The Great Divide Project

My GDR Ride Report

2008-07-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

I rode to Eureka, Montana from my home in Spokane, Washington. It was a nice transition from frantic last minute preperation to the hours of enjoyable biking that I would be experiencing for the next two weeks. I spent a couple of days in Eureka hanging out with Rainer, Jenn, Simon, Geoff and Carl. I did not know then that these same people would be a big part of my race as well. The relaxed comraderie of this time disappeared at the start.
The start was not unlike the start of any other race; nervous and fidgity. After the start I kept telling myself to slow down. There were five single speeders and I did not want to jump to the front at the start and then get passed later on. By the time I started climbing Whitefish Divide I felt like I had gotten into my groove and enjoyed riding alone for the next couple of hours. I caught up to Simon right before the red meadow snow section and enjoyed talking with him before he took off on the descent into Whitefish.
I ran into Simon again outside of Whitefish. I stopped for food at a conveinance store and then ran into Geoff who had gone into Whitefish for burgers. I thought the route went through Whitefish so I was disappointed to hear that I missed my chance for hot food. Geoff dropped into his aero bars and sped off for Tom Arnone's place. When I stopped in Columbia Falls to make the call-in I missed in Whitefish, I ran into Andrew and we rode to Arnone's together as the sun was setting.
The Arnone's are great hosts and I drank some pepsi (bad mistake to have caffeine so late) and ate rhubarb pie. Everyone was still antsy so it was hard to get to sleep and it was made worse by the frequent arrivals of more riders. I think 10 out of 18 riders were sleeping at mile 121.
The Echo Valley cafe attracted the riders for a hot breakfast. I was still not feeling in the groove of the race and had not developed the ability to eat large amounts of food. I left a half eaten plate of pancakes and headed out knowing it was going to be a tough day if I was to get to Seeley Lake.
I was starting to realize that everyone had the same goals and we would be finding ourselves in the same towns at the end of the day. The first obstacle that would break up the field would be Richmond peak. Coming at the end of day two and covered in snow, there was a chance that some of the people would not make it over until the next day. A short stretch of fallen trees and some off-camber snow that caused me to fall down several times made it slow going over the top but a steady pace and limited off bike time through out the day got me into Seeley Lake at 8:30 pm. I was hungry and was feeling confidant. I ran into Geoff who was going to ride another 20 miles into Ovando but I wanted to make up for the bad night of sleep by getting a hotel room. Showering, washing my clothes and sleeping 7 solid hours had me feeling great by the next morning.
I left Seeley Lake and ran into Jenn who had gotten into Seeley Lake late at night and missed out on getting a room or hot food. In Ovando I caught up with Geoff, Simon, Carl, Fred, and Cullen. They were sitting in a cafe. They had been waiting so long for their food that Simon ate toast off of a plate after some customers left. I skipped the breakfast and had some coffee. The Ovando boys had a bad night of sleep due to some sprinklers going off and then morning rain showers. Geoff mentioned how wet his sleeping bag got just in the short time it took for him to get out of it and run under an awning. By the time we left Rainer and Jenn showed up and both decided to stay for breakfast.
I think I felt fresher than the others and found myself riding off of the front over Huckleberry Pass. I felt really good and enjoyed the riding. Scenic climbs with some great descents. The climbing was perfect for my gearing. I could climb without getting out of the saddle and without doing any heavy breathing. I did not stop much becuase I never felt tired but I started getting a bad sound from my freewheel after riding through a stream. Some chain lube fixed it but I decided I should get a new freewheel sent to me. I decided Pinedale was my safest because out in these parts overnight shipping can take three days. Geoff and I met up again in Helena at 6:30 p.m. and decided that we would be foolish to stop so early in the day so after some Hardee's burgers we headed towards Basin. The foolish part was not knowing that the Lava Mountain Trail is one of the worst sections to night ride. During a thunder storm we found ourselves lost. We had been following John Nobile's tracks but discovered he had ridden every single trail at least twice. Later I he told me he was lost for 3 hours which did make me feel better. Geoff and I made it into basin at 2:30 a.m. and could not find a motel. Geoff's sleeping bag was still soaking wet from Ovando and we were both cold and wet. We found a cramped shower room at an RV park that was warm (but with a wet floor). We locked ourselves inside and tried to sleep. Geoff slept while I listened to him snore. At 5:00 a.m I got up and road into Butte.
During the ride into Butte I was angry with myself for not sticking to my game plan. The problem was that I could not stop thinking about the mistake. I tried to cheer myself up, I tried to meditate, I tried anything to get out of the feeling that I had just blown the whole race.
In Butte I got some Burger King breakfast and iced my knees as a precaution even though they still felt good. Geoff rolled into town just as I was heading out. On the way out I stopped at the bike shop to get some new gloves and ran into John Nobile. He was not in cycling clothes. He explained he was not feeling well and was taking a half day.
I left Butte feeling a lot better as I looked at the trail in front of me and realized there were no tracks to follow because I was in front. Despite knowing that this would not last it worked to get rid of the malaise that was pestering me.
Just before Fleecer Mountain, Geoff and John caught up to me. John was still struggling and Geoff and I road away from him up the long approach to the mountain. Geoff and John both continued on after Wise River but I decided to stay because I was determined to stick to my gameplan- no more improvisation.
Simon, Rainer, Carl and Jenn rolled into Wise River later that night and we all were on the road again before dawn. After getting a lot of sleep and eating several dinners, I was rolling along pretty good. I only stopped once during the 145 mile ride to Lima. I spent 20 minutes in a rare bit of shade and a typical lunch of pepsi, turkey sandwich and frito's chips. By this time I was realizing that you can't eat bars and candy day after day. I also realized that I did not like eating hourly like I normally do during long rides. I was content to eat 4-5 big meals. In the mornings I would drink 2 Starbuck's frappucino's, some orange juice and a Little Debbie coffee cake. If I was lucky I could get some hot breakfast several hours down the way. Lunch was usually something I had picked up the day before like a sandwich. I always had pepsi during the middle of the day. I was drinking 3 liters a day. I can't argue with what my body wants. Geoff turned me onto Frito's, they have a ridiculous amount of calories for the weight. By noon all I could think about was hamburgers or hot dogs. If no restaurants were available I would eat heavy food. Some food from the grocery store was too heavy to carry with me so I would only buy them if I could eat them right away. Cans of fruit and big tubs of rice pudding were my favorite heavy foods.

By this time in the ride the body is collecting some issues. I cut my finger trying to cut up a towel for cleaning my chain. My mouth was always dry forcing me to drink water everytime I needed to swallow a mouthful of Pay Day bar. The throat was sore from the dry air and dust so sucking on Ricolla cough drops was an all day activity. I developed a bit of a cough which I discovered was something everyone suffered with. And my back side was not without it's wear and tear but my dilegant cleaning with wet naps and nearly daily showering kept me saddle sore free. I also used a powder of goldenseal and myrhh which was a formula that succesfully took care of my daughter's diaper rash when she was a baby.
Bandanas have many uses during the GDR. Fighting the dust when cars pass on dirt roads being one of the most important.
Being an Idaho native, I was happy to spend a beautiful afternoon crossing this distant corner of the Gem State.
After the easy day into Lima, I was feeling good about doing the 165 miles into Flagg ranch. things went well despite a tunnel cave in that was a little sketchy to cross and the sandy 30 mile rail trail that was not as bad as I expected but definitely took it's toll.
By the time I got through the mosquitto-infested snow and mud section of Ashton-Flagg road I was tired not exhausted just tired. I slept in until 7:00 a.m (my latest start) and ran into Carl. We rode at different speeds but got breakfast together, and then shared a pilot car, enjoyed the brooks lake snow and had lunch later in the day on Union Pass.
The snow did slow things down but I feel like it did not make a big difference in the overall picture. The only time I curse the snow was when a great downhill was ruined with snow and mud. Brooks Lake had some extra sticky mud that I had to stop and peel away from my forks but overall the descent was good fun.
I was not as happy with the Union Pass descent. You go up 30 feet for every 40 feet you go down. It can't even be called a descent.
By the time I got over Union pass I was getting some unfamiliar knee pain. At the end of the day I was forced to pedal one legged because my right knee was so uncooperative.
With my knee pain and the freewheel package in town, I decided that I may want to take some time to get right in Pinedale. After I had breakfast with Carl. I went to the laundromat and did some maintenence on my bike while my clothes turned the washing machine water into mud. I ate two lunches and bought some ice cream and checked into a motel. After a shower and a two hour nap I was laying there watching Kindergarten Cop and eating Ben and Jerry's when I realized that I had to leave. It felt wrong to take a day off. Ten minutes later I was catching the tailwind into Boulder.
In Boulder I ran into Simon and Jenn. Both of them were easily able to diagnose my knee pain and offered some advice that turned out to be the magic bullet. The bike was tuned up and riding great and I was filled with hope that my knee pain was simple enough to take care. I had lots of energy (Ben and Jerry's?) and took off for Atlantic City. Simon and Jenn's day started at the base of Union Pass so they were not looking to go as far as I was so I rode off without them. I got as far as a rest stop on the highway before South Pass City. Jenn and Simon got an extra early start and caught up to me at the rest stop as I was getting ready to leave. We had breakfast in Atlantic City together. Simon was sick to his stomache so he stayed behind as Jenn and I headed out for Rawlings.
Jenn started her day earlier than I did and would have to do more mileage to get across the Great basin in one day but we were both motivated to get it over with. I took a break every couple of hours to stretch and was amazed at how well it took care of my knee pain.
By the time I got to Sooner Road I realized that there was a chance to get to Rawlings before 10:00 p.m. and I went into time trial mode.
The Great Basin isn't a difficult section of route to ride but it plays with your mind. Hour after hour without any sign of human life. The road is always disappearing into an endless horizon. There is no shade, no protection from the wind. Then you get to Rawlings and all of the services are off route and you don't realize this until you end up on the wrong side of town from the motels, restaurants and stores. Luckily there was a Domino's pizza about ready to close. I ate a 14 inch pizza and celebrated getting through a couple of rough days.
Leaving Rawlings I was happy that my energy level was high, my legs felt great and my bike was functioning perfect. Colorado was near and I was determined to get out of Wyoming. Just after getting into Colorado I stopped at the bottom of Slater Creek to get some water when I found myself running into the bushes. Something was wrong with my digestion but I asumed it was some bad food and the problem would pass quickly. During the long hot climb up Slater Creek I was getting more and more tired. Deep, all over fatigue. I was happy to come across the Henricksen family's sign welcoming all GDR/TD racers. I sat on the porch with them sipping on a pepsi and eating a banana. When I left I was wondering if I should have stayed longer because the day was getting hotter and I was getting slower.
This is how I looked as I walked along flat roads trying to sip gatorade.
By the time I got to the Hahn Mountain Road. My brain was in a deep fog and I was marching along with very little enthusiasm.
I made it down Sand Mountain despite struggling with low light, rocky terrain and snow/mud sections.
Once it got dark I stopped at a house and asked to sleep in their yard. They were very interested in the race and made me soup and a hot dog. This was just one of many examples of how nice people are along the route. It really has restored some of my faith in humans.
The next morning I rode/walked the 20 miles into Steamboat. I had hoped that some food and rest would put me back on track but when I started throwing up everything I ate I started losing hope. Things got worse through the night and by morning I had soaked the bed with sweat and I would start blacking out seconds after standing up.
Isabella from the Nordic Motel drove me to the hospital and stored my bike at the motel for me. After a few hours in the ER I was admitted to the hospital and spent the next three days on an I.V., getting anti-nausea drugs and a heavy duty antibiotic. Two days after getting out of the hospital I was back at home but I would be sick for the next week and a half. They weighed me when I got into the hospital and I had only lost 4 pounds since the start of the race but before it was all over I lost 18 pounds. Two rounds of tests were not able to pinpoint a specific bacteria or parasite despite showing a high White Blood Cell Count.

Looking back on the race I wouldn't change my game plan or equipment choices with one exception. I was using a liquid water treatment because it was lighter than a filter. the problem is that I had to dip my bottle and hands into the streams to fill them up. It would have been easier and cleaner to use a filter. Hygiene is difficult during this type of event and I think that a filter could have helped.

The Midnight Century 2008

2008-07-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

As soon as I do my pathetic litle GDR write-up I will be abandoning this site and unveiling something new. I haven't tied up the loose strings here because I have been getting the route ready for the fifth annual Midnight Century. This ride assumes each rider has a working understanding of The Centennial Trail between Spokane and the state line as well as The Fish Lake trail between Cheney and Spokane.

Midnight Century 2008
Find more Bike Rides in Spokane, Washington

Vacation Slideshow Time

2008-07-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

The full story is still pending but I do have a vacation slide show that tells the story as well as my babbling could. Check out the whole thing at my GDR Flickr page. Click on the picture after the slideshow starts to get the captions. Above is a picture that Simon Kennet of New Zealand took of me as we pushed through the snow at Red Meadow Lake on the first day of the race.

The End

2008-07-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

A full write-up on my experiences will be coming, but for now I would like to give some details about my departure.
Despite having some knee problems in Wyoming I had high hopes and lots of energy heading into Colorado. Once in Colorado, I realized I wasn't digesting my food right and my energy disappeared. By the time I crawled into Steamboat I knew I had more than a sour stomach. I got a motel room and hoped to take a day to recover.
By morning, I was in a terrible state. I was no longer thinking about the race I was just hoping to get myself to a hospital. I was extremely fortunate that I was in a town with medical service when this happened. Isabella from the Nordic Motel took me to the Emergency Room and within a minute I was getting hooked up to an I.V.
My fever was 104 degrees when I was in the ER and remained above 100 for more than 24 hours. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days and was given an antibiotic that has wiped me out more than any day on the Great Divide.
The initial test for Giardia was negative but all other possible bacteria are still pending. At this point it is just as likely that it is Salmonella or E. Coli as a waterborne illness.
It is sad to think about not finishing the race but I really did have a good time while I was in it. The biggest surprise was the camaraderie that I experienced during the ride. The times that I shared with Geoff, Simon, Carl and Jenn will always be my favorites.

Where's David?

2008-06-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Note: The race begins June 20th at noon.
As a nice little surprise before my departure. Dave and Heather sprung for a Spot Satellite Tracking device. This is a first generation unit which makes it both heavy and impressive. You can go to my SpotCasting page and see a Google map of my progress. If you right click (control-click on mac) the latest spot message it will give you a menu that includes elevation profile; which should explain why I am moving so slow. The terrain feature is a really nice way to look at the map but the satellite will show the beautiful scenery I am enjoying.
I have been playing around with this unit for a couple of days and it is really simple to use. I just turn it on every day and it begins transmitting every ten minutes. Not every message goes through due to clouds, trees, canyons, etc. but from the bike riders I have seen using the system it does a very good job.
The unit and service are quite expensive so If you are around the Bistro drop a few bucks in the bucket to help with the cost.
P.S. I just noticed the Google Quote of the day.

"The best way out is always through." Robert Frost

Phot0: Ben Tobin

Verbal High Fives

2008-06-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Time for me to get this bike ride under way. To follow along, check the Great Divide Race and MTBCast websites. There are 24 call-in points along the route so there is regular updating of the racers positions. Also check out the MTBR.com Endurance Forum because there is always some good info about the race including the occasional spreadsheet analyzing the race.
Be aware that this year there are two races. The Tour Divide starts a week earlier and adds the Canadian extension from Banff. I am not in the Tour Divide I am in the Great Divide Race. Got it?
Now it is time for me to insert the "thank you to all those that have helped" though these words hardly cover the debt I owe. It is humbling to realize just how many people make some kind of effort to get me to the start of this event.
Erica and Lydia...I have tried to write this sentence so many times that the delete button may be getting worn out. There is nothing that I can say that matches the feeling I have for the support they provide. My only goal is to make them proud.
My parents and siblings have allowed me to hijack holiday dinners with monologues about Wyoming weather patterns, down versus synthetic and bike frame engineering. Next year we can go back to talking about other subjects not related to the GDR.
Dave and Heather Dupree (my bosses) didn't even blink when I told them I was going to go M.I.A. during the busiest time of the year. I have the best job in town...it better still be there when I get back.
Brian from Mountain Gear who keeps me in line with his admonishing about my lack of bicycle maintenance as well as keeping me warm and dry with the best outdoor gear and clothing.
Dave Nelson who gives me free bike parts and if that wasn't enough also maintains the local trails so that I can ride those components into the ground.
Simon from Wheelsport
Tom McFadden (the best mechanic in town)
Jeff Boatman from Carousel Design Works
Ben Tobin the only training partner I have ever had. There were a lot of rides and a lot of laughs together in the last year and a half. Now this is over no more long road rides on mountain bikes. Dirt! Dirt! Dirt!
In about two minutes I will think of a dozen more people like BumbleBar and Cateye who have helped me and the numerous people I have met through this project. It really is a bike community. Verbal High Five to Everyone.

GDR 08 Gear List

2008-06-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

For those interested in this sort of thing, here is my gear list for the GDR:

Independant Fabrications Steel Deluxe 29er with Rock Shox Reba Race
Phil Wood hubs/ DT Swiss tk7.1 rims, WTB Nanoraptor tires
Race Face SS Crank with Surly Chainring and Wipperman Chain; ACS Freewheel
Time ATAC pedals Sidi Dominator Shoes
Surly Torsion Bar with Ergon Grips
Thompson Stem and Seatpost with an old WTB Laser V Saddle
Avid BB7 Front Brake, Paul Comp Brakes Rear, Paul Comp Love Levers

Carousel Design Works Seatbag, Handlebar Bag, Frame Bag and Map Case
Wingnut Adventure Backpack
Three Water Bottle Cages and Three Platypus Hydration Bags
Klearwater Chlorine Dioxide Water Treatment
Two Cat Eye Enduro Computers
Princton Tec EOS Headlamp and NIte Rider LED Handlebar Light
Pump
4 tubes, 6 patch kits, chain lube
Black Diamond Lightsabre Bivy
Mountain Hardwear Phantom 45 Sleeping Bag
Thermarest prolite 3 Short pad
Two pairs of shorts
1 full zip jersey with base layer
two pairs of smartwool socks
showers pass rain pants
O2 rain jacket
lightweight smartwool longsleeve shirt and pants
Neoprene Booties
arm and leg warmers
warm gloves, fingerless gloves
sunglasses with tinted and clear lenses
multi tool, leatherman, nail clippers and zip ties, duct tape
sunscreen, toliet paper, benedryl, toothbrush, tooth powder, Dr. Bronner's Soap, Bag Balm
bike hat, warm hat
small notebook, pen, calling card
credit card and money.
Camera

As for the weight, I do not know. I have made decisions independent of total weight. I did not ignore the weight issue when choosing products but I never got carried away with it. Everything I am using is an old familiar favorite. Whereas my GDR run may be a one time event I do look forward to continuing my love of bike touring. This bike and this equipment will see many miles beyond the end of the race so durability is key.
Some last minute reconsideration is taking place with the weather looking so wet and so cold. I have already added the neoprene booties and may add a midweight smartwool shirt and trade out the O2 rain jacket for my Arc Teryx with a hood that fits over my helmet.

Three Day Shake Down

2008-06-02T10:06:00.000-07:00

Tangle of driftwood and bikes on Lake Roosevelt.

I got away from work to do the last real shakedown ride. The route was all road but included 5 long climbs in a 400 mile 3 state loop. The climbs ranged between 2000 and 3000 feet in gain with the highest point being just under 5000 feet above sea level. The point of the ride was to practice more than to train. The pedaling was the easiest part. I can turn the cranks over without problem but there are so many other things that can go wrong. One of the biggest lessons I have labeled "personal maintenance".
A surprising amount of time must be dedicated each day to washing and drying clothes, washing body parts, applying sunscreen, applying bag balm to my backside, brushing teeth, stretching and massaging. All of this is in addition to bike maintenance, navigation, shopping, purifying water, eating, pissing, shitting and of course biking.

The bike worked great but I did decide that I will add some bar ends to the inside of the handlebar like mini aero bars. The purpose will be to provide some additional hand positions more than to lower my body position. I like to ride upright. Even on my drop bar bikes I never ride in the lower position regardless of how windy it is. Too late to develop a new position now.
It was nice having Noah along for the ride. Having someone with me helped me push the second day when a decadent refueling stop in Sandpoint forced us to ride until 11:00 p.m. to reach our mileage goal.
The next couple of weeks will involve more off the bike chores than training. I still have to finish the map project and do some last minute bike modifications. It is becoming harder and harder to focus on things not related to the trip. My mind is locking down on the task and soon it will not allow me to think about anything else.

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Snowmelt and Gear Inches.

2008-05-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

Things look good down at 2000'.

All of the trepidation I have had about the snow pack, turned into a big case of "be careful what you wish for". Very little snow melt had occurred up until late last week when the temperatures shot 20 degrees above normal and started the snow melt in earnest. The 90 degree temps have resulted in flooding on just about every river in the area.
I rode up Mt. Spokane on Saturday and marveled at the raging Deadman Creek that runs along side the highway. The next morning when I was coming down, the road and the creek had become one. I was lucky to cross the washout when I did because during the next 12 hours the asphalt would start to break apart as the soil from underneath it washed downstream. It will be weeks before the road reopens.

At 3400' the snowmelt is causing problems.

From Mt. Spokane I rode out to Farragut again and then on Monday morning biked back to Spokane via The Palouse Highway.
Simon in NZ has been trying to simulate a 12,000 foot day of climbing and the same thing has been on my mind. With most of the big hills covered in snow I haven't really been spending that much time on long climbs. I have felt good when I go out and climb a couple of thousand feet up Mt. Spokane or Fernan Saddle but It hardly simulates the challenges ahead. My big concern is deciding what gearing to use. I thought I was pretty confident about my choice but I have been doubting of recent.
Too low of a gear and it just takes too long to cover the mileage. Too high of a gear and the climbing becomes overly punishing and the day after day leg fatigue piles up too high.
I have done the 12k climbing math but then I look at the photos and see miles and miles of terrain suitable for the higher gear. Can one tooth on the rear cog mean the difference between success and failure? Will one tooth make a difference when climbing the major passes? I still don't have the answer and I may have to flip a coin on this one if I can't get closer to a conclusion.

2008-05-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Click picture for the full grandeur of our camp.

I managed to get the first overnighter of the year in. My new training partner and I rode out to Farragut State Park. No real elevation gain but we kept the pace high (he is still on his road bike). We had hoped to press on to Sandpoint and come back through Newport but when I got to Athol I realized that my @#$%^&* Koobi saddle rail was broken. this was the saddle that I broke the rails after just 700 miles. When I contacted Koobi they assured me that breakage is rare and always due to improper set-up. They sent me new rails and I bought a setback seatpost in order to adhere strictly to the installation instruction which allow for basically no fore/aft adjustment. "The clamp must be centered on the rails." Enough about that stupid seat.
Farragut sits at about 3200 feet. Plenty of snow was visible in the peaks along the lake. The overnight low was about 36 degrees and I was more than comfortable. I am still not happy with the speed of my set-up and breakdown. Need more practice. In the morning I shoved my seat forward so that the break was held by the clamp. The 70 miles of headwind home was zippy despite being in an awkward position.

New Training Partner

2008-05-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

A strange small world coincidence has brought a GDR racer to Spokane. Some people like a little more privacy than others and because I didn't ask I won't name him. The racer has raced before and is planning on returning to Roosville. He has family in Spokane and decided to come up for some training, of course that plan may have been better if the mountains weren't still covered in snow.
Yesterday we went out for a ride. His GDR bike won't be arriving until later this week so he was riding an unloaded road bike. This made for a good opportunity for me to get a real good ass-kicking training day in. I stayed with the fully loaded, single speed rolling on mtb tires. I did my best to keep up as we made the 45 mile flat approach to Fernan Saddle. Normally I wouldn't ride 45 miles to climb a hill (even one as nice and long as Fernan) but I was curious to see how much snow there was at the top (4600 feet). It was obvious that I won't be doing any training rides in the CDA NAt Forest in the next 6 weeks. There is that much snow.
On the way back to Spokane we headed out Saltese Flats and up Highway 27 to the Palouse Highway. After 7 hours I had enough of trying to keep my cadence high enough to keep up so we said our good byes and I rode home pretty well exhausted.The hardest kind of riding for me is high cadence flats. It empties out my legs like nothing else. The good news is that 8 hours of sleep later the legs feel good again.

The Public Interest Begins To Grow.

2008-04-30T10:33:00.000-07:00

Pete Basinger gets interviewed in the latest Independant Fabrications newsletter. He gives a more detailed telling of the sprint finish at the first GDR. With multiple flats, wild pigs and middle of the night navigational issues, it seems that the GDR nevers stops providing challenges.

What Is The SPF of Dirt?

2008-04-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Things improve. The weather has reached normal levels for the first time this year. Normal right now is highs of 65 and lows of 42. Today was sunny and I enjoyed it as I climbed the 2600' up Mount Spokane (the vista house road is still snowed over so summiting not an option). Last thursday I did my first singletrack hundred miler as an indicator of where I am at. I felt good but it is definitely time to start doing more agressive riding. It just isn't possible for me to get much more riding time in each week so I need to make the time more focused. Speed and climbing, especially out of the saddle climbing. Singlespeeders have to channel there inner Pantani. Dancing on the pedals for mile after mile uses a lot of muscles that can remain dormant during long road rides on the flatland.
Today was actually the first time my legs have seen sunlight since October. I have my base miles, now I need to get going on my base tan. I don't want to look like George Hamilton but spending all day in the sun for several weeks requires some preperation. All the SPF 50 doesn't do much good if you look like Marilyn Manson and you plan on spending sunrise to sunset at altitude in the open.

Spring Has Been Cancelled in Spokane

2008-04-17T07:46:00.000-07:00

Note: This is the forecast for 1885 feet of elevation. Normal Temperatures should be in the 60's.

Saturday: A 40 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 44. Calm wind becoming northeast between 6 and 9 mph.

Saturday Night: Snow showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 28. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday: A 40 percent chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 41.

Sunday Night: A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 28.

Monday: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 44.

Monday Night: A slight chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28.

Whatever It Takes

2008-04-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

Last week was positive. There was lots of high effort work which seems to be doing me some good. It is enjoyable to put the hammer down and have your body respond properly. Despite feeling good I have taken some preventive measures and gone to the acupuncturist. Years ago I lost a wrestling match with an eighty pound Halibut at work. The result was a muscle spasm in my back. That episode happened several weeks before the 24 hour solo world championships in Whistler. I was understandably nervous about the back injury popping up again in the middle of the race. I had a couple of trips to the pin pushers and I was good as new.
I have had recent days when the old injury gets aggravated by long days with a heavy backpack, so I knew I had to do something. I have an obligation to do whatever I can to ensure success with this GDR venture. I only want to do this event once and falling short of finishing because of some shortsightedness during the preparations would sit poorly with me for a long time. I recognize that there are quite a few people that are being inconvenienced by this selfish little excursion of mine. I am lucky that my family and the people I work with have been supportive. Out of respect for their sacrifices I cannot short change this final push of preparations.
Beside the acupuncture, this week I have made it through another map's worth of directions transcription and I have been rehearsing my packing and unpacking routine. A heavy rain storm blew through the night before last so I spent the night sleeping in my bivy. This was my first chance to check waterproofness and potential condensation issue. I was quite comfortable and slept in. Nothing beats sleeping to the sound of rain falling on a tent.

April Showers

2008-04-08T07:11:00.000-07:00

After my week off my body felt good. I spent the day exploring dirt roads that will be part of the MIdnight Century Route. If someone wants to know what's in store come July 26, they should go ride Elder Road from Valley Chapel to Freeman. Of course the route is going the other way but you will get the point.
Having made the early comment about the lack of pain and discomfort, I spent the whole of my ride trying to adjust my backpack to relieve some soreness I have been experiencing in my back and shoulders. I have been increasing the amount of weight I am carrying and now it seems I have broken this camel's back. I also switched from my winter cycling boots to my summer shoes. My knees are a little crunchy after the ride and I wondering if it is because I need to adjust the seat height to accommodate the differences between the shoes. I need to also look at the cleat angles.
The ride itself was good. I was pelted with hail, rain and high winds during the last 3 hours but it seems the snow is finally behind us. Overnight temperatures have risen to 30 degrees so it is time to start doing some overnighters.

In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lion

2008-04-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Ben running across a snowy section of the CDA National Forest at 4000' in April 2007. Most areas were clear but northern slopes had 24-36 inches at the time.

I am enjoying my week off. Rarely does my timing work out so well. More snow and more cold weather has come to ruin Spring's coming out party. The thing is that the snow storm that dumped big on us Friday was not heavy, wet spring snow but cold and dry powder. I took advantage of the conditions and skied until the legs wouldn't hold me anymore. I then did the snowshoe loop again. The super deep powder made for a ruthless workout.
For all the fun I was having I have been thinking about the snow levels in regard to the GDR. Matt Lee just mentioned it on the TD blog. He must be getting emails from worried riders but has assured people that this appears to be an average year and in the past the route was clear of snow for the most part. The snow can melt down awfully quick but it is hard to imagine ridable terrain in the mountains when today I am looking at Big Mountain Resort in Whitefish and it's reported 11.58 FEET (139 inches) of snow at it's 7000 foot summit. My backyard ski area has 131 inches at it's 4200 feet base. I won't be riding those trails until July.
I haven't done the math on how many days left (nor do I care to) but I realize time is short. I see that some people logged twice as many miles in March as I did but I think that I had a nearly perfect month of riding. April needs to be more disciplined in the area of preparations. Typing route guides, getting my camping gear sorted out, etc. I expected to be doing some overnighters but 20 degree temperatures and occasional snowfalls in the valleys have pushed that down the line.

Training Explosion

2008-03-24T19:54:00.000-07:00

Step One: Altitude and Snow

Step Two: Make A Hard Day Harder

This week should be an off week. I relieve myself of forced riding quotas every fourth week to remind myself that I do still ride a bike because I enjoy it. Next week my wife and daughter are relieved of their requirements to go to work and school so it made more sense to have my mini bike vacation then. Though this week is the last full week of March I have started my April training early. It looks to be a good start to the month.
It started with a high aerobic output snowshoe session. This wasn't a lovely stroll through the woods rather a sweat dripping from my brow, veins popping from my calves and quads deep powder stomping session. I threw in a back country nordic ski outing just for good measure.
With my calves knotted up real good and my quads basically emptied of all glycogen, I spent today wondering the hilly dirt roads in the south county area. Before the eight hour day was over I was surprised with how good I felt so I detoured a little bit and did some actual single track. I had heard that the trails have firmed up at Beacon so I took a look. It is hard to believe that they are in such good shape considering that last friday there was a four hour snow storm down here at lower elevation. It has been since last fall since I did any real mountain biking and I think that I am more than ready to start throwing in some dirty ol' biking fun.

What's Missing?

2008-03-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me today that while spending my morning ride accessing the State Of My Fitness that there were things missing. Missing are the slight knee pain that I never let concern me, the tired back and shoulders that can develop during consecutive long days early in the season and the hand and wrist discomfort that forces me to adjust my hand positions constantly. The only conclusion that I can draw is that the fit of my new bike is so spot on that things I assumed were just part of being almost 40 years old and spending hour after hour on a bike are no longer there. Kudos to Independent Fabrications for building me a better bike than I was expecting but damn them for ruining me on stock, off-the-rack frames. Custom geometry is worth it.
The only hitch I have encountered is that in order to make the fickle Koobi saddle work with my geometry, I had to switch to a set back seatpost, but the proof is in the joints, and as a single speeder I have to watch out for my knees especially.

Training Blues

2008-03-04T11:04:00.000-08:00

Runoff on Latah Creek Along Valley-Chapel Road.

The weather is improving somewhat. The roads were clear yesterday but it snowed, rained and snowed again while the wind blowed between 20 and 30 mph, but I got my time in.
My training program is simple. Every month I ride more hours per week than the last month. The details and nuances beyond that are few. My long day is Monday and that begins my week. I try and accomplish up to half of my weekly riding on that day. The incentive is to front load the week with rides so that I earn more rest toward the end. If I fail at this I have Friday to make it up; that day I go to work later so I can ride four or five hours (not what I want to do before a tough Friday night at work in the kitchen). This is not a good training program from a scientific point of view but it is the only one I am willing to commit to. Basically, I would rather ride than train.
I suspect that I will be writing about my preparations less. I was eager to unload my thoughts when there seemed to be more thinking than doing. I have also begun to tire of talking about the race. I am known to be extremely talkative but there is not much new to say and the repetitiveness of explaining to people the event and my involvement is not benefiting me at all.
As much as i am worried about the fast approach of the start date, I really do want to get this thing under way. The getting ready isn't interesting anymore. The same old low elevation country roads don't inspire me. The compromises in my schedule between family, work and riding continue to get more difficult and snow still covers all of the trails even down in the valleys.

Winter Cycling In Perspective

2008-02-11T07:33:00.000-08:00

In my burg, December had a record number of days of snow and January has a record amount of snow fall. Mixed in there somewhere was at least one day with a record low temperature. Everyday the local news is gleeful with hyperbole about the mess the weather has caused. The mountain passes are closed more than they are open, all of the county roads (yes, ever single road one) south of my general vicinity were closed for the las week because plows were unable to keep the roads open with the 40 mph winds causing 14 foot drifts.
Despite the fact that these conditions have not made for the best winter of training, I cannot feel bad for myself. The challenges I face are small in comparison to what Mike Curiak is preparing to take on. With a whole heap of custom gear including a bike that stores stove fuel in the frame tubes, Mike is heading out to cover the 1100 mile Iditarod trail from Anchorage to Nome without any support. He is carrying 140 pounds of gear, including all the food he will need for the trip. As the record holder for the course he knows about the difficulty of the route but not resupplying and not using the warming huts along the way takes this attempt to an unheard of level.
During my six hour training ride today I will be thinking of Mike's adventure and hopefully it will help me keep my own challenges in perspective.

Snow Day

2008-01-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

After a week of single digit temperatures, the warm moist air from the South Pacific moved into town. The 13.7 inches of snow that fell in the last 24 hours broke the single day record snowfall that has stood since 1950. And as Matt Chester points out, this aint the champagne powder of Utah and Colorado. For most of the day it was 31-33 degrees while it was snowing. This is the heavy snow that makes driving near impossible and biking just a bad idea.
This morning is a true snow day. The storm has passed, the blue sky is more than blue and all of the schools have closed. The temperature has dropped back down to 9 degrees.
Yesterday, I got a workout downhill skiing through 24+fresh inches at the local hill. Today I will bike get some biking in simply for the fact that I am out of coffee, but for the most part training is not in the cards. This is when I start wondering about my preparations. I always go through this.
I feel slow. I feel heavy. I lament the distractions. Everyone is riding more than me. I am procrastinating the work I need to do. I am not stretching. Time is ticking. Deadlines are coming. I won't be ready. And yet I find a way to do what I want to do.
I fall back to my mantras:
Don't train, practice- Kent Peterson
You can't train for a 1000 mile run, you can only rest- Yiannis Kouros
I am Buddha, not a Buick- Tom Robbins
Meditate when you can't perspirate- David Blaine

The Chili Ride

2008-01-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

I am going to be riding up to the Kettle Falls area in February otherwise I would be participating in the chili ride. I like chili and I like the Fat Tire Trail Riders Club (they're the people doing all the trail improvements all over town). Not to mention Riverside State Park is my back yard so it is always good to represent.

Event Alert: Village Bike Project

2008-01-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

Terry from Doma sent over this information about a great event they are having at North Idaho College. I have been hearing a lot about the Village Bicycle Project. John Speare from CyclingSpokane and Jon Fish from Mountain Gear have been putting a lot of work into this idea.

You are invited to a documentary film showing by Eric Matties and Tricia

Todd called "Ayamye". The film is about a grassroots project founded by

Moscow Idaho resident, David Peckham, called the Village Bicycle Project.

The project works to address the critical lack of basic reliable, affordable

transport for millions of Africans by transporting donated used bicycles,

teaching bicycle maintenance, and by providing tools for bicycle repairs in

African Villages.

The film will be showing at NIC's Meyer Health and Science Building Room #106 in

Coeur d'Alene on Thursday, January 17th at 7:00PM.

DOMA is supporting the efforts of the Village Bicycle Project because we

feel that bicycles are an important solution to economic stability,

pollution, energy crisis, and climate change.

Help us spread the word about this incredible film screening by forwarding

this invite to your friends and family. For any questions, contact us at

208-667-1267

First Ride Of 2008

2008-01-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

New Years Day was sunny which around here in the winter means it was cold, real cold. Some of that Arctic air was blowing down which meant that the wind was blowing the wrong direction (of course the wrong direction on a bike is straight in your face). I had three people show up to ride with me but the brutal temps had them all making left turns when I was going right. An hour into the ride I was struggling along the drift covered Valley-Chapel road listening to the hum of the road signs as the shimmy back and forth in the wind. It took 3 hours to get to Rockford and I was rewarded with breakfast at the Harvest Moon. Things got better as I took back roads along Mica Peaks Western flank to the Saltese Flats.
I spent a lot of time thinking about potential routes connecting the many unpaved country roads in Palouse Country. 70 miles later I was pretty drained and called it a day. The best news from the ride was that my recent boo-boo from skiing did not bother me much. A good start to the year.

GDR Versus Tour Divide

2007-12-31T09:52:00.000-08:00

After a couple of year's of forum chatter about differences of opinion regarding the running of the GDR, Matthew Lee has started a second race, Tour Divide, along the GDR route with the addition of the 211 mile Canadian section and without the time cut-offs and cell phone rules that were implemented last year. Looks like some of the previous riders are lining up behind Matt's new venture. For me this is a tough decision to make.
If the future of this route being raced heads in the direction of the Banff to Antelope version than I would want to be part of that just to avoid any nagging doubts later about "I wish I had done the Canadian section". The idea of switching to the Tour Divide changes my planning more than just adding 211 miles to the total mileage. I was planning on riding to the start in Roosville from my house (a 235 mile tribute to Kent Petersons 500 mile doorstep-to-start warm-up). This additional mileage seemed like a nice prologue that I was going to take slowly to adapt to the touring lifestyle. If I was to do the Tour Divide I would have to have fly or have someone drive me to Banff. Looking at these two options it is hard for me to say that I would enjoy the Canadian section so much that it would offset the flying/driving and missing out on my own prelude.
There is the other question of starting times. Some people were not happy with the June 20th starting time of the GDR this year (Tour Divide starts June 13th), though it adhears to the tradition of starting the first Friday after the Summer Solstice. I am not sure a week matters that much for me. Moving the departure one way or the other isn't an effective way of avoiding the random wrath of Mother Nature. Despite the daunting heat of 2007, previous years have endured more problems from rain than anything else. The first year the race was run some people had to have their bottom brackets replaced enroute due to damage from wet conditions. Also, with it being a La Nina weather pattern this year we are off to a good start for snow pack. All of the Montana Basins are above average for snow. Could be a lot of snow on the passes regardless of which time you start.
I do worry about the growing number of people on the route. Having done some major bike touring routes in the Western US I have discovered that business and locals eventually become less welcoming of the stinky cyclotourists that want to use bathrooms and fill water bottles. Historically this race has benefited from incredibly friendly people along the route and I hope that I am able to pass through their burgs before the hospitality dries up. I think about how many stories I read from last year that involved a cook reopening a restaurant kitchen to fix food for a GDR racer. With 20 years of cooking experience I assure you that this is a heroic act of selflessness that should not be counted on repeating indefinitely. Having a week head start on a second group of riders could avoid encountering some of the hospitality fatigue.
I will be following the hubbub and will not worry about making a decision until some of the dust settles. For my own selfish reasons it is unfortunate that this had to happen this year. This is not something that I want to spend too much time thinking about. I don't have too many strong opinions about who is wrong or right in this debate. Like many things it will work itself out but probably not this go around.

Quick BIts

2007-12-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/wa/spokane/146129856"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;sub-suburban&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/find-ride/united-states/wa/spokane"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Find more Bike Rides in Spokane, Washington&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Tomorrow I will be heading out for an all day ride in the snow with some friends, The route will be mostly country roads with not a lot of climbing but knocking out 85 miles on new year's day sounds like a good way to start off 2008.

This clever device seems ready made for the future of mutli-day racing. I can't see myself plucking down $300 bucks for the device and the service so that friends and family can track my exact wherabouts but I like the gadget anyway. I might have to get creative.

Getting Away

2007-12-27T07:49:00.000-08:00

I took a little vacation up to Schweitzer for some skiing, eating and relaxing. My cycling lans flashed before my eyes when I took a spill and I twisted my leg pretty good. I don't know much about anatomy but I know enough to realize the pain was coming from the ACL, three letters that strike fear in the hearts of anyone who chooses to be physically active. I stayed cool and realized that it was possible to ski. Certain movements would activate the pain and I tried to avoid those as much as possible. I spent some time icing the area up and did some improvisational jazzercise to warm up the next morning before heading out. Lots of fresh snow made it more difficult to avoid the forbidden movements so reluctantly I finished early. By the third day I was feeling a lot better. I was confident that I had not done anything too terrible to myself and would not have to cancel any of my cycling plans.
Upon returning home I had an email from Jeff Boatman at Carousel Design Works letting me know he had sent my map case out on Monday. The bag came out just like I wanted it too. Jeff has said that he has been getting a steady stream of GDR riders contacting him about bags. I imagine that when they see my map case they will want one of them. I am grateful for the test ride I did last summer at Seeley Lake because it heavily shaped my ideas for what I needed from a mapcase. I am most happy with my idea to use a dry erase marker to keep notes on the map case clear plastic top. I always like to write things down so that I don't have to think about them.
When the mapcase gets here I am going to try and do a full packing load ride to begin the long process of dialing in the set up.

Winter Riding

2007-12-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

You never know what winter is going to bring. Training is not important enough to me to workout indoors so I throw myself on the mercy of mother nature. Recent snow disappeared quickly when rain and upper 40 degree temperatures blew into town. I enjoyed a sunny ride in shirtsleeves and then a few days later Ben and I were making fresh tracks though some powdery snow in 20 degree sunshine. Both were great rides.

Flat But Not Easy

2007-11-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

Last Monday I took advantage of what would be the last snow free day for awhile by riding the Columbia Plateau Trail out to Amber Lake. The 50 mile out and back has an imperceptible 800 feet elevation rise and is 95 percent dirt. By dirt I mean rocks, railroad bed rock. The route is scenic but monotonous and has a way of breaking me down mentally. If at any point I stop pedaling the bike does not coast but slows to a stop. This makes the ride a 4.5 hour workout with non stop high cadence spinning. I really wanted to ride longer so I climbed up Hatch hill to give the ride a nice metric century total. Not a bad ride for November.

Cold Sunrise Ride

2007-11-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

I always like to take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday by getting a long ride in early before the big feast. It was 17 degrees when I left the house. I broke the cable on my Lake winter cycling boots (they replace them free I have found out) so I was wearing my summer shoes with booties. Other than the cold feet I felt good and moseyed out along the river to CDA. It was a good chance to try my new extra warm Black Diamond gloves. Within an hour they were too warm and my hands were sweating. Luckily I brought a lighter pair as well.
I stopped and got coffee at Doma ( I was surprised to see them open because that whole town was closed) and meandered north soaking up some nice sunshine. The five hour ride was flat and paved and not the most exhilarating ride to do on the mountain bike but it gave me a chance to start dialing in my new bags.
I replinished my calories and then some
and promptly fell asleep on my parents living room floor. I woke up long enough to get home and be in bed by 8:oo pm. I am going to blame the turkey not the ride.

Bad Weather

2007-11-13T08:25:00.000-08:00

With temperatures just a hair above freezing, winds that were steady at 20 mph and gusts that reached 45 mph, I convinced Ben to ride the rail trail out to Cheney. Normally this 37 mile out and back would have been nothing more than a jaunt but it was so much more because of the conditions. The Columbia Plateau Trail varies from a short paved section to energy sapping deep gravel trenches. I have been waiting for a day like today to really get the new bike broken in and to test out my new "waterproof" backpack. Ben rode his All-Mountain beast with downhill tires just to make the day more memorable. The first half was uphill into the wind and the rain. It did not take long for the chatting to dwindle. Our heads dropped as we succumbed to what would be quite a slog. The second half was a sprint to get home as soon as possible.
For my part it was a good ride. I felt fine though a bad seat position left me with a sore right knee. The backpack turned out not to be very waterproof at all. In fact it is less waterproof than my packs that do not feature "waterproof zippers". Regardless, I still like the pack and will have to employ some freezer bags to keep my contents dry in the future.
Winter is definitely nearing and I feel like a I am getting acclimatized. The routine of donning substantial layers every time I leave the house is less of a bother. I am enjoying the solitude of the trails and I am more appreciative of the sunshine when it comes. The sky is blue today and I am going to take advantage of that right now.

Sick No Mas and JayP talks

2007-10-31T09:27:00.000-07:00

I officially declare my sickness over. Over two weeks of low activity. I need to be careful in ramping up the mileage too quickly. The 24 degree temperature this morning helped convince me to not push it. One big week of work ahead will get in the way of too much exercise. I have to spend an all nighter watching over a 200 lb pig that I am roasting for a big charity event Friday. After this weekend my calender is wide open again for awhile which will be a nice change.
Also here is an interview with JayP. Not much of value in it other than word that he is going to be challenging Curiak's Iditabike Nome record. SHould be a good race to follow.

Buying, Spending And Using

2007-10-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Bicycling the coast with your two year old: money well spent.

Unbelievably I am still sick. I am not completely knocked out like last week but the foreign substance being produced deep in my sinuses and throat will keep me from doing any of the high end aerobic exercise I had been enjoying. I have a theory that our bodies want us to hibernate, to slow down, to get fat in preparation for a long winter and these autumn illnesses are the result of our attempt to fight that biological imperative to be lazy and fat. Just a theory. I have been back on the bike just running errands and commuting to work.
Yesterday I rode the bike over to buy a watch ( I have never been a watch wearer but thought it would be handy on the trip). I have a master purchase list that lays out all the things I need to acquire before next June 20. As my squirrel cache of cash fills up i look over the list and see what I should buy next. Looking at the list all of the big items are taken care of bike/bags/ lights/backpack. Remaining are things like chlorine dioxide, sunscreen and socks. Looking at all the things I have picked up and the things left to buy, I had to wonder if this event is an elaborate excuse to buy new stuff.
Twelve years ago I had a similar feeling when my wife and I biked down the Pacific Coast with our two year old daughter. The REI dividend that year was amazing. Twelve years later, we still have and use many of the things we purchased for that trip. We definitely got our money out of them because we bought good stuff that was going to last.
I have always thought that you don't have to have a lot of money to have the things you want, you just have to have a way to analyze what is important. I could find justifications to buy an iPhone, a 320gb external hard drive (on sale for only $99), a new ski jacket or a coffee maker. All of these things I have a legitimate need for but I have narrowed my field of vision for acceptable personal purchases. All of the money I spend is separate from the general operating fund that pays the mortgage and keeps food on the table. All purchases involve cash, no credit. I have committed myself to acquiring the items I need for this event and given myself enough time to get the money together for them; no impulse buys.
Perhaps after the race I will decide it is time to buy a coffee maker and forego my morning routine of boiling water and brewing one cup at a time with a mesh cone filter. The important thing is that whatever I spend my money on I want to feel like it was money well spent and the truest test of that it use.

SIck

2007-10-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

I am sick. It is bound to happen this time of year. Despite missing out on a 70 degree fall day when I could have been on the road doing a 100 miler, the timing of my sore throat is as good as it could be. I have all day to sleep and drink hot toddies before the work week begins. The Bioneers conference and Epicurean Charity event are coming up and it is a reminder that I have to get better at clearing my schedule. Lately, there has been a lot of activity on the food side of my world and the calendar is filling up with meetings and events. The goal is no obligations after the first of the year. Work keeps me busy enough without having to do a lot of extra curricular activity.

Heart Beats And The Beater Bike

2007-10-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

After a month of riding the new bike almost exclusively it was something to get back on the Ibis. With over ten years on this bike, it really stands out as the bike that feels like home. I can't even begin to fathom the tens of thousands of miles I have ridden on it. Despite what appears to be a long loving relationship, the Ibis is in deplorable condition (as always) The brakes are for braking only in theory, the chain is protected by a thick layer of grease that looks more like crude oil than chain lube, the headset has an indexing problem, the left crank arm is bent, the bar tape is disintegrating, the chain tensioner is held together by a zip tie and the once beautiful paint job is just plain sad. With that being said, it was great to take the bike out on it's favorite ride to CDA and back (no hills limited stop signs).
You would think that a regular diet of 5-6 hour dirt rides with 4-6 mile climbs would make the CDA ride seem easy but singlespeeding is funny that way. 80 miles of flat is 80 miles without coasting. It is 40 miles of high cadence tailwind and 40 miles of high intensity riding back into the 20 mph wind. No wonder those Belgiums are such tough bikers.
Digging through my bike boxes I came across my old heart rate monitor. There was a time when I thought that I needed to learn how to train and got into the science. I read all the books and tried to follow a structured routine. It did not work for me. I stopped using the HRM because I discovered that my breathing was an accurate way to access the level of effort I was expending. Regardless, I thought it might be fun to put a new battery in the HRM and see what kind of readings I would get with my now older body.
I was interested to see that my walk around Hr was 42 BPM. I can ride with a tailwind for a couple of hours without breaking 110 bpm. I can ride hard for an indefinite amount of time at 162 bpm and drop down to 124 bpm when I stop at an intersection.
I won't be riding with the HRM everyday but I will use it on some rides throughout the year just for curiosities sake.

Intuition

2007-09-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

Chilco Mountain

In endurance athletics, ignoring the nagging voices in the head that try and talk you out of the activity at hand is just part of pushing oneself. Then comes a time when you have to decide whether the voices are right. Intuition is a difficult thing because it can sound just like the negative thoughts that want to send you back to that warm bed that you left behind to sweat and grunt out yet another 5-6 hour ride. Intuition is knowing when experience not laziness says to bag it.
Today I headed out to the CDA national forest to ride the Independence Creek National Scenic Trail. I was excited at the prospect of riding a lengthy singletrack trail that winds along a valley floor. No two hour climbs, no endless washboarded forest roads; this was going to be fun. With that said, I pulled the plug on the ride after riding up to the trailhead. It was a beautiful morning with fog in the valleys and sunshine up at 4600 feet where I was. I can't say exactly why I turned around and went home but the hunters might have had something to do with it. In three miles I came across three groups of hunters. There was a large camp set up at the beginning of the trail with several trucks and a couple of trailers. I don't want to get shot but I find that outcome to be fairly unlikely with the noise my bike makes coming through woods. Regardless, my intuition told me to skip today's ride and that was good enough for me.
I salvaged the morning by stopping by Doma Coffee Roastery and having some espresso and conversation with Terry. The day turned out to be one of those perfect days of Fall when the sky is impossibly blue and the mood is mellow. I went home and made some stew with the veggies from the garden and tried not to worry about the ride I could have had. I have to trust that intuition was in control and it is the wise voice of reason and experience.

Richmond Peak

2007-09-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

Click Picture to see it Montana size.

Saturday after work I drove the 280 miles to Seeley lake MT to do a pre-ride of the GDR segment that goes over Richmond Peak. On Sunday morning I woke up early, parked my car at the gas station and rode Highway 83 twenty some miles to Holland Lake. At Holland Lake I got on the GDMBR. I started the route at 7:30 a.m. My goal with this ride was to get an understanding of the terrain. When they say "begin steep climb" what is that comparable to from my terrain back home?
Overall the ride is pretty much what I thought it was going to be. It does remind me of the riding I have been doing in the Coeur d' Alene national Forest. Long gravel climbs and the occasional rocky single track. The differences were few but significant.
Altitude. Once the climb got in the 5,000 to 7,000 foot range the legs felt empty but it was just the lack of oxygen. When I remembered to exaggerate my breathing things improved.
Navigation. I don't have any experience following cue sheets and the ACA maps use of running mileage totals bothered me. I was reading off of the maps and then shoving them into my side mesh pockets on my pack. When I got to the next turn I would pull the map out agoing. This experience has given me insight into how to write-me own cue sheets. The running mileage total doesn't work all that well if you get off course. After doubling back to the route the mileage is all wrong and you spend the rest of the day doing math for every turn. And yes I took a wrong turn...a really bad wrong turn. Up on Richmond peak I knew that my next navigational cue was "switchback to the right" also vaguely remembered the line "trail deteriorates". I saw a switchback with a gate and though the directions did not mention a gate I saw orange arrows pointing up the deteriorated trail. I had been seeing the orange arrows all day so I thought it helped the case for this being the turn. I followed that brushy rock and rut path for two miles DOWNHILL before I accepted the fact that that I was going to be going back up to where I came from. Getting off track (different than getting lost imho) is part of the GDR and so for that reason it was good to get a little of that practice in as well.
Scenery. I am not saying that the vistas are not beautiful around these parts but staring into the mountains of the Bob Marshall Wilderness I felt compelled to take up painting so that I could spend my days looking at them.
The full ride was 65.0 miles with a moving average of 11.3 mph and with 41 minutes of stopped time I had an overall average of 10.0 mph. I rode for 5 hours and 45 minutes. Starting at 5:50 a.m. I finished at 12:19 p.m.
There were no problems on the ride but my pedal fell off while pedaling down the dirt road into town. Nothing was wrong it just managed to vibrate itself loose during the long descent off of Richmond peak. I have never had this happen before and I wrenched it on to make sure that it would be the last time.

CDA 70 miler

2007-09-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't ridden out in the CDA forest since the 60 miler that left the Gary Fisher with multiple component failure and that was early summer. I was eager to continue piecing together the route for a hundred miler. I decided to follow the course from the beginning in downtown CDA but this time I wanted to add a drop down Trail 78 to the South Fork and then back up to Hudlow Saddle.
I admit that I am out of shape. I know that the months ahead before the GDR will require consistent increases in fitness and I have allowed myself to take the summer off from worrying about that. Considering I am at the bottom physically I have to be pleased with my ride yesterday. Regardless of what kind of shape I am in I can always grind out some long hills and long miles. I would have preferred to understand algorithms but I got the slow hill climbing gene instead.
The route consists of some hills that are perfect for me and my 2:1 gear ratio.
The first climb up Fernan Creek road is paved and climbs 2518 feet over 8.95 miles. A mile later the burnt cabin trail tops out with a 1461 foot 3.08 mile rise. There is another good rise from burnt cabin saddle up to Spade Mountain but at the end of the day it is not much to worry about. From Spade mountain Trail 78 is some technical singletrack that drops down to the river. The descent is so long and difficult, it left me as wiped out as the climb that preceded it. FR 392 does a serpentine climb up to Hudlow saddle. The road barely tilts ups. It does most of it's 1743 feet of climbing in the switchback corners that are numerous during it's 6.35 mile length. From the saddle I took a wrong turn and made the descent down to Hayden lake a little early. The route was new so once I discovered I went the wrong way I decided it wasn't worth climbing a couple thousand extra feet just to come down the next road over. The 100 mile route won't come down this way in fact it will come up the road after descending Hell's Canyon trail. Ohio Match road is a bumpy dirt climb that starts behind Hayden Lake and climbs a mere 1666 feet over it 9.36 mile length. Yes, it is a gradual climb but considering it's placement towards the end of the ride in the afternoon sun; I started thinking about the end just after the halfway mark. The last couple of miles were an exercise in mental strength.
I decided to come down Canfield butte on trail 10 and was able to find it only after I found a couple of dead ends. For some reason I have a knack for picking dead end trails when I am at Canfield. Trail 10 is a douzy of a descent with trenches filled with rocks and plenty of root drops. I was pleased with my handling of the worst part at the top and feel like I am making progress with my technical riding ability. Of course, that doesn't seem right to say after the fall I took on the lower "easy" section.
I still don't know what happened but I was cranking on the pedals and then I felt the whole drivetrain come to a short stop. While skidding I had enough time to think that I had survived another close call and then I went elbow first into the rocks.
I expected to see a mangled chain or a bent wheel but the bike was absolutely perfect. The numerous gouges in my forearm hurt like hell so I did not spend any time trying to see what the cause of the accident was. I had been riding six and a half hours at this point and the car was still 7 mile away. Having no more water made the last bit of riding a grueling slog.
I am clean and bandaged now and feel great about the riding yesterday.

Liberty Lake Climbing

2007-09-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

Mt. Spokane was good fun last week but it was all about the downhill. This week Ben and I headed to Liberty Lake. Liberty Lake is all about the climbing. Even after getting to the top, the downhill is just what you do after the climbing. I always ride from the West side of the lake up tire shack hill. I rode up from the County park on east side once and did not really care for that route. The climbing from the lake up to Mica Peak is relentless and for a good stretch, utterly torturous. The rocky, rutted and steep section in the middle of the ride is difficult to walk (as I did) and nearly impossible to ride (as Ben did).
The trail starts at 2216 feet and we finished up 8.3 miles later at 4710 feet. We turned around at the rock shelter which is a false summit but the waning sunlight and my wasted legs told me to go home. I have a touch of some bug going around. I felt good at the start but the legs had no reserves. I kept bottoming out and the legs couldn't turn the pedals over. I haven't been so destroyed in years.
The downhill is stupid fast and filled with water trenches that are either perfect for a little airtime theatrics or for an unexpected endo at 25 miles an hour.
I am going to be using this climb as a marker for my fitness this fall. I would like to try it again Friday but I will see if my health returns enough.

Glamour Shots

2007-09-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

I have been riding the Independent Fabrications Steel Deluxe around for several hundred miles now and finally have some pictures of the bike. The fit has been dialed in now and I couldn't be happier.
This 4140 steel Surly Torsion Bar is 26.2 inches wide (666mm) and sports a nice 20 degree bend.

Single Speed and Phil Wood. Mmmm. 32 spokes and some heavy duty DT Swiss Tk 7.1 rims make the wheels heavy but bombproof.

The IF Versus Mt Spokane

2007-08-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

The IF got some mileage on it and I got a chance to see if my choices were good ones. Since there are so many small factors that go into putting a bike together it is difficult for me to pinpoint the degrees of effectiveness for companants but I can say what how my riding feels different.
Mt. Spokane is a rounded nob of a hill that rises to 5800 feet from the 2000 foot countryside around it. A paved road goes to the to the top during the summer and Ben, Drew and I took advantage of that fact to get a couple of shuttle runs down the mountains Southwest flank. The 6-7 mile long downhill starts off fairly steep with lots of root drops and narrow trees. For the first time ever I felt comfortable negotiating this section. In the past I felt as though at any minute I would dive over the handle bars against my will. The new sense of balance I am attributing to the new frame geometry. It was easier for me to ride behind the seat so I could not only get my weight back but also down a bit.
On the second run down we went through a freshly cut trail that chicanes through some tightly spaced young pines. Either due to complacency or fatigue I managed to catch the outside of my barend on a tree while trying to slalom through. It is good to get the first wreck out of the way and aside from a sore place on my side, it was pretty harmless. The accident made me think about how wide my bars really are. The Surly Instigator bar is a whopping 26.2 inches long with a 20 degree bend. This is not the best choice for tight singletrack but the rest of the time I was loving the comfort of the scorcher like steel bar.
After a good sleep with some fresh alpine air, I biked out to my folks for a family reunion. The three hour ride with a full back pack was a good test for the bikes comfort factor. All signs point to yes. I was happy to stroll along into the wind with my hands out at the end of the bars, pushing my 34x17 at 14-15 miles an hour. Later when the wind got behind me I could keep a reasonable cadence and roll at 18 mph.
Without a doubt I could not be happier with my new bike. I have no doubt that it will keep me happy for a long time to come. I was additionally pleased my Dad looked the bike over and said,"looks like a normal bike". I have had one or two flashy bikes in the past and never felt at peace with them. This black bomber may not be fancy looking but that is a good thing.

...and there was joy.

2007-08-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

I have a new bike. What I don't have is a camera. My beloved Sony is not feeling well so pictures of the new steed will have to wait. What won't wait is riding. I have been doing some shakedown riding the last 24 hours. Tonight I am planning a full scale night ride and then tomorrow I am heading to Mt Spokane for a couple of days of up and down on freshly moistened trails.
My impression of the new set up is that the bars are too high and the seat not far enough back. I committed myself to staying with the prescribed set up for at least a couple of weeks. I could see how this bar position could help my hand problems but it may be at the expense of my ass.
I had some confusion with the disc brakes. Being a bit of a Luddite I have been reluctant to get on the disc program but lack of brake posts on suspension forks has forced my hand. Everyone talks about how easy the Avids are to setup and how powerful they are. I set them up and got zero power. After some consultations I got the lowdown on pad break-in. A quick lap around the neighborhood while squeezing the brakes and now they stop like champs.

Idaho Sweet Idaho

2007-08-10T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some research on the Iron Horse trail. The 300 mile rail trail crosses Washington and finishes up just south of Spokane. The thing is the more I learn about the route the less I want to do it. Sand, sagebrush, poorly maintained sections and miles of scenery that can only be described as scablands. Then I find out about the Idaho Centennial Trail, a 1200 mile route that goes border to border on the North-South Axis. The course appears to be chock full of singletrack. I have done hiking and biking in several of the areas it crosses and know the trails to be extremely challenging. The state park's website has a thorough index of map PDF's. I will definitely have to put this on the to-do list but after the GDR.
In other Gem state news...
Despite doing my growing up elsewhere I have always considered Boise a second hometown. Though I have not been back to the city of my birth since I raced the Boise Banzai years ago, I imagined that things were pretty much the same down there. I am wrong. I heard talk of Boise's Urban Cycling scene growing huge. Now I have some solid evidence. This alleycat race video shows an impressive turnout and an unfortunate bike/car misshap.

As a bonus I include a nearly successful over-the-road jump in the hills below Bogus Basin.

s24o: Sandpoint Road Loop

2007-08-06T08:24:00.000-07:00

After work Saturday I packed a very basic overnight kit into a back pack (17 pounds total weight) and headed north. I followed Highway 2 to Sandpoint (80 miles). I originally thought that I was going to spend the night on the beach but favorable wind got me into town early so after having some coffee and pastries I continued on my way. I went south on Highway 95 across the Long Bridge. A full belly, late day sun and a bike lane that is wider than the highway it is coupled with made for some happy riding. I made it to Athol (110 miles) by 9:00 p.m. and really wanted to keep going but I realized that if I didn't stop I would be tempted to just ride home rather than sleep in the bushes. Since the point of the trip was to get an overnight in, I headed East into Farragut State Park to poach a piece of ground to sleep on. I cruised through the campground loops and was surprised to see that new bathrooms have been built since I was at Farragut last. The bathrooms have private rooms with free showers. No shower for me I was just interested in filling my water bottles. The bathroom sinks are too shallow to do the job so the showers came in handy.
I did not have a alarm clock so I found a big open field with the theory that the early morning light would gently wake me. The field was across the road from a campground loop and set back behind some trees and boulders. It seemed ideal. I was not expecting that the sound of trucks and cars would be coming and going ALL NIGHT LONG. Diesel engines idling, brakes squeaking, horns honking. I was amazed at the racket.
It wasn't dawn's early light that woke me, it was the sound of automatic lawn sprinklers. It seems that the field that I was in, despite it's lack of grass was some kind of activities area and was watered nightly. I moved fast and was able to pack up and get out before the water cycle began in my part of the field. By 5:00 a.m. I was back in Athol having coffee and eating a croissant egg sandwich from the deli case. Helpful Tip: Don't eat croissant egg sandwiches from gas stations in Athol, Idaho. I wasted some time trying to find Diagonal Road. I should have looked at the map a little closer because I ended up back on Highway 95 through one of the deadliest stretches of highway in the area, Luckily it was early and traffic was non-existant.
I made it home (180 miles) by 9:00 a.m. had a shower and enjoyed some real breakfast. When the ride started I was disturbed by the amount of discomfort my pack was putting on my right shoulder. Later my arse began to throb and then my hands started to show the effects of riding with no gloves and ultra thin handlebar tape. I never worry about these things much because I believe in Pain Attention Disorder. I get distracted by a striking sunset, nasty roadkill or by a newer more interesting pain and forget about what seemed like an important bodily protest.
What I learned on this ride: need to eat more food that is not high sugar content, to sleep soundly in farragut you must go way off the beaten path, Chrome bike pants rub my junk the wrong way after 100 miles, Even on quick trips some extra bag balm would be handy, when wearing thin socks the tongue of my Sidi's rub my foot, I need to commute with more weight in my pack.

Componant Commtiment

2007-08-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

It's a done deal. The parts are on the way. I am not used to putting this much effort into buying bike stuff. For the last ten years I have been buying lower mid level off-the-rack bikes and rotating them out after several years. There is a certain pleasure in hand picking components but it was hard to make the final commitment.

freewheel ACS 17t
Front Brake Avid bb7 frt brake
Seat Koobi PRS Enduro
Brake Levers Paul LPZ 2.5 silver
brakes Paul Motolite z brake
Headset Chris King Silver
Nipples Dt Swiss Competition
Spokes DT Swiss Competition silver
rims Dt Swiss Tk7.1
hub Phil Wood SS frt disc 32h
Phil Wood SS dst 32 h
crankset Raceface Evolve XC SS 34t
Fork Rock Shox Reba Race 29er
chain whitestar connex
Handlebar surly torsion
seatpost 29.4 Thomson Elite
Stem Thomson Elite 110mm 10deg
tires WTB Nanoraptor 29 pair

Frame In Hand

2007-08-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

My new frame is in hand and as beautiful as it is, it won't really be worth getting excited about until the parts are on and it can be put to use. My best guess is by the end of this month it will hit the dirt.

Random Bits

2007-07-31T07:25:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who showed up for the 4th Annual Midnight Century. As always it gave me the opportunity to ride with a great group of guys. As always it made me ride faster that I would have without the speedy company.

The IF frame arrives today which means I can no longer put off making the final decision on my parts list.

I have received some encouraging emails from people I don't even know. It seems that things are balancing out.

Stretching is good.

Shut Up And Ride

2007-07-23T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Great Divide Resources sidebar on the left side of this page is evidence that the internet plays a fairly large role in the Great Divide Race. Many people have selflessly provided route beta, shared gear lists and posted complete ride reports detailing the ins and outs of the race. I know that I have already benefited from this open sharing of information and because of that I chose to chronicle my GDR experience from the decision to participate through the last day of riding.
I have never spent any time on internet forums of any kind before I started monitoring the GDR threads. Sometimes there is genuinely useful information but a good amount of the time it is just boring and some of the time it delves into the kind of argumentativeness that I have no interest in. It is easy enough to not participate and skip over the animosity but when it ends up in my email inbox it is hard not to be taken back.
For reasons that are not worth going over, someone decided that it was necessary to tell me that I have a low level of intelligence. Furthermore, I lack the needed qualifications to speak about the GDR and was potentially degrading the event with my appallingly put together comments.
I wished that it did not bother me but I am not used to confronting this kind of vitriol. It was especially shocking because it came from someone that I had looked at with a high level of respect because of his exemplary attitude leading up to and during the race. I was blind-sided. After several days of mulling it over I still come back to the feeling that perhaps there is no benefit in participating in the virtual GDR community that exists. I would not make any decisions based on one persons harsh criticism but it has given me pause to think about whether this web project and the GDR forums are a benefit to my goal or just another distraction from the things that are truly important.
When the discussions turn ugly in cycling forums, inevitably someone throws out the "Shut Up and Ride." line. This line is meant to be an insult cast against a foe amidst an argument but I am going to turn it inward, regard it as a mantra and try as I can to live it.

Meeting Kent Peterson

2007-07-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Photo: Kent Peterson

While chronicling the year long lead up to the race I am sure that yesterday is going to be a red letter day. What could be better than meeting Kent Peterson? Kent is the first and only single speed finisher of the race so far. His resume that precedes the GDR is so impressive that I could not see how anyone would have doubted his success despite the lack of mtn bike experience and luddite choice of equipment.
Local cycling mover and shaker John Speare was playing host to Kent as he biked through Spokane as part of a statewide tour promoting cycling as transportation. John was nice enough to arrange a coffee klatch for Kent and I.
Kent was as friendly as you would guess from his internet writings. We spent nearly two hours on the subject of the great divide and his information will undoubtedly be useful. Of particular interest was his opinion about which section is the most difficult and what he would do different if he ever did it again.
I don't think I will changing much of my game plan after our talk (my extensive research plucked much of his wisdom from his lengthy ride report of the race already) but he did strengthen my understanding of the improvisational attitude that is necessary to do the race. This spirit was exemplified this year by Nathan Bay's use of a wood stick to solve the problem of a broken seatpost. It seems that during the 2500 bumpy miles things are going to go wrong. Everything comes down to how you handle calamities.
I thought it was interesting that Kent's only question for me was why I am doing the GDR. In the end that may be the only question worth asking. Finishing time goals, equipment choices or previous experience have a way of becoming irrelevant under circumstances as difficult as the Divide Route. After some babbling I zero'd in the core reason: without a doubt if I don't do it I will spend my life regretting the missed opportunity.
There are other big adventures that fascinate me like the iditabike but I recognize that a 350 mile bike races in the middle of the Alaskan winter is not for me. The great Divide on the other hand plays to my interests in so many ways. If it followed the Appalachian Trail I wouldn't be interested. If it had a two man team format I would pass on it. If it was divided into stages it would not hold my attention. Send me out alone on a bicycle to traverse the Western Untied States with the notion that I am going to try and accomplish something beyond my proven abilities; this is readymade for me.

Moon Tan Time

2007-07-16T15:03:00.000-07:00

July's heat wave continues. I have shortened the duration of my rides, increased my intensity as well as doing more stretching and strength exercises. Today's 62 miler was the hilly last half of the Midnight Century.
The midnight century is less than two weeks away and I plan on stretching that to a dbl century ride on the fixed gear. The climbs are going to make me suffer with that 49x16 gearing. I want to keep my level of endurance high so that when I get the new Indy Fab put together (late August?) I can break it in proper.
I am considering a trip over to Montana in September for a test ride on the GDMBR section from Canada to Whitefish. If my pre-riding of sections is going to be limited than it might make more sense to ride a section of the route with trickier navigation and/or more climbing. Perhaps the infamous fleecer ridge.
I have begun deconstructing the "Cycling The Great Divide" book by Michael McCoy. My plan is to create a spreadsheet with all the relevant information displayed in linear fashion. Logistical information such as Campsites, food and water availability as well as strategic data like "four mile climb" or "28 miles of pavement". Basically anything that could be helpful when trying to make decisions along the route. After inputing the information from the book I will then cross check it against some ride reports I have been collecting. Eventually it will all get folded into the route directions that come with the ACA maps. It is a heap of data so getting a good start on it is imperative.
As soon as the Midnight Century passes I will post info about the first ever "Hangover Hundred". What could be better than starting off the new year with a winter century ride?

The Race Is Over, A new Frame Begins

2007-07-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Tour de France 1933

The Great Divide Race 2007 is over no racers remain on the course. Of the three singlespeeders none finished in regulation time but Nathan Bay managed to complete the course in 25 days and 8 hours. I am noticing a trend of repeat racers. Mostly people who pulled the plug early and come back for another go. Based on the increasing interest in the race coupled with a good number of return racers what am I to expect from 2008. 35 starters? 50 starters? I hope not. I think that 10-15 racers would be ideal.
In other news I have pulled the plug on my frame build from the company i will no longer mention. I am now getting a frame built by Independent Fabrication. IF has always been my dream bike and after dealing with the last custom frame builder I am quite resigned to paying the extra money to have the process handled quickly and professionally.
My experience with IF has been amazing so far. I had a bike design with CAD drawings in under 24 hours. There are invoices and clear production schedules. These things seem so rudimentary but I went 7 months with the last frame builder without drawings, phone calls or a realistic time estimate (10 weeks was the original quote back in january. I received one email in April suggesting that he might start my bike the next week but it looks like that did not happen.
I will be more than happy to forget the whole thing happened as soon as I get my deposit back. I WILL get my deposit back or this will get ugly.
Training wise, I feel some snappiness in the legs after taking it easy for a week. I am trying to emphasize hard rides with high cardio versus the endurance based riding of early summer. I am getting a new wheel built up for the mtn bike so hopefully I can get back over to the CDA forest for an 80 miler. I am not in too much of a hurry because the temps are over 100 degrees every day. North Division Bikes is doing the wheel build. I have always liked the shop but since it isn't the most convenient shop to my house I never go there.I also dropped of my parts list for the frame. Two days later no word back. I am developing a theory that bike shops don't call people. They are more than content to wait for you to come back in. As much as LBS talk about the threat of internet sales they don't act like they are afraid of losing anyones business. I am not ruling out sourcing the parts myself. Hopefully North Division will come through and it won't come to that.

Stage Racing At The GDR?

2007-07-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

As the final riders are making their last push for Antelope Wells, I have been thinking a lot about some of the things that have been different about this years GDR and what it means for next year and beyond. A comment was made that this year more people were treating it like a stage race. They stayed in big groups through out the day and shared motel rooms at night. This style of riding is not what I expect my experience to be like next year nor would I want it to be. But it brings another wrinkle into the question of what this race is supposed to be about and what things could deteriorate that ethos.
Now that we see many of those group riders finishing I think that it is apparent that the stage race theory does not help anyone finish quickly. Most racers will be sneaking in under the 25 day cut off. The argument against group riding would carry more weight if it appeared that it was an effective way to cut days off of your time.
Going back to John Stamsted's ride that established a record for the course, this event is an individual time trial. Stamsted's ride and the record breaking ride by Mike Curiak created an inspiring memory for many people and that inspiration is now drawing new racers to the solo, unsupported world. I have no interest in changing the GDR because I want to experience it the way John and Mike did. Talk of Satellite Phone GPS tracking and team tactics may capture the fascination of people but I would not apply them to this event.
I suspect that all of the scuttlebutt will eventually lead to a splintering of this splinter sect of cycling's small enduro mountain bike community. I just hope that the accelerated pace of change doesn't alter the purity of this solo, individual challenge before I can experience it.

June Review

2007-07-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

June broke the 1000 mile mark but did so with just 16 training rides. There was a good 60 mile mountain bike ride and of course the dbl century road ride. The biggest difference for the month was more time on the fixie. The big gear on that bike makes for some good workouts even if I am just riding home from work. Though there is nothing spectacular about June's training, both the 60 mile mtn ride and the 200 mile day are good markers to my fitness. Neither one of those rides bothered me at all and I was able to ride normally after them.
I have mapped out the next three months and the big change will be more overnighters. In August I will be doing some two and a half day fast mini tours. I think that multiple days of hard riding is really what I need now. One barrier I am coming up against is the maintenance of my bikes. There will be no more mtn bike rides until I get a new wheel built for the gary fisher. I am ready to get back up into the CDA NF and extend my 100 mile route out to Chilco Mountain but that will have to wait.

Tour of Pain 200 miler Ride Report

2007-07-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

The pre-dawn scene at the Steam Plant parking lot was the familiar awkwardness of people preparing to embark on a journey that will inevitably be uncomfortable and potentially regrettable. People in full racing kits with fancy schmancy bikes give me a quick glance and throw me into the "just trying to finish" category in the same way they would write off someone showing up with running shoes and toe straps.
The fact that my bike has one gear is not what inspires this because if I was riding a gleaming $5000 custom single speed road machine with 24 spoke wheels they would recognize that I am a real cyclist and might be intrigued enough to give me a nod of acknowledgment.
My mismatched tires, zip tie chain tensioner, knickers and dog eaten gloves paint a picture that seemed accurate enough as the pack of 25 riders took off down 3rd avenue. With the first downhill I spun out as they all slipped into a 52x12 and motored away in one efficient group. Within ten minutes of the start I was on a country road with just the morning songbirds to keep me company. Gino was running sweep and for lack of better things to do would drive up and harass me. After 15 miles, I made a turn and noticed that my front tire was soft. After inflating my front tire, my speed jumped by 2 mph and I had a laugh about this handicap.
Just before reaching the town of Plaza, a hawk was sitting on a road sign and stayed there until I was right next to him. As I pedaled he flew, no more than 10-15 feet away, side by side. The experience gave me chills. I thanked the hawk and considered this experience to be a good omen,
An hour later I got to the first food stop. There was a rider lingering. This was the first rider I had seen since the start. I had already made the plan to keep my off bike time short so I filled my bottles and kept moving. I was no longer carrying the lanterne rouge. Another hour later I caught up to two more riders. A couple of more just after that. This how my day would go.
I felt great all day but I do not like the hour after hour of high cadence riding. My legs don't like it and my mind really doesn't like it. Give me a long grinding hill instead. I really do find it much more enjoyable. The section between Harrison and CDA is 40 miles with almost all of the climbing for the whole route. I loved it. I felt better in CDA than when I left Harrison.
After CDA it is 40 miles of flat high cadence riding again (damn that low gearing). I finished with an official time of 12:30 with a total riding time of 11:49. Some of the 40 minutes was ordering and eating some french fries and pepsi at the CDA brewery. They made me happier than all the hammer products I had been living off of all day.
Finishing with a 17 mph average on a 39x17 gear after 200 miles is a successful ride for me. The best part about it was when I reached the magic point in the day when I switch over from every day riding to that special feeling. The special feeling is when my body gives into the notion that this is no ordinary training ride. My focus tightens and my minor aches and pains are numbed. At that point I feel like I can go as long as I need to. After 6-7 hours the only thing I have to worry about is keeping the calories coming and staying positive. That special feeling is why I do this.

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

2007-06-29T08:01:00.000-07:00

It gets scarier when you click on it.

New wheel getting built was not going to happen. Wrong axle length on the Bianchi, so I can't steal that wheel. The Gary Fisher wheel fits but I broke my 16t freehub cog a couple of months ago. A friend gave me an old shimano cassette. Put the 16t on the Gary Fisher wheel. Put road tire on wheel. Adjust brakes for new rim width. Test Ride. Wheel out of true, rear wheel bounces up and down like clown bike. Grab spoke wrench, first three spoke nipples dissolve when I attempt to rotate them (seriously, the nipples just crumbled). That wheel is now shot ( it has just under 5000 miles on it). After all of this I put the original wheel back on the bike and resign myself to a slower pace than I would like.
The bright side.
After reinstalling the 17t on the Gary Fisher wheel and properly spacing it on the cassette, I rode the bike around the block, Not only was the rear wheel a drunk simulator, the front wheel was making some tremendous noise. I realized that I had some cartridge bearings. I put the new bearings in the front hub and it now rolls smooth and quiet. It was a small victory, a victory that doe not make the bike any more useable at present but after this last week it was a victory I could celebrate nonetheless.

I Hate My Local Bike Shop

2007-06-28T08:15:00.000-07:00

The Tour Of Pain is this weekend and there has been a snag, Last week I thought I had found a solution to my rear wheel problems when the Local Bike Shop closest to my house found an old single speed flip-flop hub that they could build me a wheel with. They said the wheel would be ready in a week. A week passed without a call, I called them yesterday and it went like this:
"I am just checking on my wheel."
"We have not opened the shipment with your hub in it, but the box is right here"
"I did not order a hub, you had a suntour flip-flop hub for me"
" turns out that was a tandem hub so we ordered you a different hub."
"What hub did you order me?"
"I don't know I haven't opened the box."

Why wouldn't they call and say they were ordering a part for me? Don't they think I would have a preference? Two hours later I get a call back.

"We have a wheel here for you."
"you built it that fast?"
"no we found a wheel already built and ready to go, I just need to adjust the chainline." (I am assuming that they scrambled to find a wheel after it was discovered they did not order the hub or ordered the wrong one.)
"What kind of wheel is it?"
"It's a nice alloy wheel."
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. An alloy wheel, this is all he can tell me about it. I should have known this was going to be bad, but I decided that I was going to be glad that I had a solution to my problem.
I showed up at the shop on the bike that is going to get the wheel. I ran into some people I know and talked to them as the guy I had been talking to did some measuring of my chainline.
After an hour of him switching out spacers on the axle, I paid the hundred bucks for my generic wheel, strapped it to my rack and rode home. At home it did not take me long to figure out that the hub was in fact not a single speed hub, it is probably a 7 speed hub so old it has freewheel threads. The ridiculous thing is that after an hour of chainline adjustments the chain line was still off but that did not matter because the entire wheel was about an inch off center. Worthless.

All of this comes just a few weeks after I asked them to order a set of pedals. It would have been cheaper and faster to order them online but I want to support my LBS. A week later I show up at the shop (because no one called me). There was some hushed talking in the back room and then one guy lets me know that they forgot to order them and wanted to know if they should reorder. Several months before that I walked in with an extensive parts list for my new frame. It was well over $2000 of equipment. I asked if they could give me a price quote on the list so that I could see if it would work with my budget. the list had my email and cell number. Several weeks later, I was told that they gave the list to the owner but he was not around. I never did get the quote and they will never again see me step foot in that store. Just so you know, these are the last three examples, I have been struggling to make this relationship work ever since the only guy who knew what he was doing left a couple of years ago.
BTW, another local shop, Wheelsport South, emailed me back the parts list in the hour and for that they will get the $2000 to put the bike together.

Great Divide Race At The Half

2007-06-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

The GDR powers have created a time cut off in Steamboat Springs that goes into effect tomorrow at noon. Racers must be LEAVING Steamboat at this time in order to be officially in the race. There is a lot of chatter about this rule and the pilot car issue of last week but in the end, neither of these matters is going to make a difference in the winning, record breaking or finishing of the race. It simply comes down to the simple fact that in order to finish you have to keep moving. I am surprised by the number of hotel stops by the racers this year. Matthew Lee has said that towns are obstacles that should be dealt with swiftly. Get in, get out.
Kent Peterson has pointed out that there is very little being said about the single speeders on the route. It appears that Nathan Bay is hanging in there and should make the cut off. Jeff Kerby has not made contact since Flagg Ranch and so things don't look good with him. Dave Nice the fixed gear rider has dropped out but was well below the cut off. Of course, as a fixed gear rider just finishing the route, no mater how long it took him, would have given him some place in history. I have not done the math to figure out if Kent's 22:03:09 single speed record is in jeopardy.
UPDATE: Jeff Kerby checked in from Steamboat so he is still in the race but it looks like he has fallen off of a record breaking single speed pace.

Less Training, More Practice

2007-06-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the problem with getting my wheel being built before saturday's 200 miler is the lack of single speed hubs in this town. Half a million people in the metropolitan area and I couldn't come up with a bike shop that had a single speed hub. The wheel is being built with an old suntour flip/flop fixed/free hub. It has cartridge bearing so that makes me happy but the 36 spoke count is a bit much for the road bike. Even riding my road bike on trails frequently I have never had a problem with a 32 spoke rear wheel.
The Great Divide race is into it's second week and there are more people in the race than I would have expected by this time, though many are dangling below the pace that would allow them to finish within the 25 day time limit. Krein has updated the spreadsheet of the racers. I have found this page so fascinating that I plan on going back and putting all of the previous years into a similar format just to see what information i can glean about pacing, strategy and where people have problems,
Regardless of whether Jay Petervary breaks the record, wins or even finishes; one thing is for certain, his set up will be studied and copied by future racers. I expect that Jeff from Carousel Design Works will be extremely busy in the next year building bags for the next group of GDR riders. No rack is the future, especially for the front runners.

"Don't Train, Practice" Kent Peterson, Great Divide Race Single Speed Record Holder

I have mapped out the next three months of overnighters. It occurred to me that now is the best time to get a lot of the long fast overnighters in. It really puts the pressure on me to begin organizing my gear. I still don't have much in the way of a first aid kit. I need to have a better thought out tool and parts bag and I have not done much gas-n-go shopping. I really need to eat more candy bars and drink soda when riding. I should leave the house without any food or drink and make myself stock up on the fly. Economically it is not very smart but it would be good practice.

Tour Of Pain Is On Deck

2007-06-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

I will be doing the 200 mile Tour of Pain next weekend. I am worked up about the whole thing for several reasons. I have never ridden two hundred miles on the road before. This is a bit odd to worry about because I have ridden over 200 miles off road many times with my longest single ride being 256 miles. I can't explain it but I think it is harder to ride long distance on the road. In the end it is a mental challenge and road riding can be the kind of monotony that makes the mind free to go to bad places.
I am also concerned about equipment. I am going to see if I can get a new wheel built up real quick like. With this being the busy season and Ironman this weekend the bike shops are going to laugh at my "how fast can you..". I know a few people who actually know things about bikes who might be able to help me out if things don't work out. Plan "C" is to put a 16t freewheel on the Bianchi wheel and use it on the Ibis.
I did think about using the Bianchi fixed gear for the dbl century but I did not like the idea of no bottle cages forcing all of the water onto my back during what will probably be 80+ degree temps. A bicycle angel bestowed upon me an On-One Midge Bar for the fixie. The track bars that were on the bike are the opposite of ergonomic which started bothering me when using the bike for 100 milers. The midge bar wrapped with some cushy specialized bar tape makes for a comfy ride. It has gotten me thinking about using the bar on the GDR bike build. The wide flared drops though not very aero provides a low position without much strain on the back.
As far as my goals for the 200 miler, I am not concerned with my speed much, you really can't be with one gear after all. I am instead going to focus on reducing non-moving time. If I keep moving I should be fine. I have had some good people helping me out lately and I would like to live up to their expectations for a good ride.

Ketchup Day

2007-06-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

AS I follow this year's GDR I am keeping track of lessons being learned by this year's riders. In the attempt to keep things light it is easy to forget the rule of the mountains, be prepared for everything. All of the rider's have been drenched by thunderstorms and many of them met a snowstorm at elevation. Staying dry may not be an option but staying warm is a requirement. I remember a Summer vacation to Yellowstone when the high temperature was barely above freezing. Montana can be unforgiving.
I skipped the long ride today and instead made up some spoke cards for the midnight century ride. I may be doing the 200 mile Tour of Pain after all so I spent some time doing a rare bit of maintenance on my Ibis. I gave the Hakkalugi it's annual cleaning, switched the chain tensioner from up spring to down spring, installed a new rear tire on, put some leather treatment on the Brooks Saddle. The bike still has the 17 tooth freewheel on and if I am going to get through the double century than I will have to get that changed to a 16t.
The weather is heating up again so I want to get some long night rides in. Perhaps I will pre-ride the Tour of Pain route as an overnighter, that could be a good plan on Saturday night.

The 2007 Great Divide Race Begins

2007-06-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

As I am writing this, the racers are nervously chatting about the weeks ahead. No doubt they are making frequent trips in and out of the Last Chance Tavern and checking their bikes and bags for the one hundredth time. The jovial sense of community will continue as they make their way down the long asphalt lead up to the dirt roads and mountains. Most races, tend to settle into the groove within minutes of the start but this race is different. It will take days to get into the rhythm of riding, eating, navigating, shopping, getting water, sleeping and repeating the basic elements of this death march they have interrupted their lives to participate in. In the coming days the race will educate the veterans and newbies alike. The endless planning to account for hundreds of scenarios will be forgotten because it is always the unexpected that happens. Reacting quickly and with a calm head will be more valuable than the equipment the racers carry with them. Remaining focused and fighting depression after navigational errors add mileage to the already long days total can be the difference between quitting and finishing.
It is easy to pursue unbearable hardship when you feel the awe and disbelief of people who shake their heads at your willingness to conquer the seemingly impossible. Hundreds of miles from anyone who could be impressed with your adventure, lost deep in your thoughts that refuse to stray from the pain and fatigue that grows with each pedal stroke, the racer is his only spectator and his only adversary.

Race Across America 2007

2007-06-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

RAAM is up and running. RAAM has always done a better than average job of creating coverage for an event with so few participants. I remember watching the Wide World OF Sports coverage as a kid and in recent years I have followed the GPS tracking of the racers at the RAAM website. This year they have created a YouTube page and are producing short daily reports that are surprisingly well produced considering the difficulty of trying to cover a sporting event that gets stretched out over hundreds of miles of roadway.
Ira Ryan of Portland made a single speed road bike for John Spurgeon's one geared RAAM attempt. This video report has a short talk with John and a shot of his orange ss beauty.
Also check out this pitcure of John on the bike. It appears the midwest rain has inspired a Kent Peterson style rear fender.

CDA NF Metric Century

2007-06-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to see how horrowing the trail is down Hells Canyon and how bald my rear tire is (and no it is not supposed to be a semi slick tire)

Yesterday I went out to the CDA national forest to plug away at routing a 100 mile course. This is the first time I have been back since all of the snow has been gone. I started and finished at DOMA coffee in downtown CDA. The 2200 foot climb up the pavement to Fernan Saddle was a bit boring but the trail over Burnt Cabin Summit made up for it. I checked out Spade Mountain Lookout. It is sad to see an old fire lookout in such shambles. Vandalism has made the building an eyesore and a potential danger.
In designing this course I want it to be easily navigated, rideable yet challenging for even the most honch rider. I am making an effort to employ as much singletrack as possible but it can be difficult considering that in this area singletrack is mostly downhill specific. The singletrack trail off of Spade mountain falls into the downhill only category as well as the aptly named Hells Canyon. Hells Canyon drops from 4200 feet to 2600 in about four miles. The trail starts off steep with roots and rocks and then mellows out for the last half. Stream crossings and dense old growth forest make it the most impressive ride in the area. I would really like to strap a camera on a rider who can clean the whole descent. If I had a camera on me yesterday it would have looked more like Blair Witch Trail than anything else. This kind of riding is not my thing but I recognize that this section of trail has to be in the 100 mile course.
The climb back up on a gradual forest service road was surprisingly zippy. I was able to ride 11 to 12 mph for the length of the 6 mile climb.
Working my way through West Canfield Butte was a bit tricky because I ended up on some dead ends that annoyed me. Eventually I got tired of back tracking and walked down a section of the hill to reunite with my route.
Altogether I rode for 6 hours and got in just over 60 miles. The climbing was ridiculous with something like 8000 feet including the two 2000 ft. grinders. I have the next extension of this route figured out but may have to wait to try it. My bike is making the worst noises I have ever heard from a drive train. I washed the mud off off of my bike just to look for cracks around the Bottom Bracket. At the very least my BB is toast but I know that distressful noises are coming from other locations as well.

Bag of Stuff

2007-06-07T08:04:00.000-07:00

Super grab bag of stuff indeed. First up there is something being called the Northwest singlespeed championships. I am more interested in the new Urban Assault Race thing happening. I was asked the other day if I was going to resurrect the Unlicensed Bicycle Racing series again. I have decided if anyone is interested in that kind of thing I will throw a custom made to order race anytime for them, their friends and some dudes I know. You want to race? I'll race you. Dirt, Road, mini bikes. Take your pick. As for the Tour Of Pain I have decided that I need the $125 dollars more than I need a fleece vest. I would like to do the event just to support this kind of uphill rock rolling but I have a $6 million dollar bike build coming up and I am going to need that Benjamin for a gold plated Wipperman chain. The Race Across America is starting up. I will be glued to my monitor following the race even though Tinker is not racing this year. Who is there to root for? I talked to Marla Emde and she says Michael is still planning on doing RAAM next year. The GDR sounds like a gas but RAAM sounds like a true sufferfest. How do you enjoy that ride?
Here is a vid that came up on You Tube when I searched Spokane. I didn't realize that people had rollerblades but this is good comedy. Public intoxication and profanity comes free of charge. We need this guy to organize some bike races around here.

Let The Fingers Do The Riding

2007-06-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Andreas Vogel is racing the GDR this year and he has shown his acumen for tedious tasks requiring massive endurance by google mapping the entire route. Now you can give your fingers a workout following the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route border to border. Of particular interest is the satellite overlay which hardly provides an indication of topography but does give a sense of the geography. The map was set up with the idea that it could be used to locate the position of the riders along the routes based on check-in information. I have not heard if anyone is going to take on the challenge of doing this but there will be both a blog updating the riders as well as a podcast relaying the voicemail check in's of the riders. More on that later.

New Training Theory

2007-06-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Finished up the weekend with a 55 mile road ride just to loosen things up from yesterday's climbing festival. Tomorrow morning I will goof around on the bike in the morning and then head out to the Columbia Plateau Trail for another quickie overnighter. The forecast for tomorrow night is 100% chance of rain with 21 mph gusts. I couldn't miss the chance to play around in those conditions.
I am beginning to formulate a new training concept that may be just what I need for GDR preparations. I like how my body has been responded to the recent combination of long rides in quick succession. I also like the benefits of shorter, high effort rides in the 2-3 hour range. I am starting to think the perfect combination would be 3 weeks of fast and furious riding followed by a week where I try and pack as much saddle time in as possible. Three weeks of 13-15 hours followed by a 30-35 hour week. I am on track to do about 28 hours this week if things go right. So far so good. During today's ride I learned that I should avoid pushing my heart rate too much amidst multiple days of long rides. One short hill sprint let me know how empty my legs are. I can keep turning the pedals over but they are operating like a hybrid car. Great for efficiency not performance. Makes me look forward to next week when I can get zippy again.

S24O:4th of July/Fernan Saddle

2007-06-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

Blue Creek Road Isn't Steep, But It Is Unrelenting

I loaded up the Ibis with pannier bags and went for an overnighter with the mission of climbing some hills. After getting off work I road out to CDA and up to the top of 4th of July pass. It was midnight by this time but I felt so good that I thought I might continue on to Kingston but when I got a flat I decided to sleep for a few hours and go from there. When I woke up the first thing I thought about was how I wished I had fixed the flat before going to sleep. I am a proponant of the wake and escape. In the morning I headed back down the pass and up Blue creek road to Fernan Saddle. Blue creek road is new to me and it was a doozy. The road is never steep and the gravel surface was in good shape most of the way but it seriously climbs for 11 miles. Gradual climbing forever. The extra luggage kept my pace around 8 mph but I never got tired just a little bored. After bombing down the pavement from Fernan saddle to CDA I got a quick bfast and headed home via the palouse highway.
I have been fiddling with my GPS to figure out why some of my elevation gain readings have been somewhat high and I feel confidant that the 145 mile roller coaster was in the 10,000ft range. Climbing up 4th of July (3200 at summit) and fernan saddle (5200 at the top) make for a big chuck of the climbing but even highway 27's 600 feet of climbing kept me to my pledge to suffer. All told, if the heat had not shot into the 90's by the time I got home I really would not have had much in the way of discomfort. It is a good sign but I must forge on and seek out that area outside of comfort where success and failure are balanced on the precipice of mental fortitude. To keep the climbing week going I am heading up to Mt Spokane with the Ibis tomorrow. I want to see how the legs recover from today's efforts.

Free Technology For Bikers

2007-06-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

John Speare turned me on to Bikely but I think that MapMyRide.com may have them beat. After playing around with this little web app for a few minutes I feel like all of my complaints about the poorly designed mapping software I got for my GPS is even more appropriate. Considering mapmyride is free, it is both simple and packed with features. Google topo, real time elevation profile and even special icons for restrooms and water fountains. It is a shame that I came across this site at a time when I should be riding my bike not playing on the computer.

Road Rides And New Knicks

2007-05-31T08:17:00.000-07:00

The 200 mile road event is at the end of this month so I am shifting my focus a little. Did the 45 mile Cheney-Spangle loop on my way home from work last night. The legs feel quite refreshed from the recent rest they received during my trip to Portland. Saturday I am going to do another quickie overnighter, this time with the road bike. I think I will head out to the CDA national forest Saturday night (45-60 miles) and then try and get a 100 or so on the way back Sunday morning. The forecast for Sunday is 98 freakin' degrees so I want to be home by noon to avoid melting.
I picked up a couple of pairs of knickers while I was in Portland. Spokane bike shops do not carry much in the way of apparel and knickers have not reached the fad stage like they have everywhere else. Over the years my cycling wardrobe has evolved from Grammici climbing pants and shorts (in the beginning that company made a great product simple and durable) to Carhart shorts and even Pearl Izumi MicroSensor plastic shorts. The last two year I have been wearing a very lightweight pair of Sugoi knickers. They are beginning to fall apart so I began looking for it's successor.
I bought a pair of Rapha knicks and a pair from Chrome. The Chromes are heavier, bulkier but with a lot of stretch. The Rapha's are exceptionally well crafted and feel great but I suspect they will be hot (like the Chromes) when the weather heads above 80. The thinking with knickers for me is related to an earlier rant about not wanting to own any more shorts, tights or jackets without pockets. I need my pockets.
Both pairs of knickers were expensive but put into the context of the usage it doesn't hurt as much to think about it. $160 for a pair of pants? Unlike more fashionable people I will wear the pair of Raphas I have on now for five straight days. On weekends I will wear "normal" clothes unless I go on a ride and then I will put the knicks back on. I may wash them about twice a week, but it should be noted that I wear my chef pants at work which is a good part of my day. I will keep wearing the Rapha's until they completely fall apart, which due to the construction may be 5-6 years or more. These will be the only pair of pants I buy this year and probably next year as well. I hate shopping. The price is starting to sound like a bargain.

Overnight Quickie

2007-05-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Ben and I took off last night about 9pm after my shift and rode the Columbia Plateau Trail out to the Turnbull Wildlife refuge for a little overnighter. I wanted to be back home by 7am and figuring that sunrise is at 5am we rode for 2 hours and found a nice little patch of soft ground amidst a sea of basalt. The nearby cattle were providing a hilarious chorus for many hours and then the coyotes decided to show them how this signing business is done. Being surrounded by wetlands and waking in fog provided for a pretty damp sleeping bag and bivy by morning. I need to work out some strategies for drying out these items during the GDR. A down bag is starting to sound like a bad idea even though I know they have been successfully used in the past. Ben did not have a bivy or tent in Spokane so I brought my 15 year old megamid circus tent for him. He made himself right at home by surrounding himself with various knives and ninja stars. The ride back in this morning started cold and creaky but after an hour the muscles were all warmed up and we made better time in the morning than at night.

No More Hobbies

2007-05-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

62 miles and over 11,000 feet of climbing

Last night I opened a fortune cookie that could not have been more wrong. "Now is a good time to start a new hobby". While the restaurant is having it's third best week of sales ever and I am trying to get my bicycle training in and I am finishing the extension of my drip irrigation to the four corners of my yard and I am trying to write an article for CDA/SPO mag and I am trying to maintain my bicycles (three flats, one broken spoke, leaking shocks, broken pedal, loose bar end and worn brakes all in one week) and I am trying to get things in order before a trip to Portland this weekend; I decide to buy a GPS and some Topographical mapping software.
I love gadgets and like the challenge of learning how to use them but I was a little nervous about this latest piece of technology because it doesn't follow the logical menu/layout/keystroke patterns of any other piece of software I have used. After a long weekend of hacking away at both the GPS and the mapping software I can finally use it albeit I still have a couple of rather important functions I can't do (when freehanding a route I can't figure out why it won't let me erase mistakes when I follow the keystroke actions the manual suggests).
I have been using the software to help map out long routes in the CDA N.F..AS much as I want to justify the importance of this activity, in the face of all the other work that needs to get done I am forced to set it aside and keep to the tasks that have pressing deadlines.
All of this puts next year into perspective. I realize that at some point this Fall or Winter I will have to eliminate all responsibilities not related to feeding my family or preparing me for the Great Divide Race. I am going to learn to say No to things I want to do. For now I have to finish a some writing, weed the garden, Fix yet another flat, get a bike ride in and maybe there will be some time to dust off the guitar.

Solitude Is Good For You

2007-05-16T10:59:00.000-07:00

Ben Delaney posted a link to this article about the psychological need for solitude. I love the premise of this article and have been a proponent of solitude as therapy for a long time. I believe that at least once a year people should be alone in a wilderness setting for a day or more. The internet and cell phones have helped our fear of aloneness. I do not think that these high tech communication devices are the devil tools, but they make it easier to not seek out the solitude that used to come easily in small doses before the era of super connectivity took over the world. I believe that the more people experience quiet time the more they will see the value of it. I enjoy listening to my iPod during long road rides but find that even the disembodied voices of NPR podcasts get in the way of fully enjoying a ride through the mountains.
The notion of solitude is something that every GDR rider must honestly enjoy. I recall Kent Peterson's story of sharing some riding time with another racer during the GDR and despite the pleasantness of the conversation, once they parted ways he felt that things were back to normal.

Another One For The Calender

2007-05-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

I was surprised the other day to see an ad for The Tour Of Pain, a new 200 mile road ride in the latest addition of Out There Monthly. Turns out that Gage down at the Steam Plant Grill is an enduro bike guy and is not only taking over where the Midsummer's Nightmare Double Century left off, he appears to be committed to putting on the swankiest bike event of the year. Even though the number of people this type of ride will appeal to is small he is going to have some serious schwag, full on route support, plus live bands and a beer garden afterwards (if you can stay awake long enough to down a pint of the CDA brew). Gage also has plans for a mtn bike 100 miler next year. I just hope that it doesn't come too close to the beginning or end of the GDR,

Gear: Lightsabre Bivy

2007-05-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Got my first piece of camping gear for the GDR. I have mentally divided all the gear for the race into camping, bike related and clothing. As for the camping gear there really isn't much to get because the GDR is about riding not luxuriating around a campfire enjoying s'mores and hot dogs. The camping comes down to what I call the Sleep System. Sleeping Bag, Sleeping Pad and Bivy. With the kind support of Brian, I am the proud owner of a lightsabre bivy from Black Diamond. It really is more like a really small one person tent with it's 27 inches of headroom, but at 1 lb 10 oz it is compact and light. I choose it also because it is possible to use the poles for the head space without staking out the unit. I like freestanding tents.
I have the bivy set up in the backyard as the silicone seam seal is drying. I may not get out this weekend but I will get in an overnighter within the week.

7 miles+50 MIles

2007-05-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

When I was a wee lad I was caught up in the whole running craze of the 80's. One of the highlights of each year was running Bloomsday, the local 7 miler that attracts 40, 000 to 50,000 people. The last time I ran it I was 13 and this year as my daughter who is almost 13 decided she wanted to do it. We ran and walked it together and despite not being a big fan of crowds it was good fun. Having some good bands blasting music every 1/2 mile was a nice addition since the ol' days.
The day after Bloomsday I headed back to the CDA NF and was able to get 50 miles of riding in without too much snow turning me back. Burnt Cabin Summit is still socked in but the long stretches of snow that Ben and I ran two weeks ago were completely gone. I am getting a clearer idea of what a 100 miler route would look like and think that these trails lend themselves towards a 150 mile route. I won't really know until the summits are rideable. I was able to climb without fatigue. I felt much stronger than I did just two weeks ago. Perhaps it was the 90 mile fixed gear time trial.
I feel like the training has been really safe and I am ready for something that pushes me a little. Perhaps a fast paced 100 miler on the mtn bike or a dbl century on the road. The weather is surely cooperating with 78 degree temperatures,

Trans Iowa

2007-05-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Portland framebuilder Ira Ryan won the Trans Iowa race for the second time. The 300 mile gravel grinder is a good example of the kind of racing that is growing in the cycling underground. Loosely organized, no support events for only the serious cyclist. These racers are not for everyone and that is kind of the point.
Ira has a great write-up about his race on his blog. Locally there has been more rumblings about a mountain bike century taking place in late July and of course there is always the Midnight Century to be thinking about. And yes I am still thinking about doing a second lap for anyone interested.

April Training In Review

2007-05-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

.
April is over so it is time to reflect on my training. In March, I did 800 miles of riding and reason would suggest that I would do more in April, but it would be wrong. I did a seemingly anemic 650 miles for the whole month. Looking closer at the numbers it doesn't look so bad. During my week long vacation at the start of the month, I biked a total of 86 miles. During the remainder of the month, the weekly mileage dropped significantly from the previous month's average and I logged 12 hours a week rather than March's 14-15 hours. In March very few days of mountain biking were ridden versus April's comparative dirt fest; two off road rides over five hours and a couple of fast 2 hour rides each week. Add to the singletrack riding a severe increase in feet climbed (a GPS would be a nice thing to have) and the picture of a successful month becomes clearer.
The fact is that I am in better shape at the beginning of May than I was at the beginning of April. I have not struggled to make myself train and I am recovering from rides faster and more completely. May will be a little goofy because it looks like I may be selling my mtn bike before the new one is built so the trail riding will diminish. May should mark the beginning of regular overnight rides. I don't suspect they will do much for padding the mileage, the purpose is to test equipment, pinpoint issues and enjoy sleeping under the stars. I have my fingers crossed for June being the new bike month which should result in an explosion of riding. Then again I thought that was going to happen in May so perhaps I should just not think about that.

The Long Fix

2007-04-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

Rode the Fixie over to CDA (90 miles). It was windy (10-15 mph headwinds), we rode fast (20-24 mph) and the 49x16 gear kicked my ass. A whole lot of food and an hour nap later and I feel pretty good.
I had been contemplating selling the fixed to help pay for the new bike. Today's ride was an attempt to see if this bike has a legitimate training purpose. One of the reasons I got the bike was so that I could have a big gear workout to balance out all the mad spinning I normally do. The test results will come in a few days when I should either be feeling like an unstoppable climbing machine on the mountain bike or I will be nursing some sore knees.
I have never had knee problems despite all the singlespeeding and I worry that this bike, at least the way it is set up now, could result in my kneecaps getting ground down like a mortar and pestle.
I could just keep the bike for the pure fun of it but I know that no matter how many bikes I have, I never ride more than two and one of them is always my Hakkalugi. With the new bike soon to be getting all of the attention, the reality is that the fixie will be getting only the occasional joy ride but never the attention it deserves. I like to have bikes that get ridden, bikes that are ridden a lot.
If I do keep the fix than I am going to slap a 17t or 18t on the back to help with the grinding. I don't think it will make it any slower it will just make the cadence more to my liking.

New Trails

2007-04-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

Warning: Do not ride with mouth open.

For some time now my regular riding partner Ben has been talking about the "Northwest Passage" trail. Since I am generally out of the loop on things like the correct name for a given route I assumed it was something I was familiar with by my own nomenclature. Today he introduced me to the course and I am bit smitten.
The ride follows the all too familiar bluff trails to Hatch road. I avoid the bluff because there are too many people walking with their dogs on a hillside trail that provides no room for passing. The bluff used to be riddled with head exploding climbs. It was the least singlespeed friendly hills in town. A dedicated trail builder has worked nonstop for a decade to provide universal access to all skill levels with trails that rarely angle more then 1 or 2 percent grade; further enhancing the over crowding problems.
With that said, the bluff trails were merely a way to get to the real riding. After Hatch the NW Passage meanders on the South side of Latah Valley through diverse conditions that made me think I was riding in another part of the state. Fir trees and Native Birches were a nice change from the dominant ponderosa pines. We followed the trail up and down valleys and along basalt cliff edges. The riding was so good I never thought to take a picture, I was just riding.
Riding this route reminded me of the old days in the late 80's and early 90's. I would explore the back ways to and from every place in town. I was constantly prowling the perimeter of neighborhoods looking for the long forgotten trails. As time went on, for the sake of efficiency, I began riding the same routes over and over. This practice eventually led me to burn out on mtn biking all together. All last year I stuck to the pavement in an attempt to regain my love of the dirt but now I realize that this was the wrong way to do it. Mtn biking is adventure, it is exploration it is being in the wilderness. I did not need to abstain I needed to find new terrain and just ride.
P.S.
It was not a perfect ride. With just a mile to go I suggested to Ben that we could cut across some railroad tracks and follow some singletrack down to the Columbia Plateau trail. I used to run this route daily. The trail is actually an access route for transient who frequently live in this area. Unbelievably while riding Ben had human feces hit him and his bike. During the extended clean up session we tried to find where in the trail it was but there was nothing (I was riding in the front and never saw it). Based on where it hit his bike the only conclusion we could draw was that the poo had been flung from the short cliff we were riding below. The stuff smelled terrible and resulted in a long drawn out cleaning both on site and back at my house. That stuff was everywhere. Just when you thought it was all gone more would be spotted. Ben's day was ruined but I still could not be knocked off of my cloud.

Is It Christmas Yet?

2007-04-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Clickie Make Biggie

I am calming down a bit after getting a response from Doug Curtiss regarding my frame. Apparently I am in the next batch which gets started next week. He does not do the drawings in advance of the fabrication so that all the information discussed is still fresh in his head. It is impossible not be getting anxious as the time gets closer and the weather gets better, my fitness is ramping up and my plans for a summer of wilderness riding is taking shape.
I will try to remain calm and focus on the parts list again. Ben found a good looking rigid fork for me. I like the natural look but where are my brake posts?

Epic jr.

2007-04-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Epic is an often over used word in the cycling world. If I am going to use the word epic there would have to be so many over the top components to the ride that even using the word epic would be an understatement. Today was not epic. It was five hours of riding that included long sections of snow running, many climbs in the 4 mile long range, a small injury, some minor navigational errors that resulted in an extra 30 minutes of climbing and it was blue sky beautiful the whole time. But it was not epic. It was the precursor to Epic.
I need some epic days. Mile after mile of back country isolation, climbing over passes, following ridge lines and forging terrain rarely scene by people. It is hard to get this at the local state park down the road, but 40 minutes drive into Idaho is the Coeur d'Alene National Forest which starts at the edge of the city and continues uninterrupted into the cabinet range of Montana. This area has the potential for hundreds of miles of GDR style riding. Today was the first tentative steps into that proving ground.
The snow limited the directions we could go but we had no problem finding climbs that were the perfect match for the kind of riding I need right now. I would have thought that my 29er with 34X17 would have been too big of a gear but I was getting into a good rhythm both seated and standing. My lower back showed some signs of tiring because I have not been exposed to out of the saddle climbing of that duration this year.
The drive back from the ride gave Ben and I a chance to dream up some truly epic routes in the Coeur d'Alene N.F..

Sitting By The Phone

2007-04-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

While the GDR community is all abuzz about whether to allow cell phones (the basic fact is cell phones are only allowed if you don't use them, if you use them then you have DQ'd yourself) I am more concerned about whether I will have a bike.
On January 22 I had a phone conversation with Doug Curtiss of Curtlo. We went over the bike and body measurements I had sent him. He told me to send him some photos of me on my present bike and half of the money for the frame. On the 24th of January I did both. The last question I had for Doug was "what is the turn around time on a frame." I asked so that I had some reference point, so I could put the bike out of my mind until it was time to start thinking about ordering all the parts I have selected. Doug told me 10 weeks. He also said that the next step in the process would be him getting ahold of me to go over the drawings of the frame. After the drawing had been approved then it would be on to fabrication.
That was the last time I talked with Doug. Almost three weeks ago I sent him an email asking what the status of the build was. No response. Last Monday I left a voice mail message asking the same thing. No response. Short of driving to Winthrop and knocking on his door I don't know what to do.
I understand that independent frame builders have a reputation for working at their own pace and often being behind schedule but I am disconcerted by the lack of communication. Had he told me this was going to take 10 months I wouldn't even be thinking about it right now.
I even went as far as to scour the internet for news that could help explain the silence. Skiing accident, FBI raid, big lottery win. In another week I may call the local bike shop in Winthrop and ask them if they know what is going on.
BTW, the deposit check was promptly deposited.

A Clean Century

2007-04-16T17:22:00.000-07:00

Clean centuries don't allow for much picture taking but I snapped this shot of the distant long lake dam as I stopped to stash my sweater and leg warmers.

Last week I felt great and had some good rides that were not long but were high efforts with some good climbing. I still haven't fixed the broken tooth on my mtn bike so a long road ride was in order. I had to be back in the afternoon to pick up my daughter at choir practice. I had thought about taking on the 150 mile route I recently mapped out, but even if I left early enough to get the mileage in there would be no way to shortcut the route if things started going wrong. And to make matters worse most of that route is outside of cell coverage.
What I settled on was doing a clean century ride. By clean I mean that I wanted to do 100 mile of somewhat hilly terrain at a good pace with very little stopping. I packed two large water bottles and a 100 oz. platypus with powerade, four Bumble Bars, an almond butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, some gummi bears and a valrhona Manjari chocolate bar.
The ride was off to a fast start with a good tailwind. Actually the tailwind was somewhat of a curse because I am still riding with 39x17 because the 17t freewheel I have on my Paul hub is not threaded on but mashed on the now mangled threads. If I want to move up to a gear more suitable for this time of year I will have to get a new wheel. Since I am trying to divert all of my bike money into the new bike I was forced to spin some high cadence for 3 hours. The fast spinning really starts to cook the legs after awhile despite the apparent ease at which the pedals were clicking over.
For some reason I thought that a bumble bar every hour was going to be enough calories for the first half of the ride. At Springdale I ate my banana and sandwich. I layer the almond butter on thick so that the sandwich weighs in at around 500 calories. Once I started heading back into the wind I found that I was able to keep a solid pace and forged ahead. At around 4 hours I started experiencing the subtle symptoms of bonking. This wasn't a full on system crash. I was still chugging along at a high pace, the legs were doing there thing unchanged but mentally I began to wonder about whether the muscles were going to hold up. I began worrying that the discomfort in my knee was going to turn into a chronic disorder that would derail all of my future plans. I began to notice that distant road signs took a long time to reach me, my mind wondered around in a negative world of self pity.
It is only because I have been through this many times that I realized that I needed calories. My body never said "I'm hungry" the bonk manifested itself in a decidedly mental train wreck. I stopped off at a grocery store in Deer Park and ate a slice of pizza, drank a cup of coffee and finished off the gummi bears and chocolate.
By the time I got back on the road I was singing out loud and bunny hopping over shredded tires on the highway shoulder.
As for doing a clean century, my 16.7 mpg average is as good as it gets for the hills, the three hours of headwind at the end and my choice of gearing. After a shower and a pound of beef jerky I feel fully recovered. Clean enough. The true test will come tomorrow morning when I try and do some fast, hill climbing.
Here is my route: Springdale Century

Morning Ride With Friends

2007-04-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

If you need a good workout in a short amount of time grab a single speed. Then call two of the hardest riding mountain bike riders you know and have them bring their full suspension, geared superbikes. Let them choose a twisting, rock-studded trail that you have never ridden so that you have to spin like mad to catch up whenever the trail straightens out. Since you might have a chance at making up some time on the hills, break a tooth on your rear cog so that whenever you commit to a big push the chain skips, forcing you to ride smooth and slow up the hills when possible and when it's not, jump off and run. Continue for two to three hours.
Shower, eat and go to work.

Cruiser Ride

2007-04-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

If youv'e got the balloon tires time to put them to use. This Sunday there will be a ride just for the Cruiser bikes and their owners starting at The Elk in Browne's Addition at 4:00pm. There looks to be beer involved

Mudslinging

2007-04-10T07:28:00.000-07:00

Dave Nelson sent this letter out and I think it is worth repeating:

I realize this email will not win me any popularity contests but I would like to ask everyone to please ride responsibly (as always) and reconsider riding some trails in town when they are muddy. I had thought about sending this email out a few weeks ago when the CCC river trail (aka “Little Vietnam) was under water at Riverside but didn’t, and now I wish I had. Now that the water has receded there are a few areas that are very muddy and one in particular has gone from being single track 5 years ago to being over 15 feet wide with ruts all through it. Most of the trails here in town do not support riding in mud and only become much wider and/or rutted when they are ridden. Please use common sense when riding during the spring thaw and subsequent rains because what we do now as riders can affect our access here in the future. It is very difficult for me to approach a land manager asking permission to build or maintain a trail when things like this happen. If we have to refrain from using a trail for several weeks until it can support riding then that is the best thing to do- like it or not. We need to police our own so that others do not have to do it for us. Please; whether you agree with me or not, refrain from riding excessively muddy trails and if you do come to a muddy area ride thru it and not around it, and if you see others doing the wrong thing respectfully set them straight. I know a lot of people are riding the 24 hour course to get ready for this years race but unless the muddy areas are allowed to rehabilitate they will be closed off to everyone. I realize that more than just bikes use the trail however it is the wheel ruts and trail widening that WE do that I am concerned with. Again- please use common sense and restraint when you chose what trails to ride this spring. A couple weeks of restraint may be all it takes to keep the trail in great shape.
Also- for anyone interested in helping out with some trail work at Riverside, we will be meeting at the upper parking lot on Aubrey While across from the Bowl & Pitcher this Sunday at 1:00 pm. If enough people show I would like to also work on the mud pits in Little Vietnam in the hopes that they will be ready for the 24 hour race. If that section is a huge mud hole this year I don’t expect it will be part of the course as it will not sustain the damage.

V/R
David Nelson
V.P. Fat Tire Trail Riders Club

I think that Dave is making a solid point that most of us agree with. In this area, with the soil and climate that we have, mud is not much of a problem so asking to avoid muddy trails is not a big deal, especially in Riverside where there are very few trails that get muddy.

Bump In The Night

2007-04-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

I needed to do a long mtn bike ride and thought that some night time riding would be even better. It has been awhile since I did a night ride that was going to require more than one battery for my nitetrider system. Unfortunately, my niterider woes continue and both of my extra batteries have fallen victim to the same problem as the one that I had to pay to get fixed last year. So instead of leaving at midnight and riding until dawn I left at 3 am and spent some time in the dark and some time in the daylight.
I like riding trails at night, I always have. I have not spent much time in the last year riding alone at night in the woods. I was surprised by my feeling of unease. I had a creepy feeling almost as soon as I got to Riverside State Park. I kept hearing pine cones sounds. Were they dropping from trees or getting stepped on by deer? My wariness was made worse when I came across a shovel and two garbage bags in the middle of a trail. I made a quick scan into the trees as a rode by and I saw the distinctive bright strip of a reflector like the kind on the back of a cyclists jacket. I wrote off the whole thing as a couple of local kids having a little overnight adventure in the park...with a shovel and some garbage bags.
About 45 minutes later I was in the same area just one bluff higher. I could see a fire and hear men talking. It seemed a really strange location for someone to camp, but it explained the shovel. I kept riding, but decided to head out to Deep Creek which is a little more isolated and a lot steeper. After working the knees hard for an hour, I headed back to the creepy area just as the sun was coming up. Before I crossed the mysterious shovel area I saw two people laying behind some bushes. They were partially obscured but clearly two people were hiding in the bushes. This latest oddity was beyond explanation so I just kept riding.
Once daylight had fully illuminated the forest I quickly figured out what was going on. See Riverside State Park is also a Military Reservation, meaning that the National Guard trains there occasionally. I have come across a Humvee or two in the past but never have I been in the park after dark when they were on maneuvers. As I did a second lap through the area I saw dozens of camo clad, m-16 toting soldiers wandering through the trees. I found a couple of sandbag forts where they must have been hiding as I passed by in the night.
I don't know if I made their training more exciting or if I was just an annoyance but I know that the weird uneasiness I felt in the night sure made me laugh when I figured out what was going on.
While thinking about the bumps in the night I managed to get 63 miles of trails in before heading home where breakfast was waiting. I felt good after the ride and spent the rest of my day working in the garden.

Rest Hard, Ride Long, Eat More Baklava

2007-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

Pete Basinger is my hero. Not just because he rolls the single speed most of the time and not just because he holds the second fastest time on the GDR by a wafer thin 20 minutes. He is my hero because he passes on the 500 mile training weeks. He once mentioned in a MTBR.com forum that he "trains" about 10 hours a week. This is profound because he beats the pants off of guys who will train 10 hours in a day. I have to admit that even though I want these facts to be true, I held a suspicion that he did a lot of physical activity that he did not consider training.
Now that I have come across his blog I see that he does in fact ride about 10 hours a week. Two hour rides are de rigeur. Nice. Of course, he will throw a 17 hour ride in every so often and I think that is the key.
Awhile back I was reading about the king of ultramarathon running Yiannis Kouros. His record is astonishing. When someone is that good everyone wants to know what he eats, what he drinks, how much he trains. When pressed about his training regimen he explains that you cannot train for a 1000 mile race, that is preposterous. Instead he tries to rest as much as possible and breaks up the rest with 45 minute runs each day. I understand that as much as he competes he really is just doing a recovery and maintenance routine but there is a lesson to be learned.
Single Speed GDR record holder Kent Peterson says it is better to practice than to train. I immediately understood what he meant. Stay fit, stay healthy, stay rested and every so often beat yourself up with an ultra epic day. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Bucket of Links

2007-04-05T07:17:00.000-07:00

Camping At Glidden Lake Fall 1998

I have a ridiculous amount of URLs taking over my dock.
Glidden pass is an area that I have hiked and biked around over the last 15 years. It is epic territory. I found this old web page detailing a mountain bike route in the area. I want to keep the place in mind for later this summer.
The other day I was at Auntie's book store perusing the magazine rack when I came across Wend. Wend is an outdoor rag from Portland. The magazine caught my eye because it had an all wool cycling fashion spread but I bought it because it had an article written by Mike Curiak. When I read the piece by Curiak I was a little disappointed. The story is an excerpt from Mike's forthcoming book about racing the Iditarod course to Nome by Bike. I am very much interested in the whole story but reading several pages about one harrowing moment when he was pinned down in a wind storm left me hot and bothered. The story is just getting good and it's over. If this bit of writing is any indication, the book will be worth buying.
While I was flipping through the Wend I was drawn to an ad for Nau, an outdoor clothing company from Portland. I know, how many rain jackets does the world need? Nau seems to understand that the outdoor clothing market is a vast sea of clones. Nau is not making clothes for activities as much as they are making clothes for active lifestyles. I am not entirely opposed to forking out some big ching for some quality but the lust inspiring Courier Windshirt costs more than I paid for a used MB-2. by the way, the best clothing purchase of the year was the Old Navy Cashmere sweater I have been wearing since January. $60 and soft as bunny farts.
I have also bookmarked iRule Moab shorts. I don't sport the spandex sausage casing all that much anymore but I see the value in these endurance specific models. The pockets on the thigh is a major selling point. I am through buying any pants, shorts or jackets that don't have pockets. I have bike clothes I don't wear because of the no pocket issue.
Speaking of pockets, I have been riding with the Ortleib messenger backpack for over two years now. It is rock solid piece of equipment that won't die but I am constantly bothered by the lack of exterior pockets. I added a Timbuk 2 iPod case to the strap but have avoided adding any more accessory pockets because of price and desire not to look like Batman. I think it is safe to say that regardless of the who the person is or what backpack they have, the world is a better place when there are elastic net pockets on the sides of backpacks.
One company that has figured this out is Wingnut. I will be buying their Adventure 2006 pack sometime soon. I was holding out for the 2007 but it does not look like there will be a newer model.
I love the Brooks Team Pro saddle on my Hakkalugi. It is the most comfortable saddle I have ever had and I like the fact that I won't need to replace it ever. Hopefully. Now there is a company in Wisconsin that is trying to improve the Brooks saddle concept. I can't figure out if they improved the century old design or ruined it. Either way I not putting a Brooks on my new mountain bike. I have not done any off road with the brooks and can't imagine that 16 hours of my sit bones against that rawhide is going to be a good thing.
Dave N. saw that I was spec'ing outboard bearings crankset from RaceFace. I already had intended to upgrade the bearings to Phil Woods after next winter but he sent a link to Enduro. They look like a good upgrade option.

Skillz

2007-03-27T06:38:00.000-07:00

I have been watching some educational videos in hopes of improving my bike handling skills.

More Laughs Per Mile

2007-03-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

Spring On The Palouse

Spring In Northern Idaho

Where do I start? Ben is back from Sun Valley and he is all psyched to do some mileage after some good riding with Daryl Price and Greg Randolph on the Carbonate Trail (a route I hiked daily during my short time in Hailey years ago). I told him that I was looking to do 120-130 miles. He was game. I thought that I might mix things up a bit and find a new big loop to take.
I spent hours on Bikely and google maps trying to find the right route. Somewhere along the way I remembered the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. For years I have intended to do the the 75 mile long paved bike path that cuts across the Northern Idaho peninsula, but I never wanted to drive out there. The route is flat but very scenic and I notice that it has bathrooms and water available every few miles. This trail is plush. The plan was to drive to Plummer, Idaho (45 miles away) and ride the 60 miles to Kellogg, get lunch and ride back. The elevation is only slightly higher than Spokane and doesn't change much along the way.
The weather forecast was for 54 degrees and sunny. I decided I would bring a sweater just for the ride down and than leave it in the car. I was worried more about catching a sunburn than keeping warm. The whole drive down was blue skies and greens fields. Than 5 miles from Plummer we saw a car driving the other way with snow on it. Neither of us mentioned it though it came up again just a few minutes later. We pulled into the parking lot for the trail head and saw that there was still remnants of snow everywhere. We forged ahead putting the bikes together and digging extra clothes out of the nooks and crannies of Ben's car. 10 minutes of getting ready and both of us were frozen straight through from the steady wind blowing from the east.
It was disappointing that we left a perfect Spring day in Spokane to drive back to winter. Seeing as how the trail has water available up and down it's length I brought very little liquid. When I found out that the bathrooms were locked and the water was not turned on, I knew this trip was falling apart. We quickly drove back to Spokane, got on our bikes and tried to salvage the day. I am not a big fan of driving and driving to a bike ride is less appealing. After all that time in the car, I was shot. I had no desire to do anything.
We decided to ride up to De Leon's for lunch. We took the long way through the Peone Prairie. After a big lunch of shredded beef, beans and rice; I felt even less like riding but we were still 45 minutes from home. I bought a Bimbo pound cake just because I like the Bimbo brand baby clothes the Mexican market was selling. When we left the market we were greeted by a dog tied up on the sidewalk. The dog was shooting liquid poo out it's backside. As if that scene was not shocking enough, the dog had a full ear-to-ear grin on it's face as it took care of business next to the front door. The 45 minutes biking home was difficult as I dealt with the giant belly of tacos and unstoppable laughter that overtook me whenever I thought of the grin on that dog's face. If I had taken a picture of that dog shitting and smiling, it surely would have become an internet legend.
We did 30 miles instead of 130 miles and I feel as tired as Ben looks.

Dirty, Dark, Distance

2007-03-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

March is coming along nice. I got 250 miles in last week which has been my program this month. After three weeks I have 756 miles. The big difference last week was that I mixed in a high cadence road ride and a night mountain bike ride both were riding with geared riders. As strange as it is to say, I did not do any mountain bike riding last year. The entire calendar year. After 6 years of 24 hour racing I was burned out on trail riding. Last night was a great re-introduction to dirt. My strengths have never been technical single track and after the long hiatus I am a bit rusty. Night riding with muddy, rocky terrain did not make it any easier. I am not all too concerned about being the fastest down a trail, but I do care about how I ascend. My hill climbing lungs are a bit behind schedule if I was shooting for the Memorial Day 24 hour race but thinking about peaking in June/July I am doing just fine.
Next year as I hit the final stretch before the Great Divide Race I know I will be doing more than 250 miles a week and spending more of that time on long extended climbs. I probably won't try to duplicate the program that Dave Nice is on. His mega-mileage program wouldn't work for me. I feel more and more confident about my game plan when I hear former Mountain Bike Olympian Greg "Chopper" Randolph saying that if he could do his pro career over he would have trained less and spent more time doing yoga, eating better and just being healthy.
During last night's ride, Ben mentioned that he was going to track his daytime biking mileage against his night time riding with the goal of riding the same if not more at night as during the day. It is an interesting concept and one I may attempt to do if I can figure out how to track it via my bikejournal.com account.

Lonely Roads

2007-03-20T06:57:00.000-07:00

The Seattle International Randonneurs had their 200k ride last weekend. I have met a number of people from the SIR and found them to be my kind of people. I wish that Seattle wasn't a 5 hour car ride away. Long slow distances with junk food and coffee sounds like a good time to me. Yesterday I was out on my 173.8 Km ride. I did not have any company and the scenery wasn't as pretty but the sun did come out and I had my NPR podcast friends to ride away the lonely hours with. It become shirtsleeve weather after a couple of hours. It was the first time my bare arms have seen daylight since last year.
I thought about a conversation I had with John Speare a couple of weeks ago. We were talking about bike lanes: the good, the bad and the incomplete. I have discovered if you want to see miles and miles of beautiful bike lanes head out to the Rathdrum Prairie. The Rathdrum Prairie is having a building boom and along with the subdivisions there are oversized 4 lane arterials with bike lanes. Up until last year these were country roads and for the most part they still travel past acre after acre of farmland. It is a strange experience to be on a road so big and so empty and have a pristine bike lane to use. Too bad these lanes are not on any of the roads that commuting cyclists actually use.

More Choices, Second Thoughts

2007-03-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

I felt settled with my parts list for the bike build but as time goes by I start giving second thoughts to some of the choices. I had originally chosen a Thomsen Elite seatpost but then I noticed that Matthew Lee uses a cane creek suspension seatpost. With three finishes on the GDR I am not going to doubt his logic. Cane Creek now makes a ST version of their linkage post. 100 grams lighter, 1.5 inches of travel. It could be the trick to dealing with endless miles of washboard roads with a raw and bruised backside.
Dave N mentioned that he has fallen in love with his Dangerboy Levers so I checked them out. I had picked Paul Component Love Levers but the dangerboys have a nice shape and are actually cheaper. This will help make up for the substantially more expensive seatpost.
The white Industry Suspension Fork was not a well thought out choice. I know nothing about suspension and I did not ask anyone about good options. I thought they were bling and I wrote them down. NOw I thinking that the Marzzochi Marathons I have been riding for three years have been solid performers so I should not overlook getting another one. This time I will get a lock-out. I also want to do more investigation into the REBA by Rock Shox. There seems to be too much adjustability for my simple minded brain.
Finally, I choose a Surly Torsion bar because it is wide, strong and the steel should help absorb the bumps. I thought about bars like the unique set-ups from On-One but this is not the bike for that. I want mtn bike brake levers and I want to be able to use ergon grips. I came across the Black Sheep Ti Bar. The titanium would provide good absorption and some bar ends placed in towards the middle could provide a multitude of hand positions. The 175 dollar upgrade is an expensive experiment but I am having a hard time not thinking of giving them a try.

Wind and Hills

2007-03-12T16:11:00.000-07:00

This is my NPR Podcast listening face.

Today the temps jumped to 60 degree but came at a price. The wind remained a consistent 20 mph with gusts to 37 mph. Surprisingly, I managed to stay out in it for 5.5 hours. At times I wasn't moving very fast but I always felt good. I inlcuded a lot of medium hills into the mix today which left the gas tanks low. Four hours into the ride I stopped by De Leon's Market. De Leon's has opened it's restaurant and I couldn't pass up some real food. Shredded beef, rice and corn tortillas hit the spot and I was back out in the wind and up the hills.

Jure Rubic And RAAM

2007-03-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

New York Times has an excellent article about endurance cyclist Jure Rubic. Jure, A member of the Slovenian Special Forces, has an intense style when he races but before the article I did not realize how intense. Basically he goes crazy. It talks about how he will occasionally jump off of his bike and fight invisible Mujahadeen and then jump back on his bike and ride fast to get away from the invisible enemies. John Stamsted said that when you push yourself in these events peoples personalities tend to shift. Quiet people get loud and the meager get aggressive. Jure explains it by saying that the mental and physical stress turns you inside-out. Everything that is buried in you gets brought to the surface, nothing can hide. This is why I believe that so many enduro-athletes refer to the importance of knowing yourself.
The Race Across America has always been a fascination for me. The excessive and expensive support system that each rider has is a turn off for me, but I still like following the race. I have kept up with the race in recent years to follow Allen Larsen (click on the link just to see a picture of Allen which pretty much sums up what it takes to win RAAM), Tinker Jaurez, and 18 year old Ben Couturier. In 2008 I will be following local rider Micheal Emde. Micheal tore up the Furnace Creek 508 the last two years which should indicate that he can be competitive in RAAM,

Morning Mini Vacation

2007-03-07T10:27:00.000-08:00

It was a no chain ride this morning. Riding along at a high cadence was effortless. The Riverside State Park Loop is one of my most frequent rides and yet it still can create magic moments like today. I could have stayed out all day but I am off to work now. I have to feel lucky about my life when I can have some beautiful moments along the river among the ponderosa pines on a wednesday. Waiting until the weekend to have recreation is the shame of modern living along with the ridiculous 2 weeks of vacation per year. 50 weeks on 2 weeks off is truly shameful.

Urban Cycling Makes The Cover

2007-03-07T07:18:00.000-08:00

Out There Monthly did a cover story on Urban Cycling in Spokane. The article talked to four daily riders and asked them the usual round of questions. In fact, the questions were eerily similar to those asked of me for a cycling related article in The Inlander last summer. It was good to see Liza Mattana sporting wool and fenders. I found it strange that some of the the other daily commuters had no fenders on their bikes. My job makes it easy to bike to work because I have clean, laundered pants and jacket waiting for me when I get there but still I would not bike to work without some fenders keeping the wet roads from striping me up the front and back.
One thing that the article did not talk about is critical mass and that is with lower case letters. I am not talking about Critical Mass where perfectly sensible cyclists engage in quixotic battle with cars, I am referring to the dynamic change in a community when more people bike. A lot of good happens when there are more people getting around by their own power. The one change that seems most relevant to the article is that driver's get used to sharing the road with us two wheelers. A lot of encounters I have had with motorists (including one last week), have gone bad because a driver is unsure of what he/she should do when faced with a tricky section of road and a biker.
There are a lot more people riding in this town. The change is coming. Making the cover of a local publication is just one more sign of it.

Saltese and Palouse

2007-03-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

I had intended to go to CDA again yesterday but by the time I got to the state line I was bored of the centennial trail. I decided to do some country road wondering. First stop was Henry road. Just West of Liberty Lake is Saltese Flats, the lake bed that one industrious farmer drained for farmland a long time ago. I used to ride in this area a lot when I was young. There is something about the way that Mica Peak hugs the the valley that makes this place feel like the edge of civilization and the beginning of wilderness. The Bison ranch helps to reaffirm that idea.
The road around has finally been paved but it is only suitable for some wider road tires. There is a lot of gravel on top of a tar and chip surface. The gnarly old trees, crumbling homesteads and the all day gray were perfect for listening to some Sigur Ros. I know a lot of people like to listen to upbeat often angry music while riding but it makes no sense on a ride like today.
After riding around Saltese I popped over to Highway 27 and climbed the deceptively long hill. It is a 2 mile long hill followed by five more miles of gradual incline. This is THE hill from my youth and will be a feature around the 80 mile mark on this year's Midnight Century Route. Down the Palouse Highway, around Hangman Hills, then a quick trip up 195 and I was back home. Throwing some hills into todays ride kept it interesting. It may be time to step up the effort on rides. The body seems to be responding well.