A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to the Blog

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post for something a bit lighter . . . well no, heavier. My training today consisted of two whopping slices of pie, driving all the way to work, and an hour-long conference call. But at least I sold another bit of my Yakima rack.

Anyway a conversation that Kate & I had last night was funny enough that I feel the need to share it, thereby putting off my outline of possible races for me to enter until later.

After reading yesterday's post, Kate was a bit upset with me. "You want ANOTHER bike!?" she said after reading that I'd like to buy a TT bike someday. That would make three for me.

I said, "You have three dogs."

"The dogs aren't mine; they're ours."

I quickly came back, "Well my bikes are ours too."

She sighed and said, "But I can't ride your bikes."

I said, "Well I can't ride your dogs either!" :) She had no response, but somehow I think she's somewhat less than completely convinced.

Reasons for Racing

Indications are that my father thinks I'm a bit off my rocker for wanting to race, and I'm confident that he's not the only one who feels that way. For this reason and others, I feel the need to defend my plan. So here goes.

I've been riding bicycles for about ten years now. I bought an old rigid mountain bike (a Scott - from back when they were built right here in Idaho) in 1998 to get me to & from LHU when I moved off campus with some friends (GAWD that was a great year). For most of my time at ISU, my commute was too short to merit a bicycle, however I started biking to the bus (~7-8 miles) when I realized how much money my daily commute was chewing through after Kate & I moved to Nampa. But as cheap as I am, I've always been a gearhead. Fishing, golf, skiing, cycling . . . whatever the sport, I never missed an opportunity to open a catalog or magazine and covet fancy equipment. And last year I splurged & bought a fancy bike (pictured). Truth be told it's on the low-end in the grand scheme of things and the $800 I spent is pretty tame in comparison to most bikes for sale on the floor of any bike shop you enter, but it's a damn sight fancier than anything I really need - especially since Tyler keeps my old Raleigh in fine shape for commuting. So the point here is that I've bought a lot of stuff that is cool to have and from which I've gotten a lot of use (over 2500 miles this season), but it isn't absolutely necessary for my current level of involvement in the sport of cycling. There's reason 1: to justify these purchases - to allow me to call my fancy bike "my race bike" without being a complete poser.

But I'll still be a gearhead, and there's reason number 2: I want to justify buying MORE stuff. Check out the new LOOK 596 time trial bike. You had a hard time taking your eyes off that beast to come back here and continue reading, didn't you? I don't blame you - that thing is sex on wheels. Now I don't pretend to have any aspirations of ever racing enough to merit that bike (which will reportedly sell for $10K as pictured), but a TT bike of some sort is indeed on my wish list. Maybe an aero helmet and a skin suit too - like that guy in the Comcast commercial that my father says reminds him of me. :) Good comedy.

With reason number 3, I'm finally gonna pull my head part way out of my butt. I like going fast under my own power. It's fun and it's gratifying whether or not there's competition involved. And I love watching my pace quicken over the course of a season. Doing little more than riding a lot of "base miles" (no intense training, just riding at an easily sustainable pace), I've been able to work my average speed up to just shy of 19 MPH over a reasonably flat 12-mile ride this season. I ride my 25-mile commute between 17 & 18 MPH. This may sound impressive to many, but plenty of local enthusiasts ride 20+MPH routinely. I once read that Lance Armstrong's Tour de France time trial team a few years ago averaged 36MPH over a 24-mile course. So I clearly have room for improvement. Training for races gives me a goal, so riding intervals a couple times a week won't seem utterly pointless; and more importantly I have a reason to ride through the winter. So reasons 3 & 4: to give myself a reason to work on my conditioning, and to have an outside party measure the results of said conditioning. And plenty of people (myself included) enter these races with no illusions of winning; as with marathons, most entrants are only out to prove that they can complete the course, and they compete only against their results from previous years.

I think I'm done now. I doubt I've even put a dent in the critics' resolve, but . . . well I honestly just wanted to show you that fancy TT bike. :)

My Very First Blog Entry!

Oh this is so very exciting! Okay I'm over it now. Let's get to the point here: I have a problem with commitment. I talked about biking my entire 25-mile commute for a couple years before I actually got off my butt and did it. I've considered racing my bike now for a year or two but have yet to enter a race. In the hopes that I enjoy bike racing as much as I enjoy bike commuting (and that race conditioning will make my commutes still more enjoyable), I'm committing to trying a couple local races this coming season.

And knowing that without some danger of public humiliation I will procrastinate further, I have decided to start this blog to publicize my effort as well as record my training, my fitness progress, and all my podium appearances. Expect the first few months of this blog to be pretty sparse as the weather's just starting to turn sour, but I plan to keep commuting through the winter as the weather allows so don't tune all the way out either. Subscribe to the RSS feed that this blog broadcasts if you want to stay up on all my exciting news.

That will be all. You are dismissed.