The Magic Day

On Saturday, August 1st, 2009, I set out to ride to my folk's house in Pennsylvania, opting for the long route. My aim was to hit a list of 7 points of interest to me, and to take my new Cannondale Super Six all of 100 miles in the process. I had previously dubbed this bike The Magic Bike. I also dubbed this ride the Northern Vision Quest. One can only guess exactly what I was hoping to find with this ride. Whatever it was, it was successful. This is my story.

The Plan

Here is how I laid it out before the ride. This is how I prefaced it the day before the ride on my training thread:

"I am doing the Northern Vision Quest ride:
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=70258

The idea here is to get out to Califon as directly as possible, as far from home as fast as I can. Then I'm going to meander around and hit various items of interest. This will totally be back-loaded, I think everything is after the halfway point. In order of appearance:

1. Fiddler's Elbow, the reputed hardest climb in NJ
2. Merril Creek Reservoir, where Eagles live
3. The Buddhist Shrine up on Montana Mountain
4. The house I lived in until 3rd grade
5. The East-West Shrine, just because it's there
6. Iron Bridge Road, the reported second hardest climb in NJ
7. The house I lived in from 3rd grade to college

After that I'll go up and over the hill to Milford, then up the river to my folks just south of Easton. The ride clicks in at 98 miles, so I will likely look to add a few miles to get the magic 100.

I need to figure out where my pit stops will be. I may hit Pottersville if it's open at that time of the day, even though it's only an hour into the ride. I need to make sure I don't burn myself out tomorrow."

My big concern was water intake. I had done a century the weekend before, and dehydrated colossally. I wanted to avoid that happening again. It's so easy to think you're not in trouble while you're losing water faster than you know.

The Easy Start

I woke up fresh, feeling good. A quick breakfast and cup of coffee and I felt like this day was going to be a good one. I don't know why. Maybe my mindset was on. Maybe it was meant to be. I just felt like I was going to have a good ride and I felt good getting ready to go. I was excited to be going out on this ride. It had a purpose, something so few of my rides have most of the time.

I started easy, jumping on county route 512 and taking it west to Califon. I kept a moderate pace while listening to my music. I'm one of those people who listens to his iPod on the bike now, though often I listen only for the first hour or with 1 earbud in. There are so few cars on the roads I ride I've never had it be a problem. My playlist:

The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
Wheezer - The Red Album

I got to Pottersville and the store was closed. Same deal with Califon - not opened until 8:00. I wasn't in dire need but I was being aggressive with my water and food intake for the first hour. When I got up to the town center I saw a Dunkin Donuts, and jumped in to see what it had to offer. Luckily, it was a combo DD and convenience store, and I grabbed 2 bottles of water and a Luna bar. Shortly after I was on my way into roads never before ridden.

The Unknown

Coming out of Dunkin Donuts I was heading into unknown territory. It was generally a short foray there, as I would be in familiar areas soon enough. But it was cool nonetheless. I immediately climbed up and out of Califon, and while I didn't click down into the granny gear I was close. The pull out of there is steep, and you know when you leave. I had picked this route up from MapMyRide, so I knew it was reasonably bike friendly, or so I thought. I would soon find out differently but for the time being I was on roads that were reasonably paved and peaceful.

I hopped out onto 57 south of Hacketstown and it was like gliding on ice. The pavement was so smooth I wanted to just blast my way down 57 for the next 20 miles to Phillipsburg. While I knew it wouldn't be all nice pavement and soft downhills the entire time, it felt good to be out of the hills and the rougher gravel roads that accompany them. The bliss was short-lived, as I soon turned right and headed up to a town I had never heard of, Port Murray.

Soon my route took my left onto a road that looked much less friendly than the road I was on. Aside from the obvious pavement quality, there was a sign at the head of the road. This is not a picture of it, but this is just what it looked like:



What does this sign mean, exactly? Well, the MapMyRide link went through here, as did Google Maps. Interestingly enough, NJBikeMap did not. In fact, there was a dead space where I was going to ride. Why did it not click that this might be an issue? I think the MapMyRide link assured me that I would be ok. Here is the road in question on Google Maps itself: Warren Rd.

If you pan out you notice that it's an area totally bereft of roads, except this one, the one that "isn't a through street".

At first it was fine, despite the house that looked as if it hadn't been lived in for 40 years. There was some sign of civilization. The road wasn't totally paved but it was ok, then I got to a split in the road and one way was dirt and the other clean pavement. Ok, I figure, this is all good and I'm good to go. I take the right on the pavement and immediately see a closed gate, a private drive. I then knew that I was going down the dirt road. It strikes me quickly to wonder who would have barred iron gates at the end of a half mile of ragged pavement in the middle of absolutely nowhere. But the bigger concern is that I'm going to be riding the Magic Bike on a dirt road, which I'm not thrilled about.

Quickly the dirt road turns into this:



And it got worse. If I have to guess I'm on this dirt paved road for a good solid mile. At points, this road was approaching the quality of a Ringwood fire road. Certainly it was no better than a jeep road. My car would never have made it down it. Now that I'm in the comfort of my own home, I can explore Google Maps a little bit and see that this is apparently what was behind those locked gates: a major estate of some sort.

I would love to know what was up there. If you look closely you can see what appears to be a large pool next to the house. At the top of the clearings, I couldn't begin to guess what that stuff is. Your guess is as good as mine as to what is up there, but it's intriguing as hell, I'll say that.

Eventually I spit back out on the road and was greeted with smooth pavement and nice scenery for the next little while. I was slightly distressed that my bike was full of grime and grit but I wasn't about to let it ruin my magic day. Shortly after crossing 31 I came across another deli and I stopped to stock up on water. This was a bonus as I did not know what was on the route. I was quickly approaching the meat of the journey.

The Goods

Fiddlers Elbow, the reputed nastiest climb in NJ.



This hill starts out steep, as you would expect. But it's not that bad. The real pisser with this hill is that as you go further, it gets steeper. Or at least it stays really steep and then at the end, it pitches up. I got to a point where I was sitting in, and my front wheel kept hopping off the ground every pedal stroke. So I stood up and leaned way, way forward and at times my rear wheel spun out in the gravel. There wasn't a lot of gravel on the road, but enough to make it tough for the bike to bite on the climb with my weight forward.

This was by far the toughest climb I've ever done in my life.

I got to the top, and then took the downhill. Down, down, down, and way down. Eventually my GPS told me to go left. Left, huh? Here? For the second time Google Maps led me astray but this time, at least it had the decency to try and send me into oblivion from a main road as opposed to leading me halfway into the woods before dropping me off. At this stage I was in familiar territory so I dropped down to 519 and cruised out past the county fair I used to go to when I was a punk ass kid:



I then hit 57 and headed towards Washington, around the south side of Merrill Creek. This wasn't what I wanted to do but I had actually added some junk miles at the end of the planned route in the event that something like this happened. So I took the alternate route up to the reservoir entrance, in the process climbing back up the hill I went down previously, and took a break at the reservoir:



Tibet

I've never been to Tibet. But I have been to Taiwan, and the Buddhist influence there is greater than what you might imagine. Religion in the East is different than what you see in the West. It is more subdued yet more prevalent and accepted at the same time. It's a strange dichotomy, and somewhat tough to explain. While I'm not a religious guy by any stretch, I do embrace the peacefulness that is Buddhism and I was pretty excited to find out that there was a Buddhist learning center so near.

As I turned on to the road, things seemed to be more tranquil, quiet. I passed a driveway that had numerous stacks of firewood lining the drive, neatly organized. The neighborhood was old, quiet. I knew it was impossible for the people here to not know the center was there, so it held a kind of acceptance of it's existence, a harmony almost. I was excited and nervous to see what would be there.

When I came upon the entrance it was obvious:



As I rode up the driveway, there were banner-like streamers hung in the trees. I don't know enough about the religion to say what that means, but it was familiar to me in a way which I can't exactly explain. I must have seen something similar before in Taiwan. This is what the Internet has to say about what they are:

Tibetan Buddhists string prayer flags between trees and from poles on stupas, high mountain passes and other places. These flags are printed with mantras, and every time they flutter in the breeze they are spreading the merit of that mantra's message through the air to all living beings.

As I rode up there was a guy doing some yard work and we talked for a bit. We discussed the center, the hours, programs, and an upcoming festival that anyone is welcome to attend. Like I said, I'm not a religious person but it is intriguing. Part of me has become very enamored by the East, and this was a way to reach out to that without having to fly halfway around the world to see it. I look forward to going back someday when there is more activity there.

While the architecture wasn't like what you would see in Taiwan, there was some flair:



After I left I felt really energized. I dropped down the mountain and back onto route 57 and felt like I was as strong as I've ever been on the bike. It made me wonder, what is it like to really, truly believe in a god? I don't mean the token belief that most of the world gives to some deity, but to truly believe that there is a god riding with you every day, that you've got someone watching over you. Does it lead you to do stupid things on the bike? Do you just hammer forward with the idea that if it's your time, then so be it and the world will either protect you or move on without you?

While wondering this I was passed be a rather large and noisy truck, and decided that good feeling or not, I better watch out for myself.

Childhood Memories

Shortly after I turned on to the old street I used to live on in Washington and cruised up to my old house. I used to live next to a 1-legged girl who lived in the blue house on the right. Her dad was a cop and she had an insanely hot older sister who once asked me to rub suntan lotion on her. I was in 2nd grade at the time, and I think that was the moment in my life when I finally understood what a woman was. I cannot for the life of me imagine what she was looking for with that request of me.

I used to live on the left side of the white house. As I look at it now, the neighborhood is a total shit hole. The entire town is more or less rundown, and it was understandable why my parents moved out. At the time that 1-legged girl was my best friend, and I didn't want to move. We said we would ride our bikes back and forth to visit. Of course, I never saw her again.

When I came up to the house, an extremely fat woman was turning around in the doorway to go inside.



I rolled on and went past the Blue Army Shrine, which is just something I would often see in the distance as a kid. I don't think I ever went up into the grounds:



The difference in religion between the East and West cannot be better stated from the 2 pictures. One is a modest gateway, the other a sprawling 1000 acre estate. It was striking at the time and begged for comment.

I rolled into Asbury and came across my next surprise deli, which I almost rolled past but decided to hit anyway. I grabbed a bottle of water and a peach Snapple before the half mile roll to Iron Brige Rd. The people there eating breakfast seemed a little startled to see me and my bright superhero outfit there, and the old timer across the street watching the world was trying not to let me catch him staring at me. As I rolled away I gave him a nod.

Iron Bridge



Like Fiddlers Elbow, this is both brutal and relentless. After 75 miles of road riding this is not the hill you want to be climbing. While this does not punch you in the gut at the end like Fiddlers, it seems to go on just a touch longer, and doesn't want to end. When you reach the actual iron bridge, you can't be more than 1/3 up the hill, if even 1/4 of the way up. As you hit the top, or what seems to be the top, it still doesn't let up and merely eases up a bit as you struggle to get up to 6 mph and spin your legs out just a little bit.

Despite that, my legs never tried to cramp and I made it up, which is the important thing. I crossed the top of the hill and shot down 173 at mach speed, taking up an entire lane since I was going as fast as the cars on the road. I hit the bottom and kept cruising and blew right into Bloomsbury, which came up faster than I could have imagined.

More Memories

I looked down and was doing 28 mph on 173 as I came into the town. I don't know where this mass of energy could possibly have come from, but there it was. I felt like I was just about ready to line up for a race and have at it. I knew it was fleeting, but I felt on fire, just blasting down the road. I remember there was a day when the truck stop seemed so amazingly far away from downtown where we used to hang out at the Cracker Barrel all day. It took all of 3 minutes to ride my bike between the end of town and there.

Everything was so small, so beat down. I hadn't really lived there since high school, summer of 1990. I guess a lot changes, and having spent a lot of time across the world and having jobs in NYC changes what you consider up-to-date and rundown. But I was really surprised at how beat up this town is. I don't think the street I grew up on has been paved since the first time it was ever paved. What I used to think was a far walk from the store to my house was maybe a minute on the bike.

When I pulled up to my old house a woman was taking pictures of her daughter, and I asked, "Mind if I take one too?" She was taken aback, to be sure. But when I explained I grew up there she opened up entirely, as these are the people who bought the house from my parents. We talked briefly, then I snapped a picture of the old house and was off and up the hill.

This is where I grew up:



I climbed up to the old railroad bridge and stopped for a minute. A car went over when I was on it, and the way the rickety old bridge made noise when someone drove over it was like an echo from the past, so distant yet so familiar. The whole bridge creaked and shook, nothing had changed a bit. This is looking down the tracks to Pine Hollow, where we used to have colossal parties with major bonfires. Once a freight train stopped to warn us the cops had been called by the previous train. Like idiots, we kept drinking and hopped on the train. Next thing we knew half of us were sitting in the back of cop cars:



At this point I decided to jag across and climb up Bloomsbury Mountain, which Maurice thinks is tougher than Iron Bridge Rd. I was this far, 85 miles in. What the hell is another 700 feet? Along with Iron Bridge, this is also on the list of major climbs in NJ. I did this one slow & steady and aside from the sun beating down on me, I didn't think this was nearly as tough as the previous 2. Hard, no doubt, but not in league with the others. This is from the top looking down, which doesn't give you a good perspective at all as the hardest part is the first half up to the hairpin turn.



Wrapping it Up

At this point it was a matter of hopping across the mountain then coming down to the paper mill where my step-father worked years, until the economy caught up to it and it shut down. Currently the owner lives on the property in his RV. From there it was a straight & flat shot out to the river. It was all in the sun, but my legs had a lot left in them as I was able to ride out this last section at 20/21 easily. Finally I hit the border, and the Delaware River which was apparently flowing directly from Wonkaville this day:



I shot up 611 and wrapped it all up at 101 miles and 9100+ feet of vertical for the ride. This is the token shot, lovingly referred to as the money shot. I guess this is my 4th this year and slowest of the bunch, but by far the most rewarding and enjoyable.



The magic bike was great on this magic day. I have yet to give it the proper photo shoot and I may now have to clean off some of the grit from that non-through street before I do that. But there it is, waiting for me to dish out more of whatever I can. It was more than ready to abide:



And your truly, at the end of the ride:



This was a keeper, an absolute magic day on a magic bike. It may be a long, long time before I put together a ride as meaningful as this. But all we can do on a day to day basis is try. And when I wake up tomorrow and roll out of the driveway, I'll know that while it's unlikely, you just never know when you're going to knock one so far out of the park you might just remember it for the rest of your life.

Weekend Riding

Another Sunday post about my riding weekend. Nothing of note for those of you who come looking for the chicks on the train or my musical tastes or even my general observations on life. So you've been warned.

WFH Friday so was out on the mountain bike and did some local boy scout trails, repeatedly sprinting up hills until that got boring then found the one dirt road in town and did repeats up that hill. Today (Sunday) was hill repeats on the road bike. 24 minutes Friday and 30 today. Saturday was my long ride.

Did almost 50 miles up in the Mendham Hills yesterday, MB link here. Overall had a really strong ride considering the vertical on that ride. The middle third was just ridiculous climbing. I didn't hit any sort of wall at 2:40 this time, though by the end I was starting to fade. I think I have my 3 hour pace down fairly well though yesterday was too hot for the DH40 pace.

I used my lap button on the GPS and once I got out of the hills I managed to pull a 19.8 average in the 2:00 to 2:30 time range. That really picked up the average which had fallen quite a bit from the climbing. I have been making myself stand on hills more and more and I found myself more comfortable than ever out of the saddle yesterday. I decided at 2:10 to not stand anymore because I was starting to feel it, but then just got out of the saddle again less than 20 minutes later.

The ride today was in the dead middle of the 97 degree day and it didn't bother me at all. So I think I'm getting used to riding in the heat. In all the GPS tells me I did 1400 feet of climbing in 6 miles and 30 minutes of actual "on" time. The other 30 minutes and 9 miles were going down and between hills.

Trees and Roses, Smell 'Em

Ever since the week I was sick and didn't ride for 5 straight days things have seem to come together in several different ways, probably mostly in my head but physically as well. There was the cash-in on my forced rest week, which seems to have been a peak about 12-14 days after the rest. Then there's the added bonus of realizing that sometimes less really is more.

English please?

What I'm saying is that I had a great weekend of riding. I met up with Chris down at Hartshorne on Saturday morning and he gave me the tour of both Hartshorne and Huber. It was a really nice ride but what struck me the most was that Chris just absolutely loves to ride his bike, and to ride and talk with other people that ride their bikes a lot. The ride was good but the conversation was even better. Ride link here:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3386574

Chris asked me to how Hartshorne compares to Lewis Morris and Chimney Rock, as he's never ridden either and wants to check out both at some point. Technically speaking Chimney Rock is tougher and Lewis Morris is easier. For climbing Lewis Morris is tougher and Chimney Rock is easier though of the 3 parks I would say the fire road climb at Chimney Rock is the toughest of the lot. I generally don't include that in my normal loop though because there's singletrack that runs parallel to it.

Here are ride links from the other 2 parks:

* Standard Chimney Rock loop
* Lewis Morris, 2 race laps from 2006

As you can see Hartshorne has the most climbing of the 3 on a feet/mile basis but I'm going to throw out the caveat that in my experience the more a course has short ups and downs, the less accurate the GPS is with its vertical calculations. Given that, I would guess Lewis Morris actually has a bit more vertical, but the climbs are all pretty much non-technical. You can see from the graphs that Lewis Morris has bigger but less frequent spikes, Hartshorne has a lot of small spikes, and Chimney Rock has less frequent but medium sized spikes.

So what does it all mean? No idea. They're all in the same general class of difficulty with both Chimney Rock and Hartshorne being the more enjoyable of the 3. Lewis Morris is almost like a dirt track park which drains well and is a great winter ride as well as being a good place to just mindlessly pace yourself or try out new tires and the like.

So the good vibes from the Saturday ride spilled over the Sunday:

(no ride link, motionbased is still uploading from last night)

I went out and did my Mendham loop but extended it, got lost, and jumped over the hill instead of returning home on 512. I added the huge hill after Mendham which would be the big ass spike on the graph. Then I went left and left but missed the next left on Ironia. Soon enough I realized I was lost so I zoomed out on the GPS map and turned on the next road which pointed me in the right general direction and found my way soon enough. On the return I usually do the head-down and plow-it-out ride on county road 512. Instead I went up and over the hills, opting for peace and quiet, not to mention awesome scenery and that second big ass spike on the map.

I toned it down a little for this ride and tried to pace better on the hills. I'm going to need to do that Saturday if I hope to finish and not be in a world of hurt. I also opted to ride on the nice roads and this is probably one of the most beautiful loops I have ever put together. I'm going to work on a 40 or 50 mile ride that loops as many of these nice spots together and hopefully do a group ride this fall.

It was a great ride because I stepped back to enjoy it a bit more than usual. There were plenty of hills to keep me honest so it's not like I went out there and tooled around on a light cruise. Good stuff, good weekend. Thanks for the perspective Chris.

This post seems kinda vague so let me summarize. Enjoy yourself out there.

As I was grinding up some of the hills yesterday I was thinking that I really do need to dial it back on my pacing if I want to finish these long rides. My pain tolerance is probably a bit higher than average which makes me often think that I'm not going as hard as I am. But then it's not so high that I can ride through cramps or my muscles just giving up the ghost for the day. I rode at a sensible pace yesterday that will be perfect if I take it with me to the race Saturday. 48 miles sounds like a lot of mountain biking but with only 5000 feet of vertical it's a pretty tame climbing course overall. As long as I pace myself I should have a good ride.

Really looking forward to this weekend. I should have the details all ironed out today. Walter's sensible comment will be discussed tomorrow.

I played a little one-on-one with Michael Jordan last night and he beat me, as usual. After that I picked up with Pippen for a second game. I played ball a few times with Pippen last week and was thinking that maybe Pippen had as much run as Jordan but after last night, no such thing. Jordan is still the king and they can both beat my ass any day.

Rain rain rain rain rain rain. I hope this crap clears out today so I can get out there the next 2 days.

Tune Up Tuesday

I finally got my elusive vacation day on Tuesday which was a nice break to the monotony. My plan was a pretty basic 5 part day:

1. Sleep in
2. Spend time with family
3. Ride Lewis Morris
4. Get a haircut
5. Mow the lawn

It all went well until step 5, which was replaced with "fill the bird feeders" because it was so hot out. At one point I saw 100.2 on the thermometer. Just a brutal day yesterday.

I took the reassembled Stumpjumper to Lewis Morris with the intention to do 2 or 3 laps. I don't warmup or anything I just go, keeping a pace from the door. I think the last time I did laps at LM I was pulling 43 minute loops. Well that apparently was a long time ago as my first loop was 36:30 and the second 39:30, roughly. I cut it off after 2 because it was well over 90 degrees at that point and I wasn't looking to blow a fuse. Ride link here:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3267198

The extra 1:30 was going to/from the race loop. I have to be honest that I was astonished that I was able to pull that fast of a first lap, especially since it was a warmup. It hurt more than the second but then it was 3 minutes faster. If I had tacked on a third lap I probably would have kept about the same pace as the second lap, in the 40 minute realm, and I would have been pretty shot. The goal this Sunday is 2 hours. Anything better than that is gravy. That might seem like a lock given Tuesday's ride but I have no idea how it all shakes out with the 70 or so riders that will start at the same time I do.

I'm debating between letting it go for the first 5-10 minutes to get some separation from the chaff versus just doing my thing and letting it all fall where it will. The first 3 miles of the course is most of the climbing so there are plenty of places to pass but also plenty of places to blow. Aside from a 2 hour goal my other goal is to not cramp and to give it a solid but consistent effort. Blowing in the first 3 miles is not the best way to do that.

The downside with just starting free and easy is that you will bottleneck when the park road hits the singletrack, especially since you need to pull a turn that is sharper than 90 degrees in that transition. Whatever, I'll play it by ear the day of the race.

The one striking thing I noticed about yesterday is that my bike climbs like a dump truck. I love the bike but seriously it's just not a race bike. It does the job and on the flats and downhills it's a great bike. But that's a lot to lug up all of those hills at LM. And of course standing just eats up my energy as the squish squish squish does its thing.

But you know, failing that elusive winning lottery ticket I won't be buying a light race bike any time soon.

This morning I went out and climbed some hills. Nothing special just got out and did my thing. The pace is pretty unremarkable and I don't really have an answer for that. By the time I was warmed up the hills started. And I never really cashed in on the downhills as I actually took a wrong turn and got lost. Ride link:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3272016

No riding the next 2 days because I think rest is something I don't do enough of right now. And with these temperatures I really don't want to dig too deep of a hole. Maybe I'll pull a 2-3 week high volume stage in a few weeks but last time knocked me out for a week and left me flat the week after that. So I'm just trying to enjoy my time on the bike as best I can which translates to 4 days a week right now.

Jake

"you and your esoteric jargon. ;)"

I gots mad game, or snacks like Rod Woodson. Don't ask.

Ignoring my esoteric jive, Jake is also running on Sunday and I hope he does well. He's been obsessing about this for a few months now and finally the week of truth is here. My advice is just to pace yourself and aim for a negative split on each lap. Your second half of each lap should bump up your average. The first half is where you build your potential energy to release later. Think of it as a roller coaster. Up until that top of the switchback you're just click-click-cliking your way up to the top. Then let go but do so wisely.

ChrisG

"Finally sorted out some password confusion. Hence my lack of presence here lately. Full marks on the "ambivalent" vs. "indifferent"."

Well I'm glad someone appreciates it. And good to have you commenting again. Hope to see you at the LMC this weekend or the Lebanon 52 next weekend. What are your thoughts on warming up before a race as well as race start strategy?

George

"Lollapalooza! 1993 I think...right? I was there too! That is too funny man. I remember Janes and Pearl Jam, and NIN. It was a great show on the main stage. Wow...that was a blast from the past Norm."

Well I think one of us was either drinking or smoking or ingesting a little too much something or other back then because I'm pretty sure Pearl Jam was the second year (1992). I only went to the first year (1991) and I don't remember Pearl Jam. I guess I could just look it up and verify that I'm correct. But I'm on the train so that will have to wait.

I do seem to remember there was a no-show at the show we went to but I don't remember who. I think Siouxsee and the Banshees were on right before Jane's but not sure if they played or not. I do seem to remember being bored out of my skull for some of the show so good bet that they played. But then who didn't play?

They really should have box scores for this stuff like they do in baseball. I can go look up what Sixto Lexcano did on June 3, 1983. They should have the same sort of thing for concerts.

You know I think Living Color also played at that show and I think they were outstanding too. Yeah I really need to look this up when I get to work. All I can say for certain is that Ice Tea kicked serious ass, as did Jane's and NIN. And the Ice Tea and Perry Farrell whitey/nigger sing-off (whatever I hesitate to use the word duet there) was just fantastic. Or maybe it sucked and the drugs were great.

So I checked it out and apparently Fishbone was there too but I don't remember that. Pearl Jam was indeed the second year. Vaguely remember the Butthole Surfers and Rollins Band but not the Violent Femmes at all. And another thing I see is that Lollapalooza has turned into a mass freak event. This year there are no less than 125 scheduled bands currently. What the fuck man, that's just inane.

Wednesday. Ho ho hum. It looks like pea soup out there and feels worse. Stay cool.

Fixed

I guess if I was a big Nine Inch Nails fan I would have used the title Broken last week. I think naming these blog entries is a bit of a chore so don't read too much into them. Half the time it has nothing to do with whatever I'm talking about and the other half I have to stop myself from putting Pig Shit or some other inane expression as the title. It's just whatever comes to mind. Anywhere there's my nod to NIN. I saw them at the first Lollapalooza. Good show - especially Ice Tea, NIN, and Jane's - very vague recollection of it all. Now I go to Waterloo Village to park my car for the 24 hour race. It's the same field. Ironic how things change over time, huh?

So I think I'm better now. Not sure what did it but I had a good week of riding which was topped off by a great weekend. On Saturday I did a big 53 mile Califon loop with almost 4800 feet of climbing. Managed to keep a 16.5 for that which was a fantastic roll. Link here:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3252577

I'm really starting to see some of the high end stuff come out now. On the return home I was really pounding some of the short rollers. At one point I was going uphill doing 28 mph. Pretty wild stuff for a genetically limited fat white boy like myself. On Saturday I went to Lewis Morris with Woody on my old Trek full-rigid bike. Two things of note came from this:

1. That bike is a piece of shit. Let me qualify that by saying it really is old and needs some work. It's setup all wrong and feels awful. The bars are both too narrow and too low and possibly over-extended. The headset is beyond shot and the brake levers are positioned all wrong. Grip shift which I hate now. And of course cantilever brakes which squeak squeak squeak all the way down any hill and provide ample stopping power at the best of times. I'm really uncomfortable on that bike and can't descend well at all. I have no confidence on it either. It needs some work but...

2. It climbs like a bike possessed. Now I'm sure some of this has to do with my whole "high-end coming together" thing as well as the fact that I more than likely peaked last week. But jeez hills just aren't the same with this thing. At the end of the ride yesterday on the last climb I just threw it down to see what I could do and utterly lost Woody in no time.

I totally understand why people drop some nice coin on a light race bike with suspension. If I mixed the best qualities of the 2 bikes - the downhill ability of the squishy and the climbing of the rigid I don't think it's a stretch to say I'd be able to compete in the top of the sport class immediately. Well maybe it's a little stretch but probably not much. The more you ride the more stuff like this makes a difference. How much do you want to spend on a bike though?

In any event now I want to setup the old Trek properly which will be an offseason project. And of course I might eye up a lighter set of wheels for the full-squish for Christmas. Getting ahead of myself I know. This is what I do. We all do.

Here are my links from last week's rides:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3201887
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3205678

Nothing from yesterday's ride at LM because it was computer free. Just to clarify, Steve asked:

"i was reading the update for the darkhorse gallop, and with the short course, it could potentially be as "physical" as kvsp, fwiw. what do you consider a "fair amount of climbing"?"

It would probably be more accurate to say a good amount or even a lot of climbing. For me a lot is an average of 100 feet per mile. That's sort of the Mendoza Line for "a lot" of climbing for me. The Hillier Than Thou century is 10k of climbing in 100 miles. Or something like 11k in 108 miles. Either way it's a lot so when I ride I always compare against that. My last 2 road rides were:

Wed: 34.74 miles, 2826 vertical, 17.1 average, 81.3 feet/mile
Sat: 53.33 miles, 4790 vertical, 16.5 average, 89.8 feet/mile

Pretty happy with those ride averages. It would probably be an interesting study to keep tabs on average inclines for my rides and how my speed correlates. On the other hand it's a PITA. I was hoping to be able to approach a 17 average Saturday but after the Bissel climb I knew that was out of my range. I started at 16.6 and by the end of the climb was at 15.5. So that was a killer hill to blow out the average that much.

I'm finding lately that it's just better training to ride as many hills as possible. Since most of the mountain biking in north and central Jersey is hilly it translates better. There's never a perfect correlation between the road and the trail but I think the best way to make it close is to ride hills, a lot. So I always keep an eye on the amount of vertical. Unfortunately there just aren't a lot of long climbs in the area.

So biking was good this week even if motivation was a little lacking at times. Felt better overall and I don't think it's far-fetched to say those 8 beers at Vinny's set me back tremendously. I just can't live up to my nickname anymore. That's OK because drinking is an expensive and unhealthy hobby.

I was so unthrilled with the Trek yesterday that I came home and worked on the bearings in the linkage for Julia's entire hour and 40 minutes nap and managed to get the old ones out, the new ones in, and put the bike back together. I would have given myself a 3% chance of doing all that during the nap so it was a major score on that front. Very excited about that.

I needed to partially rebuild the bearing I couldn't get out. As a unit the bearing presses out easily. But when it falls apart and nothing is left but the outer race, forget it. Nothing I did made a difference in trying to get it out. So I popped one of the others out, took it apart, carefully rebuilt the stuck race and popped it out like butter. Was able to press them all back in with the vice and a socket to seat them fully. Sweet!

So hoping to take tomorrow as that elusive vacation day I haven't been able to get. Looking to sleep in, hang out with the family a bit, then hit LM again with the squishy bike. The race at LM is this weekend and I want to run a few laps with the reassembled bike to see how it feels. I've only ridden a mountain bike twice in about 5 weeks so I may ride both Tuesday and Saturday, though not sure I can mentally handle 10 race laps in an 8 day span, so more than likely be on the road again Saturday. If I am off tomorrow the blog will be silent for a day as I never get time to sit down and write at home. Also need to get a haircut and mow the lawn so my off day is pretty busy before Monday even begins. Things just keep on growing around here. Weeds in the flower bed, my hair, the grass, the long list of bike repairs and upgrades, my gut...the list is really endless.

Fa Fa Friday

Gotta be honest, I'm ambivalent about Friday right now. On one hand I am required by law to look forward to Friday each week as it ushers in the weekend and allows me to enjoy longer bike rides, family time, and of course I don't have to work (in theory, reality is very different these days). On the other hand summer is here and that means every free day is filled with doing something. Add it all up and the weekend means I dig myself a deeper sleep hole that I never seem to climb out of. Sometimes it's just much less tiring to go to work.

Some comments before I talk about biking for a change.

Cliffy

"Hey man, the deal was the weigh your clothes after they DRY in order to get an approximate measure of how much salt you are losing."

Well now this is interesting. I would really need to do this before a long ride, say at least 3 hours because in order for my kitchen scale to even register it would need to be in the realm of 5 grams. That's a lot of salt but if it does weight that much then it sure would be an indication I lose a colossal amount of salt. Interesting thought. Something to think about.

Jake

" all i really want to know is how you manage to "pen" all of this on your crackberry w/o your fingers falling off. :)"

It's all in the thumbs, which admittedly hurt some days especially when I cut my thumb nail too short. It's funny this thing has allowed me to become consistent with my writing though. I would love to be able to sit down and just write away but frankly I get too bored too fast if I have the choice to get up and do something (like eat or drink beer or not ride my bike). Being forced to sit on the train for an hour each way gives me a lot of time to burn. The ride is much shorter for me when I'm clicking away on this.

Jake Part 2

"norm, i know EXACTLY how you feel. one very unexpect week in the midwest = many beers + kids are sick + me not sleeping = me not riding < class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">bueno. that is the formula for fatarse."

I guess it's really not as bad as I've been feeling but it still does fee like there's a world of shit to wade through some days, most days. Plus summer equals lots of food and beer every time you turn your head. How does this serious biking thing square with that? I don't know which is why I hesitate to call myself a serious biker at this point. Not that there's anything wrong with that it just doesn't jive with everything I've been doing since January.

Maurice

"Wow just came across this. Good read, I can relate, with 3 kids. To each age its share of things that keep us busy though... Get out and race man! With all this biking it would be a waste not to, plus you don't ever get any younger; unless you push yourself. Cheers! Maurice"

Yeah no doubt it keeps you busy no matter the age. In some ways I feel like it's much more tiring this year than last year but then I'm pushing myself more this year. It would be a waste if I don't end up racing in the next few weeks but I'm not sure about Stewart just because of the bike. Still uncertain right now but I will say I'm pretty fed up with the biking industry at this point.

There's still a lot of year left and the 2 Allamuchy races in addition to Ringwood and the Dark Horse 40 are out there. Plus there's Michaux as well as some MASS enduro stuff that I'd love to squeeze in. Plenty of time to try not to cramp at a race again. I should really put a priority on fixing my bike this weekend.

I'm going to save the coffee comments for another coffee post next week. Now I can actually talk about how my biking is going. Yes I do still ride my bike even though I may be a tub of lard. I've pretty much gotten out of the Build 1 period and I'm sort of slowly transitioning into the Build 2 period. Last week was whatever I could put together. This week has been a little better.

I posted on Tuesday about being too busy so there was just a blurb there. Here is the ride link from that:

[ride link missing because motionbased is down]

I have to say I really enjoy the pattern of the route on the map and I may start planning routes in an attempt to draw pictures. Now that would be a neat little endeavor. I think Tuesday's ride looks like a spoon:

[no image which makes this part of the post useless]

I mentioned I felt good and when I picked up with the paceline riders I was almost surely the strongest of the group, though who knows if they were a light group or not but hanging with them was zero problem at all. They tried to keep it zippy as they passed but I had much more power than the collective and closed the gap without even having to stand. So that made me feel pretty good about where I am right now.

Then I rode Wednesday before we went out to my parents:

[ride link missing because motionbased is still down]

Nothing special in the pattern there:

[nothing special here so no big deal]

That was a nice solid loop with a fair amount of climbing. The real nice thing on this ride is that everything clicked on Wednesday. I climbed better than I have all year which makes me think things are coming together in some ways. To keep a 17.1 on that loop with that much climbing is a pretty solid pace for me. Very happy with that ride.

There was no Thursday and Friday rides because of the rain. I have to be honest I was pretty happy to wake up at 5:00 this morning and see that it was wet out still. I went back to sleep for another 45 minutes and caught the early train. I think it's pretty official that my motivation is gone. It probably boils down to the fact I'm overtired all the time which makes it hard to wake up and easy to eat too much. I haven't put myself in a position to have a sustainable bike season right now.

The dead bike doesn't help either. Right now the Stumpjumper is still in pieces. I took the linkage off and now I need to tap out the old bearings and press in new ones. Unfortunately I don't have a really long bolt to make it work well but I did find a C-clamp over the weekend. The important thing is to not damage the bike in the process. Boy it really would be nice to have the bike to ride the trails again soon. I find it ironic that the owner of the shop I go to bought a new road bike and gave it to his mechanic as a gift. Gee I wonder who helped pay for that?

My weekend is half up in the air as always. I'm going to do one of the hilly 50 mile rides on Saturday but I'm not sure which one. More than likely it will be the big Califon loop. I think that will be over the 3 hour ride limit I am imposing on myself while I get back in the swing of things but it's close enough. After that I have a birthday party a few towns over. I don't have to go but I'm putting in some karma time there.

Sunday the Stewart race is possible but I don't feel like riding it on the old Trek full-rigid since I haven't ridden that bike in well over a year now. I'm sure it would be fine but I'm pretty unthrilled about the idea overall to be honest. So if I don't do that I'll probably keep it on the road and in the 2 hour realm. Then I can spend some time trying to fix my bike so I can race the LMC on it next weekend.

Just for the edification of the readers, ambivalent means pretty much the opposite (or at least the half opposite if that makes any sense) as indifferent. A lot of people think those words are synonyms but that's not the case. While I was ambivalent about including this at the end of the post, I am indifferent if you care. Now how's that for word usage?!

Too Busy

I'm out of my gourd here at work so I have to save the coffee post for another day. Sorry Jeff. I have it mostly written up but I need to do a little bit of searching for links and whatnot. So for now all I have is my ride notes for the day...

I did get out this morning and had a decent loop planned. But when I got to the junction point I cut it off short because I didn't think I could pull off the big loop and still make the 7:27 train. I picked up with 4 guys riding and flew around with them for about 10 minutes until they dropped off to fix some minor mechanical one of the guys was having. It was during that little foray that I realized I'm a lot stronger now that I'm letting on since I had no problem catching up with the 4 of them as they pacelined past me. The unfortunate reality is that I'm probably about peaking right now, and I didn't even ingest any LSD. The previous 2 weeks saw such a reduction in volume that it's pretty much got to be the case. So this week should be good on the bike but on the other hand it's kind of wasted. No matter, this is a nice little break right before the build-up for the Allamuchy race. Lots of tempo riding in the days and weeks to come. I'm sure you'll hear all about it.

It's Coming Back

Work is crushing me like a vice lately which can be both a good and bad thing. Good because the day goes fast and bad because my days are long when I have to stay late. I believe Wednesday marked the final end of my being sick. Colds linger now because as soon as I feel slightly better I push myself. I think that's OK for the most part. Who can afford to wait until they feel 100% to get back on the horse?

Today was another spin in the current fog engulfing New Jersey. This weather is oppressive. It doesn't usually last that long but when it's here it sucks. For the second day in a row I was swimming on the bike, sweating profusely at 5:30 in the morning. The subway stations are like steam chambers.

I wanted to bite off a bit more than yesterday so I set my alarm for 5:00 then hit snooze and then proceeded to sit on the couch after I did finally get up then went in the basement and adjusted the hub I'm working on then took out the recycle bin. By the time I got rolling it was 5:35 so my time limit was 1:10. I decided to just go out 512 for 30 minutes and turn around.

On the hub, the races are a hair buggy so it's not going to spin like butter. Getting it *juuuuuuust* right is always a pain in the ass but if you're not going to do that then why bother? Even Zinn says in The Book that he never gets it right on the first try. Too tight and it grinds. Too loose and, well, it's too loose. I don't think the hub is trash-worthy which is why I kept it. It's just a Shimano 105 series so I can probably find one on Ebay for $20 or even less if I take a risk on a used one. But that's a pretty big risk, say 50/50 on getting a winner.

Back to the bike. When I got out there I was feeling pretty good so I jumped off 512 and cut around the side/back of Allen road on a connecting street I had never ridden before. It was only a mile or so but it was a really gorgeous road. From there on it felt an even better ride. I climbed Allen then headed back home, opting to go through the Millington Gorge instead of the usual up and over the hill. Ended up with a 1:02 ride time.

I think I was lethargic getting on the bike today because the prospect of riding 60 minutes of swamp or 512 is boring. There's not a lot you can do with 60 minutes so it's hard to get excited about that kind of ride. Today's ride was nice. Perhaps I just need to be more creative. Somehow I've got it in my head that if I go out for any less than 90 minutes I'm wasting my time. I think too much.

One of my old Rutgers football buddies, FatCat, commented yesterday:

"Norm, I actually read your blog regularly but mostly because you are a good writer and I get my exercise vicariously through you. That's about all I have to add as my bike is rusting away in the shed right now. Oh, and you're G... never mind."

Hmmm, I wonder what he was going to say. Great? Garfield? Grandiloquent? No matter, I'm just happy to hear you still read. I figure you were one of the guys I killed with the bike topics. I would understand if that were the case. Even my wife stopped reading which is expected. She used to read when I talked about non-bike stuff. But then who has time to read when you're chasing around a kid announcing DADADADADADAD all day? She sees a picture of herself and yells, "DADA!"

Later in the day Terren added:

"Hey Norm, feeling better thanks, although a weekend in the city probably dragged things out longer than necessary. I've been running, not biking, and haven't been out in a week now, which sucks. Cher got sick too, worse than me. Livy thankfully was spared, but her molars are coming in now, which is great fun. Good luck with your bike repair. I'm looking for a decent bike shop as I need some substantial repairs on my MB, but at this point sounds like you'd struggle to recommend one."

Funny our daughter seems to shrug it off too. She actually got me sick and then got over it a few days later while I lived in my little beat down box for a week. Sucks that Cheryl also got sick but at least the little one was spared. Teeth are fun. Julia now has 8, only 12 more to go until they start dropping like flies. Funny expression since I've never seen a fly drop out of the air. I guess it's more socially acceptable than "Drop like a fat lady's bombers."

As for your bike let me take a look at it first. I'm sure I can save you some scratch on some basic details like your drive train and truing up your wheels and so on - the basic junk that shops will ring you up for. If there's anything I can't find the time for I can tell you specifically what to ask for at the shop. But since you have one of those Old Skool bikes without suspension there's not a lot of complexity there. More than likely your whole drivetrain is worn but if it's all worn together you can get away leaving it like it is, especially since its not a bike you ride 5 times a week. You can probably get away with a new chain, rear cassette, and maybe middle front ring for $100 or less.

There's a guy I ride with who lives out your way so I will ask him where he goes. But you know how I feel about bike shops right now so be warned. I called my most local shop a week ago and asked how much the bearing job would cost. They replied, "I don't know." How can you not fucking know? Absurd. At least my regular shop was able to quote me $45.

Later in the evening Steve commented not once but twice! First about my comments/turmoil post:

"great post, norm. kind of like listener appreciation day when the deejay plays the listener requests..."

Thanks! But more importantly thanks for the comments. If nobody read this thing then I'll never keep it up. It's great to have an audience even if they do collectively think you're Garfield. Or is it Grandiloquent?

Then he commented on yesterday's post:

"norm, i thought the rule of thumb was to hyphenate when using a compound modifier. keep up the the good work, my most-excellent blogger."

Not sure that the rules are to be honest. So I could go like blue-green and I would be much more hip than if I were to use turquoise or teal? Or perhaps I could throw out turquoise-teal in my meetings today and see the overwhelmed expressions on everyone's faces? Hmmm, seems a little racy to me. Maybe I'll just use purple and throw them all for a loop.

OK, time to strap on the meat helmet and jump into the work fire. Enjoy your Thursday.

Cancel That Order

Yesterday I placed an order for a case of industrial strength Turmoil (TM), imported fresh-direct from the Middle East. After this morning's ride I'm going to cancel that order. Dropped the seat, made sure it was centered, and everything back to normal. While it might be early yet to proclaim victory there seems to be a 1-to-1 correlation between a higher saddle and various aches and pains.

Speaking of "fresh-direct" why do we seem to need to make up new words, slaughter old words, and hyphenate 2 ordinary words in an effort to make more of an impact? Frankly I find it fresh-annoying. I don't know who used the expression "fresh-direct" but I hope they go under soon. Whatever happened to "Choosy Moms Choose Jiff" or "Hamburger helper helps your hamburger make a great meal."?

Ok maybe that's a bit verbose. What about the directness of the Kool-Aid slogan? Oooooooooooh Yeeeeeeeeah!!! Good stuff, which is probably why our generation's teeth are all rotten now.

I was worried yesterday I might have tendinitis but after reading the pedantic wikipedia entry on it I was pretty sure it was not. Tendinitis sounds awful. After a search for "bike tendon pain" turned up a few pages on bike fit, I gave up worrying about it and decided to play it out this morning and see how it went.

I looked at the races of the hub I'm rebuilding again this morning and it seems I may have been a bit quick to judge it perfectly fine. The non-drive side is good but the drive side is questionable. I'm not sure if it's pitted out or if a thin layer of caked grease is on part of it. This is apparently common so I'll need to try and clean it up better to see if it comes off. I don't want to buy a new hub because if I do I'm going to want to spend the money on a good one, like a Shimano ultegra or, dare I say, Chris King. Then of course I absolutely need (read: not really) new spokes because the ones on there now are pretty heavy duty. Pick 2: light, strong, cheap. Mine are strong and cheap. Light and strong is the replacement direction.

And if I get a new hub and new spokes, well how far behind is the new rim? Let's talk about something less expensive. Walter said:

"I was going to comment on Mondays entry, specifically about your seat and post issues, as this is what I was getting at during our pm's, but then I realized that you were referring to the roadie and not the stumpy, so I didn't respond. Anyway, here is your proof that I read, I feel like I'm at my therapist being forced to talk about my feelings...Keep up the good work, I'll chime in whenever I can."

Does this mean you're The Man Behind the Mask? You could have kept being anonymous I was just wondering if it was a mapmyride employee searching daily for "bike route toaster" and commenting to draw traffic. So much of what you see on the Internet is not what it seems you never really know. For instance, I'm a 12 foot tall Indonesian shoe cobbler.

Speaking of the Stumpy I got my bearings yesterday. Such a small package for such a large number of dollars. When I got home I asked my wife where it was, to which she replied, "I don't know on the floor somewhere she was playing with them." Still in the box of course but just about anything is free game for the Tornado, a nickname more apt every day. When she gets tired at night she doesn't get cranky, she runs around the house making war cries and generally undoing any organization we've managed to bring to the house in the last few hours. When she gets really out of her gourd she begins to whine, at which point one of us will say, "Are you ready for bed?" She will stop, stare blankly, then walk off to the bedroom by herself. Awesome stuff really, especially since she's only 14 months old.

I'm excited yet hesitant to do the bearing job. If it all works out I'll probably go and order another backup set to have on hand. It sucks to be hung like this for so long. The trick is that bearing cartridges like this don't just pop in and out. They fit very snugly so you need a press to get them in. Most of the DIY crowd use a home-rigged tool of a bolt, some washers, and some sockets to press it in. This is why I bought an extra bearing in the event I screw it up.

In any event thanks for commenting Walter. Some bloggers reply to the comments in the comment section of the post but I don't get enough traffic for that to be the case. So all brave commenting souls get personal attention here.

Feedback and Turmoil

I've been getting a lot (for me) of reader feedback lately which is super cool. I mean this blog has been around for like 2 years and all I ever got was spam. So to get real feedback is nice, as opposed to people pointing me to websites about penis growth. So today's post is about reader feedback, then some biking at the end.

Somehow Cliffy has started reading the site again. He and Woody were the only ones for a long, long time. I assumed they both stopped reading a while ago but it appears I was wrong.

Cliffy

Let's see you weigh your clothes before the ride, let them dry after the ride and weigh them again.

There are 2 problems with this. The first is that much of the water weight you lose comes out through your breath. The second is that I wear actual bike-specific clothing now which holds very little water. So most of what I sweat evaporates. The accepted method is to weigh yourself before and after then subtract all the water you drink on the ride. This will give your sweat rate though I don't know where to count the amount you pee.

Jake

what, no love for jake today? bah! post your four bridges ride will ya. i'm curious about your take on it (as i have been for oh, four months now)...plus i'd like a different 40ish loop.

Hey you got mention, I told you to drop the parachute. Good to see that you decided to race the LMC after all. I'm still unsure of that race. I'm thinking some of the more exciting courses. Maybe one of the NY State ones and the Ringwood race almost for sure. Maybe LMC as well. Who knows my life moves in days now if not hours.

thanks for your take on north four bridges. i think there are two briges...but i won't figure that out 'til next week when i get up early and ride past your front door. :)

Well I'm glad you enjoyed the review. If you're really going to do that loop let me make some edits to it. There's a road I would swap out and I would cut the loop at Cross Road. Going to my house then back would be kinda silly. If you want I can make up a crs for you to load on your 305. It wasn't my favorite loop in total. Didn't really like the Chester stuff through town and the route 24 stuff is tolerable but obviously nothing great. But I really didn't want to make it a 50+ mile loop.

Steve

good to hear you are going to start crushing edges again! I am at about 95% and am backing into the biking thing tomorrow. The next week will be all steady road stuff. I am still taking prednisone, which shoots my resting heart rate up over 25 points. I am apprehensive about those effects, constantly moving in and out of the aerobic zone in the woods.

Yeah I've been waiting to make the "I ride for a team" post and it will be titled I Crush Edges! Good luck with getting back on the bike. This has been another bitch of a cold for me. Monday at work was pretty good but a light headache permeates from time to time. So I'm also working back into it slowly. My CTL (long term training load) dropped like a brick in the last week, from 107 to 98. That sucks because it takes a lot of work to get it there.

George

Yea...yea...Switzerland....not Suisse.You make one tiny euro-elitist comment..and they are all over ya...lol.Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better.I will try to enjoy the suffering of das climbs...hope you do too, you vertical addicted maniac.

Yeah better now but not best. I do have some absurd mania for climbing these days. I remember when I lived near Watchung Reservation I used to do a ton of climbing and it made me really strong at it, even at 190 pounds. I still don't feel I'm at a good climbing strength now even though I almost have to be compared to then. Anyway enjoy yourself out there.

Anonymous

You can also try plotting your routes on MapMyRide.com - Topo maps, auto routing (ie, follow roads), gps imports direct from device, as well as cue sheets!

You're not going to get much love with a name like that. But hey, if you want to be The Man Behind the Mask that's cool. About mapmyride, that's great but they took a major hit when I plotted out the big 50+ mile Califon route and tried to download it. It brought me to a registration page. Ouchy. Course gone and patience done. I closed the window. It was a fine interface but that pissed me off. Definition of User Unfriendly. I'll try again later after I register, unless it costs me money in which case I won't.

I gotta be honest that comment sounds like marketing. So if you really do read the blog you should comment again to convince me otherwise.

There are the recent comments. Outstanding! I enjoy it so keep 'em coming. On to biking.

Today's ride was garbage. I'll be honest I'm having a real hard time getting motivated right now. I'm still sick but only slightly, and not enough to make that much of a difference. The odd thing is that both before and after I felt great. But on the bike is shit right now.

I have a King Kong sized saddle sore which doesn't help. But I also still have that left knee/hamstring pain. When I was done with the ride I dropped the saddle back down and made sure it was centered. Hopefully that helps for tomorrow. If not, I really don't know what I'll do. Bridge to be crossed if/when encountered.

On motivation, well today's ride was just tempo in the swamp, 20 quick miles of pancake flat road except for the hill to get in and out. No ride link because the GPS buys me nothing on a ride like this so I left it home. This is a really boring ride and maybe that's part of the problem.

I may be dialing it down a little from here on in. I've built a good base thus far but like I said, motivation is hurting today. I may need to add a little extra sleep each day and cut a bit of ride time. Or maybe keep 2 hefty weekday rides and cut out the Wednesday.

My power also sucked ass this morning. But that may be due to low motivation, knee pain, and not eating anything before the ride. I'm looking to drop some more pounds now, or rather to drop some of the pounds I've put on in the last month. Everyone said it's real easy to gain weight in the high volume season and my average had creeped up from a low of 184 to 188 over the last few months. During my sick week it blew up to 193, 5 pounds in a single week. I've come down off that a bit but not a 5 pound drop. It never magically comes off like it goes on.

So I'm looking to back off my "performance eating" which means when I leave the house at 5:30 with nothing to eat and 100 calories of Heed I'm not going to ramp up to my expected power that well.

There's my season in turmoil. This should have been a post on its own but I'm all about SOC so there ya go.

Pulled apart the hubs last night and this morning and the races look great. No need to replace the hub. I may look to buy a good pair if I can find them on EBay over the next few months but if this overhaul works out there's probably not much need to. A light set of spokes would be nice but I'm not sure I want to pull the wheel apart for that.

Don't Call It A Comeback

I been here for years. Or months at least.

I love that LL Cool J song. Perry Farrell used to listen to that before he went out to perform live. It's always been one of my favorite "pump me up" songs. That and The Day the Niggaz Took Over by Dr. Dre. Talk about a song that really gets the blood flowing. Alternately, talk about a song that really makes you want to go out and pump someone full of lead.

But since this is a bike oriented blog we'll say that these songs are good to listen to before you race XC. Another one would be Mountain Song by Jane's Addiction. The 1-2 punch of Summertime Rolls followed by Mountain Song is fantastic. No better song combination exists, IMO. Now there's a combo that makes you want to sit in a field with a bunch of beautiful souls, drinking in the warm sunshine, and simply be. Then when the second song comes on you can pump them all full of lead. Or, race your bike. Your choice.

By Friday afternoon I was really anxious to get on the bike. Sometime in the afternoon I realized I never took my last 2 doses of medicine and felt just peachy. It was then I decided to do the Four Bridges ride on Saturday and hope for the best to bang out the Califon loop Sunday. On the train ride home I listened to some Wilco (A Ghost is Born) and just really looked forward to the weekend. Good vibes going into it.

Well the day was beautiful but windy. I took it easy to start because I really had no idea what was in the tank. I'll give you 2 links to start. First the mtbnj assessment I did of Four Bridges for Jake. Then the standard motionbased ride link here.

Were there actually 4 bridges on the road? I can't say but I didn't remember 4. I remember maybe 2, at least 1. But then I was actually on North Four Bridges road for the climb. Nice area and I think all in all takes the second spot on my Hill Climb Project. Many more details in the mtbnj link.

A few other ride notes. My lungs were not ready for this. My legs felt pretty good though on the steepest climbs I had absolutely no top-top end at all. On the second half of the ride I was able to ride more aggressively and push the ride average from 15.2 to 16.6 but I don't know if that was the best idea since I had a headache for most of the rest of the day. We were at a neighbor's house and I hadn't taken any medicine when I first felt it coming on. By the time we got home it was a brutal headache and Advil did little to help at that point.

I do have minor allergies and last week was mostly a sinus thing so I think the combo triggered it all to come out again. Therefore I did the smart thing Sunday...and went for another ride. But I made it a long swamp loop, 23 miles, instead of the brutal Califon loop. Ride link here.

I raised my seat a hair (1/4 inch? 1/2 inch?) before Saturday's ride because last week it seemed maybe I was just a bit too low. It felt better but my left knee kept bugging me so I don't think that's the perfect height either. Feels pretty damn close though. I may have put the seat back a bit crooked because my left butt was hurting like hell by the end of Sunday's ride. The longer and harder you ride the more these minor details become apparent.

I also managed to finish up the old Rolf Vector wheels Sunday morning while the family slept. I didn't do any early morning riding either day because it's clear I'm not totally over being sick. This week is thus going to be my "hold" week to get back in the groove and so on. The benefit of that is that I get some guilt-free time to work on my bike in the basement, an area that's looking more and more like a bike shop every week.

The first thing I noticed about the Rolfs was before I even got on the bike. The bike shop had said years ago that my frame was bent, which explained why my tire was a mere millimeters from my chainstay. I took it at face value. Big mistake. When I put the rear Rolf in, it was dead fucking center. I had trued it as best I could. It still wobbled a hair and with a reduced spoke count it's harder to make the slightly bent rim completely true. Well much to my surprise it went in smoothly, dead center on the frame, and much better than the old wheel.

This is a different bike shop than I've gone to recently. So the question is, are any bike shops competent? When I put the wheel on the truing stand before work this morning, it was absurdly out of dish (uncentered). Wow, and wow. The fact of the matter is that you're never going to get the same attention to detail unless you do it yourself. And if you go to a high volume shop in the summer, chances are you're going to have a kid with no experience working on it.

Anyway, coming down the first hill on the new/old wheels I could immediately feel they had much less rolling resistance in the hub bearings. I'm going to repack the hubs I have but I tend to doubt they're going to be as high-quality as the Rolfs. Just as long as the Rolfs stay true after a few rides I'll probably keep them on there. We'll see but maybe I can find a nicer hub for the Mavic rims I have, which will be mandatory if the races are pitted out. Or maybe I'll look into a lighter/stronger spoke set. I'm sure the ones they put on are strong but heavy. But then if I'm going to take the wheel apart it begs the question if I should just build up a new wheel. OTOH if the Mavic rim is fine no sense tossing it since hubs and spokes are cheap. I could end up with 2 quality wheelsets for under $100. Can't beat that with a bat.

Tomorrow I'll tackle some of the comments which have been great. Long day at work today so I got to "sleep in" until 6:30. Might not get home until 8:00 tonight. Blah and blah.

Sick Week Done

Thursday back to work wasn't awful though I did wax and wane my way through the day. By the end I forgot to take my medicine on time and I didn't totally crash, which is a good thing. On the other hand I did sink a bit so I'm not completely out of the woods yet. I played the "better safe than sorry" card and stayed off the bike for a 4th straight day. I had the green light to ride after work but I don't want to screw up my weekend by being impatient.

Sitting on the Path on the way home, the man with the world's largest ass stands next to me. It's pretty gross. If you're 6-4 and weigh 350 pounds you really should watch where you put that thing. Thankfully he got off at the first stop.

More people stuff. A young girl talking to a young guy. No wait, 2 young guys. She's blathering on, saying stuff like, "So then Mark says he didn't know there was a turtle in the soup and Shelly was like NO WAY and I couldn't stop laughing and..." Both guys are wearing expressions like, "I wonder what you're like naked." Other than that they don't seem to care.

I found my bike manual online and got the specs for the bearings that would be in the kit and the cost was $25 before shipping. I threw in one extra bearing and with shipping it comes out to $33. That's for all the bearings on the rear suspensions, the 4 linkage bearings, the 4 dropout bearings, and the 2 swingarm bearings. Compare with the $95 I would spend at the shop and it's a slam dunk. Even if I totally screw the pooch I can go buy another set and try again. Then I can do it a third time and still only come up $4 short. So I take on more responsibility but the cost is considerably lower this way and I have more control.

I guess the only downside is that I have no squishy mountain bike to ride this weekend but I'm not willing to pay an extra $62 just for one weekend ride. I can rent a bike for cheaper. Plus I'd have to find the time to bring the bike down and pick it up. Each round trip usually burns at least 90 minutes so we're talking 3 hours right there which is one nice long road ride.

Still undecided about the weekend. I'd like to get 5-6 hours of saddle time in so that's the general plan. Unsure if I will get up to Four Bridges Road or not. Unfortunately next weekend is going to be like pulling teeth trying to get my time in so I can't take it too easy this weekend. It sucks because I was really liking the idea of the Marysville Enduro next Sunday but it looks like we'll be going to South Jersey and a 4th of July party. So any riding at all Sunday will be difficult at best.

General plan right now is to maybe get in a fast 40-50 mile loop on Saturday then tackle the Four Bridges ride on Sunday. Could also swap that out with a trip out to Califon to climb West Valley Brook and maybe Bissell. Or maybe both of them on consecutive days. I'm on a mission to chart every big climb in New Jersey and rate them all. Might give the Lebanon 52 a shot in 2 weekends, and Fiddler's Elbow isn't too far off the radar either. The big question there is do I drive to that or ride it from the house? That's a pretty big day if I do it all from the house.

I've mapped out a GPS route to get Bissell, Guinea Hollow, and West Valley Brook in a loop. It's about 52 miles with 4000 vertical. If I'm close to 100% I think I could knock that out in about 3:15, or possibly a sub-3:00 if I lay it on the line. The Four Bridges Loop I made is 45 miles and 3550 vertical. So it's a little shorter but a hair more vertical per mile. I'd shoot for a 2:40 on that loop I think, just 2 water bottles so no stops.

Either way I need to get back on the bike soon as I can. I have put on 8 pounds since I stepped off the bike Sunday. I am bloated beyond all control. I have started to retain water like a dam. It's so bad that I start to sweat profusely at any minor provocation. I was sweating Wednesday lacing my wheel back up. I wonder if this is one form of my body's way of compensating for being dehydrated on these long rides. If it is, I'm not a big fan. My first order of business will be getting back on the bike, followed immediately by the second order which will be a steady tempo diet to shed this useless water weight. That will also help me get back into the groove of riding after this very inactive week.

Didn't take any medicine overnight and woke up feeling generally OK. So I think I'm passing on riding again today and calling it a full clear for the weekend. Again last night Julia was a mess until about 11:30. She has the same cold and we gave her a decongestant, which just causes all of the mucus to drain into her throat and stomach. She then coughs profusely, wakes up screaming, vomits it all out, then sleeps really well.

Ah the weekend, just one measly work day away. It looks to be a good one so enjoy it any way you can. Terren, hope you feel better and get on your bike. Jake, sell the parachute. Steve, have fun tomorrow and sorry I can't join. Say hi to Kirt. ChrisG, dunno your plans but I'm reasonably certain your wheels will be on the ground. George, enjoy Switzerland, not fucking Suisse! And Walter, who apparently reads but doesn't comment, hope you have a good weekend making people think you're the worst dad on the planet as you jump curbs with your empty child carrier. Everyone else have fun in the sun.

One Foot Out of the Bucket

I'm no longer on death's doorstep today. Maybe still on his front yard on the way out of town which is the right direction. I'll make sure to crap on the lawn before I head outta Dodge.

When it rains it pours and last night Julia was breaking through a new tooth and her gums were bleeding. From 10 to 11 she woke up every 5 minutes which killed my sleeping, especially since that's when my medicine was in full effect. I need to time that better so medicine and bed time coincide. For the record it's 11:00 pm on Wednesday night as I start this post. You would think I'd be sleeping but no sir that's just not in the cards right now. Hopefully I can get to sleep soon and finish it off on the train.

I didn't go to the doctor but I called and they confirmed that Advil and a nasal decongestant was the solution last time. They wouldn't give me a prescription over the phone. So I went the DIY route and took 4 Advil and a Sudafed every 4 hours. By 2:00 I was feeling a new man. Thoughts of self-molestation gone entirely.

The problem, which I had in 2002 according to the doctor, is such. Basically you have sets of overlapping muscles covering your skull. The front ones are sinus muscles and the back ones are the ones that run down your neck and back and so on. When you have sinus problems it pulls the front muscles one way. When you are overtired or stressed it pulls the back muscles the other way. The result is a conflict which for some is a sinus headache. For me it feels like someone is nailing an ice pick into my head periodically. I consider it in the same ballpark as bad toothache pain. In other words, awful, sometimes worse.

After I became a new man I spent some quality time on my 4 different bike projects. So when I said I was going to start doing this myself I guess I really mean I'm going to do all of it myself, not just most of it.

The big result of the day was getting the SS back to being rideable. What I previously referred to as my SS was a former geared bike that had no derailleurs. So I had a bunch of gears on it but just stuck in one. I removed 2 of the front rings and broke apart the old cassette with a grinding bit to get the gear I needed. Then I spaced the gear accordingly. The last touch was the Surly Singulator which is being used in push down mode because there's too much chain slack. Lenny gave it to me free which was a bonus. He had bent the spring which explains why the push down never worked for him. I worked that out and got that out of the basement around 4:00. Then I raised the seat, lubed the chain, and now we're back to 2 fully functioning bikes. I need to do some work on the cockpit because it's all out of whack with what I like to ride. I'd like new bars, preferably riser bars, and some better grips if it passes as a legit bike. No reason it shouldn't but I'll need to ride it a few times to see.

The full-suspension Stumpjumper went on the DL Tuesday when I took the rear linkage apart and found the bearings on one side shredded. Gary has the kit for 50 plus 45 labor but at this point I can't afford it anymore. I found a full bearing set online for 40, so I'm going to buy that, their recommended grease (or is my Phil Wood good enough?) and have it shipped to me for 52 dollars total. If I'm in over my head I can always bring it to one of the shops.

That basically bags my KVSP race. One more H2H off the radar to be replaced by Ringwood. Not a big deal since a race off a sick week is probably a bad idea.

The road project right now is 2 part. I need to repack my hubs but I don't want to take them apart and find the races of the hubs grooved which would render the hub shot. So I decided to unlace my old Rolf wheel that came with the bike and try to bend the rim back to true a little bit. I did it but it wasn't easy. Those Rolf rims are heavy duty which is expected on a wheel with fewer spokes. I laced the spokes back up and now I need to get my truing stand which should be coming this week. I usually just use the bike as a truing stand but we're going big time baby!

When that's done I can swap the wheels and repack the existing hubs. I may leave the Rolfs on there since they are oh so much more sleek. As the year goes on I will probably look to build myself up a nice light set of wheels but that's just off the radar for right now because light rims equal money and right now money is still an object.

That leaves the old Trek full-rigid geared mountain bike which was, up until yesterday, a trainer bike. But since I'm done with the trainer for the season I took it off the stand and pulled the rear wheel off. I got the slick off the rim and found a Velociraptor read tire to throw on but then it was dinner time.

There are a few things to work out on that bike but until I get the SJ back rolling that and the SS will be my primary off-road rides. I don't think either of them will see time this weekend since I will likely be all on the road.

So that's how the stable looks right now. More or less as sick as the old man, I suppose.

I like reader feedback so I will post my last few comments here and reply.

Steve

"next time buy a trance and spend the 100 bucks on the keep it rolling program. 5 years, wear & tear replacement, baby. Expect to drop about $150 for tools if you choose to go that route. BTW, what team do you race for?"

While I would never buy a bike solely on the maintenance program, that surely makes it pretty darn attractive. I find it insane that they offer that since the drivetrain itself would blow that 100 fee out of the water in 2 years. Not everything I had done would have been covered but most of it would. I still think Gary should have tried to get me a new seat post from Specialized. Still not happy about my experience there. When I told him about the problems he said, "Sorry." Not much customer service there. Can you tell I have soured on my shop? Am I repeating myself? Sorry, I'm just not a happy customer. I'll stop now.

I'm covered on the tools as I have a mostly complete Park set. I just need a few parts here and there. The team I race for is p9 SortsGroup, which is that EdgeCrusher racing team that got lit up on MTBR. The guy who put the team together approached me and asked if I'd be interested. It's usually not my thing because I hate to be tied down to anything but I said sure, why not.

ChrisG

"IMO, a "holding" week followed by a "rest" week will not put you into a slide. Not with the way you've been training. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that you'd reap benefit in a couple of weeks, perhaps just in time for a lengthy goal event..."

Yeah I don't really know what I was thinking when I wrote that. Perhaps the initial stages of my sickness setting in. Mentally I was thinking rest week followed by a rest week, but a hold week is plenty. At this point it's moot anyway since I've been off the bike 3 days and the chances of me going for a ride when I get home from work are slim. I'm thinking rest week then hold week next week so I don't jump into it too fast from being sick this week. I just hope being sick doesn't offset any gains I might have made.

Terren

"Misery loves company... I overdid it on Monday and now have a summer cold."

Are you riding or jogging or going to the gym or what? What did you end up doing with the sports drink? Either way I hope you feel better soon.

Jake

"my head was all clogged up today along with not sleeping b/c riley was up at 5A. anyway, get well."

Thanks, and sorry you've been caught as well. I guess it's that time of year. Isn't today the first day of summer?

That's about all I have, which is plenty to read really. Not sure if I'll be on the bike before the weekend or not, but I hope to get 2 solid rides in this weekend.