A Retrospective on 2009

I always get quite melancholy around the new year. I very much look forward to my plans for the upcoming year, but I spend a lot of time lamenting the chances not taken and the experiences I'll never get to have again. My heart breaks all over again reliving the losses of my loved ones who've exited my life over the past year. But this year I resolved early to focus on the positive experiences, and to that end I've been constructing this post for a few months now. And in order to avoid melancholy this evening I'm gonna finish it off. Below is a list of bike things I'm looking back on with gladness. pride, and other happy thoughts.

I created & solidified many riding friendships:

• Justin
• Mike
• Gatlin
• Michelle (thanks for finally getting me into your commute routine)
• The Brothers Wiley
• Steve

Two 700-mile months

My first century (thanks to the Wileys there too)

5000-mile year

Races:

• Jason Broome TT
• Lyle Pearson (and heres for a fun 2010 race!)
• State Crit
• BBHC
• State TT
• Hidden Springs
• Nearly every ride of the season with Gatlin

Thanks to:

• Tyler for support - material, logistical, emotional, nutritional, organizational
• Gatlin for the rides and the encouragement (and making me look damn good in the duathlon . . . not so much for making me look like a fool on Bogus)
• Mike for the support and the self-deprecating humor on rides
• Justin for stroking my gearheadedness and pulling me (especially homeward in the heat)
• Kate for putting up with all my crap, for standing alone in the cold to watch my first race ever, and for plucking my back hair
• Will Lindsay and Scott Hoover for doing far more than their share of standing around on Thursdays
• McT for all of his support, advice, and encouragement
• Bruce & Ken for keeping us riding through the cold
• All of you for reading this garbage and supporting me

And now I'm gonna go spend some quality time...

Next Season

It's been a while. I guess I should post something. Perhaps it's a bit premature, but I'm getting pretty fired up about the 2010 race season already. My team is now registered for the Lyle Pearson 200 in June and I'm talking about getting into spin classes for some conditioning.

But my fear is that I'll be forsaking some good riding (or at least not enjoying it as much as I could) through the winter. Thanks to my friend Bruce, my friends and I have been getting out for rides every weekend and lucking out with some dandy weather so far. Okay the space bar on this keyboard is sticking and it's driving me nuts. This post is over.

Veterans' Day Ride

Now that I've got a bit more stuff installed on my new laptop, I can post a new entry for the Vets' Day ride I took yesterday. Speaking of that, to any & all veterans tuning in, happy Veterans' Day wishes (belated) and thanks (as always) to you for your dedication and sacrifices.

My own service to veterans this year was a bike ride with a salty old sailor. Mike & I went for a fifty-miler. Down into the Snake River Canyon, past Map Rock (stopping for a look), back up near Marsing, and then around Lake Lowell before rolling back into Nampa. We got rained on just a little and dealt with more wind than we'd have liked, but all in all it was a great fall ride.

Mike is tantalizingly close to his own goal for the year. After our fifty on Wednesday, he's just twenty or thirty miles shy of 3000. We've got another ride on Saturday, so barring a catastrophe he'll make his goal then if not before. Awesome job Mike!

Goodbye October

Yesterday was the inaugural ride of the group ride that has yet to be named but is all about riding through the winter. We've kinda decided to start at one of Nampa's coffee shops and ride to a coffee shop in one of the neighboring towns - plenty of opportunities to get warm! This was all Bruce Wiley's idea - and what a great one! A quick search of Google Maps around Kuna a couple nights ago yielded the Trellis Bistro. We were fairly pleased - I'm sure that we'll end up there again this winter.

Mike flatted on the way back, and that ended up being just what the doctor ordered. Most of the riders decided to keep on riding and leave Mike, Trevor, and me behind to catch up after fixing

the flat. So we fixed it and got jamming again - kept it above 20MPH for pretty much the rest of the ride. Got stopped by a train just before catching the lead group, and ended up having to work hard to catch up again before rolling back into the barn.

Mike & I were chatting on the way to Kuna when Mike mentioned that he was over 400 miles for October. "Excellent!" I said, "That's farther than I've ridden this month by a long shot." He expressed his doubt at this, so after returning home I took a look at Cyclistats for a resolution. Well heck, I'm over 500 miles for October! That's actually more miles than I rode in July! And

compare that to the 82 miles from last October - holy shnikies! So that's cool. And I'm now past 4900 miles on the year. 5000 is pretty much a sure thing now (I'll hopefully have that by next weekend), and my ultimate goal of 5300 is well within sight. If November is as good to me a October, then I'll have it before the month is out.

Mileage update

Crested 4700 miles today. If I wasn't such a lazy shlepp then I'd be closer to 4800, but I didn't ride to work even once this week. First time for that since January.

A new infatuation

With my ride to Emmett yesterday, I'm over 4500 miles now. 800 more to go. There's a light at the end of the tunnel - I just have to reach it before the end of the year.

Anyway, I've recently become very enamored of this screen from Cyclistats. It's a bar graph of my daily mileage since I started recording my ride stats. Each blue bar represents a day, and the height of each bar is the total mileage for that day with the scale on the left (so multiple rides per day get stacked on top of one another). The vertical green line is New Year's Day 2009. The difference between the two years is remarkable, no? One thing that struck me is that giant two-week gap with zero rides in May 2008 - our honeymoon. Without that hiatus, I'd likely have gotten over 3000 miles last year. That woulda been great, but there'd be no way I coulda doubled that this year. So thanks to my in-laws for sending me away. :)

The most striking feature though is the large number of 50-mile days this year. These are almost all commute days. Last year I rode to work several times but rode all the way home only occasionally, opting instead to hop off the bus at Gold's for a 33-mile day. You can see lots of them in peak season 2008.

After looking at this for a while, I realize that I need more long days next year - 70+ miles. Kinda funny - that 67-mile day in 2008 (LeBow metric century) was the longest of my life at the time. I wept that afternoon as I barreled homeward ten miles out. A year on, 60+ is almost routine. I had a similar experience with my 30+ mile LeBow ride the year before. Does that mean that my 108-mile record this year will be commonplace for me next year? Here's hoping!

Hidden Springs Duathlon

After Gat & I'd discussed going out to Glenn's Ferry for a road race out there today, we decided instead earlier this week to enter the Hidden Springs Duathlon as a team. That suited me just fine - I didn't have to run. :) Our friend Steve's lips are faster than his legs. In the Land of Talking he does mighty fine, but we had to go show him how things are in the Land of Doing. There's a beer riding on this so stay tuned.

Gatlin's a machine. Having not done any running in months, he still managed to get through the first of his TWO 5Ks in ~21 minutes and put me on the bike course first of all the teams (that I noticed anyway). I was riding with the elite riders. I fell in behind a guy on a TT bike right after the start and hung with him a few lengths behind him all the way up to the pass and down Seaman's Gulch, then I took the turn onto Hill Rd FAR better than he did and passed him after exiting. But he made me look foolish on the flats (Hill Rd) with his aero bars (I chose my Look rather than the TT bike because of the climbing, descending, & a couple tight turns), and he was soon a good distance ahead of me. Two or three more riders passed me after that as well but I didn't pay much attention - I was holding what I felt was a good pace. In hindsight, maybe I coulda pushed a bit more. Maybe it's time for a heart rate monitor. Anyway I got back into the transition area, gave the timing chip back to Gatlin, and he was off again for the finishing leg. Got that done in fine fashion as well, perhaps even faster than his first.

Anyway one of the people that passed me must have been a team rider because no one passed Gatlin and we ended up taking second for male road teams and 11th overall for the road course. The results are here (look for "CREAGER, Gatlin" near the bottom of page 2), but no splits are reported yet, so it has yet to be determined (no later than Monday according to the website) who's buying whom a beer in the near future. The picture shows Gatlin taking off after transition 2 to make up the time I lost. :) The best part about that picture, though, is the tan line on his leg indicating how much biking he's done this season.

OH! And Rusty will be happy to know that we beat the team that included a guy wearing a Harvard jersey. I even talked a little smack to him for you - thought about busting out "Bulldog! Bulldog! Bow wow wow!" on my way out of the transition as he was still standing there but decided against it. :)

Mileage Record

First, check out the movie that McT made using a pirated picture of me to commemorate the Bogus Basin Hill Climb. :)

This week had a few firsts: for instance Monday was my first time up Pump Rd (steep!) and yesterday I had three tire punctures in one commute. Also, I passed 4000 miles on the year this week - first time for that. Last year didn't even see 3K. And with yesterday's ride on the dump loop and commutes, I've got a little over 4070. And there's an STP ride a little later this morning that'll put me tantalizingly close to, if not over, 4100. So what's all this mean? Not a whole lot unless you're me. And I'm me so I'm gonna make a big deal out of it.

I've been eyeing the 5K mile mark for some time now but haven't quite felt confident enough in my ability to reach it so didn't really say much. But now, after actually taking the time to do some math, I'm going for it. 900 more miles before the year's end is very doable so long as the weather cooperates. Five thousandth mile, here I come. In fact, 5300 miles - still achievable - would double last year's mileage. Okay I gotsta start preparing for STP . . .

Bogus Basin Hill Climb

This one was lots of fun. Four hundred of my closest friends all heading up one twisty road with me.

Having never been up Bogus on a bike (and only once by car) I didn't really know what to expect. Tyler's advice was to take it easy on the first half since that's the steep stuff, then go harder once the worst of the switchbacks are behind you. I took that advice to heart and rode for a while with my friend Steve - a strong rider to be sure but not constructed for ascents. Gatlin chilled with the two of us for less than a mile but forged ahead and was out of sight after not too long. I figured he'd bonk and I'd pass him near the top, but in hindsight I don't know why I'd have thought that. With his strong running background, Gatlin's got the distinct advantage of knowing how much he can push himself and how much he's got in reserve. At the center of his dashboard lies a well calibrated digital fuel gauge. All I've got is an idiot light that pops on at 1/16 of a tank. :) So once he was away, I never saw him again. Along the way, Mike stopped at several turn-outs for photo opportunities and was giving each of us reports on the other as we passed. Gatlin not only never faded, but he continued to pull away from me pretty much the whole way. Note to self: Keep Gatlin reeled in if you want to sprint with him at the end. :)

But I passed Tyler and Rod, one of the other guys I rode the Lyle Pearson with this year, about half way up. The fourth guy in our LP team, Daniel, finished ahead of Gatlin. Daniel's skinnier than I am - born to climb. Actually speaking of passing, I don't think I got passed by anyone at all after I determined to go after Gatlin. Of course by then anyone who had any dreams of being a hero had already gone. :) But yeah, I passed a LOT of people including a couple that I know put a minute or more into me at the Hubbard TTs, so that felt good. Anyway here are the results. I'm 205 overall, and Gatlin's 171. Oh and there's Cycloid just about right between us. The official clock was significantly faster than mine. And what's this? Only 13 women placed ahead of me? Geez ladies! Take some pride in yourselves! :)

The ride down was an absolute blast. I was giggling for a good while. :) Winding down through the trees is great fun. Gatlin got stung by a bee or something on the way down and that was less fun, but it didn't hurt me at all. :) I kept my bike reigned in a little during the switchbacky parts until I got to the relatively straight portion right near the bottom. Then I let it rip and worked it up to a max speed of 42.8 MPH.

Whew! Fun though. Even the ride up was fun. Next year I'll know I can hit it a bit harder. And this has me excited to work on climbing through the fall and preparing for the Lyle Pearson in the spring. Imagine that - actually preparing for the Lyle Pearson. :)

State TT Championships

Well I've had more than 24 hours to stew about this, and I'm disappointed in my time. But I shouldn't be, really; but I am. So I'm disappointed in myself for being disappointed in myself. It's a positive feedback loop and I'm spiraling into a bad place. Screw it - I'm going to get my first beer in weeks. Hang on . . . Okay I'm beered. Thanks Teresa. Tack on a minute to my time at the Bogus Basin Hill Climb this weekend (speaking of positive feedback loops).

Anyway, here's how it went down: I got there knowing I'd have some trouble. Never done a 40K time trial before, so I didn't really know how much I could put into it and still have enough left to finish. So I had my sights set ridiculously low. And I got to the start line in plenty of time. Chatted for a minute with Scott Hoover, a TT veteran and friend from the Hubbard TTs, and I mentioned that this was gonna be my first 40K TT. He said something akin to, "It's not much different than the 10-milers - same effort, just longer." Note that he'd already completed his TT for the day - the 20K ride for the Masters 50+ category. I'll punch that guy right in the nose next time I see him! :)

So okay, I took his advice to heart and kept about the same pace I do during Hubbard. Surprisingly, I was just about able to maintain that pace through the whole ride - I died a little near the end. And the worst part was when I was coming up on an intersection, cars were waiting for me at the stop signs and another car or two was driving opposite my direction. Just then with four or five cars' worth of people watching me, a Cat 3 cruises past me effortlessly. Great. Thanks for that gigantic slice of humble pie. :)

A couple miles after that, I crossed the finish line and rode straight to my truck. It was only after I sat there stretching for a minute or two that I thought to look at the time on my phone. I started at 8:54 (by the officials' time) and looked at my clock at 10:07. Estimating about 6 minutes since I crossed the finish line, I figured my time was somewhere near 1:07:00. "That'd be damn sweet if it's accurate!" I thought. Then I overheard other guys talking about their 55-minute times. Ugh. Well I was pretty much right on; 1:07:19 was my official time - two seconds faster than the last-place finisher in my category. I was 8th of 9. I'll save you the math - that's 22.2 MPH.

Then I called Kate & told her that I was finished. "Did you have fun?" she asked not 20 minutes after the worst suffering I'd endured in years, possibly ever, and certainly the most intense physical effort I've ever put forth. I laughed heartily and shouted "NO!" :)

Mostly out of frustration, last night I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations based on sketchy estimates on a website to determine about how much an aero helmet may have helped me, and I figured it could have shaved three and a half minutes off my time. That woulda been okay by me. $120+ for three minutes once a year though . . . yeesh!

Registered for the State Time Trial Championships

One must question my mental capacity right about now. I just registered for the Idaho State Time Trial Championships (there I am). That by itself isn't enough to qualify me for the loony bin, but the fact that this is a 40km time trial . . . now that's nuts: 25 miles of all-out effort. I've never even spent that much time on my TT bike. My longest ride on it was my very first - 14.5 miles. And of course I was just getting used to it so I put no real effort into that. I have no idea how hard I should go out on this thing in order to have enough left to finish it. But it should be . . . fun? :)

Hubbard TT

There were additional expectations on me this week: I promised McT that I'd throw it in one higher gear on the home stretch this week and churn extra hard if he'd do one more set of something in the gym. It's good to have a friend there to motivate you to push yourself. Gatlin has officially filled that role recently, and quite well if I may say so (and I may - it's my damn blog); but McT's dedication to the sport of bodybuilding has been an inspiration to me for . . . well geez, since high school. Senior year - while changing back into our uniforms in the locker room after gym class was the first time that anyone noticed his physique (to my knowledge). Between taking his gym shirt off and replacing it with his dress shirt, I noticed his muscle definition and said something like, "Damn! McT's ripped!" This was not at all expected from the mild-mannered kid. All five or six guys in our locker row and a few guys from the next one turned to look. Several guys expressed how impressed they were. I think someone might have even encouraged him to flex. :) Anyway there's that. On to the time trial...

Last week was a week for records to be set. The wind changed right near the turnaround so we had a very weak headwind for most of the way out but a wild tailwind on the way back. I felt like I was shot out of a cannon after the turn. This week wasn't quite so great - we had a bit of a barnburner on the way out but it stuck with us for strong headwind on the return. I did indeed upshift (two gears in fact) and put in a big helping of extra effort, working well into my red zone for pain over the last couple hundred meters. However my time suffered due to the wind as well as my lack of concentration and consequent poor aerodynamic form and suboptimal pedaling. 25:05 this week. Not bad for me, but I couldn't help but hope for another improved time.

But the silver lining of my lack of improvement is that I think that this is an indication that I've found my baseline. Or I've hit my first plateau. The uber-easy improvement is over - I'm no longer a novice. From now on, improvements in my time will be harder earned, come in smaller increments, but feel more significant.

There was a dude taking pictures there today. Hopefully he got some of me - especially the one of me crossing the finish line with "AGONY" printed in big bold letters across my face.

Sub 25

Well it was another day for the Hubbard time trial. Gatlin & I were both feeling beat down after the race this past weekend and practicing earlier in the week (plus Gat works outside in this crazy heat), so we weren't really expecting anything too impressive.

But Gatlin got to put his new bike to the test again - his first TT with it, so a first opportunity to semi-quantitatively assess how much it's benefitted him. They just put the aero bars on this afternoon, and the altered cable routing caused some brake tuning issues resulting in his front brake rubbing the rim. Despite this gigantic energy sink and his fatigue (whether real or perceived), Gatlin clocked an improved time from his previous - right around 26 minutes flat. That's about half a minute or so faster than his previous best, I believe. So great work Gatlin! Woulda been interesting if we could have compared your time as-is with one sans-brake-issue, but I bet (based on nothing quantitative [grin]) that it cost you a good 20 seconds.

I also improved my time significantly: 24:49 according to Mike's stopwatch. That's my first ever sub-25-minute ten mile TT. A bit more impressive than the 30 minutes from this spring. :)

Citizens' Crit

Well today was the day - the Idaho State Criterium Championships. Gatlin & I signed up for the citizens' race - the race for people who haven't raced before. Technically I'd raced before - a time trial, but I felt this was the better place for us to be since neither of us had ever done a crit. Crits are tight and technical, and I ride loose & squirrelly.

Last year's citizens' race (I showed up to watch last year) had only about seven or eight racers, half of whom were sitting on mountain bikes. So I figured that Gat & I'd be pretty much alone on the course or with one or two others. But when we rolled up to the line, we rolled up alongside ten or twelve other riders, all on road bikes and all looking fairly fit. Yikes.

Off we went with Gatlin's parents, Mike (photographer of choice for Dan's Folly) & Connie (who said she was gonna blame me if Gatlin crashed - mind you, she tells me this not before registration but ten minutes before the race starts), in attendance. Gat & I pulled up front right off and traded a couple pulls with one other rider. The photo shows Gat (Navy jersey) pulling with me behind him. After about half the race, he & I'd done the lion's share of the work for everyone who was still hanging onto us - five or six people I guess (but I can't say for sure since I was always near the front). Come to think of it, I kinda tucked right in behind people rather than letting more than one or two riders in the paceline get by me. So maybe it was my fault that no one else did any work.

At some point in there, Gatlin hit a pebble or something with his back tire and skidded out a bit. He modulated the brakes perfectly and made a phenomenal recovery. Then I heard Connie's heart start beating again.

Anyway after about half the race was behind us, one guy shot past everyone and I decided the race was too short (20 minutes) to let a break get too far ahead so I pulled out of the paceline and went after him. Caught him in short order too. I figured Gat was still on my wheel but I looked back & he wasn't. Drat. Well that just blew our agreement to stay together. Sorry Gatlin. And of course the dude that shot out decided against his break after just half a lap and slowed back down to 19-20 from the 24-25-MPH pace he'd just set. So I passed him and kept on going. From there, I think I held the lead pretty much the whole way.

And miraculously I hung in at the front all the way to the end. I won the razzle frazzle thing. Gatlin held on for a very respectable fourth. On the way home afterwards though, I recalled that he told me he'd only eaten half a bowl of cereal for breakfast. That couldn't have been enough. With a proper amount of fuel (and without the need to expend extra energy on that recovery), I bet he'd have hung right in there.

But now I've begun to second guess my decision to register in the citizens' race instead of Cat 4/5 (beginners). I figured that Cat4/5 guys would be a bit more aggressive and a bit more under control, and that my inexperience would only have caused problems. However I'm beginning to think that maybe I could have hung with the cat 4/5 riders (at the BACK). I felt about as under control as they looked (we stuck around to watch them immediately after us). If we'd have absolutely run away with the citizens' race, I might have convinced myself that I/we shoulda moved up. But as it was, I only won by a couple seconds at most.

Anyway there you have it. I won a race. You likely won't hear that ever ever again. :) Regardless, it was really fun; and I've been told that the brand new Buick I won is in the mail. :) But I need to thank Gatlin for entering with me. I'd almost certainly have decided against entering again if not for his willingness to come along and to practice with me ahead of time. And to share pulls. :)

Preparing for the Idaho State Criterium Championships

Gatlin & I are preparing to race in a criterium this weekend. Pretty scary - close quarters racing for the first time for me. Not something I'm comfortable with at all, but the field is gonna be ridiculously small and I'll be on the course with only a few others. The bad news is that we'll all be equally underexperienced so staying out of each others' way might be a challenge (until Gat & I put the hammer down and leave all the chumps behind for good).

Gat & I spent Tuesday night practicing. There's your silver lining to the "economic downturn" and "housing crisis." Crits are run on short loops - kinda like the NASCAR or Formula 1 of bike racing. Perfect for practice crits are abandoned subdivisions where they paved all the roads then realized they couldn't sell any houses so didn't build any. And places like that are a dime a dozen around here nowadays. Sweet. No houses = no one entering/exiting the sub = no traffic + ease in seeing around corners just in case; and new construction = new pavement = smooth riding.

So Gat & I raced three short crit races, three laps apiece on a 0.6-mile loop. I won two and he won the last one - I was completely out of gas by that point and Gatlin swept right past me before the last turn. I knew he was gonna make his move there, but I hadn't even the energy to get off my saddle much less to answer his charge. We both maxed out above 31 MPH on level ground. It was unbelievably fun. We almost surely won't hit 31 in the race on Sunday (it'll be longer - ~20 minutes, so we'll hafta conserve more energy), but it should be just as fun. Gatlin's got an edge on me because he ran track in high school so he's more experienced in the whole strategizing thing, which is a giant part of crits (though I did learn a bit from him).

So I'm quite jazzed. I've been grinning like a chimpanzee thinking about it ever since we decided to do it.

Cartwrong

Well I'm off to a wedding in a couple days, so I'll be away from the bike for a while. I came to that realization today and decided to push myself on the way home. So I decided on Cartwright Road. Never even driven it before, but I've heard about it and Google Maps has a terrain map that clearly shows some pretty beefy hills so I knew what I was getting myself into . . . more or less.

Good grief. I was already a bit fatigued after a fairly climb-intensive workout with Gatlin this weekend (When he reads this he'll call me a baby but that's only because he's a punk.), so I knew I wasn't gonna win any races; but I wanted to push myself. And boy howdy did I! Probably the steepest stuff I've ever ridden. By the time I got to the top of the second climb (about 540 feet over 1.3 miles - ~8%), I was gasping for breath and my legs felt like Jell-O. Pulled off right at the top for a couple minutes' rest.

The other interesting part of this ride was Dry Creek Rd, a little further along. I knew when I planned the route that it was a rough gravel road, but I figured it was time for a Roubaix (a road bicycle race including a significant portion of cobblestone and/or gravel roads). Geez, the washboard was terrible. I have a headache now just thinking about it. The loose sand & gravel would have been tolerable . . . downright enjoyable even if not for that.

Anyway it was a good experience (topped off with a planned stop at my boss's house to refill my water bottles), and I'm glad that I'll have a few days to recover.

An Off Month

After 612 miles, June is done. Not a bad tally considering that last June saw only 447, but still significantly down from the past two months, each at 700+. Had it not been for my resting in preparation for the Lyle Pearson 200 and LeBow Century, I'd have likely made that mark again. 'Salright - a fair trade, I'd say. Both of those rides were a ton of fun.

Oh boy, here come the %#&%$@ fireworks. Eighty-seven brush fires in the past three days isn't enough for the rednecks around here.

Hubbard Time Trial

Another great TT. I improved my time from the last TT by six seconds despite the wind and royally screwing up my turn. Plus tonight we had two TT rookies: Gatlin's dad Mike (thanks in part to my underhandedness) and my commute buddy Justin. Both of them did great.

Justin is a great match for me - about my age and about my speed - I gained maybe 30 seconds on him over the ten miles. He and his friends decided to enter their first triathlon & race one another in a couple months, and I have a feeling he's gonna make them cry. :) He's also planning to be on my 2010 Lyle Pearson team, and we may even be able to team up on a stage and paceline if we stay so evenly matched through next spring.

Mike, on the other hand, has been harping about how out of shape he is since we met this spring, but he absolutely destroyed all the expectations for a slow time that he'd built up with his sandbagging. He clocked just 30 seconds over my first ten-mile TT time ever. Great job Mike!

Hubbard Time Trial, Take Two

I finally got to ride my second Hubbard Time Trial yesterday. Clocked 25:40 - about half a minute better than my first attempt at this course a few weeks ago. Gat came out too and showed how it's done on his first time trial with a time in the low 27-minute range - way faster than my first. And he wasn't even in his aero bars the whole time. A little work on pedaling efficiency and he'll be tearing things up. He also wants me to run with him. We'll see how that goes. :) Kristin Armstrong rode there too, and of course shooshed past us at lightning speed. Being soundly throttled by an Olympic gold medalist is about as close to bicycling stardom as I stand to get. :)

LeBow 2009

What a great ride. To be sure, all the LeBow rides I've been on have been great; but this year's was truly exceptional - both as a charity ride and for personal and social reasons.

Let me just get the social reasons out of the way quickly because I'm a bit sick of talking about it but still feel the need. This week saw the third fatal collision between a bicycle and a car in the valley in as many weeks. I'm angry about it beyond words, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. I considered not riding this weekend because of my anger, but I realized on my way to the start of LeBow that that would have been the worst possible decision. A good ride with some friends was exactly what I needed and likely exactly what the Treasure Valley's cycling community needed.

This was to be my first century ride (that's 100 miles for the uninitiated; and a metric century is 100 km - ~62 miles). I've made the LeBow ride my venue for new distance thresholds a couple years in a row now, and this was no exception. For this ride, I tagged along with some friends of mine - Bruce & Ken (the Wiley brothers) and their friends. They're all strong riders but not particularly interested in speed, so they were perfect to force me to pace myself so I wouldn't bonk at mile 50. We did the whole thing at an average of about 15 MPH. And it just occured to me that I didn't do much pulling. I suppose I did some, but our friend John probably did more than his share. Anyway, that easy pace allowed me to keep enough in my tank for my usual butt-busting homeward hammerfest at 20+. Like usual, this wasn't planned, but I suppose as John said of others earlier in the ride, I "could smell the barn." :)

But before I talk about that, I'll review the first 90 miles. They were all special. The ride down Pump Road was exhilarating, and I will have to make that a climb I do a few times in the coming weeks & months. I finally stopped to see Map Rock after three or four rides going right past it! The course was beautiful, most of the roads were acceptable, and all of the rest stops were excellent. Great food for refueling and great people to chat up.

The weather up to my aforementioned solo homeward effort had been near perfect - a few sprinkles got us a bit damp but everything for the most part was dry, the temperature was in the 60s, and the wind was minimal. After breaking away from John though, I found myself in a torrential downpour of rain and wind and hail. And shortly thereafter I saw a gold Pontiac Aztec driving out of the maelstrom. I saw that and thought, "Oh I know who that is!" Sure enough, a hand came off the steering wheel & pointed at me. Yep - Mike again coming out to check on me. :) And this time his son Gatlin was with him. They teamed up to take some interesting pictures including the ones shown here. The first is in the heart of the storm - it doesn't capture the wildness, but you can see I'm soaked. The second is my favorite - a couple miles after the first, charging up the hill on Midway Rd from Roosevelt to Lake Lowell Ave.

Thanks to so many people for helping me on my first century: Ken & Bruce for letting me tag along with them, everyone at TRHS for organizing the ride, all the volunteers, Rhiannon for holding it all together, and of course Mike and Gat for (again) cheering me on and taking pictures. And speaking of Mike & Gat, they kicked some butt on the 35-miler - both have made marked progress in just a few weeks. Great job, guys.

The Lyle Pearson 200

On Tuesday, June 2, I got a call from Tyler; who told me that a second teammate of his in the Lyle Pearson 200 (map) was out with an injury.  He said that he'd suggested me as an alternate.  I agreed, flattered, to do what I could.  With only four days notice, I could do little to prepare but rest.  The other team members had been seeking out hills and riding intervals for months.  I'd done nearly zero intervals since the Broome TT, and my only intense riding was at the only Hubbard Time Trial I'd managed to ride so far.  The only appreciable hill I'd ridden this year (truly ever on a road bike) was on the Arbon Valley ride.  

Anyway, my total climbing for the entire Arbon Valley ride was less than or equal to the elevation gain on my first leg of today's ride.  Whew!  But I rode it and did pretty well.  A real highlight was seeing Mike, a friend from Skinny Tire, show up to drive along and whoop it up a little for us.  His cheering gave me a bundle of extra energy and took my mind off the pain for a short while, and I found myself going a couple MPH faster after our encounter.  Much appreciated, Mike - sincerely.  I'm smiling in the picture shown here only because I was so pleased to see you.  And here's the BIG highlight for the day: at the beginning of that leg, Daniel (my teammate) handed off the lead to me, and I was able to hand it off to Tyler.  And a little icing on that cake: John (another teammate - actually the guy whose place I took after he hurt his knee) said that the lead that we built up had people talking.  But as he quickly pointed out, "There comes a time when the hare knows that the hawk will catch him."  :)  The faster riders generally started later than the slower ones, so it was only a matter of time before the heroes would catch us.  A mechanical difficulty meant that Tyler relinquished the front spot on the following descent and our glory would not survive another stage - but that's okay because he's still alive.  :)

Anyway, moving on to my second leg . . . this one was from Banner Summit to Stanley - losing a total of about 650 feet in elevation.  It was one of the longest segments of the race - about 25 miles, and the first six miles or so was a significant but relatively gentle descent (less than 1%) that gave me momentum to carry through the rest of the leg, which undulates 18 more miles down to Stanley losing 400 more feet from the base of the descent.  About half-way along this leg, I felt my batteries draining and knew that I'd be useless on another leg (I was slated to participate with everyone else in the last leg).  Knowing that the others would be able to move faster on that last leg without me, I determined to blow everything I had left right where I was.  So I held my steady state until Stanley appeared before me, about two miles away.  Seeing my goal, I judged myself, gritted my teeth, and successfully emptied my tank in those last two miles en route to the transition.

There, I handed off the radio to Tyler, who had the unenviable task of riding the next leg (probably the longest leg) alone & into the wind.  I really got off easy in this race with my assignments.  Rod and Daniel are the two guys on our team that really deserve kudos - they both rode up & down Galena Summit and blew straight through the last transition area to pull us to the finish line while Tyler & I lounged in the truck (Tyler spent himself on his last solo leg too).

Results were just posted a while ago, and we finished in 31st place out of 69 teams.  Not bad at all.  Anyway, it was a great time.  I've already started work on assembling my own team for next year.

Twenty-Six Minutes, Thirteen Seconds

That was my time today over the ten-mile Hubbard Time Trial.  10 miles in 26:13 works out to 22.9 miles per hour.  That far surpassed both my time in the Broome TT and my expectations for the evening (though it was about in line with my hopes for the evening).

Thanks to my friend Bruce and his wife Nancy for the pictures.  Also note in them, like the Broome TT, I'm smiling at the start but not at the finish.  And look at those skinny freakin' legs!  Dang, I'm eating as much as I can shove down my throat.  And they don't look that skinny from the first-person perspective.  :)

The Arbon Valley Ride

It's been a month.  I suppose I should post something.  Here's what I did last weekend.

A couple months ago Kate let me know that she was gonna be heading to Pocatello to stay with our friend Shannon and go to a DOCNA trial.  I decided that I needed to get some climbing done and a change of scenery wouldn't hurt either. Also I didn't want to be left alone with the cats for a weekend. So I decided to tag along with Kate for the weekend, bring my bike, and ride up Mink Creek & down Arbon Valley on Saturday.

So off I went with chamois butter in my shorts.  Rode six miles and stopped at the agility trial along Quinn Rd.  A perfect place to stretch & refill my water bottles before starting in earnest.  Continuing on, I headed south into town, turned down Garfield Ave, and rode past the hovel that Kate & I had the great misfortune of calling home for three years.  The last time I'd ridden these roads, I considered the eight-mile ride from there up to the NWS office near the airport to be long.

After passing an old man riding a bike & talking to himself on Garfield, I hopped back on the main drag at Benton St and continued south out of town.  Watched a kid barrelling down a hill out of a side street and onto the main drag, almost getting himself run over.  My first little rest stop was at the mouth of Gibson Jack Creek - about 14 miles into the ride.  The road was about to turn up Mink Creek Road.  From there I'd gain about 1000 feet through some small rollers for a few miles and then hit the steep 780-foot climb.  So I pulled into Gibson Jack Road, drank some gatorade, and ate a Clif Bar before continuing on.

Two thirds of my way through the rolling section, I entered the Caribou National Forest.  There was a little turn-out there so I pulled over again to stretch & empty my bladder.  I learned a couple things here that I should have learned a long time ago:  1) all else being equal, the inside of a curve in the road is better for hiding from traffic than the outside of a curve; and 2) when hiding from traffic to pee on the outside of a curve, it is more prudent to ensure that trees are obscuring the view of you from both legs of the turn than from the apex of the turn.  But I had a nice view of Scout Mountain from there, about 5 miles away over some lower hills in the middleground (the first picture).

And so I continued on up the hill.  The steep part wasn't really all that steep, and it was less of a challenge than I thought it would be though I was still very happy to round the last curve and see Crystal Summit.  Not a single car passed me on the way up - I thought that was odd.  The second picture is a view looking from Crystal Summit into Arbon Valley.  The snow-covered mountain on the far horizon is called Deep Creek Peak.  It's a little over 18 miles away from Crystal Summit (straight-line distance), and my ride was to take me within about eight miles of it.

The ride down the back side of Crystal Summit was really fun.  Steeper and twistier than I remembered it being from the one or two drives I took that way back when I lived in Poky.  An excellent time.  A somewhat close encounter with a bull got the old heart racing a bit, and a longer ride south than I was expecting got me to pull off the road and check my map.  But all was well.  And the road kept going down and down and down.  I thought I was gonna have to make another climb that I missed while studying the route.  But that climb never came.  I finally came to the end of S Mink Creek Road and turned north on Arbon Valley Road - mile 37 of the journey and the start of the homeward leg.  

Still heading down a gentle rolling grade with a small tailwind, I was sustaining 25 MPH and grinning ear to ear right about that time.  But somewhere around mile 45 or 50, I started realizing that I hadn't brought enough food.  I brought enough for the ride itself, but I failed to realize that I'd be riding right through lunch time.  I was confident that I wouldn't be so grossly undernourished that I wouldn't get home, but I knew I was in for a struggle for the last few miles.   The third picture is looking south along Arbon Valley Road to Deep Creek Peak (very roughly ten miles away) from a point near where I came to this realization.

So the last fifteen miles or so was less enjoyable, but only partially because of the lack of nutrition.  Around the start of the final fifteen, Arbon Valley opened up onto the Snake Plain.  As a result, the wind went from being at my back to kicking me right in mouth.  Less enjoyable.  And the terrain became flat so the road became straight.  Less enjoyable.  But hey, it was still more enjoyable than . . . well than a heck of a lot of things.   All told, I figured I got about 2200 feet of climbing over 70 miles of beautiful, lightly traveled roads through montane aspen stands and sage covered valleys.

The Longest Ride

There was a race yesterday near Middleton that allowed day-of registration.  I seriously considered showing up & entering it, but decided against it since I hadn't done any speed training since the Broome Time Trial.  I also hadn't done any long rides in a while so I figured that I should do that.  Plus I had other business to take care of in Boise - a tire wore out a bit sooner than I'd have liked (~800 miles) so I wanted to take it back & see if I could get a bit of a discount on a replacement.  

So I rode from home to the site of the race - one of the many subdivisions in the area that had begun construction right as the housing market tanked and now grow weeds but have beautifully smooth pavement.  On the way I stopped at a little park to pee and ended up spending twenty minutes or so reading about the Ward Massacre.  Until this point I was ignorant of the fact that the road I rode was originally part of the Oregon Trail; and pretty much right at the spot where I was standing, a small party of emigrants were killed by Shoshone Indians after a trade went south.  Having not grown up in the West, I never learned much Oregon Trail stuff in school; so it was a highlight of the ride, and it was brought about solely by my small bladder.

Got to the race, hung out there for a while, got a small amount of razzing from Tyler for not entering, saw Krisitin Armstrong, ate lunch, and took off for Boise.  I'd never traveled this particular leg of the journey before, so I ended up missing a couple turns and adding a few miles onto the ride.  But I got to Boise and was satisfactorily compensated for my underperforming tire and continued on my way in relatively short order.  By the time I returned home, the ride I'd projected to be 67 miles had turned into a little over 73 miles.  Whew!  And those last six - mostly into the wind - were the least enjoyable of the whole ride.  :)  But that ended up edging out a last year's LeBow ride as the longest ride ever for me. 

Jason Broome Time Trial

Great times.  That was fun.  In fact the more I think about it, the more I realize how enjoyable it was.

Kate & I got to the venue in plenty of time for me to check in & warm up & all that.  A little too early, maybe, actually.  It was windy so I decided to hang out in the van for a while before starting to warm up.  Then I realized that it was getting late so 

I rushed to fit my warm-ups & stretching in.  Didn't get nearly as much time in on the trainer as I wanted, so while I stretched I wasn't as limber as I should have been.   And actually my knees are starting to feel that now.

But I got to the start line on time.  Tyler was the starter and he gave me a nod of encouragement while another dude held my seat while I clipped into my pedals.  Then the fun began.  Had a tailwind and a slight downhill grade on the way out, so I took it a bit easy to save some juice for the trip back up & into the wind.  Still, I gained on the person in front of me and was a hundred or so meters behind him at the turn ("B" on the map linked above) - where he fell.  Ended up being a ~12-year-old BYRDS rider.  The official helped him up & held his bike while he remounted & got going, but he had to rebuild that 10-15MPH of momentum (that he otherwise woulda kept sans crash) going into the wind so he burned a lot of gas there and I overtook him easily shortly after the turn.  I thought about saying something encouraging but couldn't think of anything good and couldn't spare the breath anyway.  I figured he might overtake me again shortly (BYRDS is one of the top youth cycling programs in the country and I've heard there are a couple BYRDS riders going for cycling scholarships to college), but I never saw him again. 

Shortly after that I rounded a bend in the road that put me on that long straightaway heading due north - square into the teeth of the wind and culminating with the largest climb of the ride. Couldn't have been more than 50 feet of elevation gain but from my perspective it looked huge (now that I look, Google Maps says it's more like 90 feet, but still...).  But in my adrenaline-charged state I thought, "Bring it!"  And I kept thinking that for what seemed like an eternity.  Every time I looked up at the hill, it never seemed to be getting any closer.  One rider passed me.   Then he hit the hill and passed the next rider (whom I was gaining on).  Then I finally got to the base of the hill, got my cadence & form in order, attacked it with my glutes (not something you hear everyday), and motored straight up it.

Once atop the hill, I saw a sign for 1km to go, gaged how much gas was left in my tank (simultaneously making two mental notes: one about how glad I was to have learned the conversion between miles & kilometers, and the other about how funny it is that these racers want so badly to be in Europe), chilled at my steady pace for a little while longer, then shifted up a couple gears and hammered for the last 500 - 700 meters.  My final time over the ten miles was 29' 54.??" so I did indeed barely get over the finish averaging above 20MPH.

My average was 20.067MPH as a matter of fact.  And even better was that I was only overtaken by one rider.  And even better than that was that I gained on the two people ahead of me!  I did actually overtake the one guy, but who's gonna count a kid who falls as an overtaken rider.  And even better than all that, it was FUN!  And Kate came to watch me too.  :)

And I'm sure that in subsequent time trials I'll get my logistics & timing down better so I'll be ready when I need to be.

Getting Jazzed for the Race!

Yesterday I took the Trek out for another test time trial on the same seven-mile course as last time.  I managed 19.3 MPH last time and was hoping to top 20 this time.  I didn't bother doing the math ahead of time, but in order to accomplish that I had to shave more than a minute off my previous time.  And I did!  My previous time was 21:45 and yesterday I clocked 20:22 for 20.62 MPH.

So there.  And I think I can sustain that same pace for an additional three level miles, so I should be able to keep it above 20 MPH for Saturday's race!  Wish me luck!

Yikes it's windy out there now.

My First Race

I entered my first race.  The Jason Broome Memorial Time Trial.  It's the first race in the Lyle Pearson Spring Series - also a road race or two and maybe a crit.  But forget that noise.  First rider leaves the start (near Exit 71 of I-84 east of Boise) at 10:30 AM on April 4, 2009.  Wish me luck!

The Dog Days of Late Winter

Kate's doing dog stuff in Caldwell this weekend, so my plan was to ride out there today, watch the dogness, and ride home, maybe taking a detour around the lake for some extra miles.  While I was planning this, a friend of mine emailed me and asked if I'd be able to ride.  Heck yeah!  So we did something like this except in reverse order and stayed to watch the dogs for an hour or so.  Plus I rode a few miles to warm up, plus we zigzagged around a while in Caldwell, so I got 45 miles today.  It was great to have a riding partner again.  Makes me look forward to STP's startup even more.

My Happy Little Time Trial

I couldn't resist.  I'm not supposed to be increasing my intensity quite yet but I just couldn't put off seeing what I could do on the Trek.  So I constructed a short time trial course for myself on the closest lightly-traveled straight couple miles without a stop sign that I could think of: Happy Valley Road.

I rode out through my cousin's sub to warm up, stretched, looking at the clock on my cell phone (which I only now realize had a stopwatch I coulda used), and took off south to near Kuna Road, turned around, arrived back at the same spot, and checked my clock again.  It was decidedly above base intensity, but it wasn't quite "race" pace.  Not that I even know what "race" pace is, but I know what it's not.  :)  Anyway I finished the seven-mile (+/- 0.1) course in twenty-one minutes and forty-five seconds (+/- 15 sec).  That's 19.31 MPH (+/- 0.5 MPH).  Sweet.  I'm thrilled.  Not exactly an olympic record, but more impressive than I anticipated for myself.

I thought that might have been a new top speed, but no - I had two rides over 20 MPH last year on the Look (but I was near the height of my conditioning for that season, and I remember still gasping for breath ten minutes after getting home both times ).  I'm sure I'll top that after not too long on the TT bike though.

AND!!  I bought another set of pedals today so I actually have a pair for every bicycle that I own again.  I'll see them in 4-11 days.

The Hilo's Inaugural Ride

Wow.  Well the bad news is that I planned to ride over thirty miles today but only ended up with about fourteen including a trip to Tyler's.  The good news is that thirty-two miles was ridiculously and wholly unrealistically ambitious for my first time on a new bike and my first time on aero bars so I don't feel too bad about cutting it short.  In fact I feel far worse for expecting myself to do the longer ride in the first place.  The saddle was too low (despite my attempt at fitting on the trainer a few nights ago), so I didn't quite get to put everything I could have into the effort either.  That, coupled with the new riding position, really has my legs sore too.

But more good news: that was fun!  After getting used to the aero bars (I was very wobbly at first), I was able to maintain a good clip AND I was far more comfortable in the aero position than I thought I'd be.  That one straightaway without stop signs heading north on Powerline (which was actually longer than the map shows partially because I'm too lazy to make a better map) was a blast with a little wind at my back.  I don't have a speedometer on that bike yet so I can't know exactly how fast I went, but it felt pretty respectable.

Now I just need another set of pedals so I can use all of my bikes whenever I want.  And a speedometer/heart rate monitor to guide my training.  And upgraded legs and lungs.  :)

Power Butte

To celebrate the demise of February, possibly the most hated month in all of cycledom, I took a ride today on the Look.  I'm beginning to like the Power Butte ride.  Boy it was windy though - 15 MPH out of the SSE.  And I made my first conscious effort today to maintain a base pace (generally thought of as the pace at which one has enough breath to maintain a conversation).  As a result, I was at 10MPH on much of my way south - I think my average was around 12 when I took a break near my southernmost point.  I passed Tyler's church and saw his car as well as my ex-boss's car sitting in front as the place was warming up for 10:00 services.  I hope they remembered to pray for me.  ;)

But a ride into the wind on the outbound leg can mean only one thing for the inbound journey!  Yeah it was a thing of beauty.  I was still at base effort, but I was up near 30MPH for a good portion of the ride home.  Cresting hills at 20MPH is a cool feeling.  Went past Tyler's place a little after 11:00 but it looked like he & Sheree were still in church.  Cruised past my cousin's place again but saw no signs of life other than the pickup in the driveway.  23.7 miles in an hour and a half.  The end.

Now I'm Committed

Well I went to the Boise Bike Swap last night.  I went and paid my $1 so I could mingle, look around at stuff I wasn't terribly interested in purchasing, drool over stuff I couldn't afford, maybe look for aero bars, & help Tyler inform people about bikes & things.  Blah blah blah.  I saw an entry-level time trial (TT) bike for $550, considered it somewhat seriously, and decided against it - I should race a few times before deciding to buy a race bike.

So I left with Tyler & came home (after several more trips past the bike to make sure no one else snapped it up) and told Kate about it, wanting and expecting to be reinforced for controlling my gearhead urges.  But Kate asked me all about the bike: "Would it fit you?  What color was it?  How much was it?  You know, I actually wouldn't be all that upset if you bought it.  Et cetera."  So instead of reinforcement for my self control, I got encouragement for my gearheadedness.  Sheesh.

So after Kate left for obedience practice this morning, I headed out back to the bike swap, paid another $1 to get back in, found it, fretted a little more, then bought the darned thing.  It's purple, and Kate will buy ANYTHING if it's purple so I thought I'd better not pass this up.  :)

So now I must enter a race.  Kate's given me the ultimatum of entering a race within one year or being forced to sell this bike at the next Boise Bike Swap.  But I want to be clear that this post got its title before I was handed that ultimatum.

It's a 58cm Trek Hilo SLR.  They were only made between 1999 and 2003, and that's about all I know about it.  Shimano 105 components across the board.  That top picture is the entire stable hanging together.  Notice the dog crate that's been in my way for a couple of weeks now.  It folds up quite nicely but that's not really necessary since I carved out some space in the garage to store all of Kate's crap.  That's what I carved it out for.  The bottom pic is a better view of the new bike (and look, that dog crate came in handy).  Notice it's missing pedals - that's to improve its aerodynamics.

Black Cat II - almost

Well I started out this afternoon intending to ride to the Black Cat bridge again to check on progress.  But Airport Rd was closed and I didn't feel like following the detour they'd provided so I didn't quite make it to the Bridge.  But I still rode a shade under 17 miles today.  Shamefully, this was just my second ride for this entire month - just when I need to be ramping up my riding I've slacked off in a big way.  

But my plan to ride & maintain my fitness over the winter has still paid some dividends - I'm certainly in better condition now than I was last February.  Race-ready?  Anything but.    But at least my aerobic base hasn't completely withered away.

Still More Frustration

I've come to the realization that I don't like martinis as much as I thought I did.  My enjoyment of a martini has somehow transformed into a race to the olive.  And I've stooped to using two olives and making them dirty.  Maybe this is more a product of the flowery gin than the cocktail as a whole.  In any case that's frustrating.  Anyway back to biking news.  And boy when it rains it pours.

It's warmed up significantly here and I had high hopes of bike commuting four days this week.  In fact I had plans to start some intervals during my commutes.  But I woke up Thursday of last week with a slightly sore back that quickly (within minutes) transformed into a debilitating back spasm that's lasted just shy of a week now.  It's far better than it was, thanks in large part to modern chemistry, but it's still there.  So I haven't ridden despite the rather moderate weather for February.  And that frustrates me far more than the martini thing.

But while I was at the doctor's office, I weighed myself and made note of my blood pressure.  My weight has stayed relatively constant through the past year - always within a couple pounds of 170 while shod and clothed.  Blood pressure's been a bit more variable, though I'm not the best at interpreting the numbers.  My low was in July at 90/72.  In October, I recorded 126/82.  And on Friday of last week I was 122/68 . . . whatever all that means, exactly.

And My Raleigh's in the market for a new headset, and today I found out that it might be more difficult than I anticipated to find one to fit.  We'll see.  I also need to be on the lookout for aero bars as well if I intend to do any significant time trialing or -athloning (we'll stop short of calling it "serious" time trialing or -athloning).

AND!!  I haven't even opened the bag yet, but my order came from Pactimo - the supplier of Lost River's club kits.  I got a jersey, bib shorts, a jacket, and shoe covers.  . . . And I went and opened the bag and there I am in full uniform.  I also got a rain jacket too.  The two jackets are my favorite bits.  Those shoe covers are pretty thin.  I thought they were winter covers for warmth, but I think they might actually be racing shoe covers for aerodynamicity.  Well I'll use them to keep what wind off my feet they will, but yeah I might be that much more of a poser and race in them too.  :)  Note the "Life Flight" logo under my arm that you'd never see unless you've both seen the logo before and had it pointed out to you.  Something else that's worth mentioning is that, for the cost of a year's membership in Lost River - $30 - one gets a membership in the local Life Flight dealio.  So if I need to be airlifted for whatever reason, I'm covered. 

Frustration

I looked quickly online a while ago to see if there were any gins recommended for making good martinis. I followed the advice of some shlepp and splurged on Hendrick's, and now I have a fifth of this flowery garbage - EXPENSIVE flowery garbage - that I've got to get through before I get back to Beefeater & Bombay Sapphire.

And to make matters far worse, Blogger.com is hanging up in Google Chrome. And this means that I've got to use Firefox to post new stuff to this very blog. I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs just feel terribly for me. Hooray free markets!

But I'm eating catfish tonight and possibly riding tomorrow (to get myself sorta kinda on track). In fact now the catfish is ready . . . and now I'm done eating catfish. And I finished my martini and started a beer with dinner. It's been a while since I've drunk this much and boy I forget what it was I was so frustrated about. So much for on track. G'night.

The Black Cat Overpass

So yesterday I rode out to check out the Black Cat overpass & back.  It's been down & under construction to accommodate the interstate widening project for several months now, and in fact was originally scheduled for completion sometime soon.  But then there was the collapse of the Robinson Rd bridge two miles away a couple months ago and the ensuing investigation, and now that schedule's gone all to heck.  But they've recently restarted work and slated completion for early spring.

And the reason I care is that I usually get to work on my bike via that bridge.  I've had to alter that route to less-desirable routes with more traffic.  And even better, they're widening the bridge from one lane and a crappy shoulder in each direction to one lane, a bike lane, and a breakdown lane in each direction.  So I'm very much looking forward to its completion, although I fear two possibilities:

1. Funding collapsed after I saw the plans and the bike lanes have been torched, or
2. The good ol' boys at ITD designed the bike lanes and breakdown lanes so that they could later remove them to install an extra vehicular lane and once again leave a crappy shoulder. 
   

Anyway I rode there to see what I could see.  And I could see not a whole lot, but I did see that all the girders were in place, which was good.  

Logistical issues will keep me off my bike for most of this week.  I forgot to ferry clothes with me to work this morning, so I'll be carrying a couple changes with me tomorrow.  And I'm a weenie so I can't possibly carry a big backpack with me on my ride.  Sheesh.  But couple that poor excuse with another one: I'm behind on the Raleigh's chain maintenance, and you've got the dynamic duo of schlepptasticness!  The laziness bi-fecta, even!  And I've gotta drive on Thursday to ferry recycling, a table saw, and a coffee urn back & forth between Nampa & Boise.

But I'll get up early on both days and do some yoga & stuff.  I promise.  And I'll re-lube my drivetrain (on both bikes) so I can ride on Friday.