200k Attempt - Part Two

Lansing came and went with a few nice downhills that I knew I'd loathe on the way back. The fascinating architecture on the Veterans Administration's Lansing Campus -- and the old Governor's House would provide a little visual and mental stimulus after seeing nothing but brown fields, barren after harvest, and hearing nothing but buffeting wind.

Winds out of the Northwest were being attenuated by trees and structures as we transitioned into Leavenworth, which sits just on the back door of Lansing. I tried to get a few good shots of the various correctional facilities, but I just didn't have my mind on the camera today. A westward slog into the baleful headwind would take us up to K-92 to cross the Missouri River. We finally get a slight downhill and a decent tail wind for the next few miles.


Some of the expansion joints on this bridge were treacherous enough to eat a wheel.


This was our third checkpoint: an Information Control where a photograph containing the information needed, or your initials and a date stamp (and the information needed hand-written) serve as proof on the honor system that you made it to this control. Note, the windbreaker over my panniers has been drying out since QuikTrip when I changed windbreakers. I'd eventually soak through the second one by the time we got to Weston, but this one had dried out. My panniers look stuffed, but there's just stuff sitting in the bottom of them, poofing them out. I should have probably tightened the straps up and folded stuff instead of rolling it, but I doubt any of this would have saved me today.


I got no pictures from Weston MO other than the ones I already posted. This was coming back through Leavenworth.


Yes, I did just GLOSS OVER everything on the trip between this railroad shack, Weston, and back to Leavenworth (save for the photos I posted live from the road) - Maybe someday I'll get back to that. There were some good times, and some of the worst suffering of the whole trip I'm leaving out.

Once Keith and I got back onto the VA campus again, I was certain that I was jeopardizing his success. I told him to do what he had to do. Drop me and don't look back. Don't stop. Don't worry. Just get to QuikTrip as fast as he could, get his card signed then call me.

A while down the road, I found myself off course. I could get back on course. I knew where I was, but there was no way I was hitting QuikTrip in time. I was more drained at 82 miles than I was at the end of the 134-mile Permanent I had completed. I didn't have 40 more miles in me. The climb from Holliday to Midland, the one from Midland to 95th... Those alone would do me in. I couldn't even get back home on my own power.

Defeated, I called my wife to pick me up, then rode to the nearest highway where it'd be easy to find me. Then, my phone started acting up. It would reboot whenever it recieved an incoming call. This was frustrating my wife who was trying to get clear directions. Fortunately I realized what was going on and called her back.

Shortly after she picked me up, it was 2:56 and my phone rebooted. There's only one person it could be: Keith... and 2:56 is a mere 4 minutes from the Control closure at QuikTrip. I called Keith. Indeed, it was him, and he'd made it by almost as narrow a margin as I had thought. This confirms that even had I not gotten off course, the 200k was simply not in the cards for me today.

Post-Mortem:
When things go wrong, I analyze them. Where I come from, we call it a Post-Mortem. In forensics, post-mortem exams are things like autopsy and the like, to determine the cause of death. In IT (and other project-centered groups), it's much the same. Take it apart and see where the failure occurred. Here's the obvious list:

• Endurance. I had more than 750 miles under my belt in the 30 days prior to the last 200k. I had 300 miles under my belt in the 30 days prior to this one.
• Hydration. Drinking was nearly intolerable between the temperature and flavor of my drinks this time.
• Inexperience. I've never done more than 30 miles below 40 degrees before. It requires a lot more attention to balancing clothing and riding effort to stay warm. I was over-packed and under-prepared.

Having said that, I learned a lot on the road today that I will directly and immediately apply to my daily commute, and I wouldn't consider the ride a failure. My goal was to put some serious miles on the bike today to help me make the year-end goal of 5,000 miles a little easier to attain. Like ripping an adhesive bandage off quickly, I put myself through a lot of pain today. Because of that, I am now within 250 miles of my goal: That's only about 10 miles per day for the rest of the month. It's not getting any warmer outside, but I think I'm in striking distance!

Oh yeah. Why am I writing this tonight? I spent a lot of time on the brink of bonk, and a lot of time with my heart rate pegged into the 170s for sustained periods of time. I'm still working on getting re-hydrated. My heart still hasn't settled down. I'm wicked tired but my body's doing things that make it impossible to sleep. So here I am.

200k Attempt - Part One

It went kind of like this:

I had 2600 last night. Usually, this keeps me out until 11pm or midnight. Not last night. I got home around 8:00PM and started preparing stuff: Making PB sandwiches, charging batteries, checking the forecast, dumping out the panniers and packing them with what I wanted to carry along. That kind of stuff. I also had to do a load of laundry so I could take a spare base layer with me in case I started to soak through one. Charging batteries and laundry kept me up until about 10:00. I got to sleep around 10:30.

I could have gone with one pannier, but decided to balance the bike. With me in pannier #1:

• All the tools I carry on my commute: CO2 inflater and 4 spare carts, inner tube, patches, tire levers, multi-tool, Zogics CitraWipes
• A pair of two-year-old, never-used Hot Hands chemical warmers
• Five half-PB sandwiches (folded over with PB)
• A small bag of assorted crackers
  

Pannier 2:

• 32-ounce flask of Grape Gatorade - BLECH! I hate this flavor. Never again.
• Dry clothes: windbreaker, wicking long t-shirt & long johns, cycling shorts, gloves, socks

Since I moved the tools to the pannier, I re-purposed my Trek SideLoader wedge as a camera carrier for my small point-and-shoot, and had a Polar Bottle (water) and stainless bottle (coffee) in the bottle cages.

I could have traveled a bit lighter. I didn't touch the spare gloves, shorts, or base-layer. I didn't need all the sandwiches, we ate a hearty meal in Weston. Two or three would have been fine. While I didn't use any of my tools, I would not do this without them.

I woke up at 3:30 - A solid 5 hours of sleep. Not bad considering that's about all I get in a normal day and I had gotten almost TWICE that Thursday-into-Friday trying to kill off my sinus bug. 3 days worth of sleep in 2 days is a good thing.

At 3:30, the National Weather Service site was showing hourly stats from 3:00. Temps near 40. Wind out of the southwest. PERFECT! At 4:20, I took my bike down to the Explorer. My wife rode with me to Control #1 (7-11 in Olathe) and left with the truck when c-Dawg showed up. At this time, temps had fallen into the mid-30s and the wind had gone from stiff southwest to light variable. We dawdled until 5:00 sharp, then raided 7-11 to get our permanent route sheet signed and a date-stamped reciept.

Variable winds continued until we hit Renner. Then, we had a NW wind that was probably gusting to 15 MPH or so. It was enough to make stretches of Renner seem deceptively steep. I pointed out a house to c'Dude that I think is a decoy on Meritex property. Its windows were open despite being near freezing outside, and there's always a light on in what you'd think is the living room. ALWAYS. I'm pretty sure it was built on top of a vertical mine elevator, as it's sitting directly on top of a re-purposed limestone mine-turned-office/warehouse complex: The same complex the Lenexa Midnight ride goes through.

Miles tick by and we ride through a rat-maze of roundabouts, then get stopped just south of Shawnee Mission Park in the cool of pre-dawn, noticing how the whispy cirrus clouds emit pink hues against a sapphire sky while we wait for our turn at the traffic light. A dive down Renner towards Midland made me recall with certain fondness the way Meyer Blvd banks and descends westward from Research Medical Center. After some slogging, I'm greeted with another merry downhill run, one which would send my bike coasting upwards of 40 MPH without any input on the cranks, dumping us out onto Holliday Drive. The clouds are moving in.

Squarely a North wind now: evaporative cooling off of the Kaw River would send chills through my pants and into my legs. The biting, sub-freezing blast was also working its way through my shoes and wool socks.

This was a long exposure I took at a landscaping place. That's how dark it was out here. I had to crank up the levels just to get any detail out of it. It was here that I'd rip open the chemical warmers and add a layer of socks to my feet. It would take almost 20 miles for my toes to feel normal again.


Shortly after that, we encountered a few more cyclists out enjoying the (relatively) nice December weather. It ended up being Badger (whom I've ridden with quite a few times) and Pat, a friend of his. They rode near and beside us for the better part of 15 miles, making conversation. By "us", I mean c'Dude. I was already starting to slow down a bit. We eventually made it to Control #2, QuikTrip, about 33 miles in.


We wove our way through some of KCK's residential turf and slogged a hill on Georgia Ave. that I'd probably give a firm 17% grade if you asked me to guess. A little beagle followed me up the hill slowly, and gave playful chase to us as we veered northward and took off toward the rollers of Wyandotte Lake Park.

This was how I spent most of my ride: In No-Man's-Land, A good 1/4 to 2 miles behind Keith.


At some point, riding through the terrain shown above, 10 miles started to feel like 30, and I started to lose track of time. On up-hills, my legs were becoming useless hunks of meat. I was approaching Bonk from dehydration, lack of electrolyte and lack of fuel. My water -- nearly freezing -- would sting my teeth after it hit my chapped lips, then sink to the very pit of my stomach with that lumpy ache like you get when you accidentally swallow an ice cube. My Gatorade was a wretched flavor that tasted like Grape Big League Chew. What little remained of my coffee was cold. I had no desire to drink, regardless how badly I knew I needed it. Perhaps 45 miles in, I'm already questioning if I have 80 more miles left in my legs today.

Keith would stop just to make sure I was still alive back there. Give me some pointers. Wait while I pinched my nose and tried to suck down as much Haterade as I could while munching on sandwiches and c-store junk food. It was here, on the curvy, shoulderless backroads somewhere near Bonner Springs and Lansing that I knew I was going to severely hinder Keith's chance at the R-12.

Read on for Part 2 or check out my mobile posts from the road.

Hammer. *gasp* Fest. *pant* - new personal best

The skies were overcast this morning, and I was having trouble getting my shutter speed low enough to snap many non-blurry photos. So I hammered it.

My personal best average speed on Hybridzilla is 18.8 MPH by the time I hit Boulevard Brewery, but that time I had a backpack instead of panniers. My personal best to the brewery on The Twelve was 19.2 MPH average. After slogging into downtown, my PB was 17.3, which I've hit a few times on both bikes.

About halfway into my ride today, I'd gotten up to 18.2 MPH average.


By the time I reached Boulevard Brewery (where my route begins a general trend of climbing into downtown) I had gotten to 19.6 - almost half a mile per hour over my personal best average speed by this point in my commute.


Even after the slog, I was doing alright at 17.9 MPH average. That's again, about half a mile per hour faster.


Now, I had a great tune-up ride on the June Moon ride, and I had a rest day yesterday. This was basically a perfect storm for a record-breaker hammerfest. I had to take it.

Random Tunage:
Pole Folder - Waxxx
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (Jason Nevins Club Mix)

KC Bike Week 2008 Day 3: Pain & Broken Stuff

You've gotta love broken stuff.

Monday morning, a slight creaking noise manifested itself on The Twelve. I feared it was the bottom bracket going out. Monday evening, I found that my cargo rack was loose and I tightened it up. It didn't fix the noises, though.

Yesterday, the noise was more prominent. It's definitely the bottom bracket. It's shot. Furthermore, my panniers are also in a state of disrepair. I'm going to need a new set soon. I'm tired of taking these to the tailor to get re-stitched. Lastly, I'm really going to need some more padded liners if I am going to keep up this riding 30 miles a day business.

I only took The Twelve out today because I think I might need fenders for the homeward commute. Tomorrow, I'll probably bring Hybridzilla out. Once I get paid, I might try to accumulate a few bikey things that I need. All combined, that stuff would cost less than a few tanks of gasoline, with the panniers being the most expensive piece of the puzzle. The ones I have would still work for light-duty stuff. Maybe my wife can use them when she starts riding more. Who knows?

If anyone tells you that bike commuting has the advantage of being a mostly one-time expenditure that offers virtually free transportation reliably, call them onto the carpet. Granted, even with repairs, bike commuting is often cheaper than just paying for gasoline in your car -- not counting the expensive car repairs and maintenance you're sure to need. Bicycles are machines. They're prone to wear and occasional failure. Bike commuters need to have a plan B. It's a good idea to carry cash for a bus or taxi fare, a cell phone and a friend or family member to help you out, and/or some tools for roadside repairs.

It was another Convoy this morning with John C and Karen. I took this coasting down 67th street at 31 MPH with both hands stabilizing the camera. Scary.


Bike commuters with a sunset backdrop on Merriam Lane approaching Lamar.


Dude. The House of ROCKS. You want gravel? Huge slabs of granite? A four-ton limestone boulder? This is the place for you. Watch out for the snakes catching rays in the morning, though. I can only imagine what the owner was thinking when he decided to start this business. "We'll sell ROCKS, man..."

He must have been stoned. Haha.


Lorin bussed in to KCMO and we all did our usual coffee thing at *$.

In other news, the city is tearing stuff up on 10th street for additional streetscape. This means a lane reduction, parking meter additions, and hopefully more bike parking?






As far as Pain goes, I'm about 100 miles in this week. Each morning, it's getting more and more difficult to get moving. I've been riding slower and slower, too. My body will eventually thank me for all this punishment, though.

Random Tunage:
Benjamin Bates - On My Feet
Amber - Anyway (Steve Porter Mix)

I can has sleep now plz?

What a night!

The Monday night ride was somewhat brutal. Cold and very windy. I guess it wasn't too bad, but it was hard to regulate my temperature without dropping everyone, and it's marketed as a slow ride.

When that was all done, I picked up some grub, packed up my things for the morning commute, then went to the hospital, where my wife has been since early Sunday morning. I spent the night there. Initially, I tried sleeping in a chair with another chair facing me to rest my legs on. That lasted until sometime around 3:00 AM with no sleep lasting more than 15 minutes or so at a time, thanks to discomfort and constant interruption of nurses for various issues with both my wife and her roommate. Back killing me, I grabbed a sheet and lay on the cold, hard tile floor, resting my upper body and head on a pillow. I finally got to sleep around 3:30, slept until 5:30 with lots of tossing and turning, then got my stuff together and got out.

Since I left the bike in the back of my wife's Explorer, I just took my old clothes and some of my wife's stuff down there, then geared up the bike. It was a little above freezing this morning, and the hospital is almost the same distance from The Maul as my apartment, so the ride took just as long. It's uphill most of the way, and there was a stiff (and cold!) headwind to fight with. Approaching 103rd, I saw a blinkie. I knew it had to be Lorin. I played catch up for a while, then succumbed to the uphill, headwind death slog. My legs just didn't have anything in them after last night.

I think my wife will finally get discharged today sometime. She's basically lived in the hospital for almost 3 days at this point. We're just waiting on some doctors to look over the diagnostics they've been doing. It's been a rough couple of months for the both of us, so hopefully this represents the apex and decrescendo of all the medical drama.

Random Tunage:
Orbital - Halcyon + On + On
Underworld - Cowgirl

Oddly enough, both of those tracks WERE really played at random from a playlist of 873 songs, but both were also featured in the movie "Hackers"

As vapid as they come

A stark contrast to yesterday's lively homeward commute, rapid was replaced with vapid. 45 degrees. Piercing crosswinds hard out of the north made the ride seem longer. The stinging precipitation was blurring the line between mist and rain, with water droplets just large enough to carry momentum and just small enough to build up a lot of speed.

It wasn't a bad ride home -- it seldom is. It was just... boring. It was something that was taking up 15 minutes of my time. Sure, combined with the A bus, it wasn't much slower than if I'd have driven home, so it wasn't really setting me back. It was just something I had to do to get home, but better on a bus and on a bike than stuck in a car on the highway. I can relax on the bus and take a quick power nap if I wish. I can clear my mind on my bike. I can't do much of either when I'm driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic dealing with Kansas Citians who suddenly forget how to drive when there's a drop of rain on their windshields.

Not much more to say about that.

According to the forecasts I'm seeing, it looks like we'll be dealing with near-freezing temperatures AND the possibility of rain for my work-bound commute in the morning. Rain and sub-40 temperatures combined. That's one thing that will actually make it hard for me to see the benefit in riding my bike, even to The Maul to catch an express bus. I'll probably do it anyways, but it won't likely be any more fun than I had on my way home this evening. Where's spring? Where's this Global Warming thing we're all so worried about?

Oh, yeah. I posted a review of my Cannondale Doubletrack cycling shorts on Commute By Bike today. Quick note to anyone thinking of writing a product review: Always use the word "investment" in your review if you like the product. That way someone, somewhere, on the Internet will berate you. And you can chortle wildly while drinking a beer and not really caring.

Random Tunage:
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
Lars Tindy - Past and Future

Just too tired this morning

But I rode anyways.

Seriously, this was the kind of morning that would have forced me into a car last year. I was honestly considering catching the Dreaded Bus to get to work. It practically offers me Door-To-Door service. This, however, would be cheating, or I'd feel like it is. It really is great to be able to have the absolute worst case scenario available and still have a car-free way to get to work. I really want to make it through the winter without missing a SINGLE bike commute day, though. Taking the Dreaded bus wouldn't ding me as a car commute day (thank goodness), but it wouldn't count as a bike commute day, either.

No. Bullheaded as I am, I rode to my usual brumal bus stop at an average clip of about 8 miles per hour. This is about 50% slower than my usual pace on my mountain bike, about half the usual pace on my road bike (which is the same as hammerfest pace on my MTB), and about 1/4 my hammerfest pace on the road bike -- Just to put things into perspective. I. Was. S. L. O. W. this morning.

Once downtown, I hung out with JR over a warm cup o' joe for a while before heading to work. His birthday was this week, but for some reason he insisted on buying me coffee. Odd, but appreciated.

As far as the tired goes... I'm not sure what the deal is. I get the same amount of sleep every night for the most part, but I think it might not be enough. As the week wears onward, I always seem to feel a little more fatigued. Couple that with the fact that I'm still expected to put out about the same amount of productivity this week as any other week despite having a holiday on Monday, and you've got a recipe for some serious crash-n-burn syndrome. My eyes are burning. My head hurts. My legs are sore, and it's certainly not from all the miles I've been (not) packing on. I'm thinking I should schedule an hour-long meeting over my lunch break in one of the small, windowless conference rooms on the other side of our building...

Random Tunage from my PsyTrance playlist:
Infected Mushroom - None of this is real
Growling Mad Scientists - Shrek

The singletrack paid off. I made it!

Photo: Yes, I can take in-motion shots in the snow, too! Today's were kind of blurry. I hope you can forgive me.

The "training" on the singletrack really paid off. I needed every bit of that re-learned balance and agility today.

I also found out via a horrible miscalculation that most of the roads I planned on riding didn't have sidewalks, and some were one lane only. It's okay, though. I made it, and that's what matters.

As far as the root canal goes, this guy was a badass. I tensed up but took the novocaine. After that, he was done in 20 minutes or so, and I basically took a nap while he got me squared away. Then, it was a hike up the stairs to have a hole drilled, a ceramic post bonded, and a new cap put on my broken tooth. After I was done there, I really didn't feel anything. The novocaine wore off quickly, and I was able to just depart on bike.

The ride home from the dentist's offices was sluggish but quite enjoyable. It took me a while to warm back into it, but then I stayed comfortable except for my slush-soaked pant legs. The mudflap on the back of my bike kept most of the grime off of me.

Click the above photo or this link to view the whole album. The image with my ski goggles was just for show. I wore them for a bit from the bus to the dentist to protect my eyes from sleet. Once the sleet stopped, I took them off.

I know, I need more reflective gear. My vest doesn't show from the back at all when I have the backpack on. I am still working on a solution to the reflective problem. As you can see, the bike is not lacking in the shiny department.

Random Tunage:
Safety Scissors - I am the cheese
Massive Attack - Angel

Yeah, that burns

It's hard to really appreciate the workout that you get from trail riding until you've gone and done it after a long hiatus. I checked my computer last night, and I logged about 6 miles out there on the trails last night. I would have probably ridden twice the distance or further, even on the "lethargic" paced road ride I usually attend. Even in those 6 miles, I got a much more complete workout than usual.

I slept like a baby when I finally got to bed, which was a bit later than I'd have liked. All in all, I still got a good night's rest. When I woke up, I felt the burn: Everywhere. Chest, abs, shoulders, back, and I even had stiff hands -- likely from a few white-knuckled episodes of high speed through the trees. If you were ever fascinated by the speeder bike scene in Return of the Jedi, you really need to go ride through some tree-covered bike trails.

I think I might start alternating my Mondays between my usual road ride and Shawnee Mission Park. I don't know for sure if this will really help sharpen me up for what winter will throw at me, but I did find myself keeping my balance and holding a better line by the end of my little adventure last night.

I shook off the stiffness and did some stretches this morning, which is something I forgot to do last night. I'm regretting it now. I was planning on hitting one of the few fattening fast-food joints on the way to the bus for breakfast this morning, but I spent too much time shivering in the living room trying to get motivated to get out early. I grabbed a fistfull of Caribou Mocha Bars for the road and took off.

As I pulled up to the coffee shop, I ran into headphone lady and her boyfriend (husband?) which is the guy who rides the old black Diamondback Outlook. They commhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifented on my lighting setup. Right now, it's a red/orange helmet blinkie (mars 3.0), a totally illegal but very eye-catching blue blinkie under my seat, the Dinotte (blinking) in front, the NiteRider on my helmet, and TireFlys on the wheels. I'm lit up like a Christmas Tree. Just wait until I string miniature Christmas lights on my bike when it gets closer to Christmas. That was a big hit last year.

JR, Lorin and I dispensed our sage bicycle wisdom to a gentleman that was looking for a bike to get around town for fun and transportation. He'd probably be fine with a hybrid from the sounds of things. He says he wants to ride around on streets but wants to be able to go "off road". From my experience, most peoples' idea of "off road" for a bicycle is totally within the capabilities of a hybrid, or hell, even a road bike. I've taken my Trek 1200 on a few dirt BMX trails. The only time I had a problem was a loss of traction when I was climbing a dirt hill out of the saddle. I sat back down and it was all better. A serious cyclist looking for a mix of on/off road and all-weather performance would be better off with a cyclocross bike, but the cheaper mass-produced hybrid bikes really work well enough for most.

Well, I'm off to the grind.

Random Tunage:
Madonna - The Power Of Goodbye
IIO - Rapture (JC & SK)

A real butt-kicker of a ride

Photo: The sun is getting low early in the day. I crossed this bridge just in time to see a really interesting shadow layout.

The headwinds were about as malevolent as they come, and my upright position on the Diamondback Outlook doesn't make it easy to minimize my frontal area. I spent my entire homeward trip struggling against the breeze. Aside from the extra effort, it was a quite enjoyable ride with temperatures in the low 70s. Once I got off my bike, I could really feel the burn.

My gimpy wrist is feeling alright today, so I think I'm going to give the Trek another try in the morning. I haven't ridden it since I fell off of it, which is what caused my wrist problems in the first place. I need to give it a proper shakedown run this evening to make sure everything is still straight and true. Looking at it from across the room, I can already tell that I scraped 4 teeth of the large chainring. It doesn't look like much carnage, but I can see it from 15 feet away simply because the rest of the chainring is anodized. I'll make sure everything runs smoothly tonight.

Despite 2 weeks of hanging dormant on my Delta Vincent /vin rack, the tires are still holding air perfectly, and I know for fact both tubes are running with multiple patches. I'm actually quite pleased with how the Park Tool glueless patches are holding up. I know I rarely have to top the tires off with regular use, but I was expecting to have squishy tires when I pulled the Trek off the wall this evening.

Random Tunage:
Tumor - Come To Daddy
Eiffel 65 - Blue

Wow. That's random. Some serious darkwave followed by some of the cheesiest eurodance stuff the turn of the century had to offer. Can you believe Blue made it to #4 on US charts back in '99?

Lazy weekend

I didn't do anything this weekend on my bike. I should probably take my hybrid out back this evening and clean the grime and gunk off the drivetrain from the past few weeks. A few days, I rode in the rain. The Boeshield T9 lubricant is keeping the chain rust-free but I can tell it needs to be wiped down at the very least.

I wasted my weekend away learning some new skills and playing with geeky things. I feel like I got quite a bit accomplished this weekend, but I'm still hung up on a few things related to setting up this Linux server. I've been into OpenBSD for so long that I've allowed a whole ton of features to creep into the Linux mainstream without learning much about them. That's for a different blog, I suppose. You're here to read about bikes.

Looks like my morning commute will be in the mid-40's, just like Friday morning. A long-sleeve shirt wasn't quite warm enough, so I'll figure something out to warm my arms up. Dare I say I wish I'd have bought some cycling-specific arm warmers? This is the perfect weather for them. I really, really want to make this a full week of round-trip bike-only commutes. I'm also planning on hitting the Tienda Casa Paloma Recovery Ride again tomorrow night. I'm hoping I can wedge 150+ miles in this week.

My wrist is still gimpy, but getting better. I probably could ride the road bike tomorrow, but I'd rather not agitate my wrist until it feels totally healed. So, here's to another week of being alive and pedaling.

Random Tunage:
Chris Tomlin - Not to us
Goo Goo Dolls - Better Days

Left a little late

I escaped from home at about quarter-to-six this morning, at least 5 minutes later than I wanted. It was a good 10 degrees warmer than yesterday morning, so I ditched the windbreaker and used my long-sleeve shirt. Unfortunately, it didn't keep my arms warm at all, but otherwise the ride in was pretty comfortable. The road was moist for some reason this morning, but it wasn't raining when I was riding, and the moisture was thin and sparse enough to keep my bike from throwing water onto me.

For the most part, I took my time getting downtown. A train at 67th forced me to use the trail instead of riding on Carter to get to Merriam Lane.

I saw a few other cyclists on the road this morning. Karen was out, and right after I left home, I saw this guy who rides the sidewalk with a bright LED light pointed down right in front of his bike. I see him on occasion. Downtown, there were a few more including Lorin and JR, who gave me hell for showing up late. I just didn't have the energy this morning to push it hard.

Yesterday was my first full round-trip in a few weeks, and I wouldn't have thought it would be so bad, but my sit bones actually hurt the whole way in this morning. It seems that riding just a few miles per day isn't enough to keep you from getting saddle butt. I only put in about 30 miles yesterday but today, I hurt just as bad as I did after my century-day back at the end of August. Really, I didn't hurt that bad afterward, but the fact that I hurt at all after just 30 miles tells me that I really need to get myself back into gear.

Random Tunage:
Sunscreem - Love U More
4 Strings - Let It Rain

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea:
Riding your bike to work.

Bad Idea:
Riding your mountain bike to work.

Okay, it wasn't a bad idea, but it was a horrible ride home. Mostly, it was the headwind. I ran out of steam a few miles from home. The wind just sucked everything out of me. The last leg of my ride home was just slow, crampy and painful.

Before all that fatigue set in, I was still only averaging about 10 MPH into the wind, despite sweating up a storm. My riding position on that bike, it's gearing and tires, everything combines to make for a pretty inefficient trip. Fun, but inefficient. I don't think I'm going to be riding the full round trip on the Sorrento too often. It just takes too much effort, and isn't worth the trade-off. When it gets really cold out, I'm probably going to slip back into bike/bus mode full time.

I'm gonna go crash for a few hours. I feel like a puddle of goo.

Random Tunage:
Orbital - Style
Moonman - Galaxia

Homeward vs. Headwind

The winds were out of the south and southwest on my way home, gusting up to 30 MPH at times, and holding steadily above 20 MPH. Combined with the heat (index 102) and humidity (50%+), the extra effort to fight the wind made my ride home almost regrettable. Even now -- more than 2 hours after I got home -- my legs still ache, and these days, they don't often ache right after riding. I might feel the burn while I'm riding, and I might feel some healin' going on the next morning, but it really hurts right now.

I'm gonna see where I'm at come 5:00 tomorrow morning. I'm not going to devote to riding all the way in tomorrow yet, but I'm not going to chicken out 10 and a half hours before I leave, either.

I took a shorter route today, staying on the road and avoiding turkey creek trail. The result was about half a mile shorter and about 5 minutes saved at the expense of dodging cars. I don't think I'm going to do that again, at least in a 20 MPH headwind.

Random Tunage:
Hybrid - If i survive
Dave Matthews Band - Crash

Hammerfest

Well, I was going to meet up with Lorin this morning, but couldn't find him. I was running about 5 minutes behind again this morning because of this. As I made my way up to Johnson Drive on Merriam Lane, I had trouble getting the light to change, and no cars were around to trigger it. Remembering back to Monday, I decided to hit the crosswalk button and get back out into the street. Just as I hit the button, I heard Chris screaming at me. I guess he was running even further behind than I was! He always seems to catch up, though.

I tried a newish trick at the stoplight at Broadway on Southwest Blvd. I took the center lane. The right lane is always crowded with people that want to turn right a block up the road. The left lane is a left turn lane onto broadway. The center lane usually has a little less traffic, but the people there are the kind of people who don't want to be stuck behind the slow-down as the right-turners take their sweet time. That means they probably don't want to be stuck behind a slow cyclist either.

The solution? Hammer it. I knew I'd have to make the death slog up Baltimore in just a few blocks, but I hammered in spite of it. I ignited my legs into a high-RPM fury of pain and suffering, working my way through the middle ring and never switching to the third. Faster, legs! FASTER! I held about 30 MPH for a few blocks until getting stopped at the light on Baltimore. The car that was behind me at Broadway was far enough back that I knew I had succeeded in not slowing him down. I made my way up the death slog, and fan into the narrow section where Baltimore narrows to one lane (with a wall on one side) for construction. I had a car behind me, and I was already in the low gear of my middle ring from the climb. I hammered it again, this time for only a block, and uphill, not on level pavement.

Then, I coasted in for coffee. Oh, wonderful coffee!

My legs hurt. Have I mentioned that I haven't used my granny ring at all this week? Maybe monday morning on Baltimore, but ever since, I've been able to tackle all my hills on the middle ring without having to get out of the seat.

Random Tunage:
Moonman (a.k.a. Ferry Corsten) - Galaxia
Notorious B.I.G. - Mo Money, Mo Problems

Ow

My goodness! This morning is the first time in quite a while that my legs have actually ached when I woke up. Yesterday, they were sluggish. Today, they are just painfully wrung out. My average speed dropped a little bit again.

I was off to a late start after wrangling the *second* brown recluse spider in the last week. I didn't post about the first one here, but I left a comment on mrmacrum's blog about it. In general, I don't mind spiders, but brown recluses are one species that I won't let live if I find them.

I already sort of ruined my chances of a 100% bike commute week since I did the bike/bus thing Monday. I made up most of the miles Monday night, but it's not the same thing. Despite my weakened and sore comdition, I'll probably suck it up and still ride home this evening. I'm really chomping at the bit in anticipation of a 500-mile month. By the end of today, I should have close to 250 miles for the month, so I am right on course.

I'm going to have a little bit of recovery after I get home. The Lenexa midnight bike ride kicks off 10pm Saturday night, with the start happening midnight Sunday morning. Once I get home tonight, I'm off the bike until the midnight ride.

Oh yeah. The tire patch held its own on the way to work, and the new brakes feel like they're going to work great, although I broke them in gently.