The prayer of the long road

Fall and the end of the Summer Days

2008-08-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

A blog is not so important during the warm outdoor days of Summer. Not so much time to write. It's, get out time. Do the things there is only a few days to do. Sunny days are few on the Island here. Very few. Add this to La Nina, the extra cold water. The normal Summer has been short. La Nina will fade about December of this year. Then with luck next year will have a longer sunny season. It will be a shorter winter season to. So for now it's out doors. The road, the beach, the little sailboat. These are the events of my Summer. Blogs play a short role. Though the blog needs it's time. Needs the up date. Miles of road time. Hours of everything else. Blogs for me are shorter sun days. There will be a lot of those coming soon. So for now, I have put hour of road time in. Hours of everything else to. Just a few lines in the blog. Life is good today.

The Days Of the Past

2008-08-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

In the lack of writing comes the price of memory. Less detail to the truth. More addition and subtraction.
The Sailboat (Little Siren) a nice 17' pocket cruiser. There has been several adventures. Life by the tides in Useless Bay. Some few, very few rides with guests. It would be more fun with a friend or 2 to share the ride. The little boat though is a friend in itself. A nice and kind sailing boat. Friendly in it ways. It loves to dance the dance of the wind and small waves. I'll put a photo of one of my adventures.
The bike has got no less attention. Every other day has been the way. The heat of Summer baking me well from the refrigerator of Spring and Winter. Long miles and the short days to. Short days of 40 miles and one long day of 94 miles. Every other day except when more recovery is needed. The #1 bike working well. The roads less filled with cars. Gas prices are a blessing in some way. David at Half Link, our local bike shop, selling more bikes than ever. He can not keep up with folks getting tune ups on their older bikes. More people riding to the store. It's great to see. Even if it's just for the good weather. Every bike on the road is one less car for the moment. There are a lot more people walking to. Not all the roads, but Bayview that leads to 2 food marts has walkers and bags all the time. We live on Bayview. I need to get in the habit to. I just do not like leaving a $3500. bike in front of the market. I think I will ugly down my single speed for trips to the market with my back pack. Some kind of lock as the wheels are worth $500. with out tires and tubes. That's another $180. So the plan is made. A little spray paint, matt black, my old saddle, and a lock of some sort. Milk, 1/2 & 1/2, a few simple things, no gas. $1.50 saved every trip. It's only a few trips a week. I want to be one of the one's showing the way in this area. Seattle is bike city. More commuters on bike than I have ever seen. Keep the faith. The road is long for a reason.

Roads and Water

2008-07-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

A great combination. Not at the same time. Keeping an open mind might be the best thought for now. There could be a moment.
The road was glorious. Full of Sun. Warm for shorts and a light short sleeve jersey. It would be the white jersey day. Still bright for the traffic to see. The #1 bike working again after a difficult rear gear problem. The gears all work fine except the 13 tooth. It's shot. Needs to be replaced. No hurry, I'll just use the 12 and 14 tooth gears. I do have a new campy 10 speed rear gear set to replace it with. So off the ride went. #1 bike, #1 set of wheels and me. Down the roads I have come to know very well. Out to Bayview corners and beyond to Andreson and Lone Lake. The road that leads to Saratoga and Langley that goes to Landley road and then to Maxwellton. Then off to French road, Bailey, Cultus road and the climb up Jewet road to Glendale and the turn up Holst road and over to Heggenes hill. All these roads except Bayview are climbs and descents. Hard work all the time. A measured ride. The ride is not done till I get back to the house. There are hills to climb at a pace, not at the red zone. Build my strength not brake it down. The ride I take all the time. The ride that helps keep me alive. The ride that keeps the pain a little more manageable. It turned out to be a 50 miler. I was fast. I was not trying to be fast. It was just the power of not going into the red zone. Not over extending my effort. The result is the body gets stronger. You go faster and burn more calories not working at it so hard. Thought some parts of the ride a little push is good. Just to test the high end out. See if the go go still works for a while. The result is making the turn home and knowing there was another 25 miles in the legs. Maybe more to. These are the good days of summer. The warm days. The days where the temperature is not an issue at all. There are a lot more riders out to. The ones that are never out in winter. We are still all true believers in the road. The prayer of the long road. The riders on their own. Riding the circuit to live another day. Keeping the Reaper a little further back. Make him work for pay check. Make him work hard.
The water. The summer can bring water time. The little sailboat. "Little Siren" needs some time out. Out to make adventures again after who knows how many years on the trailer. She is in a good spot on the bay. There is a good mooring. Sound to the winds that come from the South and the North and from any direction. 50 feet of chain and 2 anchors holds her well with a gentle touch. It was a day to become friends. The day for the first sail. A test sail to check out the systems. To test the captain maybe more than the boat. The winds were a bit brisk by high tide. Just the hint of a white cap. The breeze coming from the North Bayview Corners. I had to drag the dingy a bit farther for the tide was still out a bit. Enough water to get off the huge sand bar of the tidal flats. The row to the boat was good the transfer to the sailboat from the dingy very good. The getting ready a bit nervous. The plan a bit conservative. Head sail only to get the feel of the "Little Siren". Motor out to Double Bluff Point. About 8 miles by water I think. Then turn South, pop the head sail from the roller furling. Sail a running reach to Maxwellton across the bay. It all went so smooth. The boat was so kind. There was so tall chop in the bay. Not waves as much as chop about 8 to 10 feet apart. Well it seemed like that. I was a long way out from the house. Several miles out into the bay. On the edge of Puget Sound. Doing a good pace. Going faster than I thought I would. Though as it was a running direction it felt slow. I did surf a few of the taller bits of chop. That was fun and the little boat just was smooth and happy as could be. So was I. At this point I knew I was out far. Then it happened. Ten feet on my left, off the middle of the boat. I heard the sound I have heard a few times before. Dall's Porpoise, taking a breath. The dark wonders that I knew lived out here in a family group of 9 to 15. I have watched these wonderful friends from the house using binoculars. Now here they ere. Right next to me. It was a thrill. Then this one Porpoise turned into 4. As quick as that they were gone. I'm sure I got in their way. These are a serious type of water mammal. They work hard for their living. Not a lot of time to play. I was jut taken by the whole event. Then I realized how far out I was. The little boat was to comfortable and gentle. Kind and sea friendly for her size. I had the swing keel in the full down position. I think that makes a big difference to her feel. So after the excitement I turned towards shore on a long easy angle. No hurry to get close to the land. After losing time and my relationship to where I was. Mary Anne called. Cel phones are great when they work. I was almost to Maxwellton! Time to turn around and head home. I rolled the head sail up and re-started the outboard motor. It was going to be a long drive back. All was perfect. I saw a half sunk dinky and headed over to it. I was going to pick it up and tow it back to my mooring ball. It would be a really heavy tow half sunk. It did have a bow line on it for towing. I just was not up to it today on the first adventure with "Little Siren". So I kept going home. Then the motor slowed to a stop. Not good! It sounded like it ran out of gas. I had 3.5 gallons in the tank. That's hour and hours of motor time. I opened the rear hatch and looked at the now sunken in tank. I had not opened the vent. The vent lets the gas move out of the tank easy. You close it to move the tank or the gas will spill ot this vent. I opened the vent squeezed the pressure ball and pulled the cord on the outboard and it started right up. All was well again. I could see the other boats in our 4 boat Yacht Club a few miles away. When I got closer the weeds got thicker and thicker. I was a little worried about the motor sucking some up in the impeller and making the motor over heat. Never happened. Though I kept a close eye on the water coming out of the cooling system of the motor. If that stops you have a problem. All was well. As I got near the mooring ball I get a little nervous. I'm used to docks. Mooring balls is new to me and the wind was blowing a bit. Making the whole operation a little harder. It took 3 tries to get the line of the dingy. I got the line on that third try and was not about to let it go. So I pulled us into the mooring ball. Holding the line walked forward over the cabin were the lines that go onto the ball and hold the boat were. It all went perfect. I was hooked on and going no where. Just like I wanted to. I put every thing back where in it's place locked the boat got on the dinky and got to shore. It was a great first sail on the "Little Siren".

Days of Summer have come at last

2008-07-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Writing has always been hard for me. To put the lines down. To make some sense of it all. All, being the last hour or so. No world shaking changes here. For me just the events of a few days and I have not been writing for many days. To many to go back and make up. There have been days off, rides, walks down to the beach. There have been lots of important and forgotten days. I'm only sorry to have not made a record of the little bits and pieces.
I got my little sailboat off the trailer and into the water for the first time. I found the little boat in Alburn New Hampshire under eve of a metal roof of an auction yard over 2 years ago. It was pouring rain and all the roof water was pouring into the boats cockpit and into the cabin. The boat was flooded. The outboard motor was in the cockpit totally under water. The motor started first pull after I dried it out. The boat must have weight thousands of pounds with all the water on the day I bought her. The dry weight of this little boat is 750lbs. I could not resist the beautiful little sailboat. It is a Siren. Built in Ontario Canada. I won't hold that against the "Little Siren". Yup, that's it's Name, "Little Siren'. Now in the waters of Puget Sound. Moored below the house on the tide flats with 2 other boats. No rent, just set your own anchors and chain and there you are. Better have a dingy to get out and back. That came last winter in a huge storm. The sea gave that day! So the boat is in the water after 3500 mile on the trailer. From New Hampshire to Salem Oregon to here on Whidbey Island. I was so excited to be on the water. I have owned and sailed lots of boats. Big and small. This boat just talked to me and asked me to save it. I paid the auction $450. It had a rusted out trailer under her. I was lucky to get it home. After draining and cleaning I found a nice new trailer. I paid more for the trailer than the boat. So it's in the water. I can look at it everday when ever I want. First sail will be in the next few days. The tides will be just right. I like looking at that boat everyday.

Saturday

2008-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

The day I rode. Picked out by the day of my riding needs. I ride to my own schedule. The calendar I keep. A sunny day at last. There has been one other. Maybe 2. It was to be a easy 40 miler. As the last was a 70 miler. Got to think these miles through. The body is old and needs it's rest. The ride was on the same courses I ride thousands of miles. Only a few times have I ridden with anyone. I like the road to myself. The thinking time. Time to just not think at all. I have been pasted twice since September 07. Those times I could not keep up. All the other times I caught right back up and chatted. Well not to all. There are some who just won't look. Some I just pass and never look back as I power away from their cold.
This Saturday ride was the same as always. More traffic than normal. It's the high season here on the Island. All the summer folks are here. All the prices for everything went up June first. Traffic went up with them. The roads I ride for the most part are still quiet. Just 2 are a lot busier. Both have wide shoulders to support the riding public. So it's not to bad. This ride was like most. Easy gears, but on the #1 bike for the first time in weeks. Using the 53X39 chain rings. Stiffer high end, a bit faster. The low end a little stiffer to. Not so kind on the steep climbs. Hard work is good. All the friendly and not so friendly roads. Only hard roads. Those are the less friendly roads on some days. Saturday's ride was just about what I expected. A few more riders going the other way. Mostly tourist riders. A lot of folks ride through this Island on their way to the San Juan Islands. All had gone well. I was drinking my drinks on time. I had a fair amount of food in me. The ride was good. So after 8 tough hills I was looking forward to the last real hill on Bayview road coming out of Langley. It's a hill not a mountain. Though it still must be climbed within a riders pace. I was going up at a nice pace. Not so fast as steady. 39X15 if that means anything. 12 miles an hour. I've gone faster and slower. So I was just climbing this last hill in the middle of my effort. It was a good steady climb after 8 hard climbs. Almost at the top a rider passes me. The "how ya doing" kind of guy as he motors past you. He was in the big chain ring and had been working his ass off to catch me. I was in the small chain ring. It was a bit rude on the other riders part. No chat, just trying to leave me behind. I'm old and a lot slower than I once was, but that was it. I added 2 gears to my pace as we were near the top of the hill. Just a little bit before the down hill started. Steep down hill!! This guy was a stick. No meat on his bones at all. Must have been a vegetarian. As we neared the top we were together. He was working so hard he was going all over the road. I was just keeping my line waiting for gravity. The top came. The interluder was out in the middle of the road, on a road with 5' bike shoulders. He was riding like a fool. I had enough of him. Gravity is my friend at 215 pounds. I was now in 53X12, all the go fast gear I had. With almost no effort I put gravity to work for me and dropped this fool like he was going the other way. Got in a nice aerodynamic tuck and the speed got to 50 MPH. At the bottom there is a long shallow down hill. Just enough to keep some real speed on. By this time the skinny guy was still on the hill some where. I started the push into Bayview Corners. A push at 30 MPH for the first mile then down to 25MPH for the last 3 miles to the stop sign at Bayview Corners. I looked back. No one in sight. I eased off as that effort was taking a bit of a toll on me. It was 2 miles to home. I was on my cool down. Crossed SR525 still on Bayview. Going up a little hill just past SR525 a rider passes me! I thought it was the veggie. It was a new rider. So I just suffered to the top. He was in easy reach. I motored up to him. No, "how ya doing" from me. I just eased up side by side and started a conversation. Etiquette on the road has a few rules. After all we are not racing for real. Just out training. Well, winning "The Tour" to. So both of us started talking. His name was David as mine is. He was new to the area. He did not work. He was a bike bum just like me in many ways. Now how would I have known that with out talking to the guy? There are a few small risers on the road home. I just stay in a big gear and over come them. I do it every time. As I went up one David feel a little behind, then caught back up. The next was the same only he fell a little further back. Hey, I was pushing it a bit to measure this new rider. So we had a nice short ride till I had to turn for home. The veggie was crushed and I met a nice rider in David. Road etiquette is important to keep the peace of the training road.

George Carlin

2008-06-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

Is that his real name or just a stage image. To a broken heart we lose a great thinker. A man who told the truth in a way we laughed till we cried it was so painful to hear. To hear about our self. Our country. Any area Mr. Carlin wished to talk about. To put a show together with. Yes a show. Shows for most of his life. Small clubs to large clubs. Success and failure all at the same time. Abuses to his body, mind and soul. There might be 12 steps in there to.
I will miss George Carlin. I miss him already. The bit. The tears. The thoughtfulness of the material. I will be looking for his material today. One more show. Not the last. A life can go on for a long time in the new age of digital reproduction. Sound and sight all at the same time on the computer screen any time I want. George's words and motions will live on long past my death. George Carlin made a difference. He made us think. There is a record of most of it. Some lost in the daily drone of small clubs. Lost to the lack of scribes. Lost to our memory. Today is a good day to hear his bit again. A broken heart at age 71. I should be so lucky.

110 mile

2008-06-19T18:43:00.001-07:00

No not all at once. 2 rides is what it took. One 70 miler and one 40 miler. Both in 3days. For me that's a good number. The longer of the 2 was on some new roads to. Had to go further North to make the course work out. There was lots of new hills. Lots of old friend hills to. It was a great ride. I felt wonderful when I got home. A little hungry. Still not hammered as often happens. It was the food choices. Pizza for late dinner last night. 3 big waffles with real maple syrup this morning before the ride. Also lots of gels for the ride and 2 before the ride. In all no flat zones during the ride. No areas that I was drained of energy. I did not run out of drinks on the ride to. Though a third bottle would have been nice. I could have stopped to get more drinks. I should have. The ride turned out to be well planned The result was worth the effort.
The other ride of 40 miles was also a good ride. It was on a normal course I have ridden many times. I did not plan that ride so well. I was on the tired side when I was through and home. I did not have enough energy in the body for the ride. Food has become a big problem. I just need to be far more careful about what I eat before I ride. How I fill the body. The carbs that I need. Carbs are both friend and foe for a diabetic. To many carbs at the wrong time and that's bad. To few carbs when you need them and that's bad to. It's a big balance game and it changes all the time to. The diabetes is not such a good room mate. It's a room mate you have to keep though. So you have to learn how to get along. Along for the rest of your life.
Well the other news is Mary Anne's new web site is up and running! Look it up and see what's going on. There are still a few little things the web folks need to get done. Though it is a fun site to look into anyway. Blog's, email, classes, inspiration, books Mary Anne has written and is writing, group stuff and stuff I don't even understand. So look at the new kid on the web block today.
maryanneradmacher.net I think that will get you there. If not google it and remember the new site is .net the .com is the commercial site

3 Flats and the light went on!

2008-06-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

The mileage just keeps building on the road. The bikes seem to get you there without to much need. Mostly cleaning and re-oiling. I fell into a bit of sleep. Get on the bike and get the road miles. All the stones, glass, wood, bits of this and that on the road to attack the tires. Flats were rare on the winter mile. I was lucky to have just 2 or 3 in 6 months. That's just not so many at all. In that past 2 rides there have been 3 in under 30 miles. One without a working head of a CO2 tire pump system. The pin on the inside of the head that pierced the CO2 bottle was broken off. I do not carry a regular pump. It was a phone call for help to Mary Anne on the cel phone. No signal! Dam cel phone. So I started to walk carrying the bike. There was an open space ahead about a 1/2 mile. Also a un-maned fire station in about a mile. Might be a signal there. At about the 1/2 mile mark I got a poor signal to Mary Anne and we figured out a plan to pick me up. As I started to walk to the fire station when we hung up. A true believer in a car with a almost new roof rack stops and offers a ride. To late, but it was another sign on how friendly this Island is. In a few mins I was at the fire station waiting for Mary Anne. It did not take to long as I was only 4 or 5 miles from home. I did have 20 miles on already. Got home cleaned up changed the tube in the tire and all was good in the road world again. I checked the tire for glass or any other foul junk that could flat the tube again. All was good. I thought. Next ride came and before I got going I pumped the tires up to pressure, 115 PSI. Took off to get 40 mile on as I was coming back from some time off the bike. I wanted to do 50 or more. Well on mile 9 there it was. The hissing sound all road riders hate to hear. I was climbing a steep hill. Had to stop. I had all my pump gear working 100% after the last ride. Changed and checked everything in just mins. Back on the road. Got less than 3 miles and the dreaded "Hiss" of the flat. This time I stopped and looked for the spot on the tire to figure out what was happening. There it was. A split in the cords of the tire. So small that when there was less pressure in the tube. You could hardly see it. The tube had blown a bubble out this gap and worn out quick against the pavement. I had just enough air in the tube to get to Langley if I rode slow with soft peddling. At Langley there was grass to sit on and figure out what to do. The tire and tube came off. With care to remember where the problem area was in the tire. So after a few mins I remember there is a patch kit in the bag that carries the extra tubes and CO2. I put 2 patches on the areas most worn out. Worn out! The dam tire was totally worn out. It had over 1200 miles on it. About 200 miles more than possible with the Island conditions. 2 good patches later on the inside of the tire, a second new tube and I was off to 1/2 link the local bike shop. It was on the way home to. David the owner at 1/2 Link gave me a place to put a new tire on. I use Michelin's. An excellent tire for my needs (French). Not cheap,$47.50 each! David inspected the old tire and gave me that, "what were you thinking riding that tire look". I just said I was not paying attention. A lesson to keep an eye out for my tires again. Not the first time I have gone through this in 40 years. You just think it will last one more ride. Till the tire just gives out and you are on the road some where with no hope of repair. I will be checking all my tires on both bikes after this post. I'm so far behind on miles I will be going out today. My normal routine is every other day. I have my fingers crossed. I will have both new tires on the bike I go out in. New tubes to. Lessons sometimes come at a price. This one was easy. The flat could have happened going down a steep hill at 40 MPH. That is a bit scary. So I am happy with how this little adventure turned out. Glad to remember to be more careful with the tires.

10 Days

2008-06-10T21:10:00.000-07:00

The time has just slugged along. It has taken much longer to wait out this tired feeling. The fatigue that has my body in it's grips. Giving up the road time to heal what's not working in the body so well. The tired body seems to be climbing out of the funk. 2 1/2 years with out a break. Working the roads. Probably to hard most of the time. The heart rate monitor is shot. I'm going to have to get back on that type of training again. Working the 65% heart rate. Building strength and endurance. I have missed 10 days in a row. Plus a few before this ten days. In all the last 30 days has been a poor bit of training. The weather has sucked to. Very cold and wet. Nice was just a treat once or twice. So back to cleaning the chain everyday. Riding the winter bike till the sun comes out. Just slogging through the wet and cold. Praying for the start of some sunny "DAYS". Day after day of 75 to 80 degrees. Two new short sleeve jersey's are waiting. For the first time in years the order size was large. Not X large or XX large as when I first started the come back. Large is a real treat. A prize for the hard effort. A surprise LARGE, would ever fit again. So the ride is on for tomorrow. Looks like some blue sky. Still a little cool though with a high of 57 degrees. It's time to start over. Build up again after doing the tear down. Work smart not fearful. Fearful of being passed. Just except that time will have it's way. Still, I will be out on the roads. Out on the long roads. Doing the prayer of the long road again. Only a true believer would understand. Another road rider. Another pusher. Another rider with the reaper to the rear. Pushing forward to get it right. Get it right and leave the dark rider in the dust. At least for now.

The trail of time

2008-06-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Could have said it's been to long or I've been to busy. Truth, there just was no writing. The rides have happened. Lots of good rides. Adventures on the road. Animal life, car life, road life, and all that a ride has to give. Everything about the void in the blog is just an excuse. I did not write. It is a hard habit to let go of. A hard discipline to keep going, and I'm a poor writer. So to the truth of it. The truth of the blog. I will start again.
There has been more cold weather than warm. The end of May was filled with clouds and cool days. The end of May had a few warm days of shorts and short sleeve jersey'to. Weather still a dominate force. May and it still felt like late winter. La' Nana is still got it's grip on the NorthWest. A weather pattern that brings cold in all ways, both land and water. There's a lot of sea water up here. The sea that drives most of the weather. The result of La' Nana is cold. I have been through 2 or 3 of these weather events in 38 years. One La' Nana year there was only one month of warm weather and that was July. Eleven of the other months were dark, wet, and cool. That's what I think we face this year in the NorthWest. It's hard for me to keep the faith. I have missed 3 rides in the last 10 days. On top of not feeling great. Cool wet weather, for the most part, makes the road so hard to face. The one place, effort that this body and soul needs. The effort that keep me strait and healthy. Strait in my mind. Healthy in my body. This effort is hard to face right now. Hard to put the uniform on. Hard to mount the bike. A sigh as I look down the road on a cool and wet day. I hunger for the sun. The warmth of the true summer sun. It will come soon enough. Brilliant and warm. I have no way to know this, but the sun will only be here for a short season. Than it is wet winter riding again. The balance between warm and cool will be off, way off. The mind is weak right now. The only way to make my mind strong again is to ride the road and say the prayers. The prayers of the long road.
The road I have seen has been very different. Quiet from the noise of cars, trucks and motorcycles. A quiet in the smaller back roads I ride 1000s of miles on. Less traffic on these back roads in a noticeable way. The small selfish gift of high gas and fuel prices. High prices with no end in the upward spiral. Food or gas? Gas or rent? Still, at $4.33 the cost of gas here is half that of most of the world. We are spoiled to cheap gas as experts have said. Not for long! Gas prices will reach heights we can only tremble over. Small cars will help in the short term to this long term question. Where is the electric car? No burning fuel will be the long term answer. No primitive fire will solve the problem. It will be "Tesla" to the rescue. Ideas from a man now dead over 50 years. The father of usable electricity. It will be Tesla's ideas of 100 years ago. These electric ideas will save the world from it's fire pit caveman days. Fire has had it's day in the car. Batteries will be the next gas tank. The next J.D. Rockefeller the inventor of the new battery or high out put electric energy storage device. All this recharged for the time being by fuel burning electric generating plants, connected to the "grid". Far more efficient use of oil, coal, and nuclear till wind, solar hydro power take over. It's going to happen and it will happen much faster than we all think. I guess I'm optimistic. It is the empty back roads that I see the near future. Fuel that will reach $8.00. The same price Europe pays! I want my electric car.
So the road goes on. The efforts comes and goes. Some days easy and some days a struggle. Weather a compaion, welcome, or just put up with. Ideas of an old hero. I see his vision. I'm a little slow about Tesla. Then he was dead about the time I was 3? Any way Tesla was not a school course in my school days. He should have been. His truth is coming fast. Faster than anyone can see. The batteries, energy saving devices, or very near. Just wait and see, "the future is now".

It's another cold wet day

2008-05-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

The sun of the warm Sunday is gone. Tuesday was a cold, wet, windy day. One of the days I just stall till I have to go out. Leave the warmth of the house. Face the day on the road. I dragged the #2 bike out. Fender on the rear wheel. Smaller gears with the compact cranks, 50X34. I was one Co2 bottle short on my tire kit. So I stopped in a Half Link to fill the need. David the owner was busy so I found the stash and waited to pay. When David had a chance he looked outside and looked at me. I told him it was a ride day. He said he had been offered a ride into work and took it. Another customer came in and I was out the door. Off on the routes I know so well. Doing the hills, rollers and the few flats. The #2 bike is a good bike. The #2 bike rides OK. It just does not have the snap the #1 bike has. It climbs more labored compared to the #1 bike. Still it is a good choice for nasty rainy, windy days. So we did the miles. They went well. Just good training miles. No worries about other riders out today. I had the roads to my self. Traffic was light to. Folks are just not driving as much. Cost of gas made sure of that. Food or gas? I look at the cars and trucks as dinosaur's. They just don't know there dead yet. There is a day coming that will change everything. We better get going on the electric car and electric everything else to. So I had the roads to myself for the most part. All the hills, all the flats, all the rollers. It was a nice controlled ride. Medium gears to build the strength on. No problems, none at all. Well, one problem, Mary Anne is in Florida. I miss her. It's still raining today, it's still cold. Come home soon Mary Anne.

Sunday Sunny Day

2008-05-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

The past just needs to be the past. It's does no good to be there. The day we get, is the day we have. That's it! The post is about the past. It is a journal after all. Just to have a record of the training. See where the training was good and not so good. A record to understand where we were to where we are now. So with all that said. This post is about Sunday. The next ride after the worst ride ever.
Sunny and in the mid to high 60s. Great temperature to ride in. No leg warmers. There was a long sleeve jersey. Bib tights and no under garment. 3 things to wear not counting shoes and gloves. I was almost naked after 6 months in the Arctic gear. My first ride since the disaster of Friday. The #1 bike was ready. Stiffer gears for harder faster climbs. Stiffer gears for fast flats and shallow rollers. The same bike as last Friday in the dismal effort. Sunday was a new day and new progress could be found. Even before it was time to go I made sure there was lots of fuel to ride on. This it seems was the problem of Friday. No fuel. Pancakes, peanut butter, grape jelly and lots of sweet light coffee. Fuel for the ride. Then before it was time mount the bike 3 gels were added to the mix of the fuel. It was off time. Lots of ZipFizz and gels on board and I was going to use them. The roll of the first few miles seemed good. Down past Bayview Corners. On to Andreason were the first climb starts. Then the nice easy climb of Lone Lake. It went very well. Fast in nice big climbing gears. Then I saw the first sign of HiVis Green ahead. There was a rider ahead. I told myself to just keep my pace. Not go to fast to catch this rider. At the top of this climb the rider was no where to be seen. Down hill in the big gears was fast. No rider in sight. On to Saratoga 2 very hard short hills that lead to Langley. I did see the rider that turns out to be 2 riders on the first hard climb. They were at the top and I was at the bottom. The next climb was the same. I was not going to win the town sign today. I had made some ground but not much. These guys were fast. Well I was going fast today also. As I came into Langley I caught up to the 2 riders. Triathletes all decked out with the latest Tri gear. Thin folks, water bottles on the back of their saddles. Special Triathlete bike frames to. Not to mention really expensive carbon wheel sets. They looked good. Compared to these guys I was just a road bum. So I hung with them on the back wheel. Did not want to pass them till they were ready. As the 3 of us were leaving town the the tri folks were getting all nervous about me on their rear. I knew that was the signal to pass. So I went by easy and slow. Not to piss anyone off like my normal pattern is. Not the slightest word or nod or any thing from these 2. Just snobs! I have been around this type my whole riding life. Elitist that think there shit does not smell. At that point I did what they do. Put the bike in the biggest gear I had and just motored away. Faster than I had ever gone on that section. Plus the lungs were feeling great. Then it was time to go up Maxwellton. I was still feeling a little pissy after the snob thing. I climbed that hill faster than I have ever gone. 18 MPH up hill. The best I had ever done before was 14 MPH. I mean it was all good. No one was going to catch me. Not those 2 for sure. I eased to the top and just motored the flatish few miles at about 24 MPH. I was doing very well. Got to the cross over of HWY 525 and the light turned green for me. I was still on Maxwellton leading to Swede Hill Road. I was pushing a nice controlled bit of gear on the road. Swede Hill is an awful hill. Very steep at the start. Very steep at the finish. At's a hard hill. Last time I did not even bother going up the hill. This time it was still hard. But the middle section went smooth and fast. Than there was the finish. Hard as it always is. All the hills on this day went great. Fast and smooth. Much bigger gears than normal. Who knew, pancakes, peanut butter and grape jelly. It was the lack of carbs that made the last ride so bad. I will work hard to not let that happen again. The ride was great right to the garage doors. 42 miles and I was ready for more. Just did not want to over do it after the desaster of Friday. Well that was then and this is now. The past is the past. Today is the only time we have. So eat Pancakes, Jelly, and peanut butter.

Days of quiet Victory

2008-05-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Mary Anne left for a 10 day book/teaching/business trip to the Tampa Florida area. She will be staying with great friends at a terrific place North of St Pete. Right on the water! I'll be here, right on the water waiting. And waiting and waiting.
So the ride last Friday is the bike subject. There is a lot to tell. Almost non of it very good. The one true gift of this dismal ride was I got the town sign in a sprint I did not know I was sprinting for. The town sign coming into Langley. A town I go through every ride is on a shallow down hill. Being paranoid someone will pass me I always ride the big gears up coming into town. I do this just in case anyone has been following me. This day and age I almost never look back. Eyes front and ride the bike. This time there was someone back there trying to catch me. As I came to the town sign I have a habit. As I pass the sign I put a V sign out with with 2 fingers with both hands, while my hands are still on the bars. As normal I did this and I hear a loud, "DAM" come from behind me. In an instant a tall fit older guy riding a all carbon Cannodale passes me. Just half a wheel back from the fantasy win. He was not happy and started trying to drop me at once. Now with as bad as I was riding on this day dropping me would be easy. So with all I could I got back up to this very fit guy and rode along side. I looked to this now smoking from the ears tough guy with the though we could have a laugh over the whole thing. So I looked at him and smiled and said, "now I did win the town sign didn't I?". Just thought we could laugh about it. I was ready to tell him how strong he was riding and that there was no way I could keep up. Let him know I was OK and not a threat or anything. It didn't work so well. He shifted and just went faster. Now this was through town. I was going to keep up with him for the less than a mile or so. Or die trying! He was really fast. I was having an epic slow and difficult day. So I stayed with him. I think he started smoking from his ears, mouth and ass all at once. Than he made a left hand turn where I go strait. Thank goodness for small miracles.
Now that that was over I could get back to suffering through this ride. Every hill, flat section (the few there are), roller and decent was just painful and hard. It was awful. The whole ride was just awful. There were times I just wanted to stop, get off the bike and sit. I felt I could not go on. It was a few feet at a time. Just keep going a few feet at a time. I knew if I just kept going it would end in about 3 hours plus or minus. Nothing was working right. As I faced the last fast down hill I was thinking to use the brakes to slow it down. Then reason came into view. If I go fast it will all be over sooner. Just hang on 5 miles to go. Just keep going 2 miles to go. It will all be over soon. Then the blessed driveway shows it's wonderful way to the garage. It was over. I was done with that hell of a ride.
All I could think of after that was sugar. Maple bars, pizza, anything with sugar and carbs. It seems I did not do such a good job of fueling up before the ride. I paid a price for that lesson. Bless maple bars.

Spring Days

2008-05-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

It seems to be starting to break into Spring. The Temperatures are up. The need to be in Arctic gear is reducing. Still the humidity is 80+%. That makes for a cool ride in 50 degrees, but now it's warmer in the AM. The days are much longer. The Sun is doing it's job. Slowly pushing back the season and cooking the landscape with it's warmth. The road is changing with tree flowers and cut grass scattered all over it. The perfumes of flowers and fresh growth changing the air as I go down the long road.
This Wednesday was my first ride since Saturday. Not my choice. Just the way things had to be. It was a good time for my sometimes tired legs to get a rest. At my age the body just can not be put under the pressure of constant training anymore. I need the days off once and a while. It bothers me. It's just the way it is. The rides after the rest are always better. My legs fresher and stronger. I need to keep my training going. I need to keep it going at the right pace. Often I ride to hard. Push to go fast. Worry about someone catching up to me. My real need in the ride is to ride that 65% range. It builds the body up. Not tear it down. Oh, I need to go fast to. Just less often than I do. Not worry so much about getting caught from behind. There are some real fast riders around here. They would catch me anyway. I just have a hard time with that. I'm so dam competitive.
So this ride went very well. Rested and ready to rock. The weather was on the warm side,50+ degrees. Thought it had been and was raining off and on. An extra jersey and leg and arm warmers. Good choice as it turned out. Just in case I took a thin rain jacket. Never took it out of my back pockets. It was a 40+ mile day. I need to back off the 60 milers. They will have to wait for the warmer weather. So off I went on the #2 bike, fender on the rear tire. Lights too. One on the kit bag on the saddle, one on the rear of my helmet. On foggy or very overcast days there both on. Plus I wear a Hi/Vis green long sleeve jersey. Around here you got to be safe more than stylish. The trucks and some of the many retired folks need a heads up to move over a little. The retired people are the most dangerous. It's the normal, "those bikes don't belong on the roads". It's the same everywhere. Though the retired ones are so stiff in there thinking. I won't even go in to all that! Well, now back to the ride. Most of the ride were well tested roads. Roads I know every bump. Every spot where glass is scattered on thee road side. That is till the new glass shows up. I know all the hills. I know all the flats. Both ways. It's a small Island on the south side. So after I got warmed up the legs started to move well. In about 2 gears bigger. That's from the rest. I did a new way of the same roads. Still I will always do some the same way. Heggenes Hill, Holst Hill, Jewett Hill and Bailey road. If it had been dry I would have done Swede Hill. That's so steep at the start and finish I spin my wheel. Making the already hard climb very hard. I wait for that hill to be dry. So it was 41 miles on the nose. 2 hours 50 mins. Just training at an easy pace in hill country. I felt great at the finish. Not even that tired.
Now at home there are the bird adventures. The gray Harrier Hawk took a Moring Dove right in front of Mary Anne's eyes. What drama! Also there was a baby Humming bird on the deck. We tried to nurse it. It was 3/4 grown. Had feathers with some down left. It did drink from a device I made out of a Qtip. I cut the end off the plastic hollow shaft. We could get sugar water in it. Off and on the little Hummer drank. These things almost never work out with the bird living. Well it did not work out this time to. Then this AM the Coopers Hawk came by looking for breakfast. This place always has something going on.
Well till next time.

It's a Bird Day

2008-05-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

After a short 42 mile ride. Just staying with the road. Working for the better life. Life that the road work gives back. The day this blog entry began.
At dinner with Mary Anne, we watched the Humming birds feed at one of our 2 feeders. The Anna's humming birds, and the Rufous Humming birds. Late in the day the Rufous Hummers go crazy. Fighting making their tail displays. Look at me dude, I'm bigger and badder than you. It goes on for hours. Some kind of dominance game. Then as I watched these little wonders the next wave came by. A Norther Harrier Hawk in full gray came by swooping and making his lighter than air moves looking for dinner. He came by our sun flower feeders and in a second turn 180 degrees and dropped to the ground. I knew dinner had been found. This was the first time the Harrier had been around. Just such a light bird in flight. More like a leaf blowing in the wind. Beautiful gray body and wings with black tips. He was on the ground holding tight to some food. I then saw the great bird do a bit of a jump up to get flying again. Then there it was, dinner. A small bunny. Just the Harrier's size. He started up and right over the cliff to eat this dinner prize on the beach. Not to be. The local Eagles would have nothing to do with this Harrier feeding in their area. An attack was on. The giant Bald Eagles, clearly 5 time larger or maybe more than the Harrier attacked. Next thing I saw was the Harrier with no bunny. Resting on the field next to us. Just sitting, re-grouping. No bunny in his talons. Wonder who had that dinner? So the poor harrier flew down the bluff looking and diving for it's next dinner chance. After that the local Bald Eagles were in close by tree being attacked by a Golden Eagle. It looked very serious! The Bald Eagle was hunkered down in a tree and the Golden was diving and almost hitting the Bald Eagle. Full talons showing. This was a serious fight. It went on for about 20 mins. I got lots of photos. It was a drama better than any movie. I hope the photo's show the drama. It was an active evening at the Bay. All this well with in bare eye sight. No binocularss needed.
The photos show one of the dives into the tree of the Golden Eagles. Also I have a shot of 3 eagles in the top of the fir tree right next to us during the fight. More photos to. Some hummers at the feeder. It was a lot of fun and drama.

Monday Ride on Tuesday

2008-05-07T07:56:00.000-07:00

It seemed to be the first ride of the week. It was way cool, in the 40s. Though 50s were on the chart for the day. Humidity was 89%. Just this side of wet enough for misty rain or fog. The winter coat was coming along. With wind chill it would never get warm. There was no sun out to. I still took the #1 bike after a little work on the chain and some clean up. The rear wheel was a bit dirty after some chain and gear cleaning. All was ready for a nice mid to low range 60 mile effort. The change from the 40ish milers to 55 or 60 was now in full force. I was ready as the conditioning of winter had me in very good shape. Still it takes a few rides to bring the legs and body to the new longer effort. This ride was one of the harder days. Climbing was labored. I took some of the roads that had the steepest climbs. East Bay Road has a wicked hard climb. Not so long, but brutal. Effort after effort. Long rollers and steep short climbs in the first 15 miles. Just taking them easy. Still the heat rate got in the red zone on a few of the really steep ones. 39X25 is a bit tough for these old legs. Maybe a 36 tooth chain ring needs to be on the bike. On it went through Langley as always. Then more shallow climbs up Maxwellton past the High School. Over HWY 525 then down on to some flattish areas. The effort was good but a little labored. Next was Bailey road shallow up hill till a neutral area then turn on Cultus Bay Road for a bit. Make the turn on Jewett Road. It would be climbs for the next 10+ miles. There are some fast areas to. More or less climbs though. Then after all that back to Cultus Bay Road. All the effort was a bit off. Some steady and some very labored. It was not on the training format to be a hard day. It was turning out to be hard enough. By the time the loop took me back on Maxwellton and all it has. The climb up French Road Hill was going to be hard. The legs were in flat gear mode. French Hill is long climbing mode. The first bit of the hill was going to hurt. Then as it always does the legs get into long steady climb. Not mountains, just long hill. By the top, the body was happy. I like the long pace climbs. The climbs that can go on for hours. French Hill was just a few mins. Like 10at the most. Still the climbing muscles got into it. By the turn back on to Cultus Bay Road I was feeling good. Left turn to Langley. Some long shallow hills. Everything was going good. Mid range with a little speed. Then down to the traffic light to cross HWY 525 that goes to Langley. The light went green way far out from where I was. If I sprinted I could make it. So up I went, the MPHs went to full and I crossed as the yellow started. It was a long sprint. Flats on Langley Road for a bit to recover. I was breathing on the hard side for a short time. The lactic acid had come home to share the ride. It felt better in a short time. There was a School bus in front of me as I came into town. Stop and go and lots of cars an trucks to. Finally the road was clear to move through town and find Bayview Road Hill and home. The legs were not so much tired as just not working as well as I had hoped. The push home was OK. Just a little tender and used up. The hot bath with salts and lavender would help. Food and a little easy time to. Last thing, it ever got warm. Not once. I was glad for my winter riding jacket.

9000 feet

2008-05-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

It a tribute to Noah Singer and the race he just finished. In one race of a Huge Stage Race. Noah and the racer's climbed 9000' in 3 climbs in one afternoon. Go Noah!
After that I put my own efforts to stay fit and alive in place. Efforts that take me to new places and new races every time I go out for a ride. I dream of the days I was a competitor. Being with the group. Staying in contact to the effort. Making my break on the hill climbs. Putting the hurt on everyone when I put the motor in high gear and grind the speed out. Live the races in my head all over again. Live the races in France on a hot July day I had only seen on the TV or a DVD. Noah's effort brings it home once again through his blog. Keep writing Noah. An "old guy" reads and dreams.
For my rides there has been 2. Friday and Sunday.
Friday's ride was hard. There was something not working in the system. Some nasty little thing running around in my blood. The legs were like lead. There was no effort in them. If I pushed even a little the lactic acid just forced the legs to shut down from the pain. What the hell was going on? Mary Anne, Sandra Ann, Cathy, John and I had gone out for dinner at a great Mexican Restaurant. The food was wonderful. I had just finished a 55 mile easy pace ride. 4 hours. Drove to meet everyone at the restaurant. It was a fun time till we got home. Mary Anne who is deathly allergic to any seafood or her food having any contact to seafood. Was turning RED and swelling out. Her eyes were half open. Her brain was half working to. It was time for Benadryl. The stuff that brings her back from near death. Now Sandra Ann our house guest did not look so good to. She said she was poisoned to. Food Poisoning!!!! Oh no. So having a cast iron stomic I was very worried for the girls. Mary Anne went right to bed and I kept a very close eye on her. Sandra Ann did a bit better, but, went to bed very early and was not doing that well. I did not even think about how this would effect my ride. Then I'm on the ride, and truth came out in the legs as it always will. The ride always tells the story. The legs would not work because of the food poisoning running through the blood. The liver had not had the time to clean it all out. Every crank of the peddles was a huge effort. Even at a very low range of effort. I wanted to turn back or shorten the ride at every corner. I managed to get the full 41 mile ride in. Every inch was an effort. Age never felt so close. The ride was done and I took a 2 hour bath in Epsom salt and lavender with some bubbles thrown in. Hot water and sweat. I had the finger crossed. I was feeling better by that evening. Looking very close at the food I was eating. I'm not even going to talk about the time I spent in the bathroom not taking a bath! After all this I was a little worried about the next ride on Sunday.
Sundays ride was to be a long middle to hard effort. 60 miles at a push. It was perfect weather, few clouds, the sun was out. It was still to cool to ride without leg and arm warmer. I also rode with a long sleeve jersey over the arm warmers. I wanted to keep warm. In all it was a good choice. Just a bit warm, but the body was happy to feel the blood at the right temperature. I was on the #1 bike with the 53X39gears. Better high end speed. Everything was going well. The climbs were a bit tough with the stiffer gear. The speeds on the climbs about the same as the lower geared winter bike. All was well. Every other part of the ride was fast. 2 to 3 MPH faster that the winter bike. the #1 bike in much lighter to. 17.5 pounds. I carry all the extra stuff in my jersey. Nothing strapped to the bike. The down hill sections were blazing fast. The flattish areas were 22 MPH to 28 MPH. It looked to be a very fast ride. I was feeling great. All was well again. At the finish my time for 60 miles was 3 hours and 50 mins. That's a new record for me on this "very hilly Island". The poison had passed in so many ways.

Just a note before I go out again

2008-05-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Riding always has it's good and less good days. My last ride on Wednesday seemed like a easy day. Small gears, small miles (41). A recovery type ride. Just ease through the ride never get near the "RED ZONE". Even in the climbs just easy does it. The weather seemed nice. Sun and it felt warmish. Light gear with arm and leg warmers. No finger gloves to. By the time I hit Bayview Corners (1.5 miles) I was cold enough to stop in at HalfLink. I needed long finger gloves. As it would turn out I needed more than that. My core was getting colder and colder. Even with hill climbs. I was losing heat through the whole ride. It was a good ride, but a cold ride. I don't do so well when I'm cold. When I got home 3 hours later. I was cold to the bone. Then I was going out to dinner with Mary Anne, family, and a friend from North Carolina. So it was shove some protein down me and get going. I was meeting everyone on my own. I had on 3 light coats. Zipped up as high as I could. When I got there I was still very cold. Mind you I had drank a hot cup of coffee at home before getting in the car. It was going to be a long fun dinner. I never warmed up. Not once for the few hours we were there. Even when we got home I was still cold. My core had been abused a little to much. It was 2 hours after we got home that the heat in my body was restored. I thought that was that and all was fine.
Next day I was paying the price for my abuse. The body just would not get going. I was hammered. I slept a good part of the day. I also think I got a little food poisoning from the Mexican restaurant. It was a bad day. I really felt old. Oh well. So now I'm getting ready to go out again. It's the Friday ride. It should be a 60 mile ride. Hummm, maybe not. I'll just have to go out and see what I can do after a long slow warm up. These are the day's of spring on the Island. 40 something degrees and 80% humidity. Mix that with the bike speed and it's still cold. I'm going out warmer today.

The miles of spring

2008-04-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

It is not the spring so much as the moments of warm weather. After the long season of winter riding every warm moment is a prize. Riding my #1 bike, over the winter bike. Seems like a small thing. Not so much for me. Riding a bike, the #1 bike, is such a joy. A bike that just has something special. It feels so light and delivers power so directly. I push it goes! Climbing feels much better. Not so much faster. Just better, as if there is magic in the frame. Got to like that. The #1 frame is not even that high end of the Cannondale line. Still a VERY good frame. I have climbed 3 and 4 hour climbs in the Cascade Mountains with this bike and always finished first in my group. By alot! 30 mins and longer once! That should never happen as I am a BIG rider at 215 pounds and 6'5". Now I am just bringing this up to show how good this #1 frame is. So when I took it out for it's first ride since winter 5 months ago. The feel was so exciting. As posted, 60.4 miles in 4 hours. That's just training to. Then my next ride, the ride this blog is about, was on the winter bike. 55 miles in 4 hours. It's just like that, the #1 bike has something special in it. So here's for the good weather. Here's to Cannondale. Speed is body and bike working together. Well, and 4200 mile since January first. That helps.

The last 100 mile

2008-04-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

No, it's not the last 100 miles to be ridden. Well I hope not! It is the post of the last 2 rides to get current.
Thursday was a 40 miler. It turned out to be 41 in 2 hours 50 mins. Not to bad. I was happy with the effort. I was happy with the day and weather. 56 degrees and sunny. Just a little over dressed, but not much. Still having worries about getting cold. There have been some rough rides in the last few weeks. So, I carried a thin jacket and extra pair of long finger gloves in the rear pockets. It all just turned out to be extra weight. The wool vest was a little warm and was wet by the time I got home. The wet wool vest also made the last few miles a little cold from the evaporation. The best way to dress is in a jersey and vest, if needed, that are dry when you get home. The new fabrics do that well. So on this ride there was a little sweating that would not evaporate fast enough. It was a good course. Some of the few flats around here to run the big gears in. Good hard climbs to push hard on. About 50/50. The body was working well. The bike was working well. The weather was working well. Not a bad time to. Not many other riders out. Enough to give the wave to. I got home feeling good. Ate the food. Enjoyed being close to Mary Anne. The best part of any day.
Saturday:
Full blown sunny day with temps that would hit 62 for a few moments. It was like a new time had hit the Island. Every bike was out. It was a parade. All kinds of bikes. All kinds of color. More bare legs and arms than you could count. Still, mostly the bikes were out in the AM, before the temps were warm enough for me. I was waiting for the warmest part of the day. I have been on the roads all winter and I'm tired of the cold. So I was waiting. Also it was still to cold to ride with bare legs and arms for this old horse. Although the outfit was light, there were still arm and leg warmers on. I was glad of it to. The shadows and down hill descents were still cold for my bare skin. I am a "serious training" old guy. There are rules for the body to keep it working at top speeds. Warm knees and blood are key to good performance. I saw 2 other serious riders on my ride and they both had arm and leg warmers on to. All the other folks were first ride of the season riders. More interested in there tan's. The tan will come soon enough. Oh, this was the first day of the Bayview Corners Farmers Market. It's a big deal and lots of fun. It will go on every Saturday till September some time. Mary Anne and I go all the time. The food is wonderful. A lot of the produce is wonderful to. there is one lady, "Back Door Bakery", that bakes the #1 pie. Her apple crumble is just one of my favorites. You have to get there early as she sells out by noon or earlier. All her stuff is first rate. So the day was a parade of sorts. My ride goes right past the Market. The smells and sounds were so cool. Music, people doing entertainment, color, smells and way to to many cars. Though there is a very good bike lane going through this area. No problems. From there it was of to my roads. All the roads I have ridden all winter. Plus a few more. I did some of the climbs twice! Oh,it was great. I was dressed perfect. I had gels and ZipFizz. All my flat tire gear was in my jersey pocket not on the bike. I had my favorite jersey and bib tights on from "Competitive Cyclist". I looked simple Continental. Ready to join the squad down the road for our "day at the office". It was glory. I was riding the #1 bike. New chain and New Campy rear derailleur with a mid size hanger. Everything was perfect. The effort was good but, not over the top. Once I was warmed up I just worked big gears all the ride. The hills were a little hard as I was riding the 39 tooth crank that was also the 53 tooth crank. I had been riding the 50X34 all winter on the #2 bike. It's close to the same for the mid range. It's the high and low range on the #1 bike that make the effort different. It's just 2" different for the climbing gear, but on the really hard and steep climbs that makes a difference in how fast the legs can turn over. I went up all the steepest climbs. I did some twice as I said. Man the other stuff was fast. That big old 53X12 is a great gear to go fast in. I was just hammering. 22 MPH all the time. The speeds were so much fast on this bike. Well, 4 hours later to the min. I was home. Still feeling. Not beat into the road. I check the mileage. 60.4 miles in 4 hours. Not bad for a training ride with 2 stops for fuel and my meds with a little tighten of my saddle to. Bring on the warm weather. I am ready.

Minke in the Bay

2008-04-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

It was the same old morning. Coffee and pills. Ease into the day. Hope the pain was going to keep it's distance. Than I saw what I had always hoped to see in the bay on my morning coffee. 6:22 AM a whale broke the surface of the water and came into my view. I was thrilled! The birds were following it's every move. Looking for a meal I'm sure. I was glued to the binoculars. For 20 mins and 8 time I saw this great animal of the inland waters of Puget Sound. The water here on our big bay are VERY shallow for about half the bay. There must be a lot of food in the bay this morning. The Minke Whale was in the deep part right up to the edge of the shallows where it then drops off and gets very deep. It was thrilling and a little worry some to. Was this a sick animal looking to beach it self and die. It was so close to where it was sand on a extra low tide. As I watched and wondered the Minke came up and dove down showing it's Fluke (tail), and then was gone. I have not seem the whale since. What a morning coffee. Though I am going to keep an eye on the up come extra low tide in a few hours today.

That's More Like It

2008-04-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

No ice. No snow. No bone chilling cold. 55 degrees felt like a mid summer day. I was a little over dressed, but, not much. I carried a thin jacket in my jersey pocket if I needed it. Just extra weight is all it turned out to be. Not to mention the extra pair of long finger gloves. Just did not want to be cold if the weather took a turn. Weather was good but, on the edge. The good edge was during the ride. 3 hours and 23 mins., 50 miles. Now my last ride was about the same time and 33 miles. What a difference. Climbing in a stout gear. Taking on Swede hill and feeling fresh. Feeling good for most of the ride. It was good to see that I was coming back to a normal kind of form after the cold weather and intestinal flu. I was just hoping it would all come back together. So hurry for some warm weather.

Swallows and Band-Tailed Pigeons

2008-04-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, as if on some cue. The Swallows come back to this area to do what they do best. Eat bugs and lots of them. I took this as a sign that the better part of Spring was here. This morning at the bird feeders it was Band-Tailed Pigeons. Both these birds, the Swallows and the Band-Tailed Pigeons go South for the winter. Their return a sure sign the warmer weather must be close. It started snowing at about 10:30 AM this morning. Not a blizzard, but cold mixed rain and snow. Cold was the word for the day. A ride day. I was looking for a way out of this ride. There was no way. Even if I wanted to. I had to do the miles. At 11:30 AM I could not see across Puget Sound for the snow that was coming our way. It was 38 degrees and April 18th. It was going to get colder to. The weather event was coming from the North. I just could not wait any longer. So out into the wet/snow and cold I went. My heaviest gear on. 2 pair of gloves, one neoprene. A very heavy wool vest. I was as ready as I knew how to be for this. Out I went. Another 40 miler. Down the roads to the first climb of Lone Lake Road. It was snowing that wet does not stick snow with a little hail. Hum, back down the hill to Langley. Well that's the short version. Back up out of Langley past all the schools. It was as much rain as snow. More like a glass full of water with ice to cool it down. It was to cold to push to hard. Plus I was still on the mend from the food poisoning. Just working on not working to hard. Building my body back up, not tearing it down. The snow was getting a little heaver. Maybe more snow than rain. My hands were starting to get cold. It was way early for the hands to start freezing up. My feet were starting to get cold to. Even with thick neoprene booties on. My feet were starting to freeze. I was not even to the top part of my ride. The area where it is always cold and tree covered. Holst Road hill. A nice climb to the ridge of one of the taller hills in the area. As I climbed the temperature fell fast. The snow took over. It was so cold and I was now so cold I had to change my plans. I went down Heggenes hill instead of climbing it. In the snow. I was really freezing at this point. I was going to have to make it home fast. Numb hands and feet now. Neoprene was no help at all today. That's never happened to me before. I cut back for home on French Road hill. Still up a little high. Going down French hill I was pelted hard with snow and a lot of hail. I could barely turn a gear over. I think everything was freezing up. A couple of small but hard climbs and I was home. 2 hours 45 mins and 33 miles. Wow, I think the Swallows and the Pigeons had it wrong for today. As I write this there is another snow front coming across the Sound. It's colder now than it was at 10 AM. It was a hard day in the saddle.

Shadows at my Back

2008-04-17T10:39:00.000-07:00

My ride on the 16th was again cold. Not so cold though. Mid 40s and air moist as rain but not raining. Even a sun beam was out. Then it were gone. Just another ride to go out and train no matter what. Man, I'm looking for some warm weather to break. It was going to be an easy 50 mile ride. Just turn over the cranks. Do the job and do it right. I'm still repairing from the over training. Also the mental difficulty of going out in this endless wet cold. Keeping the faith to the road. Saying my prayers to the circuit. Keeping the Reaper behind. Keeping a good distance on this ever pursuing competitor.
So what was different. Nothing was working in my legs. The body was just hammered in the first mile. Lactic acid or lack of electrolytes. Maybe my potassium was down. I have naturally low potassium. I'm also taking my high blood pressure medication again after being out for months. The result is a much lower heart rate even under stress. My normal going up hill heart rate is 163. Now with this med it's 134. Less blood and O2 getting to the muscles. It all adds up to poor performance. Even on the flatter roads it was just an effort to roll over the gears. What's an old fart to do. Well not 50 miles today that for sure. It was all I could do to manage 41 and then I was a basket case. Just to tired to stand. I hit the chair and just lowered my head. It was to heavy to hold up. I had noticed this on the last 10 miles of the ride. My head was just to heavy to hold up. I did manage to eat some chicken. Protein in the first 30 mins after the ride is good. It did not help at all. I was still just drained.
As it turned out there was some other factors that were not working in my favor. Before the ride my best friend was the bathroom. It was a fast trip all together. I was hoping that was it. No, just before going out the door I had to talk to my best friend again. Take off half my gear to do it to. I hoped that was it! Out on the road it was OK except I could not ride so well. Then going up Heggene's Hill it was bad. I was looking for any place to stop. After 3 miles there was a construction site with a nice chemical friend. An un-locked chemical friend. Thank the stars and the rules that these chemical friends must be on a building site. As I finished one of the contractor's gave me the it's OK nod, anytime. On home was safe for the need. As it turns out both Mary Anne and I were making friends in the same way. We both think we have food poisoning. I started drinking as much ZipFizz as I could. It is a sports drink with tons of electrolytes. I did start to feel a little better. After all it was Bingo Night at the Senor Center. Can't miss that! So I think we both have food poisoning from some meat we had. Hamburger may be the sinner. Maybe not to. It's a hard one to tell. The timings right for the hamburger.
So today the 17th is repair day for this old body. Be careful what I eat. Be thoughtful what I drink. Think about what the body needs to replace all that is missing. Hope it's the food, not, the drugs I need to take everyday. My blood pressure was very high at the Doctors office, 170 over 78. Man that's bad! That Reaper just never gives up. Well I'm not giving up ether.

Tax Day

2008-04-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

So the post is about yesterday. April 14th. A day that took me back. Winter came home again and it's here to stay for a bit. The glories of Saturday just a crack in the door of what's to come later. Winter is now back and in control. 39 degrees, wet, a bit of wind to chill it down and make the ride a little tougher. I so wanted to ride in light gear. Just a jersey, bib tights, arm and leg warmers, regular gloves. That was not for yesterday, no not at all. It was winter gear and the winter bike again all over. Neoprene was a welcome sight. So once again I was ready to battle the weather. To make the miles and do the circuit. Keep the training going no matter what. On the road again in the winter of this little Island.
As I went down the first mile of wet road I knew I had picked the wrong gloves. Still hoping they would do over heavy winter gloves. Bad choice. So I stopped into Half Link the local bike shop to find a pair of new winter gloves. No turning back for me at this point. David and his wife were busy working on bikes brought in on Saturdays glory. Bikes that thought it was summer. Bikes that thought it was time to be dusted off again. Take there owners for the adventures of the road and trail. So both David and his partner looked up and smiled with a slight glance outside at the rain and cold. "Where did it go" David asked. "Not here" was my reply. I was looking for a good pair of warm water proof gloves. David had a pair of thin neoprene gloves in my size. I put them on, on the spot. As I stepped out the door. I looked back to the 2 and said, "you know I'm tough, but I sure would like to see my naked finger again, have some warmer weather". This cold riding is getting hard. Testing my steel and my truth. Truth to the road. Out I went to do the mile, new gloves and all. Down the roads I know so well. Rain, hard cold spring rain. It had hailed a few mins ago. I was facing a white ride. Hard rain is tough to deal with. So up the first of the climbs. Just getting warmed up. Starting to know I would get this ride done. As I have done so many times before in winter weather. Even my face shows the signs of all the weather this winter season. The cutting cold of thousands of miles on the un-covered bare skin exposed to all this weather. Well here some more. Down the first climb at 25 to 30 MPH. Hard rain pounding on everything. It might even snow on Friday. That's the forecast. Friday is a ride day. First I finish this ride. One ride at a time. Down to Saratoga Road, right turn to Langley. Keeping the gears soft. Not putting to much pressure on as today was a recovery ride. I'm still doing some re-build from my over training of the recent past. Letting the muscles repair and build up. It's hard to force these low efforts. I always like to push harder. On easy efforts I'm looking behind me a lot. Looking for the rider coming up on me. The one that wants to pass me. Make me feel slow. It's hard to talk myself down from the push. I have started to use big gears on the flatter areas. Just roll the big gears over and not push them to hard. That way I get the speed up with out to much effort. Staying in the recovery zone but feeling fast. All this thinking and I was through Langley and up Maxwellton and cross SR-525 getting near the fun climbs of Jewett Road, Glendale Road, Holst Road, Deer Lake Road and Heggenes Road. All the best hill climbs in my circuit. The pace kind of climbs. Just ease up and stay out of the "Red Zone". It's good work. The best part of the ride. As I went up all this the tell tale signs of winter showed with white on the side of the road. White of winter. A fair amount of hail had collected at the tops of each climb. The sides of the roads were filled. It was real cold to. Winter at the top again. After all this, it was the turn for home. 15 miles to go on this 41 mile ride. Back to Langley. Up Bayview Hill. Then the FAST decent to Bayview Corners where "Half Link" is and on home 1 1/2 miles away. Just riding easy as I did the whole ride. Feeling good about the ride and the effort. Looking forward to a hot bath. A shower to. I was dirt up to the knees again. That's winter riding on April 14th.

Thursday and Saturday

2008-04-13T17:18:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a nice ride in small gears, that's about that.
Now Saturday was a ride to write about. Perfect weather. Warmest day of the year so far. It got into the 60s, mid 60s! It started out at about 55 degrees. Still warmer than anything I have ridden in in 7 months. I was going to ride the #1 bike for the first time in forever. I had to re-build the #1 bike from ground up first. New campy brakes, strip and clean everything. It was not that bad and well lubed up. Just had to do the right thing to my favorite frame. Get everything first class for this magnificent weather. Re-do a few settings for my new form. Set the bars a little lower, the saddle a little higher and more forward. It's the little things that make all the difference for comfort and speed. Also a new front tire. The last one had a huge slash in it from a winter ride on the #2 bike. Everything was ready. Now the reduced gear to wear. Just a summer outfit with arm and leg warmers. Still not that warm in the shadows. There are a lot of shadows here on the Island. I was looking good in skin tight. I must have weighed 5 pounds less by not having on all the winter gear. I was pumped. Two bottles of ZipFizz energy drink. A few gels. All the tire gear in one of my 3 pockets of the Competitive Cyclist jersey. My white Sidi carbon fiber shoes. I could see my fingers for the first ride since October of 2007. I was ready to go. Just feeling and looking great. It was going to be a surprising. Oh, also I was running normal gears on my cranks, 53X39. I have been on 50X34 all winter. I checked the gear chart to remind me what gears use. Over all there not that much different. Just more power in the 53X39. I was ready for the power. It was going to be a normal route. Only a little longer. Not much though. I had been working short miles since I over trained. Doing the easy rides to build my system back up. Just 33 and 36 miles. That's a little short for me. So today would be close to 50 miles. I am in great shape and I can do almost any mileage I want. 20 to 100 miles I will be fine. Maybe 120 to 150 and I will have to stop a few times for fuel and a stretch. So 50+- would do for today. So as soon as I get out on the road in just mins I see the first group ride going the other way. A normal group the fast guys leaving the slow guys and the few middle guys wondering what to do. I was not interested in that. I wanted to do my own training. On thru Bayview Corners working my way to Lone Lake Road I came up on a rider. A century type rider. Older bike, but the guy could ride all day. I have seem his type. So I just did the stealth thing on his rear wheel for a bit to see how he rode. The hills slowed him up a bit. It was then that he noticed me on his wheel. In the past I would just dusted a guy like this off and leave him in my rear. These days I was interested to see who he was. Turned out to be an organizer type for long rides with his friends from Seattle. He had just moved to the Island 4 months before. He was very fit. Just not very fast. Fast enough to hang with for a bit. My age to, real old. His name was John and he lived about 10 miles from Mary Anne and I. On the other side of a big hill. There was going to be a big organizational meeting for a South Island Bike group. More political than anything.He pitched it to me and told me where and when. I promptly forgot. We did have a nice chat though. He took a left, I was going strait up Lone Lake Hill. Next time John. I was feeling so sparky. My legs were full of power from the easy rides. I was still holding back. Not trying to over do, but the #1 bike is such a fast and good bike on the hills. It just wants to go. No wasted effort on this bike. I push the peddles it goes strait to the wheels. Best bike I have ever ridden for the hills. I can climb 2 gears bigger than my other bike. 2 to 3 MPH faster to. Going up hill! It's very fast on the flats or rollers to. I got to Saritoga Road with it's steep section. Wondered how it would go. It went great. Still a very hard and steep hill, but not to long. Then it was a fast ride into Langley. Not over the top though. Fast and at a low heart rate. Pushing a big gear easy and shifting smart. Never saw the Red Zone. Did the easy ride through the town and off to Maxwellton Road. A easy climb to some flats on top past the schools and to the other side of SR 525. Everything was going good. I was having a few gear problems though. The gear on the rear wheel are on the old side and are worn. The chain was skipping on the smaller cogs. I was going to have to replace these. I also will replace the derailleur on the rear from a short cage to a mid size cage. Everything else was working perfect. The speed was so good. I guess there was a lot less drag having skin tight gear on. So on I went to all the hills I have learned to love. Yeah, I love hills. Well when I'm on my own. When I don't have some 150 pound person showing me how big I am. At 215 pounds the fight with weight really shows up with gravity. For now I am king of the climbs. I did all the normal climbs and had a great time. Then it was back towards Langley and cross SR 525 at Kens Corners. there is a fast down hill before the the traffic lights. I was going to get the green light if I hurried. I was going faster than the cars as I went through the light. I found out later that Mary Anne saw me as she was at Ken's Corners. I never saw her. I just kept going. Got my speed back down to a good pace and made my way to Langley now on Langley Road. I got to the town and it was about PILL time so I went through downtown Langley looking for a clock of some sort, nothing. Then I looked and saw one of those hills going from down town to out of town. Steep, long enough to hurt an old guy at the last 9 or so miles of a ride. I put my head down. Remained in the saddle and just went up easy as that. I was stunned at how well the bike and I did. At the top I was not even in the Red Zone. I had avoided this hill since we moved to the Island. Not a long climb, just steep. The kind people don't walk up very often. There it was, a fear turned out to nothing more than foolishness. After that it was more hills and good times. I was into the last part of the ride. The last 3 or so miles. I felt fine. I got home. I felt fine. I did not feel drained at all. I could have gone a lot longer. I could feel the winter miles in my legs telling me the effort was worth the time. The prize had been the work.

Tuesday Ride

2008-04-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Well it turned out that yesterday, Tuesday, was my first ride in a week. 7 days without a ride. I could hardly stand it! Still as in my last post, the ride was going to be easy with less miles. I mean I was ready for everyone to pass me that rode a bike on the Island. It was cold and wet and I was one of only a few out training. So the thought of getting passed turned out to be my own BS to myself. The ride did turn out to be 32 miles in a gear I normally climb shallow hills in. I barely broke a sweat. 2 hours 25 mins for 32 miles! Man that's slow. I never felt tired during the ride. I even climbed a nice hill of about a mile, French Road Hill. Felt great once my legs got into it. I kept the climb easy to. Just eased up the hill hardly breathing outside of normal. I got my first ride in in 7 days. Also half way through this ride the sun came out and the rain stopped. It made it all the way to 52 degrees. It felt like summer. I was dressed for wet and cold. A little over dressed. It was better than getting cold.
When I got home, dressed back into jeans and a warm shirt. Put down some food. Chicken soup with a chicken sandwich. During that time. Looking out over the bay and the back yard. Looking at all the local back yard birds we feed I saw one of the 6 eagles that live close by sitting in the fir tree right next to our yard. 30 yards away or closer. Very close. Wow, it was wonderful. Now I see these grand birds everyday close as they fly eye high just over the back yard. This one, the young one. Still in it's dark feathers of it's youth. It was just sitting there. Normally when their this close and they see any movement they fly off. Even not so close they fly away. This young bird was warming himself in the sun. I looked around and saw what I think is his parents doing the same in their perch tree 100+ yards away and at the very top of a tall fir tree. The one close was just right there! So I got the camera out a took a few shots. It's my photo for the post. I even went out to fill our back yard bird feeders where this giant could watch every move I made. He still did not fly off. That's never happened so close to an eagle. It was one of those rare moments with birds.

OTS

2008-04-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday came and went. It's now Saturday. No ride since Tuesday. My body just didn't have it in it to go. I slept almost all of Wednesday. Still very tired on Thursday. Just starting to recover on Friday. Over Training Syndrome (OTS). It's when the body has used it self up and can't recover through rest. I was working hard and not resting well enough. It was not the food. It to some degree was not the rides. It is my age. My body just needs better rest between rides. Rest is where all the benefits of the work out come. Add to this I am diabetic and I do not metabolize food well. The glycogen does not get to my muscles and I have no fuel for rides. I was bonking on the last few rides. Bonk is when you run out of fuel. OTS and diabetes makes for a bad combination. Rest is all I can do, 3 to 5 days is what the information sheet seems to think. I'm on my forth day. I can hardly stand it. I want to ride. Still I have to shorten my rides to 25 or 30 miles. Use an easy gear all the time. Keep the heart rate on the low side. Start to build up to the miles again. I guess it's just a new goal. Over come this problem. Well the work out I can deal with. The diabetes there is a medical protocol that I have to get more meds for. Getting older I have no choice in. I'll go out today in the cold wet wind again. This time I'll go out easy. Work at rebuilding. Funny, I worked so hard this Winter. Then my diabetes kicked me because I did not have the right amount of a drug. My fault for not having a local Dr. to get me the drug I need and the amount I need more than that. I didn't see it coming. Well here it is!
So I am going to go out for a short ride today. 25 to 30 miles in a easy gear. Be careful of the fuel and glyogen.

Out the Door with a Push

2008-04-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

There are few days like Tuesday. Few ride days that the power of no, over came the need of yes. It was very cold again. 35 degrees and would reach 40 by Noon. It was so hard to get the gear on and go out. Face another cold ride. The bone chilling wind that the bike would make. The chill I was still over coming from last Friday's "Snow" ride. This is my second ride since Friday and I'm still feeling the cold bite at me. So the power to go, took all the power I could find. 2 hours of just pacing the floor making excuses. Doing what I could to put the ride off for a little bit longer. Put off the chill. It was just after noon. With all the winter gear I could put on. Out I went. Do another 45 miler. Freezing in the shade and tree covered areas. Warming in the sun and on the climbs. Artic chill again on the descents to the start of the next climb. By 3 PM it might reach 44 degrees.
All my friends (roads), Bayview, Andreason, Lone Lake Hill, Saratoga Hills, Langley Town, Maxwellton Hills, French Road, Bailey Rollers, Cultus Bay, Jewelett Hill, Glendale Hill, Hoilst Hill, Deer Lake Rollers, Heggenes Hill, back to Cultus Bay on the way to Langley Road, through Langley Town to Bayview Hill, and home. As it turned out all I could do was 40 miles. I was bonking at about mile 25. My sports replacement drink was holding me up and that was gone by mile 32. Time to stop in Langley to put down the 2 gels I had for emergence's. I still had 7 miles or so to get home. My brain was at about 3/4 speed. Just holding myself together. Home would come soon. I have done Bayview Hill up, fast decent and the rest to home so many times. I was working on memory. Not bad, but still not at 100%. The gels were working and I was feeling a bit better. The sun was out for the last bit of the ride. The warmth against the black winter tights was warming me up. The last bit was more out in the open. Not so many trees. It added a few degrees of warmth to the body. A little less ice to the bone. Well it feels that way. La Nina has her grips on our area. A weather pattern that keeps things in the Pacific NW cooler. This La Nina is the worst, ever. So I got home. Half numb, working at about half speed. Just standing around. Cold and a bit wet from sweat on the inside. I may have over dressed for the up hills. Though not for the down hills. What do you do? Chicken soup and a peanuntbutter sandwich. Eat the rest of the left over pizza to. It was good to be home. A 1 hour hot bath to. Get the bones warm. Get ready for the next ride on Thursday. Hope for a little warmer weather.

Sunday Ride

2008-03-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

It's been 2 days since the "Snow" ride. Every other day is the training for now. This is the other day. I had a difficult ride in the cold and snow. I did not realize just how much that "Snow" ride took out of me. No matter, today is a ride day. Today was cold again. 35 degrees and off and on wet. I looked out the windows over Useless Bay, it started to snow. The snow stopped in a few mins. It was hard to look at that wet snow. The "Snow" ride was still in me and I did not want that again. Never mind all that, lay out the riding gear. All the same stuff as last time only a riding jacket instead of a heavy rain jacket. Also took some neoprene gloves as a back up. The bike was clean and ready to go again. I was going to do the same course as last time. Do the 65% to 70% effort ride again to. Hoped for a dryer ride with little or no snow.
I took off from the house. It was not raining or snowing. The roads were still wet. Me and the bike were going to get dirty from all the road dirt and sand. Real dirty! I just rolled into this ride easy. Just like the last ride. No rabbit this time. What fool would be out today. Just me. Not that many cars and trucks on the road to. The price of fuel is having an effect. Even if only on Sunday. So the ride was going to be easy in that way. On up Lone Lake Road and in and out of Langley. Moving to the higher areas of the Island. The weather was much better. It has only snowed for a few mins here and there. Where I was in slush on Friday, it was just wet now. Much easier moving and the gears were happy. I moved to Heggenes Hill. Up this nice climb. Say hello to the field horses. They all looked today. For the first time the black horse on the bottom at the start of the climb looked at me. I have been talking to that horse for 6 months. It was nice to get noticed by him. On up the hill and back in the direction of Langley. It was still miles to go, the snow was gone and a little sun came out. I was starting to bonk a little. I drank the rest of my go juice. Made me feel better. Through Langley and up Bayview Hill and the last 5 miles to home. Today I could go full speed down this hill. Soon I would be 2 miles from home. I looked down at my legs. the legs was covered in dirt and sand. I would have to strip in the garage. Well most of the outer layers. First though the last mile. The sun was full on now. The last mile was glorious. I was tired and cool when I got home. My brain was running a bit slow. Once I cleaned the bike. I stripped myself and found some hot chicken soup. It was still a tough ride. Nothing like Friday's ride thouth. That was epic. Today was just hard.

Spring Ride

2008-03-29T09:24:00.001-07:00

It's the end of March. I have had the most wonderful first year of marrage to Mary Anne. We spent 2 nights in downtown Seattle. Right next to "Pike's Market". I pray for many more. More than I can count.
Now this is a training log. One that has been poorly used for the last few days. Rides have gone by. The rides seem to be normal. Every day rides on the same roads I use all the time. 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 miles. All planned out. I know every corner. Every hill and all the spots to keep an extra close eye on. It's not that the rides are boring, there not. Just I want more to write about these last few weeks. More than I did this good or need to improve here or there. More than I ran down this guy on a hill and passed him by. Or hung out with him or her for awhile. More than, this hill was so hard that people stopped there cars and looked as I went up hill there cars could barly go up. I have not stopped training. Only if Mary Anne and I travel, and then I often take the bike and ride then to. I ride when I'm not feeling good. I ride when I'm feeling great and all feelings in between. I keep to the training. I stay with the program. My program to live a stronger life. A healther life. I ride!
The post today is an epic ride. Epic can be many definitions. Today post is about weather.
I started out by finding all the right gear for the ride. Warm gear! It was 36 degrees and the weather report was saying SNOW. it's the end of March, spring is here. Bad weather comes in spring, but, rarely snow. Once again I was the Stay Puff Marshmallow rider. Heavy long sleave base jersy. Heavy thermal tights. Very heavy wool vest, custom made. Arm warmers, with a long sleave jersy over all that. Then a heavy rain jackey over all that. I had to finish dressing in the garage so I would not break out in a sweat. Regular riding gloves with extra heavy long finger gloves over that. Full baclava over my head ears and neck, with a exrta regular head cover over all that. It was a wonder I could get on the bike. I was ready to go. It was raining and 36 degrees. It felt colder. I started on the ride. I was going to do 40+ miles as this was my second ride in a week. My last ride was good till later that night. A fever of 100. The bathroom was my best friend that night. I guess I could eat again in 10 hours or so. I wanted to just have an easy ride. Roll back into the gears. Not pust to hard. Do the right thing. Have a nice 65% to 70% effort ride. Work the program and get stronger little bits at a time. It was wet and cold. As I moved down the road past the first traffic lights I saw the rabbit. A rabbit is a rider out front. Someone to chase down, to "beat", go faster than. Play the game of king of the mountian. Who's faster, you or me with. The rabbit looked back and it was on. I still was un-willing to use my big gears. I could see I would catch the rabbit, but it was going to take sometime. As the road began it's normal up hill section to Lone Lake I had halfed the distance to the rider in front. He was looking back all the time. He was riding like a good rider. Someone that trained and was fit. I just kept rolling at my pace. Picking up one foot at a time. By the top of the first climb at Lone Lake I could see his face. I knew if I wanted on the decent I would catch him. I stayed in the small gears so it would take a little longer. At the bottom if this hill there was a stop and right hand turn. My brakes were wet and had a little fresh oil on them. I got the bike to stop before going into the cross road. The distance was so close if I stood up and put a little effort in I would be by this guy. On this part of the road you have to take care of you effort as there was a monster hill coming at you. Push to hard early and you die on the steep hill coming up. I was going to catch up at the bottom of this very hard hill and I was fresh to climb hard. I made the gap and we rode the hill together. Nick was his name. He is a nice guy. I was close to 30 years older than Nick. I no longer was running him down and we talked for a bit till I had to go out front becouse of traffic. It was all Nick could do to hold on. He had told me he had seen me alot on the roads from his car. That made me feel good. He asked how many miles I do. I said 3000+- to that time this year. He went silent. Nick just looked at me when we were side by side. The town sign for Langley was coming soon and it would be a down hill run to the town. The only time of the ride I used the big gears. No way Nick was getting the town sign from me, NO WAY. I rolled into Langley doing 30 something MPH. Not even working so hard. Nick got by my side well past the sign at the first stop sign. His eye brows went up. We both smiled and went on. Nick lives in Langley and was following and that was the last I saw of him. It started to snow. It was all wet every where so the snow never had a chance once it hit the ground. As I left Langley, a small town right on the water, I moved past the County Fair Grounds. There small to. Then it was a right turn to up hill to the High School. Every foot up hill the snow got heaver. At the top of this little climb it was really feeling and looking like a snow storm. Roads were still clear. Every mile now was snow. My glasses had to be cleared often to see. Just use my fingers like a wiper. The bigger of the climbs would be coming soon. The ones that go to the highest part of the South Island. I knew the snow would get heavy. The road sides would start building up snow. Left turn to the start of miles of climbing. Maybe in total 5 mile of some easy, some very hard hill climbing. The snow was starting to collect on the road as slush. I just kept it at a little easier pace than normal. I didn't want to sweat to much. There was enough water outside. It was 33 degrees and snowing. I had to watch were the tires went at this point. My front tire was getting bigger as the slush built up on it. I went to change gears at the top of one climb before another climb. My faster gears were frozen solid. All the chain did was skip over the top. So I just shifted till I found a gear that worked and stayed there. There was still climbing to do. All the way up Heggenes Hill. One of my favorites. It's just a senic climb with switch backs. To the top is about a mile+-. It was snowing and sticking everywhere. The horses and pastures were just wonderful to look at. I was really going easy. It was 17 miles to home. My hands were wet. Snow and ice were all over my bike and jacket. My neoprene booties had 1 inch of snow and ice. My feet were warm. My face was warm. I'm sure my helmet had a lot of snow on it. My hands were wet and cold and not working so well. I was on Langley Road my gears were froze. I had 2 gears that worked. I was riding through slush and snow all the time. It was a shallow down hill to Langley and the snow was easing off and the slush was starting to go away. I got to Langley, I still only had 2 gears, but, there was hope for more. I had another steepish climb on the last road to home. By the top all my gears worked and it was 36 degrees again. The steep desent was slow. My hands had lost all feeling miles ago. Home was 2 miles at the bottom. It was much warmer but my hands wanted to be home. Finally one turn and there I was. Still covered with wet snow and some ice. I just parked the hammered bike in the garage to clean later. Took off all the outer layers, everything needed to be washed. Got my hands warm. It stopped raining. It stopped snowing. 43 miles, 3 hours, it was an epic ride. One for the books.

40/40

2008-03-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

Both days 40/40. Not so many miles. Colds and wet. The body was hammered on Saturdays 40. It was so hard. The temperature never got over 48 degrees. 90% humidity with a bit of wind. Just 20 MPH on the face. On the everything else to. The body had a real hard time warming up. The first hour just getting warm. The last 2 staying warm. I have done these 40s faster. Never much harder. It was a dirty mess on Saturday after the ride. The Fender went on for the Sunday ride. That helped, a lot. Both days the same set of roads. Sunday was dryer and went better than Saturday. Also the fender did it's job and the bike and I were a lot cleaner. Still worm parts and parts of slugs to clean off the bike. A lot less on Sunday. Both days had fast moments and slow in the wind pain. Hard to make the bike go in 20 to 35 MPH in your face on the last 10 miles. Just go the best you can. Few others out. No worry about getting passed these days. The climbs were hard though fun. Just get in the gear you want to work and put your head down. Look up once and a while to see the road a head. The horses of one climb did not even look my way. Just eating to stay warm. That's what my ride and gear does for me. Movement and never stop. Well a stop once and a while but rarely. Keep moving. Today is a recover day. It's blowing in the 40s. The water out the window is boiling on the bay and sound. Just steady all night as it is this AM. Glad to be doing some cleaning today. Got a nice St. Patrick's day dinner to make. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Saturday Morning

2008-03-15T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's another few rides ago again. Seems to be a habit. So it must be a good habit.
One that I am going to feel good about and not beat myself up about.
The Spring that showed itself for a few days is gone and the cold wet has come home again. 90% humidity, 42 degrees, raining. A difficult day to train in. A hard day to go out in. A day that I will look at my winter riding gear and find the best answer for the day. I have not missed any days. The training goes on. The hills with there help. Although the roads going up are a bit slippery. My rear wheel spins under my power stroke on Look peddles. Just go up in the tire tracks of the few cars and trucks. The big banana slugs are starting to come out again and join the worms. Cleaning the bike at the end of the ride is a must.
60,50,45 and 40 miles, these are the distances that work this old body. Some days it's easy. Some days not. 60 miles 2 years ago was dream. Today just another ride. I'm sure happy about that. It's Saturday and it's a ride day. Looked on the local ride board (online) no orginized rides. Just one rider looking for a partner to do the miles with. Maybe to late at 8:13 AM. I know this rider is an early rider. Not me. I am 11 AM to 12 pm start. Spend the rest of the afternoon doing the training. On these wet days I come back dirt up the back as the fender has gone into hiding. Maybe I should find it. The last ride was so dirty. It is not so hard to put the fender on. Really keeps everything cleaner. I have the time this morning. It's really wet and sandy out there. Better get to it.
So it's all good. Lots of miles going on the new bike computer. Bought some new gear for the bikes as good weather is coming and worn out gear needs to be replaced. Sand has done it's job. Better get to it. It will be Noon in no time at all.

Another void in the stream

2008-03-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

The writing. It needs to be written to mean anything.
I have had several riding adventures. More hills, good and bad weather. Work on the bike to keep it going during the end of the winter season. The winter has done a job on the rims, gear shifters (derailers), tires, chains. Oh my the chains. I was out to clean the chain again yesterday. All the normal stuff, remove it and soak it clean. Put it back on and it should be good to go. Not this time. Links were sticky and the whole chain seemed sloppy. New chain, thanks Connie. My normal deal is to compair new to old on the floor. See how much the old chain has grown. A full 1/2 inch!!! That's just crazy. Every bushing (bearing) must have been gone. Steel to steel on the old chain. Strait to the recycle for the old chain. A new chain went on. All the lubeing that needs to be done on a new chain and out I went. Out on the road I remembered I had not shortened the new chain by 3 links. I was not going to be able to use a few gears. No problem, just get it done when I get back. The sand on this Island just kills parts on the bike. Oh I had to change out derailer transfer wheels to. Took off the ones on the #1 bike that now looks like a car at "You Pick it Auto Parts". The old transfer wheels were past worn out. I got to get some new parts to replace the worn out stuff. Also I need a Campy chain for summer. So the winter is showing the damage it does. Also my left "Look peddle" is worn to the point of squeeking. I have a extra pair to replace the worn pair. I think I can repair the peddles. New bearings and "Phill's" water proof grease. That will do the trick.
So the rides have been good. Each and every one has been good. Hard cold days and a few nicer days to. I have been able to move to some arm and leg warmers and regular bib shorts. A few extras under the short sleeve jersy. So the heavy winter stuff is not getting the use it was. Even the full head cover (baclava) is starting to dust up a bit. I keep the riding jacket close by though. Easy way to warm up the outfit fast. I still have full neoprene booties over the shoes. I can not ride with cold feet. The booties will be the last of winter to go. The true start of warm riding is no booties.
The problem with not posting after every ride is the post of several rides tells less of a story. The details are few. So I will just start. It's been more rides than I can remember to write down much. The last 2, yesterday and the day before are about it. Just to keep this fair, I have put on about 2000 miles since January 1 2008it's now March 6th and I will put on 45 miles today to. The miles are the measure of the story to. Hard winter miles. Now looking forward to the easy spring weather and summer to come faster than I think. Feeling the power the hills have put in my legs. Power I have never had. The last ride in Salem Oregon still is with me. The speed and new big gears on roads I know well. Power that was such a suprise on the flat roads in Salem. It's the hills of this fine Island that have offered their gift to me. Ride the hills if you want to grow strong. On this Island it's all hills all the time. Gravity works at you with no relief. It's the force of going up that has given me the presents. The work of the climb. The push to bigger gears from the gears once used. Always looking to improve from what the last ride was. Keeping an eye over my shoulder for the rider coming my way. Push a little harder. Know when to rest. Keep pushing all the time. It's a post like this that you begin to see the reward. What you were is no longer who you are. The body has changed. Keep an eye over my shoulder for the rider coming my way. Push a little harder. Ride a little longer. Do the hills you have not done. Do them over and over again. Do them twice on the same ride. Do them again. Do them over and over again. Hills have become friends. Every bump. Every turn and turn to a steeper grade. All hard work is a gift to my rides. The hills have so many gifts.
On my ride before last. A 55 miler with a couple of really hard hills. Avoided during the mid winter season. At the start of the hardest of the climbs there is a sharp right hand turn. The turn to hide how steep this present is. A brute of a climb. Max heart rate at 3 different point of the climb. A long climb for a hill. I took the turn expecting the quiet hill to myself. Wrong! There was a large road crew trimming trees. 5 trucks with a 2 person stop and slow sign going on. I was praying I would not have to stop on this very steep hill. Both traffic controllers saw me coming. They waved me on and through this long line of trucks. Expecting some greif from this crew I went on. Then the "you can do it's", "all the way to the top". Everyone stopped working to look at this crazy biker going up this steep hill. Everyone put a good word out for my effort. This all came at the hardest point of the hill. These folks had to walk on this hill enough to know how hard the hill was. All the crew cheered me on. This had never happened to me before in 20 years of hard riding from a road crew. Thanks to everyone of them for the positive thoughts.
So the rides are a present. Every time, the rides are a present. I am so lucky to have so many presents.

Lunar Eclipse

2008-02-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Just to see this on a perfect Febuary evening. The Moon covered over 100% by the shadow of the Earth. I took photos. They did not turn out so good. Thank goodness for the net. I got a photo off Yahoo. I would like to get all voodoo and the like, but that's not going to work so well to. It is just cool looking at the event. Right out our front door. A perfect view. What are the odds. I asked Mary Anne out on a date tonight just to look at the Eclipse. We had dinner out before we drove home to watch the event. There will be a super low tide on the Bay tonight to. You can walk almost half way across the Bay. It's like a double good date. It's not spooky. More on an insperation. The dog across the street that never barks is just barking non stop. Animals know stuff. This barking dog is a little unhappy about the whole eclipse. Good thing the house we are in is well made and quiet. The dog well be barking for a few hours. Dog barks at the Moon. Film on the 11PM news.
Other news is I have been taking Reiki treatments. Better than any massage I have ever had. The Reiki is performed by Andrea Binder. She barely touches me. Her hands start out cool. Then turn to a hot touch. At the end of the hour, my body feels more relaxed than any massage could do. It's really an all together new experince. My rides after the treatments are much faster. With lots of power. The other benefits are relaxation to the soul. I am going to take as many of these treatments as we can afford. Well 3 a month is about right. Mary Anne took a treatment today to. If you are interested, look into a Reiki treatment.
The rides are going so much easier. The weather is almost warm at 50 degrees. Just arm and leg warmers with summer jersey, riding shorts and a warm under vest. I know there will be some more cold weather. These warm days are the treat before true Spring comes. A reminder of the fun to come. The reward for all the winter riding in the hard weather. Always going out. Never saying no to the weather. The blue ribbin for the long winter race. Going out on the circut, doing the miles. The prayer of the riders long road, that hungers for the flowers of spring.

Clean up

2008-02-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

The rides have been great. Fast and full of power. The training has done such a good job. The weather has been decent, but, cold and wet. The bike has taken it on the chin. Good thing I have a winter bike. Fenders and all the gear that is a little older. Not that old! It's really a clon of my #1 bike with a better frame that's one year older than the #1 frame. The #1 frame climbs much better than the #2 frame. Odd you might think these 2 frames are so close to each other. Just little differences and a long time rider can tell. So the winter bike is the one that takes the abuse. The "SAND" that is everywhere here on the Island. I cleaned the winter bike up after 3 rides. The chain gets cleaned every ride. I clean the winter bike up all the time. Riding every other day makes cleaning a full time chore. The sand gets into everything. Some of the moving parts are just being erased from the abrasion. The new chain I just put on not so long ago is already starting to look a little sad. Thanks to Connie and family I have 2 more to replace it with soon. It's good to have friends that speak bike. Really all is going great. I'm on a 2 rides in 2 days and one day off now. This will increase my fittness. Also I have moved back to a higher protien diet. I was eating to many carbs at the wrong times. This eating plan seems to be working to improve the over all power to the peddle.
For some other news there has been a Cooper's Hawk feeding on the birds in the back yard. Wish the hawk would feed on the nasty squirrels that live there to. The 4 Bald Eagles are swooping over the yard now looking for those squirrels. Fishing must be a little thin. So the back yard is full of drama. I'll post a close photo of the Cooper's Hawk I took 2 days ago. Recently I thought this hawk was a Sharp Shinn Hawk. On much closer and better inspection, it's a Copper's for sure. I enjoy the whole back yard bird thing as I have been a serious "Birder" for years. I take a bird book with me almost everywhere Mary Anne and I go. When I forget to bring the bird book I always find something I want to know from that book.
So the post is simple today. Rides are great. Bikes are great. Birds are fun. Mary Anne is the best and the Love of my life. Come home soon from your trip Mary Anne.

38 degrees and wet

2008-02-07T17:13:00.000-08:00

It was another cold wet day. The wind from yesterday had let up a little bit. My bike was trashed from my last ride in the foul weather. Sand was in everything. My chain looked like some kind of industerial cutting tool. The gears and derailers did not look much better. I had to do a quick clean. It took an hour! Then it was a 1/2 way job to. It was 11 AM and I had no ambition to go out in the day. The day that was now starting to blow again. I checked the weather and the forcast was for 30 to 40 MPH winds with gust up to 50 MPH for the rest of the day. Crap, I was going to get hammered. It took all I had to get on the bike. The temperature felt like 20 something it was so damp in the air. Now it was blowing a storm to. Crap! It took me till Noon to get up the stuff to go out in the day. I planned to ride a short 35 mile course to. Normal is 40 to 45 . So I pulled it together and got on the bike and headed out. The temperature had got to 40 degrees. It still felt like the sub Artic, only with wetness in the air. I had on all my cold weather gear. 2 jerseys, arm warmers, thermal tights, a heavy wool vest "custom made by me" 2 head covers, 2 pair of gloves, clear riding glasses, helmet, wool socks, and neoprene booties over the shoes, my riding jacket over it all. I was a marshmellow man! Off I went on the short course. Feeling a little guilty I was not riding the extra 5 miles. I got over that fast.
The ride it self was hard. Just grind you down hard. The hills seemed steeper. The roads seemed dirtier. The wind was blowing tough. It never seemed to be at my back. It pushed me and pulled me, did it's best to make a thrill ride out of the desents. It did to. Doing 40 MPH with wind at your side is an all together frightning event. One of the really fast desents was just so out of control I slowed the bike down. There was a fast 110 degree bad turn with sand coming at the bottom of a 40 MPH desent. I slowed it down a bit for that one. Then after the turn I was in the wind on the nose. Just relentless. Man did it make me feel old. 10 MPH and that was all I could do in that wind. The ride as I have said was hard from the first mile. The wind was blowing much harder on the last half of the ride. The gust were just horrable. So those few less mile today were more than given back by the wind conditions. It would have taken 50 miles of nice weather to equal this ride. I took the last turn to home and I was whipped. It was all I could do to wash off the bike, now coated with sand. It was all I could do to stand up. I re-oiled the chain so no rust would form. All I wanted to do was drink hot sweet coffee with lots of 1/2 and 1/2. Then have some chicken soup. Go take a hot shower for about an hour. Come out and eat everything I could find in the kitchen. Then get ready for the next adventure the Island weather has to offer. A little less wind would be nice. Maybe just a little warmer.

Here it is again!

2008-02-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

First site before coffee this AM. Wind was ripping through the trees and pushing the seas. From what seemed like out of know where. The easy day that was yesterday was gone in a hurry. Southerly winds churning up the water to a hurried pace. The trees were just bending to the force of this sudden mala. Glad I had a great ride yesterday and I was not facing this monster today. My first cup of coffee was huddled up in the bird watching chair. The little birds were being blown like I had never seen. One slip and the little bird was off in the wind like a leaf. Several time I thought the blurs were leafs! No, just these back yard birds unable to stand the pressure of the gusts from off the water. My first cup of fine warm coffee was ready to be the second. Just as I sat to start this second cup, in the chair, pop. Electricity was gone. So common here on the Island. Another tree to weak to stand in the wind today. Another power line now broken or bent. Another line fuse poped to avoid a desaster. The crews are on the way. Good thing the gas stove in the family room is still on. It's not all that cold at 41 degrees outside. Still it was going to cool off quick, if not for this little gas heater. How long would it be before the line was restored. The wind was still blowing hard. Looking for another tree to give into the game of the day. A game that plays it self out here, over and over. Mary Anne would be needing some coffee to, once she woke from the warm covers. I pulled out the butane cook stove. My now favorate cooking tool. It so easy to use and cooks better than any stove I have used. No point in waking Mary Anne to early. The internet she needs, that runs on electricity, is now down to. So boiling water to add to our cold brewed coffee was easy. Just add the concentrated coffee to hot water and there it is, a great cup of low to no acid coffee. Add 1/2&1/2 and it's perfect for both me and Mary Anne. So coffee was easy. The wind strorm is still blowing full force. The birds are doing their best to hold onto the feeder we have out. It's a lot harder today. The rain seems to be on the other side of the Sound. Miles away, being blown South to North. Just a few drops on the house.
Did I tell you how nice it was yesterday? Mixed clouds 41 degrees, no wind. Maybe it got to 39 degrees here and there on my ride. A ride that was a slow day ride after a monster hard ride on Saturday. Sunday was a recovery day. No ride. Monday, yesterday, was get the cold riding gear on and roll a nice easy set of gears on the bike for 3 hours. I took the same route as Saturday to see how much faster I went then, than Monday. Keep the work range in about 65%. Saturday had been more like 85% with real effort in the climbs in much larger gears than normal. So I was expecting the easy ride to take 15 or 25 mins longer than Saturdays ride. I like these easy day rides. Just easy does it on all the climbs. Never going into the red zone. Even on the climbs. Everytime I started to push I slowed back down. Eased off. So as I got so the last 5 miles I noticed the time. I was thinking I was goning to get home in about the same time as the fast ride of Saturday. Humm. Just kept the pace steady. On the last 2 miles the clock was just shocking. I was 5 mins ahead of Saturdays pace. As I turned into the driveway I was 7 mins fast than the same ride on Saturdays hard push. What is the story here? It's the samething I see everytime I do this. Running the gears correct at a high RPM at a lower effort gets you there fast. It uses a lot less energy to. So I could go for much longer. Several more hours. I learn everytime I go out.
It was time to get Mary Anne up. Boil some water. Have a cup of hot coffee next to her as she wakes. Gently bring her to the day. A day that is anything but gentle out side. It is still blowing full force. There are a few moment where the storm seems to catch it's breath. Then just let go again. Mary Anne and I are going to need a nice mid morning breakfast. Eggs, taco meat, refried beans, green hot sauce. Easy to do in one mid sized saute pan. It was so good! Just as we finised the meal together, pop, the power came back on. It had taken the wonderful crew 3 hours to get the grid working again. In that time I had missed a big back yard drama. A Sharped Shinned Hawk, that is using our back yard as his meal table had his morning meal as we did. One less Dove or it could have been a Quail. The feathers were everywhere. I like to witness these events. Last time it was a smaller bird. The Sharp Shinned was in the bushes running down a Juno. It was life at it's best. For the Sharp Shinned Hawk.

Winter Rides

2008-01-30T17:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a few rides once again. The last post was a few rides to. The weather has been rough. Wet, wind, snow and just bone chilling cold. Even without snow, 38 degrees and wet, is hard. The roads are tough to. Dirty grimy, just sand paper on the equipment. I stripped the bike down to the bare frame the other day. Cleaned everything! I was amazed at how much road grime fell out everywhere. My rear shifter is still holding up, barely. The jocky wheels are looking bad from the sand. I will have to replace them soon. Also the main bearings on the new Campy crank system will need replaceing by early spring. The Mavic wheels are doing OK. Thank goodness the spokes have no rubbing spots. Still the grime is everywhere. After all the cleaning it was one ride and the bike was hammered again. I just do my best to keep the equipment in good shape. I was gifted 3 new 10 speed chains by Connie Fails and family for Christmas. All three will have seen better days by May of this year. Thanks Connie. So the work goes on. The miles go on.
Last ride was a photo op without a camera. Snow on both side of a soaking wet road. Just after it had been sanded of course. The bike and I were so dirty. I wished I could put the bike in the washing machine to. It was a fun, and COOL ride. Some runners from the Langey group stopped me on Lone Lake road just to let me know they were impressed. These guys are all Triathalets. They are strong and tough. They want me to ride with them on Satudays. 2 of their wifes have already asked me to ride that ride to. I guess the Univeres is trying to give me a message. Go ride with the folks in Langley. I do not complain to much, but their ride starts at 8:30 AM in Langley. I'm a afternoon rider. These nice people are all morning riders. I'm going to make the effort. Getting up extra early to eat and get ready. I'll ride the bike to the start point in Langley.
I got to start taking the little digital camera with me on the rides. There have been so many COOL winter shots to share. The wild turkeys are hanging around. Mary Anne and I were out in the car and there they were. Mary Anne missed them so we turned around. What a beautiful sight the wild turkeys are. There are other sites to. I'm going to start taking the camera!

2 back

2008-01-19T11:21:00.000-08:00

As always I ride. 2 rides from the last post. Fast rides. Big gears. It seems like years that I have been riding in the smaller gears. Using spin over force. A coach once told me to go the slow way to get to speed. Spin your legs in smaller gears. Do this for a long time. All winter. Well, it's been 2 years and 3 months. A few outings I have pushed the big gears. It was always wrong. I payed some kind of price every time. It just was not the moment, not the right time. Even in the warm weather of summer the big gear was not right. Was I ever going to be able to push a big gear again. Had the long lay off from the bike (13 years) permanently changed my body. Did the trigeminal nerve, diabetes, high blood pressure, age, changed me for ever. Change, yes. Forever, yes. Could I get a little faster, yes. Do I want to get a little faster, yes. So I went out these last 2 rides and pushed in the big gears on the areas where I could. My legs could do it! After 2 years 3 months. 110 pounds of fat removal. 20+ pounds of muscle added to my frame. Discipline to the road and to the training. No lay off from the bike for more than a few extra days. Riding the bike every other day. I need the other day to let my body to recover. The long plan is working. The big gears are starting to work again. 104" and 96" gears for long periods of time. 45mile in under 3 hours easy. With lots of hills. My average speed up by 1 MPH on the computer for "all" my rides. Not just one ride. That's a lot! Doing 25 MPH on the flats no problem. Doing fast all the time. Till the hills hit. Those hills are always hard and I'm going up faster on them too. What happened? It has been like a switch. Wow, an old guy like me. Doing speed again. I'm going to ease these fast days into the work out. Not every ride. More often than in the past. It feels so good to have the legs push a big gear again. It's the racer in me. Once you race, it's always about the training and the speed. It's been a long come back. Much longer than I thought. I still have a long way to go. Also this hilly Island I now live on has made me a lot stronger. Hills are hard for every one. It that gravity thing. I am doing a lot of hills. The gears are bigger on them to! I am so excited to be able to push a big gear again. It's a dream come true. All those races in my head while training alone. I have so many prizes from races that never happened. Dreams of the long road from an X racer. Maybe I will do that time trial here on the Island this spring.

Post of news

2008-01-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

Keeping up with the writing is sometimes, just the hardest. There is always recycling, doing the dishes, seeing a new doctor, a bit of driving, riding the bike every other day, getting involved with Clan Gordon, cleaning. More I'm sure if I could remember in a way that made a good story. The story is, I did not write for the last 14 days. Almost half a month!
It has been cold and wet. The days that feel 28 degrees. There really 38 or 40 something. Just hard days to go out for anything. The rides have been hard. There has been lots of wind to. I made all the rides. Never said no because of weather. Missed one for travel. Made up for it to. Just being true to the road, fitness, health, and mental straightness. It's all good. It all got done. Days of coming home with road grime up to my knees and more. Having to wash off the dirt, sand, and tree parts outside before coming into the garage. Washing the riding outfits every ride. Cleaning the bike every ride. Not cleaning the bike well enough to. Always cleaning the chain. There is so much sand on this Island home. The chain takes a beating every ride. I broke a rear wheel to. Just one spoke. That means there are lots of other spokes on there way to the garbage. I'm having David at "1/2 Link" respoke the whole wheel. Going down the hills around here at full speed and losing a wheel. I'll try to avoid that. I'm riding on my #1 rear wheel till the #2 wheel is respoked. Both wheels are the same. Just the #1 is for good weather only. The #2 for all this winter stuff. So the road goes on. The miles are good. No less than 40 miles. No more than 60. The climbing is good. Some days faster than others. Keep with the program. Spin the legs. Add in some big gears here and there. My average speed is going up. Just a little, here and there. It's from the few flat sections and the hill climbs. I'm always fast going down hills. It's been a hard few weeks. The dirt is like doing mountain bikes off road.
Yesterday was the first day in a log bit that the sun was out. There had been a big wind storm from the North last evening. Cold, at 34 degrees. It snowed as I drove home from the doctor. Down town Seattle was white in deep slush on the freeway. What a mess. Craziness from the drivers. Fast drivers, slow drivers. A dangerous combination. Once I got about 8 mile from that, it was dry and fast. Than it was time to load the ferry. Wind howling, ferry rocking, it was going to be a tough ride home. The ferry is a mid size for around here. It can take a big hit no problem. The ride was the most rocky I have ever had. The crew and Captain did a perfect job. They made it seem so easy. Thanks for that. Off the ferry on the way home. There were tree parts all over the road. Mary Anne had called several times on my drive with news of power outages. It was a rough day on the Island. I was thinking a ride maybe, well, hard. Next day I took off at noon. The roads were surprisingly clear! The wind had cleared a lot of the tree branches, The road crews had cleared a lot to. As my ride proved. Trees had gone down in several areas. All cleaned up for a nice fast 50 mile ride. Fastest since our move to Whidbey Island. 3 hours, 50 miles. Not bad for an old guy. I was getting a bit tired towards the end. The last 3 miles went slow. It was a great ride though. Wind at first, cold, dry, clean roads. I was clean for the first time in a long time after the ride. Next week is cold dry, not that much wind. It's a treat!

I love the birds

2008-01-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

Not the 60s music group. I can still hear the songs and rhythm. No not those guys. It's the local bird population. We started to feed the little birds as the winter is tough on them. We have a feeding station near a back fence. Not to close to the house at all. We see the little friends real well from the family room and family dinning area. It's fun to watch as the little birds eat the sunflower seeds. Fun till you look down and see the RATS eating on the ground. Big rats! No poisons, no traps. Both will kill the birds and any dogs or cats in the area. We are not in for that. So for the first time in a bit I pulled the pellet rifle out from storage. I did a little cleaning and shot a few rounds off in the garage on a thick moving pad covered with a news paper. It works great. I'll sight the scope in tomorrow. Dead rats ASAP. Mary Anne is willing to take a shot or 2. We'll get the rats. Rats are a problem on this Island. You just have to deal with what has to be done. Kill the rats!
Oh that was fun. Now for the ride. It was wild turkey day. Yes the turkey's feel safe enough to come out. Twice today on a 40 mile ride I saw the same family group. One huge male and 2 smaller hens. Just striking animals. I'll try to get a photo up. My ride was a fast 40 miles. With all the hills it was under 3 hours. Push was the name of the day. 71" gear almost all the ride. Up hills to. That is not a huge gear but, I pushed the RPM so the speed was good. This was the first real hard push on some bigger gears in a bit. The heart rate was up to. 159 BPM is 85% to 90% rate for this old guy. On a few of the longer climbs the gears was 61" and 57" to just push over the steep grades. Normal in a more moderate gear is 44" and at more of a moderate heart rate to. 65% heart rate is 125 BPM give or take. This lower work out heart rate builds up power and endurance. So to push in the 90% heart rate is only once and a while this time of year for me. It was a great work out. I loved seeing the turkey's twice.
Also David at the local bike shop, Half Link, is now moved into his new larger shop. The place looks great. He looks very happy. Mary Anne bought me 2 of the new stainless steel water bottles. Just throw them in the dish washer and they are super clean. David at 1/2 link ordered some new non metal bottle holders for the bike. These SS bottles are a big up grade from plastic. Oh they weigh the same as plastic to! Plastic that hold odor and micro bugs. So I am real thankful Mary Anne knew about them and David at 1/2 link had them. Can't wait to try them out. Next ride will be a bit longer, 50+ miles.

looking past the last day

2007-12-31T19:29:00.000-08:00

The last day of the year. The last day of the calender. Everything is moving on to the next click. The click of the pen to cross out the 31. The click once again and it's 2008. Just that fast and there is adjustment to a new year. New month, all the hours and seconds to. It's getting lighter everyday. Bring on the next click. Bring on all the wonderful days. All the change we have yet to know. Happy tomorrow and every tomorrow that comes.
I did the ride. The one of the last day. I rode my age, 57 miles. It was not a plan. I never looked at a map. There was never a thought to the idea of 57. It was just another day in the saddle. A long day. The working was from 11AM to 3:30PM. The light was good. The skies were clear and blue. Almost no wind. Temperature was 37 to 41 degrees. Not bad at all for the last day. The last cross on the calender of the this year. The last hills of the year. So many hills on this Island home. No more rides for 2007. The miles have been great. More than I can count. 10,000 miles, maybe more I'm sure. Just an idea. There is no ledger that is kept. These miles, each and everyone. Miles that are ridden on the roads I travel. I have called them prayers. Prayers to life. Prayers to live. Prayers to the circuit of the long rider. Mostly ridden alone. Only one partner always close. A shadow and the breath. Never seen. Just felt like the hairs on the back of your neck. A partner for all the year. For the second year going. A chill. Though there are all the little wild friends. Just so many little wild friends. Company when needed.
There was Noah, Craig and a friend in Little Rock. Noah now a family friend, Connie, Leslie, Hannah, and Kate. All the connections and loves from Little Rock. I miss time we might have had. Look forward to time we will have. Doe's will see us all again. Fun and food.
On this Island, where we now call home. Mary Anne and I are finding new ways over the last day. Ferry's cost and add to ever trip. Less trips! Saving the trip with a bigger list for Safeway, Costco, and Trader Joe's. Fill the Van and pack the pantry. Less trips and cost across the water on the Ferry. Island life. Cost of the fuel! The computer and ordering on line. It works for a lot of stuff. Going to the store and doing the shopping, is a lot of fun for Mary Anne. So compromises need to be made. Shopping is an event that has it's rewards. All for the next day. Not the last day. The last cross on the calendar. Moving on to an all new calendar. All new printing. New colors. New lay out. New size even. The last day before the next last day. Everyday is the last day in some way. The only day there is. The only show that's on. The last day is the best day. The day that can be a dream. A dream! Dream in the last day. Everyday is the only day. No more than the time you can see with your eyes, if you have them. Hear with your ears, if you have them to. All the bits and part we have to work with. The way we go through the last day. The only day. Dream well in this day. Enjoy the day to. It's the last cross on the page and the only cross to. 57 miles and never a plan. What a great gift on the last day. Thank you.

New post new times

2007-12-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a short bit since my last posting. 2 rides ago. Today is Christmas. I want to go out on a ride real bad. The news is, about 4 or 5 days ago I had a very bad attack of Trigeminal neuralgia. It's bad if you have never heard of it. The face nerve goes on an electric holiday. Just sending electricity all over the nerve and the result is unimaginable pain in the face. Yikes!!!! So I am a bit behind. The good news is I readjusted the meds and the pain has subsided to a tolerable level. The Dr. will be a bit un-pleased though. He retired this week anyway. A new Dr. is on the books soon down in Vancouver. Same office. I hope the transition is easy. Without the meds I'm in BIG TROUBLE. So today is a short note.
It's a "Merry Christmas" note. Hope your having the best time. That there is food involved. That you have food. That you have friends. That there is love in your heart and in your house. That the presents are the connections in your life more than the wrappings on the floor. That your health is good. That you are living your dreams as best as you are able. Tolerance is in your sight to all. Joyful hope is the horizon of your new day. That there will be electric cars and trucks in our lifes in less than 5 years. We all start riding bikes to do everything. That you share the road with bikes today. That there is wonder in your heart. I could go on and on. So I will just finish with Merry Christmas and hope in the new year. The best to everyone.

a quick 50

2007-12-18T13:34:00.000-08:00

My last ride was fun and fast for this time of year. North and South, East and West. Moving at a good pace. Doing the 65% thing as much as I could. Staying out of the "red zone". Feeling rested in my gear choice. Well, till a steep hill showed up. Just work up those as best as I could. The bike was working perfect. The roads were kind of clean for this time of year. Pavement for this old man. No dirt please. I found almost every hill in this little corner of the Island. It feels good to be climbing all the time. Doing the roads that are hard. Taking the less traveled routes. The routes that have the hardest climbs. Well except for one climb out of Glendale. That hill will just have to wait for another day. I'll bring some rock climbing gear to get up that monster. This spring I will go to Glendale again. This last ride was Bayview, Andresen, Lone Lake, Goss Lake, East Harbor, Baby Island, Saratoga, Langley, Maxwelton, French, Bailey, Cultuss Bay, Jewett, Glendale, Holst, Deer Lake, Humphrey, Orr, Heggenes, and over a few twice, then home with a nice 50 on the odometer. A fine ride in 50 degrees for a while, then it dropped to 46. Not bad at all. I'm off the bike for my normal every other day ride today. The body is unhappy. Just could not warm up this AM. I was real tired to. Second day in a row on being so tired. Not good!

Wings on the weather

2007-12-16T08:22:00.000-08:00

It was blowing over the Bay at about 25 MPH. Stiff, not enough to stop you from a walk. The walk would be hard. There were birds out doing their work. Even in much rougher conditions the birds are out. The Gulls are always out. I saw gulls flying in 50 MPH and higher. Just a bit closer to the bluffs. Maybe using what the cliff wall had to offer as cover. Out the gulls are. The gulls seem to be made for any condition. By bird standard as I know them, 25 MPH was just an inconvenience. Not enough to stop the days work. Just enough to make that work a little harder than it is everyday.
Today I was looking out over our Bay, just watching the white caps. Knowing I was glad it was my day off the bike. Knowing how much harder the ride would have been today. Looking at what this wind storm had to offer. Not so far out, there were 2 working birds. They were big enough to see by the naked eye. Dots staying in one area. Just going over and over this one piece of the Bay. I knew these working birds were on the big side. I got the 10X50 Bushnell's off the 5'X6' window sill. There are 3 of these windows. Taking up the entire wall of the family room we spend most of our time in. It faces out on the west looking out over the a grand view. The Bay, Admiralty Inlet, Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountain Range, Port Townsend, Port Hudson, Point No Point, Double Bluff State Park and more. It's really quite a view. Magnificent is an under statement. There these birds were. Working on the hard side. As if there was a cat and mouse game going on. Life and death is more like it. Life for the birds spent energy on the back of a fish. Survival of someone in this moment. The birds were spending a lot of their energy cash on the effort. Now looking through the Bushnell's I could see the drama clear. It was our neighbors. A beautiful mated pair of Bald Eagles. These huge fish eagles live just south of the house in the furs on the neighbors property. We see them everyday. They fly by eye high. Right near the deck. Every detail of their enormous self's in plain view. Looking over at us! It's just chilling to my soul to be a part of this. Everyday I am privileged to be in these great eagles world.
The hunt was going on and on. Circling the same area. Never the 2 far from each other. When one turned and was swept back to the un-seen start over area the other was soon to be there. Always in the sight of my binoculars. I could always see these 2 together in the sight of the Bushnell's. They were that close. Splash, a strike. In a moment the diver comes up empty. So much energy for nothing. Splash another strike. Out of the water and empty again. This process of circling and striking went on for a long time. I had lost my sense of time. Just the drama. Time and effort of the players. This was the time of the moment. Strike with a huge splash. The eagle was in the water, not getting out. I was hoping for a fish dinner in the talons. So much effort. The hunt seemed to be a bit desperate. The water here is cold. The wind was 40 degrees. This had to be taking it's toll on the eagles. Empty again. I saw this cycle several more times. The eagles never varied from the hunting area. It was the same piece of water time and time again. There are limits even to the energy of these monarchs of the bluffs. The circles seemed to be faster. Less organized and smooth. The effort was taking it's toll. That is how it looked to this human. Strike and in the the cold rough water again. This time for what seemed like a very long time. I thought that was it. The eagle was going down for good. The struggle was obvious even from the distance through my binoculars. This was a desperate life threatening moment. With fearful, by human standards, effort the striking eagle slowly rises up and out of the cold bay waters to just inches about the water. Talon's still in the water. It's mate circling right over it's head. Inches not feet. It was a fight for life. This was it. There was a fish down in the water fixed to striking eagle's hooks. It had to be big or the eagle was tired. Ready to hand off this hope for their survival. Finally the striking eagle comes fully out of the water. The fish was enormous. The catch was almost the same size as the eagle's body. Just huge! Now the obviously tired eagle with the catch of the day worked to make it's way to the shore line. A good mile away. It's mate so close they were almost bumping into each other. All the eagle with the fish could do was just stay above the water using the pressure of the air between the wings and the water. It's known as ground effect flight. Almost not flight. If not for the pressure of the water against the wing of this wondrous bird it would crash into the water and lose the one hope for food in this day. The one hope for fuel to replenish from the enormous effort. Just above the water. The catch was dragging in the water. It seemed impossible this catch would see shore. The effort was herculean. The struggle was obvious. It let go the fish to keep from crashing into the waves. The relief of it's toil done. It did not even try to re-catch the meal. The partner flung itself into the water where the fish was dropped. Wings extended head up, reaching as deep as it could to stay alive. That's how important the meal was on this day. Slowly the second eagle, now wet and cold, rose out of the water. The same fish attached to it's talon's. It's mate so spent it had flown to shore. No where to be seen. Alone the second eagle began to fly as the other. Just above the water using the extra power of ground effect to fly to the shore. Magnificent is all I can say. Just with every last bit of power. All that there was left in the energy tank. Running on empty the second eagle forced itself to the shore. Dragging the catch almost it's own size partly in the water. It was going to make shore. I am still over come by the strength it took for both these great Bald Eagles to do this. To write the hunt. My hands are shaking. Bless these fine neighbor. I am so lucky to have been a witness. I will always remember when I toil, the effort, the pure power of my magnificent neighbors.

Back from Oregon

2007-12-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

As a drive, where we live, to Salem Oregon, it's a strait fast 5 1/2 hours. Doing it twice in 24 hours is hard. I was a bit groggy after the effort. Christmas with my Mom went fast. She was a bit sad to see Mary Anne and I go. I was happy to get back on I-5.
Before all this I did get a second ride in. Second of 2 in a row. Not the normal way of every other day. 35 mile of cool weather riding. Hum, all hills as is the norm. A few flat spots to break it all up. I was happy to get the ride in before the trip to Salem. The new jersey and coat are just the best. I'm also using arm warmer. That works so well. Good ride!
Today was the get back at it ride. 3 plus hours of easy going. Turned out to be the fastest 45 mile ride I have done on this hilly Island. I'm always amazed at the way speed can happen when I'm not trying to go fast. Using a little bit bigger gear and going at a slower RPM. It feels like resting. Then all of a sudden I'm climbing in 3 gears bigger. Just at a slower RPM. Maybe the triathletes got it right. Use the big gears and go fast at a slower RPM. So it was a fast ride and not even trying. I did get a flat on Heggens hill. If I am going to get a flat this was a great spot. A nice fence to hang the bike on and drop out the rear wheel. Glass, right at the tube stem. Fast change out with the spare tubes. Another Co2 cartridge gone. It was a fun stop. Back on the road in 8 mins. Mashing the gears back to Langley. Taking the long way back to Bayview up Lone Lake Road. As I was making the last few miles I looked at the mileage on the computer. 45 mile as I said. I just thought the computer was wrong. About 10 more miles than I thought. I went over the course and realized the computer was spot on. Speed is fun when it comes easy. The miles are paying off. The every other day riding is working for this old body. Got to strip the bike before the next ride. It's just so dirty. No more, clean the chain and go. It's everything off and cleaned. Soak the chain. Put it back together and get it dirty all over again. Winter messes. There is so much sand on the roads. The Island is all sand. It's everywhere. My chain will be 1 inch longer when I change it out for a new one. Kind of wish it would snow again.

34 Degrees

2007-12-11T08:41:00.000-08:00

It might be a good thing. Might be more information than needed. A new bike computer. Just a small wireless one that fits on the stem. Cool spot as it stays out of the way. It was cheap to! Had "Trek" the bike makers label all over it. Made in China, like most things. All the basic I'm used to. Plus it has a temperature display. Never had that before. It is turning out to be very useful. The ride yesterday was 34 degrees with ice in lots of areas. Just not the road. Stopped by "1/2 Link" to get a new rear tire. David the owner, asked if I wanted that studded. I passed as he told me of all the car/road difficulties of the mid AM. There had been some drivers go out of control and they got hurt. David of "1/2 Link" did not ride his bike to work. That's rare! I stayed longer talking and having a good time than I thought I would. Fun times.
It was noon and the roads looked OK to me. It was 34 degrees. I was ready to go out and get the hours on. Even get the little bits of elevation near by. Having the knowledge of the temperature is really useful in looking forward on the road. Knowing that ice was melting not forming. The day was wet with overcast. Not like my last long ride. Clear, dry and cold. Today was cold and moist. It felt much colder than it was. Even with my new winter weather riding gear. Still, the new gear was worlds better than what I was used to. My plan was to have a shortish ride as I am doing another ride tomorrow. 2 in a row is off my plan for the winter. Mary Anne and I are going to Oregon for Christmas stuff over the next 2 days. Might not get a ride in then. So I'm getting one ahead. The ride yesterday turned out to be 32 miles. As with most rides on this little Island, all hills. Up one side to get warm, down the other side to freeze and recover. I did this for 2 1/2 hours. The ride felt great for this time of year. There were 5 other true believers (hard core riders) out to. Way more than I thought. This Island has a lot of these hard core riders on it. Makes for a feeling connectedness. Everyone knows everyone here. Kind of fun. I have not had that kind of feeling for a lot of years. So the ride went very well. The pace was better than I had hoped. The freezer was cold, but liveable. The hands stayed warm, the feet toasty, the legs just fine and the body good enough. Winter riding is in full swing and winter is not even here yet. Out today in a few hours.

The cold came back

2007-12-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

It's here to stay for a bit. As I have written before. Not as cold as some, colder than others. 35 degrees at the start. Bright sun shine. Very little wind. Beautiful winter blue sky's. I'm ready for this chill. I found a new Nike jacket at Bikes Wholesale on the mainland. Wonderful fabric that breaths and is still water/wind proof. It was in my bag in no time. Fits like it was made for me. So my winter, cold weather gear is in hand. Bring it on. Do your worst. Well not to bad please.
The ride had an opportunity to be a long one. 4 plus hours of Island fun. All hills all the time. I was looking forward to the days events on the road. It was going to be a new course. Adding some roads I had not spent much time on. Lots more climbs. Now these are hills, steep hills in some areas. My steepomitor got a little stressed here and there. East Bay road, that turns into another road, have some nice walls. Real grunts to get up for this old guy. I could not wait to get to them. Beings that the ride was a 50+ mile day in the freezing weather in just 4 hours. My gear choice was modest. Small chainring all the way. Still some tall gears. So I was saving my over all energy to last the ride. Still feel that I had enough to walk at the end of the it.
I took the left hand turn out of our little housing area on to Bayview. One of the flatter areas to start on. Nice to warm up. About 2 mins out on the other side was a mob of 5 true believers. All lined up looking sharp and ready to take the day on as I was. It was a nice start to see this crew. I was going the other way and was sticking to my course. A quick wave and we were gone. Made me feel good that others were out to. This part of the Island has a hard core group of road riders. On down to HWY 525, left turn. This was a short run on a busy highway to get me to Freeland, a nice little commercial town right on a beautiful bay that has a great and hard road that leads out of town. East Bay Road runs along this bay for about 10 miles give or take and has several nice steep climbs. Hills, so there not so long. Long enough to take your wind and hurt your legs for a moment. So I was riding the relative flatter areas at a relaxed pace. Keeping some energy for the hard work coming. The hills of the day. The hills of East Bay Road start quickly. After about a mile and a half the first of what seems like 8 and half more miles of hills start. There all fairly hard then the really steep ones show up. Then the ones that you can't see show up and get really hard at the finishes. I was doing well with these. I was riding in a gear stiffer than normal for the climbs to add some needed strength. Great warmers going up. With my new winter gear the fast descents were not to cold. One of the descents has a wicked right hand turn. I took it at full speed. Never touched the breaks. The sign said "15 MPH". I hit that turn at 35. I could just see the turn ahead. I have been on this road in a car twice and on the bike once in a driving rain storm. So I was going through as fast as I could. I leaned the bike over on the dry pavement. I could feel the wheels give a bit. They were not so happy. I just kept my head and worked the line. My wheels had limits. I found there limits for sure. I got through the turn still upright. My heart was pounding like I just had finished a small climb. Man that was fun. I think I will go through these turns a little slower next time. Or loss 20 more pounds! So the zig was fast and the zag lead up another climb. The longest and hardest climb on this road. Steeper and steeper and then it keeps going for a bit. It was a fun climb. Then the long fast down hill that leads to more climbs. East Bay Road changes name around this area and I just do not remember the name. So East Bay leads into the town of Langley. More strong hills all the way. Till you get to the town sign. Then it's just a ride through a very small town. 2 main roads and a few side roads. It's on the small side. Maybe 1500 or less people. It also has the county Fair Grounds on the edge of town. Then your on the next road that keeps you on the course. It's Langley Road. I have ridden this road many times. So no surprises there. So I took a turn I normally don't. I turned on to Maxwellton Road that takes me up a shallow climb across HWY 525 still on Maxwellton. A nice newly paved super wide riding shoulder. Very nice. Maxwellton leads after a several miles to French road. A nice climb. About 1/3 of the way up this road come Bailey Road. Left turn to Bailey. This is a roller road. Kind of, more climb than roller the way I like to go. Then Bailey leads to Coultis Bay Road. Right turn, and on to the Chevron Station/store/beauty saloon/coffee shack/shade tree mechanic all in one small corner. It is a social center to, I think. There is a turn up hill off Coultis Bay Road on to ?? another road that goes up hill to a nasty road if one does not make the correct turn. Glendale Road leads to the funnel town of Glendale. Funnel, for it's all down hill to the town and then an up hill out of town that is just stupid steep. I'm just not sure how steep. I don't go there! After a nice hard climb the decent start to the town. Then there is a stop with a left or right. Right to Glendale. Left up hill to Deer Lake Road. Well it's all up hill for quite a bit. Then some rollers. Then a shortish down hill to Heggins Road. Right turn. Heggins is my favorite road. Just beautiful, quiet curving road going up hill. I often do this road twice it's such a nice climb and road. After This chunk of heaven your back on Deer Lake. Right turn. This leads to Deer Lake Road once again. Left turn off of Deer Lake Road, on to Deer Lake Road going a different direction. This leads up hill to Coultis Bay Road again. Left turn to go back to part of where I was, to go the other way on Bailey Road to find French Road and turn right to climb French road to the top. Left turn on to Coultis Bay Road again. By this time I'm looking at the clock. 2:15 and I need a full hour and 15 mins. Coultis Bay is a series of climbs a descents that lead back to Langley Road and Ken's Corner. Coultis Bay And Langley Road are the same road with changed names. Ken's Corner is a older mini mall with some other commercial stuff and a Whidbey Coffee drive through at the intersection of HWY 525. I ran out of water with Zipfizz in it 15 mins before I got to this point. Not so good. So I'm heading back to Langley. then heading back on East Bay Road. Then left turn up Lone Lake Road. A nice climb. Just steady all the way. With a nice decent to Andreson Road. Left turn. Andreson leads to Bayview that after a bit leads me home. I'm still warm. It's 37 degrees. I'm on the edge of a BONK. I have had no food or water for way to long. I'm running on fumes and not thinking so well. I have 5 miles to go. I'm more worried about the mileage and hours I have ridden than my current state of mind and body. Not very good thinking. That's the first sighs of a Bonk. Where the body just runs out of fuel, and water. I think I just made it home on memory. As I got home Mary Anne came out the door going to the market. Good timing. I had been out for 4 hours on the noise. 53 miles of hills. I was a little bonked, but home and not so cold. It was a great ride. I have some good winter gear. I'm ready for the snow. It's going to snow today.

Wind it was

2007-12-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the day I had to get out for a training ride. We were still in the grips of a massive storm that has just kicked butt on the Pacific NW. It was ride day and I was going out and that was that. 35 MPH steady winds out of the South, gust to I don't know how high. Good thing the roads were tree lined in most areas. The open areas were just mean. So the ride was a 2 1/2 hour fun fest. Hills were great. I was going slow anyway. Descents,,,, well that was another story. I mean my brakes got a good workout. The faster I went the crazier it got. Wind just having it's way with me. Fast was a bit on the worry side. Worry about that tree, ditch, cow, fence, I think you get it. Fast was on the edge of out of control. Not to brag, I am a great bike handler at most speed. I love to go fast on the descents. So this ride was an all new experience. So I just did the best I could given the weather. It was 55 degrees. My last ride was in SNOW! The temp is dropping fast once again and snow is on the horizon. The ride gave me a chance to see how our little part of the wonderful Island looked after this destructive storm. Things looked great. Only a few trees down that I could see from the roads. I'm sure I found the one that took our power out for a bit. Less stuff on the road than from our first big storm a few weeks back. I was the only rider out at that time that I could see. I had a blast. Also I was trying out a new winter jersey from Performance. Just an under shirt and this super warm jersey. I'm ready for the snow!! Also I was breaking in my new winter booties from Performance. Neoprene, I never get cold with these booties. Last pair did not wear out for 20 years. So the new stuff is good . The Island got through another of the millions of storms it has had to endure. We got through the storm better than a lot of poor souls. I feel lucky. I feel thankful. I feel ready for another adventure on the roads.

Darkness slid in the light

2007-12-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

This morning, around 8AM. I was looking at a poor tug and 2 wood chip barges making there way to somewhere in Seattle to get another load. Head wind making the trip slow I'm sure. Just across the way. Port Townsend, the bay and all. Point No Point. Just past the barges. In the mist. As though to slink in, was an active Trident Submarine. Making it's way home. This was the real deal by my thinking. Coast Guard Cutter in front. Guns loaded I'm sure. Not sailing, it was something else. Coming home after 6 months out. 6 months underwater. Can you imagine? 6 months in the deep. Artificial everything. Coming home just in time for Christmas. The boat was barely above the water enough to see it in the mist of the morning. Slipping into Hood Canal. Gun boat just ahead. The Trident seemed to take up half the bay as it creeped into the Canal. This was no research boat! As though on a Holllywood set. Mist surrounded the mighty killer as it crossed to the entery of Hood Canal. The sight now burned into my memory. This was death served cold. A fearful sight. Bless the men for their duty and their coming home. The boat was pure evil. Surely designed into it's look. Black death, 10 miles from my windows. Merry Christmas to all the souls now near their time off duty. 30 days from now, Death will be coming out again. To do her duty for 6 more months. A fearful boat to look at. There was no joy in her.

2 days later

2007-12-03T12:15:00.000-08:00

Now it's 54 degrees and pouring rain, side ways. Talk about a change from my last ride! The rain, that is come at you, not down on you is because of the 35 MPH wind with gust up to 45+. Wind is the worst. Snow, not so bad. Rain, not so bad. Cold is doable. It's the wind that beats me down. Weather warnings posted for our area. 6 inches of rain in some areas may bring land slides. 6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours! Great we live in a house on a cliff looking over Useless Bay! Are they, talking about us? Good to know there is a superior drainage system on this property. Very high tec and all. Just updated this fall. I got my fingers crossed. Still it makes me take notice. It's blowing so hard out. I think I would be in the ditch in no time at all. Well maybe not. So I'm going to pass on a ride today. The new elliptical will do the job.
There are some travel plans coming up, tomorrow. I just finished doing a clean up job on the winter bike. Not the good clean up. Just the easy job. Chain and all the dirt I was willing to muck off without stripping the bike down to a frame. The strip job is next. With fenders the bike stays a lot cleaner. Also I have a good bit of water proof grease on the parts that are going to go without a lot of attention. The New Campy cranks and bearing system are so easy to clean. That's where most of the "Phil Wood" grease went. I have used "Phil Wood" water proof grease for ever. I'm not stopping now! In the winter its a must for my bikes. So the "Winter Bike" is ready to travel down to Salem. Mary Anne has business and friends to visit. Me to with out the business. Oh, my MOM needs some time. She gets lonely. If she was not such a crank maybe folks would visit. Oh well. So the bike is my sanity for the trip. I'm riding. Well, unless the wind never goes away. I'm betting I will get some hours in down on the old roads in the Salem area.

Cold Days

2007-12-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

It's 32 degrees at 9AM. For this area it's cold. It's a ride day. I'm wondering what to do. I ordered a warm jersey from Performance. It will be here in a few days. I just can't seem to find a nice winter riding jacket. I do have 2 rain jackets. One just a light jacket the other a heavy duty rain jacket with all kinds of vents and stuff. Still, a rain jacket makes me sweat. In the cold staying dry is the most important thing. Being wet from the inside and cold, is just as bad as being wet from the outside and being cold. I want to stay as dry as I can on these cold days. It's going to take ice to stop me from my rides. Heavy snow will stop me to. My tires will have no grip at all. So what to do? I guess it's just going to turn out to be a tough day anyway I look at it. I sure don't want to miss a road day. Short hours is better than no hours. Also Mary Anne and I have an elliptical trainer that just got here the day before. Good timing. The indoor trainer may save the day.
The photo I attached is not so good. Though it show that the outdoor weather looks kind of bad. For here! I know there are places that have much worse weather. Just wanted to put something on the log today. Something about the training to look back at later.
Several hours later. I got the ride in. 11:40AM to 2PM. Not a long ride, but it was epic, fun, just a lot of hard work. First off, it was dam cold. The weather report said it felt like 22 degrees. I had 2 pair of gloves on, 3 jerseys on, a poly propylene long sleeve under shirt, plus arm warmers. Just about everything on top. Then my heavy rain jacket over it all. Bottom, I had the new wonderful super warm tights. My feet had 2 woolly pairs of socks. The shoes had very warm toe covers and full winter covers over the toe warmers and shoes. There was very little left in the riding locker once I was ready to go. The plan was to ride easy and try not to sweat to much. Stay warm! I went on my normal hilly course minus a few hills to make it in under 3+ hours. Half way through the light cold mist started to make it's way to the ground. It was snow. I was on the last real climb of the route, Lone Lake Road, and the snow started in earnest. My clear riding glasses would fill with snow. I had to wipe them while riding with my thick gloved fingers. I also had my blinky red light on. On my road kit, on the rear of the saddle. It was a good thing to! I could see about 30 yards in front of me. The cars, well you get the idea. I had nice big bike lanes all the way home from when the snow got to going hard. It was 32 degrees and now the snow was starting to stick a bit on the bike lanes. I had about 5 miles to go. The riding outfit was full of snow, shoes, gloves, helmet, riding glasses, arms and front of rain jacket. Everywhere had the wet sticky snow. I was riding a bit on the slow and extra careful side the last 2 miles home. I was very glad I went on the ride. My smile was ear to ear. It was just one of those mini epic rides. Not one other rider out that I saw. I think if any, they went in the morning well before the snow started. Smart of them. Though I have a great memory. First snow ride on the Island. I bet there will be a few more this winter season.

Single Gear Training

2007-11-26T18:17:00.000-08:00

David at 1/2 LINK, (my local Bike shop) had my new part to install on the track bike, now converted to a winter single speed training bike. The first gear I tried was a bit to tough. Around 80" per revolution of the crank. Now with a new 20 tooth rear free hub I was looking at 64"+-. Sounded a lot better for the hills around here. A very easy spin on the flattish roads around this Island. There are no flat roads! So along with the gear, I had a blinky red light put on the gear bag on the rear of the saddle. It was a very dark day today at noon. So off I went to try out the new gear on a day that had 30 MPH Southerly winds and a chance of SNOW. Any way I looked at it, a tough day to get the hours in. First thing was to see if I could get up a nice hill called Lone Lake Road. Really an easy climb South to North. The gear and bike were just happy to be out together. The climb was effortless. Just pace up at a steady rate. I was very happy to see the top and at that moment remembered I had not packed the 15mm wrench for the wheel nuts. I still have the track nuts on the wheels and will keep them to. I need this wrench to get the wheels off to change a flat tire. So I turned around and started for home. Head wind all the way. Still a good spin, I was really getting to like the single speed. Got home, got the wrench and back on the bike. Back on the road in less than 3 mins. Heading South into the wind. Right turn Simms Road. Just a little climb, steady, then a fast decent to French Road that led to Bailey Road. Bailey Road was a long up hill section with one short nasty section. It was slow, but, I was rested and ready for the effort. This "rested then ready" seems to be how the single speed does it's job. Then Bailey comes to an end at Coultis Bay Road. Left turn up hill. Hard up hill, really steep. I had forgotten just how steep this section of the road is. I just did a rested climb. Trying to stay out of the red zone. Trying, but not always getting it right. It was a very had climb. Got it done. 2 more moderate climbs to go. These take me to Deer Lake road, right turn. Deer Lake is a netural kind of road. Not to hard, rollers. Then this come to a T, left turn and it's still Deer Lake Road. Then roller to a small decent to Heggens Road, right turn. Heggens Road is a bit of roller that leads to a nice Climb. An any gear you want kind of climb. Well that's what I think. The climb is just right for this single speed bike. It was a great climb. Then back to Deer Lake Road that goes back to Coultis Bay Road, right turn to Langley Road. This is an easy roller ride to the town of Langley. It was a fun run into town. From Langley I hook up with Bayview Road that takes me home. Home after a moderate climb out of Langley. Nice grade, but a bit of a grind. Then a flyer down hill and through a 4 corner commercial zone. From there it's home in the now 35 to 45 MPH head wind. I was getting cold. The rain had started with a little snow mixed in. Not much snow. It was cold. To the bone cold. Then after one last short climb my turn home came. Home at last. I had completed my first full 3 1/2 hour training ride on a single speed bike. EVER! It was both easy and unbelievably hard. I look forward to my next time out on the single speed bike.

Sunday Prayers

2007-11-25T18:19:00.000-08:00

It was not the everyday Sunday. Not at all. The roads were full of the true believers. Bright, not quiet Winter blue sky. Chill to the bone, dry and cold. Just a slight wind out of the North. As if to blow us all along our training path. Hard work and smart work. The training never ends. We move along the roads to the next hill to climb. The next freezing down hill after the heater going up the hill. Hours on hour. We are all doing the hours. It is joy to breathe the air and have the air to breathe. Our luck, last another ride. Another prayer along the road. Pure passion is the time over the bike. Luck that we can do our dreams. Live these dreams while we can. Time has a start, and a finish for the body. Never put off what makes you live. The clock is ticking. We ride and live with the Reaper. Our time is a gift. Use it well. We ride with the Reaper.

Glorious Day

2007-11-24T06:10:00.000-08:00

All went well on my frozen day ride. I was out at noon. It turned out to be the perfect time to start out on a frozen day ride. The roads in the morning were white with frost. Ice where there was water. Dicey at best to do the hours and get the miles.
First thing I saw before I was even out of our community area was a huge patch of solid white across the street in a shaded up hill area. Tip toe all the way, on the bike of course. Than to the stop sign that starts to the main roads. Another ture believer goes by. It's a good day to go out. After Thanksgiving ride. There are more of us out there. It was a slow day. Way down in the 65% power day. Easy on the breathing and everything else to. Almost seems wrong to go so slow. It's not though. When I got to the first of many hills I had lots of energy in the legs. It was easy to climb. I still kept it at an easy pace, stay out of the red zone. It was climbing, and the heart rate went up and got to the place it needed to for the hills. I felt great, never got out of the small chain ring. Never got out of the saddle. If you think of my bike having 20 gears. I was in first to tenth. Nice winter training day. It was 36 degrees and rising in the sun. The shadows were still frozen and white. I would ride the car tire slots in the road where it was still frozen. There were few cars, but, those few, had cleared the way. All went so well for my frozen ride.
When I got home, my new warm up is not to go to the bath and showers.I strip down out of the riding gear and put on warm a warm set of pants, shirts, fleece jacket, and a pull over cap. I have found a slower warm up vs a hot bath works better for me all around and especially my out of control Trigeminal nerve. So, very warm outfit to warm up slow. I look like I'm dressed to go outdoors. It works for me. Then I get the news. No sooner than I had started to change into my warm stuff. Mary Anne told me that Noah and his Little Rock crew had a bad run in with a huge male deer on the road. Noah is a national collegiate champion and is a category one rider I have had the pleasure to get to know and also ride with. Well Noah hit this deer head on in the road, full set of antlers and all. Then the crew had no choice but to slam into Noah from behind. It was a mess. Sounds like lots of blood, road rash, and one rider was out for the count, for it sounds like 20 mins. That's bad! What joy to hear everyone was on there feet and Noah had not been gored. These guys ride fast and aggressive all the time. I think I even know what roads they were on. The same roads I had the pleasure to ride with Noah and the crew in April this year. Also the bikes sound like they got trashed beyond use. The one Noah was riding was a loaner from his buds at Competitive Cyclist. Trashed, and was a $7,000. bike. Bikes can be replaced. I'm glad everyone was standing after a bit. Man you got to earn your luck. These guys were lucky.
So why do I bring this up. No more than 5 day ago, maybe less. I had a run in with a male deer 3 feet or less in front of my front wheel. I mean, Out of the brush almost on top of me, out of control, full of fear. This deer was at full speed, running for it's life as hunting season is in high gear. Just looking for a safe place to get away from the guns. Well my good luck was, I was going up a climb and was in a slow gear. Wow it was a scary moment. If I was on the flats doing full speed or coming down the hill, I would have been stomped and trashed. I just thank my stars. Odd, my run in with a deer and boom, Noah has a run in. To bad for Noah and crew though. All though it sounds like luck held out for them. Road rash heals. Fast healing Noah, and all your crew. The photo is the best Noah Singer shot I could steal from his blog.

New post new time

2007-11-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

I started this blog as a training log. It's several rides behind. More than several. To many. The stories of cold, wet, and now frozen conditions. Ya, I was still going out. Doing the hours. It takes hours to keep an old body going. There is so much more I could write about. Maybe it's time to write. Then this is, a training log. And I train on my own, for the most part. Although, there is some new news. The local small shop asked me to start riding with them. I also got in contact with the regional website that lets me post when I am riding. Make the rides an organized thing. Bring more riders out during the hard times. Road riders. This is a tough time of year for some to keep the faith to the road. I'll reach out and see what happens. I'll let you know how that goes. For now there is a lot of new adventures on the Island.
In one of the last few rides it was cold and wet, 38 deg. I had on every piece of riding gear I owned. I even had 2 pair of gloves. One neoprene under a pair of hollowfill 2, water proof. My hands get cold. My hands looked like a little kid over dressed by their Mom to go out in the snow. I was glad for the warm hands. Plus I had on my real good rain jacket. I was water proof from the out side. The sweat, made a kind of rain from the inside. What a day. The cars and trucks thought I was nuts to be out. Hey, it's what you got to do, to say your prayers. Do the time and get the miles. So just as a reminder, as I was climbing the first of many climbs, French Hill, a friend showed me what it was really like. A deer ran right in front of me at full speed crossing the road. I would not even of had time to slow down. The deer never looked. Man they should make the deer take lessons or something. He sure looked wet and cold. It's hunting season to and they hunt deer on the Island. Fear drives them. The deer was 3 feet in front of my wheel going up a long climb. I was going slow, thankfully. That's what saved me from going down like a rock and getting stomped by a deer in full fear flight. Just a moment in a 3 1/2 hour ride.
Wet roads, moss, splattered banana slugs, tree parts, glass, and rocks. Just the everyday stuff was what was left for the next 3 hours. The sweat inside was just a little less than the rain outside. The sweat was warmer, for awhile. Towards the end of the ride the sweat was on the cold side to. The up hills were great, I did many of the hills twice. Though the price was the down hill. I was ice at the bottom. That's Island riding. Up and down, nothing else. There is one long shallow down hill to Langley and then a shorter steeper uphill coming back on Bayview. It's a good finishing road. Everything else is just up and down. I'm getting a lot better at climbing for a big guy, 205lbs. I'm still working to get under 200lbs. Seems like it's taking a long time. At my age of 75 I need to move a little faster on the weight. What, I have like, forever! Today's a ride day. I'll work on it.
I love the rides around here. Some are real tough. Most are just hard. I work at staying in the good zone. Keeping out of the red zone. So my winter training is a bit slower than my spring training. Cold weather just slows me down. Is that a sign of age? I hope so. The plan is to keep building strengh, not break down. Get stronger and have more power for this spring. It's 36 degrees out as I write. It's 8:15 AM. Thanksgiving is behind me. I bet the roads will have a few true believers out. There is a lot of frost out. I'm waiting till noon to go out. It's dry though! I hope all who are on the roads today find them, clean, dry,fast and safe. One more thing, it was, what looked like a full moon on a low tide last night. It's not great but it's the best my technology could do.

Keeping the habit

2007-11-14T14:34:00.000-08:00

Today was my first winter ride with my new single speed bike. Ya, one gear does it all. 47X16 or 79+ inches each rotation of the crank. Not bad on the flat or gentle rolling roads. Just about right for that kind of training. It turns out that gear is a bit stiff for around South Whidbey Island. Like rolling backwards on the steep climbs. Not really. Though it was very very hard to climb some of the steeper climbs in the 79 inch gear. So I went to Half Link, the local shop and discussed a better gear with David the owner. We both agreed that 79" was just to much. Even for a young light guy, that I'm not. So I ordered a 20 and 22 tooth rear gear. 20 tooth cog on the rear gives me a low 60s" gear, 62 or something. A lot better than what I have now. The 22 tooth gear gives me a gear in the mid 50s". So I will try both out for a bit. With a 50s" gear I will be able to climb even the steepest hill around here. It's all for fun. The normal road bike is still the best training. The single speed bike is all about fun and using what I have. I have a very nice track bike collecting dust and I will not be riding track, I think. The track bike has a way nice set of wheels to. Boy, did it ride nice. Just strait as an arrow. Much better than the road bikes. All this time I thought it was me making the bike a little loose. Than I ride a really tight bike and WOW. The bike was so much fun to ride. I was also invited to start riding with the organized rides around here by David at Half Link. That was very nice of David to offer. During the hard winter months having others to train with is helpful. I always ride though. Maybe I can be that extra boost to get others out on their bikes this winter. Well, I'll see about that. That's it for today. Great to be writing again.

These are my ferry's

2007-10-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Just got this photo of the ferry's we use to get off the Island. I have a few more photos but I had to get this on the blog. I'll try to get them all on. The photos are from the wind storm last week! Man I'm staying home if it gets like this. They were running 3 ferry's with very few cars on board to keep the SCHEDULE. Duh, no one up front or back. It looks like the second story ramp is empty to. Wow that some scary weather. The deck hands must have been peeing in their pants. The Captain was way up high. Bad job mind you, but the deck hands are right in it. And they work hard to!

Making new friends

2007-10-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

The kind of friends an old Xracer makes. The hills in my new Island home are fun. Steep, hard, covered in dark of the forest, some out in the open. Non of the climbs are long by mountain standards, nothing over 2.5 miles +- to the top. I find that a few of the climbs are so much fun I do them twice on a training day. Well everyday I ride is a training day. Just the habits of an Xracer. Who knows though I may do a race or 2 next season. This years has been such a great year of growing and training.I'm so much stronger than I once was. It feels very good to hang out with the young guy on all carbon and Campy. He tried to drop me, but saw that was not going to happen. Little victories. I saw that guy training when Mary Anne and I were in the van doing some shopping. There are a lot of riders on the south part of this Island. Quiet roads, good climbs and just the right amount of mileage. Not that I look at mileage so much. It's more hours anymore. 3 to 4 hours at a time. With these hills the mileage is not so important. It's the work that counts. Mary Anne is gone on an adventure for a few days so I'm going to get out everyday and test the legs a bit. My new winter tights got here today from Competitive Cyclist in Little Rock Ar. Super warm tenax windfront Roubaix bib tights from Giordana. I hope they last as well as my 25 year old tights! Also I got a new wheel today. It's the match to my rear wheel for the #2 winter bike. Can't go out unmatched. So it was kind of a party of bike stuff today. Plus I got out for a 2 hour ride and found some new hills. Hard one's to. I got a flat half way up the longest climb of the ride. Oh, it was raining. Always fun to get that all over you. It's like your hands wear the dirt from the bike. Ya, it was the rear wheel. So, an adventure of sorts. Got home in time to clean up hang out with Mary Anne then boom she was out the door to the airport. Man I miss her already. So I got the new wheel all ready with tire and tube. Fixed the flat tube, wash the riding gear and here I am. Ready to go at it again. Looking forward to the ride. Looking forward to the other riders I know I will be seeing. It's a small Island.
The map is the new training camp. I have done almost all the roads. The goal is to stay off hwy 525, it's got a big shoulder, but is busy and loud. So the idea is to cross back and forth on the good roads and stay off hwy 525. I'm learning that more every day.

Training Camp

2007-10-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

No, it's not a training camp with lots of others and great trainers. It's Whidbey Island on the South part. The South part of the Island has hills. Lots of hills. It's all hills. Some of my new friends are steep to. Just one hill after the last and then get ready, here's another hill. Wow, I was worried about getting a good work out here. My legs are trashed. I like it! My own personal training camp on Whidbey Island.

First storm of the season

2007-10-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

The storm came in on the wheels of the pro's in time trial. Head down doing the speed. Slow to rev up and them the speed is there. 60 MPH for an hour. Wind so strong that the trees were glad to give in to the force. Waves on the bay just pushed over foam. You could see the power of the force in the wind. Pop, the electricity was gone. Just for 2 hours. What a storm and it was. Just one of many for the winter storm season.
I went out the next day for a ride. First ride in 5 days. The last of the loads in our move. We are homeless. Writer wife and me the bike rider. The roads were a mess here and there. The down hills were slow with all the branches, fir cones, and needles from the fir and pine trees. Some areas just thick. Go slow. Work crews out on many of my roads. Fixing power lines, moving tree junk, doing the jobs of cleaning up after a big blow. There I was making my way through it all. Getting the miles I was so far behind on. Still, getting the miles. In the sun it was dry and fast. In the shade of the trees, slow and careful. Doing the hills and feeling the back wheel slip all the way up the long climbs. Hearing the brakes on the way down the the other sides. I stay up right for the fear of not.
This was just the first of more to come. I need to get back on the road and keep the prayer alive. Wet is not so bad. Cold is OK to ride in. It's the wind that holds me back. I need to get over the wind. Here the wind is everyday. Next ride tomorrow.

New Roads

2007-10-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

I have been a little off the bike. Not to much but not as many miles as I like this time of year. There has been a lot to do on this now Island Home. So the day brought it's moment to go out and just point my finger and go that way. It's an Island and as long as the roads lead to water I should know where I am. I have a good GPS inside my head. Heading out to roads I have no idea where I will end up. I knew I was heading to the hilly area of the Island. Nice climbs, and a bit steep at that. Not very long, nothing over 1 1/2 miles max. Lots of go up and go down, steeper, longer, than rollers. Forested, then moments on the shore. A great mix. The down side is the mileage is a bit short on these off beat roads. I can do all the roads on the south side of the Island and not get 35 miles. Well, maybe a few more if I do some good planning. Today was not a day of planning but a day of exploration. It was fun! Well, till I found the road that lead to Glendale. A dark timber shroud road. It was always with out sun and the pavement looked to be never dry. A long descent, old houses right next to the road. Fences that are meant to keep eyes from looking in and had been doing their jobs for 50 years. The few homes and farms, old. Broken trucks with bumper sticker like "King of the Chainsaw". Places that never heated with anything but wood. Ate the food from the forest, deer and anything else that gets in the way. Families had owned these places for generations. Generations that never sold a car, but, just hauled it back from the road when it stopped running. Did I say it was a bit spooky. Wet slippery road going down at a steep angle. So steep that there were rumble strips to slow you down. No room to go around them on a bike to. I knew I could go back up that hill if I needed to. Slowly up that wet and mossy road. Then a sign came up for a stop ahead. From out of this dank wet forest came a old 2 story rooming house on my left at the stop. No right turn, it was all private and OLD just like this 1900s rooming house. Looked like a cat house to me for the loggers from the past. Seemed like there must have been bar or dinner room down stairs. So there I was at the bottom of this hill at the waters edge in a place that was still in the 1900s. Left turn to keep going and it was the steepest hill I have ever seen! I mean I was think of calling Mary Anne to come save me. It was just a monster. I'm sure a signal would not have got in there for the cel phone anyway. I just stood there at the stop sign looking at my way out of this time warped funnel zone. I put the bike in the smallest gear I had, a 34X25. An easy gear by my thinking. Well, till I looked at this wet, mossy, tree covered, and covered with broken tree branches from a recent storm. Sigh, I'm not sure I could walk up this hill! The good news was it was broken down in two parts. The first part from sea level to a small flat piece and then on to the next bit of hell. I started up the hill that might be the last hill I ever climbed. I was a little unsure about the heart rate. At my age it's best to not go to high. 172+- is getting over the top. I was past that in what seemed seconds. Over the bars to keep from falling on my back steep this hill was. I made it to the first flat relief. It was not that far! I stopped to let my heart rate come back down. What if I get to the top and it goes down to another place like I was trying to get out of and had another hill like this to do. I was thinking I only had one of these hills in my legs. I had no idea what was ahead of me. I still had to finish this monster to. Next leg of the climb was longer and just as steep. It looked so long for a short hill. My heart rate was maxed and I was trying to go easy and slow. I think I was seeing colored spots towards the end of the hill. The end was coming, the end of the hill. I had made it to the top and from there on was a modest flat to very short rollers. I mean I said a pray over that one. I'm not to sure my Van will get up this hill very easy, first gear maybe. New roads and new stories. I never would have thought this Island had a monster living on it. What will the next ride bring? I know where I'm not going to go!

Living on the Bay

2007-10-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Living is the key word. Not dead. Alive to take it all in. My eye's are open to the new day. That's the feeling I wake with each day. New adventure each moment. The players are all on the field. The coaches to the side. It's just you and the world before you. Jump in or just stand there, I jumped. Though, this time it's quiet nice. The view of the Olympic Mountain range in the near distance. Port Townsend across Puget Sound. Useless Bay below our palace. Nothing between. Large and small ships and boats go by all day and night. The Bald Eagle say's good morning at 8AM. The now migrating birds from the Arctic are passing through. Some will even stay the winter with Mary Anne and I. It's about as close as one gets to Paradise. Our benefactor's half way across the world, and will then stay in their warmer home for the Winter. My payment just do some work on the home I now stay in. Stay in and wake to the sunrise over all I have noted. Eat, rest, work, dream, ride the roads, meet the neighbors and take in all this Island has to offer. Island Time is now the time of things. The feeling is so large. I am taken by the vast and deep beauty, soulful embrace. My weak attempt at a photo just not enough. It's just the day. Just another day. Like the day before but not. It's a day I wish you were here. A time to share with those that are close. My luck just tearful. The lottery won, the ticket cashed in.

A million pounds later

2007-09-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that way. Mary Anne and I just moved to our new home. A place where Mary Anne will have a writing sabbatical. A nice 6000 sq' home (not our home though) on a bay in the Northern waters of Puget Sound. The view is just great. We are guest of this wonderful house for the long winter. I get to to be the maintenance guy. The house does need some up-keep here and there. Though very very nice. Got to get here on a ferry. The Island is big enough to have some good services. We are living in the Southern part and the best services are in the Northern area. Ya, like it's a 30 min drive. We still have a few things to move. They are at the NOW SOLD condo. We have till mid October to have everything cleaned out. Should work out fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
So we are starting our new adventure together. Mary Anne is busy getting her writing studio and art studio going in the day light basement that has nearly as good a view as the upstairs. I will have some space for my tools and stuff to do a few projects to. The walks on the beach are just inspiring. The sunsets are awesome. Wildlife is everywhere. I saw a bald eagle this morning fly eye high by the deck over looking the bay. We sit up on a bluff about 200'+-. Just grand! I'll add a photo later. For now I'm just getting over the tons of stuff we have moved. Getting organized, and just being over whelmed with the beauty of this wonderful place. There are some nice roads to ride on to.

Winds of Change

2007-09-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

It sounds so important. A start to a novel or a great work. Maybe a screen play! No, it's non of those. A simple work this will be.
This time of year the winds come on your face from the North. The North winds come strong and fast. The afternoon is the most energetic. This is a bicycler's point of view. Wind is the friend and trainer. It all depends on the direction you are going. These winds are the winds that bring on the change in the season. Summer to Fall. As though it requires a huge effort of the wind to push the Summer South. Then the void of this push pulls the Northern cool weather in. The cool off the ice at the top of the world. The cool from Canada, British Columbia, Northern Territories,the Yukon Territories. All this effort in the Northern winds of this short moment.
My rides are for the most part North to South. I'm a continental pro going South. Fast, effortless, moving at speeds only the few can go. 25 MPH all the time, well in my dreams. Rollers are so fast there is no time for gravity to do it's work on my body. Show me who I really am, and how old this body really is. That I am a 57 year old X racer doing his best to run ahead of the storm coming my way. Then I turn and head North again. Looking to find the roads home. Bring the feeling of speed and smooth gears back to the garage. Have a new story to lie about during the Winter times of ice and snow. Some images, and feelings to make this aging rider feel as young as I am not. Then the truth comes home 25 miles out. Warm wind, 88 degrees, sometime much higher. No humidity at all. Dry, windy, no cover, your in it now. The wind that shows you who you are. Your 57, slow, almost out of water. Your heading North into the unrelenting wind of the changing season. The dreams of power and speed work for a while. Then the truth comes out for good. You grind your way in the wind, up the hills, at speeds you just don't have the heart to look at. The heart rate monitor now going up and up as though you are in a mountain pass. Your just old and you have 25 mile of this to go. Dam, what was I thinking going out in this stuff. To late for that now. Slow it down and find the right gear. Gears I climb hills in are now the gears on the flat roads. What will happen when the hills come? Keep the heart rate down and just ride smart. Those days on the Continent are over. The pro jersey you wear, you bought! The dream comes crashing down to the reality of the fight to just get home without falling over. The season of Fall will be here soon. This was just the taste of the change. Drink it in old man. It my be your last drink. Savor the effort. Feel the challenge the wind has brought. The Peleton is all around you. We suffer together. Taking our turns, one at a time. The finish line will come soon enough.
These are the winds that bring the North down to the Valley for the next challenges. The efforts to change the season are great. The dreams are there to forget the pain, the age, and the final race. Now is the time of lies and stories to forget what we don't want to tell. Maybe a team will pick me up next season.

A point in time

2007-09-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

It was not so long ago. That's how it all begins. A story, a tale, a new post in the blog. The tale of time and the events. Notations of the events as I remember them. It was not so long ago. I was 300 pounds and could not use a normal bathroom scale. An older bathroom scale. I did not even have a scale to begin the event. The start of the now daily event of my new life. A life I have changed. The day I started riding again. The day I just had enough of my extra weight, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, trigeminal neuralgia, and general bad health for a then 55 year old American male. It was, and is, a fight everyday. Effort all the time to eat well. Courage all the time to workout smart. Fearlessness of the roads with cars, trucks, and motorcycles. All driven by people with homicidal thoughts. All the effort is worth all the risk all the time. It's not about who I was and who I became. It's not about the tales of weight lost and fitness found. It's a tale of living a better life. More spice and cooking with style. Life found by going out and grabbing the action my soul was needing all the time. Living as hard as I know how. I have no idea how I have survived. I just get up put my head on and move forward into the day. I have no job, no money, no prospects. I have never been happier.
The tale is worth a look back. October 2005, close enough. I went down to the local bike shop in Manchester New Hampshire. No fear of the thin fit staff at the shop. I bought a mag trainer for my now old Klein race bike. It was a start. How many others had gone with the same dream to the very shop. How many times had the sales staff had to hear the dream of youth lost. I did not care what the staff thought. I am pig headed and stubborn. Once I start I would not stop till I dropped over dead. Dead I tell you! It was a life or death struggle, and it still is everyday. I could not even get on my old bike saddle with out a large piece of foam. The pain was just depressing. 15 mins was the max I could stand the pain of the workout. How was I going to survive? Everyday for the start it went like this. 15 mins of pain to try and stop me from the goal. To ride on the roads again. Then the foam was put away in about 10 days. That was a great day. Next I needed to get a scale to weigh myself. I needed a marker to measure the change, or the day. Then I needed to start using the DVD that came with my mag trainer. I rode in front of a TV with a DVD and tape player. I had a DVD from the Chris Carmichael training center. It was the time trial DVD. I just turned down the volume and watched the people for the first few weeks. I was up to 30 mins on the bike. I was eating well. A high protein diet that worked very well to control the type 2 diabetes. Almost no carbs. Not so good for the cholesterol. Had to start somewhere. One month later I was down to 285 pounds. I was riding 30 mins. Now I went to 45 mins., it was hard. My hands hurt, my butt hurt, my back hurt, Almost everything hurt. Seeing the weight go away was the only thing that kept me going.
Then I went back to the local bike shop again. I bought a year end close out Cannondale road bike. A carrot for the road next spring. It was parked next to the TV. TV and new bike to ride the roads with next spring. Spring was about April in New Hampshire. October to April on a indoor trainer. I needed that carrot every workout. I went and looked at that bike several times a day. When I watched TV, that new shiny road bike was right there to see. I dreamed on that bike all the time. That new bike was a dream. I needed that dream! I still have that dream today and rode it to.
These days indoors were one once at a time. Not I need to lose ten pounds. Just a small step of one once at a time. I was taking my life back one once at a time. My scale, the TV, the DVD, my new road bike, a pair of jeans 2 sizes down. Little things that stared to look like a new way. I turned the volume up on the TV and started to watch the tour DVDs of Lance Armstrong. I was training for 55 mins now with all the great riders in the tour. I was with them, every climb, every sprint, all the drama. By November of 2005 I was riding 55 mins. and my weight was 275+-. 25 pounds was gone. I started listing to the Time Trial DVD. It was way to hard for me. So I did as much as I could and just finished in my own way. I also started working out 2 days on 1 day off. Train smart not hard! Seemed to work. One once at a time. My blood sugar readings were looking better everyday. Lance Armstrong and Chris Carmichael were my best friends. I was wearing XXLARGE Lycra riding shorts from Colorado Cyclist. It seemed like a dream all these events over the last 2 years- a bit. Not even 2 years really. The winter went like this. One once at a time. I never stopped. I worked hard, but smart. I ate well, but smart. November came and went. Everything kept working one once at a time. One day at a time. One ride at a time. 2 days on the bike 1 day off. My old body needed time to recover. December and I was down to 260+-. I needed to get down to 240 if I was going to ride on the roads the spring of 2006. I knew that once I got on the roads I was going to lose the weight a lot faster. Plus I would have to ride every other day. I would be working much harder and the body would need a lot more recovery. I was thinking about spring and it was December of 2005. I had lost 40+- pounds in 3 months. This was the easy weight. The fluff. Just eating the diet I was eating was going to strip 20 pounds off me. So it was not all about the bike. There was a force of effort in it all though. The bike I mean. The effort to do it. It was hard. Every time I got on the bike it was hard. There was something about the effort that counted for so much.
January 2006, wasn't that yesterday? There was a ridable day in New Hampshire. I was going for it! I had not ridden in 13 years. I was still to far over weight (258) and more important out of shape. It was a cold day, 38 degrees. I put on every piece of riding gear I owned and a few extra things to. I could barley get down the driveway my hands and body were shaking so much. Fear of what I was trying. My heart rate shot through the roof in seconds. Pure fear! I was still to heavy to ride a light weight high tec racing road bike. What was I thinking! To late I was over the ice dam at the bottom of the driveway. In one piece and up right. I was not the only fool riding that day. I had hoped to do 20 miles. It turned out to be a bit less. After the first 4 miles I settled down a bit. I knew I could not ride 20 mile though. So I cut the ride in half, 10 miles. My front brand new wheel was coming apart. Part from my weight, part from the wheel being a 12 spoke wheel. I was still going to be lucky to get home. I took the wheel back to the shop.
What was I thinking. Starting to write this whole thing for anyway. What is the point? The push to tell the story. Today what happened today. Why is the past important today? So today was a fine day. A great day in great weather. On a great bike and carrot. With wonderful equipment. Made just the way I want it to be. Just the equipment I want. Today is the reason I wrote all this down. So what do I say? I am 205 pounds. Very fit, low body fat, lean. New muscle I never thought I would have. Just a few pounds from my perfect weight, 198. With the muscle I have put on I have lost over 120 pounds of fat easy. Maybe more. So what! It's not the fat. It's not the fitness. It's the effort, the struggle. It's the everyday if it. It's the fight to live life the way I want. To just live. Now it sounds a bit odd. So it might be odd. It's the way I wanted to go. I feel lucky everyday to do what I do. It's not about the money. It's not about the job. I have nether. It's just about the struggle, the effort, the drive to live. I feel so alive today. I wanted a reminder. I wanted the story to remind me of the way I have come for just this moment. And the story is much bigger than I have written down. I just needed a reminder of the push. The road and the prize. The long prayer. The hope of the spirit.

Friends

2007-09-03T16:55:00.000-07:00

Ya, it's about the Vultures. I'm so odd that way. It should be about all the wonderful folks that I care about. The folks that care about me and send their fine thoughts my way. Thanks to everyone.
No, it will be about the shadows of my roads. They will not be here much longer. The shadows I have ridden with for what seems like such a long adventure. The fine Vultures. The big birds of the roads near and far. Black birds on the plane side. I mean to say airplane side. The Black Vultures and the Turkey Vultures. Both sometimes the same. Just giant, wonderful soaring shadows of this season on the road with my bike. I still have the feather of the early season given to me by one of the dark monarchs. Their presents will be needed else where soon. Their job needs to move on. There is work south of here for several months. The food that we never look at. The corner dinner we can not see. The fast food that got a lot slower. The food Vultures love to eat. Best served a little on the old side. A little on the soft side to. Vultures are wonderful big birds. Now I have made it sounds as though Vultures only eat off the road or the side of the road. Eat the creatures that did not make the next day. This is true a lot of the times. A Vulture will never pass up an easy soft meal. A meal that has aged to a perfect taste. Well, it's more like a perfect softness. So I was somewhat surprised to see how often the Black Vultures were hunting in the fresh cut and harvested fields. One up about 35 to 50 feet and the other down very low. 3 feet or so. Flushing out the now exposed field animals to the partner flying a little higher. It is similar to how a hawk couple will hunt. No one thinks of Vultures as hunters. I never did till this year. So many times after harvest this was happening. I was very impressed. Watching a bird of that size freak out the little critters in the field so the partner about could swoop down and catch the field food. Over and over this happened towards the end of this season. Almost as though to say, "the work here is getting to hard. Lets move on to easier fields". Still a beautiful site. One low hunter passed over me close enough to look at me. What the Vulture was thinking was it's own business. I did not want to think about what the Vulture was really thinking. Food on the wheel.
No, I should be writing about all the wonderful folks in my life with Mary Anne. All the good thoughts turned my way. I think of these thoughts with kind appreciation. Writing to thank the kind thoughts during some mighty scary times. Times that lead me to think I am no different than the road food I saw so much of this season. I made it this far. I will work on the next miles tomorrow.

Island Time

2007-08-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

I find myself on an Island on the Puget Sound. A wonderful place. A place I will be living for the next 6 or 7 months. Good roads to, very wide, smooth and clean. Mary Anne is going to be on a her writing journey. I get to be on a riding journey. I go out for a nice ride this morning. Just a first ride on the roads I know up here. Highway 525 north and south. One end of the Island to the other. At the north end is Deception Pass. A little crack of a cliff that a very large body of water rushes through one way then the other with the tide. Very cool. That is about 55 miles from here. I'm not going that far today. Just an easy ride. There are a lot of rollers both ways. 50 miles should do. In the future I will take some photos and post them on a new posts. It's a perfect day. No wind. So it's a short post for now. I tried for more but keep deleteing it with my fingers. I guess I get the message. Get your ass out and ride boy!

At first sight

2007-08-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

I had a great ride yesterday. That's what I thought this post would be about. The roads the hills the guy that tried to pass me. All the now normal actions that can happen on any ride I go out on. I and thousands of other riders. Competitive, recreational, family and all the rest. Just chest pounding and feeling good. Tales of testosterone and endorphins. It's all good. I'm not about to complain. Not one line am I about to complain. This is another story.
This morning, after coffee, after a cheese danish, after being able to do most everything for my self. Talking to Mary Anne, loving the light she walks in. Being able to do all the things I wanted to do. Being happy to have good drugs that let me live my day in a mostly pain free way. Living in a beautiful condo in a wonderful part of town, near good roads to get my rides to the country roads. All the everyday miracles. And I feel this way most everyday. Even on days that are not so good. I still see the miracles. Today, the day I learned another true believer lost his way. Not a friend, not a fellow club rider, Not a racer I had heard about. Not any of these. Just another true believer that picks the bike up and goes out on the road to put on the miles. An every day guy. Father, husband, son, and all the rest you can think of. A rider with a helmet on. Gloves and shorts. Maybe a "powerbar" to. Just you or me. Riding in a park because he was afraid to ride on the roads. A nice well paved park with a good loop to ride in relative safety. A place you would feel safe and take your family. Your daughter or son on their first ride. Learn the way of the true believers.
Today was another sad story. A car and a bike. You can make the story up from there on your own. It's never good. A car and a bike in a park made for people. The bike always gets the worst of it. Death would be a favor in this case. No hands, no legs, no arms. A quadriplegic. It happens all the time. The car always wins. The biker always pays the price. We all keep going on. The true believers. We lost a friend today. One of the faceless millions. A rider of a bike. A family man. Your next door neighbor. He will never walk again. He will never use his hands again. You can fill in the blanks.
I am blessed, and I send my blessings to this stranger today. You are my brother, you are my friend, you are me. Bless your house and all who love you. I am a true believer and I believer in you.

Road Time

2007-08-22T17:09:00.000-07:00

The time had come. I was driving my Van again. Why not ride my bike. So I got the #2 bike out, cleaned it up. Not that it was dirty. Lubed the chain. Checked the tires, added a little air. Put on 2 bottles of fluids. Climbed into the Competitive Cyclist jersey and bib riding shorts. Remembered to strap on the heart rate monitor. Helmet, gloves, glasses, phone, wallet, zipfizzes, a bottle of emergence meds. Wow you would think I was going to be gone for days. I was just going out for a short 35 mile or so, easy ride. Needed to see what it felt like to ride again. I've been off the bike since last Thursday. Seems longer, a lot longer.
It was the run out River Road South. A road that I should be bored with. I do the road all the time. It never bores me. It leads to some great roads in quiet country. Miles of country roads with very few cars and trucks. The trick was going to be if I could ride a strait line. With all the meds I now take that could be a challenge. So off I went. I hit the usual construction on River Road. I was being hipper careful. I was riding with so much extra care. I was afraid I would ride off the road if I made one small mistake. I was also riding in a about 95" gear. At a good clip but not breathing to hard. Must be the drugs. So I just went the first 15 miles like that. Moving good but not getting out of breath. Then the first steep hill showed up. The same hill I have climbed countless times. It went nice and easy. Stayed in the good zone. Did not get to out of breath. Must be the drugs. Moved on to a long set of rollers that brought the road to the game reserve. Saw a few riders going the other way. 2 family types out having fun. One rang their handle bar bell at me as I waved. Smiles all around. The next was a serious rider. He looked up at least. I was now on a long flat section that looped around the game reserve back to Liberty Hill. The way back home. Liberty is a longish climb, 5 miles or so. Fun climb. Some hard, some fast, then some hard again. After that it's rollers and small hills to the edge of Salem and home in 5 miles. The climbs were just great fun. I was doing the easy thing. Going at a middle pace. Going good. Going good all the time. Never out of breath. Must be the drugs. Found the last few hills and roads and turns that brought me back home to the Condo. I called Mary Anne to let her know everything was all right. 36 miles and I did not fall down. It must be the drugs.

20K

2007-08-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Posts of the recent past bring me to this post. To wobbly to ride my bike. New drugs will take a bit to get used to. Pain free days a miracle. Thanks to methadone and a few other modern brews from the pharmacy.
As I was trying to say. I was to wobbly to ride my bike in a strait line. I did what I could. I got my walking boots on and headed out. Down to Minto Brown Park. The local runners park just down the hill from our Condo. Just had to get my body turning over. Bring the sweat up. Warm the muscles. Stretch out and feel the push again. I have worked to hard to get to the fitness I am at to just let it go. Now, I had done a hard hill walk of about 6 miles on Friday. Before, the late night attack from the monster in my head. So this was the first push since the new drugs were in play full time. Down to the park I walked. Blue jeans, work shirt, wallet, phone, hat and belt. Ready to push the body hard. As I said I could not ride a strait line on the bike so that was out. Here I was in a somewhat farm like setting. Very simple park of asphalt paths, dog fields, and that's about it. Well it's all next to a river. I just put my head down and took the longest loop I could do and added the 5K loop onto that. 15 an 5 did the 20. I simply walked as hard and fast as the body would go. It felt great. No pain. Push all the way. Never looked at a watch, or in this case the phone clock. I just marched. All the way to and from the Condo. The event was a complete success. Not as hard as a bike ride, but a great success. I did not fall down. The pain did not catch up. Smiles all around. Mary Anne was happy to. Maybe the bike will be soon.

Another Personal Post

2007-08-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

So if it bores you all to much. Well you can stop right now. I started this blog as a journal. A way to keep track of the day, life, experiences, moments from this body, in this time.
The battle was on the front line. There were only 2 out comes in the events that were to unfold over the next few hours. I win or I lose. It is a desperate time. So much different than times past. Big waves, steep cliffs, desert heat, and winter mountain cold. Fast cars, bad company in dangerous places. The battles of children. This is a battle of age. A battle we will all face. Time and the limits to it. Our time. My time.
I had come to the end of the road. The last stone to the path I had always followed. There were no more points I could recognize. I was off the map. I was on a new planet. It was a desperate time. Survival was only a notion. Events had taken there own course. I was facing 2 points. The fear of not living, and the fear of living. 2 desperate and dark points on the same road. The fear of living in remarkable unrelenting pain and the fear of knowing I could not live in the pain. A thin line. When the road found me on this new planet. A place with one choice. Fear. The choice I had always walked through in my now distant past. No more were there any choices. It was fear no matter how you took it. A walk with loss no matter the direction. New lines with desperate cost. The admission to the show was going to cost the same no matter where you went. It was a dark room with out a light. Cross one line, cross the other. Both unseen. Though both needed there toll. It was all consuming, the choice. Darkness, and the hand of death. Darkness, and the hand of addiction. How strong the fight to live. The line to cross into the darkness either way. The Reaper in one corner, and addiction in the next.
I lay at the hands of death and I took the addiction.
Funny thing narcotics. Cheaper than you would think, and easy to get. For the rest of your life. Once that line is crossed, you pay a price you never knew was there. I stepped into the darkness, to see the light of day one more time.

New Post is Right!

2007-08-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

It's been far to long between this post and the last post about a wonderful little Boa hiding in a used truck. There have been many events. Some are the daily kind of fun and some bigger. The event that I am writing about is a review of a past post with new information.
Trigeminal neuralgia or TN is a bastard living inside my head and many others to. It's a nerve that comes out of the side of your head that controls one or the other side of the face. As I get older the nerve sheath is pounded by the blood vessel next to it where both come out of the skull. The pounding of the blood vessel on the nerve sheath, destroys the sheath over time if the 2 are to close to each other. Once the nerve sheath is destroyed frightful pain comes next. Lightning strikes in the head on the side that has the problem. Doctors consider this kind of pain the worst pain in the human body. I have this pain on an hourly bases. Tn is a monster you live with. Neurologist have pain medications, actually anti convolution medications. It's strong stuff that works for a while. It will not work forever. I use Tegretol, and have been using it for 5 years. I have reached the end of it's useful life. It has been a frightful experience. Coming to the point where the pain just can not be managed by what I am used to. You know, just take another one. That was the way for so long. Now I could take a handful, and tegretol will do little or nothing. During this time I have had several frightful attacks. Just horrible pain. I even have methadone or synthetic morphine for emergency's. I took some for the first time in 5 years. Imagine, taking morphine everyday!!! No way. Well it was time to go see Dr. Bell the neurologist in Vancouver Wa. See if there was any hope for a med over having a hole burded in my head to separate the nerve and the blood vessel. I was using the #1 med for TN, and had tried most of the rest. Dr. Bell was my last hope. Long story short Dr. Bell offered a new med, Kappra. There were 2 others new meds to. We just had to try and see what would work. Free samples are great!! This new med WORKS! Kicks my butt, but it takes all the pain away. First time I have been pain free in months and months. I mean no pain at all. Now mind you I can barley walk. Normal for these meds. You get used to them in a few days. First few though you are just hammered. I brushed my teeth for the first time in 6 weeks. I gargled to. I shaved without pain for I do not remember how long. I ate with ease. I could not walk so great, but wow no pain. Also no morphine. So I have my fingers crossed this med will work for a long time. That I will have a lot of pain free days and hours. That I will not have to become an addict to morphine. I also hope I can walk and ride a strait line soon.
Now, there's more. Mary Anne, the woman and love of my life. She has dealt with this. Put up with me. I could not drive myself to the Doctor anymore. She handled a lot of details I just could not deal with. I was that far gone. Pain ruled the day, the hour and the minute. I was not such a nice patient. Just was over the limit. Thank goodness I am blessed to be married to a Goddess. I was a bad passenger. I was a bad friend. I was a bad husband. I was a bad most everything. Mary Anne saw through it all. I know I hurt her feelings several time. What a schmuck I was. I'm sorry Mary Anne, I love you without question. I only hope you can put up with me.

Boa Revisited

2007-08-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

Truck Boa has some new information. Mary Anne and I went to visit Kurtis and Jessica and see their new baby son, Arie Amos Drake. 3 days old today. Born on Sunday. What a beautiful little boy. Mom is doing great. Dad seems a little, well getting used to the wonderful new energy in the house. It is a lot to take on. Both parents are going to be great.
The news along with the birth, is Kurtis is the one who had the truck with a snake living in it. The snake of an earlier post. A nice boa that was escaping a bad life. Kurtis gave me photos. Also the little Boa as given to a reptile program. He will be doing class room work in the area. I think a good life may be in this little snakes future. So here are some photos of the day Kurtis and I managed to get the Boa out of the truck.

I'm Dancing in the street

2007-08-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I was given the news from a doctor that my cholesterol is WAY TO HIGH. Over all Cholesterol was 290. Just Bad. I went on a lower cholesterol campaign. I mean if it had the big "C" in it, it was gone! The local men's shelter had a good dinner that night.
Well, now it's less than 3 months later. I have stuck to the plan. No butter, no fatty red meat, not much red meat at all. No cheese, no foods with almost any cholesterol. If I say I'm going to do it, I almost always do. When it comes to fighting age, and bad health. So the news, as you might guess is good. No, it's not good. It's outstanding! My new readings on my blood panel are normal almost everywhere. Over all Cholesterol is now 208 (normal is <200), down from 290. Just from changing the food "I do not, eat". Adding a few new things to eat that lower the big "C". No oats thought! Apple juice, albacore tuna, almond butter, chicken no skin, lots of olive oil, garlic pills, coffee and non fat half and half, high quality margarine un-cooked. There's is more to. The point is I did all this with out DRUGS!! The doctor was just pushing cholesterol drugs on me like a cheap drug lord on the street. He never believed I could bring my over all # down more than 15 to 25 points with just changing my food. Ha!!!
Here's the numbers. I'm proud of them.
Over all then 290
Over all now 208 (that's 82 points in less than 3 months, EAT THAT DR. KNOW IT ALL)
HDL then 88.0 (that's the HDL of a GOD, well a 30 year old marathon runner)
HDL now 78.0 (that's still a great number)
LDL then 183 (not that good)
LDL now 114 (normal is 74-131)
My ratios, LDL divided by HDL is fantastic, then and now!
Hey folks you can do this to. The drugs are just horrible for lowering cholesterol. Very very bad on the liver. Your liver goes bad you DIE! Food is the key. I am genetically predisposed to have high cholesterol. I did this with food in less than 3 months. You can to. If you what to know more write me.

The Tour

2007-07-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

I give up!!! The Tour De France sucks!!! I am so dam tired of the finger pointing, drugs, blood, and all the rest of it. The french can just have there race, and just have french riders in it. That way they can win a race for once in 33 years or so. It is just to much. I wait all year for what used to be the greatest sporting event in the world. Now it's just a joke! If the winner of the race is not french. I'm sure he will be thrown out for some violation of drugs, blood or rules some how. I think the french can just eat shit as far as I'm concerned. Ya, no french winner was ever using drugs! Oh ya, that's right, there are no french winners! I'm done with the Tour for this year. Who cares. I may be done with the tour for a long time. There are other races. Good races that are will covered and fun to keep up with. I'll watch them!!!!

What to do

2007-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Mary Anne is still on the book tour. I'm at home doing home stuff. Taking care of big dog, riding, doing the chores. Writing Mary Anne more emails than I can remember at anytime. I miss her so much. Running up the mins on the cel phone to. Not that I have ever gone over my monthly mins. Best use them. Good use to.
The question is do I do a race on Sunday. It's a hill climb time trial. Larch Mountain, 16.63 miles of fun. 13. something miles all up hill. 3300' of elevation gain. Not the best choice for a big guy. It's a flea race. The smaller you are the better your chances. Most of the time. It's a non contact race though. No peliton to deal with, crossing wheels and all that. So it's a safe race for an old fart like me. The best time I have seen in the records is 55 mins or something like that. That's just flying up that mountain. I think I will be like most. Plus one hour. The question is how much plus. As a heavy rider I am best suited for flat time trials. I do pretty good on those. Well that's not this race. I would like to do a hour 15 mins or even an hour 22 mins. More than that I will just go ride the course on my own sometime. I did some calculations on how fast I need to go and it seems a bit faster than I may be able to push the gears going up hill. Now doing the hill is a piece of cake. Getting a good time is another story. Though I have just finished stripping my #1 bike of everything to bring the bike weight down. My #1 bike weighs about 17 pounds with nothing on it. Water bottles, road kit (extra tubes and co2 to fill the tubes) Anything that will not be needed on a short run up hill. It's not like I have some carbon fiber wheels. I just will not need to carry any extra weight up the hill. I have enough extra weight on me. Sigh. So I'm just going back and forth on this. I would love to do the race. My group of 55 to 59 years old riders will only have 5 to 10 riders. Last year the fastest time was hour 9 mins I think. the slowest time was an hour 28 mins. Something like that. So I would like to be in that time range. Anymore why pay to race what I can do for free anytime.
So I am still walking the floors and looking for the right answer. Any answer would do right now.

Back out on the road

2007-07-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's Tour time and it's time to get out and ride, and dream. The suffering is not in vane. The effort is Universal. Yesterday has passed and the memory is and should be short. Back out. Time to ride.
With a little work on the #1 bike, getting it all ready. Tuning the gears, cleaning the chain. Checking the tires and replacing a bad tube. Filling the bottles, taking some new stuff to. I decided to take some meds along just in case I was not really ready to ride. A bottle of pills. Not wanting to be used. Food, communication, wallet, and a singe key. It was time to do some miles. Just ease into the ride no big push. Long warm up. Out River Road South as I have ridden so many times. Almost every time as it is 3 blocks away and the quickest way out of town.
Start the legs. Start up the gear. Keep the heart rate down. Do the easy ride today. That was the plan. After the first 10 miles my body is ready to push a little harder. Though today was an easy day. Test day. See if everything was working OK. This route always leads through some farm land to the first climb, up a steep 2 step climb that I try to do easy. Get the heart rate up but not over the top. Everything in the plan was going good and I was just easing up this tough little climb. Boom, I hear the click of gears behind me. I look back and there he was. The red flag to the bull. The competition to a competitive rider. He passes me just barely. "How you doing" trying not to show how hard he worked to catch me. I said, "well I guess not so well". This rider went by me. He had a small rack on the back of his carbon fiber frame with nice wheels. I just could not stand it!! So I geared up and paced myself to the top of the climb keeping this guy in sight. Now I like to climb, but I'm big. 218 pounds of big. This guy was a flea compared to me. He was 160 pounds. So on this steep climb I had no chance. I kept him with in 20 yards by the top of the climb. There was a very fast section coming up. Down hill rollers, my favorite. My weight lets me do this kind of road very fast. Then there would be a sharp short up hill to another section of down hill rollers. So I was going to get on this guys wheel. I had him in no time at all. He started trying to speed up. I was just going easy. Though my heart rate was at 163 from the climb and effort of earlier. That's my max effort. But I was breathing OK. We both got to the short steep climb, I was going to follow for a bit more. This guy kept shifting down to an easier gear. He most have been working real hard to catch and pass me. I think he was over the top. I stood up on the little climb in a big gear and put him behind me. By the top of the little hill I was 20 yards in front of him. That was it. Time trial mode was on. It was a fast section ahead and I just put the hammer down!! I never looked back. I just went as fast and hard as I could at max heart rate for the next 45 mins. The road was clear. No one in sight. I had never gone under 22 MPH for 45 mins on a mostly flat course at max heart rate. As I have said in the past, I hate to be passed when I am riding alone.
So the ride dialed back down for the next 30 miles or so. Still moving along. Just back to a lower heart rate. 125 beats per min. Good strength building area. I was starting to get a bit tired by mile 50. I was home at mile 55. The ride did not go as planned. Though everything was perfect. My face pain was at bay. I felt good about riding again. The test ride had gone better than I thought it would. Much better.

Friday the 13th

2007-07-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Hummmm, a little surprise for me and Mary Anne. It's Mary Anne's first book tour and we WERE going to do it together. Both of us love to travel together and do stuff. This was to be another journey into our shared married life. Till the one thing nether of us thought would happen. Not me for sure. 38 hours ago give or take a bit. I had a attack from my Trigemial nerve. I have been battling this problem for almost 6 years now. It might be 6. When the tigeminal nerve fires off from pressure put on it by the artery next to it pumping blood from or to the brain. The result is an electric shock of unimaginable intensity. This happens because the lining around the nerve that protects the nerve from this very action has worn out. Become thin over the years and millions of beats it has had to endure. The attack I had 38 hours ago was so bad I could not stand up. I just held my head with the electric current that was running through it for a couple of hours. In that time I managed to stand up and get to the bathroom. I took some more of my 3 times a day meds to help keep this very thing from happening. There strong but did not even touch this attack. After sitting on the toilet for what seemed like an hour. Still in out of control electric pain shocking through my head Mary Anne, bless her heart. Asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and get a shot of morphine. I had a bottle of old methadone my Mom had given to me years ago. 3years at least. I had never used it. I found the bottle and took 2 and sat down on the toilet again. What else could I do. The pain was still the same as when it had started, what seemed like hours ago. I waited for the big pills to do their stuff. 20 mins later I felt no pain at all.
Now most attacks are short. Few attacks are of this huge electric type. There are a dozen or so different types of pain and attacks. Most just very nasty but endurable. Sit still and the pain eases off. Even an attack of this lower type can last days or weeks. This kind of attack is common and can be worked through with some meds and quiet time. No talking, no eating, sitting still, being very thoughtful in the actions I take. This last attack was so bad that I could not imagine having to go through another one. So much worse than "any attack" in the last 6 years. So the worry was what would the cabin pressure in an airplane do to this now raw nerve. This area that just hours before was ready to do me in. Over a few hour both Mary Anne and I knew flying as out. I was grounded. Mary Anne was going on her own. The Universe wanted me here and her there. Dam.
So what do I do now. Do I ride my bike? Do I just cool it and wait it out with a few more hours of recovery? It's a whole new game. The pain was just fearful. I'm not afraid to admit that to. Life altering pain. It's like starting a new way of living all over again. Everything that was, now is not. That might be a little over the top, but this was just scary stuff that happened. So I'll call my neurologist Monday. Not that he can do much other than let me have some stronger drugs for when the pain goes, out of control.

Class

2007-07-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

I have had, and hope to have, the fine privilege of riding with Noah Singer again and often. Noah is a class rider. A rider that needs no coaching on how to be or conduct himself. He is a natural, a wonderful person. A fine and good young man. Noah just finished the National Road Race in PA. for under 23 years of age. He finished 28th in a field of 110 top ranked well supported riders. On a very tough course. Noah finished 2 mins down from the leader in the main peliton. A great showing. I have ridden with this young man! Noah is all class. It does not matter what Noah does in his life. Noah will be looked up to in the finest and kindest way. Noah goes to the Time Trial next. The race of truth. Noah and his team from college just finished first in the Team Time Trials a few weeks ago. Wow!!!! Here's to you Noah. The race of Truth. I feel the pain already.

Time in front Time in back

2007-07-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

What is it that L Ron Hubbard said. Forget about the past to live in the here and now. Well it seems easy, but then if it was easy there would not be a religion, Dianetics, based around it. People have a need to follow the past. It's like an addictive drug. I have read Hubbard's book cover to cover. Man what a bore that was. I did get the idea he was writing about in the first 100 or so pages. It's the last 300+ pages that just. Well, I will let you imagine. Live in the here and now. Over come the cellular reactive memory. This memory has nothing to do with the event you are in because it is based in the past. I'll take a breath now.
So many people live in their own past. Both negative and every other event of their near and far history. Basing reactions on an event, that is not in the reality of the moment. How often does this happen to you? Are the reactions to your day based on history. I don't touch the snake because. I eat the food because. This has always been, so it will always be. What new can come from this kind of thinking? If the stream of thinking is based in the history of our memory. Not in the events of the here and now. How will anything new and brilliant come about? Break through thinking comes from the mind of a person willing to change. Willing to except a new direction based on the events of the moment. A person that can see the events of the moment as having value all on there own. Why do I even bother to write about this? A reminder to myself to stay in the stream of today. Of now. With out joining some religion based on the past. Without joining a religion of confirmation. Without joining a religion of what is already dead. Most religion is based on death or the past that is dead. Even L. Ron Hubbard is dead. Yet people follow his past as though it is the living truth of the day. Lots of religions and their followers think there script is the only truth. They will kill to prove it to. Why bother with any of that crap.
Note to myself. Keep your eyes open. It's a new day. The new frontier is strait ahead. Everything has changed in the exhale of your last breath. Breath in the new idea. See the new event. History is just the baggage to keep you from seeing the truth of your own sight. Live the life you have, not the life you think you should, or have lived in the pasted. Eyes open, it's a new day.

104 Degrees

2007-07-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

It's not the heat that kills you. It's the lack of water. Hot days are fun if your near the water. Pool, mountain stream, river, ocean. It's all really about the water. We are bags of water, with a few ounces of chemicals thrown in. Maybe a lightning strike to. Keep the bag full of what it needs and we can get to the next day of 103 degrees.
I think I will take a day off from the bike today. I got 135 mile on in the last 3 days. I need a recovery day anyway. At the advanced age of 57 recovery is a big issue. The body just does not replace tissue as fast as it once did. Age and ageing have a new set of rules to follow. It's like learning a new language. The language of the ageing body.
I was taking the payment to the storage company. We were not sure we had the right information on the check. So a face to face hand off of the check was in order. It took a bit, but the computer finally got what the humans knew was true all along. That would be the story except the lady at the counter looked at my tanned hands. My hands show the pattern from the riding gloves I spend so much time with. The tan is quite odd. An alligator skin pattern from the netting of the gloves. I had one guy at the local bike shop think I had tattooed the pattern on my hands. He thought it was very cool. This lady at the storage company thought I was a motorcycle rider. I explained that I was a Bike Rider. A serious bike rider. She wanted to know more. I told her the story of weight loss, improved health. Managing diabetes, high blood pressure, and all the other age related test that have come my way. I made it shorter than it reads. So the lady asked how I did it. I told her the bike. Changing my eating habits. Changing the food I ate. She wanted to know more for both her and her new husband were facing the same problems. They had started eating better and going to the local workout center. They were on their 10th day and starting to feel as though they did not want to go to the gym anymore. I asked what their schedule was. She said everyday. I told her to stop that. I told her about recovery days and the time it will take to turn their bodies around. What took time for them to become. Will take time to go away. Change like this takes time and there are no short cuts at all. I told her to reward herself with fun. One meal a week with the food that she like the most. This kind of body change takes so much time you can burn out if you do not have some fun rewards. She was surprised to hear me say this. You have lost 110 pounds of fat in 12 months. You must have never been off the hard work, she said. I told her I eat pizza once a week. I eat cake once a week. I eat burgers once and a while. Not to often anymore, but once and a while is OK. I told her I worked out every other day for the first year. Not everyday. She was so surprised to hear that she was working way to hard. I went over with her about her heart rate and where she would be best suited to work out at. She was working to hard. It's common for people to work too hard. Then not give there body recovery time. I still work out to hard on the bike often. I just push so hard some days. I mean like there is a someone coming to pass me by. I hate being passed. So I was trying to let this lady know it was OK to ease off and feel good about it. Both these folks were going to be off the program in days if they did not do their recovery time. They were already getting there after 10 days. I told her I was on 22 month of my new life. It was like a 12 step program almost. Wow that's like 666 days. Now that's a bit freaky.
So the life I live seems to be having an effect here and there. People want to know. People that need to do what I am doing get a little push from my story. I get a little push from hearing their story. It's the same story as mine. I'm lucky. I have always been involved with hard athletic challenges. I know the work it takes. Everyone can do it. Though, some need coaches and stories to help them along. I'll do what I can. I think this lady and her husband will do better now that I had a moment to share. I'll go back and see how they are doing soon.

Good Friends

2007-07-07T20:49:00.000-07:00

Honey, the new used car we were given for free has a snake living in it. Odd but true. Jessica and Kurtis, young friends of Mary Anne and I were given this Dodge Dirango for free by Kurtis's boss at the tattoo store he works at. It's a little beat, but drivable. Needs a new radiator. Not bad for a couple that are about to have their first baby. Fix and re-sell. Nice baby shower present in a odd way.
So the call came into our house. Kurtis has a snake in the new truck he brought home. I could not wait to help get the beautiful 48" Boa out of the engine block. Mary Anne was un-easy about the whole thing but put up a good effort for about 40 mins and then went off to Kinkos. Then she knew it was adventure and I would jump in with both feet. Mary Anne went off for awhile doing business. I had my hands in that engine in seconds. What a beautiful Boa it was. What I could see of it under the alternator and air conditioner. Just its head looking up at me. This snake was scared. I needed to get the snake moving out of the engine to somewhere else so I could get my hands on it. Save this little friend from the bad past it was trying to get away from. The little Boa had already been attacked by the owners dog. The owner buried the snake alive!!! He thought the snake was dead. I think this is where the Boa found the truck. That it was alive at all is a miracle. Kurtis was in need of a little help to bring this poor little snake out of the truck engine. I was the help. I love to do this stuff. By the way, Kurtis drove the truck home not knowing the snake was in it! Poor little snake.
I felt so sorry for this little snake. It was going to meet a poor end if I did not help. It may still meet a poor end. Sigh. I'll do my best.
My first need was to move the snake from where it was, to a new place that I could get my hands on it. Kurtis was into the adventure to. He was willing to put his hands in harms way if he had to. I found a small stick and gently asked the Boa to move. Just a little touch here and there. Not hard! The Boa started to move. It did not like the irritation of the stick. Before I could do anything the snake moved to the right front bumper. It was not fast, but it clearly knew it's way around the front of this truck. It was a gorgeous snake. Just beautiful! Still it was very hard to get to. I got under the front of the truck. The Boa was 12" from my face. Kurtis was my third hand. We were a good team. I needed some good gloves. Kurtis brought out his winter gloves. Perfect! I put the left hand glove on and Kurtis put the right hand one on. I'm a lefty and Kurtis is a righty. The snake was now in the right front bumper looking at me as I was on my back on the ground. Now I needed to move the little snake towards the middle of the bumper where Kurtis from above might get a hand on the snake as it moved. We needed to be gentle. These snakes can get hurt easy. We could not force anything. The little Boa started moving to the middle of the bumper. Nether of us could get a hand on it. This Boa had done this move before. It knew this truck like a cave or tree. The Boa moved to the left side of the bumper in the same place it was on the right. Dam! Now the snake just made it self as small as it could get. Tiny. I was still under the truck with the snake looking at me 12" away. I put my hand up next to it's body and pushed a bit. It started to move again. This time I got the bottom 1/3 of it's body in my un-gloved hand. I was not going to let it go unless I felt the Boa strain. I did not want to hurt the little guy. I did manage to stop the snake. I asked Kurtis if he could see the front of the Boa. Just like that Kurtis had his glove hand around the Boa's neck. I let go the tail section. Pushing all the time towards Kurtis. The snake was out! EEEEHAAAAA.
The Boa was dirty and it's face had spider webs all over it. But the little guy looked no worse for the adventure it had been on. The snake seemed happy to be out of the truck. We both calmed it by stroking it gently. The snake was kind and not bity. Kurtis's wife Jessica brought the camera out to have a record of the adventure. Jessica is about 8 months pregnant. The snake was not going to live with them. So the photos were taken. We looked the Boa over. Seemed OK. We put it in a pillow case. Used a zip tie to close the top and put the snake in a cooler with the top up. Kurtis and Jessica are making calls to find a place for this little snake. It likes Kurtis. It was clearly happy to be held. I was sorry to see it go in the pillow case. Had to be done. Good luck little guy.

Taking the Time

2007-07-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Out again for an 80 miler. As it turned out I could only find 75.5 on the route. It was a glorious day. Perfect temp. a few clouds. I even wore arm warmers. Though I didn't need them. They did feel good, even when it warmed up. I never took them off. Long mile pace ride. 50X15 most of the day. A good bit of wind showed up and I was lucky to have it at my back for more than half the ride. Go fast zone. It was great fun. I felt great, I was fast for an old fart. The route took 4 hours 25 mins for the 75.5 miles. I feel and felt good about the day. I even passed 2 fit young riders that just could not keep up with my easy pace. I just could not go that slow. I peddled off the front.
Here's the story. I was asking myself why the need to push myself so hard. I have not raced this year. I think I my not race all this year. I just need to train longer than I thought to come back to race form. It's the slow approach to training. No short cuts. After all the guys I will be racing with did not take 13 years off the bike as I did. So an extra year of building seems a small price to pay towards my over all strength and fitness. These guys have also raced for those 13 years. I'm way behind. So the extra year of training is not that much. This is not the whole story though. It's part. The other part is the race to live. I have an almost obsessive need to push my body back to speed. It's the "REAPER". A story that came to me last year when training hard. I can feel the "REAPER" at my back. Just a chill. A notion of that idea and reality of death and doom. Personal end. It hit me when the physical and medical problems just over took me, before I started riding and training again. What was I going to do to improve my life all around? It would have to be the bike for me. It is really all I know anymore. The bike and training. I ride for purpose, not for fun. Though I love the experiences of the road. It's the creepy feeling of death nearer than I thought it was. Age and time now having a new urgency. I reached a point where the time was shorter in this life than my age. I'm not going to live 57 more years. When I was young it seemed like a foreign country. Death was that far and un-noticeable from my sight. Now it is on a path near all the time. I have meet this "REAPER". I know it as a friend. A friend that will have to work hard to catch up to me. I'm not going to wait, for the "REAPER. The "REAPER" will have to catch me. I'm still to slow. I need to train longer and harder. Get faster. Lose more weight. Eat better. Live longer. Live stronger. Be the best I can be, with the time that I have.
So it's the notion of death and the "REAPER" that are part of my strength. Knowing I have a limited amount of time to ride the roads. Not wanting to waste the time I have. Getting out and working hard on the road. The road, the training, the race to live well. Maybe the racing is going well this year! The competition is just different,, than I thought it would be.

Little Acts

2007-06-30T18:56:00.000-07:00

Slow enough to do some good. Out on the roads in the middle of a summer type storm. A little cold here, a little warm there. Some rain, some sun. It looked like a bad storm, but it was not bad at all. Going down the roads I see so often. Thinking about the training. The gears, the speed, the heart rate. Then there it was. 42" of big fat, slow moving Gopher Snake. Huge! It stretched from the white line to the middle yellow line. Just enormous. I stopped to move this monarch of the fields to the side of the road. The snake was moving very slow! Trying to warm it self on the black top road. It was going to be Vulture food in a matter of mins. I just could not bear the thought. I asked it to move along. The Gopher Snake was so full of mice and maybe eggs or young it could barely move. The snake was to cold. I picked it up by the tail and moved it's heavy mass off to the side of the road. I hope it lived through the day. I did my best for this friend on the road.

EPIDEMIC on the ROAD!!!

2007-06-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Bike riders face this every day they ride the roads. Some days the effort is harder than others. Not the effort or strain of getting up hills or going fast. The effort of just getting out on the bike. Doing the training. Not these efforts. The effort of staying alive and healthy. Safe from the brothers and sisters in cars, trucks and motor cycles. The drivers caught up in their own dreams and nightmares. Not seeing the need to put the cel phone down and drive. Not knowing the dangers of putting on their makeup while driving. Not understanding the speed and weight they carry as drivers on the road. The vehicles that are weapons going at speeds that kill every day. The litter of death I see on the roads all the time. Small bodies, birds, opossums, cats, dogs, and raccoons. Lots of other bodies to. Cars, trucks and motor cycles are weapons in the hands of the unaware. Unaware of the world right in front of their bumpers. The road ahead. Keeping an eye out on the road and thinking what the hell they are doing in their cars, trucks, and motor cycles.
As you might guess. Yesterday was the day that no one on a bike, on the road, was safe. Every mile I road was dangerous. Not the days when the vehicles are kind and looking out. The days when you are given room and courtesy. The days when every strait away, turn, corner and intersection is a hazard zone. If you think the car is going to pull in front of you. It does! I mean all day this happened. I got cut off, turned on, moved over, and all the other bad insults that you get. This was a ride that I would not be safe till I was off the bike at the front door of my place. It was every where like a illness running through a community. Everyone but a few had it. Even with eye contact, the drivers still pulled in front of me. Almost as though the driver had no control of their own. It was just a bad day on the road. It was every where. An epidemic of crazy, bad tempered, lazy, unaware, self centered, killers on the road. Dam! Till the last turn, of the last corner, just 1/4 mile from the door step of the condo. I was glad to be alive. I was glad to be alive when I left to! Man what a ride.
It is my position to trust no one on my rides. NO ONE!! It keeps me alive. I know the tricks to slow the folks driving behind me. Or the tricks to make the car pass wide. I always ride in a bike lane when there is one. Still, bikes with skinny tires need to look out for rocks, glass and dead animals. Everyone of these are hazards to cause a crash. All bikers need to avoid hazards. We need the room sometimes. All these hazards are from, cars, trucks and motorcycles. We all need to ride aggressive to be in control. What a day. There not all so bad. Some are great. Yesterday was a reminder to trust NO ONE on the road. Dam!!

Just when you think!

2007-06-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first ride since the Sisters to Sisters Loop. I was feeling great. Wanted to get out and warm the legs up. After all I was a "Road Monster". Look out boys and girls here comes the bad boy of the Cascades. I was going out for a short 53 mile ride. Hummm short.
The day was bright sun. Wind from the Northwest, lots of wind. I was going to be on the flats for most of this ride. Exposed farm land, not much tree cover or break from the wind. This wind, the Northwest wind, is always difficult on the routes I take. In Winter and Fall the winds are from the South and are kind. South winds always blow me home. Make me feel faster than I really am. Today are the winds of Summer, Northwest winds in your face. Grind you down, work you hard winds. Wishing I was a lot shorter than my 6'5" frame. The winds that make you strong if you work hard. I was feeling tough and strong. I had just climbed the Cascade Mountains. I was going to hammer all the way through these winds. The endless winds in my face for 35 miles on the flats. No breaks. I just kept the peddle down and pushed on. On to the only break I knew was coming. Cloverdale Road. A climb of about a mile and 3/4. Sheltered from most of the wind. As I got to Cloverdale Road I looked around to see if there was any other riders near by. I have been caught from behind on this road once before. I hate being passed!!!! No one in sight. I took the turn to Cloverdale and was setting my pace at the bottom of the first climb. BOOM a guy passes me from no where!! I was just surprised. I mean I had look every where. This guy passed me easy. I was tired, true. I was on 45 hard miles at this point. This guy was messing with me. Now I put the hammer down on this first hill. Big ring standing up and I gained on the other rider fast. He saw me gaining and I saw him slowing. I knew I was going to put him to my rear easy on the climb. He knew it to. I looked down at my heart rate monitor and I was pegged at my max. Still, I saw that by pacing I was going to set this guy strait fast. Then I noticed as he slowed in front of me one of his bar ends was different from the other. The left bar was like a time trial bar and the right was a normal curled down road bar. Odd that was. Then I saw this rider was only using one arm, his right arm. The side that was a normal road bar style. He was having trouble pushing up hill because he only had one arm! I mean one arm!!! No arm on the left to the shoulder!!! I was passed by a one armed rider!!! Of course I was going to catch him going up hill. I had both arms to push the bike with. I can't even imagine riding with one arm gone to the shoulder. Who was this guy?? In no time at all a left hand turn comes. Before the first bump of this climb is over. He take a left hand turn. Better to leave the field of battle a winner. Or just a guy messen around. Hummmm.
So I was passed by a one armed rider. Just when I was think how good I was. How strong I was. How bad I was. The Universe sends in the one arm rider to put me in my place again. Thanks one arm rider. Thanks Jim Henry

"The Loop"

2007-06-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

As I pulled out of the Motel parking lot to the start of what the locals call "The Loop". It was clear, cold and I was glad to have all my riding gear on and wished for more. Before the start of this ride, I had eaten till I could not eat anymore. Coffee, energy drinks, buffalo meat, local bakery goods. All fuel for the ride. It was 6 AM. It was cold, clear and quiet. The first of 3 highways was under my bike. My hands were freezing and my body was just about the same. As I moved down a tunnel of pine tree cover. The just out morning sun was not going to be any help to warm the body. I put the bike in a big gear and just road. Pushed a little harder than normal to warm the blood. My hands were like ice. I had to curl my fingers on to themselves to protect them from the biting cold. Tuck my thumbs under my fingers. Anything to keep the hands and fingers warm. I had not even thought to bring a pair of long finger gloves. I had my short finger riding gloves and that was it. I did think to put on a nylon rain type jacket over my jersey. Thank goodness! My legs were bare. Except the bit of Lycra from my riding shorts. I pushed hard to warm the core and prayed that would warm the body. 8 miles into the ride over the mountains I was warm. Not from the sun or temperature. Just the blood pumping warm from the effort. I started to relax. Dial the pace down a bit. I was warm and had a long way to go.
This was the ride I had been waiting to do for months now. Sisters to Sisters. Up the Santiam Pass, from Sisters, east to west. Down to highway 20 then a quick change to the highway that took me to the Old McKenzie Pass Highway taking me back east to finish in Sisters again. A well thought of ride in these parts. 86 miles of climbs and descents. Beautiful country with rivers, mountain tops, trees, lava fields and sweat. During the climbs, lot of sweat. A ride that I leave something of myself behind. A ride that gives something to take home to. Riders like to call these "epic rides".
As I passed Black Butte Rance. A nice vacation home area, I started the first of the long climbs of the day. This was a steady one hour plus climb. Not that hard or steep. Just steady and LONG. The grade was modern for highways. About 6% maximum. So I got in a good climbing gear. Put my head down and just worked. I worked at a pace that I could hold without blowing myself up. I watched my heart rate monitor close. I never went over 90% of my maximum heart rate. I was also using the new gears on my #1 bike. I had a 50X34 on the cranks and a 12X25 on the rear wheel. I was climbing in the 34X19 and feeling good to go the distance. It was beautiful country. Mt. Washington to my left. In full view, no cloud cover. I climbed with this mountain for most of an hour. There were few cars on this busy highway. Part of way I started so early. The plan was looking good except for the cold at the beginning. The climb was great. I never felt bad. Well, there was the difficulty of having over eaten that morning. To much food in the stomic. Another reason to climb steady. To hard and, well think about it. Fuel for the ride. This first climb was going so well. I was almost finished and near the summit. I was surprised at how fast the climb was going. Wishing the grade was longer. I did not want it to end. A few more turns and I would be at the first summit sign. As I finished these last few turns I was sad to be done. I stopped at the summit sign and took a photo of the sign and bike.
Next was almost 2 hours of descents. What was gained in elevation was now going to be lost, and more. The first of the descents were just wicked. Steep, fast, cold. Real cold. It was not light speed. I was just keeping it at 40 mph. Looking out for stones, car and truck parts. Crashing at 40mph was not an option. I could go faster. The bike was up to it. I was up to it. Faster was just not the right idea today. After this first of 2 major descents, both, very steep. I had to take a left hand turn across a major highway onto the next highway. Difficult with on coming traffic doing 65 MPH and traffic behind doing the same. I had to cross 4 lanes of traffic going 25 to 30 mph faster than I was. My plan was to hit this junction with traffic at a minimum. There was one car behind me and clear road ahead. I went out in the highway. Boldly left arm out to signal my needs. The car behind was kind. As I zoomed across to my next road. The car behind waved. They had bikes, on a rack, of their roof of their car. I will take luck anytime I can get it. The most dangerous part of the ride was behind me. Now I just had 1 1/2 hours of down hill to the McKenzie Pass turn off.
For the next long shallow down hill it was good road, good conditions. Very few cars and trucks. Nice. Sweet ride, always going in the big chainring. Some up hill here and there. Then down again. Down forever. I though I was going to be a sea level before I started going up again. This part of the ride is always longer than I think. Beautiful, but long. Rivers, rocks, camp grounds. I was still in the mountains. This down hill goes on for 30 miles from the top of the Santiam summit. I looked down at my odometer and it read 41 miles in just under 2 hours. Wow, I was flying for me. For about the next 10 miles you think the McKenzie pass is coming up around each corner. At 49 miles the turn sign show up. Left turn, The Old McKenzie Pass Road. Chills ran up my back. I was at 52 miles in 3 hours. I was going to smash any time I had ever thought I was going to ride this route in. More chills ran through my body.
The McKenzie Pass is up hill from the time you turn on to it. Not steep. Just a long up hill grade. Through a thick forest of cedar, firs and pines. Not a lot to see at first. Just climbing. 34X15 gear climbing. I started to laugh at my thinking I was going to set some time record. The clock just kept ticking and the miles seem to give in every once and a while. Every thing went in reverse from the first 52 miles. Now I was seeing that my time was going to be much bigger than I thought. I had not even started the hard part of the climb. The 2 hour plus climb. The swicthbacks, the lava fields. There was some tough climbing coming. Real tough, pray for help tough, why didn't I bring an easier gear tough. I was still a long way from that. I was just going up through the forest. My under shirt was soaked. I had long ago stowed my nylon over jacket. Poured off the extra water I knew I would not need. I was not going to carry that weight up what was coming. There was enough weight in me! A few cars and motor cycles passed me. Most were kind. It's a small road. No shoulders. A few of the Harley's were, well Harley's. HOGS. You get it I'm sure. I knew the gate was still close on the west side of the pass. I was going west to east. At the gates is where the steep stuff starts. Though the long, long, climb to that point starts to take it out of you. I turned the corner and finally there was the gate.
From the gate forward was the toughest part of the day. By this time my gear was 34X19. I put my bike down at the gate and walked around it. The forest service has boulders stacked around the edges of the gate to keep motor cycles out. People to. In cycling shoes it's a bit of a trick to get from one side of this gate to the other. I picked up my bike now on the other side. I stared up the hard part of the climb. My legs still had power in them. There was still a long way to go. As I said this is a 2 hour plus climb. All up hill no flats, no down hills at all!! Just pushing up hill forever. Now the climb gets steep. about twice as steep as what it was on for the first 35 mins. of this part of the Pass. 6% minimum grade to 10% and sometimes more. It's the kind of road you look for the easiest section to go on. The one right in front of you. The middle of the road, the left side or right side. It's that hard in places. Then the switchbacks start. Ya, a series climbs that turn back on themselves just a few feet higher then the last. These are TOUGH. Just endless hard all you can do, tough. For about 20 mins. Then you get to look over the side and see 4 or 5 of these switchbacks below your feet. I took some photos. I pushed on. I knew there was a break coming. It looks flat compared to what I had been doing. It was not of course. Now I was on the hardest part of the climb. It looks over. Then it keeps going on and on and on till the summit at 5500 feet. I was at 4000 feet. When I get to these long shallow up hill sections my legs are suffering. Just tired of climbing. There is still 30 mins. till the summit. A few flat section, nice. Then a few short down hill section. I hate those. Each foot you lose you have to buy back again. You climb some of these feet twice and 3 times on this section. It goes on forever. At this point I am just hoping I will make it back to Sisters by Noon. A 6 hour ride. The 5000' sign was no where in sight. You just think it's around each corner, or by the next tree, or it was broken in this winters storms. Where the hell is the dam 5000' sign. I have been riding this climb for ever. When I see the 5000' sign I will still have 500' to go. And then the 5000' sign shows it's face. The trees end, to the open Lava Fields. 500' more and I'm to the summit sign. Each rise in the road now taking every last bit of a toll on my legs. Several rollers. Some seem steep. I'm sure they are. Then one long hill in this moon scape on the Lava Fields. Boom there you are. The Summit sign. It's over. The 2 plus hour climb is over. It is almost all down hill from the sign to Sisters.
I took a few photos at the summit. I was feeling pressure to get off the hill and get back to Sisters and see Mary Anne. I put it in the big rings and put the hammer down. 13 mile of down hill curves and some flats right before Sisters. I never went under 25 mph and often was in the high 30s. I was flying to get home. I could feel my tires biting into some of the sharp corners. Full speed ahead. I'm a good descender. I was going as fast as the few cars on the road. I was possessed. I was not even looking at the clock. Just the MPHs. Big gear all the way to the first stop sign in Sisters. Mary Anne was 2 blocks away. I had done the ride of 86 miles, 8800' of elevation, in 5 1/2 hours. A new record for me. I felt great. Last year at this very time I was doing 22 to 25 miles and could barley stand after the ride. Now I was ready to do another 25 miles to just cool off.

Gifts

2007-06-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

In the morning, the time when we get going. The time of coffee and coffee again. Taking what needs to be taken. Feeding the big dog. Then taking the big dog out to the forest next door. The blessed forest. The place were the dog dog can roam. Ya, right, the forest where the big dog can do his thing. The thing we get the plastic bag out for. The thing that is still warm when done on the grass of the neighborhood. The thing that can be done in the forest ivy deep off the trail and left behind. Ah, morning in the blessed forest. Well the forest has more going for it than that. It's a nice break for my hand and a nice time for the big dog. It is also a place where presents are left for us.
Today was a fine present. Unexpected and fine indeed. A perfect larger black flight feather from a Turkey Vulture. The shadows of my rides. My bird of the season. A feather from the animal most close to me this season. Not just a old feather. A feather let go after hard use. A new perfect flight feather left behind on the forest floor on top of the ivy as though it was layed down for me to find. A message from another world. Beautiful and fine. An offering. I brought it home to share with Mary Anne. A reminder of all thing living. A reminder of living. Just a simple feather given from the shadows of my rides. Thank You lords of the sky.

New White Shoes

2007-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

Pat Boone would be proud. My new white Sidi shoes from Competitive Cycling are now broken in. I did a 58 mile ride on them. A lot of hills. Some flat sections to. The shoes fit perfect! Well, they are Italian. They feel so comfortable on my feet. No hot spots or pressure points. Just pure comfort. It was hard not to look at the shoes while I was riding. I have never had a pair of white shoes, ever. Not even in the time when they were popular. Ya, I'm that old. I kind of like them. I hate to admit that for some silly reason. The shoes look good. They are the left overs from team CSC. A European pro team of the highest level. The shoes are from Sidi the best cycling shoe made. Not many will fight that point. Team CSC was the first team to ever get Sidi as a sponsor. Sidi made a lot of shoes for the team. The one's I bought are the surplus that Competitive Cyclist bought from Sidi or Team CSC. I saw them when I was in Little Rock in April for Mary Anne's book premier. Great price, but it still took me 2 months to buy them. Glad I did.
On the ride today on the last climb of note coming home I got passed in the last 50' of the hill by an all carbon fiber frame very expensive wheel bike. The rider was in the big chainring,53, and weighed about 165 pounds. I was climbing in a 34 tooth chainring and weigh 218 pounds. The other rider barely caught me. I did not even know he was behind me. I almost never look behind any more. I was doing a very special bit of training today. 2 gears. 50X19 and 34X19. That's it. 2 gears for everything. The rider that passed me was in a 53X28 I would say. I never changed gears to catch him. I did spin the 34X19 to it's max to catch up to him. I was a little worried that the long down hill just ahead would be the end for me. I was not going to go in a bigger gear to keep up with the rider that I was now right behind. When the down hill section came, it was obvious that I could out descend this guy easily free wheeling. He was pushing a 53X13. I went past him like he was going the other way. Still in my 50X19! At the bottom we talked a bit till the next little hill. He wanted to drop me in the biggest way. He had the gear to do it. I had the spin to keep up in a 50X19. We parted, he went left, I went strait. I hate being passed. I mean, I really hate being passed!

Boldly Go

2007-06-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

Back to the page after a few days off. I love to put the words down. It's been a bit on the busy side around here. I put Mary Anne on the plane for a non stop "RED EYE" to NY NY to film on the Hallmark Channel Network. Wow! She gets 7 mins to talk about her book. That's huge! If the producers like everything, she may get invited back to do more segments for this years taping. Go Mary Anne!
I get to take care of everything around here. The big dog that I am re-training. He still thinks he is a puppy at 130 pounds of muscle. He is a smart dog though and is coming around fast to the old school "sit and stay". I think he will be a good citizen in quick order. He is just to big and strong to be running around and pulling on his walks. Plus he makes guest uncomfortable sometimes. All in all, with the "sit stay" program he will be much easier to be around.
I get out on a ride today. That's news. I am having a lot of fun with the new gears on the Campy Compact Double. I'm doing hills today. All hills! Next week is the Mountains. 12,000' of climbing over 2 days. If I take a right turn on the first day it will make 16,000'. One extra pass. I'm thinking about it! I only get to do these mountains once and a while. These long climbs change me. I'm never the same after I have climbed them. I'm always stronger. It does something to my soul to. Single climbs that last over 1 1/2 hours one will last 2 1/2 hours. These are strait climbs, no flat sections at all! I love this stuff. You have to climb at a pace. No sprinting or you will just die. It takes discipline to climb these mountains. It take discipline for me at least. I'm getting all excited just writing about it. I'll take a camera and share some photos. Summit shots. If I can find anyone, a shot of me next to the summit road sign. Look out road here I come! The photo is of me the last time I climbed the McKenzie Pass, 3 days before it was closed for the winter, in the worst storm of the season. Wind and rain going side ways. Wow what a great day for an epic ride!!

Compact but Mighty

2007-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

New to me I must say. New parts for the bike. I got a new Campy Compact Double Crank Set. 50X34 Quite small to my normal 53X39. I wanted some releive on the long and hard climbs. Skyline Road of past posts. Some gears that fit my age. So I installed the 50X34 on my #2 bike to test it out. Do the flats and do the hills. See if it can be helpful. This 50X34. First off I found I was riding in the 50 tooth chainring all the time on the flats. No need for the little chainring at all. Similar gear to the 39X15 or 14. Just odd the feeling. I have been out of the big ring for sometime during the redevelopment of my legs after the position change. So pushing what looks like a big gear took a little getting used to. It's all about the number of inches one pushes in any gear your in. 39X15 is 70" 50X19 is 71". The gears are close but in a different way. The biggest difference is the climbing gears. In the 34 tooth chainring I have a 37" gear. 37"s for each full rotation of the crankset. In a 39 the climbing gear is 42". Does not seem that different. Start climbing a steep grade and you will understand the need. Also it allows me to keep the spin of the crank much higher in a 37" gear. Down side is the 50. With a 50 tooth chainring VS a 53 it is 113" in a 50 to 119" in a 53. Dosen't seem like that much. In a field sprint it's everything. In training though this Compact Double is great. I love it! I will have to shift a bit of my thinking and re-learn the gear chart. These are easy. 3 or 4 rides and review of the charts and I will be good. I already noticed a differince in my climbing. Most of the small chainring gears are off by 2' in the 34. So I was climbing normal grades in a bigger gear and much faster. Leg speed is so important. If your legs slow down. You slow down. Keep the legs fast and your fast.
So I have 12,000' of mountian passes to climb next week. I wanted a little help on the up hill grades. This will do the trick. I think my MPH will stay high even though I will be in a smaller gear. It's conterintuitive. It works though. These Campy crank sets are just the best. So easy to change out. So smooth. No movment at all side to side like the old square taper bottom brackets. Thanks Campy.

Pin Holes of Light

2007-06-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Unexpected, is the only description. All the, out of the blue or from the dark past. Up from the sea it came, out of the mountains it walked. Everything changed the moment it showed up. One of the events you just never saw coming in any shape or form. The Universe snapped it's fingers and poof, everything that was, is now new. I got a card from my 20 year old Daughter lost in a bitter divorce. Think of that. A child, lost to a divorce. Well, that's how I came to deal with it. A Daughter who I could not communicated way by her and her mothers choice for 3 1/2 years or longer. Well there is the money I send each month through the government system. This Daughter, my only Daughter, sent me a greeting card. Kindly written, with warmth and clarity. Stunned was all I could be. As I opened the envelope for the card I just figured it was going to be yet another insult to me somehow. A slash from the knife that the divorce had become. It wasn't! It was kind and thoughtful. A day later I am still shaking my head, and not from the palsy of age. News, from a past let go to save my soul from the harm of holding on. All I was to that moment was a check, and that was processed through some cold government agency. A bitter chapter, that past is. Then a warm light turned on. From the Daughter that was not even allowed to call me, Dad, or Father by her mother my X wife for 10 years now. A Daughter that never says my name. The card started out "David" not even Dad or Father. David. Still, it was a good note. As I said, kind and true. What do I do now. I had written a note to both Daughter and X wife in reguards to child support during college in the last 10 days. First note in a long time. Talk of payments based on grades by State rules. Grades had not been very good. In fact poor. I am a little behide based on holding back during failing grades. I had been burned once already on a failed quarter. I wanted things to be as the rules needed. No more or less at that point. When you are stripped of your parenthood it changes you. It is a wound that takes time to heal. A long time. It's a big scare to. It's healed though. Kind of on the tough side. Well, till I got a card from the Daughter. Just a simple funny card. Hand written note on the blank inside. A thousand wounds just melted away. The steele was now soft and warm again. Change often takes just a moment. A simple card written, and sent to a new day.

It's a new world coming

2007-06-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

As a bird lover I see a lot of my friends on the side of the road. Little souls lost to the speed of modern life. Examples of the speed we have, vs the speed of life. Life being the natural forces all around us. Not the motor vehicle speeding to the the store or school and work. Just the pace of life at a more natural speed. Well that's how I see it.
Over the last few weeks I have noticed some change. Gas is expensive. The rural roads have less traffic now. It has been quite noticeable. Less casual trips to the mini market. The gas just cost to much. More bikes on the road. People riding bikes you just would not have seen riding a few months ago. The weather is good so why not go to Wal Mart and buy a bike to save on gas so the family can eat. Save on gas so I can have that 6 pack. Save on gas so I can smoke! Save on gas because it's smart. Drive less, so I have more money. Ride the Bus system. There is a lot more of this. I saw a guy walking home carrying a bike trailer in a box from one of the mall stores. I bet it was for groceries not the child. Still though, it is more bikes than I have seen in a long time. The local bike shops are having a record year. Double last years sale at this time. I can only guess that Internet sales and big store sale are about the same. People riding bikes because the GAS for the car just cost to much. Gas cost more than the family or personal budget can pay for. Food or gas? Food will always win.
I saw my second all electric car. There is a local electric car company here. They are selling a small car that goes 45 MPH and will give 125 miles on a charge. Not the car to put the gas car out of business. Though a good town car, get groceries, a few small tasks that are to far to ride or walk for the average person. I think this company is going to sell several more of these cars at $10,000. 20 mins to recharge at home or 4 hours to recharge anywhere on a house outlet. Not a bad idea at all.
Change is happening everywhere all the time. The high gas prices are forcing car drivers to rethink. This is a great thing. It's to late for my little friends on the side of the road. Odds are some brilliant mind will come up with a new way to get around fast. Meet George Jetson stuff. For now though all the new bike riders and less traffic on the rural roads is wonderful. Town traffic has a ways to go though! Gas or food will change that soon enough.

The Truth is a Hill

2007-06-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

I got this nice card from Mary Anne. Ten ways to eat crow. I like crows. Though I had not thought of eating one. Just love the concept of the card. Fun is good where you get it. Thanks to the mind at seltzergoods.com. Thanks for thinking of me Mary Anne.
The card came to me in the morning. I had seen it in Mary Anne's studio. It was in my hand in a second. Over to my desk by the computer. Not to be seen for a few hours. I have stuff to do, friends to see and pick up a bike in need of repairs. Dan wants to start riding his bike again. I gladly offered to get the bike cleaned up, safe and ready to use again. Then I was out to a late afternoon training ride. 4:30 to when I got back. It was a hill day. All hills for the ride. It started out like so many rides I have done. South River Road to Riverdale. A nice 10 mile roller ride to a 2 mile section of flats to the first climb. A nasty though short climb to get the legs in the spirit of the day. Steep but short. Lungs are burning by the top if you let them. So I went at a moderate pace. Stay out of the red zone. Then my normal hill ride, did a lot of rollers to Liberty Road. Today, I was going to climb a road called Skyline. The name tells you the story. I have not climbed this hill in 15 or 16 years. I have gone down the hill often. Even this year. With in the last 2 weeks. I have avoided going up this brute of hill. Even when I was 20 years younger the hill whipped me several times. About 7/8s of the way up there is a driveway to pull over in and catch my breath. I have stopped there many times over the years. That's how hard this hill is. Just relentless. It gets a lot steeper at the last section. Just leg killing steep. Stand on the peddles and just push them over with your weight steep. Pray you do not die or explode steep. Wish you had a "Granny Gear steep". When I was young I climbed this monster every morning in a 42X21. These were the gears of the day. Today it's 39X25 and still not enough. I climb this thing, the best I could. Staying relaxed, keeping my breath and heat rate at about 80%. Stay out of the RED ZONE. It was impossible. I was lucky if I got up the hill at all. It's one of those hills. I'm think of turning around from the first 1/3rd. Then I get to the half point and it is not as steep. Still steep! Just not as steep. Then it's a shorter distance to finish than to turn around. Mind games to keep you going. Anything that keeps you going up the hill. Now about the last 2/3rds it really gets steep. I mean seriously steep. Then it keeps getting steeper till the finish at the top. Dark, covered by tree branches, tunnel like. Few cars, and the cars seem to pay attention. It's hard for them going up to. It's brakes on going down. Did I mention the hair pin turns about half way? There deadly. So I am in the tunnel of death. My heart rate is just below max. I'm hardly turning the cranks over. There is so much pressure and now it starts getting steeper. Right to the finish. I can barely breath anymore. My heat rate is way in the red zone. I am looking for the driveway to pull over in 7/8s up the hill. I had no choice. Just a few neural breaths for just a few seconds. Let the heat rate come down a bit. The heart rate comes down fast. The hill won again. It's beat me many times over the years. It only took 90 seconds to recover. I finished the hill easy after that. Just a quick push and I am on the top. What was I thinking doing this hill at age 57. My young legs could barely do it! Well it got done. I did hands full more of hills on this days ride. Nothing even close to as hard as Skyline Road.
Now I was thinking about my card. Eating Crow in ten slices. Which part do I eat first. Will I have to eat it again? Skyline Road. It's a measure. I did not measure up as well as I had hoped. I like Chuck Roast the best.

Lightning Shows

2007-05-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

Day time and an asteroid seem company suited more for a dark room. Not the open of the morning in full blaze of the late spring on a sunny day. No dark and dank are more in mind. The evening dew on one's feet. Chill and sweat shirts. Looking out from where you are, to where you are not in wonder. A gathering of folks looking into the heavens at the light show in slow motion moving at millions of miles an hour. Wow, what a little distance will do to one's perspective.
This little story is not about asteroids. Thought the damage feels about as massive. When your head has a lightning show inside the skull it is a thing of wonder. Just a wonder to survive till the next moment. Drugs help a lot. Trigeminal neuralgia is a worn out spark plug wire. The one you touch in the car engine and get a wild shock. For those that have never worked on cars, and old cars for sure. This is a very unpleasant feeling. I mean it just stays with you for the longest time. The trigeminal nerve in my head does this everyday. Some days a little less. Some days are a lot more difficult. This morning was one of the difficult mornings. Though it could have been the flash of electric current running through the left side of my face without relief. I have had that one a few times. Down right scary those one's are. If I had lightning strikes every day. Well best to count my blessings. Today was the start up of a minor ache to a over all disability that makes one want to hurl. Hurl from the relentless pain. Just the smallest little nerve. Sending a hello off to the side of my face. Building and getting more building permits to build some more. It's housing development gone wild. Most of the time the drug works well to keep the pain down to a manageable level. If I avoid a lot of movement on the left side of my face. I keep the action of the nerve down. No reason to work if nothing is moving. You know like walking, chewing, keeping wind from hitting my face. Little things like living a real life some days. It's a hard time. One of my few treats is riding my bicycle. Oddly once I warm up the pain will not effect my ride 80% of the time. Then it will even brake through on a ride and bang. I want to bend my handle bars into a new shape. The drug helps a lot. Tegritol a nasty little drug designed for seizure's. It was first developed for epileptics. Now it is used as a nerve blocker of sorts. There are lots more drugs. I have tried a bunch. Most don't work so well. The doctors want to have you buy the most expensive drug. Kick backs I'm sure. The tegritol is not to bad. It only cost an arm. I have tried some that took it all. They did not work at all. No returns though. So I have this lightning show ever day. Some days are good. Some days are great. Every day is a show.
The next doctor show is a chiropractic that specializes in cranial manipulation. Deep breath big guy. I have all ready tried everything else. If they can't cut it. Moderner medicine hasn't a clue. So the show goes on. A million mile an hour. It's all how you look at it and where you look at it from.

The Speed of Red

2007-05-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought I was getting an idea about this blog I see a change. News paper reporter is OK. Then you know what I want you to know. Not so bad. Not so good to. Is the content of the blog the news of the day or the days? Or is the blog more than the personal Sunday news paper. That few will read. Is the content also the emotion of the writer, and in my case, his stories? Maybe it's just time to put down the lines and let them speak for themselves. Write the truth of the time given.
When I go down to the local bike shop. It's for stuff I can get cheaper on-line for sure. Add the postage and it is close to the same. For some stuff. Feed your neighbors first. The folks down at the local shop will do nice favors for free often or cheap. Take a bottom bracket out. Remove a lock ring to a rear gear cluster so the gears can be changed or cleaned. My tires are one of the items I often buy from the locals. Tires that cost as much as a car tire. More often the bike tires cost more. So it was time to install some new high end tires on the #1 bike. Michelin "Race Pro 2" red and black. The red ones go faster. $54.95 each. Dam! Well, it had to be done. My tires have a lot of miles on them. There beat. Still some miles on them but, cuts and thin where they should not be. Flats out on the road happen. Flats out on the road suck. So it's time for new tires. I'll save these old tires for the #2 bike. Well maybe not. The red ones do go faster!

Highway of Death

2007-05-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

No, it's not that serious. Just a note of the huge amount of wildlife in and on the side of the road. More than I can ever remember seeing in the past. Spring has the wildlife, well, being wild. That does not get along with the domestic world of speed and controlled space. Food for someone in the passing. The vultures are everywhere as I have noted in the past. Vultures waste nothing, and their energy, is never wasted.
My new riding position on the bike is starting to work. Muscles I never knew I had are starting to pop up out of my legs. Good thing. I need ever muscle I have to make the bike get up hills. Working in the smaller gears is working out better than I had hoped. It is exciting to see this new program start to work. My thighs are doing more of the work now than my calf's. I hope to find a good balance. I shaved my legs for the season to. That helps a lot. Ya, right.
Also I took my winter bike and re-built it with Campy parts. Tried the new crank set with the bottom bracket bolted together in the middle. It is just sweet to install and has NO flex at all. Works for me. I'll buy another higher end one for the #1 bike when I can afford it. Most likely a carbon one. Boy do they cost. All in all the winter bike went out and rode almost like my #1 bike. Shifted great like ALL Campy bikes do. I also put new Mavic wheels on the bike. That always helps a lot. Now I can change wheels from one bike to the other no problems. Everything one bike has will work on the other. It makes for a good system. Happy Me.
Watched 2 movies in the past 3 days. "the Pursuit of Happyness". Will Smith and Jaden Christopher Syre Smith. Others for sure. Good movie, though a bit serious for my current taste. I will not be watching this one soon again, but I liked it alot. It was a great movie. The other movie was "Wild Hogs". Just stupid fun at the theater. Ya, we paid for the night out. Pop corn, soda, something chocolate. Good seats. There were 6 people in the theater watching this movie with us. Everyone else had sense enough to go to Pirates 3 ? or another movie. It was opening night for another Pirate movie. I'll wait for the DVD. We had great fun at the "Wild Hogs" movie. All 6 of us in the room were laughing out loud, and very loud. Stupid but fun. Not very much swearing. The movie was just good laughs for an hour and a half. I'm good for that. No not a great movie like "the Pursuit of Happyness". Just,,, fun. I'll watch the Hogs movie again in the near future for the laughs.
My Mom is getting along slowly from her fall last week. Took her to the doctors office. Boy that was fun. It was just difficult. So no broken bones. We knew that! Take this pain pill. That's about it. Take a pain pill, go home. So Mom is at home healing slowly as an 82 years old does. Mary Anne and I got the food set up at her place. Mary Anne has been so kind to call on the phone. She knows I do not like talking to my Mom to much. Also Mary Anne took Mom a Wendy's treat of cheese burger and a Frosy. My Mom love that stuff and gets very little of it. Right now it's just to hard for her to get around in her apartment. Any small favor helps. One day at a time.
So I go out on another ride today. There is a nice race on a course I first promoted a race on in 1980s somethings. There still using the course. It's hard, we ran the District Road Race Championship on it to. That tells you something. I'll pass on the race though. Not in my training plans. I need several more weeks of this training to feel comfortable enough to race on these new legs. I still want to go to the track though. I may only race track anyway. Never liked road racing. Though with these new legs might be worth the effort. So I will go out on a 60 miler today. Do my drill. Keep the faith. Say the prayers to the long road. Ride the circuit once again.

Signs

2007-05-23T09:23:00.000-07:00

It would be great if I knew what was happening around me before I found out. I'll keep working on it.
It was a Tuesday ride. Small gears, keep working on my new riding position. Take the time to retrain the body to use this more forward and taller style. Change takes time. The ride was great. Perfect weather. Everything was working out so well. I did not care if anyone passed me. I was happy to just work on my own program. Now I want to say I have a real problem with other riders passing me. It's the racer in me. Oh, and put someone off in front of me and I would go after him. Chase them down and leave them in my tire tracks. Today was not that day.
I had a beautiful Turkey Vulture over my head right from the door. I thought it was looking at the neighbor dog in there lawn. It was a small Boston Bull. Black and white looking for the party. Well, the Vulture was looking at him. I thought the dog was the entertainment. As I moved out for the road it was odd that the Vulture seemed to be following me. Lots of the Vultures in this area this time of year. I kept going down the road. The shadow of these great birds kept over head on my way down the road. Hummmm. Mile after mile it was Vultures. I had never noticed this many of the giant birds before. Has though I had interested them in my red and black riding outfit. No matter. I was having a wonderful ride. So the Vultures were out and I was out with them. It is also the time of year the Red Winged Black birds start dive bombing bike riders from their utility post perches. Then following as though to say stay out of my breeding area. These birds are very aggressive. So Vultures and Red Winged Black Birds. The Vultures are just so much bigger.
This kept going on for the first 45 minutes. I got down to the local game reserve and it got down right odd. Dozens of the Vultures, low right over where I was riding. I decided I better make friends. These great birds were no more than 15 feet over my head. Flying right along with me. I looked up at them. They looked down at me. I started talking to the Vulture and I waved a wave of friendship. The Vultures looked down at me and at that moment moved off. Just like that. Poof. They went off to find dinner. I went off to finish a great ride. 45 miles of smart riding. Train smart not hard as the line goes.
I got home. All was wonderful. Everything was fine. Till the news came in a little later. Greg, an acquaintance that is a serious rider like my self was on a group training ride this day. An X close friend of the neighbor lady. Greg had got himself in a 5 bike crash training. Road rash from head to leg. It was a bad crash. Most of the guys went to the emergency room to get checked out. Not Greg of course. Greg is a hockey player to. Tough and I mean tough. Black belt to. He should have gone to the emergency room to get cleaned up and shown how to change the dressing he will need for a while. Not to mention the pain of these road rashes. More like 2 degree burns really. What a disaster. I have been there a few times to.
So I got to thinking of the new friends I had made today. The Turkey Vultures. The eaters of road kill. Hummm. I really need to pay close attention.