I have a really life altering decision to make and I need to enlist your help and support. I can’t decide on a color for the new bike that Dan Boxer is building for me. I am definiately leaning one direction at this point, but both are so damn pretty that I can’t seem to pull the trigger.

The dimensions are pretty accurate since I modeled them off of some BikeCAD drawings that Dan sent me from my proportions. It should be a freakishly tall and awesome bike. I am very excited.

The logos I slapped on there may or may not be final or positioned correctly, but I felt like I needed to include them so you would have an idea of how the white will look again the final color.

The handlebar bag isn’t something I own yet, but I’m working on getting it in that general gray/blue’ish color. The rest of the components are just swapped out from my Salsa. So… black tires, saddle, seat post and stem, silver crank and derailleurs.

My life is so difficult! Help!

I mentioned in the past that Paul Johnson is foolishly letting some of us young bucks handle the SIR summer 100k. Time is ticking away quickly and we are starting to notice that it is coming up very shortly.

This 100k is typically known as a suckers ride because it is a bit shorter and usually has nice weather. There tend to be more of the Cascade riders out with us blue jersey types. I missed last years ride because it conflicted with Seattle to Portland. Thankfully it is on a different date this year. The 100k is on June 27th and STP is on July 11th/12th.

Matt and I are going to scout a few roads this weekend and Chris and I may do some driving to check out even further south. I’m trying not to eat up every weekend with bike related stuff, but I want to get a few hours in here and there.

This map is very rough but it shows some of the area that we want to cover. I personally think West Seattle has been underrepresented on SIR rides. It is home to some of the craziest hills in the city and if you know your way around, it can be very low traffic.

The only obvious issue with the area (and it is a big one) is the amount of choices you have in alternate routes. The trick will be to find roads that are fun and challenging without easier alternates. I don’t want a ride with 15 controls and a million turns. Riding in the city can be very pleasant, honest!

Chris and I are itching to start from our home in South Park. There should be ample street parking to handle the overflow if needed. I’m hoping that some of the folks that are nearby will have easy enough access to ride to the start.

If it proves to be a nice day, there should be some pretty spectacular views all along the water front. There are sections where you can see every mountain range in the state. I am really crossing my fingers on this one, it should be a lot of fun.

On a totally different note, I’ve been working with Dan Boxer over the last couple of weeks.

He is diving head first in to his bicycle building company and wanted some logos. I happened to be in the market for a bicycle so we shook hands and went to work. I don’t normally go into the business end of things here, but I can’t even tell you how excited I am at the prospect of riding a custom bicycle with logos that I had my hands on. I’ll lay out some more details in the next few weeks as things come together.

We’re like a motorcycle gang… without the motors.

On April 17th, Dan Boxer, Matt Mikul, Joe Platzner, Greg Cox and I are going to ride our bicycles some stupid distance for a ridiculous amount of time. What else is new, right? This time we will have the t-shirts and buttons to help tell the tale though.

I designed a silly little graphic for the team and Joe threw down some cash for everyone to get some merch out of the deal. I am getting pretty excited about the whole process.

A fleche has an insane amount of rules to process so we are all pretty happy to have an old timer like Greg Cox on board (no offense Greg). He has mapped out a fantastic looking route that I think is in the process of being approved.

Regardless of how well we ride, we will sure look good doing it. After all, isn’t that what is most important?

Dan promised to make us all custom bicycles for the ride and Matt is paying for the airfare back from Olympia. They didn’t know that until now… but I’m sure they are game.

Ragù alla Bolognese
Via Saveur

MAKES 4 CUPS

• 1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (with juice)
• 1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 rib celery, finely chopped
• 1⁄2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1⁄2 medium carrot, finely chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 1⁄4 b. ground beef chuck
• 1⁄2 lb. ground pork shoulder
• 1 4-oz. piece pancetta, finely chopped (subbed prosciutto for fun)
• 1⁄2 cup dry red wine
• 2 tbsp. Homemade Tomato Paste (canned… sorry)
• Homemade Tagliatelle (I used 1lb of packaged linguine)

1. Put the tomatoes and their juice into a blender; purée until smooth and set aside.
2. Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the celery, onions, and carrots, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until very soft and caramelized, about 15 minutes more.
3. Add the beef and pork and cook, stirring and breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat begins to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the pancetta and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until its fat has rendered, about 10 minutes more. Increase the heat to medium, add the wine, and simmer, stirring constantly, until evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes. Add reserved tomato purée, reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce is very thick, about 3 hours.
4. Season ragù with salt and pepper. Toss with fresh tagliatelle or the pasta of your choice, or use in lasagne. Serve with grated parmigiano-reggiano.

Ricotta Crostinis with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes
Via Saveur

• Handful of cherry tomatoes
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 loaf of ciabatta or another peasant-style bread
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 3/4 cups ricotta cheese,  room temperature
• Parmesan cheese
  

1. Toss tomatoes in a small skillet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, set 5″ under broiler element, and leave until the tomatoes have burst and started to release their juices, about 8 minutes. Set aside.
2. Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire in a grill or set gas grill to medium-high heat. Cut bread into 1/2″-thick crosswise slices. Drizzle the bread with olive oil. Grill bread slices until both sides have grill marks and slightly charred crusts, 4–5 minutes. (you can just pan fry these if you are lazy like I am)
3. While hot, rub bread with garlic, if you like. Slather 1 tbsp. of the ricotta on top of each toasted slice.
4. Spoon oozing cherry tomatoes onto ricotta. Garnish with thin shavings of parmesan cheese and more black pepper.

Goat Cheese Crostinis with Caramelized Apples
Recreated from a dish we had at Txori

• 1 Granny Smith Apple, cored and peeled, cut into slices
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 loaf of ciabatta or another peasant-style bread
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1/2 cups creamy goat cheese (sliced to fit bread)

1. In a small skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Brown apple slices in butter. Sprinkle sugar and cook until they are a deeper brown and sugar caramelizes with sugar.
2. Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire in a grill or set gas grill to medium-high heat. Cut bread into 1/2″-thick crosswise slices. Drizzle the bread with olive oil. Grill bread slices until both sides have grill marks and slightly charred crusts, 4–5 minutes. (you can just pan fry these if you are lazy like I am)
3. While hot, rub bread with garlic, if you like. Place goat cheese on top of each toasted slice.
4. Spoon apples and sauce onto ricotta. Enjoy.

I had every intention of getting up Saturday morning for the Winter training ride with SIR. It looked like a fun course on some well worn roads. The puppy that we were dog sitting had other ideas. She decided to start yapping until she got sick of it, only to repeat the process every 20 minutes. From 11pm to 7am, she started whining and barking from her kennel. I’ve never felt so angry and violent towards an animal before. It took everything I had to stay in bed and not get up and strangle the poor thing.

I had pretty much committed to supporting Matt on the ride. Chris had gave me the impression that he might back out of the ride anyways, but he let me know the night prior that he was in for it. I texted him at like 4:30am (sorry, Chris) after I had been up for a couple of hours straight to let him know that there was no way I was getting up to ride my bike all day.

Around 9 or 10, after getting a little slower start, I asked Chris if he would still be in for a shorter ride around West Seattle. I had splurged a little on the dinner and dessert the night prior. I needed at least a little bit of activity. Thankfully, he was in.

Paul Johnson was nice (and crazy) enough to let some of us newbies take the reigns on mapping out a course for the 100k this summer. I’ve had a collection of leg breaking hills that I’ve been trying to string together for a while now, and Jane showed me an amazing one that connected Delridge to as far as California across West Seattle. I knew it would be perfect for the ride, if only the pitch wasn’t too steep.

You can look at our Saturday loop here. I am positive that we won’t be able to get away with every turn and street on the map, but that isn’t really the point right now. We are still fleshing it out. Somehow we squeaked out 2,000 feet of climbing in 15 miles or so. The last 5 miles is mostly downhill and was strictly to get us back home.

The general plan is to keep routing south, possibly as far as Dash Point and swing back up, starting and ending in the general South Park area. It will probably be a top heavy ride as far as hills go. Whoever doesn’t bail out from leg cramps should be treated to a pleasant second half… maybe.

South of the Fauntleroy ferry, you climb a hill and then dip back down into a neighborhood (Shorewood?) that rests at sea level. There is a fantastic switchback followed by a completely epic climb. Oh lord that hill is amazing. Once you crest the top you are treated to views of Mount Raininer and the Puget Sound behind you. If we luck out with a nice summer day, it should be a stunning ride.

Considering the neighborhoods we are running through, we’ve found some nice low traffic streets. It isn’t exactly the country, but we aren’t putting you on I-5 or anything. Wait… that isn’t a bad idea… Sorry Paul. You gave some city boys the ball and we are going to run with it.

I started this painting for Jane about a month before Christmas. I didn’t exactly plan on rushing it, but I also didn’t expect to spend 3 months on it. I can’t say I’m 100% happy with it, but I suspect that I never would be.

Still, it turned out pretty decent for not having painted in like 12 years. I’m hoping that I’ll keep it up and be encouraged to paint a little more often. It is tedious but fun. I’m too used to getting the instant results off the computer without having to really mix colors.

For those who don’t know (I’m imagining that is most of you), this is based on a Japanese game where you control a character (the Prince in green on the right) who rolls up objects as his ball of junk gets bigger and bigger. Eventually you are rolling up people, cars, buildings, even cities. I pictures him here rolling up our dog and cat that both passed away in the last couple of years. They were pretty special to us.

I set out to prove that I have none of my dad’s woodworking skills this weekend. Norman, Jane and I have been talking about putting together a garden for a while now and we finally got the ball rolling. They worked on clearing the blackberry bushes and I set sights on building some boxes.

After a very expensive trip to our local home building store for materials, I attempted to slap together some boards with large shiny objects. I knew that carpentry is a lot of manual labor, but I forgot how intense squatting and handling a drill for hours on end can really be.

We are doing raised beds so we don’t have to mess with our local toxic soil too much. The first box took me probably about 5 hours to put together. For some reference on the difficulty of the project, the second box took me about an hour and a half. I consider myself fairly intelligent, good with my hands even. Something about putting 8 boards together threw me for such a loop that I was completely frustrated.

My neighbor made things worse by popping by and tried giving me “tips”. Those tips were to do things completely different of course… with materials that I didn’t just spend a bunch of money on. I shushed him away as soon as I could without being rude.

I never learn anything without messing it up though. I learned quite a bit on this project. For instance, every trade has their own cryptic measuring system that nobody (except the insiders) can possibly understand. Does 2 x 2 mean a board is actually 2″ x 2″? Of course not. Duh. Everyone knew that. 2 x 6? Two of those stacked equal about a foot, right? Maybe! Measuring stuff is for chumps. Eyeballing is where the real action happens. I like a little adventure with my wood working.

They may not be the most beautiful boxes ever assembled, but they are going to grow the hell out of some vegetables.

I started my foray into the world of running today at lunch. I’m sure that the years of bicycling helped me with a base fitness… but it sure didn’t feel like it.

When I was in high school (and a hundred pounds heavier), I used to dread having to run the mile in P.E. class. The thought of putting on those stupid shorts and light colored shirt that showed my man boobs still gives me shivers down my spine. And oh, god the heat… Southern California is lovely until you drive about 30 minutes inland where I grew up and are encouraged to run in 90+ degree weather “for fun”.

So what in the hell is wrong with me then? Why did I spend a good chunk of change for a pair of shoes when I could have bought… I don’t know… a shiny new doohickey for my bikes? Maybe the randonneuring has sucked the good judgment out of me. I am a gluten for pain and torture.

Needless to say, I am planning on working this in to my regular routine on my lunch breaks.

I’ve started a 10 week training program with some loose goals in mind. I’m not interested in marathons or triathlons or anything like that yet. I just would like to be able to run 30 to 40 minutes without having to walk. A little gained fitness and weight loss couldn’t hurt either.

Bicycling is still the bee’s knees though. Consider this cross training.
Week 1 – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday:
Run 2 minutes
Walk 4 minutes
Repeat 5 times.

Warm up and cool down by walking about 5 minutes. Stretch at least post run and before bed.

It ramps up week to week until I am (hopefully) running for 30 straight minutes.

We started out the weekend reliving Jane’s birthday party with some friends. It was a 4th anniversary of a couple of close friends and we wanted another excuse to have a party and be silly. We set it up exactly the same, with Rock Band, Korean BBQ and plenty of drinks. There are lots of awesome photo’s to be found here.

Saturday took a very interesting direction though. We woke up not feeling… shall I say… one hundred percent. We were scheduled to attend a circus school in Georgetown for our friend Jennifer Patterson’s birthday. We had no idea what that meant exactly and were pretty frightened at the idea of attempting acrobatics for the first time with a hangover.

Jane and I dug through our clothes trying to find something that was stretchy and wouldn’t show off our goods while upside down. I settled for some bicycling clothing and short shorts… and leg warmers…

We got to the class and the instructor started to warm us up with some stretching and exercises. I was already cursing him in the first five minutes for working out muscles that don’t tend to have to move. Attempt a hand stand? No thank you good sir… no thank you.

After warming up, he taught us how to juggle a bit. It was kind of neat because I was sure that I wouldn’t get it. Somehow I pulled it together and threw a few balls up without dropping them. I was mostly just glad that I wasn’t upside down or hurting my muscles for a couple of minutes.

We moved on to the tumble trampolines. They were quite fun actually. We lined up and bounced our way down the line trying out different moves. Bunnies don’t bounce this well.

After getting our fill, the instructor moved us over towards the trapeze swings. Being as I am able to do about one and a half pull ups, I was dreading this portion. He started us off swing gently from our core. The second move was to pull our legs over our heads (insanely hard with my long, heavy legs) and grab the bar with our knees. We hung upside down and pulled ourselves back off. The instructor was there to give a hand and a lift when needed (and it was). The third test was similar except we swung while upside down and grabbed the ropes so we could sit on the bar. If we wanted, we also go to stand up and enjoy the view from up high. It hurt like hell but I am very glad that I did it. My upper body is still sore.

The end of the school was filled with time on the giant trampolines learning a few basic moves. Jen showed off a bit with some harnessed front and back flips. She has been attending the school for a while for fun and exercise.I freaking love trampolines. I think we can fit one in the back yard….

The school was amazing fun and I recommend that everyone give it a shot if the opportunity arises. You can check out the schools website here. They have classes for all sizes and shapes and they are quite reasonable.

p.s. I stole these pictures from here and here (where you can find more embarrassing photos of the short shorts). I couldn’t fit my camera in to my non existent pockets.

I’m short on words. It was all amazing though. I’ll just dump some pictures on you. Sorry for the blurry pictures. The whole night was a little blurry…

Our friend’s band “Success” even played for real! I got to try my hand at sucking on a real set of drums too. It was a good time.