Monday, February 25, 2008

Bulging disc--NO More!

At least I have permission to resume training. The only thing I was allowed to do was to swim and walk. I still have some occasional discomfort, but not enough to stop me any further. Tomorrow I will ride to work and see how I feel. I will take a longer route so that I ride about 15 miles. That should take about 70 minutes given the traffic and signals I have to go through in certain areas. Then my plan is to both swim and ride on Wednesday and run and ride on Thursday. I have to ride tuesday thru Thursday because of work. It is easier if I ride there than take the car away from Bridget all day. It will be good to see how it goes.

Also, Dave, who is to be referred only as DTP on this blog hereafter, is officially out of the Vikingman. If he gets fat it will only be justice. I should write fatTER, since I am sure he is starting to pack it on. Is it bad that I take a certain amount of joy in the misfortune of others? Not if it is deserved.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Bulging Discs, Wussing out, My Wife, My Mother-in-Law, & My Sister--all in one post!

I have a sweet bulging disc in my lower spine right now. Love it. I was going to go on a nice 2 to 3 hour ride tomorrow, but I have been told that will not be an option. I am supposed to have 5 pain free days before I can ride or run. No biking because of the position I have to be in. No running because of the pounding. Swimming is Ok. So I will be swimming when I have time this week. Walking is good too, but that is freaking boring.

I am going to start riding with some older guys. I know one of them through church. You know the guys that have a bit of money so they buy themselves a Colnago C 50. They don't own that type of bike because it is the best, but because it shows status. They have arrived.

I don't doubt that this fellow in particular, named Bob, can ride. I am sure of it. He will shame me. I was actually happy I rated high enough to get invited to ride with him. Now I have to call him and tell him I can't ride because of my back. Seems like a weak excuse to me. But if I ride I am going to have too people really pissed at me; my wife and my mother-in-law. My wife because she will think that I am not taking care of myself and my mother-in-law because she will think that I am not ignoring her advice as my physical therapist. My mother-in-law is a physical therapist so she knows what she is talking about. And because my wife is a blabber mouth (I mean this only in the best of ways, honey) she will tell her mother if I am being a good patient. I would go if I could. I feel only a little bit of pain right now--and with the whether finally decent I am feeling pretty itchy.

So my youngest sister is going to compete in a sprint triathlon next month. She seems to be swimming well, and running is going ok for her finally. But she is going to use a 1982 Peugeot Road bike in the triathlon. And she can barely ride. Oh, the tragedy. A sister of mine not being able to ride a bike well...so sad. Hopefully she can remedy this and become nearly as addicted as I. I doubt that will happen though. She sort of uses the shotgun method with respect to activities. A little ballroom dance here, triathlons here, snowboarding (recent concussion), and now I read that she wants to compete in a some sort of ice skating thing-ama-bob. This is in addition to the same sort of deal with respect to musical instruments, it is always something new.

Nothing wrong with this multi-tasking approach to sports, I just seem to like my ruts. I love em actually. I felt daring when I went for 29ers, or singlespeeds, or 1x9 in cross. No chance of ice skating here. Very little chance anyone is going to get me snowboarding again either. I am sticking to what I know best, sports with at least some pedalling involved.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Wussing Out: and further more...

I was pointed out to me that NOT ONLY did I miss 5 weeks of training immediately preceeding the Spudman last year, but I missed 3 weeks about a month before that because of an emergency appendectomy. I had 4 weeks of training out of 3 months before the triathlon. And Dave is worried over 17 weeks....wah wah wah...

Fish has a new name for Dave now. I don't even know if Dave will ever be called "Dave" again by Fish. The name has the same meaning as wuss, but it is slightly more crude.

NAHBS Pics



This bike is really made from bull horns and bamboo. It really works and is very rideable. Maybe not safe...



This is a classy dame here.



Innovative way to solve the long wheel base issue with 29ers. Crazy seat tube.



If nothing else, I know they spent a lot of change on the paint. The bike may ride like crap, but no one will notice.




John Castellano and his sub 22 lbs full sussy 29er.






This Bruce Gordon bike was "Best of Show" for me. You had to see it to fully appreciate it. Plus that color always gets me if nothing else.




Steve Garro / Coconino. Really nice guy. If I only could buy a bike from everyone I wanted too...







Sweetpea. Natalie may be making a frame for Bridget soon. I was very impressed with her and her work. Local to Portland, too.



This is for Fish.



Go anywhere bike. Dirt, sand, snow, whatever.



Pegoretti. . . yum




Someday I will get my fix for a Jones bike satisfied. Someday....





Ventana makes some mean aluminum frames. This cross bike really made me drool, which is saying a lot since I am not a big aluminum fan with regard to cross frames. Color was my current fave and really nice classic look geometry-wise.



This Speedvagen by Sacha White at Vanilla is my dream cross bike. Sooo fast. Sooo light. Sooo steel. This, however, is a road bike. My pic of the cross bike was kinda fuzzy, too bad.



This bike frame is by Delta 7. The design came originally from guys at BYU. It can be yours for $5,995 frame only.



You need to be pretty freaking good to ride this bike and not look funny.



Yes, it is a bike frame made from wood and carbon. . .really.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

NAHBS

I took the boys to see the North American Handbuilt Bicycle Show today. It was awesome. It would have been more fun for me with the boys along, but they had to come since the wife was working. Still they were pretty good. We did a whirlwind tour and I took a 130 pictures. I didn't get to talk to too many builders unfortunately, the boys just would allow me to get too distracted for too long at any given moment. I did get to talk to Jeff Jones, Sacha White, Steve Garro, and Natalie Ramsland. All were very cool. I was very impressed by Natalie. She seemed like a winner for a future bike for Bridget

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Wussing Out

So I have this friend, I will call him...um, Dave. Dave, whose last name is a euphemism for a certain part of the male anatomy. This is sort of funny, because some of us are currently thinking that he is missing a couple of parts to his male anatomy.

Anyway, Dave kicked butt last year at the Spudman Triathlon. He finished it in about 2 1/2 hours, he nearly beat Fish and wallopped my time. He would have beat Fish actually, but he couldn't tie his shoes fast enough. Dave trained while leading us to an impression that he really wasn't training. Basically he was lying about how well his training was going. Dork. But, that is in the past and a new season of tri is coming upon us.

Dave over the past few months has talked about doing a full Ironman. Fish is doing one, so he probably thought to himself that if big guy can do it, so can he. The thing is Fish has a residence in the Pain Cave. I think that if one needed to perform a service of process upon Mr. Fisher that you could go to his home in Utah or to the Pain Cave. Bad joke, but you get the point. The dude is a diesel engine that just goes and goes. I feel I can take Fish on shorter stuff, like cross, but I doubt my ability over the long haul. Anyway, Dave likes to piss Fish off, and beating Fish is something that I believe Dave very much enjoys. It doesn't happen often. The fact that he was faster than Fish at the Spudman if you remove the transitions was a source of pride for him I think.

Well, Dave came first to a realization that it was probably too big of a jump to go from the easiest Olympic distance triathlon in North America in his first year of triathlons to a full Ironman the next. I am doing the Vikingman half Ironman distance tri in June and, frankly, I am a little scared. What Dave was thinking is beyond me. Oh yeah, he was thinking if the big Hawaiian guy can do it, so can he. Whatever.

Then he was going to go to Kona to do a half distance tri out there at the end of May...or not. That fell through too. Then he was going to do the Vikingman with Fish and I....or not.

Hmmmph. I know that he says he is busy, but I think that if he really wanted to do it he could. Maybe he feels that he doesn't have enough time to be competitive. For me, Vikingman is all about finishing. I just want to finish without walking. Dave said today that he could probably train so that he could finish, but that was about it. SO!?!?! Isn't that the point? I really don't care if I beat Fish. I am planing on him beating me actually. I would like to continue to beat him in cyclocross though. In fact, I will be sorely P.O.ed if he ever beats me in cross again. But, I have learned that completing this Vikingman is all about participating and sticking with something in order to meet my goal. Fish be damned. I am happy he will be there, but his placement compared to me means nothing.

I feel a bit like Dave has been stroking me and Fish and really himself. I would give more credit to the lack of time thing if he had been training and only now didn't have time. But the fact is that (unless he is lying again) he has not been training at all--he says he has only ridden his bike basically a little over a dozen times since Spudman in July. That is it. No running no swimming. No, the business excuse is a convenient excuse so that he can continue to avoid training--which is uncomfortable and painful at times. He wussed out. Lets all call a spade, a spade.

The funny thing is he still wants me to get him a deal on a tri bike...I am just thinking why bother?

Last year I participated in the Spudman after not being able to train for 5 weeks prior to the race because of a bad case of bronchitis and the bar exam. I still went out there and took my medicine. I wanted to not do it, but I am going to pat myself on the back and say that I did it though it sucked(actually it sucked,as Fish likes to add, "...the thick one"). This year I hope to not have a similar experience of bonking, but I am going to be there ready or not. Dave you said you were going to do it. So man up.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

A Sad Passing: Sheldon Brown

There are lots of tributes springing up all over about this man, who was renowned in the cycling community. He was renowned not just in the USA, but pretty much worldwide. He passed away on Feb. 3.

I would drop by one of his blogs to read about his health, his opinions on bikes, repairs, and the world at large. The oddest thing to me was to read he last entry on his blog that is dated the same day that he passed away from a heart attack. He obviously had no idea that death was so close. Made me think for a bit.

But I don't want to let this post be too much of a downer. I love this picture. It is the stone saddle, for real men obviously. This is part of the reason I liked this guy. Who else would think of such a thing?

First Timed 500 Swim

Today in swim class he timed us swimming 500 yards. I completed it in 11:17. My split time was 5:24. Among the beginner group I was first, but compared to the old timers (those that have been in the classe for much longer) I was off the back for sure. The fast people finished in between just under 9 minutes and 9:30. I had hope to get under 10:30, but it was just a hope I had never swam the distance timed before.

I feel good becuase I am fast than I was last year. I still freak out a bit when I am getting tired in the pool. I sometimes feel claustrophobic in the water, if that makes any sense. But regardless, this class is a really good thing.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Why go tubular?

Because you can't do this with a clincher tire...

Minor Update: 16.95 lbs

I threw on a Dura Ace 9 speed 12-27 cassette, which is great for half of the courses here, and removal of water bottle bolts (with the holes deftly filled with waterproof clear bathroom silicone--I have never had a water bottle on this bike anyway).

16.95 lbs. Holy crap. Steel frame even. New school lightness with old school cred.