mea culpa

It was a struggle to get going today. I’ve been fighting off a cold since Sunday and I felt as though I could have fallen over on my commute in to work yesterday. Today was a struggle, but a big bowl of goodness loaded with hot sauce at the Big Bowl Noodle house for lunch held the pestilence at bay long enough for me to suit up and head out on the fixie around 5. The legs were not 100% so this ride was more about mental base miles than physical and I limped around my standard short loop around town.

The real downside to that choice, at that hour, was that the roads were full of drivers in really big cars heading home. Rt 45 was particularly bad and one driver saw fit to lean on his horn a little as he leaned his black Ford Expedition into the shoulder to remind me of his dominance on the road. Rolling back into town I hit the red light in Lemont and signaled a left onto Branch Rd. Across the intersection was another black SUV that pulled straight across the intersection when the light turned green. Incensed at this egregious flaunting of right of way, I flipped the driver the bird and uttered some unkind words. Just as we passed each other and I looked in the window at the suburban mother in the driver’s seat, I realized that I was entirely in the wrong. She had the right of way, I was the asshole, I had overreacted. One too many close calls on the ride had left me so bitter that I’d felt entitled to an exemption from the rules of the road. I guess that is how road rage happens. Since I had no hope of chasing her down to offer an apology, I guess all I can do is offer it here.

Sorry, M’am. Won’t happen again.

March is upon us and looks to be a grizzly start. Temperatures are going to be fluctuating around 40 with threats of rain or snow nearly every day. It looks like each ride for the next few weeks will be a roll of the dice. I’m still planning a big weekend for the 9-12th, hopefully the weather will hold out.

The first brevet is scheduled for March 31st, we’re all registered and crossing our fingers that March will indeed go out like a lamb.

Cowboy up

Today marked the return of the Saturday century. After a few calls back and forth over the last 24 hours, reason prevailed and I left the fixed gear at home and headed down to the shop on the Specialized. It was a bit confusing rolling up to the first stop light and trying to slow down; no matter how slow I turned my feet the demon bike continued to roll along at the same speed. After a half second of confusion I realized that I actually had to apply the brakes on this machine.

As I rolled into the shop I was surprised to see that there were already 4 bikes parked outside. Inside I found Kyle, Pam, Raymo, and Dave already enjoying a second cup of coffee and debating the merits of going on a 6 hour ride in 20 degree weather. Shortly thereafter we were joined by Billy, Strauber, Phred and Steve and we all poured a cup and savored a long moment of hesitation that could as easily ended in us all returning home to bed. With a few motivational words (read: trash talking) we mounted up and headed out. Though only 18 degrees at the start, the sun was bright and we all quickly felt good about the decision to ride. We left the shop with 9 and picked up a 10th on the way out to Houserville.

9 miles out we had the only causality of the day when Kyle’s frame pump leaped dramatically from his bike to his rear wheel taking a spoke with it. The wheel managed to remain reasonably true and we forged on. At the Coburn turn the group dwindled to 6 as the few, the strong, the foolish forged onwards in the cold. The route took us up to Livonia on 192 and over the ridge at 477; west to Tylersville and back over the ridge to Penn’s Valley at Rebersburg. In Rebersburg, we stopped to tie up the horses and do a little refueling.

Rebersburg is one of the jems of central PA that we get to visit many times during the spring classics series. It hardly warrants mention on most maps, but as a rest point for long rides is an ideal spot. There are a handful of buildings along “Main Street” and two general stores, directly opposite each other in the middle of town. Its odd that a town of less than 500 needs two such establishments, but when we roll in we always try to throw a little business to each. There is always hot coffee (no, this is not the gourmet shit, but it does the trick), a small deli with some of the best $3 hoagies in central PA, and a countertop jar with fabulous jerky for $1. The proprietors are now used to us enough that we no longer get the awkward looks and questions about our sanity (presumably there is some discussion after we leave), and this time we were greeted with, “Howdy boys. You all keepin warm?” and a offer to have hot chili waiting for us next time so long as we call ahead.

Refueled we again hit the road and rolled through Millheim and bowed our heads as we rolled past the eponymous Equinox Cafe. Last year, we stopped at the Equinox (an oasis of gourmet food, coffee and liberal thought) for soup and coffee on a day that never broke 35 degrees. After a bit of warming we all indulged in a pastry they called the “cowboy bar” which contained chocolate, nuts, raisins, oats, and presumably several other opiates that kept us going for the rest of the day. The ride has since been known as the cowboy bar hundred, though, sadly, the Equinox soon closed their doors and has been in transition to a brewhouse for over a year. Certainly, when they reopen, we will route nearly every ride though Millheim, but for now we mourn the lost of the only espresso within 50 miles.

After a nostalgic roll through Millheim we headed through Coburn and the standard route home. The route is only about a 88 mile loop, so to pull off the full hundred we needed to tack on a extra loop around town. Without computers on any of our bikes, this led to some spirited discussion of how far we had to go to get the full hundie last year. Once we settled on a route (the longest option, just to be safe) we headed through Pine Grove Mills, out to Tadpole Rd on 45 and back home along Whitehall. At the start of this loop by blood sugar went through the floor and I spent a harsh 10 minutes pulling at the front and staring a asphalt 6 inches in front of my wheel. Thankfully I had a goo in reserve (which is contrary to my strict real food only rule for weekend rides, but is always a wise backup) and was able to bring myself back from the depths. As we rolled back into town the clock read 4PM and the temperature was 40 degrees. 6 hours of saddle time and 100 miles in February.

Not bad. Weather permitting, we’ll do it again next week.

rest day

No ride on Thursday (save the commute) in favor of getting a bit more work done.  It was the gnarliest day of the week weather-wise and by comparison to the sunny 40’s I’ve had the last few days it seemed like a good day to stay indoors.

I have made some updates to the site in recent days.  There is now an updated schedule for the March training weekend for anyone who is intereseted, and I have updated the PBP page with our brevet schedule and links to information about the rides.

do the right thing

I got my first flat on the fixed gear. It had to happen eventually, but I have to say that those Bontragger hard case tires have more than made up for their cost. I put those on before last winter and they have made it through over a year of commuting and several thousand miles of training rides. The true miracle of this flat was that it was a rear flat, and yesterday was one of the infrequent times that I actually remembered to bring my 14mm wrench along to get the rear wheel off.

I was a bit rushed this afternoon trying to get out on the road, but the 48 degree temperatures and bright sun had been taunting me through the office window all day. As I was packing up to head out at 3:15 I got a call for a meeting that had been postponed from earlier in the day. So it was a little after 4 before I started heading home (admittedly, I expect no sympathy from anyone that I had to wait until 4 to ride, when much of the working public would have been lucky to get out of the office before dark!). At home I suited up and made the bold choice to go with knee warmers only; again, the fantasy of a warm, sunny day was getting a bit ahead of me, full leg warmers would have felt better on the return home. I made it out for 2ish hours out to see the Llamas on Marengo road, and took 550 and Meeks back home.

At home I made a quick change and headed back out to catch Do the Right Thing at the State with Nita and Jimbo. The movie was as raw as it was 18 years ago, and with the exception of the “Tawana told the truth” tag on a brick wall in one scene, the message was still contemporary. I couldn’t help but draw connections to the conundrum of global politics and the debate about the “right thing” in the current middle east conflict as the final two quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X scrolled past the screen. The right thing is seldom the simple thing.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers.

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.

-Malcolm X

Upcoming at the State is The War Tapes and The Motorcycle Diaries. We’ve all been complaining about the lack of independent cinema in a college town, so get out and support it before we lose what we’ve asked for.

heatwave

The temperatures got up to a balmy 49 degrees today, so there was no good reason not to get outside.  No good reason barring the ever present work issue, that is.  Thankfully I was able to get out around 4:30 and squeeze in 2 hours on the fixie before it got too dark.  On the return I swung by the shop to see the bunch at trainer night and was surprised to see the biggest turnout of the year.  I suppose the warm weather got everyone itching to start riding, even if they had to do it indoors.  The weather is looking to hold above freezing for a bit, so hopefully we’ll have the first hundred in this weekend.

In preparation for PBP Billy sent me some randonneuring porn today.  Check out the beautiful randonnee bikes that Andy Hampsten is specking:

http://www.hampsten.com/Tournesol/700c.html

And for those of you who can’t be weighed down with accessories check these out:

 http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/berthoud.asp

Yes, those are carbon fiber fenders ladies and gentlemen.

And for those who just can’t get enough of it, The State Theatre is going to be showing Breaking Away on March 13th.  That is the Tuesday after the training weekend for those of you who are paying attention.  I’m planning on being well worn out enough to indulge in a little cinema, and hopefully we can get enough people out so that we can show the cycling community’s support for this kind of programming in true style.

Success!

The weather is warming, with forecasts of +40 for the rest of the week and talk of possible rain.  So last night may have been the last really viable night for skiing.  Billy and I headed out to Scotia at 6 with the dogs.  We were a little hesitant given their last misadventure, but the opportunity to exercise AND run the dogs is a bit too tempting and we risked it.  We hit the trail with the dogs tied to our waists.  Sophie is used to running along with me on the bike on those trails and so she lit off and largely pulled me up the first hill.  This was not quite the workout I was looking for, and was pretty uncomfortable as the uneven tugs kept taking me off balance.  So, at the top, I turned on her collar light and let her loose and we skied up to Billy and Wigs who’d gotten ahead.  Sophie was staying close so Bill let Wigs off and we headed onward.  We took a nice rolling loop  out for an hour and a half.  Wigs and Sophie ran around a bit, but the light on the collar kept us abreast of where they were and they finally managed to do a good job of coming back when we called.  Back at the car we both breathed a sigh of relief that we’d finally managed to get these two to behave while playing together.  Their next hurdle will be the bikes!

If at first you don’t succeed . . .

. . . go home and ride your bike! Well, not really, but try again, and if THAT doesn’t work, then go home and ride your bike. Nita and I headed to NYC for the weekend but snow and the inept Pennsylvania DOT conspired to keep us from every getting there. We turned back once, and nearly bagged the whole trip a second time, but ultimately made it with some creative routing (full details below). No riding to report on, but I managed to send in my RUSA membership form before heading out of State College, so I’ll be all legal for the upcoming brevts. I also booked my flight to Santa Barbara in March with an extra weekend to do some training in the mountains with Richie Rich. Also, in bike related news, parts have started rolling in for the IF and the build is coming along. I got a very light and shiny box from White Industries full of hubs and cranks and cogs. So wheels will be built soon, and brakes and fork will be on order soon. Pictures of the build to come!

Nita and I tried getting out to NYC on Friday after work, but the recent snow in PA had a 40 mile stretch of I-80 shut down. At exit 241 in Mifflinville, we were diverted on a detour on Route 11 north which was a parking lot about 5 miles after it started. At 8:30, after seeing police and ambulance coming through on the detour, we decided it would be at least 4 more hours to get to the city and only 2 to get back to State College so we turned around and headed home.

We tried again on Saturday morning, got to exit 241, and sure enough it was still closed and we were back on the same detour. Thankfully whatever accident had happened on Friday was clear and traffic was moving steady. The detour took us up Route 11 to Scranton and back down to 80 on the turnpike only to find that it was still closed! After some careful study of the map (and some serious consideration of just going home to ride the aforementioned bike) we figured out a route that would keep us off 80 until New Jersey (where they apparently know how to plow snow) and we made it into the city by 2PM. We strolled around the West Village for a bit (we were staying in my brother Ben’s apartment there) and made an excursion to the east side to make an exchange at NYC Velo (nice shop by the way!), then headed back to the west side to have dinner with the family. After sending my parents home to Westchester we then headed out to Gabe’s apartment near NYU and checked out the bars on that side of the city.

Today we slept in to recover from all the driving and the 2 post dinner scotches. At 10ish I rolled out to the coffee shop, for a bit of nostalgic New York. For whatever its failings, there are few places on earth that can rival New York on a Sunday morning when the sun is out. The air was thick with the smell of coffee and freshly inked copies of the Times. After coffee we met up with friends for brunch at SushiSamba on 7th Ave. After eating ourselves to a near coma we walked back to the apartment with a few stops to bolster economy and do our part to fight terrorism. Before braving the Pennsylvania highway system, we laid in stores at Pepe Verde. Thankfully the roads were clear on the way back and we were able to make it back in reasonable time. Next trip I think I’ll have to bring a bike and sample the local traffic. I understand that riding a fixed gear it becoming quite popular in New York.

Snow Day!

I’d sort of assumed that I’d left snowdays well behind me with my altogether too well spent youth. But the storm at slowy marched through Pennsylvania caused enough general confusion and anxiety for Penn State to shut down. And so Wednesday was, officially, a snow day. And I celebrated by staying home and working all day with Sophie on the couch. Valentine’s day not being an ideal time for solo endurance sports, I didn’t even get on the bike at all and Nita and Sophie and I went for a walk in the woods for the last few hours of daylight. Sophie’s seen the snow before but hasn’t really had the opportunity to play in it since she spent the best part of last year’s winter on bed rest following an unfortunate run in with a car. So this was really her first time bounding around in chest deep snow.

Today, with Penn State open again I was forced back into the office. The temperatures plummeted today and set up as hard fast tracks in the woods. With all the snow around trainer was suspended in lieu of skiing. I picked up Steve and we headed over to the shop to meet up with Frank, Harry, Little Nick, Todd, and Evan the Trek rep. After a bit of back and forth we all headed to the Scotia trailhead. Strauber met us at the lot and we got started on the trail about 7. The cold snow left me with minimal kick and I knew I was in for a night of two steps forward, one step back. The sky was clear and there was no moon, so we had a beautiful view of the stars, but almost no visibility at ground level which made balance a challenge. We turned in an hour or so loop together as a full group before half the guys (clearly the smarter among us) headed off to Otto’s for beers. Steve and Strauber and I decided to get another hour in and headed back out for another loop. The lack of kick on the snow meant that we weren’t quite making the time we’d hoped, and just as we decided to cut the loop short we turned onto a trail that hadn’t been skied since Steve and I had last been out with Billy on Tuesday. There were easily 4 more inches of crusty snow over the track and we struggled to find the trail. Headlamps on, we bushwhacked for a bit until we got our bearings back, but our attempts to shorten the loop had been in vain. Back on tracked trail, we cruised as fast as the snow and our legs would allow us back to the cars. We hit the trailhead at 9:15, which gave us almost 2.5 hours on the trail, and not long until the kitchen closed at Otto’s.

At the bar we replenished the calories we’d just spent, and put a few in the reserve tank. And now, after a beer and a burger, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open long enough to finish this post. Snow day well spent. Off to the big city tomorrow!

Finally

We finally got some snow! Snow started early Tuesday morning and continued through the day. I held off riding in until 11 to get a little more soup to play in on they way. Years in Montana got me a bit spoiled about snowy roads. Bozeman only plowed the major roads to the pavement, the rest they simply scraped down with plows so that they resembled nordic ski trails. They never salted and the cold temperatures left the snow on the roads hard, but relatively tacky, so there was always good grip for riding. Here, where salt flies at the first hint of the white stuff, the roads quickly turn into a strange paste of semi-frozen ice-snow, like riding through a margarita. Its dangerous, slippy, and ultimately, just plain fun to slide around in. Given the choice, I’d prefer the conditions in Montana, but since I’ve never been able to do a satisfactory track skid on dry pavement, I’m happy to play around in this stuff.

The promise of snow had the emails flying fast and furious trying to organize ski outings for the evenings. Lots of the boys from the shop were planning to head out late night, but Billy and I figured we’d have a better chance of getting a decent length ski in if we started a little earlier. We made it to the Greenbriar trail head at 8 and got about 30 minutes in before we got a call from Steve looking for playmates. We looped around and met him on his way in about half an hour later. A much better skier and an hour fresher, Steve-o upped the pace on the second loop a bit. The snow changed a bit and started raining down as sleet that didn’t quite match the 17 degree temperatures, but did agree with the prediction of “wintry mix“. We busted out another loop and sought out some of the more fun twisty descents before heading back. By the time we got back to the cars at 10:30, we’d gotten a few more inches of mostly icy snow.

There is still some of this sleety stuff falling this morning, and everything in town has shut down. Who knows how this stuff will ski today, but I’m game to find out.

Monday Reflection

This little adventure on the interweb is at once affirming and humbling.

Affirming because each day I am startled by the number of people who take time out of their days to check in on my musings about the bike. And, however tenuous the connection, each day I can track the connections to the many others who occupy this little virtual world and I am continually flattered to have shortened my degrees of separation to the many other bike junkies that I have respected as motivators for their dedication and passion for this sport.

It is also quite humbling at the times when I get to wandering on the chain of links out there. There are times when I fancy myself, at the very least, a medium sized fish in a little pond, but throuh all the new connections that I’ve made through this short excursion through my virtual neighborhood I have been amazed at the exploits of those only a few steps removed from me. Today, while strolling the local neighborhood I ran across a link to Jill in Alaska. That’s right, a bike blog from Alaska, and she has more miles than me! Kudos Jill, keep ‘em spinning.

And on the subject of inspirational women, our friend Liz is fighting strong in Philly. I met Liz on the MAC circuit this year and she was one of the cheering voices that helped me around the course. Aside from owning one of the pimpiest IFs I’ve seen in a while (sorry Ray, your’s is pretty too), Liz is working to drop lung cancer like Ulrich in the alps. Since you can’t make it to the snow, we’re bringing the snow to you.