Great Expectations

Bike to Work week has been a bit of a bust so far and I am as guilty as anyone of not giving it my full effort. The combination of poor weather and work restrictions have limited not only my intended participation but that of my coworkers. As of this morning, I am the sole rider to have actually commuted to work by bike and that was on Tuesday. Tomorrow, Friday is my last chance to save face and meet my two day commuting goal. Due to a series of unplanned construction meetings, project site walk-throughs and rain, it has not been the optimal week to commute. But then again, it never is, so stop making excuses Dude! The 16 mile trek one way for me is not extensive, but this time of year, the sun comes up late and with the cold mornings we have been having, fog complicates the effort. It was 38 degrees on Tuesday morning and the fog just starting to burn off as I left around 6:15. I live in a rural area just on the periphery of suburban Grand Rapids and the roads are shoulder-less, high speed (55 mph minimum) and heavily traveled. Using an alternate route would add about 5 miles to my commute and an extra 30 minutes travel time. It just isn’t efficient to consider doing that, so I stick to the more populated streets. Also, public transportation systems are not available between where I live and my office which is located at the outermost edge of the City bus routes. Short of finding a coworker or nearby office worker who happens to live near me and is willing to share a ride, I am left with driving or riding alone the entire distance. I have discussed the issue of bus service with our local town counsel as well as the GRATA service through community action committee meetings but it is economically infeasible for them to extend their routes at this time. I think they are being short sighted and as the affects of higher gas prices start to enter the equation, they may see the public demand for access to alternative transportation grow to the surrounding communities. Most, if not all the buses presently have bike racks, so if the service was made available to a larger area, I believe folks (like me) would use the service. All we can do is keep the pressure up and hope that economics and public conscience will drive the need for change.

With all of that said, it was a very chilly ride in on Tuesday with temps hovering in the upper 30’s near 40 when I left. The ride was quiet and enjoyable none the less, with a chance to stop a couple times to enjoy the sight of turkeys, deer and the fog rolling over the surface of the Thornapple River at the Camelback Bridge. I was able to use my newly acquired rear taillight for the first time since winning it at the Fort Custer race. It really came in handy as the low visibility made me more of a target than is usual around here. After a full day of work, I suited up and headed out for my longer commute home. By 5:30 in the afternoon, the sun had come out and warmed the temps close to 75 degrees. A pretty radical shift from the mornings ride! I finished the days riding with just about 50 miles in total and a big hankering for a cold beer. Luckily, I had one waiting at home when I got there!

camelback bridge


thornapple river
final here!
what a dork

Wednesday’s planned participation in the Milk Jug Racing series did not happen. Once again, events conspired against me, but my lack of commitment did have some influence on the decision as well. Cold temperatures and rain moved in that morning and soaked us most of the day. When I left that afternoon it was only in the high 40’s, maybe 50. The Ionia trail becomes a very slippery, gooey mess with a significant rain and that combined with the temperatures, had me in a funk. I am not one who enjoys wet sloppy weather (one might say a wuss?) and the motivation to do the race anyway was easily overridden. I chose instead to head home for a walk with my wife and the dogs. We sat outside on the deck afterwards to read the paper and watch the sun go down but we were forced to don sweatshirts as the temps were falling fast.

The weather here has been pretty weird this week with constantly changing temperatures and off and on rain. I was planning to race this weekend at the Owassippe Time Trial, but may have to pass on that as well. My wife is leaving Sunday morning for a week long conference at Sun Microsystems in San Francisco. I will be driving her to the airport for a noon flight, which will not give me time to make the hour drive to the Camp and make my start time. So, I may head down to Yankee Springs instead and ride the Deep Lake trail, which I have not been on since last fall. It will be a quiet week with my lovely wife away but hopefully one filled with bike riding! Oh, that and pizza, TV dinners, no need to wear pants around the house and maybe even leaving the toilet seat up with no fear of reprisals. It’s all good!

Racontuer Troubadour

Well, another weekend is in the books and this one seemed to fly by for some reason. Friday night we opted to just stay home, take the boyz out for a long walk and then watch a “cute” English film called “Mrs. Henderson Presents” (I know; pretty exciting, huh?). Stick with me, it gets better.

Saturday morning was a beautiful day and I was primed to get some mileage in. After some early morning running around for flowers, plants and other assorted implements of destruction, I suited up and hit the road. For some reason, I couldn't get System of a Down's B.Y.O.B. out of my head the entire ride!

I headed out on a north eastern route that takes me past the Grattan Speedway, home of the Wednesday night Training Races. I have been stopping there for years, typically on Saturday’s to take a break and watch 10 minutes of an assortment of cars race around the track, typically testing or qualifying for Sunday’s races. This week when I arrived, I was immediately stopped by a guy sitting near the entrance to the track. He asked me what I was doing and I said “just taking a break”. His follow up was I had to take a break where he stopped me which was 50 feet back from the track where I typically stand and take pictures while watching the cars come by. I don’t know if he thought I was trying to sneak in disguised as a road cyclist or if he was just concerned for my safety, but this is the first time anyone has ever stopped me from pulling up to the track for a few minutes look. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy. There were a couple sweet old Ferrari’s and one Opel GT zooming around the track that I would have loved to get a photo of and post here, but no such luck. So, you will have to settle for a photo of the entrance sign. It is the first time I noticed the stop sign attached to it and it seems rather appropriate now!

After a couple minutes, I took off again and headed over to Bostwick Lake, on to Cannonsburg and finally into Ada for a quick stop at Starbucks to fill up on water. Really had to do the pothole “shuffle” during this ride; some of the roads are almost impassible except by MTB. The one's here are pretty tame compared to other places along the way.

The skies started to darken later in the ride and it seemed like it might rain but never did. I was able to finish up with close to 43 miles in about 2-1/2 hours; nice but still behind my pace from last year.

Just as I was entering our street, one of the neighbor’s daughter and a couple of her friends were selling lemonade at the end of their driveway. I just had to stop and help out the cause. It was good lemonade and I think it helped me finish the last ¼ mile to the house!
As soon as I pulled in the driveway, I was greeted by Rene holding out her gardening gloves, signaling to me that play time was over!

Given that it was Mother’s Day weekend, I wasn’t in any position to argue either. I commenced with the seasons first lawn cutting (we have a non-motorized push mower) which was a tough slog in places due to the recent rains. Then I had to help my son carry his junky “new” boat up from our dock so that he could take it on its maiden fishing voyage at Wabasis Lake. I thought I was going to have a stroke carrying it up all those steps and when I asked him to give me a chance to catch my breath, he told me there were would be plenty of time to rest at the Retirement Home, Old Man! I would have choked him ala Homer Simpson but just didn’t have the energy after my ride. Payback will come when he least expects it and it will be painful! He did bring home a few nice bass and bluegills later that day, so maybe I might cut him some slack this time.

Sunday was Mom’s Day and in typical fashion, my wife invited her family over which required her to have to work. I said we could all go out for a nice brunch and a movie, but no, she wanted to make lunch for her Mom, Dad and sister’s family. So, we cleaned the house, whipped up a batch of BBQ and potato salad and had the Rozelle clan over for the day. They are a lot of fun and despite the crummy weather (cold and rainy all day) we enjoyed hanging around the house and telling stories. I think Rene had a happy M-day despite the work but I still need to sneak her out to dinner this week to make up for it. Me, I would have asked for peace and quiet and nothing to do except lay on the couch and watch old TdF DVD’s! But she is a better person than me and that is why I love her so much. Happy Mother’s Day sweetie!

Really sorry to see Dave Zabriske crash and drop out of the Giro on Sunday's first stage. Slipstream had a great prologue team time trial and will be really missing his help.

It is bike to work week this week, so get out there and save some fossil fuel at least one day if you can. I am planning to ride tomorrow and Thursday, which I hope will become a regular schedule for me. Just doing what I can to keep some of my money out of the Oil companies pockets!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Hope every Mom out there is having a special day and feeling appreciated for being the wonderful person they are!!

Under Wraps

I was back on the bike on Tuesday evening originally thinking I would swing by the Rapid Wheelmen Ada Time Trial. However, that event happened on Monday. My intentions were good but my timing needs a little work!

This was my first time back out on the road since Earth Day and my knee issues and it really felt good. The conditions were perfect for training; temps in the low 70’s, a slight breeze and my wife out of town on business in San Francisco! I could not have planned it better (except for missing that TT thing). Of course, there was one little glitch. The recent rains coupled with our unusually warm weather, has produced an early crop of mosquitoes. Along many of the roads out on my end of town, there are swamps and ponds and water holes just teaming with the beasts. So, if you stopped to take a photo or wait for traffic, they are on you. And, as an added bonus, near sunset, the gnats come out along the road to add an extra layer of irritation. Do NOT breathe through your mouth along the shoulder or prepare to enjoy an unexpected tasty treat!

Despite those complaints, it was a beautiful night for a ride and I was able to get in a good hard 35 miles in about 2-ish hours. I am still woefully down on mileage for this time of the year, but doing what I can do. The next event on the schedule is the Milk Jug TT at Ionia, possibly the Owassippe TT and then hopefully, the Hansen Hills XC race on the 1st of June. That is one that I have tried to enter for a couple years and missed each time for one reason or another. The course is supposed to be fun with rolling hills but last year it became a mud-fest with a major rainstorm during the event. Regardless, I am setting my sites on making it another single-speed race.

I only took a couple pictures during the ride on Tuesday due to the pesky skeeters. The first is Egypt Valley Road which has some great rolling hills and trees busting out with flowers. The other is the Murray Lake Marina yard which seems to have a larger than normal number of boats still in storage tarps.

Though summer is still not officially here, most pontoon owners would have had their boats in the water well before now, especially considering the great, warm weather we have had for the past couple weeks (and the muskie’s are biting!). It made me wonder if their continued dry docking is a direct result of the high gas prices we are enjoying now. Many who live along this lake are not affluent and therefore, would be spending precious dollars on fuel to motor around rather than to buy cereal for instance. Might be a quiet summer at the lake with fewer boat motors and wave runners out there.

Of course, Our Man Bush will be heading to the Middle East this weekend to ask the oil producing nations to just give us more, please. Like Oliver Twist, he thinks this is the how we lower gas prices. Who is advising this idiot? I think even a fifth grader is smart enough to understand that simply getting more oil for refinement is not a long range, permanent solution. And don’t get me started on McCain and Hillary’s joke, the summer gas tax “holiday”!

Anyway, enough poli-ticking. Wasn’t too impressed by the 2 hour coverage of the Tour of Georgia but I’m sure they don’t have the budget to devote equal time to all of the major races. Tour of Romandie coverage was a little sparse as well but it was nice to see Team Astana have some success in both the TdG and ToR events. Leipheimer faded on Brasstown Bald stage and gave up second overall to that cocky Aussie Trent Lowe (someone needs to put the smack down on that kid!). Maybe Levi was just saving his energy for the Giro this weekend. I am perplexed how Astana can be accepted to enter the Giro and the Vuelta and still be rejected by the Tour. But regardless, I am pulling for Contador and Leipheimer in the Giro and my man Cadel Evans in the Tour. It will be fun to watch. I think that Versus is planning to broadcast the Giro stages on line, but the TV coverage will only be 2 days.

I was planning to ride again tonight, but have to pick up my wife at the airport. She has been in San Francisco to wine and dine a client with her team from Sun Microsystems. Unfortunately, she has to repack her bags and return to SF on Sunday for a week long training session next week! I actually wish I could go with her and spend time riding in the hills while she is training, but someone has to stay home and keep an eye on the teenagers! Later this summer, she has to attend a conference in Washington D.C.; I may tag along with that trip and visit my brother and some old friends who live there.

Anyway. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Don’t forget to participate in Bike to Work Month by commuting at least one day to work next week! I plan to ride 2 days and maybe 3 if the weather holds out. Bike to Work day is official Friday the 16th.

Post Script: I had to add this little video in from this weekends race. This vid shows the results of too much speed at the whoops section! Enjoy.

Two Little Words

And those words are: sad and pathetic. That is the only way to describe my inaugural single-speed race. Okay, maybe there are two other words: last place. That’s right; I am now officially a member of Team DFL! Mr. 14th. I’m sure others will come to me as we go along.

Despite the rain and rough weather on Saturday night, Sunday was a beautiful day and the trail was just about perfect as a result. So, no excuses there. When I arrived at Fort Custer Rec Area, I had about an hour until the start time, so I geared up and got out the bike. After riding around the parking area, I ran into my friend Matt from work who told me that they had pushed back the Sport/Beginner single-speed to a 1:30 start from the 12:30 start it was supposed to be. So, he said, sign up for the Elite/Expert race which was now in the 12:30 spot; it is the same distance as the S/B race. And like the lemming I am, I went ahead and did that. After our warm-up we got to the line with about 3 minutes to go and while we are staging for the wave, the organizers decide that they screwed-up and are moving the Sport/Beginners single-speed wave from 1:30 to right after the Elite/Expert wave! Great. Thanks.

Regardless, I resigned myself to race with the E/E’s. Of course, every one of them is 20 something to 30-ish, so I was obviously gonna get spanked! Gun goes off and for the first 2 miles, I managed to stay with the pack. I followed Matt for the next mile (we were now in the second group on the course; the fast guys had checked out) but at the tricky first climb he got away and it was only me and the guy behind me. We stayed together through most of the first lap but near the end where the trail opens up and becomes a freeway, he had more gear and pulled away. At this point, I was only 2 minutes behind the leader. Then came the second nine mile lap and that is where I faltered. I waited until I was back near the start to GU up and it took me a good couple miles before some energy returned to my legs. At that point, I will guess I was 10 minutes down. So, I went into survival mode, looking for someone to latch on to that could pull me back into the race.

It came at about the mid-way point, in a section of tricky turns and up and down hills. A faster group of young Sport riders came up behind me and I pulled for a bit until we were out of that section. There the trail opened up and they got by but I did my best to jump on and try to hang with them. The course then ducked back into a series of berm turns and climbs and a couple got away, leaving me with the stragglers of that group. They also started pulling away as we headed into a really stupid and sort of dangerous series of whoops that I heard took out a couple riders that day. There they once again were able to put some distance on me. But the water crossing was coming and after that was the final high speed two-track section that led back to the finish. By this time I was close to 20 minutes back from the winner of the E/E single-speed group.I really wanted to finish with some speed and to try to recoup my big slide on lap two but the younger guns were now pulling away. Coming out of the water crossing, which was very deep and cold this year, I actually caught back up to them on the climb out. I spied the weakest of the group, planted myself on his wheel and just started pedaling furiously! I spun out quickly as the trail started to flatten out but I stayed with him. At the last section just before the trail opens up at the start/finish area, he and I were able to get around one other in that group and we finished wheel to wheel. He of course was finishing 4th in his category; I was finishing 14th!

But it was over and I had survived my baptism by single-speed. Matt was waiting there for me and said that I finished about 10 minutes behind (it was actually 11, but who’s counting?). We headed over to our cars to change out of the wet clothes (that damn stream crossing completely soaked me on the last lap!) and headed back to wait for his girlfriend Maureen to finish.

Bike; check
Maureen hammering
Matt and Maureen
The face of 14th

We hung around awhile to watch the awards and just long enough for me to snag some rear blinking light swag. So, all in all, a pretty good day despite my finish! Not my best effort on a bike, but I certainly have room for improvement. My next event will be next week for the Wednesday night Milk Jug TT at Ionia. That is a flat course that I am very familiar with on the single-speed so hopefully I can redeem myself a bit. The following Sunday is yet another TT at the Owassippe Trail, site of my stunning performance in last years XTERRA race! Yeah, right.

Anyway, the season has begun and I really need to start putting some training miles in.
But not today. Today is rest and complete your root canal Day. Great.

Happy Monday!

P.S. Links to race photos. You can see the infamous log piles and water crossing.

http://shutter-monkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4864896_gqPQs#290629893_V5b3y-A-LB

http://shutter-monkey.smugmug.com/gallery/4864896_gqPQs#290564938_qnt32-A-LB

Vrooom

I have decided to enter my first race of 2008.  Bullied into entering is really more like it.  My buddy Matt from work (one of my XTERRA teammates last year) bought a single-speed this spring and is committed to race it all season.  On Friday at our little inner-office Cinco de Mayo party he kept up the pressure on me to join him this weekend.  And I relented.  Not sure I am ready to race yet, let alone on single-speed, but I guess we will find out on Sunday.  The Fort Custer Stampede race is one that I entered last year and was stuck behind all of the Clydesdale riders at the start.  That shouldn't happen entering in the single-speed category, so now I have no more poor performance excuses either!

The knee is feeling better, almost no pain left and Sunday will be a good test.  I did ride a couple times this week despite the rain and cooler temperatures.  There really wasn't any soreness afterwards, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for the race.  

In other news, my oldest daughter Heather left this week for a new life in Tampa Bay.  She was with us on our "fun" spring break trip to Clearwater and while there, hooked up with some old friends from high school who were living in the area.  The week after we came back to MI, she announced the decision to pull up stakes and move down there. So this week, she packed up here car and left us behind.  It is difficult to see her move so far away, but if the future is brighter and she is happy living in the Sunshine state, I am good with that.  I guess this gives me an excuse now to go back down there again next Spring!  Yeah, right.

My younger daughter Lauren is going to prom next weekend and it has been a whirlwind of chaos here which I have been trying to stay out of as much as possible.  My only job is to intimidate the boy who is taking her and make sure he clearly knows the consequences to any mistakes on his part! He seems like a good guy (but don't they all?) and is a baseball player, so I am cutting him some slack for now.  He just picked up a full ride scholarship to play at MSU next year, so my love for baseball may be clouding my judgement as a father a bit.  

Not much else going on.  My son is outside patching the bottom of a "free" boat he picked up from the neighbors and heading out on the river to fish with his girlfriend using his new Minn-Kota electric motor.  He has a car battery hooked up to it for power that was sitting in our garage for a year. Nothing can go wrong here, can it? :^)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dude, Where's my Spring?

Well, Spring appears to be over in the Midwest. The weather gods have conspired to steal our warm temps and replaced it with a nice blast of wind and cold air. Friday night we were pushing 80 degrees but on Saturday morning, it was in the 40’s. The highs for the weekend hovered in the mid-50’s and it was once again, time to break out the cold weather gear.

I had not ridden since Tuesday due to yard work, a couple evening commitments (work-related) and a nagging soreness in one knee that flared up out of nowhere last Wednesday. It is still undetermined where this came from; a loose cleat, a saddle that needs adjustment or maybe contact with the stem during an earlier MTB ride. But it was hurting. Not “Danielle Musto crashing on a wooden bridge” hurting, but sore and keeping me up at night. I was able to walk with my wife during the week, while hitting it with Motrin during the day and it is slowly coming around. By Saturday, it appeared to be improving so I decided to do a test ride close to home just in case.

I took the single-speed out to the park trail, North Country trail, and finally down to the Flat River spillway. It was feeling better but there was still some pain when pedaling in the seated position vs. standing up. The temps were cool and I had to give in to arm warmers and knickers for the ride but it felt good to be on the bike regardless. The river is very high right now and the local authorities in charge of water levels are slowly releasing water downstream. The result was some amazing whitewater action at the spillway, which made me want to run home and get out the kayak. And then I remembered how cold the water is this time of year and immediately dropped that thought.

Sunday the knee was still hurting, but it was predicted to be the last “warm” day (mid-50’s) for awhile, so I decided to get out early and ride the State Game Area trail for the first time this year. Once again, the Single-speed was selected and it was the right choice. I have to admit, I was reluctant to try it due to two climbs that are short and steep. But in the end, there was no need to fear. The trail was in awesome shape, hard packed, clear of leaves and fast. The sun was out and despite the cool temps, there were quite a few riders at the trail. I was able to get in about 21 miles and still make it home in time for more yard work and dinner. There would be photos here of the SGA trail, but I left my USB cable at home so you will just have to picture it in your mind (revised).

Finished up my Cyclism Sunday watching the La Fle'che Wallonne and Lie'ge-Bastogne-Lie'ge race on Versus. A little surprised that the field didn’t try harder to rein in the Schleck brothers, Rebellin and Valverde. Seems like the little group had it in the bag and it was just a matter of who will make the first mistake (Schleck) and then who had legs left for the sprint (Valverde). Those climbs looked so painful; 18-21% grades in some spots!

Hope everyone had a great weekend and warmer temperatures than us Michiganders!

P.S. This was my ride song on Sunday. I was playing it in the car on the way there and couldn’t get it out of my head the rest of the day! Maybe its the title . . . . BrianStorm.