Tales From The Commute

GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

2012-01-25T08:04:00.000-05:00

ABOUT HOW MANY ISLANDS MAKE UP FIJI?

A)13 B)30 C)300 D)3000

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Q: The Scottish scientist James Smithson whose bequest financed the start of the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C. (and his first building, still the institution hub) had this connection to the United Sates
a) He was born in pennsylvania b)his daughter married and american diplomat c)He was a frequent visitor and writer about travel in America d)None of the above

liking it

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Yest another post about how good the weather has been this winter. One day snow and 20's next day 40's and sunny. One day 4-6 inches of snow, two days later rain and meltdown, floods whatever.
It's been good for riding. Saturday in spite of the temps been in the mid 20's and a fresh 4-6 inches of snow on the ground, I headed out the door at 11am for a plannned 2 hr ride. It took me a half hr just to get dressed and before I jumped on the bike I was sweating. Heavy tights, 4 layers and a Hammer winter vest plus my backpack with extra gloves, clothes whatever. I always try to carry a backpack during winter rides, sometimes I'm 2 hrs from home and you never know...Many deer i the parks and they are fat since the snow melts as soon as it falls. ended up with 2:25

Saturday I went out for the short "two" hr loop to beres and Isaac lake. The path was plowed until I hit the Isaac lake loop. From there back to the parkway it was slow go but since it was fresh snow and not too many people had been out it was fairly easy riding through 4 inches of snow.

Fresh tracks

Sunday the "depends" gang headed to the Polo Fields from the Bedford reservation for a long ride. we started at 22 degrees and by the time we got back to the car it was 38 and sunny. We took River rd all the way to Old Mill rd and I nearly passed out at the top climbing on a single speed geared for the road with a 32/16. I made it all the way up and then we headed back to the Chagrin reservation on County line road. lots of climbing for a single speed but great workout nevertheless.

The customary flat tire

Customary pee break

We were like a freaking rainbow of colors with me wearing a grees jersey and the white vest.

Probably the last weekend of long rides befeor heading down to Florida for a week of riding. we'll see what the weather brings next weekend. Ride time: 3:25 and 46 miles on a single speed 29er with mtb tires, lots of work but at the end it is worth the pain..mission acomplished.

Downhilling down under

2012-01-19T20:39:00.001-05:00

This video comes from my friend in Australia.
The downhiller is the son of one of the owners of the company he works for, Haydn, not Hamish, right Darren.

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I have been asking myself this question for a long time:
In the old days after you spent a "real good time" with your significant other, you finished roll over and smoke a cigarette.
These days, do you roll over and grab your smart phone?

Overdue

2012-01-16T07:39:00.000-05:00

Long time no post, so Happy New Year.
So far it has been a good winter weather wise,(for us westsiders) I've been able to put in long hrs on the bike every Saturday and Sunday since the December but this last weekend. Saturday I had 3 spinning classes in a row and yesterday I opted for an easy hr trainer ride in the early morning. The afternooon was for watching football. I did gave it a thought about going out but the path was icy and I totally dislike riding the roads during winter, only when I really have to.
All my hrs so far have been on the SS and having fun. Do all the hard work Monday -Thursday on the rollers and trainer and, rides Sat, Sun. 2 1/2 weeks and I'll be in Fl. riding mtb's for a week, can't wait.

Globa inteligence comming later.

Where

2011-12-28T08:10:00.000-05:00

has December gone. It seems it was a couple of days ago we were setting up the village and hanging lights outside. Every year we say the same thing.
Christmas weekend was excellent with Christmas eve dinner at our house. We didn't have the typical puertorican dinner, we opted instead to have a mix of foods that resemble nothing of a PR Christmas dinner. Ham, brocoli and cheese casserole, baked potatoes...and everything was excellent. We had 3 different Christmas ales on hand, wine and I made "store bought" eggnog and mixed cocunt rum in it and tasted...I'm not going there. All in all a great night with tthe family.

Did a lot of riding and put in 9 hrs of riding outside with the nice weather we had with the big one a 4hr 13 minute ride on Monday. Winter seems to be getting ready to hammer us with our first measurable snow of the year yesterday. The drive home wasn't fun yesterday, but made it in one pc.
Here's a few pics from my rides this weekend.

Checked it twice...

2011-12-25T13:37:00.000-05:00

Making a list and checking it twice, trice...
Races will be added, substracted, missed, forgotten...

With the "good" riding temps and weather we are having I've been able to ride outside a lot more than last year when it seemed we had snow on the ground from November to March.
My first big training block in preparation for TSE is 7 days of riding in Florida in February including the Croom ride, after that is a 4 day weekend in Ashevile in early March.
I'm still debating what races to do before TSE but here's and early list:
The Lowell 50 gravel road
The Cohutta Big frog 65
Stoney Creek 6hrs
Maybe Race at the lakes and the Covered bridge series.
After TSE I don't know how many more races I'll enter. Money is going to be tight with all the expenses involving TSE but I'm sure I'll do a few more to take advantage of my form and training after. Many spin classes to do.
Hope you are having a great Christmas with your new toys.

Small gestures

2011-12-23T14:56:00.000-05:00

This Christmas season fight the urge to be rude, to be the first at the gas pump or the cashier line, to yell at somebody who cut you off, to yell at your kids or family, to run the red light almost causing an accident, to text and drive, to use the phone while driving for that matter, don't speed up so the car next to you can't get in front of you. A small gesture doesn't matter how small will make somebody do the same, open a door for somebody, let somebody in on the road from the gas station, have fun with the family, turn the cell phone off for a while and forget about facebook, be happy, smile more, IT IS the Season.
Why I'm writing this, why not? We are always in a hurry thinking only about what we want and don't give a darn about anybody or anything else. Take a deep breath and do it, it doesn't cost you anything and you'll feel better.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

I had to post this

2011-12-21T12:34:00.000-05:00

Don't let this happen to you

2011-12-21T07:37:00.000-05:00

The "HO" goes to a wedding.

Aussies do like their muscle cars.

Pic provided my my friend Darren in the "Land Down Under"

Beautiful car.

Is it a pattern

2011-12-19T10:15:00.000-05:00

I just realized that over the last few weeks most of my posts have been on Mondays. It is a pattern that I aim to break. I don't want to dissapoint all my readers...all 1 of them.
It was a good weekend for riding, decent temps a nd not too wet. Took the "Ho" out on his first ever reide with falling snow and he was like a little kid, "Oh look, snow on my tires". Where have you've been all your life? He had one of those rides where his legs didn't want to go anywhere for the entire ride. After I left him by his car about to collapse I put in another hour and fiished with 3.5 for the day. Sunday it was some of the same but a shorter 1.5hr ride. All 5 hrs on the 29er single speed which is all I ride all winter long. Easy to clean after a ride and no gears to mess with.
spent almost 4 hrs on Friday chaging tires and I'm not done, I'm yet to put the roller tires on my road bike. Installed 2 Schwalbes Rocket Rons on the Jamis getting it ready for the Florida trip in February and 2 Kenda Karmas 1.95's on the SS for better rolling resistance.

I can't wait to hit the road and head to FL. and ride offroad in preparation for TSE. Croom, Santos, Alafia, Boyete and more are the trails we are going to hit during our stay there. Saturday Feb 4th we are doing the Croom Ride which is only 3 miles from where we are staying. Hopefully we'll have good weather on our drive down. For now, we are happy with the weather we are having which is good enough to ride without getting frostbite in your...

Company/department party

2011-12-16T14:13:00.000-05:00

lots of good food.
last night the wife and I baked a couple of Flans for my company or department Christmas party. The receipe we followed had a typo and we double on the ingredients when we didn't hsve to. The wife did say that it looked like we had too much. After an hr in the oven we are exited to see how is going to look...and taste; I stuck the knife in it and it had not harden at all. She's starting to get frantic, is 9pm, she calls every latin bakery in town and a restaurant, nobody answers and the restaurant doesn't have one to sell. Last recourse, I'll buy a pumkin and apple pies at the 24hr supermarket in the morning. I go out and buy some of the ingredients again and we start from scratch again. It was 1am when I went to bed and she went to bed a lot later and got up at 5:30am to flip the darn things.

I'm glad to say both flans turned out really good. They were half gone before I was able to take a pic,

Saddle sores are painful

2011-12-10T17:05:00.002-05:00

And that's all I have to say about that.

GB answers and more

2011-12-08T10:15:00.000-05:00

First one: False. Christopher Columbus took the name from his own patron saint, and it was later shortened from St. Christopher to St. Kitts
Two: C. Lawrence Rockefeller who first visited in 1952, bought up much of the island, created a resort on part of it, and donated the rest as a U.S.national park.

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Back on the rollers last night and didn't ride off them like I did on Monday.
Watching more of the Iceman videos.
the workout went like this:
10min warm-up on the 23
starting on the 23 and then shifting up every 3 minutes for 24
2 min fast steady tempo
1 minute slow (er) but steady
that was 24 mins.
Then started the same but shifting down every min. for 16 mins
1 minute fast steady tempo
1 minute slow(er) but steady
10 minute cool down
1 good hr on the rollers with no accidents.

Global Intelligence

2011-12-07T07:41:00.000-05:00

Before I post Global intelligence I'll tell you what happened on Monday night during my workout.
A lot of us ride bikes a lot of us have crashed on the road and off road. How about crashing while riding the rollers. I was watching streaming videos of this years Iceman race in Michigan where my team mate Ross is one of the main characters and rolled right off the rollers. Its a series of 4 25 minute videos great for doing intervals. Well as I was ramping up the speed on one of my 1 minute intervals the rider with the helmet mounted cam and Ross where on a turn and guess what, I turned with them, rolled right off the rollers and landed on the rollers. I just laid there and laughed, what else could I do. Hopefully I'll remember not to turn tonight.

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Q: True or False?
St Kitts, a cloud-crowned volcanic island in the Lesser Antilles, is named for Catherine of Aragon, the Spanish princess who married Engalnd's Henry VIII

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Q: St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, is associated with what well-known American family?
a) The Bushes b) The Kennedys c)The Rockefellers d) The Roosevelts

Saturday Trail Day

2011-12-05T07:58:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a trail work day at the new trail in the Mill Stream reservation at "H" hill which is not going to be called that anymore once the trail is open.
Rode the long way from home (8miles, normally 4) with 25lbs strapped to my back with work clothes boots etc. and rode back the same way to put in a few miles on the bike.
It was around 32-35 degrees when we started and high 40's when I went home after the lunch which was provided by the Metroparks.
About 50 people showed up and a lot got done. The trail is going to be about 8-9 miles long of smooth swoopy lines. The park wants the trail to be begginer friendly and that is fine with me, the park is opening up to MTB'ers and that's a step forward. The trail is going to be open to hikers which may bring some complaints but we need to get along and work together towards the building of more trails in the Metropark system. I went home and sat on a chair for a 1/2 hr before I could do anything, I was beat and I only worked for about 3hrs a lot of people stayed until 3:30. I forgot how hard trail work is, but I was happy I was able to make it. Another trail work day is scheduled for next Saturday and I'm planning on making it later in the morning after my spinning classes.
Is going to be cold on Saturday, 31 for the high, but looking forward to the ground getting hard and no snow so I can do some off road soon.

Nice long holiday

2011-11-29T14:08:00.000-05:00

Last week I took Wednesday off to make it a nice long weekend .
Wednesday moning my wife an I met with our future son in law for breakfast because he wanted to ask permission to marry our daughter. It was nice to see a young man asking the old fashion way. After I showed him my collectors edition Magnum 357 we said yes, you have permission to ask her. Well, I don't have a gun and he was already shaking. Saturday we met them and his parents for lunch and had a good time. His whole family loves her and we couldn't ask for a better person to marry her. We are happy.

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Wednesday afternoon rode a good 25 miles on the 29er SS with a 34/16 road gear and I think I'm going to keep that set-up for winter training.
Thursday rode with part of the "depends" gang on the bike and hike on the annual Turkey ride. Rode to Silver lake in Stow had a picnic and turned around with Ross and Jeff. Ended up with another good 31 miles for the day on the SS again. At times I was spinning my brains out but liking it.
Friday rode with The Ho which bought a nice entry level 29er for winter riding. I took him out on his maiden voyage and he enjoyed his first time on a mountain bike. (No pic here, next time)
Saturday was a ride to "H" hill to check out the new trail in the Metroparks. Found it was dry enough and rode half of it with minimal mud. This is going to be a great trail for beginners and hopeully attract more women to the sport. I raced in Michigan a few times this past summer and I noticed more women racing there than we get here for races.
All weekend long the wife and I worked on our Christmas Village and we think it turned out real good.
it grew from a 3x6 sheet of plywood to a 4x8 and 3 small tables.
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A long weekend in pictures.

Picnic at Silver Lake

Santa had a little too much eggnog

The Toad king favorite shop

How it all started

And finally from my friend Darren in Australia.
How to change a tire on a model T-Ford.
It took him most of the day.

Notice the old license plates that his dad has collected over the years and of course, the "token" bike hanging in the garage.
Good job my friend, would love to take a ride in that T-Ford, take good care of it.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T07:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

I'm thankful for family and the food that we can put on our tables.
Donate to shelters.

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Had yesterday off and rode for a couple of hrs. on the SS.
I'll probably be riding the 29er SS more this off season than the 26er. Normally I like to ride the 26er for the fast cadence and I probably will sometimes but I'm going to spin my brains out on the 29er. Riding early today for a couple of hrs and then staying home and spend a nice quiet day with the wife.

Understanding Women

2011-11-18T14:14:00.000-05:00

The Book, has finally arrived at your favorite bookstore. Get your copy, is never too late.

Sunny, windy, dry, warm. Global Intelligence

2011-11-14T08:15:00.000-05:00

That's how the weekend went.
Friday all I did was upper body and some plyos in the early morning and then we had an early Thanksgiving dinner. We had company from PR and they were leaving on Saturday and we decided to have it early since everybody is going to be doing their own thing on Thanksgiving weekend.
Saturday it was off to Mohican which was dry and fast..for whoever wanted to go fast. 4 of us had planned to meet in the paking lot at 11am and 3 more showed up and we rode together for most of the first 11 miles and then we kind of split off and rode at our own pace. The stops were a little too long for me and my back gets stiff if I stop for too long, so I kept going. The last 3 miles were painful and I could feel it. Until my legs get used to all the weight lifting I'm doing it's going to be like that. Sunday it was off to Findley to ride the single speed and the trail was dry and fast. The leaves were all blow off the trail by Nab and his crew which do a fantastic job maintaining this trail. Did a 48 minute first lap and then died a slow agonizing death on the second lap, 55 minutes, the legs finally said enough is enough.

What kind of winter is it going to be?

My friend in Australia sent me a pic of a vintage track bike he saw in a for sale add.

Never seen one like it.
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Global Intelligence:
Q: Victoria Falls, which lie on the border of Zimbawe and Zambia, were given their english name, honoring Queen Victoria, by a British explorer.
Who was this loyal Subject of the queen?
a) James Cook b)David Livingstone c)Cecil Rhode d)Henry Stanley

Q: One of the highlights of the famous 17 mile drive, the Lone Cypress is a symbol of Carmel-by-the Sea, California, whose winning combination of beach, ocean and weathered trees have long drawn artists and the well to do. Which of this Hollywood celebrities once served as its mayor?
a)sonny Bono b)Clint Eastwood c)Ronald Reagan c)Arnold Schwarzenegger

Have a great week.

Veterans Day

2011-11-11T07:45:00.000-05:00

I think about my dad who's 93 years old and a korean War Veteran. He never really talked much about what when on there, that is war. Most veterans would like to forget...But we cannot forget them who fight for what we have. Salute a veteran today.

The week after and gadgets

2011-11-04T08:01:00.000-04:00

It's been a week since the bike/car accident and we finally found how the person is doing. Monday evening we were able to pull the accident report off the Brecksville police web-site and his phone was listed. We called but nobody answer and no voicemail came on. Later that evening after the phone rings at it was the phone umber we called, I was in no mood to talk then and let it go to voice mail but no message was left. The next day our insurance advised us not to call again that they would handle it from there. We were glad he was "ok", broken cheek bone, broken hand, chipped tooth and other scrapes and lacerations. Here is a pic of the door jamb he hit with his cheekbone.

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On the other hand I convinced the wife to buy me my Christmas present now, so I got this:

Haven't had a chance to play with it but I'm planning to test it out during the "Red Flannel" ride on Sunday. The last organized ride of the year until the "first ride" of the year on January 1st.

Should be a great day for a ride with temps expected to rise into the mid 50's and sunny. We have a good size group going. I'm hoping my back doesn't give up during the ride. A few years ago I had a herniated disk and that side has been really sore lately. It is so sore I was planning on riding in to work today with the weather as nice as it is right now and when the alarm went off this morning I had to say no after I had laid everything out last night.

If my back gets better I'm planning on doing this workout 3-4 times a week.

Yes I'm an insane fan. I tell you what, I did the fit test just to try it out and immediately after I finished I went upstairs and gave my daughter a hug and told her I was very proud of her, she has lost 17lbs doing this workout. It is not easy and I only did 25 minutes. Hummmm, maybe that's why my back hurts more today that two days ago. I think it'll fit in nicely with my regular workouts since I do a lt of plyometrics in the off season and this is all about plyos and cardio.
The weather is great, get out and ride. Have a great weekend.

Will it be better today

2011-10-29T07:24:00.000-04:00

After the accident yesterday I turned around and came back home. Then I did what I do best when I'm upset, stressed out or unhappy, I ate and ate and ate like there was no tomorrow. I ate breakfast again as soon as I got home and then ate the food I had for lunch at work at 9am. Then some more food at 11am and just sat around. All I could hear and feel was the thump of my car being hit. Finally I got dressed and went out for a two hour ride to clear my head. Although I chose to ride the path north to the boat docks I found myself yelling at people talking on the phone while at a few of the intersections the path crosses. Then I saw a few riders without hemets on the road and I'm try to figure out why.
From this day on I will not wave, nod or even acknowledge any rider that doesn't have a helmet on while riding on the road. Say what you want I don't care. Yes, it is your choice if you want to be the village idiot.

Black Friday, car/bike accident

2011-10-28T09:12:00.001-04:00

I haven't been able to ride to work lately because the only days that have been
dry and sunny have been mostly Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that's when I do the spinning classes. Thought about it last night, but with partially wet roads and overnight frost, I didn't want to hit that thin film that forms on the roads fall and get hurt, so I decided to drive. I take the same route even when I drive to work because it is a much nicer and peaceful ride.
Nothing nice or peaceful about today's ride. As I was driving across 21 or Brecksville Rd., I was broadsided by a cyclist. At first I thought it was a deer since there are so many of them in that area, but then I realized it was a person and a bike laying on the east side of the intersection. I ran there and called 911 right away. I never saw him and after a close inspection to make sure he was somewhat responsive, I noticed neither him nor the bike had any lights or reflectors of any kind. Four squad cars and EMS were there immediately and started working on him and asking him questions. He was riding his bike to the bus stop to pick up the bus for his ride downtown to work at the government bldg. He was not wearing a helmet either, and from what the cops told me, it looks like his head hit the top of my door.They also found a chipped tooth on top of my car under the bike racks. Ouch!
And to think that I've been made fun off because when I ride to work, I have between 5 and 7 blinking lights on the bike and backpack. But I have also had drivers slow down and tell me they can see me from a mile away.
Needless to say, I'm all shook up as I sit here writing this. I have been hit and have hit cars riding a bike, so I know how it is.
Please wear your helmet and have more than one blinking light front and rear. Learn from what happens to others. Not that I want anything to happen to anyone, but it is a lesson for all of us who ride bikes, it just happens it was me today. It could be YOU tomorrow.

Fall pics

2011-10-26T08:04:00.000-04:00

Haven't had that many chances to take good fall pics this fall. It's either too dark, raining no camera or phone to take them. I don't think the colors have been as bright as last year, although yesterday's sunny weather did bring some brightness out. It doesn't matter, fall colors bring a certain peace when you stop to appraciate them, so stop and do it, take time out of your busy life and take a deep breath.

The pics are basically from the same area on 3 different days in Brecksville.

Don't drink and fly

2011-10-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

Have a safe landing zone

From great to half good

2011-10-19T08:33:00.000-04:00

Two weekends ago it was great, this past weekend, not so great. Saturday was windy were they had to fish the little kids playing soccer out of the woods after the winds deposited them there. Sunday, rain all day.
Well, Saturday wasn't that bad, it was my nephews wedding and I was very proud of both of them. I stared at this for most of the night.

Yuengling beer, just a few of them, 3 to be exact and it was enough. I like a good beer once in a while.

Sunday, I slept in until 9 after going to bed around 1:30am. Didn't do anything the whole day, except eat and watch football. Great Sunday indeed. Too many M & M's and chocolate kisses, felt like I ate half a pound of chocolate. Oh well, got it out of the way and back on a regular trainig routineto get ready for

TSE.

Great weekend

2011-10-10T07:49:00.001-04:00

What a great weekend we just had, close to 80degrees both Saturday and Sunday. Got up early Saturday headed to the soccer fields to set up the goals and watched the sun fire up the leaves on the trees. Went home loaded the car and headed down to Mohican on the single speed. Temps were on the cool side but got hot i a hurry by the end of the ride. Sunday, more of the same. Met Ken in Medina and down to Mohican again, better take advantage of the dry weather, it may not last long. The trail was so dry it was actually dusty in some places. Had a great time both days. The leaves and the pine needles covering the trail made it worth the drive both days.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can make it back Saturday.

One pic from the Michigan race. Going up a short but very steep little hill. I did got off the bike and ran it up, it was faster than trying to ride it. It was cold and windy, look at the banner flags.

Getting close to Halloween, get your pumpkin pies

2011-10-07T10:20:00.000-04:00

Red Bull mini drome

2011-10-06T20:42:00.001-04:00

Grampian Challenge race report

2011-10-02T14:30:00.001-04:00

I've been looking forward to this race ever since I found it here in the race calendar link.
Got up at 4am and was out the door at 4:30 am for the 3 1/2 hr drive. All week I kept looking at the weather and radar report hoping it would get better but it never did. I decided to go anyway. It rained most of the week there but not like here and Michigan soil being sandy I thought it would be ok. My drive on the turnpike was terrible, at times it was raining so hard I was doing 45mph and I could hardly see in front of me. Doubts started creeping in to my head, I stopped at the last rest stop before hitting I 75 to check the weather radar before deciding whether to keep going or not. I sat there drinking pumpkin spice coffee eating bagels and banana nut bread from Starbucks looking at the weather. I'm the only one in the cafeteria area and I'm sitting in a far corner by myself when some numnut sits behind me to drink his coffee and eat his greasy burger for breakfast. You know, I'm sitting way out of the way and this guy has to go out of his way to sit behind me. I wouldn't have been so mad if it was only that, but the problem was I almost threw up the coffee and bagel I had just ingested, that how bad he stunk. I got up before I goy any sicker and got in the car and decided to keep going since it seemed to be clearing north of Detroit. The roads were almost dry when I arrived at Addison Oaks park but a mist was in the air and the wind was howling with mid 40's temps, cold very cold. As I parked I ran into Jason from XXC magazine, nice guy down to eart and likes talking about bikes and races, what's not to like. Signed up, got dressed and did a little bit of a warm up. I'm bloated with the coffee, bagel and nut bread I ate a couple hrs before and I'm not feeling very good. The race starts on a wide open field with experts, elite and 39-40 taking off first, 3 minutes later the rest of the field is off. From wide open grass field to a paved bike path and then double track with a few short climbs. I was pleasantly surprised as how good the double track was, lots of traction very little mud and fast. By the way the course was about 75% gravel roads and the rest split between double track and about 4-5 miles at the end of flowy, smooth fast beautiful single track. The first 25 miles I fought my body, I felt my legs were locked and I couldn't get any speed going. I kept fighting the feeling of despair as riders pass me like I was standing still. Somehow after 25 miles I got going where I was passing everybody that had left me for dead a few miles before. Long gravel roads with false flats is what I enjoy as I spin my way at a good pace and other riders are trying to power their way. Many tried to hold my wheel and I would just spin faster and ride them off my wheel, I was time trialing every section of gravel roads and feeling good. Did I mentioned it was windy, 25-30 miles and hr and it seemed it was a head wind the entire race. with 7 miles to go we hit a double track and I'm following a single speeder and we took the wrong turn and climbed a short steep road to nowhere, we ended up losing about 5 minutes and it cost me at least 2 spots at the end. We turned around and start hauling down the trail, I have nothing to lose so I'm leaving everything on the trail. We hit the single track and I keep hitting it hard, finally I dropped my two companions and keep pushing as hard as I can, my legs are finally starting to cramp with the effort but I keep on pushing it harder after every turn and short climbs, finally out of the st an back to the paved path and open field we started on, I looked at the clock and it said 2:43 even with the 3 minutes we waited to start after the first wave. Got cleaned up went to check the results and I eneded up 7th. out of 22 in the 50 plus and the official time was somewhere in the 2:47's go figure. Getting lost cost me a few spots but it was my own fault for following and not taking charge myself. I made up most of the time in the last 15 miles when I started feeling better but at the end it wasn't enough, I had lost to much time at the beggining.
Overall, I had a great time, liked the race and the course and probably will do it again next year. Next year, I'll now to stay on top of my training, the last 3 weeks I really didn't do much and I could feel it in my fitness.
I was very dissapointed in the fact that there was nothing to eat or drink at the end of the race, at least I didn't see anything.
Looking forward to the last long organized ride of the year, The Red Flannel Metric in November.

What a way to start the day and 36 inch wheels

2011-09-30T08:11:00.000-04:00

With maybe my last race (thinking about a 6hr race next weekend) tomorrow, I haven't been riding to hard or long this week. This week went like this:
Sunday: off
Monday: AM weights, core work. PM 45 mins on the trainer
Tuesday: spinning class, core work
Wednesday: 1.5 hrs on the SS in the park
Thursday: Spinning class, weights, core work
Friday:
Not much training going on for a 40 mile race.
the plan was for 45 mins on the trainer in the early am. got up at 4:45, headed downstairs, read the daily word, put a pot of coffee on. Got a cup of java and headed to the other downstairs, set up my little table with the remote, glasses, coffee. I start pulling the thick mat that my trainer is on and hit the table, coffee spills on the carpet, run upstairs to get cleaner, grab a rag from my bike stuff workbench. Clean it all up, now is only 30 mins of fast spinning, adrenalin is going. Feel good I didn't say a cuss word, took it all in stride and was very calm. Then...I look at the spot I spilled the coffee and it looks kind of dark, I finished the 30 min. spin and grab the rag to rub the spot some more and then...It was the rag I used the last time I cleaned the chain, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, run upstairs again for the cleaner and a clean rag, spot clean again and it looks better. Can't wait until I get home and see what it looks like dry. I'm sure my wife will let me know as soon as she goes downstairs to workout tonight and sees the spot.
Hope your day started better.

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To other things now, like 36 inch wheels.
check this video courtesy of Sir bikes a lot blog.

36 in wheeled bike! from Sir Bikes on Vimeo.

What is is going to be

2011-09-28T08:05:00.000-04:00

Last race of the year for me coming Saturday and feel sickness coming in. I've only done 2 rides over 2 hrs the last two weeks, I should be well rested right? Rode in the rain a couple of times because i didn't want to sit on the trainer for an hr when there's still light out there.
It's been raining all week up there too, should be fun.
I came up to this a couple of weeks ago and tok a pic from the car.

This tree really wants fall to come in fast.
Lots of colors popping up now all over the place. Fall is my favorite season of the year until it starts to get into the 30's in the morning.
Trails are muddy with all the rain we've had in the last few days, who knows if I'll be able to ride any of the local trails again this year. I don't ride trails when they are muddy, one because it ruins the trails, two, I don't enjoy spending money for parts ruined by mud.
Enjoy the day, rain in the horizon again.

Oh oh

2011-09-21T08:01:00.000-04:00

Fall has made an early appearance and with it it has brought rain. Seems like just a few weeks ago we were dealing with early to late spring rain and muddy trails. This morning I saw leaves turning a different color other than green.
Got up at 4:46 am this morning for my commute in to work and what was on the radar, "rain". It was dry in Strongsville but the local radar showed rain in BH, Brecksville Sagamore, Solon, etc, you get the point. All dressed (yes, came downstairs all ready to go) an nowhere to go I thought about heading out and riding the neighborhood streets but instead I went downstairs and spun on the trainer for a half hour, what a drag. I guess I'll head to Bonnie park tonight and do a few intervals up the closed section of Albion rd. on my SS. Anyway, I made a good decision, the roads were soaked all the way from BH to Solon.
Had a good week of riding last week and made it to Mohican for the first time in a month. The trails were perfect as I rode the SS just for fun. Thinking about going again either Friday or Saturday afternoon if the rain holds.
I have a few more days of hard riding and then easy until my last race of the year in Michigan next week.
I started my spinning classes again on Tuesday and had a good crowd, hopefully a good sign for the rest of the fall/winter session.
Have a great day.

Thought of the day

2011-09-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams"

B-day

2011-09-14T12:53:00.000-04:00

Birthday tomorrow, my co-workers celebrate today and caught me by surprise. I got paged to go to the lobby, grabbed a couple of business cards just in case it was somebody I had not met, they jump out from behind the counter and...

It says Happy Birthday Flat Head, but it really looked like like they wanted to tell me something else...
They really are a great group to work with...seriously.

All downhill

2011-09-13T12:37:00.002-04:00

CWC

2011-09-13T08:40:00.000-04:00

Traveled to Maryland and DC this past weekend to meet my family in DC since my niece was participating in the nations triathlon. 6,000 athletes were scheduled to compete but "only" a few over 5,000 showed up. The swim portion was cancelled because of the heavy rain the area received the week prior to the race. After I dropped my wife off at the hotel and drove over the Potomac river and saw how high, fast and dirty it was running I thought they would be cancelling the swim. I headed back to Frederik to meet the guys and go get our "packets" for the Civil War Century on Saturday. By ride packet I mean a bag with your number or wrist band a map and a few other goodies you get used to getting when you do a century. Well the "packet" turned out to be a wrist band and choose your map from the table. Can't complain much, the rest stations were full of all kind of fooods and they had a good spread at the end. It rained hard on Friday and we thought here we go again, another rainy century. But it turned out to be a great day with temps most of the day in the high 70's to low 80's. The next day we parked at a farm field where I thought they were going to need a tow truck to pul cars out after the ride but the ground was hard and the cars stayed "above ground".
The ride started with 30 minutes of climbing right up the mountains. The pace was mellow since we wanted to enjoy the ride. Any other time it would have been a 25 minute climb. Great views, beautiful farms and homes the rest of the day. Mid-way through the ride we hit what the locals called the "grinder", a 7 mile climb that started on a wide country highway with a wider that average berm at 3-4%, then at 3 miles in it turned left into a narrow road that quickly went to 5-8% the rest of the way with a few pitches at 10%. I felt good and let it all hang out there and went hard. I waited at the bottom for Joe and we rode together the rest of the way enjoying the ride. In all we ened up with close to 8,000 feet of climbing for the day and 105 miles.
After the ride it was back to DC. Sunday the city had many streets closed because the tri, a running race and 911 celebrations and we couldn't make it to the race. We headed home and of course we had to stop at the Premium Outlets for my wife to check out the "purse" store.

New commuting pack

2011-09-07T07:55:00.000-04:00

I'm always looking for the perfect commuting pack and when you think you've found it, you have to go for it. I like small commuting packs that I can shove a lot of stuff in them. For the time being I think I found the perfect one.

Notice I already clipped one of my blinking lights on it. This pack expands has a big enough main compartment plus a small zippered pocket to put an extra tube, tool kit and your valuables. It sits away from your back letting air between the pack and your back flow through. You can wear it high or low and it doesn't swing too much like some of the other packs I have.

It expands and has two large side pockets for extra bottles, phone,food, gun, knife.

Meshed back that sitsaway from your back and lets the air flow and a confortable waist belt.

One nice feature is the built in rain cover, not that I'm planning on commuting in the rain but it is nice to have. I don't know if it'll be big enough for cold weather commuting with all the crap I wear and carry with me so I'll have to keep my eye out for a bigger one.
Tried it out yesterday on my commute to work and fit me perfect, didn't move much and was able to stick my hands in my jersey pockets without having to unclip the waistbelt, which is a must for me.

Fall is almost here, is in the air. Have a great day.

Manatoc weekend

2011-09-05T19:22:00.001-04:00

As usual we had a very dry hot Saturday and rain came overnight and got the course wet and muddy. The races went on without any problems and everyone seem to be satisfied.

Saturday was the cross and kids races and the people involved in putting them on did a fantastic job. Both the cross and kids courses were new this year and everybody I talked to loved the design. Demo bikes were on hand from Specialized, Felt, Raleigh, Kona, Planet Bike, Jamis, Yeti and a few other vendors. Saturday we had close to a thousand people come to participate in the events and ride the trails that are open only once a year for this event. I only have a few pics, I had no time to take many as I was working the gate.
Next is the Westbranch Enduro, come on out and try it. Next for me is the Grampian Challenge. Hoping to do well in my age group. This is where my road skills as a wheel sucker are going to come in handy with 30 miles of double track/gravel roads and the last six miles of single track. I'm thinking about putting cross tires on my mtb but with the single track coming at the end I'm not sure that would be a good idea since I haven't ridden the course before. 1.95's front and back is probably going to be my set up for this race. 3 more weeks of hard training and then easy until race day.
Friday is traveling day, heading to DC to watch my niece compete in the DC TRI on Sunday. Saturday is going to be the most relaxed century I have ever done. I say relaxed because most centuries i have done are at almost race pace or something similar where there's a lot of hurting. I'm taking my time to enjoy this one, the Civil War Centuty
This century goes through all 3 Civil War Battle fields in and around Gettysburg, Md. I've never had the chnace to visit any of them and I'm looking forward to this.
Hope you had a great holiday.

The weekend is here, the weekend is here

2011-09-02T11:02:00.001-04:00

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Got up yesterday morning and somebody was moving furniture in heaven. Took a look at the weather channel and opted to go downstairs and do a light weight workout with heavy core work included. My back has been really killing me lately. This summer since I was carrying a real good core base from fall/winter I decided to only do 1 core wokout a week and I'm paying for it now. With my back condition I need to do it 3-5 times a week year round.
Got home in the evening and got all the yardwork out of the way so I can spend Saturday and Sunday at the Manatoc festival.
Rode in to work today under heavy fog. So heavy in some parts down in the valley I could feel the moisture hitting my face. Very muggy, should be a hot ride in the afternoon. Today I didn't chase any blinking lights...because I didn't see any with the fog as thick as it was. Luckily not too many cars on park roads during my ride in the AM. Although if they don't see me with 6 blinking lights...
Looking forward to the weekend. Hope to see you at Manatoc.

Global Intelligence

2011-08-31T12:35:00.000-04:00

How Many Time Zones are crossed by the Trans-Siberian Express as it makes its way across Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok in the east?
a)four b)six c)eight d)ten

Crossing Mongolia heading for the Gobi.

I see yellow

2011-08-31T09:36:00.000-04:00

School is in, Yellow buses are out. Be careful out there. I almost got hit by a school bus 2 miles from my house yesterday because she couldn't wait 10 second for a car to pass on her left and cut me off that i almost had to go into a ditch to avoid being hit. I caught up to her at the light and just glared at her. You know they know what they did when they don't look at you at all while you are glaring at them. As soon as the light switches they get brave and yell at you.
There's kids that ride to school, I wonder if she would do that to them to.

Darn AM bike riders

2011-08-30T10:02:00.000-04:00

Summer hrs are over at work that means back to normal working hrs. I don't have to get up at 4am to commute to work, wohoooooo one more hr of sleep. So now I get up at 5am, big freaking deal, right?
My commute is 32 miles one way through some of the hilliest parts in the MetroParks, Strongsville to Solon. Everytime I commute I tell myself as I'm leaving the house, "take it easy" no need to rush just spin your way there and get your workout done in the afternoon. Every once in a while as soon as I hit the park I see blinking lights ahead and like a fool, I'm chasing. Does it happens to you?
I'm carrying a 10 pound backpack and I'm chasing a stupid blinking light and I don't slow down until the catch is made. Sometimes as I make the catch I see another one ahead and like a double fool I keep going aiming for that one. It happened today in the Bedford reservation, I stopped to take a nature break and two guys went buy. So I get on the bike and I'm chasing, I need to stop this and just enjoy the ride in the morning. Then again, is just fun chasing, catching, passing, hurting and then hurting some more on my way home in the afternoon. I'm just glad all the lights I chase are from slow moving riders and the little speed I can do is enough. I'm just a hair faster that slow.
Don't forget MANATOC this weekend.

Office cube marker

2011-08-26T13:56:00.000-04:00

If you come into our office looking for me you can find me real quick, just look for the neon bike.

long break

2011-08-25T10:17:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since my last post. I haven't had the desire to blog or post anything so I took a break.
I'll be posting some pics of what with been doing at the Boys Scouts camp for the Manatoc Weekend.
Hope you can make it to ride and demo some bikes from different manufacturers and just to have fun riding the trails. This is open only this time of the year for this weekend only.
Ride Saturday or race the cyclocross race. MTB race on Sunday.

Travel, hotel, food

2011-07-25T09:15:00.001-04:00

Took off to FL. Friday late afternoon and made it to the motel at 10:30. I was instantly po, it was a dump. I had heard from reliable sources that Americas Best Value was good and cheap. Well this place wasn't and we couldn't go anywhere else. It was like watching a Jerry Springer show. Never again, $86 for a dump. I'll pay $150 somewhere else. Saturday we were out of there by 7am and drove 14 hrs and both my wife amd my back are killing us. We soon realize we are not that young anymore. Yesterday I took my niece and husband to Santos for their first ever mountain bike ride and they loved it and I knew it. The bike store didn't open until 1 so she rode her street Hybrid like somebody that has done it before. They were already taking about taking their kids and nephews there to ride again.
Last night we went out to eat and when we go out I normally order my favorite, "ribs" eat half take half home. Not last night, everything went including 3 glasses of lemonade and boston cream pie. Paid dearly for it at 3am and I will not go into details. Was planning on going to the Croom trails today but I'm doing whatever the wife wants to do today, it's her turn. Right now I'm at Starbucks drinking tea trying to get my stomach settled.
Talk ya later.

Down in the valley

2011-07-22T14:59:00.001-04:00

After Sundays race I took a day off and rode on Tuesday night and my legs were still very sore, so I took a couple more days off. Actually with the volume of work i got at work this week and getting ready for the trip south, I hardly had time to get on the bike. The wife and I decide that it was best for me to ride to work Friday morning so she could pick me up at 5 and head south from there. Just my luck that it was my Friday to be the whole day person in the office this week. Anyway, I rode the 29er to work since I'm only taking the mtb's with me. I haven't been able to hit the river ford by the train station since the heavy rains that we had this week and today I could see why it is still closed. the pics dont really show how bad it is, they only give you an idea. Jeff A had told me and sent me pics, but you have to see it with your own eyes to imagine how hard the water was running. Just look at the pic where the slab of pavement seemed to float away from the ford.

Going South

2011-07-20T20:31:00.000-04:00

Florida bound on Friday to visit my niece and sister at their Florida vacation home in Celebration. Is just as hot here as i tis there. Planning on hitting Santos a couple of days and turning the two roadies (niece and husband) into mountain bikers. Taking both the geared bike and the SS. Probably just ride the SS at Santos and let my nieces husband ride my geared bike.
The more I ride my Jamis 29er the more I like it. It just ate everything in its way during Sundays race. Have two Schwalbes rocket rons on order and should put them on tomorrow night, 560 grams each.
Stopping in Asheville on the way up and meeting Ken and Karen there. Riding Pisgah, Dupont and Bent Creek pllus hitting the town for the Belle Cheree Blue Grass festival.
Should be a good time.

Iron Mountain race report

2011-07-19T08:21:00.000-04:00

I'm way behind blogging, tooo much to do at work and when I go home I'm either riding cleaning bikes spending time with the wife, taking care of the garden/yard, or driving 14 hrs round trip on a weekend to go to a race. Yes. I'm busy.anyways, left Friday at noon and arrived in Damascus, Va. around 7:00.
Got settled at the "Inn" 1920's home with beautiful hardwood floors and very old windows, right on main street Damascus. Went out for dinner to a "bistro" that look more like a backwoods country restaurant. The food was good but when we got the bill I almost choked on it. $45 for the two of us with only one beer. Reminder to self, when in a country "bistro" check the menu for prices.
Next day for breakfast we went to another country place and it was the same thing. It is a small town and once you are there they got you. One thing I did like was the fact that there was no restaurant chains or Starbucks anywhre in town and they want to keep it that way.
On to the race again; a light rain fell all day Saturday with temps in the 60's, I kept looking at the weather and it was 86 and sunny in northeast Ohio with the knob double enduro going on in my back yard. Sunday race day came dry and cool. We took off at 8am, 105 racers with an escort through the center of town and the race began once we turned unto the Virginia Creeper trail which is a rails to trails kind of tow path trail, 2 miles here before hitting the single track. I paid the price for not paying attention where I was in the "peloton" and as soon as we hit the VCT I fell behind the single speeders and slower riders and then it was a time trial trying to catch up to the main group. By the time I did catch up it was the start of a very tough longer that a mile rocky rooty single track climb and I was half gassed from TTing the trail. Rode up it a little bit and had to dismount and walk the rest of the way because I was slipping all over the place and the long line of people pushing the bikes. The rest of the race it was either up or down, whatever was flat it really wasn't flat, it just looked that way. Flew past station one and on to aid station two where I refueled for the long "journey" to station 3. 18 miles of climbing, rock strewn downhills 3-6 mile long grinding gravel climbs. Rode with a couple of guys for a while but most of the time I was by myself. Between 2 and 3 I was on a long gravel climb when I heard something rolling down the mountain, not 50 feet in front of me a baby bear popped out of the woods, stopped for a few seconds, looked at me and kept going. I'll be honest, I got scared thinking "mama' bear is somewhere near here. That was the best I climbed all day, tour the france style, standing up dancing on the pedals, wings on my back, take me home country roads flying up that road like I had a "Cancellara" device in my seat tube (for those of you that follow road racing in Europe). anyways to long of a post makes it boring so I'll finish/ Rode by myself until the end from there (about 20 miles). The race ended down one of the most fun trails I've been in a while, fast, rocks, roots where I hit a rock so hard I burped and slashed the rear tire. 3 wasted co2's a blown tube later I thought "I'm walking down the rest of the way" Another racer stopped gave me his spare tube and even waited for me to make sure I was going to be able to get going. Flat fixed, I take off and to my surprise a 1/4 mile later there was the finish line. I could have run the bike down and finish in under 7 hrs. 7:06 with over 7500 feet of climbing, 55 miles for the day. Great trails, lots of climbing, pain, a few cramps I was able to fight off but a great time and for all the rain we got on Saturday, the trails where in great shape and only a few mud holes. I'll post the few pics I have later when I have time.

Friday night game, Saturday morning pain and Sunday relief

2011-07-10T17:09:00.000-04:00

Working in International Sales has some perks once in a while. A freight forwarding company that my company has been working with for over 20 years, celebrated their 25 birthday at Progresive field on Friday night.

They always invite several people in my company and I was one of the lucky ones. Two suites, lots of good food and drink. My lovely wife and I mad the pilgramage to the ball park for the first time in about 4 years. I forgot what a beautiful ball park it is. I don't eat hotdogs but it is Un-American to go to a game and not have a hotdog and a beer, so I had two of each.

Didn't stay for the fire woks and went to bed at 11pm to get up at 5am and be at Mohican ready to ride at 7:30. What a pain when the alrm went off, I almost stayed home thinking I could go later. But I couldn't pass off a beating from Ken and Ray. We took off and luckily Ken always sets a good warm-up pace for a few miles instead of taking off like a maniac like "others" we ride with do. Once they felt warm enough the pace started to pick up but not me, I needed the whole damm trail to warm-up. I would have been happy to ride at the warm-up pace the entire 25 miles. Very little sleep and food you are not used to eating the night before will do that for you. I was in pain, my back was killing me but there'was no way I was going to let them know I was suffering. If I did, they probably would have picked up the pace to make me suffer more, they are real nice guys I swear. Once at the top of the mountain I found some relief and was able to recover some on the way down. Every little climb was starting to bother me now and they pu a little gap on me on the last rock garden strech and I thought about bagging it there and just ride at my own place but I refused to quit or slow down, I chased hard for half a mile until I caught up and rode together the last few miles. Good hard ride with good company. At times it was like a freight train going through the woods, each one of us glued to each others wheels at race pace.

Today I just went out for an easy 1.5 hrs at Reagan park to strech the legs and recover from yesterday. I was able to just enjoy the ride at an easy pace. And I'm glad it was arecovery day, it was 91 when I rode today.

A couple more semi-hard days this week and then slow it down until race day on Sunday in Damascus, Virginia.

Have a great week.

Rolling

2011-07-07T10:19:00.000-04:00

Rolling along getting ready for the Virginia race. Rode in to work Tuesday and again today. Riding through the Bedford Reservation is one of my favorite rides in the Cleveland area. Specially as early as I ride through there. The roads are good, very little traffic, very scenic and you get a great workout.

Bedford Reservation

By the train station in Brecksville

Wild flowers are growing "wild".

Week andTwinn Sizzler

2011-07-04T14:40:00.000-04:00

Haven't been blogging much because I've been on my bike, what have you been doing?
Had a good week of hard riding getting ready for the 100K mtb race I'm doing in Virginia on the 17th og this month. Friday I was off from work and headed down to Mohican for a a full loop with Ken and Ray. The trail was in great shape, a little dusty in some places where you had to be careful on fast turns, other than that, very fast trail. We had a lot of fun with Ken making Ray and I chase him on hi full suspension 29er rig.

Today we all headed to the 36th annual Twinn Sizzler road race (26 miles). This is a very low key race with very high attendance that's a lot of fun to do. They fo every five years in the age groups and all age groups get quite a few racers. My group had over 35 when we lined up. I always take this race as a good workout that you are not going to do on your own. for some people is their highlight for the year and that's fine with me as long as you know how to ride in a big group. The first few miles are flat or rolling until Kennard hill where Ken set the fast pace up the hill and then I took over. We kept it fast over the hill until we started to go down and I looked back and only 7 of us made it all the way up. After I barked a few times that we needed to get going and not let anybody join us, we seemed to get organized for all of about 10 minutes. Way to long pulls and one guy putting one accelaration after another, I decided I was going to sit in and just cover a few moves. Henry put an accelaration that hurt everybody and my legs were screaming at him but a great move to see how everybody was doing. Once on Smith road on the last incline I put a long hard pull and everybody was there over the top. Ok, time to move back and rest the legs for the end.The s turns came and I had the best position I've had in the last few years of doing this race, second around the corner, but I hesitated a bit at the railroad tracks and that's were I lost the wheel and ended up chasing and finished second by a bike length. I don't do a lot of road races but in my age group there's a lot of good riders out there. Yeah you are wondering about my age right? I'm just going to say 50 and over. for the day we ended up with almost 24 mph avearage for 26 miles, that's according to my Garmin
HAVE A GREAT 4th OF JULY.

3 weeks

2011-06-28T07:10:00.000-04:00

I have 3 weeks to get ready for this race. I'm hoping for god weather. I don't want to drive 7hrs to do a muddy 65 miles off road in the middle of nowhere specially when I'm planning to camp the night before. The race is based out of the small Appalachian trail town of Damascus which looks to be a cool place. No hotel chains here, only B & B with a few other small places. Rode in to work yesterday and down in the valley the temps dropped to 51 degrees. It's summer and almost July and I'm still wearing long sleeves to ride to work. It actually makes for a nice cool ride in. Thick fog in a few places but with my 5 blinking lights I'm very visible on the road. Was hoping for back to back days and when I went to bed there was a 70% chance of rain in the morning; I get up and of course everything is dry and the threat of rain was downgraded to just a few showers in the morning and partly cloudy/sunny in the afternoon.
Short interval workout tonight at h-hill and I'll ride in to work tomorrow and then rush in the afternoon to my evening spinning class, have to keep race money coming in.
Have a great day, get out and ride.

Hitting Mohican Friday morning at 7:30am.

Global Intelligence

2011-06-24T15:30:00.000-04:00

TRUE or FALSE:
ANGEL FALLS IN VENEZUELA ARE NAMED FOR THEIR HEIGHT-AT 3,250 FEET THEY ARE THE HIGHEST FALLS IN THE WORLD-WHICH EXPLORERS IMAGINED AS BRINGING THEM CLOSE TO HEAVEN.

Yes, no, yes, finally a big NO

2011-06-24T08:07:00.000-04:00

Every 2-3 Fridays I'm the long hours person in the office (we get Friday afternoons off during the summer) Today is my Friday and not needing to be in the office unti 8:30 I slept in until 5am. wohooo.
Got up looked outside, cloudy but dry. weather said "morning showers". Got dressed, stuffed the backpack with everything I carry, open the garage door and I'm standing there for what seemed like minutes looking at the pouring rain and everything getting soaked "again". As I contemplate pulling my heavy rain coat out and ride anyways, the the thought of riding 32 miles in the rain at 6am suddenly doesn't appeal to me. With no showers to clean up at work commuting in the rain is a pain. With my head down and bike in tow I walked back into the house down the stairs put the bike on the rack. There's only one thing left to do...put a pot of coffee on fire up the lap top and sit there staring at bike parts and once more look at the "Transylvania Epic" stage race website. Why, because I signed up, that's why.
If that doesn't give you a reason to train hard, I don't know what will.

Reagan TT

2011-06-20T10:17:00.000-04:00

Reagan came and went. Didn't race it since was helping with the start and doing some last minute taping to make sure nobody got lost and nobody had taken down the yellow tape.
felt sorry for the begginers, rain came down hard just minutes after the last one left. I was sweeping the trail and got out of there as fast as I could. I 'll get wet but not muddy was my thought. Some of the begginers mentioned they felt they were riding up river in some parts of the trails. It came down hard.
The trail was in great shape before the rains came down but like one begginer said at the end while spitting dirt out " it is mountain biking". Thanks dude, great attitude. We had a rider from Florida stop by and race the TT and ended up winning overall, Drew Edsall, fresh from doing the Transylvania Epic stage race. Got to talk to him a little about that race and all my resources and rime will be dedicated to that race next May 2012.
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Keep your bike in a safe place, we don't want a fairy to die if its stolen.

Pics

2011-06-17T17:26:00.000-04:00

Chasing a Rainbow

2011-06-17T05:26:00.003-04:00

GRM 2011 - Chasing the Rainbow from pedalidimarca on Vimeo.

MMM / Global Intelligence

2011-06-14T12:38:00.004-04:00

For the past couple of years "The Ho" and I travel out of state to do a century or two during the summer.
Las year we chose "The Six Gap Century" in Georgia in late August. Last Friday we traveled to Boyne City, Michigan to do the MMM. This century is a choice of 50, 100, 160 and 200K of nothing but short steep, punchy little mothers of hills. The longest gradual hill was about 3/4 of mile with lots of the other kind thrown in for good or bad measure depends how you see it. There was a few short 20-22% and what they call the wall at mile 91 which starts climbing at a mellow 2% grade for about 1/2 mile and it keeps getting steeper until you round the bend and it goes from 4 to 8 to 10 to 12 to 14 in about a tenth or two of a mile. It really wasn't that bad, it just that it comes at the end of a tough ride.
Anyways, we were planning on doing the 200K but just like it happens every time we go out of state for a ride...it rained. The planned mass start was at 7am but it was delayed 1hr until the rain stopped. Once we took we decided to do the 160k or 100 miles since the start was delayed 1 hr and we really didn't want to be out in the elements another 1 1/2-2 hrs. The temps never reached 60 degrees and after 12pm it went down a few degrees. We started on our own and we rode by ourselves 95% of the time. Many people went out to fast for the type of terrain and we would end up passing them later at the rest stops. We had two flats that found me begging for a spare tube just in case we had another one. One interesting thing was that you could drop a bag at any of the aid stations which we did with dry socks spare tubes and all our Hammer stuff. Believe me, having dry socks after 55 miles felt great.We finally made it back to the finish line in 6:28 total riding time for 105 miles. Total time including stops was about 7 1/2 hrs.
I only took 3 pics after the ride since I didn't take my camerea or phone with me cause of the rain.
Next non race ride is the Civil War Century in Maryland.

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Answer to the last Global Intelligence:
The murals are mosaics made of grains and grasses, and birds soon strip the walls clean
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GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

Q: This river, which flows through southern Oregon to meet the Pacific Ocean in the town of Gold Beach, picks up its pace radically over some of its course, making it a favorite for whitewater rafting as well as fishing and jet boating. what is its name
a) Columbia
b) Colorado
c) Salmon
d) Trinity

Bedford Reservation

2011-06-08T07:06:00.000-04:00

Pic from the viewing deck at the Bedford Reservation Monday morning on my commute to work. The sun just starting to peak over the trees. Although is a somewhat hilly 32 mile one way commute, I really enjoy it in the morning when I ride in. I get to see the sun come up, the wildlife starting to wake up. There seems to be more wild turkeys and deer this year than ever. Then there's the occasional

"I'm in love' skunk spraying their fragance all over the woods. That will really get you going.

Now that I have to leave the house before 5am there's less traffic on the roads. Most people are not in a hurry to get to work in the morning. In the afternoon is so much different, the same drivers that give you a lot of room in the morning will buzz you in the afternoon for no reason at all. One thing I'm starting to believe is that most drivers probably believe that they gave you enough room when they actually didn't. Monday I got buzzed by a yellow jeep in the Bedford reservation and when I caught up to her and very politely asked her why she buzzed me when there was no other cars coming from the other direction, she looked at me like I was crazy or something. We didn't argue or anything but she probably thought she gave me plenty of room.

And that's my thought for the day.

Be careful out there and drink plenty of fluids today, mid 90's and humid.

GLOBAL INTELIGENCE

2011-06-07T10:11:00.000-04:00

Q: The murals celebrating crops and farm life that decorate the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, must be re-created every year. WHY?

Mohican / Summer hours

2011-06-06T20:54:00.000-04:00

Got up early Saturday and met a couple of team mates behind the church in Loudonville. Loaded my car with a cooler and their stuff and headed to see the start. this year they started the 100's first and 15 minutes later the 100k's. A half hr would have been better since the 65's started catching the back of the 100's quite fast.

Steve and his new Groovy bike

Nobody doest it better than Ross, fixing cleats with 5 minutes to spare.

Ray in Red, cool, calm and collected.
The race started and I drove over to the first aid station which was already getting full with people and cars.
Waited there for a about 1:45 chatting with support crews, husbands and wives. Ross came through and the exchange was no more than 20 seconds. He told me that Steve's chain snapped as they enterd the state forest trail. Last year he broke a handlebar he's taken the wrong turn because of poor or no signage, what else can go wrong for him at this race, remains to be seen. One day you'll have the perfect Mohican 100K race. He made it to aid station one and had to fix his saddle. In the meantime I shoved food in his mouth and gave him two fresh bottles. The second station was off limits to crews and spectators because it is a private residence. At station 3 I met up with some of the same people that were at station one and kept the conversation going. I can talk the ears off your head if you let me. Ross came through in either second or third and the exchange was even shorter than the first one which enable him to leave aid station 3 together with Carson and they had a good race going. a\At one time Ross was 3 minutes behind and he finished 1 minute and one second behind the winner in under 5 hrs at 4:56:58. Steve with all his problems came in in the top 25. Ray Finished 15th out of 42 starters in the master men division. Tom Franek made it in in 7th for a good showing from the Edge Outdoors team.
I'll try to download a few more pis tomorrow, right the puter doesn't want to download.

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Summer hours started today at work which means I have to get up at 4am now when I commute to work on my bike. I had a good ride in today and the rest of the week is going to be easy shorter rides and Friday the "Ho" and I are heading up to Michigan to do the "Michigan Mountain Mayhem" 200 K and 10k of accumulated elevation. Any ways, summer hours are 9 hour work days Mon-Thur. with friday afternoons off. Not a bad deal for the whole summer.

6 days in a row

2011-06-02T08:06:00.000-04:00

It sure has been nice riding weather the past 6 days with no rain and up and down temps. I rode in to work on Tuesday in short sleeves leaving the house at 5:30am. The afternoon temps were in the 90's and very humid. Today I had long sleeves and knee warmers for another 5:30 am start at 53 degrees. Once the sun came out I was starting to get hot but I was only a few miles from work no sense in stopping to peel off clothes. With my commute home in the afternoon I'll have close to 17hrs in the last 6 days. Last night it was a spin class and an easy spin on the fixie that's not fixed. I may even ride in again tomorrow since I'm not riding Saturday. On Sta I'm going down to Mohican to do my Director Sportif duties for some of the guys in my team that are doing the 100K. I'll be passing out bottles and food and driving from one aid station to another. At least is going to be dry unlike last year when it pour the night before and the entire day of the ride.
Have a great one and do something outside today.

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ANSWER
Built by the Order of the Knights of St. John, which held the town as a bastion during the Crusades

Global Intelligence

2011-05-31T12:44:00.000-04:00

I know you've been waiting foor this, so here it is.

Q: Who build the great walls, 40 feet thick in some places, that still encircle the Old Town of the Greek island of Rhodes, just 11 miles of the coast of Turkey? 3 mile long and encircled by a double moat
a) The Trojans
b) Alexander the Great
c) The Roman emperor Constantine
d) Medieval knights

Sun is shinning

2011-05-29T14:43:00.000-04:00

And it feels great to see the sun for a few straight days instead of seconds here and there.
Had a good 4.5 hr ride yesterday, nothing too hard but wasn't easy either. Rode from home with "The HO" down to the valley through Sand Run metropark and back home taking a few back roads.
Stopped at Brueggels bagels for a pee break and bough a bagle for the road. Something I never do but it just felt right.

Mmmmm, I like bagels. Looks more like a freaking banana.

Today I was on the road by 7am to meet Ken in Medina and head to Mohican when he called and said Rray had called and it rained hard there last night. I'm not one to go shred the trails when is wet because I really don't like riding in mud unless I abosolutely have too, like a race.

We decided for a 3 hr very easy ride on the Valley city loop. After the ride I thought it was the best decision we made, even if Mohican was dry we both would have been in the hurt locker.

I'm already looking at my next bike.

36er anyone

Oh yeah, I can ride over anything with this thing.

How wet is it?

2011-05-26T08:16:00.000-04:00

I have ducks living in my front yard. And there's isn't even standing water there, is all in the back yard.

I was finally able to cut the grass tuesday and in the process our dog was found. He had been lost in the jungle for days.
Squezed one good hr of riding right after work yesterday. Went to the tow path with the fixie that's not fixed.

It had rained on the Peninsula side of CVNRA and the trail was wet and of course and didn't put the frenders on.

At least I was on my bike, with all the storms last night again the roads were very wet and some of the park roads were closed due to flooding or down trees. Hopefully no more today but that s not the case. Is already raining and more storms prdicted for the day.

The Cucamonga river was running low yesterday but I'm sure it is running high today as the park roads were closed by the fords.

GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE

2011-05-25T07:50:00.000-04:00

Q: True or False? the sound construction of the Golden gate Bridge proved itself when the bridge survived the great SanFrancisco earthquaque unscathed while much of the rest of the city lay in ruins.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On to another subject: beautiful afternooon yesterday after a soggy wet roads start that had my a...wet because I didn't put the fendres on the bike. Going to the train station today to ride the SS on the towpath and get caught in the coming storms. Then, (and I'll make sure the fendres are on) ride to work again tomorrow morning if the weather permits. Wet roads are not going to stop me, but thunder will.
Have a great one.

WOW

2011-05-24T08:07:00.000-04:00

That was some storm yesterday evening. I have never seen clouds like that in all of my 5...years.

Tornado warnings all over northeast Ohio. We spent a little time in the basement and came up when it cleared. Some communities had big hail fall and ding up cars.

This morning got up early and rode in to work. Wet roads and stupid me didn't put the fenders on. Lots of debri on the roads and I was thinking flat tire soon but I made it in with a dirty bike. Cleaned it up had my PBJ and recoverite and I'm readu to go.

Nice weekend

2011-05-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

It was a nice weekend with just a small shower in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Saturday Ray and I went back to Stoney Creek in Michigan and put in a good 2.5hrs on the trails. Sunday some of the guys went to Mohican and found out it was in great shape. I decided to take Sunday to do much needed yard work thinking I'll ride to work Monday morning. Monday morning came and I just stayed in bed for another 1.5 hrs. I'm not to entuse about riding under thunderstorms and that's what the weather people are predicting for the afternooon. The real story is I didn't want to get up and found the thunderstorms a goood excuse to sleep in. I did bring enough clothes to work to ride in at least twice this week. With a 32 mile one way hilly commute the less weight I carry in my pack the better it is.
I'll be watching the weather al week and hopefully do Mohican Saturday and maybe Sunday too to make it and even two days of fun and pain.
Have a great one.

Race schedule, finally able to post one

2011-05-20T21:25:00.000-04:00

The past 3 years I never had a race schedule because I was either hurt or sick with something.
Well, it is almost the end of may and I'm still in one pc. so here it goes for what is worth.

June 19th, Reagan park Time trial, Ohio
July 2nd, Stoney Creek Marathon, 40 miles, Michigan
July 4th. Twinn Sizzler road race, Medina, Ohio
July 9th. Boyne Mtn. 35 miles Michigan
July 17th. Iron Mountain, 65 miles, Damascus, Virginia
August 7th. Thorn TT, Findley, Ohio
August 21st. Rattling Creek, 50 miles, somewhere in PA
October 1st, Grampian Challenge, 40 miles, Michigan

Still looking for 3 more to make it an even 10 mtb. races.
Whether I do all of them depends on the weather, work, family and health. Looking forward to racing this year.

Duck weather/week

2011-05-19T06:33:00.001-04:00

After the race on Saturday I took Sunday off even though my legs felt really good. Besides, it rained all day. How did you like the brief 30 min appearance by the sun yesterday morning. It did feel good and it looked like it was going to stick around but didn't. Monday it was the same as the last two months, more rain. I still rode two hrs under the rain on my Fixie that's not fixed turned hybrid single speed that's not fixed. Talk about SS bikes, after I put away my Orbea Alma las year because I was selling it, I only rode my SS29er (besides my road bike) and I never thought I would enjoy riding SS's as much as I do. There's times when I'm heading out on a road ride and I debate whether to take the SS or my geared bike. There's something about riding SS that's appeals to me. Is like going back in time and being a little kid again, I just enjoy it. and that's all I have to say about that. Tuesday it finally hit me, I subbed a spinning class in the morning and my legs finally felt the effort from Sunday, I don't know why it took a couple of days but I was hurting. Last night it was riding under the rain again with what else, the SS. So much water standing everywhre I'm really going to start building my own ark. Places that normally are dry even when it rains have standing water. Today I'm resting again and heading downtown to my daughters graduation. Saturday heading back to Stoney creek to ride again since the trails here will be unridable until the end of July.

Building my own.

2011-05-17T19:29:00.002-04:00

Non stop rain train

2011-05-16T12:36:00.000-04:00

The rain train is at it again. Rain possibly all week, no trail riding anywhere close to the area, it looks like another trip to the land up north for some dirt. Yeah, back to Stoney Creek Saturday with a couple friends that are yearning for dirt. I say it again, it can be 80's and dry for 7 days straight and the trails will still be muddy and unrideable. Up north is all sandy soil and it drains fast. even road riding is going to be a challenge this week.

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In the meantime read this, funny but true!!!!! I'm thinking about just letting mine grow free and see what the neighbors say.

GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is

going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets,
milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance
garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil,
withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the
long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I
expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these
green rectangles.

ST. FRANCIS: It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The
Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers “weeds” and went to great
lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract
butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It's sensitive to
temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and
keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any
other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really
fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut
it-sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags..

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS: No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow.
And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back
on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves
them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS: You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops
growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so
they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer
stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the
spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn,
they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the
soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.

ST. FRANCIS: You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new
circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay
to have them hauled away.

GOD: No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the
winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something
which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of
the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine,
you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: “Dumb and Dumber,” Lord. It's a story about...

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

Michigan 6hr report

2011-05-15T16:57:00.001-04:00

Got up at 4:30am and was at the soccer fields at 5:15 setting up the goals. Home by 7:30 and out the door by 8:00. I debated going since it was raining and it showed rain in Rochester, Michigan at the race venue. I didn't look good on the turnpike, (visibility was just about half a mile or less)

or south of Detroit, as a matter of fact it was poring rain most of the way until north of Detroit where it had rained but the roads where drying. Arrived at the park and proceeded to set up the pit area,

There was a 12hr race also going on that had started at 8am. i started asking the pit crews and riders from the relay teams how was the course looking and some of the locals that were racing told me it was slippery, muddy, lots of standing water. I thought to myself, I should have stayed home. After the first lap I was wondering why they were complaining about the course, for the most part it was dry with just a few muddy spots and the mud didn't even stick to the tires. They haven't been outside of Michigan to race in PA or West Virginia. I felt very comfortable flying through the single track. The Jamis 29er responded to every situation better that anything I have ever had.

The race started promptly at 2pm through a short single track section and unto the double track and the first short climb of the day where it split the group some what. I found myself going into the tight twisty single track in the top 20 at a very fast pace. I started thinking "I'm I burning to many matches, spending to many quarters" in the first lap? My legs felt a little heavy but responding anytime I needed to accelerate. The course, according to the promoter was about a 10 mile mix of very fun single track and double track with some short steep climbs mixed in between. The first lap went fast in under 50 mins. A couple of the double track sections where into a very strong head wind out in the open fields but for the most part the double track was inside the woods. There was also a few very deceiving false flats that after the 4th lap had me shifting into gears I had still not used. The 4th lap came and I knew something was brewing in my body and it kept getting worse. Every lap it was a quick stop at my tent grab another bottle swallow a bunch of pills and a gel and take off.Well, I forgot to eat solid food and my stomach was pulling every which way, went to the bathroom and nothing, tried to get back on the bike and just coulldn't get going again. I was sitting in seventh place and had just picked up one position. I decided it was time to end it. If I would have been able to continue I don't know if I would have been able to pick up any more places but every body was hurting so I'll never know. One thing, I watered a bunch of trees having to pee twice every lap, I lost at least 5 minutes having to stop.

I feel I let myself down by not trying to go out for the 6th lap but I'lll be ready for the next race.

My Garmin says 41 miles in 3:39 but I must have hit the stop button because I did 5 laps which should have been 50 miles. In all, I had a lot of fun and can't wait to do it all over again.

Looks like rain most of the week here, so Ray, Ken and I are planning on going there next week to ride. With the weather pattern the way it is the trails are not going to dry anytime soon around here.

On a last note, I met Jason "The Soiled Chamois" formerly from PA, now a Michigan dude.

We leap frog ourselves for most of the course, the dude is fast on the double tracks, great riding Jason. By the way, I found this race in your events section, thanks.

Hope to see you at another race this summer.

Blogger down / Michigan race

2011-05-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

Blogger was down most of the day today and my last post was erased. No biggie I'll post another Global Intelligence on Monday.
Right now I have everything ready for tomorrows 6hr race in Michigan.
Tent, chair, bottles are ready, enough supplements, gels, food, 70% chance of RAIN, wind gusts of up to 20-25 mph. Yep, I'm ready. Getting up ar 4:30 to set up the goals and should be on my way by 8am, arriving at the race venue around noon for a 2pm start with the 12hr race starting at 8pm. Hope to do well and finished in the top 10 in the 40+ wich is the oldest age group at this race so I'll be competing against guys up to 15 years younger. No problem there, I'm ready for anything. Don't know how many people have signed up or will race since it has rained there the last two days. let you know on Sunday afternoon.

Have you had this conversation before??????????

2011-05-11T10:29:00.003-04:00

About last night

2011-05-08T10:10:00.000-04:00

I got home last night from the place up north at 8:30 pm and proceeded to unload, clen the bikes (although no cleaning needed to be done) I really didn't eat well all day and about 9 I started feeling the shakes coming. I knew I had to go eat something but I ignored the feeling and all of the sudden it hit me, I'm shaking, sweating, can't see straight, hardly made it upstairs to the kitchen and asked the wife to make me something to eat since I couldn';t even see straight. She made me what had to be the best chicken sandwich I have ever tasted in my life. That and the bag of organic chips which I ate half of it in less than 5 minutes plus yougurt more chips and 3 glasses of pineapple juice. Can't wait for it to happen again.
Feel real good today

Michigan bound

2011-05-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

Got up at 5:30 this morning to set up the goals

And then gather all my stuff and drove 3:20 to Stoney Creeck in Rochester Michigan to check out a race course for a 6 hr race I'm doing may 14th. The weather was great, unlike here where it rained on and off the whole day. Bright sun and clear skies with bone dry trails had me giggilng like a little kid. Took both bikes and rode the ss for 1.5 hrs and the Jamis for 1hr. Perfect place for a ss. Ran a 34x18 and it was perfect, a few short steep little hills all rideable. Fast flowing single track with bermed turns to carry your speed through the turns.

The single track was fast twisty wuth just one short rock garden in the whole place. Should be a great fun race. Hopefully it'll stay dry up there. 2 pm start for the 6hr and 8am start for the 12 hr race.

Also thinking about doing my first 100 miler at the end of the month.

Hanson Hills 100.

Happy Mothers Day

Finally

2011-05-05T10:18:00.000-04:00

Two times finally. Finally the sun is bright and shining (at least today) and I finally was able to ride to work. Nice clear sunny day were the sun really seems bright. Not like the few times we saw the sun the last month were it was shinning but no brightness to it. Lots of wildlife out on my way to work, turkeys, deer, lots of deer, skunks looking for love and all the little critters running around in the park. I'm glad we get daylight early because my light battery died after 30 minutes even though it was re-charged last night. More money to spend on parts.

Enjoy the day and get out and ride, run, walk, whatever makes you happy.

Have a margarita, is cinco de Mayo.

Long (sort off) FL report

2011-05-03T15:52:00.001-04:00

Flew down to Tampa last Wednesday and by 10:30 we were driving up to Ken's House. Went down to drive the car back and in the process ride at Santos and Balm Boyette plus a short ride at Alafia.

Quickly unpacked the bike to find out it was dropped at the airport and the rear derrailleur hanger snapped in two. No worries, we were in no hurry, called a couple of bike shops and one of them happened to be a Jamis dealer and had one available. Very nice shop and people, got it fixed and headed to Santos.

Here is Ken sporting his G-man look"sleeveles shirt"

Arriving at the land bridge over I-75

Santos is a great place to ride. You have a lot of miles of easy to hard trails and then you hit the Land Bridge trail for miles and miles of turns and a flowing trail through the trees.

The bridge was made to facilitate the animals a place to cross 6 lanes of highway without getting killed. They cross mainly at night, we didn't see any wildlife this time except for the two turtles we almost ran over.

The picture doesn't really show how beautiful the trees look with the spanish moss all over them. To bad it chokes them to death. Next day we went to Balm Boyette, another great place to ride. It makes you wish you had a helmet cam to film the ride.

I hit a pricker plant head on and I thought it ripped my nose off with all the blood that was pouring out of it. Once I cleaned up it was only a couple of scratches.

Two great days of riding and eating good food. friday we left early and headed to Mullberry gap in Georgia. drove 8 hrs and heavy traffic through Atlanta but when we got there steaks were already cooking on the grill.

This is another great place to stay, it is ride in ride out. It was 5 mile climb to the trail and we didn't even get to the top of the gravel road. We were treated like kings here, great food.

From georgia we moved on to Asheville for our last day of riding at Bent Creek.

We had Breakfast on Sunday with Bruce and headed for home.

On our way north we witness first hand the devastation of the tornados that hit the area.

Many thanks goes to Ken for inviting me down to his house in FL, we had a great time driving and riding our way back to a soggy Ohio. It was raining when we left, raining when we came back. Good weather is around the corner. I'm ready to go back anytime if it doesn't stop raining.

FL short update

2011-05-02T08:31:00.000-04:00

Really short update.
Had a great time in Florida and then driving up stopping at a couple of places to ride and also seeing the devastation from the tornados from the car driving on I 77. Pics and longer blog later, 200 e-mails to go through.

Rain, rain...

2011-04-25T08:24:00.000-04:00

The prediction is warmer temps with more rain until Thursday. Is going to be single speed with fenders tonight on the bike path. Just the hardy souls will come out to play this evening so the bike path should be all mine. Yesterday I thought about riding for an hr or 2 after church but decided instead to take appart and box the Jamis 29er for the trip down with the ToadKing to Florida Wednesday morning since it was, what else, raining. Ride Fl trails wed-Friday morning then head up to Mullberry Gap in Georgia, ride there Fri afternoon and Sat morning then head to Asheville which is only a 3hr drive from there and ride maybe Sat afternoon and Sunday morning. Ride the dirt for as many miles as we can, who knows when we are going to be able to ride the local trails. I know I'm not going to ride them until they are fairly dry, one: I don't want to damage the trails, two: I don't like riding in muddy trails, 3: I don't want to be cleaning my bike after every ride, 4: it leads to broken/damaged parts and money spent, and 5: I'm not going to get hurt this year again riding on wet trails and possibly falling and hurting myself again this year. I've been hurt the last 3 summers and I'll like to at least do a few races this year. I'll wait until the trails dry aroung here.
Florida here we come.

Great ride

2011-04-23T15:32:00.000-04:00

Met with the depends gang and a bunch of diaper babies at the train station in Brecksville for a 3 hr ride. I parked at the top of Ridge and the parkway for a few extra miles.
The sky didn't look good for a 10am ride.

I rode at an easy pace to warm up since a lot of young tri guys from Team Fresh Start/ Eddies were going to drive the pace. Took off south on Riverview which was closed due to flooding but not to high for the bikes to ride through. We rode at a good pace but not as fast as I thought we were going to move. The pack split off at the covered bridge race course with the tri guys going their way and the depends gang plus a diaper baby going south. We hit Sand Run and a few other roads, climbed a few hills and back to Riverview and up Snowville. On Brecksville rd I bid adieu and headed back to my car. Close to 60 miles and a little over 3 hrs. Good riding and climbing today. Tried about 10 times to get a couple of good riding pics but my angles were all wrong except for the bottom two pics.One of the guys (which will remain nameless) had to make a

pit stop at the Bruggels bagel shop at the end of Riverview. I didn't know what he was doing in there and went in after him and I think my lungs are damaged. When he wants to stop again on another ride, he's going to have to hit the weeds, you better bring wipes the next time, "Henry" or you are going to ride by yourself the next time. I'm short of breath right about now.

Dead legs

2011-04-22T10:04:00.000-04:00

Rode the usual valley loop last night and I had no snap and my legs felt very tired. One of those days where you start wishing you never went out. Maybe it was the hard ride I did on my" fixie that's not fixed" Wednesday night...hmmm. Rode 30 miles going north on the pkwy. Great evening to ride the path, cold and damp. Only a few souls out. Anyway, I was able to hold a decent pace going up the climbs but couldn't accelerate at all. Oh well, I finished the loop and that's what it's important to me.
With the week as wet and cold as it has been I rode the "fixie that's not fixed" twice and I'll probably ride it again today.

I changed to a flat bar instead of the drop bar. You get better leverage going up hills when you stsnd up. Without brake levers yu get no leverage with the drop bars. It's agreat ride and I really enjoy riding it, gives you a good workout.

The river Wednesday night was flowing fast and high, one of the few times I've seen it that high

Even the fords were closed which was nice because the park closes the roads in between the fords.

In other news, vote for John so he can get in the Pisgah MTB race

It is a contest about bloggies, John, no offense, you are competing against some tough bloggers but you got my vote. I think Dickie my take it but then again, he may not get it just because.

Global Intelligence

2011-04-18T10:13:00.001-04:00

Q: Copper Canyon in Chihuahua, Mexico is nearly half as large as the Grand Canyon.
TRUE or FALSE

Soccer season

2011-04-16T10:05:00.001-04:00

Haven't had much time to write or simply, I didn't feel like it. Soccer season started last week which means, setting up goals for the 4-6 year olds. This is basically my part time job since I get paid $50 every saturday for putting them up and taking them down for 8 Saturdays in the spring and fall. Cycling needs money. Not bad you'll say, well, is not as easy or simple as it sounds. It takes me at least 4-5 hrs of the day with 10 fields to set up. Why don't we leave them up for the season? These are small goals and at $500 a pop I don't want them to dissapear overnight, sad to say but the truth. I used to ref youth leagues and High School and it was good cycling money but I like this gig better. It pays good and the goals don't yell at you if you don't stake them or the nets are a liitle bit crooked. I was able to drive the car on the fileds and drop off the bags and that made it easier than last week when I had to carry everything in.

Funny thing I heard today, this guy drives in with his 3 kids and proceeds to tell his 4-5 year olds to stay out of the mud.; what car is he driving, a 40k Lexus to a muddy soccer field, good luck with that. I wanted to say something but I bit my tongue and held back instead.
Had a good week of riding with almost 11 hrs. Not that many hrs but the efforts were good. This year I'm not even writing anything I do like I've done most of my competitive life. I've been hurt for the last 3 summers and only done a handful of races so I decided to train hard as I feel and just have fun. My first off road race is coming in fast, May 14th in Michigan, a 6 hrs race part of the Michigan endurance cup.
At the end of the month I'm flying down to Florida with the Toad King to drive back his car from his vacation home there. We are taking our bikes and hitting the trails there for a couple of days then heading up to Ellijay in Georgia, riding there and then our last stop in Asheville, NC to hit Bent Creek again. Good training before my first race.
Well time to peel off the carpet from the family room, Monday the floor man is coming to install the same flooring we have in our kitchen / breakfast area and I'm to cheap to pay $100 to have him do it.

Have a great weekend whatever you are doing.

80's, really?

2011-04-11T08:09:00.000-04:00

80's and dry for one day, I'll take it. What a beautiful weekend it was. Saturday was a little cool but I'll take it just as well. Yesterday started with overcast skies but the sun came out for a few hrs and it felt great. I hope there was no accidemts on the roads yesterday. Too many cyclists in shorts after a long weekend with the sun shinning of our legs is dangerous. Did the Valley city looop after two days of valley riding and climbing hillls: I wanted a big ring easy flat roads ride. It turned out to be more work than I anticipated with the wind blowing at tropical storm force at times. After 50 miles in a little under 3 hrs, I felt like I had done a climbing workout, oh well. This week it doesn't look too bad temps wise but we are supposed to have a few thunderstorms roll in.
Did see another rider on the road yesterday after 12pm dressed like it was 35 degrees outside including booties and wearing a balaclava. I was sweating in short sleeves and shorts and I couldn't believe it, maybe he was expecting the temps to plummet during the ride or something, it was upper 70's when I saw him. Taking the day off after 4 good days of riding to finish a painting a room in the house I started a "few" weeks ago. And oh yes, finish the spanish soap my wife got me hooked on it ends tonight with a two hr. finale (yes, I'm blaming her). And there's even hardly any cleavage showing in this soap which is a surprise because spanish soaps are known for that. I'm just glad is over, I can't take another hr.
Well, we spent a few good hrs watching it and speculating what would happen.

Thursday, bundled up, to Sunday shorts

Ho, you need to shave your legs, you look like a caveman.

Well, we spent a few good hrs watching it and speculating what would happen.

The power of words with a pen

2011-04-08T14:05:00.001-04:00

Wine, Beer versus water

2011-04-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

No need to thank me for this useful information!

To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine...

And those who don't and are always

seen with a bottle of water in their hand.

As Ben Franklin said:

In wine there is wisdom,

In beer there is freedom,

In water there is bacteria.

In a number of carefully controlled trials,

Scientists have demonstrated that if we drink

one litre of water each day,

At the end of the year we would have absorbed

More than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. Coli) - bacteria

found in feces.

In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poo..

However,

We do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer

(or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) ,

because alcohol has to go through a purification process

of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember:

Water = Poo,

Wine = Health.

Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid,

than to drink water and be full of shit.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information:

I'm doing it as a public service!

Sunday

2011-04-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

The "Depends" gang got together on Sunday for an easy ride on the Bike and Hike doing the Akron loop.
This is a great loop for an easy ride after a good week of training. The ride takes you through Silver lake in Stow which is a great area (sorry, no pictures, next time) and a few other neighborhoods. It is best done in the early morning because many sections get a lot of foot traffic later in the day.

What about that?

2011-03-30T20:55:00.000-04:00

I knew mother nature wasn't finished. I just got done complaing about the dry cold weather and we get this almost snow storm. it came down fast and furious.
View walking out of the office

View from the road

Down in the park

View from my family room

Earlier I said that if it was going to be this cold, I much rather the sky be gray and snowy, I got my wish and what's the first thing I did when I got home...I hit the trainer for 50 minutes and did core work. I did think about going out but...

Pushing my way out the door

2011-03-30T08:04:00.000-04:00

Like I said in my last post, this time of the year I love sunny days but I have to push myself to go out and ride when is this cold. 19 down in the valley this morning on my way to work. I had thoughts of riding to work today until I saw what the low was going to be. I keep telling myself, 1 hr commute, I'll ride everyday to work in 20 degree temps. 2 hr commute...let me think about it. NO, I think I'll wait until at least the temps are over 25 in the morning to start riding to work. I love to see the faces of people at work when I walk in bundled up with lights blinking, half frozen with a smile on my face. Although, over the years (30 to be exact) they have gotten used to see me ride in that way.
Saturday I had a very good ride with Jeff on our MTB's for about 35 miles at a good pace. Sunny, windy and cold.

Beautiful Blue Herron looking for food next to the Towpath

Sunday my legs were a little fried so I went out on the road SS for an easy ride on the bike path.

It was also very cold. I was loading the bike and a dad and his teenage son pulled their bikes out of the car and went for a ride. I wasn't even finished loading the bike, maybe 5 minutes and they were back, loaded the bikes in the minivan and left. Why yu may ask, very typical for this time of the year, The sun is out, it looks good, lets go out in a thin sweatshirt, no beanie cap, no gloves and ride. I'll leave it at that or I'm going to say something I'll regret later.

Yesterday I went out for a little over an hr and it turned out to be a disaster. When I came back from "La Vuelta" in PR I put the bike back together and went over it like a doctor. Well, I didn't tightened up the handlebar screws and seat post. Guess what, saddle went down the handlebars moved and it didn't happen until I was turning around. Had to ride in a "very" uncomfortable way on my way back.

Note to self, make sure the screws are tight after unpacking and putting together your bike. I'll blame it on the "wife" she probably call me upstairs and took me out of my mojo.

No ranting or nonsense today other that what I just wrote.

Have a great cold sunny day.

Sunny...COLD

2011-03-29T10:17:00.000-04:00

I like the feel of the sun just as much as anyone this time of the year, but if it's going to be this cold I rather the skies be gray and snow on the ground. Why?? With gray skies and snow I go out and ride and I don't even have an issue going out in the cold and wet roads. When is this cold, more like artic cold and sunny, I get home and think about it twice, trice and so on. Sounds strange, darn right it is. I ride all winter long outside in wet, salty, snowy slippery roads and trails but there comes a time where we all get sick of the cold and I'm to that point. Especially after a weekend in Asheville where the temps hit 82 one day and 70's the next 2. This cold sucks the life out of you. I'll be happy with a couple of 40 degree days. On the other hand, I'm happy to be alive and riding in sunny 30 degree weather.
That's my rant for the day, what's yours?

Is 30 years a long time?

2011-03-26T09:32:00.000-04:00

That's how long I've been where I work. Long 30 years, short 30 years? It depends how you look at it. Some years felt long others felt short. For the most part it has been a great 30 years and I'm very thankful to have this job when so many people are out of work. I've been able to provide for my family and my cycling vice. Before I started to work where I'm at I was laid off 5 times at my previous job. A few times I thought about moving on but I had no reason to move on and I'm glad I stayed. I have the best co-workers anybody can wish (I'm not lying) and very uderstanding people above me. Not many people say this but, I enjoy what I do and enjoy going to work. Of course, there's the many times I catch myself just looking at the computer screen wishing I was riding somewhere or looking forwards to the weekend, but who doesn't.
Here's to the Lord for giving me this job and to me help have the same attitude until I can retire and ride into the sunset.

More pics

2011-03-23T11:40:00.001-04:00

I'm having problems posting pics in the previous post, so here's a new post with more pics.

Consulting the map

creek crossing over a mossy slab of rock, very difficult with the cold water and the rushing water

Don't turn your back, there's always someone willing to snap a pic when you are in a compromising position.

Asheville is a very neat city with a lot of different things to see and a very diverse mix of people that you may not see anywhere else. Many people ride bikes because they don't own a car. You can find street performers at every corner of the city, from a saxophone player to a group playing at a street corner.

These guys and gal where fun to watch and listen to for a while. Ray didnt want to leave

Asheville, complete post

2011-03-23T08:24:00.003-04:00

Had to cut short the Ash post last night due to insuficient storage for posting pics. I bought 20 gigs of storage for 5 bucks and I'll be set to store over 10,000 pics. The blog will probably die before I store that many pics but for 5 bucks it was worth it.
Anyhoo, the rides went real good, I found my fitness is a notch above of what it was last year when we went down. This time I didn't blow up in any of the rides and was able to push it and recover at the same time.

The Pisgah ride was epic, lots of climbing. The riding there is hard, you mostly go up or down with very little recovery in between. We did a few hike a bikes that really hurt since I haven't been running and a couple of the guys got real nasty blisters.

This picture shows exactly how we all felt and looked after Pisgah.

Last year we went to a latin food restaurant and the food was great so we decided to visit the place again and were very dissapointed with the food. It came out cold and those of us that ordered the same had different portions. You figure if you order something that says over a bed of veggies you'll get veggies, got one slice of bell pepper and that was it. Enough of that am still PO.

Saturday by far the best ride, we took the long drive out to Dupont state park and were not dissapointed.

Dupont has a lot of climbing but unlike Pisgah, there's always a pay off. The downhills are snake type where you can let it go and fly in and out of the woods. The best place is last in line where you can see the group flying down the mountain. There's also a few very rough and nasty downhills like Johanna road. This is basically a dry creek bed with rocks, let me refrase that, boulder size rocks. If you don't have a good line or tthe rider in front of you doesn't have a good line you are screwed. Just ask Frank, Greg slammed on the brakes in front of him and he almost lost his virginity when I slammed into him head first into his butt, I'm still having nightmares.

more pics and comments later today, I have to start working.

Later has arrived

Asheville weekend

2011-03-23T06:07:00.000-04:00

We arrived in Asheville Thursday evening, picked up the keys to the house at the bike shop and drove a few miles on the Blue Ridge pkwy. to get to Bent Creek preserve where the house is located. No neighbors no light poles and you have to open a forest gate to get to it. Roll out of bed in the morning and you are on the trails.

I have never seen 7 guys change so fast and be ready to ride in my life. The Cleveland winter has really beat us up real good. 2 hrs later and a lot of climbing and we were back and ready for dinner. One thing about Bent Creek, you climb a lot but there's always a pay off.

We always eat good when we go to Asheville except Friday night, but that's another story.
Friday we picked up Bruce and headed to Pisgah to get beat up. Pisgah was an epic ride. This is where I blew up bad a couple years ago, this time the ride was better, longer and I felt good.

Asheville long wekend

2011-03-16T21:27:00.000-04:00

Leaving early tomorrow morning for the annual March pilgrimage down to Asheville, NC. Short ride as soon as we get there, two full days Friday and Saturday and a short early morning ride before we head home Sunday morning. Rode the Jamis 29er Monday in Hinckley to finish setting up my position and it felt great. Now to feel it on the dirt. Great temps and weather is waiting for us. One thing I keep thinking about is I wish we had more room so I could take my single speed. I come to enjoy riding the SS more than anything, even my winter beater bike is a SS. Bought a pair of used specialized wheels with DT hubs and dropped a pound of my SS. Now comes the playing gane trying to find what tires I'm going to like more. The Geax that came with bike where way to tight on the rims and I don't want to cut a tire an have to walk out of the woods because I can't put a tube in it. This weekend I'm trying a Specialized Captain Control in the front and a Fastrack in the back. Let's see how that works, right now am leaning towards the schwalbe Ralph tires, less than 600 grams for a 2.25.
I'll report back on Monday with lots of pics.
Have a great weekend.

Dreams

2011-03-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had weird dreams? Saturday night I was in Havana, Cuba drinking mojitos. It's always amazing to me how we can dream a thousand dreams in one night and only remembber a few. Dreams can also turn into nightmares, like when you dream you are being attacked and you want to scream and can't. Have you ever had one of those? I've dreamt about crashes, broken body parts and a lot of other stuff but I have never had a dream where I'm standing on the podium. I have to start thinking more about that so I can at least dream myself to a podium finish.
Can you tel I have nothing else to talk about?
Saturday it was nice for a long ride but I finally got hit with what I call my March Madness. This is the time when the temps are ok, there's no snow or rain in the forecast but I'm so sick already on bundling up to ride that I don't even wnat to go out. I stayed home and switched tires on my mtb and did a little bike maintenance. I had no desire whatsoever to go out and ride. Sunday I felt the same way but "forced" myself to go out and ride for 2.5hrs since we are leaving on Thursday for our annual training weekend in Asheville. The punishment will be such that I'll be dropped sometime somewhere left to find my own way out. And they better not give me the car keys to hold this time, last year I made everybody wait for hrs while I took a nap at the top of the mountain, I almost didn't make it home.
Anyways, looking forward to the punishment and see how bad my fitness is in comparisson to my riding companions.

Another weekend another...

2011-03-11T07:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is becoming the norm around here, another weekend another storm. More heavy wet snow is falling now with an expected 5-10 inches depending where you are at. The drive in to work wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be with a few exceptions. Strongsville and North Royalton get an A for keeping the roads in good shape, at least the ones I drive on. As usual Broadview Hts. gets a big D, they never seem to do a good job there doesn't matter how much snow falls. Brecksville a C but the most surprising one is Solon which I'm going to give them a big F.
Then again, why I'm I complaining, worst natural disasters are happening around the world and today is Japan. First e-mail I was looking for this morning was from my counterpart and friend in Japan. He did write us a short e-mail letting us now that they are ok but many of his co-workers are spending the day/night in the office because the trains and any type of transportation are not working. He lives 2 hrs away from Tokyo and that's traveling in one of the "bullet" trains they have there.
My prayers are with them.