Father's Day

It was a great Father's Day today. The kids were pretty good, there were steaks on the grill and family around. I like my wife's family so even that was a good thing.

Sundays are always a bit busy for us and so getting out to ride is usually difficult to do. Even today, Father's Day, I only got to get out for just over an hour. I decided to see how the legs were doing a little over a week after the Vikingman. Friday's singlespeed ride got me a bit worried about my climbing abilities and as a result I felt I needed another test. Not a big test, just a little test as I didn't have time to spend all day in the saddle.

I rode two loops that took me from home to Cedar Hills Blvd to Cornell then up to Skyline, south to Barnes/Burnside and then back to near the intersection of Cedar Hills Blvd and Cornell where I started the climb all over again. Below is the elevation profile for each lap--again, I did two laps of this profile.


Basically it was over 1600 feet of climbing during my 70 minute ride. I feel pretty good about that. Not that I am a hammer, but it isn't like it is the easiest ride to do during that time. The descents were a blast, too. I love it after I hit the top of Skyline and then drop down to where it meets Burnside/Barnes road. I caught up with some cars on my second lap.

I am ahead of where I was last year at this time. I better be after all of the training I did for the Vikingman. Also the weight loss is coming along. When I last brought it up I wrote that I weighed 201.6. That was an honest weight, but it was probably also the result of my not being able to eat much after having a tooth pulled. The next day I was back to 204 and change. This morning, after being pretty darn good about what I have been putting into my body (at least until tonight's holiday induced gluttony) I was back to 201.6. Tomorrow may be a bit higher after too much steak and some apple pie, but I am sure that the weight will continue its downward trend. For much of the past few months I was hovering between 205 and 207. With just these few pounds off I am feeling better. I can't wait until I get to the first weight goal of 190lbs. I would like to be there before my wife gives birth at the end of August/early September.

Shaving the Legs

I struggle a bit with this.

Smooth legs are PRO, but is it warranted all the time? And particularly, is it at all warranted by me?

So far this year I have shaved the legs once, about 6 weeks ago. I think I decided to do so in order to put me in a better mental mindset for training. You sometimes if you don't feel like are the part, by faking it you actually come to a point when the faking it transitions to a time when you are what you were faking is real--that probably makes little sense, but hey this is a blog and the standards are low for publication.

Anyhow, I shaved the legs and they were lily-white a while back. They are still sort of white, but they are definitely darker on the tops of my knees and the backs of my calves from riding. Sunlight seems to be spotty lately so getting a tan has been difficult. I have not reshaved my legs because for some reason I started feeling like a poser. I don't know why, but I thought that shaving my legs when I still have a bit of a gut is silly. A gut is not PRO so why try to maintain an image of PRO-ness when I am not really feeling it nor do I feel I look the part. I mean I have been riding and running more miles than ever in my life but I don't really feel PRO. I feel...ho hum.

What is PRO? Belgium Knee Warmers blog is all about PRO and HERE is what they say about PRO. There definition of PRO is more inclusive than what mine has been. Maybe I am at least "pro" if not "PRO." Maybe it is time to get the razor out again. Maybe.

Should I do it when I start competing in road races? Never done a road race before. Should I do for the Vikingman? Should I do it after I complete my first century? Should I do it so that everyone thinks I am a PRO sort of guy? meh.

I think I will do it so that my increasingly defined legs look sexy. Yeah. Nothing better than shaved legs with long baggy shorts and black wool ankle socks and checkered vans. Is it PRO? I don't know. Am I PRO or even "pro"? Am I a goof-ball cyclist? You bet. Maybe that is enough.

I know this is Oregon, but seriously...

I am S I C K of this weather. It was supposed to have been sunny for most of today according the the weather report as late as last night. I wake up this morning to a forecast that calls for rain all day. What use is a weather report if this is how reliable they are. This is not the first time either. It is often the case the weather report is wrong here. I don't care what the excuses are, it sucks when the days activities get messed up because of the weather.

I guess one could say that I should put on my big boy pants and ride anyway, but that is not me. I am only going to ride in miserable weather one time of year and that is during cyclocross season. This is not cyclocross season. I am not going to ride for 4 hours in the rain just to train. So I decided to go for a run instead. I lollygagged around today so that all I had time to do was a 2 hour run instead of a 2.5 hour run. To make up for this I ran harder than my 2 hour run last week. I did this partially because I didn't bring my iPod with me for fear that it would get rained on. If I am running at a faster pace I don't seem to get as bored for some reason.

I ran a little over 10 miles in 2 hours. You might think that this 5 mph pace is kind of slow but when the elevation change of the route is taken into account I don't think it is too bad when you consider that there was over 1000 feet of climbing involved. Yeah, not fast but good enough.

By the way, I will never eat Panda Express prior to running again. I burped up some stuff about 10 times during the run. Nasty.

Despite my faster pace today I am sticking to my forecast of a 5 mph pace during the Vikingman. I will be happy with that after all that swimming and biking.

FSA Warranty

My broken FSA K Force Isis crankset is on its way back to the company. I only broke two days ago. They gave the shop an RA# and the shop sent it off this morning. I may even have the new crankset this week. This is the replacement:

It is an FSA K Force Carbon MegaExo Crankset, with a new bottom bracket as well.

I like my old ISIS set up, it was a tad lighter. Crankset was 520 grams and the bottom bracket was about 210. That makes a total of 730 grams. This crankset is about 780-790. But if it doesn't break that would be a good thing.

FSA is very quick. Sadly this is the second warranty I have had with them, the other was a FSA RD400 rear wheel that had to go back. The same thing then too, handled quickly and properly. SO even if they don't ways get it right the first time, they seem intent on doing their best the second.