I spent the weekend trying to shake out of my routine, even if only a little bit. Jane and I spent a lot of time with friends that we don’t see often enough, and probably drank a little too much because of it.Norman was nice enough to drive us around this weekend, so I didn’t have to feel like the designated driver. We didn’t get enough house work done, but that dirt wasn’t really going anywhere. I think it was exactly what I needed.

Jane and I have been renting a show that was on Adult Swim a few years ago called “Tom Goes to the Mayor“. It was created by Tim and Eric of “Awesome Show” fame. A few of the characters got ported over from this original show, and it is always good to see Bob Odenkirk doing his thing. The show is pretty solid satire on local government and civic pride, with a healthy dose of the bizarre.

This next weekend (weather pending) is the rescheduled 300k. Jane and Emily are going to be super sexy checkpoint girls. I promise there will be some old men blushing. Be there. Bring your own meat.

I had this whole entry in my head about how much my commute on Wednesday sucked. It would have been pretty funny.

Instead, I got an email about the 300k we were supposed to ride tomorrow being pushed off until next weekend thanks to the snow/ice in the area. I am really disappointed and have a million thoughts bouncing around in my head.

We just fleshed out our plans for next weekend this morning including a trip to Portland to see off our friend who is moving to New York San Francisco.

Now I’m not sure what to do. I was so excited about Jane being there to participate in something that has made me so happy lately.

I should just not do the stupid ride and go to the party, but I feel like I’ve been working so hard towards this.

Son of a…

I grumbled and pouted my way through what was sure to be my grumpiest weekend in a while. Nothing seemed to go the way it should have, and nothing was on schedule.

It started off well enough though. Friday when I got home from work there were two huge boxes waiting for me from Peter White Cycles. I was itching to get my wheels on the bike but I had promised Jane that we could go to the bakery first. It is written in the Friday rule book as mandated. We hung out with Erin and grabbed some bread/pastries and finally got back home. I spent the next couple of hours on prepping my bike for the wheels and transferring my cassette over. I’ve never really messed with wiring of any sort (short of our stereo speakers), so I took it slow and easy. By the time Norman got over I was ready for a test ride and everything worked well.

My body gets in to a routine where it starts shutting down on Friday nights about 7pm. I’m able to stay up for a while longer, but I can feel myself slipping into my work night coma. Once again, everyone was ready to go out and have fun, and once again, I just wanted some sleep. Jane told me they were going out, but I was already half way in to a dream. Everything is a little fuzzy from that night, and I don’t even have a cool story to show from it.

Saturday morning Chris, Joby and I retraced almost all of the 100k Populaire, minus Seward Park. We actually did the roughly 70 miles to “take it easy” so we didn’t “spend all day on the bikes”. That is how far gone we are now. 70 is the loosen the legs and enjoy the day chatting ride. It was an amazing day in the city though. The sun was out and it was one of the few time that I needed to remove my jacket for the hills.

So far so good. Everything is kosher. Jane brings me this amazing burrito from a new restaurant in town that tastes pretty much exactly like fast food in Southern California. By back home standards, it would be a shaky “meh” at best. By Seattle standards, I bow down to its deliciousness. Somehow, the burrito was the start of all of my problems. It started a violent carne asada revolution on my innards. There wasn’t a rumbling right away, so I didn’t think twice about tossing back an energy drink and a whole bottle of St. Bernardus Abt. 12. I mean, we were going to be out having fun, right? The uppers, downers, and fatty meats duked it out in my stomach all freaking night. I had to keep burping in over to overcome the need to throw up. It was a bad scene. I managed to make it through a small cocktail party and a friends birthday party without doing anything I would regret though.

Norman suggested we go to a show that his friend was playing with BlöödHag. Regardless of my pain, I was all about it. It sounded like a great show, and I haven’t been to one in a while. Wait… I don’t have an ID. I lost my wallet. Despite a plea from Norman, I wasn’t able to get through the door. I confessed my desire to go home and felt bad for once again playing party pooper. I just needed some sleep… and some bathroom time. Gross.

Sunday was the day that I was going to get things done. Plans were made, they would be kept! We got things rolling by getting up at the crack of noon. Jane had a matchmaker bug in her and she wanted to set up a couple of friends of ours. We were all to go to a coffee house show at 3pm. Plenty of time to get to Ballard for a pancake breakfast. The viaduct was closed again so I-5 was a parking lot. We spent an hour each way in traffic, barely getting back home in time to meet our friend. He never showed up, or called, or gave any indication that we should just leave to make it to the 3 o’clock show on time. We get to the coffee house a little late, minus the date to a standing room only performance.

After the show, we had a date with Jane’s niece, in from Hawaii. Jane wanted to play cool Aunt, so we took her out to see Aaron’s band play at El (I can’t believe what they charge for a show these days) Corazón. At one point in the night Jane slipped away for a drink with some friends, leaving me with her niece for a while. When she got back, I slipped in to my sad sap, grump old man routine. I started to think about my role as designated driver and how much I wanted to just hang out and have a beer with friends. I felt kind of trapped in the corner with someone I can’t really relate to while my better half was having a good time in an area that I couldn’t access if I wanted to (no ID). In short, I was being a baby about the whole situation. Jane took my pouting in stride and it didn’t kill the night.

Her niece later proclaimed, “This was the best show I’ve ever been to.” I think it might have been the dancing easter bunny in attendance that sealed the deal.

My birthday slipped by under the radar yesterday. It is nice to be back in to a day to day routine where I don’t think about stuff like doctor visits and bills. This time last year was spent recovering from the transplant. I remember being disappointed that I wouldn’t be out before my birthday. It is funny how quickly you forget things like that when you don’t have some event disrupting your life. My birthday this year was just “Tuesday”. I didn’t even take the day off of work. I am okay with that.

Jane and I went out for seafood and probably spent a little too much, but it was pleasant. We don’t date enough anymore. I’d like to get back in to that habit. Quality sexy time, if you will.

I’ve been in kind of a haze this week. Jane thinks it might be effects from Saturday. She says that she was in a similar state for a while after Seattle to Portland. To be honest, I felt better physically after the 200k than I’ve ever felt after a ride. There was no cramping and I wasn’t extremely sore. We even attended a company function the next day.

I am semi convinced that my relative lack of sleep is the main issue. I’ve been shorting myself half an hour to an hour a night because of tight schedules. It really seems to make a difference. I am not able to get my schedule down in order to get to bed when I plan on it.

I set little goals in my head for the day and I frustrate myself when I can’t achieve them, especially when it is out of my control. “We can make it to the grocery store and just get what we need, then have plenty of time to get coffee, get home and fix the bike, and wash the car.” Those are usually the days when we leave the house about 1pm and putt around town aimlessly.

I found myself doing this on some of our SIR rides too. “Okay, you should be able to keep a 14mph pace. Three minutes at controls… 4 more hours. No problem.” Right about there comes the flat tires, headwinds, and steep grades…

The truth is, I love a lack of direction and a bit of adventure. I just don’t always appreciate it while I am in the moment.

Be here now, Robert.

“I’m pretty sure I felt more comfortable while getting that stem cell transplant,” I told myself. “Well, maybe not.”

Chris, Joby and I grinded our way up the foothills of Mount Rainier to get to the town of Greenwater. I think by “town”, they mean “store”. The temperature was in the mid to high thirties, and we were all still pretty well soaked from the 60+ previous miles of constant, cold rain. There was snow still in piles on the ground, resisting the temptation to melt. It was a slow and relatively steady grade to the control point, lasting 27 miles and peaking out around 1,700 feet.

It was a day of many firsts for me. This ride marks the furthest I’ve ever ridden in a single day, the highest elevation I’ve ever climbed to, the best food has ever tasted post ride, the most bike malfunctions our group has ever suffered, the strongest I’ve ever felt climbing, and the most calories I’ve ever needed to stuff down my throat.

We started the figure 8 style loop at Greg Cox’s house in East Kent (on the highest hill in town of course) at 7am. After a few miles of cruising, we saw Matt on his way to the starting point to sign in. I felt bad that I only have the capacity for 3 bikes on the car. Honestly, I’m surprised that we fit that many with the size of bags we all carry. The group shuffled down towards Dash Point and we followed a similar route of what we took on the training ride earlier this year. It looped around the sound and provided some beautiful views of Tacoma.

We swept out of Auburn to hook on to Green Valley Road. I’ve covered this route a few times and it is always beautiful. The difference this time, however, was that the group rode the opposite direction to Black Diamond that I’ve done in the past. To the left, there is a steady 10 mile climb to the bakery. To the right, the same elevation is jammed in to under 2 miles. Naturally, SIR chose the right.

After destroying a donut from the bakery, we started what Dr. Codfish described as “the slog to Greenwater“. It was indeed a slog. To make you feel even better, you get to watch the people out front pass the other direction on their return from Greenwater. By this point we were near the back of the pack due to multiple tire and tube malfunctions. It felt like an eternity passed between Black Diamond and the Circle K in Enumclaw.

The sun finally graced us with its presence about 80 miles in to the ride. The didn’t stop, but the sun was there to say hello. I think we all got a second wind from it. I took us on what turned out to be our only mistake of the day, adding about 4 miles to the trip. After getting back on track, we reached the Circle K. We refilled on water, ate some chocolate, and went back into a good and steady pace.

The final 20 miles or so held a couple of climbs in the 8 to 10% grade range. It wasn’t the most pleasant time to be climbing a hill. We groaned and grunted and reached Greg’s house again. He and his wife had stupid amounts of food waiting for the SIR riders. Apparently they’ve hosted this for a number of years. We had far too many calories to replace, so we went to work.

200k by the numbers:
Flat tires – 6
Road kill – 9
Miles ridden – 129
Feet climbed – 7,385
Avg. Temp – 43°
Calories burned – 9,000-10,000
Time on road – 11 hours 30 minutes
Time spent riding – 8 hours 41 minutes
Avg. Speed – 14.8 mph

Awesome.

I seem to have lost my wallet. It had a bunch of my business cards in it. If you are reading this, you are welcome to the 2 dollars if you return the wallet/license.

Side note: I am carbo loading on pizza and croissants today.

This is a JP Weigle 1970’s time trial bike. Thanks go to Peter Weigle for the use of some of his photos. He was kind enough to offer them out in my work when I spoke to him at NAHBS. Maybe I will purchase a bike from him in payment some day. I’m sure the wife would love that.

I am getting antsy for the 200k this weekend. I keep looking at the (rough) route on google maps and imagining the pain I’m going to feel. I’ve been through a little bit of pain in the past though. It shouldn’t be too bad.

I’m interested in on the bike nutrition. I love eating, but it gets hard to choke down energy products every hour. I’ve been experimenting with powdered products for the water too. There is just so much on the market and so little time to get it down.

I am also wondering at what point I’ll break the habit of trying to keep “the group” together on these longer rides. I know I’m not usually on pace with Chris and Joby at this point. It is nice to have people to ride with, but I need to get used to the fact that we are going to be at different levels on different days. Thankfully, there are plenty of other really nice guys and girls on the road. I’m bound to end up in a group at some point.

SIR released a newsletter today in PDF format. Peter McKay wrote an article on the 100k from 2 weeks ago. He mentioned the “couple of cute women on bicycles” asking for me. I wish I would have been able to catch Jane and Michele on the ride through South Park. Thanks for trying though ladies!

I keep telling myself to draw something but my full time has my Illustrator finger on overdrive lately. We’ve been overhauling the entire catalog which means that I’ve been drawing literally hundreds of new products, some in color.

In the art of cutting corners, I’ll just show off one of the cartridges that I already have finished.

Personal stuff coming soon. Promises.

This was never meant to be a training log, but you are likely to see more and more of these posts since I am getting right into the thick of my first randoneuring season. Saturday I went out with Chris, Joby and Matt to Vashon Island for some leg crushing climbing. We are all preparing to do the 200k this weekend and thought it would be a good idea to not waste a good weekend for riding. As always, there were plenty of threats of rain but the weather held up for us. Predicting weather in Seattle is almost useless.

As soon as you get off the ferry, there is a four to five hundred foot slog of a climb to the top of the main highway. We crammed in almost 5,000 feet of climbing in the 43 miles ridden on the island. For comparison, the Seattle to Portland is a bit over 200 miles and has 3,800 feet of elevation gain. We haven’t exactly been avoiding hills lately, but my legs were definitely burning by the end of the day.

We timed the ferry back well and rode up and over West Seattle to get back in to town. Afterwards, I was able to check out Loretta’s. It is a new bar in town opened up by Scott, who runs 9lb Hammer in Georgetown. It has an all wood interior and tons of charm. Naturally, there are cries of gentrification since it is one of the few places in town worth going to. Yeah I know, I’m part of the problem. Fear not though, there are still plenty of South Park regulars with quotes like this:

“Only (effeminate males) drink (brand X beer). Hell no man, I drink Bud Light.”

I’m work safe.

There is a patio in back where I’m imaging that we will be spending plenty of time on this summer. It was a good thing that they served up good food, because I definitely needed it. I’m still riding to eat.

That night some friends came over and knocked out a little Rock Band with us. I was a little more wiped out than I wanted to be, but I tried not to display it too much. Thankfully, it didn’t go too far into the night. I just needed a little bit of sleep.

Sunday Jane and I went shopping for groceries and stop at (for the second time in the same weekend) Bakery Nouveau. We are on a mission to eat every style of crossant known to man, but mostly almond and chocolate varieties. Oh, and the ones with turkey, Havarti, and mustard too…

Jane is involved in a book group with some other lovely ladies in town and this month it was to be hosted at our house. She got ambitious and wanted to make a quiche that she’s done with Norman in the past. Naturally, there was plenty of cussing and panicking, but everything turned out fine. At least, I think it did. I was barbecuing with other husbands. They know what it is like to be kicked out of the house for goss…err… book night. Brian cooked some amazing fish and we had a bit too much to drink. It turned out pleasant.

This morning I placed an order on a wheel set from Peter White Cycles. I am really exciting to be getting some hand built wheels from an expert in the industry. It will have a Schmidt dynohub so I can power my own head and taillights. I settled on getting an E6 headlight after much mental push and pull. High fives to the four of you who know what the hell I’m even talking about.

It was a wonderful weekend for a ride.

Sunday morning I got up to ride out at 7:30 with Chris and Joby to the University District. It was the start of the first official SIR ride of the season, known as the “Big Time Urban Populaire”. We took a route up over Capitol Hill to get some more… uh… training in before the ride. It helped get my legs warmed up for what was to come. 125 riders showed up for the event. Imagine, 125 bearded, chubby men with miles of reflective material. It brought a tear to my eye.

It is a great route for us because it basically strings together loops that we have been doing for a long time now into one cohesive tour of Seattle.

Joby decided early on that he would finish his ride for the day in South Park to attend some out of town company, and Matt was nowhere to be seen at the start of the event. The pack fanned out very quickly on the crushing inclines on the north end. I knew that the ride would be no push over, but I am very impressed at the amount of hills that Eric (ride coordinator) found for us to take. We’ve been training on West Seattle for months and haven’t found roads that tough.

When all was said and done for the day, we logged over 5000 feet of climbing, with grades of up to 20%.

There were a few mechanical issues and control point confusion. The 3 of us were split up for big chunks of the ride, but I guess that is something that I need to get used to. Fighting the head winds around Alki beach was no fun without support. We all caught up to each other on the control point in West Seattle, only to lose each other again right away. Everyone was tightened back up in South Park though, and things were pretty smooth from there.

It certainly wasn’t our fastest 100k, but I am pretty proud of the accomplishment none the less. We added about 20 miles to the route by commuting to the start point and back as well. I am really looking forward to the 200k in a couple of weeks.

Once we got to the finish point at Big Time we were asked if we saw our “cheering squad”. Apparently we had just missed Jane and her friend Michele trying to see if they could catch us on course. They went out for a ride to Ballard and got some Belgian beers and frites (yeah, I’m jealous too). Michele is in town from the east coast for her job and a conference. She also rides for Independent Fabrication… so that makes her pretty awesome in my book. She brought her travel bike with her just to take a spin with Jane around the city. I need a travel bike.