ranDanneuring

MetaBike Randonneuring Rig for 2012

2012-01-27T18:18:00.005-05:00

So, it's 2012, and my plans for the year are solidifying. Aside from a nicely overdone set of rides to attend, I decided it's time to try something New and Exciting for my brevet bike. My P-38 has served me well for the last four years, and I could certainly continue to utilize it for the foreseeable future, but it's nice to try something new once in a while. Since my semi-local shop is the US dealer for a line of bikes I've been eyeing since its inception, it wasn't hard to choose the base for my new ride.

The half-dozen or so people who read this blog last year may recall that I had picked up a lovely M5 Carbon High Racer go-fast for use in ultra-racing and club rides. The CHR is a blast to ride, and I've really enjoyed it; however, after looking at the rides I did last year, and the ones I've planned for this, I realized that I'm really not that into ultra races right now.

It's kind of funny; I've been really interested in racing in the abstract for the last year, but I've only signed up for one actual ultra road race. Everything else is brevets, challenge rides like CtC, or idle speculation about offoad adventures like D2R2 or the Hilly Billy Roubaix.

So, the upshot of all this is that I'm unloading the CHR, and am putting together a customized MetaBike with the help of Tom and Rob at RBR. It'll start with this:

and go from there.

Aside from basics like fenders and bags and whatnot, additional toys will include a set of Supernova lights, a SON dynamo hub, and a custom open cockpit to replace the default bars and riser. I've also ordered a set of Fiks rim strips for some extra retro-reflective goodness from the side, as additional glowiness whilst in the periphery of someone's headlights is rarely a bad idea.

I'm planning to get it put together in the next couple of months, and am really looking forward to seeing how it handles the brevet season this year.

Awww...you like me! You really like me!

2012-01-24T07:06:00.002-05:00

It's not exactly Oscar acceptance material on my part, but thanks to MG on chasing mailboxes for the spotlight on my bike.

Even though this blog went dark last year, people keep digging it up, linking to it, nagging me about posting, etc., etc. I guess I have no choice but to get off my lazy fundament and start writing again. We'll see how long this stretch of motivation lasts...

New wheels

2011-05-25T18:53:00.001-04:00

Just built up my first 'performance' wheelset for the M5 CHR.

Ultegra hubs, 32-hole Velocity Deep-V rims, DT Swiss spokes and nipples, and ludicrously narrow (23mm) Schwalbe Ultremo tires. With any luck, they won't disintegrate under me...

We'll see how they roll for next week's Tuesday evening hammerfest.

FAWOFYW 05/10/2011

2011-05-11T07:24:00.003-04:00

For the first time in six weeks, the weather was decent enough that the Tuesday night hammerfest out of North Park wasn't canceled. This was also the first night that we were in full-on, leave 'em for dead, Find A Wheel Or Find Your Way mode, so I was feeling a bit of trepidation as regards my utter lack of fitness. All in all, it could have been far worse. :)

The group split rapidly while still in the park; a few of us kicked it up to high 20s and left the pack behind. I managed to hold onto the leaders' wheels until traffic at the intersection of Wallace and English separated us; likely a good thing, as I was burning way too hot trying to keep up with the three leaders. After that, I was trapped at the traffic light on 19, so the rest of the group caught up.

(I was delighted that Chuck Kennedy had shown up on his Carbent; it was nice having someone there with a riding profile similar to mind.) Once regrouped, Chuck and I stuck together; flagrantly abusing the recumbent aero advantage, we left the group behind on Gamelands headed down to the Red Belt, then followed the tradition 36-mile route back to the park.

'Twas a nice ride...although I was still a bit sick from yesterday's 24-hour bug, and my ankle is NOT fully recovered from CtC, I managed to maintain a good solid 19 mph average over a reasonably hilly route, and felt strong at the end. Bodes well for the rest of the year.

The M5 CHR held up well; I jury-rigged a computer onto it 5 minutes before the ride, so my calibration may be a bit off; but the shifting has improved significantly since this weekend's tweaking. I'm still on the fence about swapping out the hamster steering for some tweeners...I think I'll give the hamsters a few more weeks, then swap out and see how I like it.

Crush The Commonwealth 2011

2011-05-05T08:38:00.027-04:00

The faces of midnight ultracycling, complete with nonplussed background normal people. Bill and Lane at the Chambersburg Waffle House.

Ah, Crush the Commonwealth. A lovely informal race 'twixt Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. This was my third time participating, and I'm happy to report that it was every bit as much fun as the first two years.

Ride Reports and Photos
Eric G.'s report
Various reports in the CtC blog comments here and here

Tom Oswald's report

Short Version

403.28 miles door to door, ~15.6mph rolling average, 33:24 total elapsed time for the race itself.
My group took second place...for the second year in a row, the Tressler brothers set the gold standard for Commonwealth-crushing, with an impressive new west-to-east record of 28:28.
No mechanicals, no serious physical ailments or cataclysmic bonking, no problems with other road users.
The weather pretty much sucked the entire first day, in a low-grade water torture sort of way.

Long Version

Preliminaries

Before the race itself, a few last minute preparations had to be made. I had to change my nutrition strategy (Perpetuem for the next 36 hours? Blah!), rewire my dynamo light (What can possibly go wrong?), and pick up Tom in Altoona. All of the above were more-or-less successful.

Once Tom and I were back in da 'Burgh, we prepped the bikes as much as possible, staged everything for the next morning, and set alarms for dear-lord-o' clock in the AM. A few minutes of sitting around chatting (while I surreptitiously watched to see if my cats would induce a violent allergic reaction in Tom), and it was off to bed at the positively civilized hour of 10 PM or thereabouts.

Ride Start/Neutral Roll to McKeesport

3:45 AM. Yeesh. What a positively uncivilized hour to start a ride. While Tom coolly followed through on his preparations, I stumbled around half-blind with fatigue, eventually managing to shove some granola in my mouth and clothes on my body. We walked out the door, pulled the bikes out of the garage, prepared to clip in, and WHOOSH came the rain. The ensuing profanity, though muffled in deference to sleeping neighbors, was truly heartfelt.

Fortunately, the heavy bit of the rain lasted only long enough to ensure our utter soakage by the time we arrived at the Point. We were the first to arrive, apparently. Tom hung out under the bridge in the park, whilst I rolled up to the Smithfield News 24-hour inconvenience store for donuts and a cup of coffee. Saw one cyclist inbound, and a few more converging towards the park as I returned.

Once back, I was happy to see that several other friends were present. Lane G. from the DC Randos, Bill H. and Dan G. of the Pittsburgh Randos, and Frank "the Sophinator" (on his snazzy-to-the-nth-degree Baron with the custom-cut reflective tape flames) had arrived by then. Eric McKeegan rolled up shortly as well, and kicked off the festivities at 5:11 (the earliest time I can recall the ride starting).

We kept the neutral roll simple...straight up Second Ave to the Hot Metal Bridge, then 837 all the way to the McKeesport Bridge. It was a fast group this year, and we managed to keep a nice 15-16 mph pace the whole way. In McKeesport, Eric and a few others peeled off at the convenience store; the Tressler brothers vanished off the front so fast that they actually began to age slower than the rest of us, and the game was on. A bit of confusion regarding the initial route led to a hillier-than-planned road to Boston, but then we could settle back and enjoy 90 miles of pleasant limestone rail-trail.

GAP Trail to Rockwood

The GAP was so boring that you could just read my description from 2009:

The less said about the trail, the better. That said, I'll now talk about how much I dislike that many miles of limestone: I dislike it lots and lots. To be fair, it was in better shape than I had expected and feared; the previous week's worth of rain had merely turned some spots into wheel-sucking phlegm, rather than the entire trail. Still, after the first 50 miles of trail, I was really quite ready to be done. Shame I still had 40 miles to go until getting off at Rockwood..

The only real addition I will make is to say that the 10 miles before Rockwood, which in 2009 were merely sticky, had this year degraded into a fine mix of kitty litter and Skippy peanut butter, basted with a fine topping of drivetrain-wrecking twigs.

Not too soul-crushing, all things considered. Stopped twice as much as planned (Connellsville and Ohiopyle), and was greeted by Travis (of Recumbent Journal fame) and camera crew at Rockwood. A quick stop at the convenience store, in fruitless hopes of finding a hose with which to spray the trail off the drivetrain, and we (myself, Bill, Lane, and Eric) were off for Somerset.

Rockwood to Somerset

I'd forgotten that Water Level Rd is not actually level. Aside from that, it was a quick and pain-free jaunt on blissfully dry pavement to the Sheetz in Somerset (albeit with a bit of a detour prompted by one of the numerous PA Bike Route Fungus decoy signs). There, we briefly saw the Tresslers before they next engaged their sublight engines and disappeared into the ether...we also saw Eric's buddies from Philly, one of whom was in a poor state. After a truly tasty Sheetz burrito and assorted sundry other comestibles, we girded our collective loins and set off on the hilliest portion of the route.

Somerset to Breezewood

It was on this stretch, specifically the long twisty descent into New Baltimore, that I finally remembered that cycling is fun. Part of the glee was remembering climbing that monster last year; part of it was merely due to a fortuitous parting of clouds and enjoying of some watery sunshine for the first time in weeks. I caught up to Lane and the gang here (shockingly, the fat guy on the 'bent fell behind on the hills out of Somerset)...we paused briefly in Bedford at the Giant Eagle for a bathroom break and some fluids, before making our way through Garret to the short hilly transit to Breezewood.

In Breezewood, we paused at (surprise! surprise!) Sheetz for refreshments; not only did we see Travis again, but, whilst casually marvelling at the pace the Tresslers were keeping, we were told by a nearby woman that she was married to one of them. Heh.

Thankfully, we had made good time thus far, so we were confident in our ability to get through the abandoned turnpike tunnels before dark. It was a long haul from Breezewood to the bustling metropolis of Chambersburg, so we made sure to top up on food and water.

Breezewood to Chambersburg

As we prepared to leave Sheetz, it became apparent that making a left turn across three lanes of traffic onto Rte 30 was a fool's errand. So, scofflaws that we are, we made highly illegal use of the shoulder to ride contraflow for a couple of blocks, until we could break free of the press of traffic and cut over to the proper lane.

A quarter-mile down Rte 30 is Tannery Rd...the goat path to access the abandoned turnpike starts at the corner there. (Note to trikers or users of wheelchairs...the access to the turnpike is, uh, not ADA compliant, to put it mildly. We all chose to hike-a-bike rather than even attempt a pedal-powered ascent of the gravely morass.) Once at the top, we had the blissful (and novel for all of us) experience of tackling the Pike-To-Bike in full daylight, rendering the crumbling pavement of no real account, and with two high-powered dynamo-driven LED headlamps lighting the tunnels as if it were by automotive high-beams. Absolutely luxurious.

Once we left the Pike, we were a bit dismayed to find that the surface on Pump Station Rd was almost as bad as the surface of the Pike; fortunately, it was only a short jaunt to rejoin Rte S at Hess Rd, whereupon the road surface improved dramatically.

We rolled across the undulating countryside as darkness fell...by the time we reached Burnt Cabins (the start of the climb to Cowan's Gap), night had fallen, and we had all donned our various reflective doodads and powered on our light-emitting-diode thingies. Amusingly, the climb up Cowan's Gap was far easier than I recalled, I suspect hitting it a couple of hours earlier than last time, in better physical condition, may have played some part in flattening out the hill.

After clearing the Gap and plummeting down the other side (a muffled yee-haw or three may have escaped my lips at some point), we made our way to Rte 30 and Chambersburg, stopping only occasionally to pee behind the odd Dumpster. In Chambersburg, we had a lovely breakfast at the Waffle House, then made our way down the road to the Days Inn where I had cleverly reserved a room. "Clever" is a relative term, because I had reserved the room for two people, one of whom wasn't even in the current group of four. Ah well...I left a key at the front desk for Tom, told the others to leave a bed clear for him, caught a blissful hot shower and clean pair of shorts, and collapsed into a heap of carrion for a good 90 minutes. Heaven, in budget-hotel form.

[Note to readers: as usually happens when I don't type up a ride report in timely fashion, the latter bits degenerate into a blurred list of convenience stores...my apologies in advance.]

Chambersburg to York

Upon awakening in reasonably non-surly fashion, we staggered across the street to Sheetz, fueled up on various overpriced, over-processed delicacies, and began the long climb up 30 to Michaux State Park and Rt 234. While a bit unpleasant in the throes of early morning malaise, this particular climb is a notable landmark; once we turn off 30 onto 234, and conquer a couple of short orchard climbs, the route is pretty much downhill all the way to Philly. Burning along 234 in the high teens and low twenties was a glorious relief after yesterday's slog.

We stopped at (NOT Sheetz!) a Rutter's 24-hour convenience store midway between Chambersburg and York, mostly to take advantage of their restroom. I was starting to enter a bad state where I knew I should eat, but didn't want to put anything anywhere near my mouth...Lane's suggestion of a random parfait proved to be a good one, as choking it down re-activated that switch in my head labeled "Food==Good Idea."

After passing through York proper, we stopped again at the Maple Donuts on 462. At this point, I was vacillating between sticking with the group and going on ahead, as hitting my 32-hour target was still within my grasp. I decided that, since we'd ridden the entire thing together thus far, I'd be happier sticking together and finishing with the group in 33-34 hours, rather than going solo for barely sub-32.

York to Morgantown

In hindsight, I'm really glad I stuck with the group. While passing through the gorgeously scenic riding country in Lancaster, I found myself blowing up pretty good on Weavertown Road. Not a full-on bonk, but at least a close relation. Limped into Morgantown and made a beeline for the first mini-mart I saw (Turkey Hill, in this case), and shoveled a fairly disgusting amount of crap down my throat, washed down with several varieties of fruit juice, milk, and carbonated beverage. Bonk averted, we continued on our merry way, on the final leg of the route before the trail.

Morgantown to SRT

The approach to Valley Forge via Phoenixville was reasonably pain free. There was a bit of confusion and bonus mileage near the turn for Coldstream Rd; also, the first trailhead encountered on the route is NOT the correct one...the correct one is about 1/4 mile further down the road, and involves acres of parking lot; the incorrect one involves fighting off wolves and portaging your bike over old minefields. You Have Been Warned.

Anyway, we finally found the trail. With a brief pause to pee (modesty be damned...those other trail users can't possibly see anyone peeing behind a tree of a good 4" diameter...), we set off at a nice mellow pace down the SRT. Time-wise, we were on track for a comfortable 33+ hour finish, so no-one was feeling any pressure to rush. Besides, the SRT, in nice weather, on an early Saturday afternoon, is heavily trafficked enough to make rushing ill-advised. (Unless one is a tri-dork in the aerobars, in which case you apparently are automatically issued a dispensation from riding with any concern for or awareness of other trail users.)

Liberty Bell

Rolling up to the Bell was almost anticlimactic...my prior CtC endeavors had accustomed me to feeling an utter wreck upon completion. This time around, while I was certainly tired, I didn't feel the overwhelming urge to dive head-first onto the grass and pass out for a few hours. We milled around for a bit, took a couple of photos, then diverged on our respective merry ways.

Left to right: Lane G., me, Eric G., Bill H. Photo credit: Eric G.'s camera in Lane's buddy's capable hands

Post-ride

The remainder of the weekend can be summarized as follows: meander through Philly to the hotel out by the airport, call home, SHOWER, amble over to Denny's for ~4000 calories, amble over to WaWa for a pint of Ben&Jerry's, amble back to hotel, stare at TV for a solid 30 minutes, sleep, wake up, have breakfast at hotel, have second breakfast at Denny's with Tom and Penny, drive to Altoona, swap cars, drive home with Tom, kiss kids, kiss wife, pet cats, sleep. A fine way to end the weekend.

Lessons Learned/Thoughts for the Future

I'm developing a case of randopaparazzi envy; after riding with so many gifted photographers in the last few years, I'm feeling the lack. I want to investigate proper techniques and equipment for on-ride photography.
It was refreshing, and rather pleasant, to finish CtC without feeling utterly shattered. I was certainly tired, but, unlike prior years, wasn't wiped out; also, with the exception of a very mild bit of tendinitis in the left ankle, I've had no physical aftereffects whatsoever. Perhaps a bit of introspection as regards conservation of effort compared to results is in order.
The biggest mistake I made this year was to not more carefully monitor my nutrition. 'Twas not the end of the world, but there were several low patches that, in hindsight, were almost certainly due to inadequate food intake.
As counterpoint to the nutrition theme, I relied significantly less on pseudo-food in the form of Perpetuem; I used it for the night-time stretches, but that was about it.
I need to dial back on the "gone all weekend" rides a bit...I want to see my family once in a while, and especially don't want the various projects that Owen and I have started to lie fallow.

Band Of Bents 2011 Fleche Report

2011-04-25T10:18:00.026-04:00

Mike, Dan, and Larry, of Band Of Bents 2011, happy to be at the finish. Hero pose on dork in middle can be attributed to severe sleep deprivation and/or goading by onlookers. Photo by Christine Graham.

The route (copied from Larry Graham's original)

My experiment in live-blogging the ride

The Bacchetta forum thread (includes John Foote's late-night photos on page 2)

Short version

Successfully completed first fleche.
248.6 miles, ~ 14mph rolling average
1 flat tire, moderate sunburn
1 team member bailed out in St Paris.
70+ miles of headwinds (Harpster to Sidney) sustained 15-20 mph, with bursts 25+. Ouchie.

Long version

Flush? Flesh? Waazat?

A Flèche is a 24-hour team ride, with all sorts of arcane rules. Although I've done many other randonneuring events, the flèche has never been one. So, when Larry Graham (co-owner of Calvin's Challenge, member of Team Bacchetta) put out the call for an all-recumbent flèche team practically next door in Ohio, I couldn't pass it up. Besides, riding 250 miles in 24 hours sounds like a great way to taper before Crush the Commonwealth, right?

-Westerville to Marion (Mile 43)-

The day dawned with the unfortunate discovery that the hotel in which I was staying didn't open up their lobby for coffee until 6. So, uncaffeinated, grumpy, and bleary-eyed, I loaded up the car and drove over to the Bob Evans to meet the rest of the gang. Larry and Christine Graham were there in short order, as were Rick Armstrong, Mike Griffith and his wife (whose name I have unforgivably forgotten, but shall always adore for being "she of the bag of delicious jellybeans" later in the ride). Larry and Mike's respective spouses had volunteered to provide support services...a fine and kind thing indeed.

Shortly, we rolled out. The roads were wet, but temps were already groping towards comfortable. With the exception of a slippery-as-ice metal grate bridge, the initial leg to the Bob Evans in Marion was quite pleasant and uneventful. Once there, we sat down for a proper breakfast, operating under the theory that it's better to be well fed and slow than speeding on our way to Bonksville.

-Marion to Harpster (Mile 60)-

After our delightful breakfast, we headed out towards the bustling metropolis of Harpster. A quick hour or so (and the beginnings of some stiff headwinds...note the mileage, dear reader) and we had arrived at the Backwoods country store. Friendly staff, limited selection of food, and a cop who pulled up and jokingly inquired as to how many kilos of drugs we were smuggling on those bikes were the high points of the stop.

-Harpster to Russell's Point(Mile 108)-

Sad to say, the headwinds did not diminish. Our average speed plummeted: we frequently found ourselves barely maintaining 10-11 mph on the flats. By the time we reached Kenton, several of us were due for a break, so we invaded the local Wendy's burger joint.

To add to the joy, weather reports out of the south were becoming gruesome...damaging winds, torrential rain, plagues of locusts, rains of sulphur, etc. Given the fact that we'd eaten all of the time we'd banked earlier, and that there seemed a strong prospect for weather-related debacle, we decided to call in for better forecast and plan for a reality check once we reached Russells Point. If it looked like we couldn't complete in time with some degree of safety, we'd need to throw in the towel.

Once we got to the McDonalds in Russells Point, things started looking up. The headwinds continued, but the forecasts for the southern areas to which we were heading looked promising; thusly, we chose to soldier on.

This was yet another demonstration of the "avoid quitting by committing to go *just* to the next stop, and see how things look then" principle...it works wonders when things look grim.

-Russell's Point to Sidney (Mile 132)-

Aside from the ever-present headwinds, the only excitement in this leg was immediately upon leaving town: due to recent rain, the lake was running high, and the lakeshore road had been closed due to flooding. 'Twas passable by bike, but only just; two more inches of water, and the road would have been completely invisible.

Once we got to Sidney, the prospect of finishing on time started looking less remote. We needed to travel 88 miles in the next 8.5 hours, to make the 22-hour controle time cutoff. So long as the weather cooperated, and we didn't have any serious mechanical issues, all should be well.

-Sidney to St Paris (Mile 152)-

Finally, the wind had died down. (Of course...we would shortly be turning east, when it would have helped us, so of COURSE it ceased!) We were all rolling a bit slow and low-energy, but the leg was uneventful.

Once we arrived at the controle (the Valero in downtown St Paris), Rick decided to throw in the towel. His wife picked him up, and the remaining three of us proceeded onward in slow, low-slung, and stately fashion.

-St Paris to Yellow Springs (Mile 181)-

(Here's where fatigue really started setting in for me, so my memories of the rest of the ride are a bit, uh, disjointed...)

Along the way to Yellow Springs, we were ambushed by paparrazzi, AKA John Foote. His skills with the camera were enough to get some half-decent pictures, but nothing was going to make us look perky at that point...

However, we were certainly interesting sights to the denizens of a couple of bars that we happened to pass. The first, featuring a cast of interesting characters engaged in intellectual discourse on a rickety balcony, erupted in a cacophony of utterly indecipherable drivel, all of which came from one individual who had apparently been chasing the magic grape for much of the evening. The second, in Yellow Springs proper, at least included courteous-if-slurred invitations to stop and bend the elbow for a few.

Regardless, we got to the BP gas station right before it closed at midnight, refueled, and hopped on the bike path for our leg to Xenia.

-Yellow Springs to Xenia (Mile 191)-

Trail. Trail. Trail. Headlights?!? On trail? Local sheriff was cruising the trail "because there had been some burglaries in the area." Ooooh-kaaaay; why enhanced public safety required driving on the bike trail was beyond me. Of course, many things, such as complex navigation, basic arithmetic, and, indeed, much in the way of intelligible discourse, were beyond me at that point.

We finally arrived at the Speedway in Xenia. Deserted upon arrival, it rapidly filled up with a horde of raucous youth, most of whom were too baffled by our alien appearance to even do more than venture the occasional sidelong glance. Ah, well...at least we may have broadened their horizons. Onward to London!

-Xenia to London (Mile 221)-

Trail. Trail. Trail. EDGE of trail! Wobble. Trail. Trail OTHER EDGE! Thankfully, we had banked a bit of time at this point; so, a mile or two short of the 22-hour controle, we stopped in a sheltered picnic area, and I collapsed into an immobile pile of carrion for 30 minutes or so. (Per Larry and Mike, I was snoring almost instantly.) After a refreshing power nap, we made our way to another Speedway for our penultimate controle at the 22-hour mark. Almost there...a mere 25 miles to go.

-London to Columbus(mile 246)-

I blush to admit that I recall almost nothing of the final 2 hours. We got to Bob Waddell's house a few minutes early, peeled off several soaking-wet layers of foul cycling togs, and pigged out on sundry breakfast goodies until it was time to drive back to Larry and Christine's place.

-Aftermath-

I slept for the 30-minute car trip back to Larry and Christine's place...there, they were kind enough to offer me a shower and a cot on which to nap. After the shower, I was feeling fairly awake, so bid Christine (Larry was sleeping the sleep of the just) a thankful farewell, and leisurely drove back to Pittsburgh.

Lessons Learned

With regards to nutrition, I used Camelbak Elixir tabs in the Camelbak bladder; all other nutrition was via more-or-less real food, rather than Perpetuem or similar liquid fuels. Seemed to work well at a brevet pace, so I suspect I'm going to transition my liquid fuel regimen to be used solely in races.
Power naps: still an excellent option when the drowsies set in. I have not yet found a reliable way to perk up when I start getting really drowsy; a good 20-30 minute nap goes a long way towards getting me back into semi-working order. I intend to use that technique this coming weekend on CtC.
My fitness level is pretty good overall; aside from inability to keep my eyelids open, I felt strong for the entire ride. This tells me what a good sustainable pace should be.
The live-blogging thing seemed worthwhile...I liked it for retrospective purposes, and the kids liked getting remote Daddy-updates. I shall continue for a while, methinks.

CTC 2011 To-Do

2011-04-25T09:57:00.008-04:00

1) Service the filthy pile of rust that was a bike before the Band of Bents Fleche.
1a) ~~Replace front/rear brake pads~~
1b) ~~Replace frayed front shift cable~~
1c) ~~Tune up rear shifting, check cable and housing for wonkiness.~~
1d) Roll dice to determine if rear tire should be replaced. (Somewhat worn tire==more fender clearance==less rubbing grit on limestone trail, new tire==less chance of flats. Chronic low-grade annoyance versus potential serious annoyance...)
1e) ~~Adjust front derailleur to eliminate chain rub.~~
2) ~~Format/print general cue sheet~~, probably based on the one Tom put together (Overview of major roads is worthwhile, just in case signs go missing.)
3) ~~Review packing list, repack sundry bags.~~
4) ~~Bag up post-ride care package with clean civvies, shoes, and whatnot.~~
5) Confirm sleep arrangements.
6) ~~Confirm travel buddy arrangements.~~

At the moment, the long-range weather forecast looks quite promising all the way across the state. I think I'll stop checking it now, so as to preserve some illusions.

Band of Bents 2011 Fleche - Preliminaries and Premonitions

2011-04-22T21:55:00.004-04:00

I'm siting in the Baymont Inn & Suites in Westerville, Ohio. Just finished re-lubing the bike, after a delightful 3-hour drive in drenching rain washed away every bit of previous lubricant.

Tomorrow, I meet Larry, Rick, and Mike in the parking lot of the nearby Bob Evans, so that we may set off on our Band of Bents fleche. This is my first flèche, so I'm rather looking forward to a new style of endurance riding. Shouldn't be too ghastly; we've got a solid 24 hours to cover 360 km, so I'm not terribly concerned with pacing or my ability to keep up. I am, however, a bit concerned over the weather; it's been a darn wet and violently stormy spring, and the forecast for tomorrow isn't exactly a stellar departure from the norm. Ah, well...what can possibly go wrong? (And yes, I just heard a peal of thunder...excellent timing, Whoever Is In Charge Of Weather. Thanks!)

Also, I'm experimenting with some form of real-time ride blogging; mostly just planning on occasional snapshots and position updates, but I want to see if I can better preserve the flavor of the ride this way. So, take a look at http://randanneuring-in-real-time.blogspot.com/; with any luck, I may remember to actually post a few times as the ride progresses.

Ah, sweet variety...

2011-04-15T13:25:00.004-04:00

Vik just posted a set of snaps from the BC Randonneurs Eau de Hell Week 600K. Some nice setups indeed.

I always love checking out the different rigs people put together...everything from utilitarian tourers to high-zoot titanium road bikes, a single handlebar bag to matched sets of luggage, battery-powered headlamps to dynamo lighting systems that cost as much as many decent bikes...

Actually, the part I find most interesting are all the little tweaks and hacks and unique mods that people come up with. You very rarely see two rando rigs that are terribly similar, even if they derive from common retail ancestry. ;-)

New Toy: The M5 Carbon High Racer

2011-03-28T20:19:00.009-04:00

So, I've been saving my pennies for a few months, in order to pick up a dedicated go-fast. Rob Gentry at RBR, with the connivance of Tom Hovan, came across a lovely used M5 Carbon High Racer, and decided it had my name all over it. (Eventually, I was to find that this was not merely a figure of speech...)

So, without further ado...

From M5 Carbon High Racer: Initial Build

(Ignore my filthy basement, please.)

It's quite a bit different from the original incarnation: when I first took it for a spin, the package included HED3 wheels, a bunch of really nice XTR/Dura Ace components, and a matching tailbox:

Amusingly, the initial owner's name was Don, which had been added to the boom as part of the unique and attention-getting custom tribal paint job. In order to *ahem* help cement the deal, Frank (who wrenches at Rob's shop) personalized it for my benefit with the stroke of a Sharpie.


Before	After

Honestly, it didn't take much to get me to decide to spring for it. Tom (on his Musashi), Frank (on his Baron), and I on the M5 CHR went for a lovely 30+ mile test ride; while I had a bit of difficulty dealing with high crosswinds, I was delighted to find that the bike climbs as well as my old P-38, and is significantly more aerodynamic.

After purchase, I simplified things a bit: went to a nice 10-speed system using Paul's Thumbies and Dura-Ace 10-spd barcons. Also swapped out the minuscule bars for slightly larger ones, and tightened up the cable routing a bit. Made a bit of difference in the cockpit, as you can see:


Before	After

For wheels, I went with a couple of mismatched Velocity hoops that were floating around. I'll likely do a new wheelset based on a pair of Deep-Vs at some point, but that's not urgent...what I have now is enough to get rolling.

Had a couple eccentricities with which to deal as well. For some reason, the cable for the front derailleur had been run bare through a tunnel in the carbon fiber boom, so had been gradually sawing its way through one edge of the upper hole. I threw in the lower portion of a rivet for leatherworking to act as a grommet...should be a decent temporary fix, but I'll need to work out something a little better suited.

All told, with seat pad and the ridiculously heavy A530 pedals I'm wont to throw on my bikes, it weighs in at something in the 22 pound range. I suspect I could get it sub-20 without trying too hard, but I'm going to spend some time getting to know 'er before I do much more tinkering.

Tomorrow, I'll take it out for the Tuesday evening North Park ride. We'll see how things hold together...

Pittsburgh Randonneurs 2011 Spring 200K

2011-03-28T07:58:00.012-04:00

Tom Hovan, with his Potter-esque balaclava-induced forehead seam. Chillin' at the Midland Subway controle, roughly 70 miles into the ride.

Short Version

125.3 miles, ~14.5 mph rolling average, ~7000-8000 feet of climbing, no mechanicals.

Starting temp: 19 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeesh.

Results

The route

Long Version

Well, it wasn't the warmest 200K I've ever ridden. However, with multiple layers of everything, Lake boots, and a firm belief in my own invulnerability to cold, riding in almost any temperature is possible. We shan't discuss the difference between "possible" and "advisable".

Starting at Jim's place in Shaler, we headed through town to the West End, then up Noblestown and into Carnegie. After a brief jaunt through retail hell on 50, we peeled off onto Thoms Run, then Presto-Sygan to Millers Run all the way to the first controle in Avella. The climbing around Hickory was unaccountably a bit more imposing than I recalled (perhaps because I'd only ever experienced it in a car), but, all in all, it was a very nice first leg. Bob Kerr, who had volunteered to keep an eye out for us during the event, showed up in a van laden with innumerable bags of cookies...a fine bonus.

From Avella, we struck out for more northerly climes...heading up to Burgettstown, we picked up 18 through Raccoon Creek State Park, then 168 until we finally plummeted down to the river and the shadow of the nuclear cooling towers at Shippingsport. Our second controle was just across the river: the Subway in Midland, a classic stopping point for various rides in the area.

After briefly retracing our path, we took 68 through Beaver, Rochester, and Zelienople to Evans City. (Cyclists possessing some familiarity with the region will recognize that this is not exactly the flattest possible route.) We all survived, however, and, after a brief stop at the Evans City Uni-Mart clone, enjoyed a mostly flat transit to Mars (the town in PA, not the astronomical body or the cranky deity).

On the classic Mars-Evans City Rd segment, I had an amusing experience. A car full of young whippersnappers (perhaps early 20s) began blowing their horn , pumping their fists, and cheering as they approached in the opposite direction. Then, the words penetrated my mildly addled brain: "YEAH! Recumbent! Yeah!" Although I certainly could have misinterpreted their demeanor, it appeared to be honest enthusiasm. Says something about the market penetration of these funny bikes that A) youngsters actually recognize them for what they are and B) seem to believe that they are something other than dork chariots.

In general, I'm pretty pleased with this new version of the route. The Millers Run--> Avella leg was very pleasant, and the northbound stretch to Midland, while a bit trafficky in spots, was still enjoyable. I'd like to come up with a controleable-within-reason alternative to the Rochester-Zelienople-via-68 segment at some point, though...it's a bit mean for 80+ miles into a ride.

Lessons Learned

Lake boots do a wonderful job of keeping one's tootsies warm. But, fortheluvvaBuddha are they ever heavy over long distances.
It is indeed a brilliant idea to try to thaw one's frozen water bottle by placing it inside one's wind jacket. Unless, of course, it is an insulated bottle...said insulation works in both directions. (Pro tip: tuck the bottle inside the jacket or jersey BEFORE it freezes next time.)
It's okay to utterly lose control over one's caloric intake once in a while. I completely forgot about any form of metered, measured intake after the first 30 miles or so, and just went with whatever my body asked for. In hindsight, that may not have been sustainable for much beyond the bounds of the ride, but it seemed to work well for a 200K. Every ride doesn't have to be managed to a fare-thee-well.

Inaugural FAWOFYW of 2011

2011-03-22T21:20:00.005-04:00

Find A Wheel Or Find Your Way is actually bit of a misnomer, at least until slightly later in the season. It's the Western PA Wheelmen's Tuesday night fast ride out of North Park, and is usually spirited, but no-drop, until at least May. Once the switch gets thrown, though, it's pretty much Katie bar the door...

Anyway, I managed to make it out after work. Fred was leading the ride; myself and Tony were the sole participants, as the weather was cold and threatening enough to dissuade many of the regulars.

'Twas really pleasant...it'd been a while since I had a nice fast group ride, and the riding style was a good change of pace from A) commuting and B) sustainable stupid-distance.

The route was an abbreviated version of the usual; rather than head down State Gamelands and back up Conway Wallrose or Hoenig, we took Mingo to Knob via Pleasant Hill. Skipped Tech 21, too, which no-one seemed too distraught over. ;-)

Nice to blow the cobwebs off. The compact crank worked well, and I've finally gotten all of the fender rub adjusted away, so I guess it's time to trim stays and semi-permanently affix wire for tail light and whatnot. Just in time for the Pittsburgh Randonneurs Spring 200K this Saturday...

Shakedown ride

2011-02-28T09:19:00.005-05:00

The P-38 has been undergoing a mild metamorphosis this winter. Since I managed to ride the old drivetrain into chronically creaking, mis-shifting, skipping-on-every-hill nubs of rusty metal, replacing some of the more consumable bits seemed warranted. And, while I was at it, trying my hand at wheelbuilding, fitting a spiffy stainless steel fender on the rear (rolled edge inside fender makes running wires to tail light much cleaner), and redoing all the lights and wiring seemed like fun too.

The build

For the drivetrain, I broke with long-standing recumbent tradition and ditched the road triple (52/42/30) in favor of a Shimano R700 50x34. Upped the cassette from the prior 11/32 to an 11/34, so the lower end of my range is only slightly higher.

The new rear wheel is a Velocity Dyad laced to an Ultegra road hub. I'm not entirely thrilled with the lacing job; tension on the non-drive side is way lower than I expected, such that I'm wondering if I didn't reverse the spoke lengths when I laced it up. Ah well...we'll see how it holds up for the next few hundred miles before I get worked up over it.

The one bit of unnecessary bling was the fender: a tasty Giles Berthoud number in stainless steel. Of course, now I'm trying to figure out how to find something that sort of matches in 406 for the front fork...

For lights, I went with a Lumotec IQ Cyo and a Seculite 4D. There's brighter stuff available, but I like what I've seen with regards to beam pattern, and I was happy with the older version I've used in the past.

The Ride(s)

Not yet wanting to properly torture-test the poor thing, I took a spin out to Oakmont via Allegheny River Blvd, and back via Freeport Rd. Felt pretty good; although my fitness is definitely lacking, the bike felt pretty solid, and was rolling very well. (Aside: I adjusted the seat to it's maximum recline...probably a 4 or 5 degree difference. Not huge in terms of aerodynamic efficiency, but naught at which to sneeze either.) No shifting/skipping problems at all; the only factor marring things was that, as seems to be my wont, I was getting a good bit of fender rub when applying a burst of power. Hopefully, a bit of tweaking shall resolve the problem.

After my return to town, I recalled that the Major Taylor club had posted an opportunistic ride starting at 2, so I swung over to the North Side and hooked up with Bruce &company. Got to meet a few people In Real Life who I had previously known only through the Bike-PGH board, which is always nice.

To Dos

The job's not yet done: I still need to tweak the fender line and trim the stays, affix reflective bits, and redo the wiring properly. However, I can say that it's riding pretty well. At least on the flat and gentle hills around town, I felt a bit faster than I would expect to be at this time of year, by probably .75 to 1.0 miles per hour. My shifting instincts are off, but I'm sure I'll pick up this compact thing before I break off too many (more) teeth on the cassette.

CTC FAQ

2011-02-25T09:25:00.002-05:00

Just 'cause, I put together a FAQ for Crush the Commonwealth.

Enjoy.

Let me know of any questions, requests for clarification, or suggestions for extra stuff to include.

Larval stage of a tallbike?

2011-02-10T14:45:00.001-05:00

Seen on Carson St.

The Dirty Dozen on WQED

2011-02-02T11:46:00.002-05:00

For those who have not experienced the joy that is the Dirty Dozen, take a look at this special by Rick Sebak.

Cross Training

2011-02-01T13:15:00.002-05:00

From Sledding in Riverview

Repeated hill climbing in snow boots...a nice change of pace from breathing salt and plumbing the depths of slush-filled potholes.

Flock of Cycles

2011-01-31T09:08:00.003-05:00

The urban, social riding group is growing up, going non-profit, and just fired up their website.

Flock currently offers a couple of Friday evening slow-paced social rides, a late-night mellow party ride, and the faster-paced, mildly hilly Midnight Mass. These rides focus on fun, building confidence, and encouraging coexistence with all road users. Tall bikes, portable speaker systems blasting an eclectic mix of audio joy, and the occasional charitable endeavor feature heavily in the group's motif.

"Are you a randonneur?"

2011-01-19T12:05:00.002-05:00

An excellent post from Vik.

CTC 2011 Planning

2011-01-11T10:35:00.011-05:00

It's winter here in the 'Burgh, with another few inches of snow on the way so what better time to fantasize about my plans for Crush The Commonwealth 2011?

I've got some feeble hopes of breaking 32 hours this year, unlike my third-place 37 hours last year, or my first-place 36 hour finish in 2009. So long as I don't screw around at rest stops, maintain a decent pace, and keep my sleep time to a couple of hours, that should be well within my capabilities. If I stay calm through Chambersburg, I may be able to hammer pretty well for the last 150 miles, as the route trends fairly smoothly downhill: ideal for a (*ahem*) dense guy on an aero bike.

With regards to gear, I'm going to try to go a bit lighter this time around. Nothing crazy, but I'll cut down the extra clothing to a spare pair of shorts ands socks, instead of the full change I carried last year. I've got nutrition pretty dialed in at this point: a 4-hour bottle of Perpetuem and 70 oz bladder of water with Camelbak Elixir tabs should get me through each leg. Bike-wise, I'm gonna try out a compact 50/34 crank instead of my prior 52/42/30 triple; by bumping the cassette from an 11-32 to an 11-34, I doubt I'll feel any more pain on the low end than I usually do.

Here's a reasonably accurate route map/elevation plot:

And my basic ride plan:

I wasn't planning on any non-local rides this year, but...

2011-01-06T11:21:00.002-05:00

The Big Wild Ride looks awfully interesting.

August 21st, 1200K through some of the exciting bits of Alaska. Yummy...

Chilly commutes are still worth it.

2011-01-03T13:37:00.003-05:00

This morning, 6:45 AM or thereabouts, on the way to work. 18 degrees and windy.

(Please forgive the craptastic phone camera quality...)

Happy New Year('s Eve)!

2010-12-31T21:05:00.004-05:00

(Yes, I know, it's been months. I was wrong to leave, I'll never do it again, mea culpa, she meant nothing to me...)

After weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, the news that today's forecast included sun and highs in the fifties acted on my winter torpor much like a splash of vinegar acts on a pile of baking soda. Leaping into action, I put out the call to the locals...anyone wanna cap off the year with a nice Red Belt loop?

Dan G., Bill H., and Sean(sp?) answered the clarion call to arms. We congregated at the Jail Trail, then headed over towards Tarentum via Allegheny River Blvd and Freeport Rd. Sadly, I was to find that my oft-postponed drivetrain service had resulted in a state such that I could not really use the lower half of my cassette without disturbing grinding/sawing noises. In addition, the teeth on my chainrings are worn enough that, especially on the middle ring (AKA "the ring I use the most"), the chain has a disturbingly regular tendency to jump off and flail about wildly under load. Ah, well...I've had replacement cassette, chain, and compact crankset sitting in the basement for weeks...guess this means it's time to actually install them. That said, I spent the vast majority of my time in no more than three or four gear combinations; the Red Belt does not have that much variety in terms of terrain, as evidenced by Dan's ability to ride it fixed without visible sign of agony.

The first half of the ride was a bit discouraging, in the "why is the temperature dropping? why is it spitting rain?" sense. However, shortly after Sean had split off to return via North Park, the cloud cover lifted, and we had the delightful experience of being utterly drenched in sunshine for the remainder of the ride. We stopped at the bakery in Sewickley on the return leg, at which point I consumed a truly frightening number of calories in the form of a day-old danish and approximately 24 ounces of peanut butter bar. Thus laden, we decided to omit the delightful climbs through Sewickley Heights and up Mt Nebo, in favor of the traditional flatland return via Coraopolis/Neville Island and the McKees Rocks Bridge.

A very nice ride, all things considered. It's been quite a while since I rode the Red Belt...I think I'll make a point of incorporating it into more of my rides next year.

Many Rivers, DC Randos 600K

2010-06-08T08:28:00.002-04:00

Fun. First day hurt me bad, but lots of fun overall.

Details later.

The Ataxian

2010-05-11T07:53:00.004-04:00

These guys rock. Doing team RAAM with a degenerative muscular disorder? THAT is hard core.

Crush the Commonwealth 2010

2010-05-10T20:58:00.014-04:00

(Now with 30% more E P I C, when compared to last year's edition)

Ride Reports on the CtC blog
Eric's ride report: Day 1, Day 2

Short version

380-ish miles, ~37:30 elapsed time.
Third finisher, behind the Tressler brothers who came in together at an awe-inspiring 34:48.
1 mechanical (flatted)
No physical or emotional harm done.
Much Type 2 fun was had. No, not that type of fun; that type of fun.
The P-38's drive train and brakes are pretty much trashed.

Long Version

The Plan
Not much to it. Make it through the abandoned turnpike tunnels before dark, push through to at least Bedford before sleeping, and wrap up at the Point in under 36 hours. Try to only stop once every 65 miles or so, and keep stops under 15 minutes until the sleep stop.

Prologue, Thursday May 6^th
For some reason, I had decided it would be a spiffy idea to rent a U-haul to transport myself, sundry other CtC participants, and various bikes from Philly to Pittsburgh. So, I rode over through West View and down Babcock to the U-haul place on McKnight. There awaited my glorious steed; a cargo-hauling behemoth, with fuel economy measured in gallons per mile, seating three in discomfort. At least I got it at the 10-footer price.

Threw the P-38 in the back, with a few strategic bungees to keep everything in place, then drove back to my place to load Joh-doh's bike and meet Bill. Bill parked, we threw his bike in as well, then drove over to Shaler to pick up Jim on the way to the turnpike.

The Turnpike itself wasn't bad...we only stopped twice, so made good time. Hitting Philly was unlovely, however, as I'd arranged to meet Joh-doh and Nick at the Amtrak station on 30th and Market. At roughly 5:30 on a work day. In a vehicle roughly the size of Rhode Island. WhatthehellwasIsmoking?

(To digress briefly; driving in downtown Philly makes me, frankly, apeshit. The manner in which people casually block an intersection is appalling; what makes it worse is that said behavior practically forces you to drive like a self-obsessed lump of douchebaggery yourself, in order to make any progress at all. I had to sit through three cycles of the light by the train station, no doubt driving those behind me into fits of foaming rage, before I got pissed enough to do what everyone else was and just wedge myself into the intersection. Meh. A pox upon them all.)

Traffic chaos aside, I got Jim and Bill unloaded, then reunited Joh-doh with his bike. (I had thrown a front fender from my spares stash on there for him, and he seemed quite pleased.) Fought my way over to Manayunk, dropped off the U-haul, precariously strapped my box-of-crap-to-be-shipped-home onto the seat back bag, and pedaled carefully to cousin-in-law Carrie's place a few miles away. She was kind enough to put me up for the night, as well as tolerant enough not to mind me getting up at O-Gawd o'clock on a work day. Although I usually have a great deal of trouble sleeping the first night in a strange location, I had cleverly brought along a tome on developing for and administration of the open-source DotNetNuke Web portal framework, so was yawning in no time.

Day 1, Friday May 7^th
3:15 AM: Amidst various muttered imprecations, I silenced my cellphone's alarm, and blearily prepared for the ride. Poured pseudo-food powder into bottles, plopped pseudo-beverage tablets into Camelbak bladder, pulled on shoes and helmet, pulled off shoes and helmet, pulled on jersey and shorts, pulled on shoes and helmet, and was out the door. A stop at the nearby WaWa for breakfast, then down Ridge to pick up Kelly Drive and the trail into town. Wildlife highlight: a large, healthy-looking fox looked down his nose at me by the river.

4:45 AM: The Bell is mighty deserted. After a few minutes, Jim and Bill arrived; then Dan G. came around the corner and politely informed us that everyone was gathering on the other side of the building. Heh. A few minutes of the usual milling around, then we set off on the neutral rollout to the trail. After, I dunno, 10 miles or so, we'd cleared the confusing bits, so the flag was thrown and suddenly the ride got a little 'spirited'. Myself, the Tressler brothers, and Scott (not riding CtC, but came out to say hi) took the rest of the trail to Phoenixville in the high teens and low twenties.
Got onto the roads and picked up Route S, and the spirited riding continued, until I discovered that the rear end was feeling a little wonky on the turns. Crapola...not 35 miles in, and I've already flatted. Fortunately, I've done this enough that A) it only killed 10 minutes and B) I knew not to stop looking until I'd found the culprit: a tiny piece of wire, roughly 1 gnat's whisker longer than the thickness of my tire, had punched right through and created a lovely pinprick in the tube. Dug out the pliers (don't mock my toolkit...every tool in there "might come in handy some day"), pulled the wire and swapped in a fresh tube, then was back on the road somewhere in the middle of the overall pack. Picked up the pace a bit, and managed to reel in everyone by New Holland (due in no small part to a mechanical on the part of the Tresslers), only to promptly be passed by two groups while I'd stopped at the Getty station for my scheduled refueling. Ah well, the day was yet young....

I kept a good pace across Lancaster and York, until my second stop at the Rutters in East Berlin. Shortly thereafter, the climbing began, roughly at Arendtsville on Rte 234. It's not terribly steep until the end near Caledonia State Park, but it does slow you down a good bit. Finally crested 234 and hit Rte 30 a few miles east of Chambersburg, then enjoyed rush-hour Chambersburg traffic on the way to my third stop at the Sheetz. Stocked up heavily there, as the services would be limited until Breezewood, and both Cowan's Gap and the abandoned turnpike were in the way.

The next leg to Breezewood was actually really nice. To put it into perspective, last year I'd come through here in the opposite direction in darkness; actually being able to see the Gap and the turnpike made it a far more pleasant experience. I do have to confess to a bit of trepidation when approaching the first tunnel; I'd had company for them last year, and was feeling more than a wee bit of boogeyman-in-the-dark jitters as I went in solo. Made it through to Sheetz in Brezewood uneventfully; took a look at the time (roughly 8:30 PM), and decided that I'd just stick to my Bedford rest plan, rather than trying to gut it out to Somerset as I'd been idly thinking to try.

I'm glad I decided not to push, as I'd completely forgotten just how nasty the next few miles would be. The biggest problem, aside from the terrain itself, was one of the few route inconsistencies I found; specifically, the online Route S map specified a left turn, but the sign for Route S at the intersection specified straight. To make things worse, there was a "PA Bike Route Cornucopia" sign, that pointed in the direction of the online Route S map. After dithering, and a couple of bonus miles rolling back and forth, I decided to just follow the Route S signs and not worry about it. Seemed to work out just fine that way.

10:00 PM: Made it into Bedford just as everything had closed, so had to backtrack on 30 to Yet Another Sheetz for dinner. Here, I made my first real nutritional blunder; rather than grab some balanced, healthy, high-calorie, protein-and-carb-laden food, I fell victim to temptation and went with the bag of chips and can of processed dip. I'm quite confident that this led to a serious lack of energy the next morning...Anyway, I strapped my sack o' empty calories to the bike, and rolled up to a lovely $37 stay at the Motel Town House, just a block or two off route in the touristy section of Bedford. Shower, chips and dip, and 20 minutes of heavily edited 'Fight Club' on Bravo, and I was out for the night.

Day 2, Saturday May 8^th
4:00 AM. Not feeling great, but not terribly poorly either, I set out back on the route. Not as cold as I was expecting, fortunately. Maybe I should take off my...and the rain started. Then the temperature dropped. Then the wind hit. And THEN, just a few miles later, the flashbacks to this segment last year began to hit, and I truly understood just how much the next bit was going to suck.

I've said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating. That was a truly soul-crushing segment: the climbing alone was bad, but the high winds, rain, and sub-40 temperatures made it a candidate for Worst 4 Hours On a Bike This Year. The only thing that kept me from throwing in the towel was the realization that I'd have to ride out to civilization to be picked up anyway, so might as well just keep going.

8:00AM: Made it to the Somerset Sheetz, and consumed ludicrous amounts of made-to-order breakfast food while trying to warm up and dry off a bit. I'd reached the point in such rides where I'm getting too eager to tell people where I had started riding and what I was doing, and I noticed that the smiles were starting to glaze and the polite nods of interest were being replaced with slow, careful retreat. So I decided to shut up for a while, and I think everyone was happier as a result.

Reluctantly got back on the road, and (mostly) coasted down Water Level Rd to Rockwood. I still had some feeble hope of cracking 36 hours; that lasted for, perhaps, the first 10 miles on the trail, until I realized that I was so shattered that I could barely push the pedals at 12 mph. I'd like to point out that, to someone with my aversion to limestone, having to endure 90 miles of it at 12 miles per hour is pretty much one of the worst ways to end a ride I can think of.

Regardless, all good(HAH!) things come to an end, and I found myself in McKeesport. Then the next burst of rain hit, and I emitted profanity that was great, and copious, and blasphemous in the eyes of entire PANTHEONS of deities. Then I got over it, briefly enjoyed the new trail and Riverton Bridge, then feebly crept up 837 and back to town. Called Eric from the Point (I have no recollection of the conversation, but I'm sure it happened), and finally rolled down the Ohio and up McClure to home.

Lessons Learned

Under no circumstances shall I ever drive a U-haul or similar vehicle in downtown Philly during rush hour.
I'm pretty good for 12-16 hours of a mostly liquid diet; after that, some solid foods every 4 hours or so keep the system happier.
Don't underestimate the speed-sapping abilities of even the best-packed limestone trails.
The fuel combination I'd tested at Calvin's Challenge, consisting of three Camelbak Elixir tabs in the 70-ounce bladder, plus Perpetuem in the form of two two-hour bottles, worked very well to enable roughly 100km traveled between stops. I rarely had much wastage when cleaning out the bottles/bladder (yes, I rinsed 'em every time I refilled...no desire for foul cooties to grow in the midst of me caloric goodness...), but never ran completely dry, and never had a serious bonk.

Calvin's Challenge

2010-05-04T10:48:00.010-04:00

Short Version
~9 hours, 158.5 miles, 0 mechanical failures, 1 biomechanical/willpower failure
Personal bests: 50 miles at average speed 20 mph, century in 5:30

Gary's Video
Pics on RecumbentJournal
John Foote's Pics
The glamorous life of a race owner

Thanks to Larry, Christine, Jeff, Julie, and all the volunteers and crew for a great event, catering to everyone from lowracers to high-wheelers.

Long Version
The first of May dawned bright and clear...no it didn't. I went to bed the night before to clear skies, but awoke to heavy clouds and thunder rumbling to the west. Got the car loaded, and headed over to the nearby Marathon station so that Annie (my long-suffering crew) and myself could indulge in a caffeine fix before I started the ride. As we emerged, the rain began...

Found our way to the starting point at Shawnee High School; chatted with Travis, Denny, and Tom for a few minutes, whilst I committed the ultimate faux pas and mounted a rear fender on my nominal race bike. Not that the fender helped much, but I like to think that at least the poor suckers trying to draft me may have benefited.

Tom and I rolled to the start just a few minutes before the whistle blew. Larry provided some words of wisdom and other profundities, at least in theory; Tom and I were far enough back that we could have been being addressed by Charlie Brown's teacher, Cajun Man, or Buckwheat for all I could tell. The whistle blew, and we were off!

The first few miles were interesting, as the riders sorted themselves out by initial pace. Wet roads, rain-covered glasses, and lots of red blinkies make for a rather hallucinatory effect; I was quite grateful to break away from the press and assume my rightful place in solo mid-pack splendour. The rain was fairly constant; rarely a deluge, but also rarely less than steady precipitation. Route finding on this first loop was particularly challenging, as many of the directional signs were located under puddles of water. Fortunately, the event workers had mostly stuck to the standard of arrow before the intersection, arrow at the intersection, and arrow after the intersection...I only overshot one turn, and that was more due to excessive speed and wet rims and brakes than anything else. Despite the rain, I finished up the first lap quite comfortably at my target pace of 20 miles per hour.

A quick change of Perpetuem bottle and hydration bladder, 30 seconds of leg stretches, and a banana later, and I was back on the road for the second circuit of the 50-mile loop. Hey, the rain stopped! Wait, what's that Invisible Force Bastard pushing against me? The wind was, uh, unfriendly, and I must confess to a good eight-to-ten miles of serious angst at that point. Fortunately, after passing the halfway checkpoint at South Solon, the wind was less of an issue. However, I had definitely burnt a bit more energy than I should have fighting it; if I'd allowed my pace to drop just a little bit further, perhaps I would A) have had more energy and B) not started my knee's downhill progression.

The third lap was quite pleasant, except for the occasional flare from the knee. I had regained my equilibrium, determined that I was going to shoot for no more than 200 miles, and dropped into my familiar brevet-style sustainable survival mode. My pace was down, but still in the 17 mph range, which was on-target to wrap up somewhere just over 200 miles. By the time I'd rolled back into the school, however, the knee had stopped muttering and was sending up warning flares.

I rolled out on the seven-mile loop anyway; figured I'd give it a shot, and see how things went. After the first mile, it was pretty clear that pushing for 200 would result in more damage than I wished to contemplate, the weekend before defending my CTC title. So, I threw in the towel at hour 9, with 158.5 miles under my belt.

I'm not at all unhappy with the event; first and foremost, it was a chance to give ultras a try without spending a lot of money on training and equipment. I enjoyed myself a great deal, so now I know that I want to pursue it further. It did sting a bit, as I've never dropped out of a major ride before; however, I'm comfortable that I made the right decision.

Geekery
Nutrition and hydration were almost entirely liquid. One three-hour bottle of Caffe Mocha Perpetuem per loop supplied most of my calories, with a 70-ounce bladder of water, doped with Camelbak Elixir for hydration and some electrolyte replenishment. I augmented the electrolyte fluid with two Endurolyte capsules every hour or so, and had a couple packs of Jelly Belly Energy Beans when my stomach requested something solid.

The P-38 was shod in old Stelvios, running 110 PSI. (I had ordered a Durano in 406, and the nifty-looking Ultremo in 700c, but, sadly, my order was sent too late to get them for the race.) Cargo and hydration bladder was carried in a ludicrously oversize RANS seat back bag, which happens to fit a Lightning seat with some gentle persuasion.

I went with a wool base layer, poly jersey, cycling cap, and arm warmers on my upper half; shorts, wool socks, and shoes on my lower. This proved to be just about right for most of the day, although I ended up pulling off the arm warmers on the last lap.

Lessons Learned

Aerodynamics matter (says the dude on the 'bent...). My P-38 was not the optimal steed for this event; certainly not poorly suited, but something with the seat a bit more laid back (say, by an extra 20 degrees or so) would have been a better choice. Methinks a Corsa or something similar is in my ultracycling future; use the P-38 for brevets and lumplander rides, and bust out the highracer for the fast flatties.
Camelbak Elixir tabs seemed to work okay for electrolyte replenishment. The flavor was strong (1 tab per 24 ounces, so 3 tabs in a 70-ounce bladder), as I'm used to HEED, but not objectionable.

Off to Ohio

2010-04-30T09:15:00.003-04:00

Calvin's Challenge beckons. Weather threatens. And I keep second-guessing my choice of several-year-old Stelvios, instead of my good old reliable Marathon Racers.

Ah. well. What can possibly go wrong?

Pittsburgh Randonneurs Spring 200K 2010

2010-04-04T21:07:00.003-04:00

Short Version:
Ah, spring; when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of excessive pedaling.
127.68 miles, 15.8 rolling average, 9:05 elapsed time.

Results
Jim's Finisher Photos

Long Version:
Yesterday was our inaugural ACP brevet, our spring 200K, loosely based on last year's RUSA Thrift Drug Classic 200 route. As a matter of both practicality and mercy, we removed the initial climb up world-famous Sycamore Street, so the initial leg of the route would be significantly less cruel. Bill and myself had scouted the route a couple weekends back, so no surprises were expected.

Seven riders met at Jim's house for the traditional opening festivities: myself, Alan, Dan, Kevin, and Dale all had greater or lesser degrees of randonneuring experience; Anne and Tom were both ready to enjoy their first brevets. I was pleased to see Tom was riding 'bent as well; it gets lonely, sometimes, being the only dude on a recliner on these events.

We stuck together through town and the West End Circle, so as not to lose the out-of-towners in the bowels of dahntahn Pittsburgh. Once we hit Rt 60, the long-ish climb up to Noblestown Rd quickly fractured the group.

As usual, the run to Sturgeon via Noblestown was delightful, as was Finks Run and the detour around Kelso Road's missing bridge via Donaldson and Partridge. I spent the next few miles playing leapfrog with Alan and Kevin; they'd surge ahead on the climbs of Old Steubenville Pike, then I'd power into the lead on the rollers of Potato Garden. We arrived at the sadly-now-closed Buckboard Station on Rt 151, where Dale's wife Pat was kind enough to man the controle. A signed card, refilled bottles, and a couple of delicious cookies later, and we were back on the road. I bid Alan and Kevin a fond farewell at the base of the long climb up 151; I knew darn well that my fat butt was not going to keep anywhere near their wheels on a climb of that duration. No worries; caught up again at the next controle in scenic Chester, WV. I was quite proud of myself: I managed to omit the obligatory giant teapot photograph for once.

From there, we popped across the river to pick up 39, which became 68 once we crossed back into the Keystone State. Nearly 30 miles of 68 later, just past Evans City, a quick right on Brownsdale and a stop at the also-sadly-now-closed Brownsdale Deli info controle led to the ultimate leg of the route. Alan and I had long since lost sight of Kevin, so we rolled the next few miles into North Park together. There, Alan pulled off for a few moments rest; I was smelling the barn, so pushed through to finish up in just over 9 hours. Alan was shortly behind me; Kevin, who should have finished easily under 9 hours, was misled by a cue sheet cue of questionable value to do some bonus miles. Dale, Dan, Tom, and Ann all rolled in around the 11-hour mark. 100% completion rate, and plenty of time cushion for all...a good ride.

The good: Utterly by accident, I ended up doing an almost all-liquid diet, and had no real problems. This bodes well for Calvin's Challenge, where low-residue/high-energy food shall be the order of the day.

The bad: Cramping. Despite my usual steady intake of HEED and Endurolytes, I still had to dial it back a lot for the latter half of the ride. Inner thighs and calves were both trying to lock on a regular basis. In hindsight, I suspect the primary culprit was inadequate hydration for the first half of the ride, coupled with unaccustomed high heat.

The ugly: WIND. Steady/gusty winds for the last 40 miles, mostly direct headwinds. Yeesh...I was feeling the pain, and I shudder to think of how my upright brethren felt. Tom, with his even-more-ludicrously-aero-than-my-bike Bacchetta, reported "barely noticing" the wind. The smug bugger. :-)

2010 Riding Plans

2010-03-05T09:14:00.006-05:00

I'm in the process of determining my riding schedule for the year. As is usual, it's heavily loaded into the May-June-July timeframe. This year, however, the majority of the brevets are local, so I'll have less travel than in previous years.

I will most likely miss the Pittsburgh Randonneurs 300K, as I'm planning to do the LOL1000K that weekend...that's the only conflict I'm really unhappy about.

All is subject to change, of course, but here's what I've got planned thus far:

March

20^th: Pre-ride Pittsburgh Randos 200K, “Thrift Drug Classic”

April

3^rd: Pittsburgh Randos 200k, “Thrift Drug Classic”. A more-or-less repeat of last year's route.

May

1^st: Calvin’s Challenge. My first-ever 12 hour race, and will help me determine if I want to get serious about racing.

7^th-9^th: Crush The Commonwealth. Philly-to-Pittsburgh this year, the harder direction. Got me a title to defend.

22^nd: Pre-ride Pittsburgh Randos 200K, “From Chemicals To Connellsville”.

June

5^th-7^th: DC Randonneurs 600K. Out of Middleton, VA this year. Riding with the DC crew is always fun.

11^th-13^th: RBR Rally. I missed this in 2009, and regretted it. Not a hard-core riding weekend, but a chance to socialize with a lot of folks I see only once a year.

19^th: Pittsburgh Randos 200K, “From Chemicals To Connellsville”. This will be a hard 200K, mostly because "flat" doesn't happen much. At all.

July

3^rd: Pre-ride Pittsburgh Randos 300K, “Converge On Confluence”. An extension of the "Chemicals to Connellsville" 200, this adds a couple of truly delightful climbs: Kentuck Knob and Sugarloaf(twice!).

8^th-10^th: LOL 1000K (Lap Around Lake Ontario). How can I possibly get lost? I'm circumnavigating a lake...

24^th: Pre-Ride Pittsburgh Randos 400K, “Frostburg Folly”

31^st: Pittsburgh Randos 400K, “Frostburg Folly”. Take the first half of "Converge on Confluence", and add Mt Davis (the highest point in PA) to Frostburg, then come back through Meyersdale and Rockwood on thw way to Connellsville.

August

21^st-22^nd: Pittsburgh-???-Pittsburgh, back-to-back 200Ks. East towards Altoona, or west into Ohio, has yet to be determined.

September

11^th: Pre-ride Pittsburgh Randos Fall Rally 200K

12^th: Pittsburgh Randos Fall Rally 200K

Nice busy riding season, especially since this doesn't include training rides, WPW events other than the Fall Rally, the Dirty Dozen, etc.

New blog, lighting preliminaries

2010-02-25T21:04:00.002-05:00

So, I've gotten so enamored of this blogging thing (note: TWO posts this month!!!) that I've started up another one. While I expect a good bit of the content there may cross over into the realm of the velocipede, it's more oriented toward documenting my screwups in various crafty endeavors.

To kick it off, here's a bit of LED fun : ill-advised jiggery-pokery.

2010 Crush The Commonwealth

2010-02-05T20:03:00.002-05:00

And the excitement builds...

But whatever shall I wear?

And the year began with a meh...

2010-01-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

I fully intended to ride the Icycle Bicyle, the traditional New Year's Day ride of the WPW. Out of the house by 10:15; plenty of time to roll down to REI for the 11 AM departure. Rolling into downtown, I exited the Point and, playing the role of law-abiding cyclist to the hilt, stopped at the light and waited for it to turn green. Crossing light goes red, cross traffic (all one car) clears the intersection, I step on the pedal, and take off. Midway through the intersection, I realize that either I've mysteriously dropped into a lower gear than I possess, my hub has decided to swing both ways (so to speak), or my chain has rejected fascist unity in exchange for a regime driven by the needs of the individual links to go their own way and do their own thing. Bugger.

The master link had blown; no big deal, as I habitually carry both a replacement link and a chain tool in my spares bag. Sadly, my New Years resolution to break bad habits apparently extended to said spares habit as well...I had neither replacement link nor chain tool.

It was a lovely hike to REI, and I got to watch the Icycle Bicycle contingent go whizzing by on the Jail Trail.

This bodes well for the new year's cycling...

Banner Year

2009-12-31T07:47:00.003-05:00

For the first time evah, I managed to ride for more miles than I drove my car. ~8150 cycling miles (and that number is low, as I don't get obsessive about logging all of my miscellaneous lunchtime and errand rides) versus ~6600 miles added to the odometer on the Impreza. W00t!

Replacing the Cranberry "drive 50 miles three to five times per week" commute with the South Side "ride 20 miles every day" commute helped a bit in that respect, methinks.

Ah well. Time to bask in a sense of accomplishment. And to attempt to get stoked for the Icycle Bicycle tomorrow morning...

Obligatory end-of-year post

2009-12-29T15:45:00.003-05:00

As 2009 winds down (wonder how many times THAT phrase has been written in the last week?), I find myself reflecting on past, present, and future. Then, after a few moments, the uncontrollable screaming stops, and I ease into a phase of gentle hyperventilation whilst I ponder.

The good
Hmm...let's see. Beautiful baby girl Elaine tops that list; although I hate to admit it, all of my cycling accomplishments kinda pale in comparison.
Putting the family aside (this IS a blog about my obsessive cycling, after all!), there's a lot of things for which I am thankful.

Crush the Commonwealth was a great deal of fun. In some ways, I felt almost like a sandbagger, as, well, most of the participants did not have anywhere near the distance cycling experience that I did. On the opposite paw, there were other randonneurs, MTB enduro guys, and even Real Racer types there too, so I don't feel too bad. And I fully intend to come back next year for Philly-->Pittsburgh to defend my title...
Venturing into the world of the upright bike has been pleasant. I've been commuting on the Bianchi for six months now (and faux-singlespeed for three), including some recent rides in truly delightful wintry conditions. I still wouldn't choose anything but a decent 'bent for rides over, say, 50 miles, but I'm glad to have other options in my skillzet.
The Endless Mountains 1240 was an awesome experience. Most rational people would say that such a cycling endeavor makes no sense; heck, I'd tend to agree. Almost by definition, those of us who enjoy long-distance unsupported cycling are pretty far outside the realm of the norm, even by the definition of the "normal" cyclist. But that's okay, methinks. (It's also nice to push myself that much farther beyond my prior limits, and to realize that I still have more to give if I so choose.)

The bad

I've been doing a poor job as Webmaster of the Western PA Wheelmen...haven't put the energy or attention into it that I should. For next year, I intend to open up the content management portion of the role a bit to others, so I can focus on techie crap while the other club officers publish amusing photos of cats on bikes or suchlike to the front page.

The ugly

Amazingly enough, the Endless Mountains 1240 crops up here too. ;-) Never has a ride shaken my desire to continue randonneuring and ultracycling like that one did. In retrospect, I think it made me a stronger cyclist, as the bar for "how much can you really take" has been raised a significant amount. The bar for "how much do you WANT to take" has actually lowered a bit; pain for pain's sake just doesn't much appeal.
Missing the Dirty Dozen hurt...of course, considering that I missed more than half of my own training rides for one reason or another, it's probably a good thing that I didn't make it out.
I'm already feeling the mantle of fat, out-of-shape wintry pig falling upon my shoulders...if I wish to have any hope whatsoever of doing well in 12-hour racing next year, I need to not let myself slide into corpulent sloth.

The future

A pretty piece of flèche. I have yet to do a proper flèche; as my RBA Jim Logan needs one to complete his R-5000, I think it'd be a good year to do my first one. As it happens, my parents' farm would be a fine starting point for routes to either DC or Eastern PA, so we'll likely be participating in one of those regions' flèches.
Calvin's Challenge is May 1st. While I'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable ("Don't die. Don't bail out early. Only have good hallucinations"), I do still have some feeble hopes of a decent first race. If I can break 240 miles, I'll be ecstatic; 220 miles would make me happy, and I'll be content so long as I break 200. This race is important to me, as it's my first toe-dip into the murky waters of competitive ultracycling; if it goes well, I'll contemplate more serious races such as Sebring or the AD540 or suchlike.
The Pittsburgh Randonneurs club is still in its infancy, and will need a good bit of TLC in the near term. I'm delighted to have a rando organization in my back yard, as it means much less obligatory travel in order to get in a full brevet series. Next year, we'll be offering numerous 200Ks, as well as a 300 and 400 in July.
Paris-Brest-Paris 2011 is on the horizon. I intend to follow a scientific and rigorous program of preparation consisting of A) riding lots of brevets in 2010, and B) that's it.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and best wishes to y'all. I mean yunz. Or yinz. Whatever.

Winter's Here

2009-12-05T21:52:00.002-05:00

And about darn time, sez I.

After a leisurely breakfast, I rode over to the Union Project for I Made It. Of course, being an utter doofus, I neglected to bring the key for my U-lock, so ended up sharing a chain with a gentleman named Rob. Convenient? No, but far better than relying on the combination-locked cable I keep in my bag for emergency locking purposes; said cable lock could probably be cut with a set of nail clippers in a minute flat, much less real tools.

Anyway, my theft-prophylaxis maunderings aside, it was grey, cold, windy, and flurrying snow all afternoon. I loved it. Aside from slightly chilled toes (road spray soaked through the shoes), I pretty much nailed the wardrobe requirements for comfort on and off the bike; never got too hot, or too cold, even if some of the combinations were of dubious quality, vis-a-vis that whole fashion thing.

I'm still rolling on the Vittoria Randonneurs; they did fine in this weather, but I'm starting to think it may be time to break out the 'cross tires, if not bite the bullet and go right to the studs. I also really need to put a darn mudflap on the front fender, to cut back the tire spray on my feet. Note that I've been planning to do that mudflap since I got the Bianchi; I'm starting to feel like the proverbial deep-woods Appalachian denizen with a hole in his roof: "When it ain't rainin', the roof don' leak; when it's rainin', I cain't fix it nohow."

Upcoming plans for the winter: I need to tear down and rebuild the P-38, as it's in pretty sad shape after a hard season of rando abuse. The old Rocket needs to be componentized , cleaned, and stored, until I get around to rebuilding it as some form of urban assault 'bent. I need to start thinking about some form of half-arsed training plan(should work with Mayhew), as I still intend to take a serious crack at a 12-hour race next spring. Oh, yeah, and I need to nail down routes for the Pittsburgh Randonneurs brevet series. And get around to some long-overdue WPW website work. And...

Length isn't Everything

2009-10-26T20:57:00.002-04:00

This weekend, I got back on the 'bent for the first time since the EM1240; I was leading a Dirty Dozen scouting ride, specifically over Sycamore, Welsh Way, Barry-Holt-Eleanor, and Flowers-Tesla.

The first good thing I realized was that, although I'd been off the bike for everything other than commuting for the last few weeks, my legs were in far better shape than I expected. Don't get me wrong, I still climb like a depressed tortoise; but I was a depressed tortoise who wasn't in great pain, even on the last bit of Eleanor. I'm not sure exactly what the difference may be between now and last year; I've got a few more miles in my legs, but I suspect that riding the Bianchi in faux-singlespeed mode for the last couple of months has done good things for my body.

The second good thing I realized, even more importantly, was that I did a measly 28 miles, and had a really good time. I've been doing distance stuff for so long that, well, anything under 100K just doesn't seem like a Real Ride™. It was amazingly refreshing to go out and ride for a couple of hours, have a great time, then go home and have an entire day to spend with family and friends.

I must be getting soft in my old age.

Endless Mountains 1240K, 2009, the uncut version

2009-10-06T11:17:00.024-04:00

Photo by Bill Beck, morning of Day 2, Hallstead. The last time I look anywhere near this perky...

Prologue
One becomes tempted, after a ride of this magnitude, to fancy oneself some form of Icelandic bard or other crafter of epic prose. Much as I'd like to deliver my Endless Mountains 1240 ride report in saga form, I fear that my readers (yes, all three of you) would rapidly lose patience with endless variations on a theme of
Grey was the morn,
And dismal the skies,
As the winter-wulf howled from the West.
Out rode Bill, leader and scribe, garbed all in wool to his eyes.
Followed he was, by numbers dwindling, of comrades weary and vexed.
Etc., etc. So, I shall resist such temptation, and instead blather on in more modern style.

Pictures, Results, etc.
Results
Bill's Photos and Music Video(!)
Maile's Photos
George's Photos
Christine's Photos
EM1240K Blog
Rob Welsh's Ride Report

Day 1: An old familiar friend (This hill AGAIN?)
'Twas the usual drill for the morning of a long brevet; eyes popped open a few minutes before the alarm (okay, they popped open every hour or so all night long, but who's counting?), last-minute bike inspection ("Pedals? Check! Do they spin? Check!"), and down to the hotel lobby to scarf food and chat with other riders. Tom gave us the traditional pep talk, and we were off in a blaze of glory and tail-lights.

The first day's course was more-or-less identical to that of the 1000K from last year, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect: a half-dozen long, tough climbs, interspersed with plenty of shorter ones, plus a lot of rollers to keep things interesting. I figured I'd follow my now-standard protocol, wherein I'd try to ride with the fast group as far as the first controle, then fade back on the climb over Blue Mountain and find my own pace. Sadly, the testosterone poisoning kicked in, and I was foolish enough to nearly burn myself out by keeping pace all the way to the beginning of the Fox Gap climb. I did maintain enough presence of mind to slow down for the 2-mile 1200'+ climb, so was merely hurting at the top, rather than utterly blown. Surprise, surprise, there was a "secret" controle at the summit; probably the worst-kept secret in the history of secret controles, at least if one has ever ridden any of Tom's brevets before. From there, we dropped back down to a crossing of the river in Portland, then over the ridge to the next control in Blairstown, and the next major climb in the form of Milbrook Rd. I like to call this stretch "the demoralizer", as it is a seemingly endless climb, with a fairly evil false summit, followed by a drop to Old Mine Rd and an immediate granny-gear-grind up that next hill. Once past that obstacle, however, the 10 mile passage through the Delaware Water Gap is quite lovely.

I popped into the corner store at Layton to stock up before the drop to Dingman's Ferry, as I knew the Raymondskill Falls climb was imminent.I also remembered how much fun the bits immediately following Raymondskill were, so took it nice and easy all the way to the next controle at Barryville, in the great state of Gnu Yahk. A quick sandwich, and some goofing around in front of George's camera, and it was off on the next leg. This included the Dreaded Carbondale Climb (AKA Mt Salem), which took us to the highest point on the course for the day, followed by a screaming (or at least occasionally yelping), brake-pad-eating descent into downtown Carbondale and the Dunkin Donuts controle. Then, of course, we got to climb OUT of the valley, on our way to a fairly nasty set of rollers and the first sleep controle at Hallstead. I got in just before 9 PM, so enjoyed a luxurious 4.5 hours of sleep.

Day 2: The gathering storm (Knees, mechanicals, and morale)
Bill, Rob, and myself departed Hallstead bright and early at 4 AM. I was feeling ok as we were rolling out, although the sporadic rain was a bit annoying. Soon, however, I noticed that both knees were starting to twinge a bit, then more than a bit. I pulled over into a gas station, took some Aleve, and put on my spare knee warmers under my tights; that seemed to help somewhat. I was more than a bit concerned, however, as knee troubles at mile 220 of 776 is generally a Bad Sign.

Shortly thereafter, I felt the rear end go all catywumpus. Called out "flat" and bid Rob and Bill a fond adieu for the duration, then pulled over to deal with the problem. A bit of forensic work, and , a-HA! A glass shard! I pulled the shard, glued down the patch, re inflated the tube, got back on the road, and ffffffffttttt in less than 5 minutes. Profanity ensued. More forensics determined that there had been two glass fragments in close proximity; the one I had removed was probably not the first culprit, but the one I hadn't seen most assuredly was. Pluck/patch/inflate/replace/back on the road. 10 minutes later, "Gee, the handling is getting sloppy back there." Off the bike, inspect tire, find mushiness of great degree. More profanity ensued, at slightly greater length and significantly higher volume. Forensics ensued, and detected no immediate leaks, so I broke down and threw in a new tube. Inflate/replace/back on the road, to the same sinking mushy feeling in less than 10 minutes. Yet more profanity, this time in a continuous low-voiced stream even before the bike had come to a complete halt. Forensics ensued...briefly. I had neglected to screw the Presta valve cap back down, and it appears to have stuck in a slow-leak open position. That, at least, was an easy fix.

Finally, I was back on the road to Sayre. The knee pain and flats, plus rain, had done a number on my morale and my performance; while this was a lovely flat stretch, and a great opportunity to make up some time, I was deeply enough in a funk that I simply couldn't bring my speed up over the high teens. Then, probably due to the rain and road dirt, the rear brake started rubbing badly, and I darn near chucked the bike off an overpass in disgust. I was NOT a happy camper by the time I limped into Sayre, so I stopped at the first convenience store I found to console myself with food. Utterly by accident, this was exactly the right thing to do, as my mood improved dramatically within 5 minutes of shoving a couple of breakfast sandwiches into my gaping maw. In hindsight, I realize that part of my mood was probably due to insufficient solid food; contrary to the experiences of many, I tend to ride much more happily with a well-lined stomach. I had successfully experimented with mostly liquid on-bike nutrition on several 150-milers over the summer, so had assumed that it would work well on longer rides. Live and learn, I suppose.

From Sayre, I maintained a steady pace through Towanda and a few climbs to the controle at Dushore. I wasn't feeling great either physically or mentally, but had gotten back to a state of equilibrium that I could maintain indefinitely with sufficient care. This was good, as the bit from Dushore to Canton was a fine test of that equilibrium; Rte 154 is a very exciting road on which to cycle, with its' 20%+ climbs and its' screaming blind-curve technical descents. Regardless, the trip to Canton was made without serious damage to my Zen-like state of serenity.

In Canton, I made sure to eat a bit more solid food, as my memories of the next stretch indicated that it was going to be about 15 miles of really rough rollers and climbs. before getting to Liberty and the long descent into Little Pine Creek. Surprisingly, I was feeling pretty strong at this point, and powered through this stretch with nary a moment's dismay. Heh...except for the dogs. I almost forgot the dogs. There was a little pack of three farm dogs hanging out by the road, obviously interested in harassing passing cyclists. Two were apparently merely bored, and looking for something to chase; the third, who appeared to be a mix of Greyhound, Rottweiler, and (in my fearful state) Brontosaurus, was a little more intent on putting teeth to lycra. I wasn't TOO concerned, as they accosted me at the top of a decent valley, and there isn't a dog alive who can keep up with a fat guy on a 'bent _starting_ a descent at 20 miles per hour. Then I hit the other side of the valley, maybe a quarter-mile away, glanced in my mirror, and realized that Rover the Bionic Dog was only 50 feet back and had achieved missile lock. When Pennsylvania's answer to the Hound of the Baskervilles had taken the first snap at my left thigh, I discovered that yes, recumbents can climb hills at speed. The only parts of my body touching the bike were hands on bars, feet on pedals, and shoulders pushed into seat, which, while not sustainable, is a lovely way to put a bit of extra grunt into climbing a 15% slope in the big ring. Finally, after a couple more snaps, Fido dropped back, or maybe his batteries ran down or something.

The rest of the day was uneventful; hard as blazes, but in that very familiar "ho-hum, a 5-mile steady climb followed by 12 miles of sawtooth rollers" sort of way. Rolling into the Lamar controle at just before midnight, I was tired, but still feeling good about the ride. Little did I know...

Day 3: OMFG. Hardest day on the bike I've ever had, bar none. (Fog, rain, abandon?, exhaustion, treehouse)
Lemme just say that, in hindsight, there was no one thing that made this day really tough. The combination of a lot of things led me closer to abandoning a ride than I've ever gone before; sheer stubbornness was the only thing that got me through this (27-bloody-hour) day of riding.

I departed the Lamar controle just before 5 AM, after a whopping 2.5 hours of sleep. A chilly fog had set in, making early morning navigation spectacularly difficult; fortunately, the route was not too complex at this point, so dull wits and fogged eyes were up to the task. I winced when I read the cue to turn on a Long Run Rd, however, as the combination of the words Run (usually denoting a valley with a stream cutting down through it) and Long (usually denoting, well...) bodes poorly. Boy did it ever.

After an icy-cold descent on the far side of the ridge, plus a nice game of leapfrog with John and Dan Fuoco on the way to the Loganton post office controle, we found ourselves rolling towards Boalsburg. Then the rain set in. For the first time.

Much of the day was a blur; it was chilly, and hilly, and I'd already punched out 500 miles in the last 2.5 days. I spent much of the rest of the day riding with John and Dan, who were quite congenial company; we had all pretty much hit the same state of disconnection from reality, which manifested itself mainly in slow, steady-paced riding (or "dieseling", as my friend Rob likes to call it). We made it through the next controles without incident, then added Craig Martek to our merry band, just as the REAL rain set in. For bloody hours.

After several of us started feeling hypothermia settling in, we set up camp at a Sunoco in a feeble attempt to dry off and warm up. We're talking catastrophically soaked to the bone, uncontrollable shivering, no dry garment amongst us, just about ready to throw in the towel. Actually, the prospect of abandoning was discussed very seriously; finally, we decided to ride to the next controle, a 24-hour Dennys, where we could stay as long as we needed, and where several EM1240 volunteers were waiting.

The rain had mostly slackened off when we reached Dennys, and it was *only* another 60 miles to the overnight controle, and *only* midnight or so, so pushing on seemed like the done thing. I'm glad we did, but that ride through the night was naught but a haze of fatigue for me. I ended up having to pull over twice for catnaps, as I was no longer capable of keeping the bike in a straight line. The first time, John and i found a wooden picnic table so long as to allow us both to sleep comfortably; the second time, John rode on, while I curled up in a kid's tree house structure on a lot full of Amish-built sheds and outbuildings. Less than refreshed, but at least less dangerous, I limped my slow and sorry way to the final overnight controle at Pine Grove. I arrived at 7 AM, as dawn was breaking, 27 hours after leaving Lamar. Shattered, utterly shattered.

Day 4: Homestretch
After a whopping 90 minutes of sleep, I dragged my sorry carcass out of the room and down to the lobby. Peering blearily around, I noticed vaguely food-shaped objects arrayed on a counter, and concluded that I should consume some of them. I'm pretty sure I did, but, to my dying day, I will never recall what they were. While absentmindedly shoveling food into my face, I had the chance to chat with Steve Scheetz, whom I hadn't seen since the PA 1000K last year. I think we talked about the upcoming route, although it could have just as easily been a conversation on the relative merits of death metal versus grindcore for all I recall. I think I've successfully conveyed the idea that I was less than mentally acute at this point, so will cease beating that particular drum.

Signed out with the volunteers, handed over my room key, and I was on my way. Rolled out the door and was struck full between the eyes by an unfamiliar sight, blinding sunlight. Although painful to my solar-deprived retinae(sp?), that worked better to produce awareness than a cup of coffee poured down the front of my chamois. Ah, light. Warmth. Not wearing tights, knee warmers, and base layer for the first time in days...what luxury!

Buoyed by the delightful weather, I made good time on the way to the one and only intermediate controle of the day, a Sheetz in New Holland. Pedaling through the gentle rollers of Lancaster County in the morning sun was exactly what I needed, and I maintained a reasonable pace for the next few hours.

As I approached the homestretch, however, the knee pain with which I'd been struggling all ride started flaring up badly. At Morgantown, as I left Amish country behind, the left knee started grumbling; by the time I headed into the approach to Harmonyville and made the mistake of powering up a particularly steep incline just after a metal-grate bridge, it was in full-fledged revolt, with only 25 miles to go! I had a good eight hours before the time cutoff, so I popped a couple of Aleve and dialed way back on the effort.

Fortunately, the rest of the route back was fairly familiar, from previous brevets in the 2008 PA series. I had hoped to make it back before dark, but ended up slowing a great deal by the time I hit Swamp Creek Road, so it and the last few miles of back-roads navigation was done in darkness. Regardless, I pulled into the hotel lobby at 8:10 PM, the eighth finisher, less than 5 hours behind first finisher and all-around-good-guy Randy Mouri.

Lessons Learned
Happily, I can say that there were very few negative lessons on this ride. At the risk of tooting my own horn, I've done this enough now, and trained well enough over the past few months, that I really didn't do too much that was wrong.

That said, I did a poor job of sticking to my plan on the first day. I should have eased off after the Blue Mountain climb as planned, rather than trying to hang with the fast group through Fox Gap. I also should have been a bit more careful about solid food intake; until the morning of Day 2 in Sayre, I was mostly running on gels, beans, Heed, and Perpetuem, and I think my system gets unhappy and weaker than it should be with more than 150 miles or so of such a diet.

In the future, I think I want to try a more minimalist approach; I carry a lot of stuff, and it'd be nice to see if I can simplify and trim the load down by 5-10 pounds. For that matter, trimming 20-30 pounds off ME would be a fine idea for future endeavors.

Epilogue
This was a tough ride for me, but not for the obvious reasons. I expected a hard route, and I expected mechanical problems and sleep deprivation and suchlike; heck, I even expected to go through at least one long physical and/or emotional bad patch every day. I thought the weather might be poor in spots, even if I didn't quite realize how poor. But what I didn't expect, because it's never happened to me before, was that I really didn't have fun for much of the ride. For whatever reason, my heart wasn't in it, so I had to substitute sheer stubbornness (and end-goal Ben & Jerry's visualization games! Thanks, Maile!) for actual desire to be riding.

Do I feel a sense of accomplishment, and of pride? Yeah, I do, and I'm glad I didn't give up. Also, I'm willing to wager that, given a few weeks for the sharp edges of memory to be softened into nostalgia, I'll be eager to do such things again. Now, though, the thought of a multi-day brevet is less than appealing; I think I need to be done with such things for a few months. Fortunately, this aversion does not extend to fast day rides and 12-hour races and such...I'm still excited about the idea of training for and riding in Calvin's Challenge next year.

All in all, it was worthwhile. I can't thank Tom, or the Helpful Horde of volunteers, enough for their efforts; their example leads me to believe that I need to do a bit more for the sport than brevet route design and bicycle inspection duties. Anyway, thanks again to Tom and the crew...you couldn't have done more to make my first 1200 a good one.

Endless Mountains 1240k, 2009 (short version)

2009-10-04T20:54:00.003-04:00

"Needless Mountains"
...
"Endless Misery"
...
"I did the EM1240, and all I got was this lousy head cold?!?"
...
"The hardest ride I've ever done, by far. " Yeah, that one works.

Here's the short version, as I'll need time to collect my shattered thoughts before typing up the long(er)-winded version. I started with the first group at 4 AM on Wednesday, and finished up solo a bit after 8 PM on Saturday. 780 miles (counting the odd detour), 3 flats (two due to glass, one to my own idiocy, ALL within 30 minutes of each other), no injuries beyond minor contact point abrasions, and a grand total of 88:10 from start to finish.

The route was just about as hard as I expected; the weather was far, far worse (as the ~50% DNF list can attest); and the staffing and organization was unparalleled in my experience. Heck, of all the things to say about this event, probably the single most important is to thank the teeming throngs of volunteers who made the intolerable bearable, and who were bound and determined to make sure that no rider had to think about anything other than turning the pedals over. You guys rocked.

More later.

Car(nage) up!

2009-09-18T15:51:00.006-04:00

(Here in sunny southwestern PA, the phrase "car up" is frequently heard on club rides to indicate oncoming motor vehicles. This is me trying and failing to come up with a clever title that indicates approaching mayhem.)

The Endless Mountains 1240K is only a couple of weeks away. I think this means I'm supposed to begin spazzing, oh, any old time now. I've bought lots of consumable stuff, I've made lists of this and that and things to do and things to pack and travel schedules and detailed plans to make plans and, oops, haven't really ridden as much as I probably should have and I haven't kept up with my schedule or checked everything off my lists. And ya know what? I'm actually feeling good about this ride, mostly in spite of the preparatory rushings-about. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.

Cameos from Mssr. Franken aside, I realized recently that I've long since gotten past the point of "can I do this?". I can do this. I won't be anywhere near the fastest, but so what? I get to ride my bike for four days through some gorgeous country, probably with the trees donning their autumnal colours; I get to chat with old friends and new; I get to push my body to perform as hard as I want to, but with the understanding that I don't have to push that hard to complete.

I've decided that I'm not going for a fast time on this. Per my experience with this year's 600K, planning to maximize sleep and enjoyment, rather than maximize clock time, seems like the way to go. (Besides, following that strategy resulted in a time only a couple of hours slower than my "fast 600" the year before, so why not?) Will I try to hang with the fast folks? Sure, sometimes, when the mood takes me; it's not like I'll be shooting for my Cyclos Escargots award. However, I don't want to get all wound up in time concerns, at least not for my first grand randonnee. Let's finish strong and finish smiling...

It looks like we've got 50+ riders at this point, and the latest route (and map/profile) has been posted. Tom (PA Randonneurs RBA) has set up a blog for ride progress updates: watch here to see the gruesome details in real(-ish) time, or check the summary board here.

It's been a while...

2009-08-20T15:03:00.002-04:00

Although I usually despise the "sorry I haven't posted" post, it has been over a month. So, here's the obligatory feeble excuse. (In other words, if I have severely limited time, I'd rather ride than write about riding...imagine that!)

I've been a bit buried in work recently. We're on the verge of releasing this, so of course all is chaos in the realm of software/hardware integration. :-) It's going to be a really great product, methinks, and I'm proud to be working on it. I'll be even prouder when it goes out the door...

Ponderings

2009-07-09T21:03:00.003-04:00

Random brain dribblings, anyway.

I'm starting to feel this weird, OCD-ish need to plan for next year. Yeah, I know, it's only bloody July, and I still have a few things queued up for this year (scouting brevet routes for next year, a populaire, a "gentlemen's race", a RUSA 200K, the Dirty Dozen, and, oh by the way, a 1240K ride in the Endless Mountains), but there's this irrational feeling of *I* *MUST* *PLAN*.

The obvious rides, of course, are those of the Pittsburgh Randonneurs series. If I intend to do PBP in 2011, I'll maximize my chances of admission by doing a full series in 2010. I'd like to do a brevet in Eastern PA and in DC as well as the Pittsburgh ones, just for keeping in touch with the respective locals; perhaps combining said brevets with family vacations would not go amiss.

Crush the Commonwealth was a lot of fun this year, and, now that I've got a record to defend, I'd feel like all kinds of wuss if I didn't come back for the harder ride, East to West.

I'd like to try another 1200, perhaps the Shenandoah, if it can be arranged. That one isn't as important to me, however, and could be discarded if time/money/vacation days grow short.

D2R2 has some appeal; every since Brian alerted me to its existence, the thought of challenging that route on the P-38 has been rolling around in my head. It'd be utter lunacy, of course, but what's wrong with a bit of lunacy now and then?

I'm becoming more and more interested in the ultracycling/racing side of the sport as well. Still not to the point where solo RAAM seems like a good idea, but Calvin's Challenge and/or a cross-state record attempt could be a lot of fun. This area of focus would be the biggest thing for which I'd have to plan, as it would involve actual fitness (time to drop 20-25 pounds), training (no, riding to and from work doesn't count, at least not the way I do it now), and maybe even some honest-to-Betsy coaching, as well as thinking seriously about an actual ultra race bike like this or this. Or this, but now we're in the realm of wildest fantasy, and I need to be good enough to EARN a bike like that, not just buy one.

I dunno...will need to mull over what's most important, as there's no way I can do all of this stuff next year.

Digging KOAL with the Wheelmen

2009-07-05T16:38:00.003-04:00

KOAL == King Of All Loops. (Don't ask, not my idea, had nothing to do with it, NOT thinking of doing a route called "King's Mother" in response...)

The day started off terrifyingly chilly, considering that it's the first week in frickin' July. Not a bad thing; it was kinda novel to break out the arm warmers for the first time in weeks, at least for the morning ride to North Park.

There, a good few dozen riders had gathered; a dozen or so on the "fast ride" of the 70-mile loop, another dozen on the "slow ride", and a whole bunch on the 45-miler. I made the mistake of trying to hang with the likes of Chris and Mark; darn good fun, but it's a much better idea to get my head handed to me on a 35-mile training ride than a 70-mile road ride. Oops.

Fun ride, all things considered. Here's the route, preserved for posterity.

A new friend

2009-06-27T21:04:00.007-04:00

Yes, it's true. I have an upright. :-)

I purchased a lovely used Bianchi Castro Valley from Joe last weekend, and have put about 110 miles on it during my commute this week thus far. Reasonable gearing (8 speeds, sufficient for me to get up to a decent speed on the flats, and to crawl up McClure at a snail's pace); dynamo hub paired with an IQ Fly (astoundingly nice headlight, compared to the DLumotec I've been using on the P-38), and a Shimano bar-end shifter paired with a Paul's Thumbie mount on Nitto Promenade bars. Oh, yeah, and XTR brakes with which I've already fallen in love. Some dings, some rust, but hey, it's a commuter.

So, why? Why, I hear you ask? Well, there are various reasons. First and foremost, the RANS Rocket on which I commute is in dire need of some love. The seat's about shot, the drivetrain is in less-than-stellar shape, and the frame could use a bit of paint or powder to prevent a terminal case of corrosion. I have a plan for a rebuild, but it's going to take a while to gather all the needed bits. It made sense to drop a few bucks on a machine that I could use ASAP, rather than rush the Rocket rebuild. Secondly, I've been wanting a decent upright for a while. Never having ridden one to any great extent, it seemed like a fun break from the 'bents, as well as an easy way to make use of accessories for the kiddies like Trail-a-bikes that are significantly harder to get working with the 'bents. That said, I have no intentions of leaving the recumbent fold...I'm merely expanding my horizons...

It's been an interesting week, full of discovery, adventure, and (a new experience) saddle discomfort. Things I like: the height, and ability to stand tall on the pedals to see from a more altitudinous vantage point; the handling, as it seems to work well with my drunken-monkey pedaling style; the ability to stand and power on the cranks for short periods is all kinds of spiffy. Things I dislike: the height, as it feels like I'm on a frickin' circus bike; the saddle, as my nether parts are not exactly inured to such pressures; and, although it may sound odd, the fact that most people could just hop on and ride off.

I'm already thinking about some changes: Joe supplied the bike with lots of extra bits, including the original drop bars, and experimentation has shown me that I feel more comfortable bent over a bit farther than the Promenades and current riser encourage. I'd have to drop a few bucks on some Tektro levers capable of pulling my XTR brakes, but that's a fairly trivial expense. Also, although I'm not going to jump the gun for at least a couple of hundred more miles, I may well invest in a Brooks saddle.

My lack of mad skillz must be addressed forthwith. I need to work on a couple of major areas, including one-handed operation (gotta be able to carry the coffee cup), slow-speed (okay, all-speed) turns, bunny hops and curb climbing, and graceful mounts and dismounts (it ain't pretty, believe you me!). Most of this will come with practice; it's just very odd to be a confident and moderately fit commuter, with minimal handling skills on the bike in use. I'm liking it, though...it has really added a lot of joy to turning over the pedals this week. Not that cycling is tedious, but it's nice to shake things up once in a while.

An old friend

2009-06-27T15:36:00.003-04:00

(This post was almost entitled "Riding an Old Friend", but careful reflection convinced me otherwise.)

I was feeling mellow, uncreative, and unambitious today, so I skipped the LHORBA Mt. Davis Century (just didn't feel like getting up at 4:30 AM), and did a variation on one of my old favorite loops. I chose to add Charles St, mostly because I was halfway down Brighton by the time I decided where I was going, and Chuck St is a nice way to warm up the legs.

I haven't ridden Rochester in quite a while, and Nicholson-Roosevelt has been neglected since I stopped commuting home from Cranberry. It was nice to revisit climbs that used to bring me to the brink of tears, and find that they really weren't that big a deal anymore.

It was also interesting to get all kitted up and go out for less than three hours. I've been so enmeshed in this all-day/multi-day rando lifestyle that I'm starting to forget that it's entirely possible to have a very nice ride without crossing a state line or needing to eat my body weight in gels and bananas.

Heh

2009-06-24T21:56:00.000-04:00

Jeff Mallett rocks.

DC Randonneurs Frederick 600K

2009-06-18T20:43:00.007-04:00

On Saturday, June 13th, and Sunday, June 14th, I enjoyed the 600K brevet out of Frederick, Maryland, offered by the DC Randonneurs. Although I missed their 200K (darn inconvenient childbirth thing!), I had previously ridden their 300K out of Warrenton, and the 400K also out of Frederick, so wrapping up the series with their 600 seemed logical. Well worth the drive.

Bill Beck's Photos
Maile Neel's Photos
Ed Felker's Photos and Ride Report

Short Version
375+ miles, rolling average of 16.2 mph, zero mechanicals, minimal profanity, lots and lots and lots of fun. Big thanks to Bill for running the show, Lynne for designing a rockin'-cool route, and the rest of the volunteers who made it happen.

Personal best: more than 6 hours of downtime in the middle of a 600K. That felt gr-r-r-r-ATE.

Long Version
Being the altruistic sort that I am, getting up an hour early to help out with bike inspection seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea. Of course, when the alarm(okay, alarms: wakeup call, cell phone, travel clock, and shock collar) went off at 2:15 AM, the wisdom of this course seemed somehow to pale a bit. Regardless, I poured myself out of bed, chugged the Starbucks FrappachinaMochaCaffeBeverage that I'd cleverly purchased the night before, prepped the bike, and staggered out into the night. "So late that it's early" is something that I've never quite mastered, but can usually fake pretty well.
Bike inspection was fun; it was a great opportunity to meet athletic people and check out their racks, so to speak. As always, the variety of bikes on the brevet delighted me; everything from weak-at-the-knees titanium Indy Fab glory to heavy steel tourers; from high-end folding Bike Fridays to recumbents laden with bags, bells, and gizmos.
A few encouraging words from RBA Bill Beck, and we were off. Significant portions of the 65 miles to the first control were familiar from the 400K two weeks prior, although reversed. It was particularly pleasant to do the gradual climb up Shippensburg, then plummet down PA233, rather than the rather painful climb along the reverse course.
We in the lead group were making pretty good time; darn near 17 mph average, which put us at the first controle, the Kings Gap Store, before its opening time at 7 AM. After a few minutes sitting and enjoying the culinary delights of Energy Beans and peanut butter crackers, it was time to get back on the road.
I was feeling pretty perky, so ended up going off the front after a bit. Eventually, the Chuck and Crista Tandem-driven Express Train appeared in my rear mirror, so a fun game of rabbit and greyhound was on. They eventually reeled me in, but I'm happy to say it took 'em quite a while ;-)
At the next control, it became apparent that a proper refueling stop was in order. The Main St Cafe in Mercersburg provided wedgies, sandwiches, ice-cold Pepsi in massive quantity, and a nigh-endless stream of pitchers of ice water. Upon leaving the controle, we were trapped on the wrong side of the street for almost 15 minutes by a mammoth motorcycle rally of some form, complete with police escorts, traffic marshals, matching tee-shirts, and a few half-wits who felt it was the height of comedy to make pedaling motions with their legs at us.
From Mercersburg, we proceeded on. The heat of the day was growing a bit oppressive, so a stop at the Battleview Market in Gettysburg for hydration and ice cream seemed in order. Our path then led across the Potomac and into Shepherdstown, West Virginia, en route to a miserably hot climb up Snickers Gap on Route 7, and the controle at the Pine Grove Restaurant. The pain of the climb was soon forgotten, as vast quantities of pulled pork barbeque were supplied. After a wholly inadequate digestion time, we set off on the final 50-mile leg back to the hotel. Arriving before dark was a delight, as no 400K in my experience had ever ended so quickly. Deciding not to depart until 4 AM the next day was equally delightful; it was quite liberating to decide that setting a personal best for time was simply not that important on this ride.
Sadly, I slept like crap; however, I still departed the next morning feeling far, far better than I would have otherwise. This was to prove crucial to my well-being, as, well, the climbing on the 200K loop was a lot more vigorous than that on the 400K. I believe the phrase "200' rollers" was used, and the description was pretty darned apt. The Pigeon Hills region of York County was beautiful, and Scenic, and ground me into the dirt in short order. Thankfully, Chip, Chuck, and Crista were less beaten down than I, and I managed to cling for dear life to their collective wheel. Ok, to be honest, I barely managed to keep them in sight for much of that stretch, but having them to focus on kept me going much better than I would have on my own.
We finally arrived back at the hotel in early afternoon, to be greeted with a lovely picnic by the pool. A liter of caffeinated beverage and a hot shower later, and I was feeling human enough to socialize for a bit. Then, somehow, I managed to pass out face down on the bed in my room, and completely missed out on the post-ride group dinner. Ah, well...guess I just need to head back down for another brevet, and another opportunity to chill with the DC folks. Darn!

Lessons Learned

Taking an extra 2 hours of total elapsed time in exchange for 6 hours of extra downtime 'twixt the 400 and 200K loops is so very, very worth it.
The combination of Heed, Perpetuem, and Jelly Belly Extreme Sport Beans (no, I'm not kidding), plus real-ish food every few hours, works very well for me. No problems with digestion, cramping, weakness, or dehydration to report; also, as a pleasant change from all of my long rides this year, no real lull or down period.
NOT having to deal with one or more flats on a ride makes me a much happier man.

Dirty Dozen hills are more fun after a metric...

2009-06-07T18:45:00.004-04:00

...That was the theory, anyway. The astute reader, possessing even the most cursory knowledge of Pittsburgh's Dirty Dozen, can probably guess how that turned out.

Myself, Scott, and Alan rode out from the Vault at the positively luxurious hour of 7:30 AM. We headed out along California through Bellevue, Avalon, and Emsworth (changing street names every three blocks or so), then picked up Rt 65 to Sewickley. I suppose we could have done the traditional route via McKees Rocks, Neville Island, and Coraopolis, but the McKees Rocks Bridge is closing in a few days anyway, so we might as well get used to alternate routes to that part of the world.

In Ambridge, we picked up the Red Belt and pushed our way out to Tarentum, then back towards town via Freeport Rd. Nice ride; average speed over 17 mph for the first 60 miles, which is a darn good pace for me (I tend more towards the "let's do 14-15 for the next 200 miles" school of ride pacing.) In Aspinwall, we hung the ralph on Center. I rapidly discovered that, yes Virginia, riding a spirited 65 miles first makes Center hurt a Whole Lot Worse than usual. I took it with my usual utter lack of aplomb, dropping into my bottom gear and creeping up the hill in nicely gastropodial (sic?) fashion. The usual *ahem* rollers *ahem* on the way to the plummet into Sharpsburg were also a bit painful...

In Sharpsburg, we paused to rehydrate at the Quicky-Mart clone on 4th. We ended up spending a few minutes assisting a gentleman named Dean, whose mountain bike was decidedly squishy in the rear-tire regions. Dean lacked tools and expertise, so we took the opportunity to dispense patch kits and tire-changing wisdom in roughly equal measure. Then, off to Ravine for another joyous ascent. Scott and Alan rapidly became dots on the hill in my star-spangled peripheral vision; I, on the other hand, decided to shoot for bare survival and a more *ahem* leisurely *ahem* cadence.

Appropriately enough, I chose to bury my plans for two more hills when I reached the cemetary at the top of the climb. It was hurting enough that, frankly, I doubted my ability to complete Berryhill and High without potentially doing damage to myself that would affect the impending 600K this coming weekend. Alan and Scott, strangely enough, didn't seem to mind the idea of skipping the last two hills in the least.

Scott set off for home; I took Alan down to at least see Berryhill and High, on the way back to town to meet the family for the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

I was Just Riding Along, when...

2009-05-25T20:40:00.004-04:00

...this happened.

This is the boom tube of my P-38, the extendable bit in the front which houses bottom bracket, cranks, front derailleur, and, oh, all manner of other useful bike-related widgets.

The large crack, which occupies roughly 3/4 of the circumference, is not a standard feature.

I was out for a nice Red Belt ride today; headed out to Ambridge via the usual Neville Island-->Sewickley-->Beaver St route, then up the Belt. Nothing terribly crazed planned for the day; I figured I'd see how I was feeling by the time I hit Saxonburg Blvd, then decide whether to head back to town or continue out to Tarentum before returning. Mostly, just a chance to stretch my legs, shake down the new Marathon Racers I'd installed last night, and enjoy some truly fantastic weather. Plan went off without a hitch, until about three miles short of Culmersville...

I'd noticed a subtle waver in the big chainring, and was wondering if I'd somehow managed to bend it, when it suddenly ceased being subtle. With a sickeningly smooshy feel of bending metal, the bottom bracket shell went sideways, and the big ring had locked itself against the side of the boom; the chain was stationary, and I was involuntarily freewheeling in a mild state of bemusement. Fortunately, this was on the flat, and no traffic nearby, so it was merely a matter of a quick stop and a rummage through my store of lesser-used profanity.

Called home and begged for help; second time this year, which is a bit unusual for me, and I sincerely hope it doesn't become a trend. Started hiking towards Culmerville, and actually quite enjoyed the stroll in the sun. Met Deena and the kids at Popeye's convenience store, and headed home.

It will be interesting to see if I can arrange a replacement or repair in the next few days, as I'm scheduled to ride the DC Randonneurs 400K this weekend. I really, really hope I don't have to try to use my commuter (AKA the RANS Rocket, AKA the less-than-well-maintained beater, AKA the seat is falling apart) for that ride. We'll see what happens.

Crush the Commonwealth 2009

2009-05-11T21:36:00.012-04:00

Edited to Add:
Fxdwhl's Photos, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday reports
dhd's ride report
Eric's results list

Short Version
Started 5:20 AM on Friday the 8th of May at Point State Park, with somewhere between 20 and 30 other riders. 390-ish miles and 35:64 later, I was first finisher at the Liberty Bell, and had well and truly shattered the previous record in the mid-40s. Rolling average was 14.5, time on bike was approximately 27.5 hours. One extended stop (4 hours) in Chambersburg, a couple of half-hour stops for meals, and probably a dozen 10-15 minute stops for fluid (either intake, output, or both) and quick refreshments.

Awesome ride. Hurt a bit, but awesome.

Long Version
My sweet, wonderful, endearing, noise-monkey of a daughter managed to restrict my sleep to roughly 3 hours before the ride began (for the n^th night in a row), so I will confess to feeling a bit behind the proverbial eight-ball before the ride began. Being the stalwart rando-nerd that I am, I got up, indulged in a heavily buttered bowl of oatmeal and pint glass of sugared, lemony Lapsang Souchong, then staggered out to the garage to mount up. Last minute check: triply redundant lighting systems, enough spare layers to keep me warm down to below freezing, spare parts up to and including brake and gear cables, and about 3000 calories of bars, gels, beans, and energy drink mixes. Hmmm...my fleet-footed steed felt more like a cart horse at this point, but I decided to pretend that I was just tired, rather than suffering from advanced Kitchen Sink Syndrome.

Headed down to the Point; was one of the first arrivals, but for Ben from DC. Amusingly enough, I was wearing the DC Randonneurs jersey that I'd earned during the 300K the prior weekend; Ben apparently rides with them on a regular basis, so was more than slightly surprised to see the club colors at 5 AM in Pittsburgh. We were shortly joined by Jeremy, down from Chicago. (Apparently there were two Jeremys from Chi-town, but I only met one, so I'll not assign them nicknames or numbers or anything like that.) As it turned out, Ben, Jeremy, and I were to spend much of the first day together.

More riders poured in over the next few minutes; at least a couple of dozen were milling around by the time we departed at 5:20. A quick jaunt over to PPG Place to pick up potential stragglers, and we were off on the neutral roll to McKeesport. It became rapidly apparent that we had riders with a wide range of average speeds, so Ted and I made the executive decision (i.e. "We're in front, so we decide") to stop at the gas station in McKeesport to regroup. From there, we headed to the trail, then did a final "social regroup" at the Boston trail head. Quite a few of the faster folks in the front were champing at the bit by this point, so the social stop rapidly unraveled, and the process of sorting ourselves into small, vaguely compatible riding groups began. Myself, Ben, Jeremy, Wes, Tony, Ted, Ken, and David went off the front; then the group further splintered into Ben, Jeremy, and me in the lead.

The less said about the trail, the better. That said, I'll now talk about how much I dislike that many miles of limestone: I dislike it lots and lots. To be fair, it was in better shape than I had expected and feared; the previous week's worth of rain had merely turned some spots into wheel-sucking phlegm, rather than the entire trail. Still, after the first 50 miles of trail, I was really quite ready to be done. Shame I still had 40 miles to go until getting off at Rockwood...

We stopped for a quick bite at the convenience store in Rockwood, then headed off for the first of many climbs into Somerset, followed by Bedford, a stop at Sheetz, and Breezewood. We were making good time, and were fortunate enough to find the approach to the abandoned turnpike before daylight had faded. Good thing, too, as it was hard enough for me to spot in the light. The turnpike and tunnels were truly cool; sadly, however, I discovered my tires' propensity for pinch flats on the other side of said tunnels, where the pavement had degraded into naught but gravel-filled potholes and islands of sharp-edged asphalt. Two flats inside of 20 minutes does not a happy Dan make.

From there, we rejoined Bike Route S towards Cowan's Gap and Chambersburg. By the time we climbed the Gap, Ben was starting to find the idea of pitching his tent very, very appealing, so we bid him adieu at the state park campground area. Jeremy and I pushed on towards Chambersburg, with an eye towards a 1 AM arrival. Unfortunately for me (and for Jeremy, as he was waiting for me), the fatigue started setting in hard. We made it into Chambersburg around 1:30, and decided that it was time for a proper sit-down meal. The Waffle House was a lovely choice, as the staff was friendly, the portions were reasonable, and the prices were no more extravagant than one would expect. At this point, discretion became the better part of valor, and plans to push on to York before sleeping were overthrown in favor of the Days Inn one block over.

Checked into the hotel at 3, and were up and out the door by 5:30, for a total Chambersburg break time of four hours. Fortunately, once the legs had warmed back up, the ride began to trend much more in the downhill sort of way. In fact, once we'd started well on the way to York, I was feeling so good that speeds in the high teens and low 20s over the country rollers became the norm. I said my farewells to Jeremy, explaining that I wanted to take advantage of my burst of energy while it lasted; this was basically a semi-polite way of saying "It's a race, I'm feeling pretty good at the moment, and I'm outa here!"

While I intended to make the most of the perky period, I was a bit surprised to see how long it lasted...I was maintaining the same good speeds pretty much all of the way into Lancaster, and didn't really slow down until the last 20 miles of the approach to Phoenixville, Valley Forge and the trail head. I was hoping to make up some time while bombing down the trail; sadly, my tank was almost dry, and I could only maintain decent speed when I was chasing some guy on a tri bike. Then, once I reached the portion of the trail where it transitioned from pavement to towpath, I spent way too much time dithering on whether or not I should keep going, and where, and how, and all sorts of interesting mental vacillations. Finally continued on, and found myself smack-dab in the middle of a seething mass of humanity in honor of some rowing regatta. Average speed dropped to about 2-3 mph, and I found my normal love for all people giving away to vein-popping antipathy. Finally broke free of the press, with a good 20 minutes before my goal of 36 hours, and only 3 miles to go to the art museum. Then one of my patches from the prior night's flats gave way. I emitted copious quantities of profanity, then patched the patch, and continued on my way with a bit less time margin than I'd hoped.

Finally made it into town, and realized that I was simply not capable of reading the directions to the Bell. I knew it was Market and Something, so asked a native on Market which way I should go. Said native gleefully sent me in entirely the wrong direction, and I managed to make it all the way to 52nd before realizing that something was rotten in Denmark. Turned about, realized I'd utterly blown my 5 PM arrival time, and pedaled in slightly dejected, yet content fashion back down Market. Found the Bell, and called Eric, only to find that I'd forgotten about the 20 minutes of delayed start, and that I had managed to beat the 36 hour mark by a whopping 4 minutes. Go me!

Deena, the kids, and Uncle Micah met me at the Bell. We loaded up the car, headed to the hotel, had a lovely dinner at a local diner, and I fell face-down on the bed for about 9 hours. MAN that felt good.

I will happily do this ride again; I'm curious to see how much worse westbound from Philly will be. Of course, I seem to recall Eric making some mention of C-T-C EXTREME, with a there-and-back route, if anyone broke 36 hours. *AHEM*

Lessons Learned

Schwalbe Durano tires (formerly Stelvios) are very nice, fast, smooth-rolling tires that work great on pavement and even on packed limestone. Sadly, they pretty much have the strength and resistance of feta cheese when it comes to warding off pinch flats on abandoned sections of the PA Turnpike. Also, the sidewalls are so thin that even a few feet of rolling on flats abraded them to the point where threads were coming through. I like 'em, and will probably use them for fast road rides, but I think I'll need to investigate other options for future rando and mixed-surface stuff.
Bring two tubes for each tire size you carry. I carried only one of each. Patching pinch flats in the dark falls under the heading of royal suckage.
I still need to find some techniques to better handle fatigue (other than the obvious, "Lie down and close your eyes for a while" option), as it hit me pretty hard on Friday night. Caffeine doesn't do jack, mostly because I use it too much on a daily basis already; chewing gum was better than nothing, but didn't have a great effect; reciting/singing/chanting to myself made the dozies worse.

CTC Prep Complete

2009-05-07T22:17:00.003-04:00

I'm more-or-less ready, and it's only a bit after 10 PM. I might even get a solid 4 hours of sleep, assuming the babe cuts her usual projectile vomiting short for the evening.

I'm curious to see what I've forgotten tomorrow; probably something that would have been really useful at 3 AM, in a rainstorm, in a ditch, somewhere in Lancaster. Should be an adventure.

Anyway, I'm off. (In more ways than one.)

DC Randonneurs Warrenton 300K

2009-05-05T11:44:00.010-04:00

Cue Sheet
Results

Bill Beck's Photos
Ed Felker's Photos and Ride Report
Maile's Photos

Short Version
191.04 miles, 16.6 rolling average, 13:08 total elapsed time. Great route, well run, and the weather even played far more nicely than predicted.

Long Version
I'll mercifully gloss over the hell-on-earth that was my 8 hour+ drive from Pittsburgh to the ride start, and focus on the good stuff.

This was my first ride with the DC Randonneurs, at least at one of their rides. I had ridden with many of them in last year's Eastern PA series, so was confident that the hospitality would be warm and the route interesting; I was not in any way disappointed on either count. Maile and Lane put together a great brevet, and I enjoyed myself wholeheartedly.

As per usual, my eyes popped open 5 minutes before the alarm went off the morning of the ride. The usual morning ablutions, and a couple cups of coffee later, and I was more-or-less ready to face the prospect of almost 200 miles in utterly unfamiliar territory. Maile had set out a nice spread with bagels, fruit, and assorted sundries; Lane, the other organizer, was mysteriously absent. *cough*secret controle*cough* I signed in, including my age (32), which provoked cries of "He's just a baby! He still has milk on his breath!" and suchlike vile calumnies. That's okay; I was taught to respect my elders, so took the abuse with a patient smile, and didn't ONCE utter the words "codger" or "crone". ;-)

As the group assembled outside, I was happy to see another recumbent rider: Jim Lehman(apologies if I've misspelt your name, Jim!) was there with a lovely Tour Easy, decked out with all the trimmings. A couple of tandems (including familiar faces Ed and Mary) and a bunch of traditional damond frames rounded out the complement of roughly 30 riders. After a few cautionary words from Maile ("Don't even HINT about using a bathroom at the Aroda store!") and we were off.

It was a strong start; Ed and Mary got things off on the right foot with a strong pull of the group through the not-so-secret controle and to the beginning of the rollers; then, the usual dissolution of the group occurred, and we ended up with half-a-dozen riders in the fast group kicking up our heels on the way to the climb up Old Rag and the first controle at the Syria Mercantile. Mark, Rudy, Lisa, Bill, Q, Patrick, and myself kept up a fairly fast pace; we arrived at the store with an average over 17 mph, which was pretty good for almost 100K before the first stop. (Actually, there was one brief stop; Q's tailight had ceased to work As A Tailight Should, so I pulled my tertiary tail light off the back of my helmet and gave it to him, so as to avoid a DQ on his part.)

From the first controle, we fragmented a bit more, although the fast group was never more than about 30 minutes apart at any given time. Bill ended up with a flat just out of the controle; Patrick and I played leapfrog for pretty much the next 200 km, usually a few minutes behind Rudy, Mark, Lisa, and Q.

In a lot of ways, it was an uneventful ride; no mechanicals, no unfortunate wildlife interactions, no assertions by the undereducated and over-horsepowered that I belonged off the road, etc. In a lot of other ways, it was an almost perfect ride; the weather was pleasant, the roads were smooth, and I had congenial company and peaceful solitude in equal measures.

I doff my chapeau to Maile, Lane, and the other volunteers for a lovely event. I can't imagine a better introduction to riding with the DC Randonneurs, and I'm looking forward to the 400 and 600 with great anticipation.

Lessons Learned

CHECK YOUR BREVET CARD. I did the entire ride as Mark Vinette, and he as Dan Blumenfeld; apparently, from the moment we collected our cards, we had the wrong ones. Oops. Thankfully, Maile and Bill were willing and able to correct the goof, or I would have racked up my first DQ due to a totally preventable mistake at the ride start.
One should make a point of arranging cue sheet holders and lights to read said cue sheets BEFORE starting the ride. Thanks go out to Ed for the spare binder clip (even though I ended up tucking the sheet inside my über-cool reflective vest for the duration...)
I had experimented with on-bike nutrition for this ride. Heed, Endurolytes, Gu packs, and some peanut butter crackers sounded remarkably like a balanced diet, rich in the vitamins and nutrients that a growing randonneur needs. It worked quite well...for the first 100 miles or so. Over the next ten miles or so, I found myself engaged in a slow and surreptitious border crossing into the Kingdom Of Bonk, and, by the end of the first 200K, I was in less than stellar shape. Fortunately, I never bonked completely, and a club sandwich dripping with bacon and mayo was just the ticket to perk me up for the last 50 miles or so. It's amazing how carnivorous I become after the first 8000 calories burnt...
Virginia horse country is purty, and lots of fun in which to ride. :-)
For the first time, I neglected to do a "virtual ride" in advance by mapping the route online; while it worked out okay this time, I think that was due more to the quality of the cue sheet. I was definitely feeling a bit uncomfortable at times, as I really had no idea where I was in relation to anything else.

Prepping for Warrenton

2009-04-30T22:30:00.003-04:00

Gee, it'd be nice if I could bring myself to prep bike and gear earlier than late the night before I leave to drive across multiple states.

The plan: Owen to Camp Grandma, then down to Virginia and the Hampton Inn in Warrenton. 300K departs Saturday morning at 5 AM. Crash in Warrenton Saturday night, then pick up Owen and return to da 'Burgh on Sunday. Should be fun. :-)

Heh...and Chuck-n-Crista, of the DC Randonneurs, have kindly scheduled a Sunday century to depart from Warrenton, "really convenient for
randonneurs who stay over in Warrenton Saturday night after the brevet!" I'm tempted, sorry to say...

Monday morning commuting blues

2009-04-20T08:00:00.003-04:00

April is the cruelest month, indeed. :-(

I can contentedly ride in ice at 30 degrees, or in squeaky powder at 6 degrees; why, oh why, does blattering cold rain at 45 degrees cause me such angst?

To be honest, a big part of the problem is my outer layer. I've got one of those nominally waterproof/windproof shells with the zip-off sleeves; works great for dry or misty weather, even a slight drizzle, but turns into safety-yellow sodden cling wrap in steady rain. Something about the wet plastic sticking to me, with pools of water retained and sloshing in the folds of fabric under my elbows, drives me to the edge of road rage. I think that repeated washings have worn away much of the water resistant goodness...unfortunately, given the amount of (and corrosive nature of) my sweat, it ain't like I can just hit the interior with Febreze once in a while and call it good.

Ah well. Beats driving in rush hour traffic.

Inaugural Pittsburgh Brevet: Thrift Drug 200K, 04/11/2009

2009-04-12T20:56:00.003-04:00

First off, let me just say, from the "I hate driving AT ALL to ride, much less across the state" perspective: W00T! to local brevets.

Results, including group photo that really shows the glamourous rando lifestyle in its best light ;-)

Short version: 10:45, 125 miles, 4(!) mechanicals, headwinds and crosswinds for ~ 75% of the ride.

Long Version:
So, I got up early on Saturday, shoveled down some oatmeal and Earl Grey, and staggered out to the garage for a 6 AM departure. What's that, you say? Doesn't the ride begin at 7? Well, yes, but I'm being an (arguably) utter dumbarse and doing the ride-to-the-ride bit. No big deal: after all, I was a good do-bee the night before; packed everything, lubed the pivoting bits on brakes and derailleurs, cleaned and lubed the chain, etc. (Foreshadowing: see anything missing from this list o' prep?) A quick 10 miles to Jim's place in Shaler, marred only with a bit of early-ride knee tenderness, and I was meeting and greeting with the other hardy souls.

Bit of a mixed bag, as brevets tend to be: Jim Logan (our local Pittsburgh Randonneurs RBA), Matt Settle (RBA of ROMA), David (veteran of BMB, Cascades 1200, etc.), and myself all had prior brevets under our belt. Alan, Shane, and Jon, all first-time riders, had been participating in some of our prior distance rides; Dale, of the Mt Lebanon Caffeine and Cycling Club ("Mostly Old Guys in Tight Pants"), and George, of the Susquehanna Valley Velo Club rounded out our merry band.

We rode as a group for the first ten miles or so, in order that out-of-towners not get too horribly lost in dahntahn Pittsburgh. Made the climb up Sycamore (Alan charging to the lead), paused briefly for photos and info controle at top of Mt Washington, and we were off! Alan, Dale, and myself were feeling frisky, so we rapidly left the group behind. We set a nice, moderate pace through Carnegie and out to Sturgeon, then climbed up to Potato Garden Road. At this point, the near-continuous headwinds and crosswinds were starting to wear a bit, but we continued more-or-less undaunted down to the Buckboard Station for refreshments and our first manned control. A bit of dawdling, and Jim and Shane caught up with us as we were departing.

The nice gentle climb up 151 was acompanied by the first mechanical; Dale's tire blew, so I did the noble (hah!) thing and played workstand for his Softride whilst he did the inflation thing. Jim and Shane passed us by at that point, after making sure we were okay and taking a couple of incriminating photos.

From there, the delightful passage on Rt 30 down to Chester, Chaney's Sunoco, and the Worlds Largest Teapot was uneventful. The long descent into Chester did provide a graphic demonstration of the force of the wind, however; my usual coastdown speed on that hill is right around 40 mph or thereabouts; I was doing 32 this time. Have I mentioned the headwinds? If they were hurting me that badly, I shudder to think of my upright brethren...

Burning along Rt 68 on the flat bit of the route, I suffered my first mechanical, an delightful insta-flat. Taking a look at the tire, I was appalled (and more than a little embarassed) to see just how worn the casing had become; that tire was ready for the trash, not for an additional 70 miles. Okay, these things happen; swap out for a fresh tube, start inflating, then start swearing. The fresh tube wasn't holding air either! Upon inspection, the nominally new tube had a thin patch worn through on the side; logic would indicate that, at some point, I had changed out this tube, folded it away neatly, and utterly forgot to patch or replace it. In hindsight, that was probably sometime early last year, as it's been a long time since I had to change a tube. Anyway, I threw on a patch, and (with sinking heart, but buoyed by Alan's gift of a spare folding 23c tire "just in case") I continued on my way.

Headwinds. Crosswinds. Headwinds. Cars with cameras pointed at me, preumably due to novelty value or as evidence for later prosecution. More winds. Lots of winds. I thought that stretch of 68 was supposed to be a nice, fast, easy one...must remember to apologize to other riders for this route choise. On second thought, maybe I should avoid them for a while...

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Due to my flat, plus a couple stops to push some air into the slowly deflating tire, and, eventually, to throw a tantrum and replace it with Alan's spare, I was riding solo for the latter half of the ride. I'd given up on my hopes for a sub-10 hour time, and had replaced them with a goal of feeling strong at the end of the ride. As it turned out, I was the second rider in after Jim, and was feeling a lot better than on the identical ride last week. The 300K in three weeks is not looking too daunting at this point. CTC, on the other hand...

Lessons Learned:

CHECK YOUR FRICKIN' TIRES. That about covers it.
I did a better job of hydration and nutrition this time around. Still had a couple of unnecessary stops for fluids (time to dig out the Camelbak, methinks), but I believe paying better attention to such things helped my overall ride significantly.

I'm out...time to deal with colicky infant. My tolerance for adversity gained through randonneuring is coming in handy as a parent...

(Not baby-related) Thrift Drug 200K Scouting Ride

2009-04-05T21:35:00.003-04:00

The route

Short Version

The route designer should be strung up by his pawls. Oh, wait...
Didja know there's a big difference between riding, say, 105 miles, and 150 miles?
The only person to harass me was a soccer mom. The rednecks, frat boys, and bikers (of the Hells Angels style, that is) all thought I was a righteous dude with legs like rocks (direct quote from aforementioned bikers.)

Long version
Left the house bright and early to do an official Volunteer Ride™. I'd agreed to pre-ride the route for next weekend's Thrift Drug 200K, the first official brevet in our region; the idea of riding 10-ish miles, then riding 126 miles, then riding 10-ish more miles, two weekends in a row, seemed like such a good one.

Made it to Jim's house in timely fashion (ok, only 10 minutes late for the start), grabbed packet with brevet card and materials for the controle stores, and was off. Bombed back into town, climbed Sycamore, and made it to the top at the exact cutoff time for the information controle. Realized that, given how close Sycamore was to the start, it's only 44 minutes to get from Jim's house in Shaler to the top of Mt Washington; this sounds like a good way to DQ riders mighty early :-(

Down Greenleaf to the Circle, then up Noblestown through Carnegie, Oakdale, and down to Sturgeon for a postcard controle at the post office. Amazing how well hidden a small-town US Post Office can be.

Up Finks (Run) Rd to Steubenville Pike, then over to Potato Garden Rd. As happens every time I ride Potato Garden by myself, I encountered a blue heron...starting to feel frighteningly totemic. This time, Mssr. Long-Legs was fishing rather than flying, but honored my passing with a piercing stare from his beady birdy eye.

151 to the first manned controle (th Buck Board Station), then up to Rt 30 all the way into Chester, WV, and the second manned controle. (Incidentally, no sooner had I crossed the West Virginia Border than I saw three-count-'em-three roadkill deer in the space of 50 feet. Huh?) Across the Ohio River to East Liverpool, OH, and began the long trip on Rt 68.

Okay, here's the "kill the route designer" part. 68 is relatively pleasant up through Rochester, but gets a little suckful from there to Zelienople. It really, really, really wears on ya after the first 20 miles or so. For future reference, I need to make sure that any routes I design at least take the riders OFF the same frickin' road for a break every 10-15 miles.

Anyway, all 30/40/felt like 60 miles of 68 passed relatively uneventfully. Stopped in Evans City for a bite to eat, then headed up the hill to Browsndale Rd. And then all the strength left my legs. It wasn't a full-on bonk, but was definitely a close cousin. I still had my spin, but had no power whatsoever; any grades over about 5% had me crying for my mommy and groping for my granny. [Edited to add: That didn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean.] And I still had 40 miles to go...oy vey.

Gulped some gels, swallowed some voodoo electrolyte pills, and drained one of my bottles of Heed, then kept on plugging away. I never bonked completely, but never really felt particularly good. That was less than fun; while I'd been on track for a sub-10 hour time for the 200K, this slowed me down a lot. I ended up crawling back to Jim's in something like 10:40; not bad, but that's a significant time hit for the last 30 miles of a ride.

Lessons Learned, Pithy Observations, Etc.

I'm glad I'm training out the pain now, rather than waiting for the 300K or CTC.
Once more, proof positive that it does get better (or at least not always worse) if you just keep turning over the pedals.

New stoker-to-be

2009-03-29T21:11:00.002-04:00

Our daughter, Elaine Margaret, entered the world this morning at 9:59 AM. Deena did great, the baby girl is beautiful, and I'm about to fall over from fatigue.

That is all. :-)

North Park Tuesday

2009-03-24T22:36:00.002-04:00

After work, I Lycra'd up and ventured out to North Park again for the Wheelmen development ride led by Cap'n Fred Klehm. That was Fun with a capital "F-You, winter conditioning loss!"

Lots of folks; 17 or 18 riders, including another guy with fenders (and riding single speed...dude was an animal...). This time, we revisited the classic Tuesday night Unfriendly Bastards route: Pierce Mill, 910, Emmet. English, Wallace, Swinderman, Bradford, Neely School, Mingo, State Gamelands, Red Belt, Hoenig, Mary Reed, etc.

I was feeling pretty good for most of the ride; it was familiar, so I knew when to chill a bit and when to power through the rollers. The only surprise was when we hung a right off Knob onto Tech 21 in Warrendale; that climb darn near killed me. I hit it too hard initially, and dropped from lead to 12th position in about 1/4 mile. Oops...way to perpetuate ye olde recumbents-can't-climb stereotypes...

All in all, I'm pleased. Was right up near redline for much of the ride, but never crossed over into the puking on the shoulder zone. Good workout, felt great afterwards, and the ride-end stats were decent.

That's not recovery

2009-03-22T19:26:00.002-04:00

Note to self: after a hilly century the previous day, and a light-to-moderate-intensity 35-miler in the late morning, do not plan to haul one's 42-pound child in a 20-pound trailer behind one's fully-loaded 45-pound commuter under one's fat-arse 200+ pounds up McClure Ave without feeling it in one's knees just a wee frickin' bit.

Weekend update

2009-03-22T14:52:00.002-04:00

Saturday:
Scouting for the backbone route of next year's brevet series. Jim and I started in Meadowlands, cruised down to Monongahela via Mingo Creek Park, then crossed the Mon and headed up the hill to Rehoboth (Church) Rd. Over to Perryopolis, then some back roads to just past Vanderbilt (about 10 miles short of Ohiopyle), and back via more-or-less the same route. Nice route...challenging, due more to continuous elevation change than to any set of notable climbs.
Notable:
Turkey Hollow-->Indian/Iron Hill Rd up from 906 to get up to Finley Rd and Rehoboth. Much preferable to Tyrol Rd up from Monessen.
Middle segment of Maplewood Rd. "Unimproved" does not do it justice: dirt lovers with cross tires would be in heaven, so long as the brambles and nearly impassable hard-packed ruts do not offend. Would be dangerous in the rain, and deadly in darkness. In dry daylight, was loads of fun.

Sunday:
Riding around town for "recovery ride". Briefly lost my mind and decided that climbing Sycamore fell under the heading of recovery; cured myself of that delusion about half-way up, but was suffering too much to turn around and give up. Also almost killed myself bombing down Pius, as there were either recent street repairs with a poor level of fit and finish, or someone was building a 1:5 scale-model replica of WW1 trench warfare across 75% of the street. Spun up through Junction Hollow to CMU and Schenley, then over to Greenfield via Pocusset and back to town for more aimless riding.
Notable:
Spring has sprung. Saw more cyclists just today than I've seen in aggregate since January.

I caved in, plus weekend plans

2009-03-19T20:54:00.004-04:00

Yep. The 70-degree weather during yesterday's commute did me in. Despite my vows and fervent oaths to make it to the end of March, I couldn't bear to leave the studded tires on any more. Off with the Marathon Winters, on with the gently used folding Marathon Racers.

And, as a shout-out to all my commuting buddies, I'm sorry...expect ice storms shortly.

On a different note, we just hit 38 weeks of pregnancy, so I'm expecting that this weekend may be my last one with long rides for a while. I'm planning to scout a route from Meadow Lands to Ohiopyle with Jim this Saturday, then do some town-area riding on Sunday (Red Belt is sounding tempting). As I'm not a complete idiot, I've got a friend standing by to provide on-call taxi service on Saturday if, for some strange reason, I need to come back to town in a hurry. Sunday, and for the foreseeable future until spawning officially commences, I'll be sticking to an hour or so from town. Loops, loops, loops...

Tuesday Ride

2009-03-18T07:35:00.003-04:00

Worked from home, so I took advantage of the opportunity to swing out to North Park for the 5:30 Wheelmen club ride. This is billed as a development ride, so the basic idea is "no-drop, but plan to work hard in order to improve".

Good turnout; a dozen riders, most of whom I'd met before, ranging from "solid" to "You're a high school freshman, and your cadence is 180?" I did take some pride in being the only guy with fenders, a rack, lights, and a dynamo hub, though.

The route was fun...out Pearce Mill, then up Logan to Babcock, out the Red Belt to Ridge, and back to Mars, then return via Babcock. One accident on the outskirts of Mars...John caught a wheel on the shoulder on a fast descending curve, and took a pretty good tumble; fortunately, Drew and myself (the next two riders) weren't in tight formation behind him, so managed to avoid a three-man pileup. After making sure that John and bike-de-John were functional, we made our way back up Babcock at a more sedate pace. Heh...except for the half-dozen of us that decided the rest of the way into the park from the Red Belt should be, let us say, vigorous. Drew, Jay, Dave, Jim, Chris, and myself had all kinds of good fun getting the heart rate up for the last few miles.

I was pleased...got a good workout, felt great afterwards, and didn't completely suck nor slow down the group. Still need work on fast descents (especially blind curving ones) and climbing, but I'm not as bad off as I was afraid. Guess that daily commute, even if less-than-vigorous, helped prevent some winter loss of fitness.

Weekend update

2009-03-15T20:45:00.003-04:00

Saturday:
Got up a bit early (okay, 5 AM), had leisurely breakfast, and rode over to Jim's house in Shaler for a 7 AM start on a Slippery-Rock-and-back century. Primary purpose was to scout a portion of the route for July's Pittsburgh-Erie-Pittsburgh 2-day ride; secondary was to shake down the newly rebuilt P-38. Oh, yeah, and to get in an extra century for March; gotta get back on track after missing January, eh?

Fun route: Babcock/Thompsons Run/Duncan, then through North Park back to Babcock. Mars, Evans City, then north via 528 through Prospect to West Liberty Rd and Slippery Rock. One good low-gear climb in Evans City (side-street way up to 528; Elizabeth St, if I recall correctly), and a few nice long grinders, but also plenty of opportunities to just let 'er rip.

P-38 held up well; probably need a bit of rear-wheel lovin' with a spoke wrench, but everything else seemed solid. Most of the random creaks, squeaks, and groans (except mine, of course) are gone; amazing what happens when one tightens and Loctites screws appropriately, as well as trimming off excess metal bits wherever possible.

Sunday:
After a barrage of house cleaning and handyman projects, I took some time to address the seat problem on the Rocket. Forensic analysis indicates that one of the two bolts holding the seat pan to the seat frame had gone walkabout quite a long time ago; in hindsight, that may account for the seat creak I'd been failing to deal with for the last six months. The lone remaining bolt finally work-hardened and snapped last Thursday while I was cranking around a corner.

So, I ran to ye olde corner hardware store and grabbed a couple of bolt extractors, spent 20 minutes(!) carefully drilling into the recessed stump of the broken bolt, then extracted said bolt with a minimum of drama and damage to the socket threads. New used hardware, a few minutes spent tinkering with the rear brake, and a few minutes tightening the rear axle when I noticed that there was at least an eighth of an inch(!) of side-to-side play in the hub; then the Rocket was ready for action once more.

Packed a picnic dinner (PB&J, bananas, and juice...what more can man and boy want?) for meself and me best boy, then hitched up his trailer to the Rocket and plummeted down to the river. Dinner on the benches by the Science Center, some train and tugboat watching, then hauling his heavy butt back up McClure to get home; a fine way to end the day.

P-38 Rebuild

2009-03-13T08:19:00.003-04:00

After my chain-breaking debacle last weekend, I came down with a bad case of itchy hex wrench, and tore the P-38 most of the way down to bare frame. Ordered a new (11'!) chain and cassette from Hostel Shoppe; as per usual, it showed up two days after I ordered, without paying for expedited shipping.

Took the opportunity to rework rear fender mounts; I didn't manage to eliminate tire rub on sharp turns, but it's definitely less of a pain in my posterior than before.

Mounted and wired the SON dynamo wheel, an old DLumotec LED headlight, and a Busch&Müller Seculite Plus wired taillight. Took my time on the connectors this time around, and the taillight works without a hitch. (Unlike last year, when I rushed the job and ended up with a heavy, ludicrously overpriced fender-mounted rear reflector on the Pa 1000K...) I made heavy use of the spiral wrap used to bundle electrical cables to anchor the wires, as well as some velcro tie-wraps; in fact, the only place I had to use zip-ties was on the sensor mount for the cyclocomputer. All else is nicely secured in easy-to-modify fashion.

Also threw on the rear rack, and dug out much of the rando luggage. *sigh* It was nice when the bike ONLY weighed 26 pounds. Loaded for rando, it's gotta be near 40.

Rode it to work today, as the Rocket's seat is less-than-happy right now; looks like the P-38 will be okay for the scouting ride to Grove City tomorrow.

The long and the short of today's ride.

2009-03-07T16:56:00.003-05:00

"Long" refers to the long arm of the law; "short" refers to the duration of ride before unrecoverable mechanical failure.

:-(

If you couldn't guess, today's ride was not the best I've ever had. Originally planned to do some exploring in the North Hills, then saw a Ken Cushey (Mr. "Hills Are My Friends" himself) ride posting for 11 AM out of Cecil. Looking at the clock, I figured I'd have just enough time to hop on the bike and make it out for the ride start, so aborted the North Hills plan and set off for Bridgeville and parts south.

Something was in the air today...lots more impatient drivers, and LOTS more drivers who seemed incensed that I had the effrontery to be on their roads. Apparently, in the 2-mile stretch of Route 50 up from Main St in Carnegie, two motorists called 9-frickin'-1-1 to complain about some guy on a weird bike who was "riding in the middle of the lane" (true, at some points), "signaling cars to pass without giving them enough room" (uh, what? I've signaled you to pass...if you don't feel there's enough room, that's on your head), and "running red lights" (not, in point of fact, true). A very polite officer signaled me over at the Wal-mart, and gave me a quick warning about following the rules; no harm, no foul, but it kinda shot my mood for the rest of the ride.

From there, I headed over on Thoms Run to Prestley, then back over to 50 through Bridgeville. Millers Run to Presto-Sygan, then a left up the hill where the road was closed, then falling over sideways on the hill because my chain suddenly dropped. Brief profanity, brush myself off, get road grime all over my new cheapie gloves as I reset the chain, then repeat the exact same thing 6 feet up the road. WTF?

A close inspection seemed warranted. Turns out that I'd somehow blown a sideplate on one of my chain links; under any form of load, when that link hit the chainring, *pop* goes the drivetrain. Also turns out that, for some moronic reason (probably related to "I never use this"), I'd neglected to pack both my quick link and my chain tool when I stocked the tool bag. More profanity ensued, mostly self-directed this time. Ended up calling Deena for a ride, as I just didn't A)feel good about making it up to TRM when I couldn't apply any power or B) feel good about hitting up a hardware store for a hammer and punch to do some impromptu chain surgery. Bugger.

So, I've now doubled the number of times I've had to call for a bailout. Not bad in 4 years, but still, a ding to my pride.

On the bright side, I now have no reason to delay the spring teardown and rebuild, while I wait for a new 11' length of chain to arrive. So, the P-38 is in fragments in the basement, and most of the complicated bits have been degreased, cleaned, and lubed. I'll go ahead and get the fenders mounted (I want to fab some different mounts, as I was getting a bit of wheel rub when cranking hard on curves.), the rear rack installed, and see about hooking up the dynamo and lights. Might as well complete the transformation from relatively light and agile road machine to unstoppable juggernaut of randonneuring fury now, rather than next month.

Tour de Trek Redux, AKA The Humble Pie Ride

2009-02-28T20:22:00.003-05:00

Anyone ever have one of those rides where you find out that you're not even remotely as fit as you thought you were? Today was my turn; the most painful century I've ridden in years, with cramping, knee pain, constant hunger, and a rolling average of mumblemumblemumble.blush miles per hour.

Here's the route; basically, it ended up being Castle Shannon, Robinson, and Cranberry, with various and sundry exploratory stuff. Couple of new-to-me roads today; Backbone out of Sewickley was a moderately tough climb, and plummeting down Hitzel Hill on the other side of the ridge was a bit scary, due to gravel and debris. (Incidentally, I now understand why Oscar Swan refers to Hitzel Hill Rd as "a guaranteed way to make any Red Belt ride unpleasant"..) On the Gibsonia end of things, I took Meridian to 910 as a spur-of-the-moment detour; at that point, I was in enough pain that the only way I could see to salvage some pleasure from the ride was to at least ride a new road.

Ride troubles; by the time I hit Robinson, I was in trouble; felt almost like I was bonking, except that I'd been steadily hoovering down gels, Heed, and some semi-solid gas station food. I was also feeling chronically hungry; perhaps I should have stopped for a sandwich or suchlike. By the time I got to Cranberry, my right knee was getting dicey; I think my form went to hell due to the fatigue, so I started mashing more than was good for me. It's also possible that the cranks are just a fraction of an inch too close; I'd fit the P-38 to Lance a few weeks back, and maybe I didn't quite restore it to my preferred position.

On the bright side, I accomplished my goal; got February's century in for the Year-Rounder challenge, even if it was not my most shining performance. I am pleased that I managed to complete the ride without any apparent serious injury; while it's not the most glamorous of randonneuring skills, the ability to ride within the limits of a physical ailment without giving up or pushing too hard is a useful one.

On the down side, that was not the kind of riding that will get me through a brevet series. Yeah, I haven't done any long rides over the winter; yeah, the bike fit may have been a wee bit off; yeah, I've been sick for much of the last month, excuse, excuse, whine. Regardless, I have a lot of work to do for the season, if I'm going to do as well as I intend.

CTC Fever setting in

2009-02-25T20:48:00.003-05:00

Mssr. McKeegan's been posting more Crush The Commonwealth goodies. Buried amidst the pix is mention of several riders gunning for a sub-36:00 time. In that case, I guess I'm gonna have to take this a little more seriously ;-)

I've been vacillating 'twixt the idea of pushing for a fast time vs. treating it like a nice social ride with the boys; at this point, well, fast time is sounding better and better. Besides, if I plan to ride hard, I can omit some extra stuff like, say, camping gear.

So, here's the basic plan. It's roughly 100 miles from dahntahn to Rockwood, and an additional 180 miles to York or thereabouts. That's roughly 400K, which, based on my brevets last year, I should be able to wrap up by midnight or so. I'm thinking York will be a good place to take a rest break; pound down a real meal, maybe catch an hour or two of sleep at a no-tell motel, and get back on the road by, say, 5 AM. That gives me 12 hours to punch out the last 100 miles...perfectly doable.

This elevation profile is basically Bike Route S from Rockwood to Philly; that flat-downward trend past mile 140 is looking mighty recumbent-friendly.This is gonna be fun. Compared to Tom's brevets, this is darn near flat; while there's definitely gonna be some nice climbs, I'm not seeing anything to be afraid of.

Back in the saddle (Ok, Barcalounger)

2009-02-23T07:42:00.002-05:00

First commute post-illness this morning. Not bad, although the legs are less than snappy, and the lungs are still bubbling like La Brea.

Amusingly enough, I realized halfway to work that I'd replaced several major components of the drive train the previous weekend, before getting hammered into pulp by the Evil Microorganisms From Hades. Never actually tested, or even adjusted, anything, before setting out this morning. That could have been a poor choice; luckily, friction shifters are forgiving, and I think I'd eyeballed the limits on the new rear derailleur pretty well.

Assuming the long-range forecast for Saturday holds up, or at least stays above 20 degrees with minimal precipitation, I think I'm going to try to get in a century or so. I'm already down a month for the UMCA Year-Rounder challenge, and I'd like to scout out some prospective route segments for the 2010 Pittsburgh Randonneurs brevet series.

2009 Ride Schedule (subject to change, contents may settle, do not eat)

2009-02-20T08:50:00.004-05:00

Still a lot of stuff up in the air; with my little girl coming in early April, the spring schedule (especially May!!!) may need to be adjusted. I may skip the 300K on the weekend of May 2nd, and plan to get in the Ohio 300K in September as my last prerequisite for the Endless Mountains 1200K.

Locally, Crush the Commonwealth is most important to me; I've been wanting to do it for three years now, so I don't want to miss out again. Lance's Longest Day Double Century is also a blast, as it's a good excuse to put your head down and hammer across Ohio flatland for most of the day. The Pittsburgh-Erie-Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh-Meyersdale-Pittsburgh rides should be good ways to stay tuned up for the fall, as well as being scouting rides for the official 2010 brevet season of the Pittsburgh Randonneurs.

It should be a fun year for brevets; I'm hoping to spend some time riding with the DC Randonneurs (great bunch of folks), help foster more Pittsburgh-area distance stuff, and end up the year with my first 1200K.

Of course, this doesn't include much local stuff; club rides, populaires, training metrics and centuries, the Dirty Dozen, etc., are not listed.

==============================================================
Bold indicates a ride that I intend to attend :-)
Un-bold is for informational purposes, and to aid in rescheduling.

April
Saturday 04/11: Pittsburgh Randos 200K
Saturday 04/18: DC Randos 200K, Ohio Randos 300K

May
Saturday 05/02: Eastern PA 300K, DC Randos 300K
Friday 05/08-05/10: Crush the Commonwealth
Saturday 05/16: Eastern PA 400K, DC Randos 300K
Saturday 05/30-05/31: Eastern PA 600K, DC Randos 400K, Ohio Randos 400K
June
Saturday 06/13-06/14: DC Randos 600K, Ohio Randos 600K, RBR Rally
Sunday, June 21st Longest Day Double Century (solstice double)
Friday 06/26-06/28: Eastern PA 1000K
July
Saturday 07/11-07/12 Pittsburgh-Erie-Pittsburgh (dates tentative)
August
Saturday 08/22-08/23 Pittsburgh-Meyersdale brevet route dry run (dates tentative)
September
Saturday 09/05: Ohio Randos 300K
Wednesday 09/30 - 10/04: Eastern PA 1200K

My bronchii are revolting!

2009-02-16T20:27:00.003-05:00

Feh. Persistent cold that wouldn't die (damned invulnerable rhino-virii!) has sent expeditionary forces into my lungs, where they have successfully established a well-defended beachhead.

I've been off the bike since last week, and will (should) probably stay off for a couple more days. Hopefully, the Z-Pack of magic antibiotics will knock this crap out soon.

'Scuse me while I go pout in the corner for a while.

Goals as of 2009

2009-02-10T10:58:00.004-05:00

Preserving for posterity: my yearly cycling goals as of February 2009.

2009: Crush the Commonwealth, my first 1200K
2010: Try a 12/24 hr race (prob. Calvin's Challenge), D2R2 for some dirt road adventuring
2011: Paris-Brest-Paris
2012: RAAM qualify (No, I don't currently want to do RAAM, but I like the idea of being qualified to do so)
2013: Maybe L-E-L?
2014: Furnace Creek 508?
2015: ?
2016: Ride across a continent TBD (40th birthday present to myself)

Heh...looking at this list, I almost think a common theme can be discerned...masochistic b@start, ain't I?

Tour de Trek Store, attempt # 1

2009-01-24T21:58:00.003-05:00

Myself, Jim, and Jon ventured out into the cold today in search of a nice wintry century. At least the wintry part was a smashing success...

The intention was to nail down a century for purposes of the UMCA Year-Rounder Challenge, as January is drawing to a close. Rather than re-use a familiar and well-known route, it seemed like a good idea to go venturing into unknown territory; find some new roads, climb a few hills to keep warm, and all that good stuff.

Now, as every good route designer knows, the most important thing is not elevation profile, well-spaced rest stops, scenery, or areas of historic import; the single most critical thing you can do to create a successful route is to come up with a cool name. Sadly, I came up with "Tour de Trek Store"; but I never claimed to be a good route designer.

Simple route concept; starting in town, visit each of the four Trek of Pittsburgh stores in turn. With a few strategic road choices, a century was easy to put together. Eliza Furnace Trail out to the South Hills and TRM in Castle Shannon; then, over through Mt Lebanon, Heidelberg, Carnegie, and Collier on the way to Trek of Robinson. Cut over through Moon and Coraopolis to Sewickley, then climb the ridge and make our way over to Cranberry and the third Trek store. Finally, Red Belt our way back to town via Etna, then over to Trek of Shadyside and a triumphant return to the trail in Oakland. It was a nice idea, anyway.

We made it as far as Trek of Robinson without incident, although the cold was definitely starting to take its toll. I was happy to find that Trek had one(1) pair of Pearl Izumi booties large enough to (just barely) stretch over my size 48 clodhoppers, which greatly enhanced the comfort of my feet.

Once we started the climb up Beaver Grade Rd, however, it quickly became apparent that Jon was lacking the energy to finish the ride. He put up a darn good fight, but simply bonked too hard to realistically contemplate the second half of the ride. So, we cut it short in Coraopolis, and made our way back to town via the traditional Neville Island/McKees Rocks Bridge/Calfornia Avenue return. Jim suggested that he and I make a trip out to Tarentum and back, in order to get our miles in; it would have been a good idea, but I simply wasn't in the mood to ride a route with which I was very familiar; at least not when a comfy house, hot coffee, and a warm shower were a mere 3 miles away.

All that said, I'm very pleased with the route; a bit trafficky in the South Hills, but has plenty of varied and enjoyable terrain, including some lovely ridgetop roads. If scheduling permits, I think I'll take another crack at it next weekend.

Feh. Forgot that whole "cold water freezes" thing.

2009-01-16T10:20:00.002-05:00

I had to drive to work today, due to my own foolishness.

After Wednesday's wintry commute home, I was a good and conscientious bike owner, and immediately washed off the worst of the salt and grime, dried off the moving bits with a hot-air gun, and re-lubed the pivot points. I even ran a few drops of lube into the cable housings, worked brakes and gears, etc.

Sadly, I neglected to take a basic precaution last night; I left the bike in the (unheated, detached) garage, rather than simply wheeling it indoors. As a result, I came out this morning to find that all four cables were frozen in their housing. D'oh.

I now better understand the urge to omit excess gearing/cabling/temperature-sensitive moving bits from the commuting bicycle. I'm becoming tempted to invest in an internally geared hub for the rear at least, maybe even with a drum brake.

Ah well. These things happen. Amusingly enough, it took me only 10 minutes less time to drive to work than to pedal; further verification that cycle-commuting really doesn't suck much additional time from my working day.

First hijinks of 2009

2009-01-01T21:54:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea to lead a pre-Icycle Bicycle ride this year, for the benefit of the high-mileage types. Bright and early, 8 AM, 16 degrees or thereabouts. Five intrepid sorts coalesced at the Swinburne St trail head; myself, Lance, Alan, Don, and Jon. A decent assortment of bikes as well, ranging from my P-38 'bent to Jon's tasty 1982 Raleigh Pro.

Since I'd never done the route before, I decided to try out Oscar Swan's Gill Hall ride; basically, a 30-mile tour of the South Hills, primarily incorporating Streets Run, Brownsville, Snowden, and Gill Hall Rd. Nice route; the initial gradual climb up Streets Run is a good warmup (except for the crappy crossings of numerous RR tracks, that is!), and Snowden/Gill Hall have some decent climbs to get the blood pumping.

Attrition on this one was high; Lance took off early, as he had to get home for the benefit of guests. We managed to get separated from Jon up by Lebanon Church Rd; fortunately, he was equiped with a phone capable of accessing The Google, so managed to find his way back. Alan hopped off the road to pick up the trail in Baldwin. Don and I were the only riders out of the original five to make it to the start of the Icycle Bicycle as a group, although Alan and Jon met us there later.

Icycle Bicycle was well attended, and quite mellow. Since the trails were a bit slippery, we just did a loop consisting of Carson-->West End Bridge-->North Shore-->31st St Bridge-->Penn-->Second Ave-->Hot Metal, and back to REI. Good fun, although I was saddened to see that I was the only recumbent this year.

Lesson learned: put the frickin' fenders back on before going out in the salt and slush. Blah.

Hiatus. H-I-A-T-U-S. Hiatus.

2008-12-31T07:44:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since blogging hath occurred; not for any particularly exciting reasons, but merely due to vast quantities of slack on my part. In no particular order, here's the highlights of the last month.

Dirty Dozen: That was FUN with a capital OOF. I made twelve of the thirteen; Canton is still to be surmounted, however. (I don't feel too bad about the big C; the first time, another rider hit the ground in front of me; the second and third attempts, my cleat popped out of the pedal; and the fourth and final attempt, well, I wimped out. How's THAT for justification?) It was quite an experience; I managed to maintain the "I'm having a great time on this social ride" face for about the first six hills, which was far longer than I'd anticipated. I wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination (Took 4th on the Liberty Tube sprint, though!), but wasn't exactly trailing the pack either. I'll do it again...good times indeed.

Commuting: Thus far, I've driven to work a whopping two whole times, counting my first day. I've pedaled through some fairly crappy weather; pretty much everything short of a full white-out blizzard or a serious ice storm. I like this commuting thing; although it's only been three months, and there's still a lot of winter ahead, I'm feeling good about it.

Solstice Century: Ended up being a solstice 45-miler, as I was riding the Baron, and started having a bit of knee trouble. I need to spend some time dialing the Baron in a bit more; it's a fun ride, but I haven't yet taken it for a ride of any real length.

2009? Plans for the future year will be forthcoming shortly, once I actually make the time to formalize some. The Endless Mountains 1240K in September will probably be the high point, at least as regards cycling. The arrival of my baby girl in April kinda trumps that overall ;-)

(Last?) Dirty Dozen training ride

2008-11-23T18:54:00.004-05:00

A nice, relatively mellow ride. Simple plan; ride hills until I got sick of them. No minimum, no maximum; the only plan was to start at the beginning and see how far I go.

As a preliminary step, I peeled most of the non-essential stuff off of the P-38. Fenders, kickstand, rack, etc...all gone the way of the dodo. I kept the two bottle cages, and a seat-back bag for sundries like tubes and tools, but that's about it.

Met up with David at Center, and started the run. Center was entirely uneventful. Ravine is still closed, but has enough room for single-file cyclists to meander up the hill. Amusingly enough, there's also a screw jack engaged across the path; I was low enough to not care, but most of the upright folks will need to duck their heads to make it through. I shudder to think of how many of the eager types will stress-test their helmets on the steel bar. On the bright side, the construction changed the appearance of Ravine enough that my usual psychological barrier to climbing that hill was circumvented; it was a "new hill", so not nearly as intimidating.

Berryhill was particularly anticlimactic; it just doesn't seem like a big deal anymore. Logan was rough, as usual, but I made it to the top with only a few cars brushing by within a foot of my elbow. Due to my dislike of heading down Rialto, and David's desire not to go too far out of the way, we skipped Rialto and Suffering-Hellish-Burning in favor of going directly to Sycamore. At that point, it became apparent that, strangely enough, the sun was going to go down in another hour or two, so we chose to do Welsh, then call it a day, as neither of us were clever enough to bring lights.

All in all, not bad. Seven of the thirteen was a reasonable achievement, especially as, while certainly not feeling fresh after Welsh, I wasn't feeling too bad either. If it weren't for lighting concerns, I'm quite confident that BHE and Flowers-Tesla would have been more-or-less a stroll in the park.

I'm still concerned about my ability to do Canton and Boustead at all, as that 30%-ish grade seems to be the magic number where I start to really have problems; however, we'll just have to wait for next Saturday (forecast: rain/snow, high in the mid-30s F...heheheheh!) and see what happens.

New job, commuting, the Dirty Dozen, and suchlike.

2008-11-17T20:41:00.006-05:00

As of October 6th, I've been employed at DynaVox, a nice little company on the South Side that makes various and sundry products to assist people with various communication difficulties. It's been a bit of an adjustment, considering that I was with McKesson for darn near a decade, but I'm pretty happy with what I'm doing now.

More importantly, at least from the pedal-powered perspective, is that my new office is a measly 8 miles from my house. That, plus no laptop, means daily commuting is now so simple as to be practically unavoidable. It's quite nice to be able to either commute by bike or work from home five days per week; it's even nicer to realize that I'm filling up the tank on ye olde Subaru about once every six weeks or thereabouts, rather than once a week or more.

Commuting has been a bit of a learning process; for example, it took me a few days to realize that sweat was okay, and that bike shorts in the office, while a bit of a bold fashion statement, would not be grounds for termination or merciless mockery. The highlights of my day now include the befuddled gaze of passers-by when I cruise by on the 'bent, with steaming coffee mug raised to lips and a look of almost indecent contentment on my face; the cheers of approval (or so I choose to interpret them) from the colorful characters hanging out behind the Salvation Army; and the joy of comfortably keeping pace with (or, not infrequently, outpacing) traffic on the Boulevard of the Allies on the way home. Not that I mean to wax overtly rhapsodic or anything; it's just such a pleasant change in my life, and I haven't really grown accustomed to it yet.

I've also been fortunate, in that I've now got a nice bunch of folks in the area for potential lunchtime riding partners, some of whom not only are crazed enough to agree that it's a good idea to ride three or four Dirty Dozen hills over lunch, but are also patient enough to wait for me to haul my flabby carcass up the slopes in their wake. Thanks, Brian, Robbie, Dave, etc...

Speaking of such things, Dirty Dozen training proceeds apace. I'm not sure if I'll be able to take Canton or not, as I've been utterly incapable on the Rocket, and the P-38 barely made it a third of the way at last attempt. Regardless, I'm feeling pretty good about it; been riding the hillz at least twice a week for the last month, and, while I'm still slower than a wide gamut of very slow things, I'm happy with my progress. I'll give it a shot; since points are so far beyond my reach as to reside in the realm of wildest fantasy, there's really no pressure whatsoever. I get to go out, have fun, push myself a wee bit, and hopefully demonstrate that recumbents aren't solely bound to rail-trails and velodromes.

Ah, yes. Almost forgot. Wintry crapola has officially descended, so the commute is becoming more interesting. I threw a set of Schwalbe Marathon Winters on the Rocket; they're heavy, and sound like they're rolling on a perpetual trail of Rice Krispies, but I have this unfounded hope that they'll help keep me moving in a more-or-less controlled fashion when the weather turns to utter frozen shite. Nice tires, from what I can tell on short acquaintance. They handle much like the stock Marathons, with the addition of a bit of buzz from the carbide spikes. Mine are in the 42-406 size, so are quite beefy; like most Schwalbe models, they're available in a ridiculous number of sizes and diameters, including a 35-622 that looks just spiffy for commuters on 700c wheels. If and when I set myself up with an upright all-rounder, I'll probably invest in a set of Marathon Winters for that as well, assuming that these hold up well enough to vaguely justify the ludicrously high price tag.

Lunchtime DD rides: Sycamore, Welsh, Barry-Holt-Eleanor

2008-10-30T12:47:00.002-04:00

Quick (ok, not so much) Dirty Dozen hill ride with Brian and Robbie. Aside from an early flat on Brian's part, it went pretty well.

Sycamore was, well, Sycamore. Nothing exciting there. Welsh was short and sweet; 20 seconds of "I feel okay, this is no big deal", followed by 10 seconds of "this sucks", followed by 20 seconds of "I'm gonna puke".

I blew up on Eleanor, up near the top at Primrose; had to pull off to the side to get enough speed to get moving again. 'Saright...I'll just have to redeem myself on Sunday.

Redemption, DD-style

2008-10-26T11:13:00.002-04:00

Led another Dirty Dozen training ride today; Rialto, Logan, Suffolk-Hazelton-Burgess, and Sycamore. This time, I failed to fail: although I didn't exactly lead the pack up every hill, I was only dead last on one (Sycamore?!? The EASIEST?!?), and didn't feel like I was going to/wanted to die for more than a minute or two.

Eight riders showed up at the Jail Trail in town; myself, Jim Logan, Guido, Mark and his teenage son (AKA 100 pounds of hill-climbing monster), Don, Brian, and another gentleman whose name I've shamefully forgotten. We cut through town over to 31st St Bridge, then pounded up Rialto as our warm-up hill. Heh. I threw caution to the winds, invoked granny, and just attacked the crap out of that hill. As a result, I was in the first 4 up the hill...kind of a cool feeling not to be last for a change. On the down side, if that hill had been 100 feet longer, I may well have blown myself up, since I was really sucking wind by the top. But hey, it went okay, and I recovered quickly.

From the top of Rialto, we circled around to the top of Logan, then gingerly descended. (As a side note, I've decided to do something about my brakes; I'm just not confident in their ability to stop me when I NEED to stop.) Turning around at the bottom, we began the ascent. I was in my zone, happily pumping along at *mumble* miles per hour, when Guido hit the ground jut ahead of me, less than 100 feet from the top. I could have gone around and kept going, 'cause I HAD that hill, but decided to stop and render assistance as necessary. I feel no guilt over claiming victory on that climb; even if not technically a true DD success, I've beat that hill before, and could have done so again today. Now, I won't try to pretend that taking a break for a few minutes didn't feel really, really nice...

From there, we took Pittview back through Troy Hill, then down to Chestnut and over to East St. A quick glide up East to the left on Suffolk, and "my problems, they were just beginning". Suffolk-Hazellton-Burgess is one of those hills where I almost beat myself before even getting started; I've built it up in my mind so much that defeat seems almost inevitable. Fortunately, I'm a pretty stubborn rider; all that long steady distance this year, if nothing else, has taught me to just keep turning the pedals over. Sometimes at 35 RPM, but still turning them over...

Regardless, I pushed through, and avoided A) stopping, 2) puking and III) rain-of-brimstone-inducing blasphemy. To be fair to myself, I did a LOT better this year than last; last year darn near killed me, while this year was merely pretty frickin' tough. At this rate, I'll be within striking distance of "not sucking" in another decade or so.

Sycamore was not all that much of a much; I didn't put my heart into it, so finished a good 30 seconds behind everyone else. No biggie; Sycamore, much like High St, has become "just another long hill" in my mind.

All in all, I'm pleased. Coming off three weeks of a chest cold, and being a good 30-40 pounds over where I should be, and I can still survive the steeps. Of course, a willingness to go r-e-a-l-l-y slow helps, as does a mountain cassette.

DD training ride FAIL

2008-10-15T18:57:00.002-04:00

[Backdated, 'cause I've been slacking in my postings]

So, due to scheduling pressure and being a frickin' moron, I ended up committing to lead a Dirty Dozen training ride, for the first four hills, the day after riding a 200K populaire. Yeesh. What a maroon.

Long story short, I barely made it up Center, and gratefully handed off ride leader duties to Fred Klehm. The fatigue from the prior day's ride was, surprisingly, not a real factor; the vicious cough and fever, on the other hand, were less than helpful. Regardless of the excuses, the end result was that I wussed out big time.

I feebly wobbled my way up Parker over to Millvale, then hung out at the BP for a while, nursing coffee and waiting for medication to take effect. That was fun. :-(

On a related note, I'm a little disturbed by a recent trend in ride failures; I've bailed on three in the last two weeks, when I normally don't bail under any circumstances short of family emergency. I'm not sure why, but it seems much easier to find reasons not to ride hard right now. Perhaps I'm a little burnt out, after the rando season.

Thrift Drug Classic 200K Populaire

2008-10-11T18:45:00.003-04:00

[Backdated, 'cause I've been slacking on my postings.]

Jim Logan, Shane Shin, and myself had a lovely ride in the country today. Starting with an invigorating climb up Sycamore after departing Jim's place in Shaler, we made our way to Carnegie via Temperanceville (AKA the West End), then shot out Noblestown to Sturgeon. A quick spin up Fink/Kelso deposited us on Ye Olde Steubenville Pike; then, Potato Garden over to 151, and Rt 30 out to East Liverpool, OH. 68 brought us all the way back to Evans City, then some back roads over to 3 Degree, Babcock, and Thomson Run back into Shaler.

Fun ride, if a bit well endowed with Scenery (Jim's GPS claimed 10,000'+ of gain); while there were only a couple of tough climbs, very, very little of the route was actually flat.

I started out feeling a bit rocky, as I'd been fighting illness for the last week or so; however, once we got through Carnegie, I was feeling pretty good. Once again, proof of something I know, but keep forgetting: just ride, even when you feel like crap, and you'll often find yourself in a much better place.

Well, bugger. Rando FAIL.

2008-10-04T19:55:00.002-04:00

I had planned to scout the route for the Thrift Drug Classic 200K Populaire; after all, since I designed much of the route, it seemed only fair that I make sure it's not an utter deathtrap, and that the cues aren't completely hosed.

So, I set off this morning at about 7:45 or so, enjoying the traditional randonneuring combination of drizzle and high 40s temperature. Did I want to turn around and go home? Hellya! Did that desire fade after the first couple of miles, like it usually does? Uh, no..that's not good.

Also in the big pile of "things that aren't good"; I wasn't feeling the usual snap in the legs. To be fair, what I call "snap", many cyclists would call "lethargy", but still, I was running well under my normal cruising speed. Ah well, I said; no sense worrying about it now, here comes Sycamore.

Sycamore killed me. I stopped twice to hyper-v and try not to puke, when I haven't had to stop once in the last dozen times I've climbed that hill. WTF was up with me? I may be a wimp, but I'm not usually that feeble. Anyway, I made it to the top, and pressed on along Grandview to Greenleaf and down to the West End Circle. Hmmm...I was cruising on the flats at a whopping 10 miles per; that's not a good sign, when I'm only 10 miles into a 125-mile ride. Finally, after a brief jaunt into good old Temperanceville, I decided to pack it in, and pedaled home with my metaphoric tail tucked quite neatly betwixt my slow-moving legs.

I dunno; didn't feel sick per se, and I've only got a little residual congestion from a cold; just didn't have much to give today. After I got home, I poured a couple of cups of coffee down my throat, then spent the rest of the day happily rebuilding the Rocket and framing in walls in the basement; no real problems, no lack of energy.

Definitely feeling a bit of shame; us tough-as-nails rando types are supposed to soldier on, not throw in the proverbial towel at the first sign of trouble. But, given how poorly I was doing, it was probably the right choice, especially since I'm supposed to not only ride the Populaire next Saturday, but also lead a Dirty Dozen training ride the following Sunday morning. That's gonna be interesting...

Weekend round-up, highlights and lowlights

2008-09-29T10:46:00.003-04:00

Friday: After work, I popped over to the Ambridge Bike Shop, in order to try out a Surly Cross Check and Long Haul Trucker. They had a 54 cm CC (upper limit for my inseam on that model) and several LHTs, ranging from "just barely fit" at 57 cm to "you're joking, and I'm singing soprano" at 60cm and above.

Gary got the bikes set up and roughly fitted, and I took them each for a short spin along the highways and byways of scenic Ambridge. Interesting, very interesting. I had this preconceived notion that I was going to really dig the Cross Check; I did, but found that the Trucker, with the longer wheel base and (relatively) fat 26" tires, had me riding much more confidently.

I also now far better understand why many people like STIs, rather than down-tube or bar-end shifters. Speaking as a highly inexperienced drop-bar rider, the death grip on the drops made moving the hand all the way to the bar-ends to shift a more intimidating prospect. Doable, but I finally grok why STIs are so nice. I do wonder about interference with handlebar bags and whatnot, but I'm sure such can be overcome.

Saturday: Loaded Owen in the trailer, and went for a spin down to ~~Dancing Goats~~ Crazy Mocha in the South Side Works. It's a nice routine; we do about 10 miles while he reads or watches for trains, then stop for a cup of coffee (me!) and to share a Cookie As Big As Your Head. Chill for a couple of minutes, then back down the river, parallel to the tracks for more trainspotting opportunities, and a nice sweaty grind up the hill to home. I'm just pleased that his tolerance for rides is now well over the 2-hour mark, and can easily approach 3-4 if we have at least one extended break in the middle. He'll be a good little stoke-monkey in a few more years. :-)

Sunday: As further proof that the boy enjoys our rides, he asked to go for another, even with grey skies and spitting rain. Same drill, except that we swung by REI for Heed and Gu packs for next weekend's scouting ride.

Later that day, I accompanied Annie on her Django, in order to scout out her potential commute route. As she lives near the Ohio River Trail, getting from there to downtown and back should be no big deal, except for the #$%^ing casino construction. So, I took her on a tour of the construction, the posted detour, and my preferred variations on said detour. With any luck, she'll be commuting to the office before crap weather sets in.

Commuter thoughts: Hrmph. I'm growing up. Poop.

I've been planning to sell off the Rocket, so as to partially finance the purchase of a decent upright all-rounder for use in crappy winter weather. Thusly, the Surly investigations. However, upon reflection, it looks like it'd make better fiscal sense to at least try to make the Rocket more winter-worthy, and go upright this winter only if the Rocket just doesn't work at all.

So, I'll look into tweaking what I've got, instead of buying new toys and learning new skills. *sigh*

Lefever Hill

2008-09-24T13:04:00.002-04:00

I played hooky today.

Well, to be precise, I took my last accrued paid leave day, so I wouldn't have to deal with any weirdness in the final paycheck. My original intent was to work on my basement; heck, still is, but I just couldn't waste a gorgeous day like today.

Out Freeport, then up Little Deer Creek to Lefever Hill. Not the worst hill I've ever climbed, but it certainly left a mark. Picked up Rich Hill to Starr Rd, then back to Little Deer Creek and up to the Red Belt. Rich Hill and Starr are NICE...lots of fun rollers, and a good way to unwind the legs after the Lefever climb.

I had intended to head out to Ambridge for a test ride or two, as I'm eying a Cross Check or LHT as my winter commuting/errand bike; however, it turns out that their Web site is a wee bit outdated with respect to their hours of operation; i.e. they're closed on Wednesdays. Oops.

Ah well; can't call it a wasted day by any stretch of the imagination.

Dirty Dozen Training: Center/Ravine/Berry Hill/High

2008-09-14T11:56:00.003-04:00

First Dirty Dozen training ride of the season for me. Jim Logan led the ride out of the K-Mart parking lot in Shaler; he, myself, Scott, Don, and Brian were in attendance.

I botched my shift to the granny on the very first hill (Center), so ended up climbing more than half of it in my middle ring. Coincidentally (or not), this was also the only hill on which I wasn't dead last...perhaps a lesson could be learned by this, but I'm not gonna try right now.

Ravine hurt. A lot. The long grinders always take a toll on me; I need to work on smoothing my pace a bit, and possibly working on the psychological end of things as well as physical conditioning.

Berry Hill was pretty much business as usual; dead stop, into lowest gear to hit the asphalt wall, then exhaustedly pedaling up to Middle Road. The plummet down Middle is always a good way to revive my spirits, though.

High St has lost a lot of its mystique for me. It's a hill, and not to be sneered at, but is really not that big a deal.

Fun, I think. I take comfort in the fact that I felt significantly better afterwards than last year; I was hoping for a bit more snap on the hills than I actually displayed today, but that's something I can only address by actually riding my damn bike in such terrain rather than doing 100+ miles of long steady distance every weekend.

OT: Life happens

2008-09-08T19:54:00.002-04:00

Heh...well, it looks like next year's riding season will be particularly interesting, as fitting in training around a new baby is gonna be an organizational challenge.

Yep...we're infanticipating, with the flag set to drop around April 3rd or thereabouts.

Guess this means I need to think about an upright in the near future, so I can do a child seat and a trailer. Or maybe I should investigate the bakfietsen...

WPW Fally Rally

2008-09-07T20:30:00.003-04:00

Smashing success, apparently. I couldn't tell, 'cause I was too busy pushing for my first seven-hour century. Sadly, I ended up at 7:10, but a lot of that was due to encouraging/BSing with other riders and spending w-a-a-y too much time at the rest stops.

The day started with vast quantities of waffles, plus a cream-filled donut and bottle of Gatorade from the Sheetz up on 19 in Perrysville. After a leisurely pedal to North Park, I made the brilliant decision to stand around and freeze for half-an-hour, nicely negating all benefit of pre-warming the muscles before the century ride kicked off at 7.

Not the most formal of starts, nor what you'd call "Massed"; more of a dribble of departing riders. Those of us who gave a rat's patoot about time rapidly sorted ourselves into "five of us" and "everyone else", via the nice relaxing climb up Babcock, which functioned admirably as a Potter-esque Sorting Hat in that regard. We headed out to Valencia, then Mars/Evans City Rd as far as Callery, until bearing off into the hinterlands via Walters Station Rd. Eventually, the group of 5 became a group of two, a group of me, and a group of two, in that order, and in rapidly expanding anti-proximity.

The first 35-mile loop brought us back to North Park, where the plan called for a quick refuel and off onto the metric loop. The metric was the classic fall rally route, with a couple of slight detours due to construction: Franklin Rd out to Evans City, then Harmony, Zelienople, and out to Riverside High School for the first rest stop. Elwood City, River Rd, and a delightful detour on Gillen near the Fox Run golf course, then the usual climb up Bologne Valley/Foster/Glendale and down to Brush Creek Park for the second rest stop. Finally, the always-delightful hammer back to Cranberry along Brush Creek/Glen Eden/Unionville/Graham School, then meandering through Thorn Hill to the Red Belt and back to the park.

Things of note: we had about 100(!) attendees, of which 50(!) were new members. COOL. Also, there were four-count-'em-four recumbents on the ride; myself, John Strait, and Sean Monaghan, as well as a gentleman whose name perpetually eludes me, but who just picked up a nice Giro 20 at Rob's shop.

Good fun. If I hadn't spent so much time messing about at rest stops, I could easily have brought it in around 6:45; this leads me to think interesting thoughts about sub-6 hour centuries.

Pacing trains and training pace

2008-09-04T10:32:00.002-04:00

Working from home occasionally is a nice perk, as it allows me to, for example, take a break in the afternoon and go ride.

Yesterday, I hopped on the P-38 for a quick (mostly) flat run; down McClure to Beaver, Blvd of Allies to Jail Trail, out to end of South Side trail and back, with an easy climb up California to replace the shorter, steeper climb up McClure. As I was passing the UPMC sports complex, a train came up behind me, so I decided to pace it if I could. As it turns out, I could, but it was harder than I thought it should be. (Don't get me wrong; it was only a couple of miles at a 25 mph pace, so I'm not trying to beat my chest over my awesome power or anything here.) No HRM or other monitoring device; I'd put the perceived effort at about 95% of maximum. It was a bit disappointing to realize how hard I was working to maintain that pace; I have this unfounded belief that I should be able to do better than that, or at least not have to work so hard to be at that level.

I've spent the last year focusing on randonneuring; the vast majority of my training (if you can call it anything so formal) has been long steady distance, well inside my anaerobic threshold. What little interval training I've done has been unstructured, in the sense of "Ooo, there's a hill short enough that I can probably power over it if I try hard." This has resulted in some good things: I can maintain a steady average pace in the mid-to-upper teens, with a decent load of gear, more-or-less indefinitely, and I can recover rapidly from sustained exertion (multi-mile hills at 5-10% jump to mind). However, I can't sprint worth a damn, hill-climbing is bloody slow, and maintaining a pace over low 20s for any length of time puts me closer to redlining than I think it should.

In hindsight, I think a lot of the problem came about when I replaced my Tuesday and Thursday evening group rides with regular cycle-commuting . I was still getting my miles, but the commuting was more of the same loaded, steady distance riding that I was already doing on weekends. With the group rides, I was actually pushing my limits, as well as getting more practice in areas in which I suck like descents and pacelines.

So, near term, I think I'll try to get more short, fast-paced rides in. I'll still plan on regular (i.e. every couple of weeks) long rides, but the focus will be short and hard. I'm sure the upcoming Dirty Dozen training series will assist in that, although using DD hills for ad-hoc interval training sounds a bit silly. Long-term, I think I'll need to rejoin the regular group rides; I got a lot better, a lot faster, when I was riding with the guys who were significantly better than me.

Arbitrary Meanderings, 09/01/2008

2008-09-01T14:03:00.003-04:00

The route

I had intended to meet up with Scott and scout the 65-mile loop of the WPW Fall Rally route; however, due to the usual lack of planning and communication to which I seem to be prone, we never actually met up. So, I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip out to Tarentum, since I was already in North Park, so a mere hop+skip+jump up Pierce Mill to the Red Belt.

I'd forgotten what a nice ride the Red Belt from Saxonburg to Tarentum is; not flat, but no real hills, and very rural/low traffic. From there, I popped over to New Ken, then did the Coxcomb Hill climb for the first time this year; I'd also forgotten how nice a climb that is. After cresting the summit, I took unfamilar-to-me Hulton Rd, deciding that it was a nice day to get lost in the Penn Hills. Sadly, I managed to find my way to 380 in good order. ;-)

A quick run down 380 to Larimer, then up Washington/5th to Oakland, and the joyous pleasure of descending Neville/Boundary on fresh pavement. Over to REI to drop off some RBR business cards I'd promised Kim at the shop, then a cup of Goats coffee and a gut bomb of a quesadilla at Qdoba. After ingesting this grease-feast, I was chagrined to watch my average speed drop from 16.8 to 15.4 over the next ten miles on the way home. Chagrined, but, in hindsight, not very surprised.

OT: Well, at least it's human-powered...

2008-08-19T12:45:00.005-04:00

I tried something new last night...signed up for the Beginner Paddle session at Kayak Pittsburgh, run by Venture Outdoors.

MAN that was fun. It's been a while since I did much with my upper body, and it felt really good to, as it were, blow out the dust and cobwebs.

I'm fairly incompetent at this point, but I definitely want to do it again. Probably need to sign up for a VO membership, just to economize on kayak rental fees.

Hmmm...should think about setting up a regular "pedal and paddle" event. Ride a nice 30-40 miler through the North Hills, then grab some kayaks and head up the river for a bit, maybe stop for a picnic lunch somewhere before heading back down to town.

Abortive Strongland scouting attempt

2008-08-17T18:33:00.003-04:00

The plan was perfect; leave the house around nine, punch up to the Vandergrift/Apollo area via 380 and sundry back roads, ride the 21-mile course, then back to town via New Kensington and over to Jim's for the Pittsburgh Randonneurs (rando-nerds?) meeting. What could go wrong?

In a departure from my usual style of ride report, let me start with the Lessons Learned, as, well, they kinda paint a picture of the day.

Lessons Learned

First and Foremost. Don't eat a big meal at Wendy's, then immediately hop on the bike and pretend you're a road racer. Let's just say my digestive system, metaphorically speaking, sent in some big guys named Guido and Nunzio to explain to me the error of my ways. For about an hour of, shall we say, less than stellar pedaling performance.
Listen to your Gut. Okay, this one has nothing to do with the Wendy's-related problem. When the little voice in the back of your head says "Hmm, this is kinda narrow and high-traffic. Seems odd.", there's probably a reason. When it subsequently points out that there's been what, to the bike-racing naïf, seems like an excessive amount of up, PAY ATTENTION. That way, you may avoid going off curse[sic, yet apropos] before even hitting the course proper.
Don't be a Hero. Assuming one has more-or-less recovered from digestive mishaps, and one has consequently made it back to town in relatively good order, choosing to climb High St/Seavey Rd as the most direct route after riding a good, hilly metric century is unwise. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it bloody painful, not to mention mildly embarrassing.

So, the upshot of the Wendy's meal debacle, followed by going off-course at the very first opportunity, is that I didn't scout much of the route. After getting back on course, I made it so far as Northmoreland Park (Park Rd), before deciding that I'd best head back to town...slowly. After another 45 minutes, I was feeling okay, so opened up the throttle a bit on the way into New Ken. Crossed the river and picked up Freeport Rd through Springdale, Cheswick, et. all (new pavement, by the way...very nice!). Then, for some reason, decided it'd be a good idea to strike off for yonder ridge, so hung a quick right on Guys Run Rd and up into the hinterlands of Fox Chapel. Eventually ended up bombing down Saxonburg into Etna, then picked up High St as the quickest(!) way over to Millvale. Over to Larry-ville via 40th St, coffee at ~~Dancing Goats~~ Crazy Mocha, then home for a quick shower before wussing out and driving ye olde infernal combustion device over to Jim's place in Shaler.

All in all, it was a nice ride; just wish I'd actually accomplished what I set out to do.

Local bicycle commuter Dan Blumenfeld was today delighted to have his faith in humanity restored

2008-08-14T09:11:00.002-04:00

Not only did the courteous and friendly Sergeant Seibert follow through with his plan to observe traffic on 19 to watch for vehicles without passenger mirrors, but my sometime ride partner Scott Reckless this morning took it upon himself to do the same.

No results thus far, but it makes me happy to see tangible evidence that not all people suck.

Local bicycle commuter Dan Blumenfeld was today dismayed to learn that some drivers suck

2008-08-13T08:16:00.003-04:00

I got smacked by a car on my commute this morning.

Well, "smacked" may be too severe a term, but "brushed" sounds too light, as the moron du jour's passenger mirror ended up breaking off on me. Not just the glass, but the whole damn thing, and it was most emphatically NOT a folding mirror.

I'm okay...contusion on my left triceps, and a nice gash running from upper arm to lower across the crease of my elbow, but nothing serious. I suspect that the seat frame of the P-38 soaked up a lot of the impact, as post-action forensic analysis reveals rips and scratches in the seat fabric that I didn't put there.

I don't know if the driver was simply oblivious, or attempting to "scare" me by brushing by, but they didn't even waver before, during, or after the impact, so far as I could tell. Classic hit-and-run.

I called 9-1-1; talked to the dispatcher, assured them that it wasn't a medical emergency, and gave them the basic information re: location. They dispatched a very courteous officer, Sergeant Charles Seibert, who took the details (and the broken mirror assembly). An EMS team showed up a few minutes later, toweled off my wound and threw a bandage on it. From there, I continued on my merry way to work, had a hot shower and spent some quality time with antiseptic ointment and gauze pads from the Zee Medical cabinet.

Eastern PA 1000K, or, A Long Weekend's Journey into Accomplishment and Incoherence

2008-08-05T20:45:00.011-04:00

Eastern PA 1000K Photos

[Edited to add: links to ride reports]
Tom's Ride Report
Emily's Ride report
Steve's Ride Report

Tom Rosenbauer, with the help of several saintly volunteers, ran the Eastern Pa Randonneurs 1000K brevet Friday, August 1st, through Monday, August 4th. As you may have already guessed, oh insightful reader, I happened to be one of the 19 audacious randonneurs who decided to take a crack at a 621-mile ride with the confidence-inspiring subtitle of "Endless Mountains". At the risk of spoiling the ending, I'll say right off the bat that I survived with no apparent injuries, and was feeling good enough that the mere thought of getting back on the bike does not inspire nausea, or even mild discomfort.

The riders were a well-experienced bunch; almost half of the complement was from the DC Randonneurs crew, with the rest of us a mixed bag from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and even Emily O'Brien down from Massachusetts with her fixed gear. (As a side note, I was delighted to see that Emily brought the fixie, as it gave me competition for the title of "Person with Bike Apparently Least Suited to the Ride.") As far as I know, I was the only first-year rookie in the crowd; that, plus the fact that this was a good 400 kilometers longer than any ride I had previously attempted, was enough to produce a butterfly or three in the stomach. On the bright side, one of the true joys of this sport lies in the almost unfailing kindness and helpfulness of the participants; a constant through my entire first series has been the encouragement and example of the veterans, and I doubt I would have made it this far without that support.

Day 1...
...dawned, if not bright, at least plenty early, as we were up at 3 AM to get dressed, scarf down as much oatmeal, bagel, and pastry as we could manage, and perform any last minute adjustments to the bikes that became necessary. I knew this was going to be a rough day, as the first 120 miles contained almost every featured climb from the entire previous brevet series, and there was another monster to deal with even later in the day, so starting off nice and easily was the order of the day. For about 10 minutes, anyway, until the adrenaline/testosterone cocktail kicked in. Heh.

No surprises, as most of the route out to Barryville was old hat by this point in the year. We punched out to the first controle near Cherryville, then climbed Little Gap (which I'm happy to report is no longer the arduous climb that it used to be!) on our way out to Cherry Valley and the long climb up Fox Gap. As usual, the relatively tight-knit group shattered during the Fox Gap climb, with the mountain goats rapidly fading in the distance while the rest of us mere mortals ground our way up the hill. Shockingly enough, Tom was NOT waiting at the top of the hill with Secret Controle sign, camera, and gallons of water; it turned out that we were going too fast, and simply missed his arrival!

A quick descent down to Portland, then over to Blairstown and the Gourmet Gallery controle via Walnut (always a fun and surprising climb) Rt 616, and Rt 94. There, while my wiser companions decided to stop and have a proper meal, I decided to push on to the next controle before eating heavily. (In hindsight, this may well have contributed to a fairly bad patch a few hours down the road, but I get ahead of myself.) I hyperventilated my way up the Milbrook climb, then slapped it into high gear for the descent into the Delaware Water Gap. After grinding my way up the hill on Old Mine Rd past Old Milbrook Village, the rest of the Gap passed uneventfully (except for the trail of rando paraphernalia I ended up collecting along the way; bottles and reflective anklets were apparently disinclined to remain with their owners that day...). Tom popped in just before the turn in Layton towards Dingman's Ferry, and topped off our supplies of water and bananas.

From Dingman's Ferry, the climb up Raymondskill Falls. Ouch. OUCHouchouCHOUch. It's not that Raymondskill Falls itself was so terrible, although it certainly wasn't good; it was the continued climbing and vicious rollers on Kessel and Sawkill that followed which REALLY hurt. Once I got to Twin Lakes, things calmed a bit, and I even slowed my heart down enough to enjoy a rather humorous hand-made cautionary roadside sign, to wit: "Warning! Slow Down! Dangerous Armed Rednecks ahead!" On the down side, my usual state of razor-sharp mental acuity had degraded to a tendency to stare at clouds and freewheel at 7 MPH; this is not accepted practice in the Manual of Style for randonneurs on a 1000K ride who haven't even hit 250K yet. Fortunately, the controle at Barryville was nigh, and a few thousand calories in both solid and liquid form did wonders for my powers of concentration.

I had a bit of a rough patch after Barryville; well, to be honest, I had about 25 miles of rough patch, possibly due to skipping solid food a few hours back at Blairstown. I had enough energy to be amused by possibly the worst name for a hair styling salon I'd ever seen: "Hairway to Heaven", as well as spend a few minutes communing with a mud-encrusted old turtle making his leisurely way across the Lackawaxen Scenic Drive; however, I couldn't really keep the speed over about 14-16 mph, which is fairly poor performance given that it was dead flat and even had a slight tailwind. Fortunately for me, I encountered Bill Beck before the last big climb of the day on the way to the Dunkin Donuts controle in Carbondale, so had his presence from which to derive some much-needed gumption.

From Carbondale (AKA The City at the Foot Of The Brake-Pad-Eating Cliff), we rode the final segment to the first sleep controle in Halstead. This was a fairly brutal section, due to our fatigue and a preponderance of fairly nasty sawtoothed rollers. On the bright side, the sunset was absolutely fantastic, we encountered a herd of bison in a nearby field, and I actually got use from my arm warmers (albeit by giving them to Crista, but still...). Once we reached the Colonial Brick Inn and Suites, a quick shower, pounds of Tom's fantastic lasagna, and a 3 AM wakeup call were in order.

Day 2...
...began far too early, as I choked down a banana and some oatmeal at 3:30 before wincingly pedaling out of the parking lot at 4. On the bright side, the day's elevation profile was fairly forgiving for the first hundred miles or so today, so we could expect to bank a bit of time this morning.
Another high point was when Denny, a friend from 'BentriderOnline and the RBR rally, rode out on his Giro 26 recumbent to meet me on the way to Sayre. It was nice to have a conversation with someone more-or-less at eye level, and to see a friendly face that I HADN'T already spent 250 miles or so riding with. We checked in at the controle in Sayre, the Dandy Mini Mart, then continued onward. Denny rode with me as far as the confluence of the Susquehanna and Sheshequin rivers, then took a couple of pictures and bid me adieu.

The rest of the journey to the next controle was uneventful; steeply rolling farm roads, primarily, with the odd farm dog and (quite odd) herd of longhorn cattle. The Acorn Exxon market in Canton was everything one could wish, including hot sandwiches made to order and enough tables to seat plenty of fatigued randonneurs.

[NOTE: it is at this point that my note-taking became even more sporadic, and my mental faculties to decline further, so I hope the reader will forgive a certain degree of potential inaccuracy in my recollections. You have been warned.]

From Canton, we began the longest stage of the route; 71 miles to the next controle in Mill Hall. I might also add that the relatively merciful nature of the day's terrain thus far was to undergo a fairly shockingly, almost Jekyll-and-Hyde-esque transformation to some of the most brutal terrain on the ride. Rt 414 beat the snot out of me, and pretty much everyone else as well, due to the unrelenting nature of the wall-curve-precipice-wall-curve-precipice pattern it took. By the time things leveled out (in Liberty, on Blockhouse Rd down to Pine Creek park), I was utterly knackered. Fortunately, Pine Creek was gorgeous, and mostly flat and downhill for the next few miles to Waterville.

In Waterville, we stopped for refreshments at a restaurant in the park, which contained an honest-to-goshen ice cream bar. This was to prove a problem, as I could not resist a refueling choice of vast quantities of ice cream, tamped down with a grilled cheese/bacon/tomato sandwich. I would like to note that this was to prove a poor choice in the immediate future.

From Waterville, the terrain took a rather alarming turn for the "up"; several miles of steady climb up to Haneyville at the top of the ridge. This wasn't so bad, except for the grilled-cheese-and-ice-cream combo trying desperately to claw its way up my throat; the subsequent 15 miles of ridgetop rollers was evil, and resulted in profanity, blasphemy, and detailed fantasies of vengeance being directed towards Tom. And that was just on my part...

Finally, the punishment eased up, and we made it to the Sheetz controle in Mill Hall. At this point, the ride was definitely taking its toll; while no-one seemed too dispirited, everyone was looking more than a little haggard, and there was quite a bit of concern over the last stage before the next overnight controle. At least two more big climbs were in store, plus an additional 15 miles of "traditional Pennsylvania terrain".

I was paused at the top of the big climb, donning my reflective "please don't hit me" apparel, when I was joined by Kelly and Mary on tandem, Andrea, and Greg. We formed an impromptu band, complete with twanging tendons for the strings, groans for percussion, and a bit of sucking air for the wind section, and picked up the pace. After punching through the last series of climbs, we found that Tom had redeemed himself; the approach to the sleepover controle in Lewisburg was via Rt 192, which turned out to be about 20 miles of fast downhill. It was amazing how much we perked up at that point, as we spent much of our time in the high teens and low twenties for the rest of the leg.

The Country Inn and Suites in Lewisburg was a palace, BTW. At that point, it could have been a hog pen for all I cared, but this was a truly nice little hotel.

Day 3...
...began with an utter lack of appetite, and a whopping 3 hours of sleep, so I was pretty much an animate corpse for the first hour or so. The legs to the next two controles, in Millersburg and Pine Grove, were fairly forgettable; I can say this because, well, I've forgotten everything about them. From Pine Grove, we had one more climb and crossing of the Appalachian Trail, then a vigorous ride through Lancaster farmland to the penultimate controle, the post office at Blue Ball. We (Chuck and Crista, Joe, Bill, and myself) stopped midway in the town of Reinholds at a fantastic Victorian railway depot that was converted to a restaurant; although the service was dreadfully slow, the staff was friendly and the food was good, so the lost time was considered well spent. A quick crossing on foot of a bridge under construction (allowing us to avoid a detour with 4 bonus miles!), and we were back on our way to Blue Ball.

In Blue Ball, we dropped our post cards in the mail box, then retraced our steps briefly on the way to Morgantown. One last stop at the Turkey Hill there for supplies, and we embarked on the final leg back to the hostel. Traffic picked up a good bit as darkness fell; lowlights included a set of fools on crotch rockets (AKA street motorcycles) who thought it would be fun to see how closely they could buzz us at some obscene speed. We persevered, however, and fought our way over to Rt 563. A mere 15 miles and one real climb later, and we were turning into the driveway of the hostel, worn down but happy.

At 9:35 PM on Sunday August 3rd, myself, Bill, Chuck, Crista, and Joe finished as a group. Pictures, handshakes, and pizza were distributed indiscriminately, followed by a shower and collapsing into immobile carrion on a bunk upstairs for 8 hours.

Good fun...I'd do it again, and feel pretty confident that I could pull off a 1200K without too much difficulty.

I highly recommend that interested parties take a look at Bill Beck's photos; he takes great pictures, and got quite a few in the course of this ride.

Lessons Learned
There are three opportunities for improvement that I should address.

First, climbing; although I'm not a bad climber at this point, it's still one of the most obvious areas on which to work to improve my overall speed.
Climbing leads naturally to my next point, which is descending; I'm fine dropping like a stone on a straightaway with good visibility, but I turn into a brake-riding weenie at the first hint of a curve or limited sight line.
Finally, I still have a lot of room for improvement at the controles; I spent way too much time dawdling at many of them, and could probably have shaved at least a couple of hours off my overall time (or gotten two more hours of sleep!) with no real difficulty.

I'm quite pleased with how well I held up with regards to overall performance, and I had very little aftereffects beyond tiredness and a bit of soreness/stiffness in the legs. Oh, yeah, and a hint of numbness in the feet, but nothing serious. I think a lot of that well-being is due both to youth and to the recumbent; I recover well, and the bike simply doesn't beat me up when I ride.

1000K teaser

2008-08-05T13:50:00.003-04:00

Well, I survived :-)

Detailed ride report to follow, once I sort out pictures, notes, and my widely scattered thoughts.

Vitals: 18/19 finishers. I came in at 9:35 PM on Sunday with Bill, Chuck, Crista, and Joe, for a time of 65:35. Total mileage 622.9, rolling average overall right at 14.0 mph. Climbing claimed to be in the 40,000'+ range, calories burnt were over 35,000.

Couple of photo sets have been posted: one from Bill Beck, and one from George Winkert (who just happened to come by and take a few snapshots near the Gawdforsaken climb to Carbondale.).

East Liverpool

2008-07-28T08:06:00.002-04:00

Easy century on Sunday the 27th, as I didn't want to abuse myself too much prior to the Eastern PA 1000K this coming weekend.

Interesting shifts in participants; we started with six, lost two and gained one in the first 30 miles, then split into two groups and gained another rider up in Beaver. All told, the tally included myself, Jim Logan, Phil Stewart, Brian, Heather, Ed, Don, and Al Gaburri, at various points in the ride.

East Liverpool is one of my favorite easy routes; almost all of the climbing (and there ain't much!) is loaded into the first 40 miles; once you hit East Liverpool, the entire latter half of the ride is flat roads paralleling the Ohio River. There's a couple of moderate climbs, with the long slog up 151 chief among them, but, for the most part, it's easy cruising. For the most part; as usual, the return leg along Rt 51 from Monaca resulted in my inner hammerhead surging to the fore. I had it all under control, until Phil (on his tri bike) dropped into the bars and decided to throw down a little, so I had no choice but to provide a demonstration of recumbent aerodynamics. Roughly 5 miles at 25 mph later, we had to slow down for the turn onto the Ambridge bridge, and to let the old guys catch up ;-)

(On a side note, I really should try redlining it on the P-38 and the Baron one of these days; I'm curious as to what I can sustain on a long straightaway if I put my heart into it. I bet I could push high 20s on the Baron for a few miles at least...)

Fun route, decent speed: 90 miles of "official" ride at 16 mph rolling average, plus an extra 11 miles round trip from home to the trail head. And the run to Bellevue to pick up pizza for dinner a couple hours later felt like I was on fresh legs, so I successfully avoided overdoing it.

PA 1000K Preparations

2008-07-21T10:54:00.003-04:00

The 1000K is coming up fast; looks like it's going to be exciting. All 16 available slots are taken, with riders coming from Ohio, Pittsburgh, Boston, DC, and of course the NY/NJ/Eastern Pa region. Lots of familiar faces, as well as some new ones.

I've got a lot to do in the interim; I've got my last long ride slated for next Sunday, as well as the usual 2-3 days of commuting for this week. In terms of the bike, the laundry list isn't TOO bad: fabricate new mounting brackets for the SKS rear fender, get the wiring harness for the taillight properly redone, replace the seat mesh (and reinforce the underside of the mesh where it passes close to the power-side idler), and review/repack the contents of the trunk bag (AKA toolbox, spares kit, and bottomless pit of miscellaneous junk).

As this ride involves drop bags, I'll need to pack two for the overnight controles; mostly just clean shorts, spare base layers, and nutritional stuff. Also, I need to grab a new rain jacket, preferably something with removable sleeves.

I want to spend some quality time doing a virtual ride via Bikely; it's been a successful strategy thus far, so I might as well continue it for the year. It's helped a great deal in preventing, ah, navigational eccentricities in the past.

I'm feeling fairly confident at this point, as the Pittsburgh-Erie-Pittsburgh ride two weeks ago helped boost my confidence as regards back-to-back long days. I still feel a bit of trepidation with regards to the third morning; mounting up for the third of three consecutive double centuries will be new territory for me. My plan is to shoot for an early morning departure and a 15-16 hour ride each day; that should garner me sufficient rest, without spending too much time riding fatigued in the dark.

P-E-P (Pittsburgh-Erie-Pittsburgh)

2008-07-14T09:48:00.003-04:00

This last weekend, Jim Logan, Scott Reckless, and I took a little two-day jaunt to Erie and back. For Jim and myself, it was a good training opportunity pre-PA 1000K; for Scott, a nice excuse for a ride :-)

The route was a simple there-and-back, primarily based on Adventure Cycling' s Pittsburgh-Erie spur.

Day 1 was brutally hot, but fairly pleasant overall; in hindsight, I wish we hadn't done the plunge into and subsequent climb out of New Castle, as that was a lot of extended climbing in moderate traffic which would have been nice to avoid. Ah, well, c'est la vie. Around that time, we transitioned from riding more-or-less in a group to "rugged individualist" mode, regrouping occasionally at convenience stores and whatnot. Unfortunately, there were a couple of detours of less-than-intuitive nature in Meadville and along Rt 98, resulting in mild consternation, much consultation of Jim's GPS, and the fastest rider (Scott) being the last one to the hotel in Erie. A shower, bowl of overpriced pasta at Applebees, and a viewing of the Simpson's Movie on HBO (not terribly impressive, BTW), and it was off to bed.

Day 2. I'll call it a good training ride. Not fun, other than in the "feelings of achievement via perseverance" sense. Jim, Scott, and I rapidly separated on the long climbs out of Erie; while I can't speak for the other guys, I can say that I spent roughly 9 of the next 11 hours getting rained on, in every form from fine misty drizzle to full-on, barely see through the glasses downpour. Don't get me wrong; I'm not a wimp about riding in the rain, as my poor drivetrain can attest. However, 150 miles of it was distinctly unlovely.

On the bright side, I've managed to eliminate the chain rub on the plastic chain keeper, and the new Terracycle idler set is quite spiffy. The genny-powered, fender-mounted tail light is also nice.

On the down side, although I had the discipline to hose off the bike immediately after the ride, I have not done any of the maintenance that is warranted, so I've got a pile of work to do in the next couple of days with regards to cleaning, lubricating, brake pad replacement, etc.

Random Baron Pix

2008-07-10T17:43:00.002-04:00

Creeping Wool

2008-07-01T07:48:00.003-04:00

No, this is not a reference to an unwashed jersey crawling away under its own power.

When I started cycling a few years back, I simply couldn't see the point of the lycra and spandex. Why would I ever want to dress up like a tubby superhero? Okay, the padded shorts kinda made sense, but I wouldn't be seen dead without a pair of cotton baggies on top.

Then, the clipless pedals led to cycling shoes. Arm and leg warmers made sense, 'cause they let me ride in greater comfort in varied weather. Wicking fabrics? Hey, whaddaya know, there's a reason for this stuff after all. Then, after the bee/hornet/EPO-enhanced horsefly flew up my baggy shorts on the MS 150, suddenly the idea of exposing my flabby thighs encased in bike shorts seems to make far more sense. Yep, now I'm a superhero.

Even then, with the overwhelming evidence that maybe, just maybe, others may know what they're talking about with regards to clothing, I still maintained my prejudices. Sure, I was a lycra boy now, but at least I wasn't wearing itchy, hot, un-launderable wool, right? Then, just out of curiosity, I tried a wool tee-shirt for a base layer. Huh...again, whaddaya know? It actually works...

To cut the blathering short, let me just say that, on my commute to work today, I realized that the only things on my body that weren't wool were the gloves, the arm warmers, the SPD sandals, and the helmet. And wool arm warmers sound like a really good idea...

It's amazing how one can find oneself doing/using/saying things that seemed quite unlikely a short time in the past.