle pound or authorized garage.

Alaska: Denali National Park (July 14)

2008-07-16T03:00:00.000-05:00

When we checked in to our hotel, we received our tickets for the “Tundra Wilderness Tour” we had signed up for… the tickets indicated a 5:40am departure. Yeesh!

Knowing it would get cold long before dark, we changed and decided to go for a run into Denali National Park before dinner. We started by running through “town” for the first .5mi or so, then turned and made our way into the park. After briefly looking at a park map, we settled on running the Horseshoe Lake path. At the top of the trail, we noticed a sign that indicated the trail would drop 200 feet over the next 60 meters. I’m not sure why they felt the need to mix measurement systems, but we kept on. As the trail started to descend, a tree root excised its revenge on humanity by reaching out and tripping Tracy. After bodysurfing about 10’, I helped her up and we surveyed the damage: she had the wind knocked out of her and a few bumps and scrapes but she was overall OK. We agreed to continue the rest of the way down to Horseshoe lake, where we hiked around a bit, encountering a few beaver in addition to a Cow Moose and her Calf. As we were sweaty and quickly getting cold, we made our way back to the hotel. Exhausted, we walked into town and surveyed our options, settling for Subway sandwiches as the only quick and easy option available.

We ate breakfast at the hotel and jumped onto our Tour shuttle around 5:30am. Our 8 hour tour would take us ~50 miles up the park road, a route only accessible by special permit (an effort to minimize the human impact on the park). Despite being a rainy, overcast day, we passed some gorgeous scenery that wasn’t slighted by the weather. We encountered Moose, Fox, Bear, Caribou, and Sheep along the trip. hey, bear.

There was also a rumored sighting of a TracyCaribou and an ErikMoose, but all we have are these blurry pictures... no hard evidence. :)

Upon returning from the cold, wet bus ride we warmed up in the hotel room and took a 3 hour nap. For dinner, it was off to the “World Famous” Salmon Bake.

After the Bake, we decided to see what the town had to offer. We perused the local shops and also explored the Denali Princess resort, which offered many amenities that our hotel certainly didn’t – it’s a very nice resort and seems specifically designed to keep many of it’s Cruise Passenger guests AT the resort instead of out at the local businesses. We found a bar and decided to do our own bar crawl of the town. After hitting both (ha!) bars, we bought a screw-top bottle of Pinot Grigio, wrapped it in a paper bag, and drank it as we walked back to our hotel… where we promptly passed the f out.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Alaska: Anchorage to Denali (July 11-13)

2008-07-14T17:00:00.001-05:00

After a rather uneventful set of flights (Chicago, San Francisco, Anchorage) we finally made it! We checked into the Anchorage Days Inn around 1:30am and had a less than stellar experience... loud drunks clamoring about all night, toilets flushing, motorcycles noisily blasting through town... and our room faced the inside of the courtyard.

The next morning we set out in search of food and decided to walk down 5th street towards the taller buildings in town - surely we'd find something. Along the way, Tracy was quite impressed with the flowers everywhere… planters, hanging baskets – all in full bloom and quite colorful.

We stumbled across Midnight Sun cafe, a small locally owned place that served sausage and egg breakfast croissants. Our barista directed us to Anchorage’s weekend market where we were able to check out local arts, crafts, and some quite expensive produce. (Green Beans for $7.99/lb?!) At the market, we called The Car Whisperer’s parents who had graciously offered to show us around town and put us up for the evening – we coordinated to spend the remainder of the day with them.

After rendezvous with TCW’s parents, we explored the Port of Anchorage, the Ulu Knife Factory (Where we picked up a sweet Caribou bone knife) and headed north towards the Musk Ox Farm. Apparently these animals were native to Alaska at one point, but were hunted to the point of extinction. Thanks to some forward thinking conservationists, a herd was imported from Newfoundland and these animals are now present once again.

baby musk oxen at the oomingmak musk ox farm

The farm we visited harvests qiviut from the musk oxen and supplies this wool to a collective of native Alaskan women so they can knit the yarn into scarves, blankets, and other cold weather apparel. The material is incredibly soft, sustainably harvested without harm to the animal, and insulates 6x better than sheep wool by weight.

Next, we went up to Hatcher Pass and Independence Mine where we were able to learn about some of Alaska’s history during the gold rush of the early 20^th century.

After exploring Independence Mine, we enjoyed a pot of fondue and some product of the 21^st century’s “gold mine”, a California Chardonnay. After descending from Hatcher Pass, we went out to dinner with TCW’s parents and called it a night. The next morning we were up early so we could catch our 8am train up to Denali.

The Alaska Railroad is rich in history and there’s quite a bit written about it – I won’t attempt to recreate it here. Our train ride up to Denali was great, and I highly recommend that anyone going up to the park take the train. You won’t need a car when you get there as there are shuttles that run back and forth from the hotels to various restaurants and shops in “town”. In the eight hours you spend on the train, the staff will inform you as you pass historical sites, wildlife, and points of interest. There’s a lot of gorgeous countryside to see and taking the train is a wonderful, stress-free way to experience Alaska.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Vacation!

2008-07-11T17:00:00.000-05:00

Tracy and I are off to Alaska today... we're ORD>SFO>ANC even though there's and ORD>ANC nonstop. Such is an itinerary booked with miles.

Pictures and tales are forthcoming.

See all the pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/edidriksen/Alaska_2008

Found: iPod. Slightly Flattened and generally F'd.

2008-07-10T14:13:00.001-05:00

Found an iPod mini on the road today... all busted up but still kinda works.

This person has awful taste in music, even if this was only used for workouts. Lots of Nelly Furtado.

Today's Parts Casaulty

2008-07-09T12:04:00.000-05:00

Rode "the commute" with The Car Whisperer this morning, taking his preferred route. Just north of Devon/Milwaukee he takes the North Branch Trail/Bikepath. As we started out, he mentioned that there was an oily patch on a turn that was a little slippery. Not able to remember which turn it was, he mentioned that he had lost traction on it several times and had almost gone down. I thought we were in the clear after making the rather sharp left prior to the Caldwell Ave bridge approach... I was wrong. Just after coming down from the bridge there's another sharp left. Brian's about 30' in front of me and cautiously takes the corner... my wheels slip out from under me and I immediately recognized that I was going down.

A few choice profanities later, I get up and realize that the bike's ok aside from a few new scratches... my hip's not so fortunate. I've got a 4" diameter ground beef strawberry just below my hipbone, and I tore some serious holes in my bib shorts.

As we're heading West on Lake Ave in Glenview, I start to hear some rattling... maybe the crash knocked something loose. Thinking it's a bottle cage, we continue on. When we got to the office, I got off the bike and found that I had popped a spoke in my rear wheel. I've had problems with this wheelset in the past, and had just gotten it back from Alex. Since it wasn't wildly out of true, I solicited some ibuprofen from the kind ladies at the health center, and then continued on to the Old School route and back to the city. At the Winnetka 7-11 I stopped to refill my bottles and checked the wheel again. Another spoke. Both nipples are rattling around inside the wheel. Whee.

I open my rear brake and hobble home through the remainder of the North Shore and Evanston... must have been quite a side, bloody and dirty with a wobbly rear wheel. Not bad for 9:30am on a Wednesday.

Damnit.

2008-07-02T13:32:00.001-05:00

http://www.readersdigest.ca/blog/

This needs to stop happening.

Anti-Dooring Campaign

2008-07-02T00:52:00.001-05:00

Ok, so check this out. People are dying because drivers aren't paying attention when opening doors. Not cool in the least.

When you're getting in/out of your car, YOU have a legal duty to do so in a manner that does not interfere with other users of the road. Period. That dump truck is a hell of a lot easier to see than a kid on a bike, but they'll both rip the door off the car.

Be smart. Look before you open.

Riders - we need to be smart about this too. Drivers have other stuff on their mind, and it's unlikely that all drivers will suddenly have an epiphany about checking for cyclists. Stay out of the "Door Zone" and keep your eyes peeled for the telltale signs that a door might open... movement inside the vehicle or brake lights suddenly switching off.

hipsternascar has a post up with all the details, but the idea is to get ~$600 raised so a bunch of these stickers can be printed up and spread around Chicago.

If you've got some extra cash laying around, you might just save someone's life.

http://www.hipsternascar.com/2008/07/anti-dooring-campaign.html

The Crash

2008-06-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

I'm still trying to figure out what caused the crash... should I get new tires just in case? I can't see a thing wrong with that rear.

This leads me to believe that I did hit a bump or something, my tire lost traction and rolled off the rim. Dare I ever try tubulars?

Proctor Cycling Classic

2008-06-30T18:18:00.000-05:00

At the start of the season, I laid out my racing schedule and placed Proctor as my last Cat 5 race, it being my 10th mass start. I ended up racing Cobb Park last week so it was actually my 11th race, but stuck to the plan upgrade-wise.

To most people’s surprise, the 5’s field didn’t fill up - my guess that’s because of the high price of gas and the the lack of a road race… makes it hard to justify the drive all the way to Peoria, especially for a ~25 minute race. Looking at the field of 35ish riders, it was clear that the guys from Wild Card Cycling (Champaign, IL) had the largest presence with 7 - the four of us would have to either work with them or try to recruit others if we wanted to work against them. I’ve been in several races with these guys and we’ve always gotten along well and “played nice” so we decided to continue that trend.

The pace started out pretty fast on the hourglass course, ~25 on the straights and ~20 on the corners, the smaller and more technical top half of the course clearly slowing the pack down - this clearly would be the place to make moves.

Had I only known that I was riding in front of Unlucky Rob.

I Crashed on turn 5, about 1/3 way through the third lap (rear flatted on a 20+mph corner), didn’t take anyone else out with me even though I was ~8th wheel. While sliding across the pavement (whee) I somehow kept my hands on the bars and managed to make myself as small as possible so I wouldn’t be run over. As soon as the majority of the peleton passed me, I knew I had to get up. I ran the 4 blocks back to the wheel pit as fast as I could, got a 404 from SRAM’s neutral support and was back in it. It took me a lap to get back on, but I contested the next prime, unknowingly leading the winner out… He could have the innertubes and socks, I was happy to be back in contention. The pack had spit out several riders at this point, no doubt my crash had created a gap attributing to that. The remainder of the race was fast and fairly smooth, with only one instance of an unattached rider breaking his line and cutting inside, almost pushing a Wild Card rider into one of the 6” curbs on turn 9 with a lap to go. At the bell, the group accelerated and lined out before regrouping on the backstretch.. I was 12th wheel on the slight uphill leading into the last corner and powered down the long sprint, picking up a bunch of spots on the sprint to finish 6th.

As usual, positioning going into the sprint is everything, but all things considered I had a great race and I’m happy with my top 10, bleeding.

Wednesday Hate (apologies to The Car Whisperer)

2008-06-18T14:02:00.000-05:00

Dear guy in the locker room who takes up ten times more space than he should,

I understand that you're used to sprawl. I do. You probably live in a 4000sf house that's on 1/6 acre of land at the end of a cul-de-sac that prevents any sense of a "neighborhood" from forming. You park your 12mpg SUV across two parking spots at Wal-Mart so you can "keep its resale value" (good luck with that @ $4/gal). You obviously move around a LOT of gym clothes with you in the huge duffel bag that's parked on the floor next to my locker.

Why do you feel the need to burden others with your desire to sprawl? I understand that you might want to have 2 or 3 days worth of gym clothes in your bag, that's understandable... but maybe you can keep the clothes IN THE BAG? On that note, maybe the bag can be somewhere close to the locker that you're "using" rather than 10' away, adjacent to the opposing lockers, contents vomited all over the floor.

Perhaps nobody has ever told you that it's patently rude to do this. Maybe you're aware and don't give a shit because you're an inconsiderate asshole. Maybe you turn on two showerheads at once and use them both because you're that cool. If so, I bet your kids think they're three-popped-collars kinds of cool.

Consider this your official notice. I'll crosspost this to Seattle Craigslist, too. If your sprawl extends into the online world, you should come across it between CL and Facebook. Unless you're busy parking across three spots on your way to buy disposable diapers while driving your 12mpg SUV.

Love,

Guy who uses ONE locker and the 3' in front of it. Only.

Pleadings from a Convict

2008-06-03T17:08:00.000-05:00

I’m sick and tired of this rock, so I’m breaking out…

I’m racing Escape from Alcatraz in San Francisco this weekend and thought some of you might be interested in getting updates of my progress throughout the race. If so, you can register for updates with Accenture’s Triathlon Alert System at http://triathlons.accenture.com/SanFrancisco_Phase2/. You will need to sign up for an account, but it’s free and I’m pretty sure they won’t do anything completely evil with your information. When you get to the “Select Athletes” page, my Bib number is 237.

If you’re not familiar with this race, here’s an overly dramatic synopsis:
http://www.escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com/Race_Info/course.htm

Distances: Swim 1.5mi (Across SFO Bay)
Run 1mi (to transition)
Bike 18 miles
Run 8 miles

Course Map:
http://www.escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com/Assets/ESCAPE+From+Alcatraz/CourseMap-pdf.pdf

Many thanks to Bob Mitera (http://bobmiterateampolar.blogspot.com) who has coached me through all of my preparation for the race. I couldn’t have done it without you, Bob. I’ll pull for you any time (though with that Lynskey R4 you shouldn’t need it!). I also want to thank Lisa Walker whose wisdom and tips substantially improved my ability to not drown as fast as possible.

As usual, Facebookers - my MotionBased entries will be posted as notes on my profile. Feel free to laud/laugh at my times.

If you’re coming to SFO, sweet! I appreciate the support.

I’m staying at the Sheraton on Fisherman’s Wharf, let me know where you’re at and we can coordinate. Additionally, This FAQ answers many questions you may have.
Favorite part of the FAQ:
“What happens if I don’t make the 1-hour cut-off for the swim?”
Being afraid of the cut of times is a good thing. It will make you race faster.

If you’re coming from SFO/OAK and staying somewhere in the Wharf area, here’s a transit site that can help you get to your hotel without having to take a taxi: http://transit.511.org/tripplanner/index.aspx

Here’s a map of the site grounds: http://www.escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com/Assets/ESCAPE+From+Alcatraz/Festival+Site+Map.pdf

First wave is off the ferry at 08:00, last wave is off at 8:06. They don’t mess around.

See you this weekend!

--
Erik

Found: Bandit

2008-05-17T07:41:00.000-05:00

This is a resonable car to find southbound at Addison/Damen.

Snowman, any Smokies in Wicker Park?

That's a big 10-4, Bandit.