Linked Up Again!

Twenty bucks later and I and my bike are ready to ride again with a new SRAM chain and master link. Pretty darned easy, but unfortunately I missed out on a ride today. Got back from our errand running and finished the chain install by 6.30... too late for a ride, but also picked up a cheap light set today! Took a nighttime run in the driveway and its pretty darned bright! Thanks again, Allspeed Cyclery & Snow!

The Weakest Link

Was having a pretty good ride that I had been looking forward to after three days on non-stop monsoon-like rain. Did the usual errand running after work, mail and banking for the union and then hit the trails. Started out conservatively like I usually do and then decided to have more fun on the way back in. I decided to say the hell with picking a cautious line around some huge little ponds on the trail and just tore through them. The deepest one I had been a bit worried about. No way of telling how deep it was. Well it was deep enough that I was peddling through water with my foot underwater at the bottom of the stroke. No problem! I was laughing all the way through. Then was the steep descent. It goes down steeply and then goes right back up in a V. Halfway up it I heard a pop and felt the sinking feeling that I had just broken the chain. Yep, there it was lying in the mud. I have a chain tool, just not with me, of course! So, I had to walk the last mile and a half out, down the street, caught the bus most of the way back and then more walking. Walking a bike sucks!

Kicked!

Ass is officially kicked today. Best guesstimate to my ride after work today that took me from roads to a really wonderful, but completely technical trail ride in Portland that I never knew existed. Its a hard section of singletrack through pine forest and tidal flats with pedestrian bridges, slippery pine needle floors, unmarked dead ends, pine root steps, all out climbs that you have to be careful not to do a wheelie onto your back and suicidal descents down tree root steps. Beautiful, but Map My Ride doesn't correctly map it and my cyclometer doesn't work, so I can only guesstimate that it added all up to ten miles or so. I'm so sore now (but I feel great overall...) after two slow speed falls into a ditch and onto a root. I have a bruise on my elbow, shoulder, hip, cuts on my knee and a large welt, bruise and goose egg on my shin... all on my right hand side, courtesy of the clipless pedal that I cannot easily twist out of. Wonderful afternoon though!
http://trails.org/our-trails/fore-river-sanctuary/

Video: Riding the impossible

Video: Riding the impossible



If your palms are not sweating like mine around about the hairiest stuff @ 3:00 in then you're watching this blindfolded!

A Random Spin, A Fun Ride

 I've taken the last two days off and luckily my wife pushed me out the door this afternoon, despite the threat of continued rain. I grabbed my rain jacket (though I've yet to use it... sorta sadly...) and went out the door not sure where I was going. I decided to take a random ride and see some things that I've wanted to check out lately, but hadn't allowed myself the chance to and in the process I cured my funk that I've been in lately. I had a great ride in on Saturday and then took Sunday off. I was going to ride in the mid to late afternoon Sunday, but with everything that I did around the house I tired myself out by 3, 4 o' clock and just took a nap telling myself that I'd get back to it Monday.
 Monday I didn't ride. I was dead dog tired. I got lousy sleep Sunday night and couldn't fall asleep for the first two hours or so of bed, ruining my night. Six hours doesn't really cut it. I puttered around the house yesterday getting a few things done in my funk, but I wasn't happy, hadn't been happy. I think that I've been too wrapped up in planning a loop and a challenging, long-ish one at that. And now it had gotten too like a chore that I wasn't entirely happy doing it any more. So this was just the cure!
 I found a dirt trail paralleling power lines that I had been curious about in the past and stopped to take the time to check out the sign hanging near the gate at the trailhead. It sloped down pretty steeply and was filled by alot of loose gravel, so I took a foot out of my clipless pedal and started to slowly edge down. Realizing that I couldn't brake enough and that I was sliding I tried to unclip my other foot and well, what I had always said wasn't going to happen to me (its been a long time, but I've used clipless pedals before without falling...)... well, it happened. I flopped over into the gravel and very loose dirt underneath it giving myself a nice bit of trail rash which I also haven't had in forever. (My worst road rash is my right elbow that looks like a fire burn victim's scar... that was road rash and a very good one.) So, here I am getting my feeling back with a few scrapes on my right knee and calf (but secretly sorta proud... bike and I are both ok...) and I walked down to read the sign. "Closed due to rain oversaturation..." Yeah, no kidding. The dirt was damn deep under the gravel and I tried to ride back up, but got stopped when I just sorta spun out. Unfortunately I still don't know who owns the trail or if or when I can ride it.
 I went off on a few more tangents riding little side roads that I've been curious about, found a promising dirt road and a few dead ends, rode a little farther and in the process put in a respectable 9 miles! Looking forward to tomorrow!

Another Break

Taking a break again from riding. I rode yesterday a short warm up ride to make up for the break that I took the day before. Don't know why, but I'm feeling less than motivated today despite the fact that its a beautiful late summer day and it may be thunder storming tomorrow effectively canceling a ride then. Maybe its the quality of sleep. I didn't sleep especially well last night and I"m feeling tired, lethargic and low energy. I'm trying to make it up to myself by getting back to lifting weights which I've neglected for the last couple of weeks, but I still feel like if I don't ride I'm going to be weak by the weekend, but I also know that if I forced myself to ride I'd be weak and less than enthused at sweating this out. Ugh...

Sigh... another rest day. I sorta need it. Five days in a row now. Not that that is alot really, but a day off now and then is good to recharge the batteries and make me dream about riding even more. I spend most of my free time thinking about where to ride next, the next destination and variants on what I've already done. In the meantime I can read this guy's blog and dream some more. He rides epic long rides and is based in Ulster County where I used to live. He is able to do what I hope to be able to do one day, toss off 30 or 40 mile rides like they're nothing. Currently he has a planned 138 mile ride that takes him through three states. Sigh. One day...
http://ridingthecatskills.com/

Darn Tough Socks

Made in Vermont with a lifetime guarantee with no strings attached. You wear them out, send them back and they will replace them free for life! I'm liking this!
http://darntough.com/men/mens-bike/herringbone-micro-crew-ultralight

Breadwinner Bikes

I'm liking Breadwinner Bicycles, though completely out of my price range, they're nice to dream about (and maybe wear one of their t-shirts!).

http://www.bikemag.com/gear/bikes/preview-breadwinner-bad-otis/

Get On Your Bike

A little something for everyone here- get on your damn bike and ride!

Small Acts Of Kindness...

 ... Can renew your faith in humanity. A couple of weeks ago I had a passenger in a silver Hyundai that zoomed by me, yell "Dumb Fuck!" at me. Not the first time and not the last, I'm sure. All for daring to exercise my right of way at a four way intersection where I had the right of way (and no stop sign... whereas they did have a stop sign...). I've had it worse in my years. Yelled at, given the finger for no real reason, yesterday someone screamed something unintelligible out their truck window as they drove by me. Either they wanted to startle me, which they did achieve to a certain extent or they were having a sudden stroke and/or heart attack. I've had cans thrown at me when I was young and been driven by so close while I was doing 30-35mph downhill that the car mirror came within a couple of inches of my elbow.
 That was a scary one, but yesterday, in fact at the same exact intersection as the dumb fuck driver yelled a guy in a green Dodge Challenger waved me in front of him. He had the right of way going straight while I was turning and it was pretty awesome of him. I gave him a big thank you wave and then accelerated of up a little uphill stretch at 17-18 mph feeling the kick of strength. It was invigorating getting treated respectfully. And then today after slogging out sixteen hot and humid miles I did something that I never do, fumbled my water bottle going to put it back in the cage and watched it roll into oncoming traffic. A guy actually stopped (in a 45 mph zone...) and waited for me to drop my bike and grab the bottle from the road rather than just zooming around it or running it over. Little acts, people, they are gratifying.

Guilt

 So, I'm not riding today and damn do I feel guilty. Its the second day in a row. Yesterday I felt justified in it. It was hot as hell and more humid than I remember it being at any other day of the summer... Plus I had promised my sons that I would put their new bunk bed together. So, yesterday I chalked up to a recovery day as cyclists call them. I needed it after the mini-disaster that Sunday turned out to be.
 But today I'm not riding even though I looked forward to it all day at work. I constantly imagine myself riding and how good it would feel even though on some of the hills I know I'd suffer. I keep upping the ante inside my head- I'll ride faster, farther, be stronger, feel prouder and better. And as much as I looked forward to it, I'm not riding today.
 Its still hot and humid, but today there are also big black thunderheads which I'm using as my most convenient excuse to not ride today. And yeah, I'm STILL tired from not getting much sleep Sunday. I slept ok last night, but not long enough and so while I'm feeling motivated, I'm looking for an excuse to not ride... figure that one out. I have a rain jacket and in some perverse way I'm looking forward to riding in the rain intentionally (or not...) one day soon, but I guess not if I may get struck by lightning in an ugly downpour.
 Plus its the beginning of the month and I'm looking forward to putting some miles into this month.
 So, second recovery day or am I whoosing out on this one?

Stretching

You know, I really try to do alot after rides, but some more pre-trip stretches would be good as well. Here's a decent link. http://mikesbikes.com/articles/stretching-before-you-ride-pg241.htm

Solution!

 The reports of the demise of my bike have thankfully been greatly exaggerated. I took the rear wheel off and sure enough my Bicycling Magazine's Complete Guide to Bicycle Maintenance and Repair was right when it said that the cassette may just be gummed up with rust or something preventing it from turning. It was hard to turn until I shot with a few shots of PB Blaster and then some WD-40 and it spun freely once again! I also got a closer look at the cassette cogs themselves and man, are they worn.
 It had me thinking and I tried to fit my old Araya 700c wheels with old 700X21 or 23c cyclocross tires on them, but not quite enough room in between the down tube and the stays... Just thinking out loud about something smaller and with lower rolling resistance... If it had fit it would have given up some gearing for my old road bike's I think, 14-24 cassette six speed.

Bleh...

 Not a great ride today... I could make all the excuses, hot and humid, much moreso today than it has been, not a great sleep- woke up at 3AM, couldn't fall back asleep and only managed six hours of bad sleep, so I was dead tired after a hard ride yesterday, then Google Maps misled me again into thinking a dirt ATV trail at the end of a dead end road was another road instead of a trail to the possible marijuana farm/ pitbull breeding facility, meth lab at the end with a shotgun being pointed at me. Thanks Google!
 And I broke the bike somehow. I was about 3/4 of the way back and I noticed that the chain was slack and slapping the chainstay... WTH? Did I drop the chain somehow? I stopped and nope. It was back to normal. I rode again and as soon as I freewheeled for a second, the chain dropped. I stopped a couple of times before I realized that the cassette had stopped freewheeling and was locked up, jumping gears and trying to make the rear wheel into a fixie. Damn... so I managed to pedal without a break the last 3 miles or so and here I am at home weighing my options.
 One- ride my wife's bike. Not a bad solution, but its way heavier than mine. Cro-mo versus aluminum, plus no bar ends and the tires are darn near dry rotted out. Two- borrow her rear wheel, but there's still the dry rotted tire or Three- build the spare wheel that I picked up a couple of weeks ago from a dumpster in Portland. Haven't written yet about that, but I will as soon as I get photos.

My Goals

I'm so glad to be back cycling again! even with all of the little surprises it holds for- an unexpected little hill that I have to battle up, the realization that I can power uphill sometimes harder than I ever thought that I could, to riding on roads that I haven't been on before, to the flock of wild turkeys that crossed the road in front of me. I started doing it because I wanted to lose some weight and I needed to get outside of my own head for awhile. Since I started to ride again and lift weights back after my birthday in March I've lost about ten pounds, put on alot of muscle and have been able to wear clothes that had previously been tight on me. My goal is to get back into alot of pants and shorts that I used to wear when I had a 32 inch waist. I always knew there was a reason to keep them! But most importantly I want to be around for a very long time to enjoy a long life and relationship with my kids and wife, Melissa!

More Heaven... Or Is It Hell?

 Nah, just heaven! Only feels like hell at the time. So alot has been going on since I last posted. Been riding and riding like mad. Going from 3 or 4 mile rides a couple of weeks ago to a 13 miler today. Something back at the beginning of the month of August or late July just clicked in my head- I'm a cyclist! I have been since I first began enjoying riding my new to me bike in April around the driveway with my two sons and I still am. I've been a cyclist since the early 80's, maybe 1984 when I turned 13 and started getting turned onto road cycling. Life changed when I was in my early 20's and I gave it up, but I guess that I never stopped being a cyclist. And I realize that I still love it!
 So in addition to riding I wanted to feel like a cyclist too. I found a pair of Shimano MTB shoes at Play It Again Sports, a second hand sports equipment shop where I have found ALOT of great deals, mainly weight lifting equipment. Not enough cycling duds, but these shoes have immensely raised my level of enjoyment. From old sneakers and gym shorts and a t-shirt now I am back into spandex bibs and cycling jerseys via a few second hand Ebay purchases. Oh yeah, and a pair of beat up, but perfectly functioning Shimano M520 pedals also came from Ebay for $15!
 As far as the bike has changed- well, not alot. I bought a small under the saddle bag for it, finally caved into the all too real world of tres expensive water bottles ($9 for a store bottle, but from a store that I love anyways- AllSpeed in Portland) and swapped in my wife's cycle computer (that she isn't using right now) a Sigma BC906 that is a fairly nice and well featured computer that would be better if it decided to work more than it does. I blame the magnetic pickup which is incredibly fussy about being only a millimeter or so from the magnet or it stops entirely giving a speed readout. I've also picked up for cheap a Ritchey WCS alloy seatpost in 350mm. yeah, the frame is still too small and even with a frequent watering of sweat it hasn't grown, so in order to counteract the fact that its too small for me I've raised the post up too far (and it needs a fraction more really...). The Ritchey is 50mm longer, a good two inches that will make me feel alot more secure. Plus, its the bling factor- Ritchey!
 And so I've enjoyed the hell out of riding. I'm feeling stronger day by day and capable of riding farther and stronger and faster. My only real problem has been mainly solved by reading this article on leg pain. This fellow is a bike fitter in Britain and this article said that what I've been feeling especially since installing new cleats in my Shimano clipless boots was wrong. On longer efforts, especially climbing from the seat, my quadriceps would burn like hell, esp. right at the inside corner of my knees. I figured that it was just being out of shape and that it would be the price I'd have to pay until I got into better shape. But it hurt so much that it really hindered my desire to keep going. It was so painful that it made me want to just slow down and hopefully stop. This guy said that ANY localized pain in your quads should not happen- ever. He suggested adjusting cleat position. The old wisdom has been that you should adjust the cleats so that the ball of your foot just in back of your big toe should intersect your cleat. Well, he wrote that that may be too far forward. I had adjusted my cleats so that they were so far forward that I had no more adjustment and I had thought that it was what I should have been doing. You know, the old toes down and dig with your pedals. I moved my cleats back a few mm and hey, no more pain! Incredible! I'm still fine tuning them a bit, but what a difference! I can go harder in the saddle with no flaming pain in my quads, well, nothing that I can't endure at least!

1991 Trek 6000 Aluminum

Picked this up at the 2014 Portland, Maine Bike Swap for just $50! Its a 15" frame and smallish for me, but one day with a new stem and a longer seatpost, it'll be perfect. It came with the Onza bar ends and I discovered that I love the Ritchey TGV grips. I think that the smaller frame makes it the lightest bike that I've ever owned!