Browns Camp

After way too much road biking lately and Saturday's triathlon I decided it was time to go on a mountain ride. The only real issue is that I still haven't resolved the super creak issue in the Curtlo SS 29er so I didn't have a mountain bike to ride today. Or at least not one I was willing to ride. But...I do have the Curtlo Cross bike. It has proved itself to be pretty capable in Forest Park, perhaps it is time to take it on some real trails. Yeah, I decided I was up for it.

DTP came with me. He tried to minimize his nausea by eating nothing unhealthy, fatty or carbonated before the ride, but he still felt off for the first half of the ride or so. I felt great though. At least on the first half, which is less technical than the second half of the ride.

I have never taken a cross bike on a trail like this. Not that Browns is too difficult, but certain spots are a little challenging to clear even on a mountain bike with fat tires. On a cross bike with its steeper angles and skinny tires it became impossible for me to get over one spot in particular. That spot is recorded in the video below. It looks easy, but it is not--I assure it is not at all. With a geared mtb it is not so bad. But with gearing that is similar to riding a mountain in stuck in the outer ring of the crankset it is hard to get the torque needed to climb over some roots and rocks. What looks like it should be easy, becomes hard. Oh, and did I mention that my cross tires don't like to stick to roots or rocks too much? Yeah, well they don't. On packed dirt they totally hook up though which meant it climbed most of the trails like a scalded monkey. I was amazed at how during the first half of the ride I was able to blast up some of the steeper climbs. This bodes well for cross season. Anyway is the video(with low quality thanks to youtube's bulk video installer)


DTP and I had a good time. We stopped on the way back and ate too much food at Muchos Gracias, but it was worth it.

And speaking of overeating--I ate almost an entire medium-sized Super Combo Pizza (ham, sausage, beef, pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, onions, and extra cheese with a serious amount of red pepper tossed on to get the heat right) from Godfather's Pizza last night. It was just about the only thing I ate all day, but still...I was surprised I could pack that much away at one time. Hooray for gluttony!

DTP Strikes Again

Today the weather was beautiful--sunny with a high in the upper 70's. Perfect. But, I was seriously lacking any motivation to ride. Weird. The family and went out and did some stuff and that was fun and it allowed me to put off riding in a guilt-free way. But around 1:30 or so as we were on our way back from shopping for kids clothes I knew that I was out of excuses, but I really was sick of riding solo after the long ride on Tuesday, sooo....after thinking....and running through my options several times, I called DTP. I don't mind hanging with DTP. The conversation is often funny and his suffering while riding is good for his soul, and mine too really. In his current state he is a constant warning not to slack off because the road to Slowville is really no further than about 6 months away. At least that is about how long it took him to get there after not riding all last fall/winter.

Anyway, I rationalized that a ride with DTP would be good because it would make for decent recovery ride after riding hard Tuesday and running hard yesterday. My HR would remain on the low side of things if I allowed DTP to set the pace and I figured that at that pace we could easily ride for a couple of hours or more. He wouldn't get too tanked too fast and I could ride near him, talk, and keep my mind busy with things at a time when at the time I wasn't feeling like getting out there. Yeah, that would work I thought.

I call DTP. Yep, he is up for a ride. Yep, his road bike is in good shape (because this seems to be a constant issue) and he says he will be at my house shortly. I felt bad because I made him come to my house and I wasn't even close to ready when he showed. I was still messing with responding to email from all the stuff I was selling on the OBRA email list. As an aside, it is amazing how fast a person can sell stuff there. No overhead like Ebay and everyone is local. Love it. Anyway, I think I left my helmet in Black Butte so I had to dig out the spare which was not fitting to my head, and then get dressed....blah blah blah. I it took awhile and as a make up I gave made him some Clif Shot Electrolyte drink. DTP was patient and we talked while I got my stuff together.

The ride starts and we head down Cornell and after a bit we took a right at 113th. That is a short road, but it has a pretty darn good hill. We rode it and DTP never complained. Nice. Normally, he would be whining about something, but everything was good. We continued to Thompson and then headed up towards Skyline where I figured we would ride over to Germantown Road and then take a left and meander around for awhile. I told DTP to let me know if I was going to slow or too fast as I led the way up Thompson. We had some good conversation and though he was often a bit winded, he still was in a good mood--no complaining. I felt great and relaxed. I was enjoying the ride and the weather a total turnaround from how I started the ride. Which meant that something was bound to happen to screw everything up.

Once we arrived at Skyline we stopped briefly for some water and then started up again. We were going at a pretty good clip when as we neared the Skyline cemetery I heard some serious complaining...from his bike. There was some serious racket going on and I could see DTP had slowed. Somehow DTP dropped his chain to the outside of the crankarm. When he tried to get it back on via a downshift and some pedalling there was more racket and then silence. His chain was gone. He completely lost a link somewhere on the road trying to perform this operation. I didn't have a master link (something I will remember to have on me from now on) and neither did he. Luckily we were at a point in the ride where we could coast almost all the way back home. He only had to walk about a 1/4 mile. Total mileage for the ride: 8.5 miles. Totally frustrating really. I had finally gotten my butt out the door and gotten into the ride when his bike DNF'd. This has happened a lot lately when riding with him. Often it is the bike--either he can't shift, or the crankarm comes loose, or some other problem. Stupid stuff really. If he rode much he would have these issues ironed out before the next ride. But my theory is that becuase there is such a lag inbetween rides he forgets that there ever was any issues. Either that or he can't tell when something is wrong before his bike slaps him upside the head so to speak and quits on him. Because I am aware of this I asked him about his bike's condition. But because he has a short term memory he didn't remember there was an issue. He had serious front derailleur problems the last time we rode on the road together months ago. He never fixed it.

Maybe I wanted to ride with DTP so that I could get out of riding. Odds are about 2 in 3 that something significant will happen to shorten the ride when riding with him this year. Maybe riding with DTP is a guilt-free way for me to wuss out on a ride...doubt it, but it is possible I suppose. Oh well.

Stupefying. Still, those 8 miles or so were pretty fun. I just wish we could have at least tripled that total.

blabber

I have been sick pretty much the entire week. No rides, runs, swims, or anything much. But I was able to somehow lose a 1/4 pound this week despite the lack of exercise and the lack of an especially good diet plan. I am grateful for this at least. The lungs full of goop--not so much.

I am not too into this years Tour de France. I just don't especially care right now. It is not a anti-doper thing, or an anti-French thing. It is more of an I just don't care for some reason thing. Can't explain, it just is.

Today I worked at the shop. All I did was build bikes in the back. I enjoyed it. The most expensive bike was one that we sell for about $800, most were around $300 to $400. And it was fun to sit on the rolling stool and just focus on making these bikes work well. I had a few interruptions with phone calls and miscellaneous things, but for the most part it was a non-customer day, which is a great thing. I have come to feel the anonymous customer that I am not familiar with is one with which I would rather not be bothered. For some reason if you got in before I soured on working retail recently--which was as of about a month or so ago--I am still happy to talk to you. Weird, but true. Someone came in for a tune up on a bike that I sold to her about 4 or 5 months ago and for some reason I stopped what I was doing to do it right there on the spot. I found that I was surprised at myself even. About halfway through, I realized that I wasn't even bitter about being interrupted. I was happy at that fact.

I also worked on DTP's Fisher 293. This is a very nice bike. Or rather it was. Everything had been upgraded to XTR (by me before I sold it to him a couple or three years ago) and it has a nice pair of wheels on it that makes it probably one of the lighter full suspension 29er out there. But what use is a nice bike when it is horribly maintained? Not much, as evidenced on our last ride. The cables and housing are in horrible shape. The shift housing's inner wires have worked their way past the housing caps in every instance which has caused the shifting to hardly work at all. The last ride we went on he only had two or three gears. The bike still has a handmade crappy foam watch mount for a Suunto GPS watch that he hasn't had for probably 2 years. The bike looks like hammered. Oh well, I don't have to ride it. And, even though I did start working on it near close I didn't finish it because there was more to do than he said. He thought I was only going to have to replace one piece of housing. He asked that I try to save the cables...freaking cheapskate. That ain't going to happen. Oh well, at least when it gets done he will have one less excuse for why he can't ride up a hill faster than some old guy can walk it.

Anyway, I am hoping that next week is a return to normality. Also, I hope that next week will be the end of my time in purgatory with the law firm downtown. It has been around a month since I interviewed and still no word, despite a couple of calls on my part for a status check. I know that hiring process at a firm can be lengthy, but when patience is not one of my virtue, it is taxing on me. And on my wife for that matter. She says it is even worse for her since she has absolutely no control and she is just the passenger here in this search. She can try to keep me positive, and she puts on a good front, but inside she is ready for this ordeal to end, and to end in a positive manner. She craves normality, a husband who has a normal job, and the funds to start doing normal things again. Being pregnant does not help matter either.

Well, back to bed.

When riding with DTP one thing is certain...

his bike will not be working well. Today he only had access to 5 of his rear cogs because his cable housing is fubar'd. I told him I had no mercy for him. It is not like it was running smoothly the last time we went out. We only rode for an hour--at least that was the riding time. It took longer than that.

Another point of amusement for me was the fact that riding up Springville Road in Forest Park he could go no faster than a guy walk up the dirt road. Now that is a sorry state of affairs. When they got up to the top the guy actually made an excuse for DTP, "Yeah, going up this hill a bike is just 30 lbs of dead weight, it must be hard work." Umm, no it is hard, but I promise you there is a mechanical advantage with the bike. But if you're out of shape because you never ride anymore and your finding switching gears on your bike nearly impossible there may be an issue.

Anyway, I am off to the glorious world of circle p.

UPDATE: approximately 10:30pm

I am tired. It was hot, work was mentally stupifying and todays rides took a lot out of me. I am just not used to the heat. 3 hours total of riding during three rides. Each one had about 1 hour of ride time. I rode hard this morning and this afternoon, and on the way home from work I just tried to go at a moderate pace. At the end there are some significant hills to get back home, but I just tried to take it easy. Anyway, I am pooped between the riding and running around the store all afternoon and evening.

If I continue doing these sorts of rides I really ought to be in great cyclocross shape and the weight should continue to drop. At least theoretically the weight should keep coming off...we'll see.

Browns Camp, DTP and Me

The weather was beautiful and the trail was in decent shape. Still sloppy in spots but good enough for us.

Self Portrait: I may not look it but I was very happy to be out in the woods!

This was my first real mountain bike ride of the year. I went a few weeks ago to Forest Park, but I don't count that as a real mtb ride. I had been training just on the road for Vikingman, and now that it is over I can do riding that is, well, more fun-oriented. Today I went with Dave.

This is Dave, also known--unaffectionately--as DTP. This was pretty much what he looked like everytime we stopped along the trail. He said he felt so out of shape that the effort made him want to puke.


Last year at this time DTP was training his butt off--in secret, lying to his closest friends about his training program--to do his first olympic distance triathlon. He rocked that triathlon. And then having done very well he decided to slow his pace down. He has probably averaged one bike ride a month since that time. Today he had to start paying the piper.

Having only done my first half ironman tri last saturday my legs still felt sort of dead. I did not have the power on the climbs that I was used to having last year. I don't know if that was because of the tri or because I have not been doing this sort of riding in months. I am used to spinning forever, but not used to the short bursts of power that are necessary riding a singlespeed offroad. Still, as the ride went on I started to feel better. However, I have lost much of my technical climbing finesse. I just sort of felt clumsy at times. But even at my worst I was doing better than DTP.

Here DTP is trying to put a good face one of the times when he said he wanted to puke. He looked pretty pale much of the time, or at least when we would stop after a climb.


It was not DTP's best showing. He felt bad for being out of shape and slowing me down he said. Admittedly, it was a little bit frustrating at times, since it was hard to get into a rhythm. But mostly I was enjoying seeing this guy suffer a little bit. Last year he whooped me at the Spudman Tri. I have some really good excuses that are hard to top as to why that happened, but the fact are clear that I was honest in my training and lack of it at times all last year, while he was a sandbagging liar. And sandbagging liars get bad knicknames and laughed at when they fall from grace. Sorry to say, but Dave's/DTP's suffering was amusing.

The following was how every climb went. He would pedal up and then collapse on his handlebar once he got to where I was waiting for him.


"I think I can make it"























"I think I can..."






















"I did it!"






















...and then collapse.



Or here is another little climb where I took a bit of video. The heavy breather is me--Hey I didn't say it was easy. I just didn't think that it would make a guy pass out.


Now that I have been a complete jerk, I will be nice to DTP. Oddly enough, I no longer feel bitter all about last year. Yep, your suffering today has pretty much made me feel like we are even. Thanks man!

Riding buddies

Sorry for this long rambling and disorganized post. But what else are blogs for but to lower the standard of what is publishable and the english language as a whole.

I have long realized that I am a solitary sort of fellow. Big parties aren't my thing unless I know most of the people there. I don't mind going to movies by myself, although I never do so anymore since I have a spouse. I ride a bunch by myself. I run by myself. I actually do occasionally ride with DTP, which this year means that I am riding by myself even if he started with me (Sorry, man sometimes kicking the dead horse can be fun).

Despite my comfort with solitude, I really like being around friends and family. I just usually find that my life doesn't work with riding with others around here lately. Sunday is church day for me and the family, so I don't get out unless it is cross season. I get about 6 or 7 Sundays a year where I can pull the cycling card out and I won't push my luck with the wife to miss church just to go on a group ride or to some road or mtb race. Cross rocks too much to lose any good will built up during the year on these other activities.

I also feel self-conscious about sucking or being an idiot. I have never ridden on a group road ride of more than 3 or 4 people. Usually it is just two of us. I wouldn't know what to do in a large group. If there is anything that will keep me out of an activity it is when I don't know what I am doing in front of strangers. Occasionally, with friends I don't mind acting like an idiot for some reason. Last year's Rick James Super Freak Karaoke solo at a party with some good friends out here is a good example of that. Sorry, it is legendary and those lucky enough to have been there know this to be true. Well there was also a Bee Gee's lip sync last year that I led that sort of rocked too. Anyway, such things rarely ever happen with me. I am way too anxious to do such things normally. And since I don't drink, I have a hard time breaking down my walls to act out my inner idiot freely in front of strangers.

Anyway, back to the subject of cycling.

I really wish I had some more good buddies to ride with here in Oregon. In Utah, Fish was my gateway to a great bunch of guys. Before Fish, there was Rob Pyne and Craig Nebeker who were not only fun to hang with but great to ride with. And with all these people, my wife got along them and their spouses equally well too, bonus. Here, I ride with DTP. And once I went on a ride with guys from the Beaverton Performance at Brown's Camp. I get along with everyone great that I meet at the shop, but the bond is not really deep. But I don't hang with any of them after hours. I miss that sort of stuff. The people I do hang with don't bike. This sucks.

I still cling to Fish a bit in Utah, because I think I get what makes him tick and I think he gets me too. Riding is important and so are friends that you can share experiences with. Riding an epic ride is great when there are people who were right there with you sharing the same hell. Reading his blog brought to a head some of what I have been thinking about for months. This year more than any other has been devoid of this comraderie. Which is probably one reason why this blog exists, it is an attempt to share some of my love for the sport. I miss sharing experiences with friends regarding cycling. My wife is pregnant, DTP has gone off the wagon, and others who I could ride with that I know have totally different schedules than I. Plus this whole half ironman triathlon traing thing means I have to be somewhat rigid in my training/riding compared to what I prefer. I can ride long on Friday and that is about it. Mornings are usually good too, at least until 11AM because I have to get ready to work Tuesday - Thursday and then Saturday. Monday, I watch our kids and I have already written about my Sunday issues.

I mean I have time to ride, I just get to go alone becuase most of the guys I know have real jobs and work during the day. This is usually OK--riding alone. But reading blogs like Fish's and some others make me realize I am missing out on the fraternity of cycling.

I need to find a group to train with occasionally. A group that won't require a huge amount of time becuase of family, church and job responsibilities, but with whom I can feel I have a common bond with. That last part takes time to develop.

In law school there were a group of guys that rode together, a couple are on the Gentle Lovers team. I never rode with them because I felt slow, some what like a poser, and fat. Also, I often felt like with my family, I was being selfish if I did much more than ride to school. My kids and wife hardly saw me during long stretches of time. It was hard on them, so why make it harder by being selfish? Hanging with those guys seemed like the wrong thing to do, too much like playing while my family suffered. Summers have been golden for riding except for this last one when I was studying for the Oregon Bar Exam.

This is not the case now--feeling guilty about riding. I see my family lots and I just need to find time to ride with others that have a weird schedule too. This is why DTP was good to ride with. He has his own company and he can get away pretty much anytime he is motivated to do so. But his refusal to suck it up and do the Vikingman means that we are not on the same page anymore. At least not until after June 7th when I can devote more time to mtb and Brown's Camp. I still like riding with him because his constant bitching is sort of entertaining for some reason. Not sure why this is so, but there it is.

I have some prospects for riding partners. My friend Marcus is buying a singlespeed 29er this week and if he can get his asthma under control it won't be long until he is passing me up. That would be cool. There are a few guys at my shop and at one of the other Performance shops that I would like to ride with again. I get along well with another nice fellow, Mr. Spears, and since I helped him get his latest cross machine, I think he might slum it with me sometime on a ride. I don't mind riding with faster people as long as they don't mind riding with someone a bit slower than they are. I don't mind suffering.

The key is that I need to put myself out there. It is sort of like dating or something. Trying to find people to ride with that I can relate to and wouldn't mind doing things with other than cycling. Yeah, that would be cool. I would love return to the days when friends come over and we have some thick meats grillin' in the backyard as we joke about some ride or another. Yep, good times await, I just gotta integrate.

DTP and his bike

DTP's bike is quite nice. At least on paper. If anyone needs a lesson in how not to treat a bike, look to him. His crank was starting to come off during out ride this morning so we cut it short. Both arms needed to be tightened over a full rotation, maybe two. His crank arm came off last year during a triathlon and he didn't finish the race. Plus his shifting, especially on the front derailleur is all other the place--including off the rings. When he is pedalling behind me I can hear a constant creaking from somewhere in his bike. When I don't hear it I know that he is lagging. If it were my bike I could not ride it. It would be torture to have a ride a bike that noisy and out of tune. Like nails on a chalkboard...

So he has the nicest POS I can think of. Dura Ace and Ultegra with a custom Curtlo steel frame and Easton EC90 SLX fork and Ritchey Protocol wheels. Nothing is more than 9-10 months old. It probably rode well for about two months of that time.

I feel sorry for the bike, not so much the rider.

At least DTP is out riding. We did have to cut short today's ride because of the crank arm issue, but other than that he will usually ride despite the crappy condition of his bike. He is good company for the most part and helps me by realizing that it could be worse--I could be on his bike. Thanks, man!

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.

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.

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.