A few more miles

Wow. After a season that has mostly been "ride to work, ride home from work, MAYBE ride an evening club ride for somewhere in the 11-25 mile range," I've had a high-mileage month for a darned change.

I rode the Madison Century on July 4 (actually, I think it was 96 or 98 miles). I rode RAIN (160 miles). And I rode the club century today (112 miles).

For today's ride, I even rode to the ride start point AND home from the start point (rather than breaking off near home and taking that little shortcut of ten miles or so). My total for the day is 125 miles. My rolling average speed was 17.2--not exactly the 20.2 of RAIN, but on a much hillier course.

Today's route was essentially the course used for the Ironman triathlon in August. There was a seminar of some sort in town this weekend, and many riders attending that seminar had planned to ride the course yesterday, but had been rained out. They were out there today. There were a LOT of people on bicycles on those roads today.

Larry, Ed and I rode together again. Toward the end of the ride, Ed was having leg cramp problems. I'm too familiar with leg cramps--I get them from time to time and haven't completely solved the problem, although in my case, they tend to result from under-fueling unless I'm really over-using the muscles (as if riding thirteen mile each way commuting for several months then going to long hard fast miles is not abusing the muscles just a wee bit...). I even had a couple minor cramps today, but nothing I couldn't ride through and work out as I rode. I felt bad for Ed, though, knowing quite well how painful the cramps can be.

Still, the three of us ride well together, sharing pulling/drafting duties.

Oh, and if we hadn't had all those dratted flat tires today, we probably would have been back to the lot forty-five minutes earlier. Ed had a flat early in the ride, after he and I had hit a pot hole on River Road. Right as we get his tire fixed and all the bike bags zipped, I discovered that my own front tire was very soft, so I unpacked my bag again to change my own tube. Between the first store stop and the lunch stop, Larry had his own front tire go down. The p*nt*r* f**ry had it in for us today, pure and simple.

Blah week

As mentioned previously, I'm out of work. It's depressing, but not as bad as the job I had. I really didn't like being there, and being home feels much better.

I've taken some time this week to just veg out a bit. Did some errands, got a few odds and ends done, but haven't worked hard at anything. There is stuff to do, of course--laundry that needs to be done, a job search to organize and begin, computer issues I now have time to address--but little emotional energy to do them.

In short, the job had sucked a lot of my energy away, in ways I hadn't fully recognized. It may take a while to regroup, but I need to do it. I need to feel productive--something I haven't felt for a long time in the work environment. I had a few moments of "oh, this works" when a property manager, but they were too few, and too often offset by the drudgery of trying to convince someone whose income fits in that narrow range required by the set up of the apartment building that this is THE place to live, and oh, by the way, you also have to pay the rent on time each month. The sob story about your car dying, causing you to lose your job four miles away, doesn't go very far with someone who rides a bike thirteen miles to get to work. Your insistence that you keep your word to make up late payments doesn't say much when the signature on your lease is, to put it bluntly, your word that you will pay on time. Going to court to evict you for not paying your rent does NOT make me happy.

Oh, well. That's behind me. I've been saying that, aside from the loss of income, I'm already in a better place than I was two weeks ago. I still have friends and family on whom I can rely for moral and immoral support. I have Jenn. I have my bicycles, so I can get around. I qualify for unemployment compensation, so while the money will be tight for a while, I can still breathe and eat a bit and keep a roof over my head, for a few months, anyway.

I put the car away the other day, and aside from driving to Okolona for a Chiropractic appointment, have not driven it since Monday. I probably could have ridden to Okolona, but it was raining, and I really wasn't in the mood to deal with being soggy all day. For my errands on Tuesday and yesterday, though, I rode. So that I could do my errands wearing a kilt instead of p@nt$, I rode the Raleigh.

One of my errands was a visit to the St Matthews Police Department. During a ride I was captaining a few years ago, I enjoyed striking up a casual friendship with the Assistant Chief of that department, Major Kathy Eigelbach. I've chatted with her from time to time over the last couple years, especially now that I live in St Matthews. There was a blurb in the paper recently informing us that she is retiring soon from that department. I went by to congratulate her on her retirement. While I was there, she made sure I got to say hello to one of their long-standing officers, Debbie Marasa, who I had known in high school. It was good to see them both, and good to have positive interaction with police officers. I doubt I'll need any special favors from them in the future, but their knowing me can't hurt anything.

Weekend RAIN report

I rode RAIN (Ride Across INdiana) over the weekend. If you've not heard of it, it's a one-day, one-way ride from the western edge of Indiana, near Terre Haute, to Earlham College in Richmond, on the eastern edge of the state. This was my sixth time over the last seven years.

My riding partner each year has been Larry Preble. Last year, Ed Scharfenberger joined our team, and returned this year. Each of us rides a Bacchetta--Larry a Corsa, Ed a 2008 Strada, and I my customized 2002 Strada. One of the things we enjoy on this ride is hearing some of the comments from other riders on the course, like, "This guy's in a hurry on that laid-back bike...oh, so is his friend, on HIS laid-back bike...wow, here's a third one!" as we go past a cluster of DF riders. Of course, there are those who get all parochial on us, and have to try to prove to themselves and all around them that THEY won't get passed by some old coot on a 'bent, even if that "old coot" is younger and stronger than they are and on more efficient bicycles to boot...

Our ride was not marred by flats this year (Ed had one last year in downtown Terre Haute, Larry had one a few years ago near Franklin), nor by overly-severe cramps (although both Larry and Ed experienced some painful cramps, they didn't have to get off their bikes for long--I fared better this year than they did). We didn't see any bicycle crashes, although we did see one rider being attended by EMS shortly before lunch.

Our ride pace was good this year, although not a personal best. Any time three guys (including this out of shape guy who has done precisely one century since September of last year) can average 20.2 miles an hour over 162 miles is a good ride.

We did witness a disaster for a motorcyclist, though. We were stopped at a stop sign, waiting for a safe opportunity to cross IN 267 south of I-70 a bit after the second rest stop in Plainfield. A southbound motorist slowed, as if to allow us to cross. A northbound motorcyclist slowed dramatically, for reasons we couldn't decipher. A northbound motorist failed to notice that the motorcycle had slowed, and hit him from behind at high enough a speed that the motorcycle was shunted some hundred feet or more, the rider tossed in the air like a rag doll to land behind the car as it passed under him. The driver apparently froze on the gas pedal, and careened off the road through a fence into a nearby field.

Larry's account, as posted on the KYCYCLIST listserver, includes some links to Google Maps and their surface views of the intersection, albeit at a time far removed from when we were there:

Sixty-Eight miles into the ride, in Plainfield, Indiana, we were stopped
here, waiting for traffic: http://crashscene1.notlong.com Just behind where
you see the white car in the picture, a large motorcycle was coming to a
stop, close to the shoulder of the road, when a small sedan barreled into
him from behind at high speed. The motorcycle was hurled more than a
hundred feet forward, smashing into pieces while the motorcyclist was
catapulted into a back flip straight up in the air about 15 feet. The driver
must have panicked at that point, because as her vehicle passed under the
airborne rider, she hit the accelerator instead of the brake sending her
crashing through the fence and at least 300 feet off into the adjacent
field. The rider completed a half turn in midair and slammed down onto the
pavement striking his shoulder and his head. Unfortunately, the motorcycle
rider was not wearing a helmet. The point of impact was here,
http://crashscene2.notlong.com, just to the right of the medium-sized bush
in the center of the picture. The car continued into the field, here on the
right. http://crashscene3.notlong.com. And here is an overhead view of the
scene: http://crashscene4.notlong.com. We were stopped at the intersection
to the left, travelling West to East. The collision was just South of the
intersection, travelling South to North.

It was harrowing to see the rider flying in the air as he was. It was scary to see his injuries, although there were others more qualified to help on hand soon after, and I stayed out of their way. What really got to me, though, and bothers me still, was witnessing the man's struggle against the aid workers who were trying to get him immobilized in preparation for transport. He was coming to, in immense pain, couldn't really tell what was happening, and despite the efforts of those workers to tell him what was happening, they couldn't get into his consciousness that they were trying to help him. He was yelling and fighting their efforts for some time before we left, and still was when we left him to the care of EMS and fire department folks.

I've not been able to find any news reports on the incident to link here. I wonder whether he survived, or how he's doing. It's going to be a rough row to hoe for him for a long time, if he ever does recover.

The driver who hit him was inconsolable, sobbing over and over, "I didn't even SEE him." None of us wanted to talk to her, each for his own reasons--most were focused on aiding the motorcyclist or keeping cars out of the crash site. I could not have said anything approaching, "there, there, it's going to be okay." It was most certainly NOT okay, nor would it be any time soon. Her inattentiveness had cost someone a lot of time with a family member, and perhaps cost that motorcyclist his life. The car she was driving had a HUGE dent in the front end from the impact with the bike--it was a big heavy cruiser-type motorcycle--and her repair bill on the car would likely be in excess of the car's value. I didn't have to scold her, either, as she will live with what she'd done for the rest of her life, which seems more punishment than I'm authorized to mete out to anyone.

Needless to say, our ride pace was a bit subdued for a while after that.

I'm glad to be alive.

chance meeting

On my way home yesterday, as I neared the bridge, I encountered a couple who were bicycle-touring. They had missed a turn, so I helped them with that. They were excited to see my Ryan with the panniers mounted, initially thinking me also a touring rider. I told them I was commuting, of course, but we got to talk a few moments about their trip before a motorist interrupted our conversation to ask me about my bike.

With the interruption, I didn't get to talk more with them than to find out they had left New York (not sure where in New York, upstate or wherever), ridden to Florida then to California then up toward Washington state before heading home via Jeffersonville IN. They were on their way to Charlestown Indiana via Utica, from what I could tell, but we never got to discuss, "Why Charlestown?" They may have been going to visit David, for all I know, but I had no way to know.

They had been out ten months--what a trip to remember!

As mentioned, a motorist interrupted our visit to ask me about my bicycle. After chatting with him a minute or two more about recumbents and availability of same, I went on home. I wanted to ride the Tuesday evening ride from Burdorf's, as it would be my last opportunity for some hard pushing before RAIN this coming weekend. My average speed for last night's ride was a tick over 19 mph, and the climb up Glenview really slowed me down. I've not been climbing well the last couple seasons, mostly because I haven't been out climbing a lot the last couple of seasons.

Maybe I can work on that a bit in the coming weeks...

Well, phooey

It is with mixed emotions that I type this. I was told this morning that it is clear I have been unhappy doing what I've been doing for employment for the last eleven months, and that because I've been unhappy, my employer fears I have one foot in the door and one foot out. Rather than worry that I'll walk out at any time, they decided that it's time for me to find something else to do for income. I now also have more time to look for a more suitable position.

To be frank about it, aside from the loss of income in this economy, my biggest regret is that they beat me to the punch. I am, and have been, certain that being a property manager in an apartment building is far from the best use of my talents and interests. It's true: I don't like being a property manager. I'm not interested in being a social worker for fifty or sixty of society's misfits, such as are the tenants attracted to this building. I don't like being a bill collector. The paperwork is stultifying.

I had something like two weeks' worth of paid time off accrued, and I get that (of course, I'll probably be taxed at a higher rate since it's coming to me with my next paycheck). I am surprised that I got forty-eight hours' notice of my impending termination--that is out of character. I can't believe the boss would expect a whole lot of productivity today or tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts to put down as the day goes on.

With the class on Mondays, I'm tight enough on time that I usually drive to work. Today, though, I got to ride the Vanguard.

I ordered a new rear tire for it the other day, after changing a punctured tube last Monday evening and deciding the tire tread was thin enough that I was going to have trouble soon. I don't know why the tire would be worn out, it's only been on there for seven years or so, and only has six or so thousand miles on it...

The new tire should arrive today or tomorrow.

I got to ride more of the new pavement in N'Awb'ny this morning. Smooth is good. They've painted it, too. I wish repaving wasn't such an ecological disaster!

I will probably ride the club ride this evening, and hit it pretty hard, given that it will be my last chance to ride hard before RAIN this weekend. I've not figured out how to control my conditioning so that I can decide to have an "on" day some time in advance and actually have that on day when the time comes. I'll have to make it happen somehow, though--I'm riding with two guys who are stronger than I am, and keeping up with them will be a challenge. Oh, well. Maybe our fourth guy will slow us down a bit...

New family member

...and I didn't even realize we were expecting!

Even before we had to euthanize Al E Qat a few months ago, Jenn had mentioned that she wanted to eventually have a black cat.

Having "only" three cats, instead of the accustomed four we had for almost a year, seemed out of balance for Jenn. We talked about letting the number decrease over time by attrition, but apparently that got over-ridden as well.

The Feeder's Supply near us has a few cats for adoption, from the KY Humane Society. One cat they had was black, with medium-length fur (well, it all will be when it grows back out--they had to cut out some mats in his fur...). His name was Chance, but he has been renamed to reflect fondness for some fictional characters Jenn and I have both enjoyed over the years. Captain Kangaroo Jack Sparrow now lives with us.

He's a sweet-natured cat--has a nice purr, enjoys pets (to the point that he drools), understands some basic people-to-cat communications ("kitty, kitty" works well with Cap'n, as one casual name might be).

Early attempts at photography with him remind me of the challenge of taking pictures of a black cat in a coal bin with available light.

So far, the only objections have been from Stoker, possibly due to Cap'n's name implying that Stoker will STILL not get to be King Cat in our household (with Al's passing, Stoker felt ascension was his, until I told him he couldn't be King Cat unless he was nicer to Jerry, another of our cats. In the tradition of cats the world over, he ignored me...).

Stoker's objection could have simply been to a strange cat, without any of the anthropomorphizing, for that matter.

He'll have to get over it.

Another Fried-day

especially if one is on some of that new pavement in "N'Awb'ny."

The morning low was 74 or so, but my t-shirt was quite sweaty by the time I got to the office this morning. Glad I brought a spare.

Today is our agency's "dress down" day, meaning that folks get to wear jeans and t-shirts, provided the t-shirt message is in keeping with corporate guidelines (no obnoxious stuff, but Repair Affair shirts or shirts from Big Brothers/Big Sisters, United Way, etc are quite welcome). It is also the day of the week when I get to wear a kilt if I choose (Don't get me started on this one), so I rode the Raleigh, kilted.

My signature line on kilt forums is, "Lovin' the breeze 'tween m'knees" for a reason.

The repaving work in N'Awb'ny is moving along well, from what I can see. What I've ridden of it is quite an improvement from the assortment of patches, potholes, cracks from freeze/thaw cycle heaving and such. Heck, even the chewed-down pavement was an improvement in some places.

I still have qualms about fresh asphalt and its effect on the environment, but smooth roads sure beat what was there.

New Pavement in N'Awb'ny!

On my way to work this morning, I saw some of the new pavement that is being poured on the roads I travel. It's N-i-i-i-ce!

I've not toured all the work zones yet--I was on my way to work, after all. Not all the work is done, anyway. But there is smooth riding on at least some of the streets I frequent, and more on the way.

This is the third day I've ridden the Raleigh to work this week. The Vanguard had a leaky tube in the rear tire, and when I changed that the other night, I noted that the rear tire is about worn out. It will go another several trips, but I want to minimize use for a while, just in case.

On my way home Tuesday, I picked up tickets to the Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan show at Slugger Field. I stopped on the way home from work to enjoy the show. It made for a long day, but the show was quite good. The bike got locked to the bike rack in front of Browning's, and was just as I'd left it when I returned to it after the show. Jenn had used TARC to get her bike downtown, and she and I rode home together--always a good thing.

Tuesday

I rode the Raleigh today. I had a training session at the main office, then pedaled my way to N'Awb'ny. Spring Street, the last end of Providence Way, Silver Street, Beharrel Street and others have had a couple inches of asphalt ground off them in preparation for repaving. As noted, I have mixed feelings about repaving, but I will enjoy the new pavement when riding. The ground-off roads give a buzz through the handlebars and seat, and if the grinding lines aren't straight, they tend to alter my path a bit, which can be disconcerting. I'll be glad when they get done with it.

I thought about going on the 6:30 club ride this evening, but I'm expecting a friend to bring some stuff by the house. I'm to fetch a tandem tomorrow evening for some preventive maintenance work, and I get to use it for RAIN this year--Barry Zalph may be my stoker for the event.

Pavement

Another factor in whether I'll ride to work over the next few days was brought to my attention on my drive home this afternoon. New Albany (or N'Awb'ny, as I am wont to call it) is doing a LOT of repaving right now, much of it along my commute corridor.

I'm always of mixed minds over pavement renewal. Part of me considers all that oil to be something of an ecological disaster--the oil must leach out of the asphalt at some rate, reducing the cohesion of the pavement. It seems that such would be part of the wear cycle. The fumes around new pavement are pretty rough, too. I couldn't imagine working in that industry as a laborer.

Another, albeit short-term, pain in the axles is that they are reclaiming much of the aggregate. This is a good thing, in the long run, but for a couple days the road surface is very irregular, and not a little hazardous on a bicycle. The coarser surface is bad in a fall, too, should that happen.

Of course, being a small city, N'Awb'ny didn't wait until it REALLY needed to be repaved. There were a couple places yet that had not been patched, and a couple places that had not developed holes, even.

I'm sure, however, that many (including myself) will appreciate the new smooth pavement when the work is done.

At least for a week, after which time someone will have to dig under the street for some reason, leaving a metal plate over the hole for a week or two before making an imperfect patch (with the requisite sink-hole in it).

catching up

Lessee...didn't post much last week--not much to say, really (or maybe it was that there was other stuff happening and I didn't take time to post?).

I got home Monday night--tired. Did some errand-running on the Vanguard Tuesday afternoon. Rode the Vanguard to the main office Wednesday morning, changed into street clothes for what I thought would be a training session, found that I was not given the correct schedule, rode to N'Awb'ny, realized I should have stayed at the main office for another hour and a half for a meeting I should have remembered...

Rode to work Thursday, too, and got to go home early, after an afternoon celebration over passing some recent federal inspections. We were off Friday, so I worked in Mom's yard, as I had done Wednesday and Thursday evenings. I helped my stepfather remove some dead trees (having a dead tree fall is inevitable--whether the timing and direction of the fall is controlled is the issue). Jenn was there with me, and she got to learn to replace fence posts (there are several of them rotted off below ground level after eighteen years in place). We have a few more posts to replace, but ran out of posts.

On Saturday, I rode my first century of the season. Most years, I've ridden at least two or three by now, some years I rode four or five by this time (if one counts the stacking of club rides, say riding to a sixty or seventy-five mile ride starting at 8:00 am followed by riding to a twenty-five mile ride in the afternoon then riding home for about a hundred miles, which I've done in the past). The Madison Century is on the schedule for the weekend closest to July 4th, timed to arrive in Madison Indiana during their annual Regatta (We got to hear a couple of the fast hydroplane boats doing qualification laps as we climbed the hill out of town on US421, but I didn't stay for the fun). By the end of the ride, my average speed was still over eighteen miles an hour! This is good, because I plan to do RAIN in two weeks and want to be sure I'll have the legs for it. Apparently, my bike commuting is keeping me from losing whatever strength I have--surprising since my commute is pretty flat and by century-ride standards very short, not to mention that I'm on a different bike than I use for century rides.

From the ride start/end point in Prospect, I drove to Simpsonville for a July 4th party.

Yesterday, my friend Harry and his wife Sherry held a party to celebrate my engagement to Jenn. It was a great chance for some of Jenn's family and friends to meet some of my family and friends. In keeping with human nature, I suppose, there wasn't a huge amount of cross-conversation, but what did happen was good. At some point over the weekend, I discovered that the Vanguard has developed a leak in the rear tire/tube. I installed a new tube as a teaching moment for the class Monday evening, and have decided that I REALLY need to replace that rear tire. I've also found a broken spoke--something this wheel is not supposed to be doing, although it does see rough service with a lot of weight on it.

Since I'm teaching this afternoon, I'm tight for time after work, and drove today. I have meetings at the main office every morning but Friday this week, which may make riding to work problematic, but I'll see what I can do. My legs don't feel bad at all today--didn't feel bad yesterday, either. I can run the stairs in the apartment building with my usual flair today.

Yep, run the stairs. One of the resident children had some friends over a week or two ago. They were using the elevator to get from the main floor up two floors. I watched them get on the elevator, then ran up to their destination floor and was standing by the elevator by the time the door opened, amazing the friends. The things one does for self-amusement...

Home again

Over the weekend, I became an unofficial member of the RAAM Team Type 2 crew. This is no surprise to me, as I had been contributing from afar from time to time during the race--Jenn would call me to get my perspective on this or that problem, figuring that I was not as tired and thus (or so the hope had it) more able to think the problem through clearly. Hey, some of my input actually helped!

After the fun of meeting many of the crew members and racers Friday morning in Bloomington, I flew to Maryland (via Southwest Airlines) to witness the finish of the team's ride and the joy of their accomplishment.

There were folks who didn't think the team would finish the event. Psh! These guys planned on finishing, and did. They didn't plan on being the first team across the line--their companion squad, Team Type 1, had that plan, however, and executed it nicely--they hold the new RAAM record for 8-man team time! Team Type 2 planned to finish. Their finish was better than they planned--they beat another team. Through it all, however, the ethos of the event is that all teams encourage all other teams.

I was at the finish line for the finish of a couple other teams' rides, and in keeping with this ethos, made lots of noise to congratulate them. It's a hell of an accomplishment to ride 3000 miles in one stage, regardless of how many are on the team.

Jenn repeatedly says she wants to crew again for them next year (when she is awake, that is--sleep deprivation is a hallmark of RAAM). She has quite a few stories from the event, and even more pictures. When we get them online, I'll provide a link on this blog as well.

RAAM heats up

Solo RAAM leader board

Team RAAM leader board

Jenn's parents and I drove up to Bloomington to surprise her during the team's squad changeover. We arrived around 0330, and the team RVs were on site, as was the utility van Jenn has been co-driving a good part of the week. Crew members were moving around, doing their thing, save for a few who were getting some much-needed shut-eye. Jenn was part of that last little group.

A few minutes after we arrived, the team rotation van arrived. Five or ten minutes later, the racer of the moment and the chase car arrived, to much applause. His family was gathered on the sidewalk near the entrance to the time station, which had to be a morale booster for him.

The applause woke Jenn, and I was ready. I watched her stirring around, and moved so that I was partly hidden by the front roof pillar of her van. By the time she opened the door, I was almost in the door zone and greeted her with a big hug--a surprise for her, especially since she had just awakened. She introduced her parents and me to everyone on the team and crew--some more than once in her excitement that we were there.

As one would expect, they have become a very tightly-knit crew over the last several days. This is to be expected, given the intensity and duration of the event, but it's still fun to see, even from the outside. It was also fun to watch the coreography in the set-up and break-down of the equipment used for feeding the team, allowing them to shower a bit, and so on (They don't want to use the lavatory in the RV, as they would then have to dump the tank, which takes too much time).

Jenn's teammates and crewmates appreciated our visit. I'm glad we went.

And I'm flying up to watch their finish tomorrow. Their ETA was something like 0400 Sunday at one point, but has moved up to 0100 Sunday, then 2100 Saturday, after a few fast legs of the journey. They may even beat that ETA, although I suspect the mountainous terrain of western Maryland will make that difficult.

Here it is, Thursday!

I rode the Vanguard to work today, after driving yesterday due to time constraints on the after-work side. I rode the Raleigh Monday, took off Tuesday to ride the Strada, and intend to ride the Vanguard again tomorrow.

I felt faster on the Vanguard than I usually do. I'm not sure why, but I'll take it. The bike felt smoother, somehow. Maybe it's simply that much more comfortable than the Raleigh...

Last night was the fourth and final meeting of the Confident Cycling class I've been teaching. The group started out as twelve folks, a couple couldn't make the last two meetings for various reasons, a few simply dropped out without telling us why, and one had some work issues get in the way, with the result that I signed four certificates last night. I enjoy teaching these classes, but it's also good to be done with it for a little while.

I will be out at my folks' house for a while this evening and tomorrow evening, doing some yard work in preparation for the September festivities being held there. I generally dislike yard work--while it's far more natural than working on bikes or cars, it just isn't me. However, it's worth doing sometimes, and this is such a time.
Edit: change of plans...Jenn is going to be at the RAAM time station in Bloomington Indiana about 0400 Friday. I talked to her today, and she said something along the lines of inviting her folks to come up and watch what she's been doing for the last several days as a crew member. When I mentioned that their ETA in Bloomington was 0445 or so, she figured that neither her folks nor I will make it to see them while they are there. Hehehehehe Of course, it means leaving the house at something like 0100 to meet her folks at 0130, drop off my truck at the office, and drive up to Bloomington, visit for a few minutes or a couple hours, then drive back down.

I'm flying up to Annapolis Saturday morning, to watch the arrival of some of the RAAM teams. I can't wait. It will be my first flight since getting my CPAP machine that helps me manage my apnea, and dealing with that ought to be fun.

Played hookey

I have ridden RAIN for five of the last six years, and had been planning to do so again this year. I've been worried about my long mileage legs, though, as it seems all my riding is commuting--lower speed, lower cadence work on fairly flat terrain (my biggest climb in my commute is Payne Street) for few miles (and less than an hour each trip), compared to 160 miles of flat to gently-rolling terrain at high output for nine hours (well, eight and a piece, plus breaks).

In an effort to get some long miles in, to see if I can do RAIN without pain, I took a personal day today and went for a club ride out of Vettiner Park. The schedule showed a sixty mile ride, but the captain opted to shorten it a bit due to the heat. We went fifty miles.

The route had some good rollers, and a couple of medium- to stout climbs (the largest two being on 1633 just north of Taylorsville and on Seatonville Road just southeast of the end of Billtown Road). My usual RAIN ride partner, Larry Preble, was on hand today, on his *gasp* Trek 2000. He rides the Trek on Tuesdays, usually considering Tuesday his recovery ride day--he doesn't plan on riding hard.

Larry and I have ridden together for several years. One thing that always happens when we ride together is that one or both of us will plan and state intention to ride slower than normal, but we get caught up in trying to keep up with each other, and we end up going fast. One wouldn't know that from my average speed, which was something like 16 or 17 miles an hour, unless one were to look at the grade profile and see all the times I was going five or ten miles an hour instead of twenty-five or my maximum speed of 44.

I went in to this ride looking for information on myself. I wanted to see how my "burn" felt--how my fuel is working for me these days, as I haven't used Perpetuem this year (haven't ridden far enough). I wanted to see how my legs would perform. I wanted to see if I remembered how to pace myself.

It's sort of like riding a bike. You don't truly forget. I'm a bit rusty, but things felt quite smooth today. I sometimes express how my body does during a long or hard ride in terms of fuel burn. I feel a clean burn, or a dirty burn, depending on several factors--what I've eaten that day and for a couple days before, how much I'm drinking and of what during the ride, how clogged I feel--it's a sense that I cannot quite quantify. My burn today felt almost clean, but not quite. It was good, given my time off that bike. Riding to work is surely helping, and more than I thought it would.

If I can work it out, I will take off a few more days between now and RAIN to get some long miles on the bike. My riding partners for RAIN this year, Larry Preble and Ed Scharfenburger, are both very strong riders. It's good that we are on closely matched bikes (Larry has a Bacchetta Corsa, Ed a stock Strada).

Last year, we played leapfrog with a group in matching jerseys, and they were clearly upset that we would take longer breaks than they did and pass them out on the road (darned recumbents aren't supposed to be faster than a wedgie pace line!). We had our own pace line going much of the time, and now that Ed has a full year on his bike (he had had it three or four weeks when we rode RAIN last year), we ought to be able to keep tighter formations for better advantage.

I can't wait!

Seasonal milestones again

I noted another seasonal milestone the other night: Monday or Tuesday evening, I saw my first lightning bugs of the season. In the course of walking the dog, I saw probably fifteen or twenty.

Last night, I had to have seen a hundred of them. It was neat to see.

I was reminded of a couple nights one summer ten or fifteen years ago. I was working for UPS, unloading airplanes for the Next Day operation. When I got off work, I would often go wander in one or another of the local parks for a while to unwind before going home to bed.

One such night, I was in George Rogers Clark Park, across Poplar Level Road from Audobon Hospital. The park has some lovely slopes on both sides of a small creek. I was near the top of one slope, and looking across the creek, there was a veritable wall of trees. In front of that wall of trees, from my perspective, was a shimmering curtain of lightning bugs. It was a wonderful sight.

I rode the Vanguard to work Monday, and the Raleigh Tuesday. The rain Monday left the roads wet enough and the parking lot wet enough that I opted out of having the students do the emergency stop parking lot drill and subsequent bike ride. We did talk about the drills a bit, though, so that the students could at least tinker with the ideas at home.

I was watching the weather forecast Tuesday, but not quite well enough. I had in mind to leave the office early, to beat the heavy weather coming our way, but people kept coming by to see me over one thing or another, and it was after four by the time I left. I got out of New Albany before the rain started hitting me. By the time I crossed 131 from Providence Way to N Clark Boulevard, I was hearing thunder, and seeing an occasional lightning flash. By the time I got to Jeffersonville, I was seeing frequent flashes of lightning, closer than I really like (but not so close I felt endangered). The rain was also falling much harder. By the time I got to the bridge, visibility was hampered.

As I crossed the bridge, a motorist (in a small SUV, no less) kindly kept traffic off my back by driving behind me at a good distance with her four-way flashers going. I'm normally a little put-off by this--I feel I'm pretty visible most of the time. However, I also realize that she was doing so because she was not in such a hurry that she couldn't do an extra bit to improve road safety for all of us. I, of course, waved happily with all five fingers in a clear "thank you!" gesture when I neared the traffic light at the Kentucky end of the bridge and she went past me.

I had to stop a couple times on my way home to get the sweaty rainwater out of my eyes. By the time I got to Payne Street, though, the rain had eased off, and I started making better progress.

Of course, by the time I got home, the next band of heavy rain was arriving. It quit raining soon after I got home.

Yesterday, I had to drive to work--I had a bunch of stuff to haul. I also was on a tight time line after work, as I am teaching one of the Confident Cycling classes this month. I'm on a tight time line this evening as well, as I am presenting a session at the Bon Air branch of the Louisville Free Public Library this evening.

As I type this, Jenn is at the airport, getting ready to fly out to Oceanside California. She is on a support crew for RAAM riders (Team Type 2) who are riding to bring attention to the fact that folks with Type 2 Diabetes CAN be active and healthy--indeed, being active helps one be healthy, a truth that seems to escape too many in our society. Anyway, it means that I'll be following their progress with a bit more interest than I have in prior years--I have more friends in the race this time.

Friends and family have been half-jokingly wondering how I'll get along without Jenn at the house. I think I will manage, somehow. =-)

Hardly rode over the weekend

It's getting to be a bad trend. Here it is, well into June, and I haven't done any LONG miles since last year (long miles being bike rides over 50 miles in length).

This past weekend, for example, included a day at the stock car races (and tailgating near the speedway before race time). Jenn's father takes her and her two brothers to the Nationwide Series Meijer 300 at Sparta as a family get-together thing, and I was invited.

It was fun, I suppose. I've not quite caught the bug for the game "Corn Hole," although I tossed a few bags of seed corn at the boards that day. We socialized over a beer or two, or tea, or sodas, depending on the person. We wandered up to the main gate at the track, and the vendor area spread out in front of that. There were a couple booths offering samples of tobacco products, one selling what I presume to be a male-enlargement product (of what I also presume to be spurious value with a bikini model in a cute suit that, even if were not engaged/involved, I probably wouldn't find interesting on a date), various "collectible" trinkets (like anyone is going to buy these things ten years from now? How much for a 1980 Cabbage Patch Doll?).

It was fun to see a big-league race again. The last race of this caliber for me was the Southern 500 at Darlington S.C. on Labor Day weekend of 1978. I don't remember tons of what happened at that race, but I think that somewhere in my various stashes of keepsakes I have a spark plug I picked up in the pit area after the race. "Those were the days," to borrow the title from All in the Family.

While it was fun to see a super-speedway race, when it comes to auto racing, I'm still a short-track guy. Watching cars travel a mile and a half per lap is tough to do--that is a LOT of territory to watch. On the other hand, short tracks present their own challenges--often the track management does not seem as big on safety at smaller tracks, for example.

Before I even learned to ride a bike, I loved cars. By the time I was eight, my father realized the value in taking me to the speedway not far from where we lived at the time for father/son stuff. I knew who the drivers were, and had favorites. I vividly remember one car rolling over in a crash there, and seeing the guy with another similar car the following week. He apparently lived around the corner from us, as the wrecked racer was in front of a house near our subdivision for a couple days later that week (for what it's worth, the cars were 1958 or '59 Chrysler products, probably Plymouths).

When I was a kid, my heroes were race car drivers. Race car drivers wore seat belts. When I was eight or nine, we as a family got a newer car for Mom, to replace the 1956 Chevrolet she had been driving. That car had shoulder belts, relatively new to mainstream cars. There was a tag on the belt that included something along the lines of, "Do NOT use if wearer is less than 4'8" tall."

I couldn't WAIT to grow that last two inches!

I fully realize that there is some sort of double-standard in my fondness for auto racing. I don't get to indulge myself in the enjoyment of watching good short-track racing often, though, as I have so many other interests these days.

Anyway...

Yesterday was time for an early celebration of Jenn's birthday. Her birthday is later this week, but she will be out of town, working on a crew supporting Team Type 2 on Race Across America.

After the celebrations, I had to attend a Club officers' meeting, so I at least rode the few blocks to that from the house. Once that was done, I could then get geared up for another exciting week at the job with no glory.

Hey, at least I rode to work today.

Not enough cycling

It's been tough to really get on the bike of late.

After a month of rarely getting to ride to work, I'm out of the habit of doing so as much. Add to that that I'm teaching two days a week this month, with the time constraints of those schedules, and I've not ridden enough to warrant any kind of good mojo.

I rode to work today, and got to ride to work Tuesday, but drove Monday, Wednesday and Thursday (that last due to oversleeping/having trouble motivating myself to get up and ride in the rain). EDIT: David reminded me that I did, indeed, ride to work Monday. I rode the Vanguard, loaded as it was with teaching stuff, so that I could go directly to the Monday evening class at Waterfront Park after work instead of going home and then back downtown. Note to self: Do my blog entries more often so that I don't forget stupid stuff like this.

The Vanguard is loaded with teaching stuff--a stack of halved tennis balls for parking lot drills, sign-up sheets, clipboards, hand-outs of various sorts, and a small pile of tubes in case students get flats while in class. Rather than switch the load every other day, I rode the Raleigh Tuesday and today.

At this rate, I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy doing RAIN, which is coming up in four or five weeks. I also need to get with the other folks who want to ride it, and see who is ready or who is unable to go this time.

I finally got to ride again

After three or four weeks of work life being in upheaval over a "must-pass" inspection, life is hopefully returning to normal, meaning I get to ride to work at one work site, with stops at the main office on my way to or from my own office. The main office is a couple blocks off my commute route, so stopping there is not an imposition.

Repair Affair is this weekend and next, though. I'll be part of that tomorrow, helping support volunteer teams that are working on houses for the beneficiaries of the program. Repair Affair is a neat program. Volunteer teams from various places (church groups, clubs, groups of folks who work together, neighborhood associations, and so on) do handyman "neighbor helping neighbor" stuff for low-income elderly or disabled homeowners--paint the house, clear brush from the yard, build ramps, install grab bars or handrails, make other minor repairs to the house with an eye toward "safe, warm and dry." Magnificent things happen for the homeowners.

My part of it this year is to drive a one-ton flat bed truck to haul stuff from place to place. To prepare for this, I'll have to fetch the truck this afternoon, and park it closer to where I can use it tomorrow morning.

To make that easier, I rode my bike to work today (ain't it great that I can say that!). I don't have to get a ride to where the truck is--I can toss my bike in the cargo area of the truck.

Since it was a cool morning, I rode wearing my office clothing--a kilt and a shirt--and I don't have to change clothes in the course of my day.

Jenn's doing the MS Bike the Bluegrass tomorrow and Sunday. If you haven't donated toward this cause, she could use some donations to get her to her fund-raising goal. I didn't do anything with the ride this year (too many other obligations), although I've captained some preparatory rides for it in years past, and worked the ride as a roving bike mechanic a couple years when I was working for one of the ride sponsors. It is a great cause, and a great ride.