There was a time everyone had a blog. Me too. Pretty useless really beyond a little self-gratification. It took me a while to 'find' my blog and somehow reclaim and log back in. If nothing else I've found it pretty cool to look back and leaf through from the beginning. Starting a family. Buying houses. Buying dozens of bikes. Fascinating and eye-opening to the right audience. Namely me.

End of the year 2014. With one day to go I've reached a couple goals I only really considered sometime back in late August. With no racing on my schedule this year it becomes a bit of a struggle at times to find the motivation to go out and run or ride. It occurred to me the possibility of achieving something I've never done since I started running 5 years ago. I've averaged as much as 25+ miles a week running in a calendar year. I've averaged as much as 100+ miles a week riding in a calendar year. I've never averaged over 100 & 20 a week. 2013 was 80 & 25. So, I found my motivation to finish up 2014. On September 1st I was 1750 miles short of 5200 on the bike and 400 miles short of 1040 miles running. 4 months or 17.5 weeks to get it done. With one week in November spent in Florida without a bike and daylight hours drastically reduced from mid-October on I was more concerned about getting the bike miles. Throw in a healthy dose of a poor attention span and I had even more reservations. Longest ride I've done to that point was 38 miles.

Steadily I chipped away at it. No time to be tired. No time to be sick. Maintaining balance is key. My kids have come to expect their dad to be fun and cool and most importantly present. Spending time with the little brats is always a treat and I try to do as much as I can which is never enough.

On December 28th I pedaled my 5200th mile. Sweet. December 30th I ran my 1040th mile. Beautiful. In the process, as an unintended consequence, I also accumulated more hours in a calendar year on a bike or in my running shoes. All sorts of fun to celebrate. Still one day to go. 30f temps in the forecast for NYE. Who knows, maybe a ride. Maybe a run. Maybe nothing. W
hatever the case, it's safe to say this will be a high water mark. With a couple years of useless junk miles running & riding I could do more of the same at a diminished rate or I could throw in an adequate amount of high-intensity and do something racey in 2015. No idea.

So with that, Happy New Year to you all.

2014 PMC

2013 PMC

Loafing

My usual end of the year Christmas/New Years break is in full swing. I get a fair amount of vacation time to use throughout the year but the past few years it’s been good to save up what I can and totally remove myself from work. This year I’ll not see the bike shop for 17 days. No plans really. Just a little shopping. Visit family and friends. Watch some movies. Drink a couple beers. Don’t ever think for one minute I feel working at a bike shop has any stress involved with it. It’s good, though, to just be gone for a huge chunk of time.

Movies. I watched two movies over the weekend that I DVR’d and been meaning to catch up on. Both piqued my interest when in theaters but I just don’t make a lot of time for that. Movie #1, The Book of Eli. Good premise, lame execution. Not bad. Movie #2, The Road. In a word, dumb. I felt the two hours I spent on this movie would have been better off napping. The other Cormac McCarthy movie I saw, No Country for Old Men, was excellent. They always say the book beats the movie. I can see how that could be the case here. Dumb movie.

I’m still running quite a bit. I’m not giving up the bike. Right now it’s just so much easier to slip on the running shoes and head out the door, even if it’s 7pm. Not as easy or safe to do that on the bike. The plan for 2011 is to dabble a bit in some Duathlon events spring/summer and rejoin the Cyclocross Brotherhood in the fall. Maybe a halfie thrown in for good measure. 2011 is the year I turn 40. I intend to approach this the same as all my other birthdays, it’s just a number. Year 40 will be stronger than year 39.

I leave you with my favorite picture of Haley and Landon so far this year.

Democrats, Nickleback, Cervelo and grilled meats

I think today’s ride was amongst one of the three strongest rides I’ve pedaled so far this year. The numbers may not say it but for two hours I was on top of every gear at all times regardless of uphill or downhill or into the wind or whatever. Good sensations as they say. Five weeks.

I ran into Hebe and Kara on their bikes today. Unfortunately we were headed in opposite directions. I bring this up not because I was bummed that I couldn’t hitch up with them but only to say there are a few things subjects in life I generally shy away from in conversations with friends. Two of the bigger topics would be politics and music. It surprises me sometimes to hear what a certain friend might listen to or how another friend might feel politically about an issue. The funny thing about it is for the most part there really is no wrong answer to how YOU feel about something. I know what I like but the beauty of individual freedom is while I might disagree in large part with a Democrat or strongly disagree with Nickleback I respect your feelings to disagree with my thoughts. I’m sure most of my friends would puke if I made them listen to my Sufjan Stevens playlist but I’m OK with that. So many times I see people passionately oppose a friends views to the point of offending said person. Why? So, I say keep on jammin’ to Nickleback if that’s what makes your day. I got no problem with it.

Nice day today.

I thing the Cervelo R3SL might be the best bike I’ve ever thrown a leg over. Really, I mean that. After a couple thousand miles on it and after replacing that garbage SRAM Red stuff with trusty ol DA 7800 I can confidently say this bike rocks. If only Cervelo made a CX. Wow, that bike would be nuts!

Meats and sweet corn on the grill this afternoon for Mom, my lil sis Shannon and DJ and Uncle Greg. Time to fire up the Weber. A’ight.

I scream

I finally checked off one of the big items on my to-do list since we moved into the new palace. The basement was in need of a new ceiling. There was a half-assed drop ceiling installed when we moved in and considering this would be my man room I needed to get it right. I’m far from a handy-man so this wasn’t going to be easy but I didn’t want to hire a pro either. What ended up costing me approx $400 probably would have been triple that if I hired someone. I’m sure I made this task way harder than it needed to be due to my amateur abilities but I definitely like how it turned out. Still some work to do down here but the major stuff is done.

basement before


after

This heat is energy sapping. I’ve continued to get just over 8hrs on the bike a week and at least two sometimes three runs 3-5miles a shot. Getting out at the crack of dawn helps or a late day run works but the cumulative efforts add up. Makes the couch even more appealing.

I’m not even thinking about ‘cross yet. Too hot. 1st race September 12 I think. Long way off. Although Labor Day will be here before we know it.

I need to fly somewhere. Any thoughts?

Bummed to hear about Nancy’s soccer injury. I’m sure Ray’s taking good care. Hang in there Nancy!

Anyone have a cool TT bike I could buy. Size sm/med. I had a nice rig but I sold it to LK. Ooops. That’s a pretty sweet bike. Wish I still had it.

Haley was up last night partying in her room ‘til 10-10:30pm. Thought she’d be passed out tired by 7pm tonight. Wrong. 9pm and she’s still awake partying again. I announced my intentions to go to Lowes this afternoon and she said she wanted to go with me. We had fun. She helped me pick out my goods then we stopped at McD’s for a bit of ice cream. Fun times.

Short work week for me. Two days off to end the week then MS Ride next weekend.

OK then.

No one noticed I was gone.

It’s been 195 days since my last post. Oops, sorry about that. Does anyone blog anymore? I know FatMarc does. I mean besides him. Someone commented to me a year ago maybe closer to two that blogging was dead. Facebook, Twitter were the new preference in go-to social media. Evidently there must be some truth to it.

There’s been dozens of times I had the thought to post something but damned if Facebook is just easier, albeit condensed. I guess that’s what bugs me is I’ve gotten lazy. Whether anyone reads this blog or not, there’s a tad bit of therapy when I sit down and type away random thoughts.

Anyway, riding has been good this year. I’ll be over 3500 miles by the end of the week. Still on a record pace for one year. Since The Wifey and I purchased a house in Camp Hill it’s also gotten much easier to get out for regular runs. Going back to Memorial Day when we moved in I’ve been able to get out 2-3 times a week for 5k at a shot. Ran a bit over 5 miles last night and felt good. No idea where running might go but there are times when it’s just easier to zip out the door and pound out 20 minutes.

As a result, I now weigh a full 5 pounds less than I did back in 1989 when I was a high school senior running track.

Haley and Landon are going to be 4 and 2 in the next couple months. They are more and more fun every day. Pretty cool little kids although I think Lando is a bit of a mommy’s boy. I’ll need to fix that.

Haley & Lando

The new house is great. It’s real sweet to get out in the morning for a ride or run and get back to the house for the 3 S’s and then grab my Salsa fixie for the .63 mile ride down the street to work. I’ve driven my car roughly 5 times for a total of 8 miles since we’ve lived in Camp Hill.

The new sled

I need to do more of this. My 9th grade English teacher would want me to do more of this.

Anatomy of a ride, winter styln'

Today on this chilly, breezy yet otherwise quite sunny afternoon with another week before I head back to work, why not go for a ride. I've always said the weather really doesn't hinder a 'real' cyclist. If you have the right clothing and dress the part it's really pretty simple. Let's start from the top. For me this is your standard shorts with a long sleeve base. Easy.

Next we add the important and very necessary thermal bits that make this possible. A long sleeve thermal mock and wind-proof thermal tights go over the base layers.
Follow that up with a outer layer which in my case is a light thermal wind-proof core long sleeve jersey. I can typically wear this piece alone in the 45-55 degree range.
Now we get to the extremities. Fortunately for me, I don't have a bad problem with toes and fingers. Some people like to go with a much thicker sock and/or a specific 'winter' shoe. For me, a lite wool sock will do just fine. The standard shoes followed by a good fitting thermal bootie. I prefer velcro to zippered and reflective comes in handy on rides home from work. That takes care of the feet.

As for the noggin it depends on just how cold it is. If it's above 35 or so I don't worry about my ears and just go with typical cycling cap. Today was about 32 with a stiff wind-chill that was most likely into the mid to lo-20's. In that case I like a fleece hat which is almost too warm but that's not really something to complain about. Add your favorite lid and I always like a pair of clear lens glasses. Keeps the crap out and the cold air off your eyeballs.
Last but not least is the gloves. On the left are the lobster mittens and on the right are a lighter yet effective glove for cold weather rides. The lobsters are good for most winter days. The lighter gloves are good for low-40's and up. My lobsters are well worn, probably need replaced really, so today I wore the light gloves inside the lobsters. Worked perfectly.
Once you get all that on you still need a bike that works for a ride like today. There's still bits of snow/ice/frozen jib here and there on the roads. The weekend had lots of rain and warm weather which re-froze in some areas that don't get much sun this time of year. That being said, I don't like road slicks unless I know I'm not going to find that frozen crap somewhere. Enter the 'cross bike with its 'cross tires. Again, perfect.

There you have it. I hope everyone had a safe and happy Xmas and enjoy the short work week. Now go ride your bike!