Hmmm What to do, what to do?

Ok, I strained my tendons in my right knee, well it feels like that I think. Hurts going down stairs, unless I go down them backwards and slowly. So that being said, I should take a couple of days off from bicycling, and hope I can hit the trails this weekend. So what should I do then? Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap Ok I will go lift weights, and tune up (tapping fingers) a couple of my bikes.
Ok that's done, cleaned up my road bike, and my cycle cross. Lifted weights for the first time in weeks.
Watching TV drnking a beer, reading blogs, looking at web sights, looking at buying new bike shorts and jersey, ordered another Racing Ralph rear tire with a slime tube even though I have trashed two of them way before they wore out.
Thanks for stopping,
Dave

Gravel Travel

Still had one more vacation day left from last year so I took off work today. Weather was beautiful, saddled up my cycleCross and rode 65 miles on gravel, single track and trail. Pushed the pace for the first 25 miles, felt easy, then it seemed to become work. I tried for the most part not to get lackadaisical and keep the pace moving.

The video clip is at the end of my ride today and coming back into town.

Hurt my right knee, really getting stiff now. I had to stop fast because of a cement ledge in my path. I didn't realize that where I put my right foot down was a drop off, my tip of my right foot caught the edge of the cement ledge as I was falling forward and strained my knee, oh well, I hope it's a fast heal. Ice'n down now and took 600 mg of Advil.

I almost turned into a tree Sloth today.

Came home after work, was beautiful biking weather out, plopped my arse on the couch and Judge Judy turned into the evening NEWS as I slipped into a coma and came back out of it. So now my Sloth part of me started doing the thinking. I start thinking tomorrow I am going to do a long ride, I feel zapped after falling asleep, so maybe I should take the day off from biking.

Started reading a couple of Blogs of TransIowa bikers, and couldn't stand it no more after seeing what these guys were willing to endure. Off with the work clothes, on with the biking gear. So glad I did. Legs were strong, bike felt light, flew on the pavement. Goes to show, don't listen to your sloth side, some days you do need a day off, but don't let your "sloth" side decide that.

Tomorrow I shall seize the day, gravel travel, with the day off work. The only problem, my biking addiction is not letting me get my house projects done. Hmmm oh well.

OK over and out.

Dave

Day off

So after work my mind said let's ride, and my legs said NOT!! So I actually listened to my legs. They felt heavy on the stairs today. So the plans are 90 minutes tomorrow of pavement ripping, and taking Wednesday off of work and grinding on gravel for a 62 miler.

So I utilized the time I gained by not riding after work, and ran errands, picked up grocercies, had car oil changed, cut grass, and visited with my parents.

Had an odd event occur today. I half a block up the street, there was for some reason a 3 years sitting in the drivers seat, and his one year old brother sitting in the passenger seat of their van. The three year old was some how able to put the van in neutral and the van started rolling backwards down the street. Fortunately, very very fortunately I might add the van crashed into two of my pine trees. Which greatly cushioned the crash. No one was hurt, the van was totaled and two of my 31 pines trees I planted way back in 1981 are now deceased. Much much better then seeing somebody get hurt.

That is all I know for now.

over and out

Dave

Another ride.

Whooaa, Trigger, we are not crossing here.

Saw this future hamburger from a country bridge. I believe if God did not want us to eat beef He would not have made cows out of hamburger.

Rode my legs off, until there was no more left. Legs are fatigued, but feels good to get the kind of work out I did this weekend. Rode a dirt century, some rain, wind gusts, a cool day. Did not see another biker all day. Don't they know they're missing out on a lot of fun?

Hope your weekend went well too.

Dave

Rain, a long gravel road, and a bike.

Enjoyed the solitude that rain and country riding brings. Rode 65 miles on gravel roads and dirt trails. Drizzled in the beginning, rained hard after my turn around and stopped raining before I finished.

Had to stand on the pedals and crawled forward at times the wind and rain was so gusty.

Packed two 32 oz water bottles and a 24 oz Mountain dew to wash down my two granola bars. Lost my pop somewhere on the trail and found it again after 50 miles and riding my way back home, laying on the trail. Stopped in the town of Dyersville at my favorite pop machine and refluided. Wore my rain jacket and rain pants and a water proof helmet cover, would take them on and off as rain started and stopped. MPH was slow, gravel and dirt was sloppy and sticky, tires didn't roll easily. Came home and went into a feeding frenzy and ate chicken, rice, lasagna, cheese, and sausage. Part of the fun of riding 6 hours in wet, windy conditions.

Well thanks for stopping, I hope for more of the same tomorrow.

Dave

Rain followed my more rain.

Tomorrow's plan. It's the weekend, I am off work. I don't want to sit around just because it's raining. So I'll put on my best rain gear and head out to do some country riding.

Riding around town.

Riding around town tonight for about 90 minutes, streets and bike trails. Seemed I didn't have the gas to push it hard, so I just kept a steady pace and enjoyed the sights. Made this video of the bike trails that weave around the river, and you end up on an island on the Mississippi river. I haven't found a helmet cam yet that suits my needs, so I taped my regular camera on the handle bars. Weather person is talking lots of rain this weekend . I hope I can put some serious country miles in. I don't mind a drizzling and bicycling, but I can do with out the violent storms and bicycling. I enjoy watching the big storms from my front porch.

TI (TransIowa) is this weekend. Somewhere around 340 miles all on gravel and dirt around the clock, those guys are manimals. The race is legendary. I enjoy reading the biker's blog regarding their trials and tribulations in this race.

My dog is highly ticked off at me for my blog posting of her yesterday. She said it makes her look fat. I said, "camera's don't lie"

Well thanks for visiting.

Dave

My dog got into the Puppy Chow

My dog got into the Puppy Chow, now look at her.

Actually I purchased a copy of Photo Shop, and LQQK out it's picture altering time. You may be next.

Over and out.

Dave

Day Seven

Got home after work did the 10 minute power nap, and half a cup of coffee and got on the bicycle. Seems to charge me up. Was able to ride hard, push the pace, do a few "secret races" with a couple of riders out there. This was day seven in a row of biking and working the pace. I know I can only push it so far without a rest day, but I'll take all the riding I can get. Riding fast on pavement, cutting corners, watching out for traffic all fun stuff. Wonder dog Pitty waiting on back deck.

Oh and one other thing, my AOL Email account has been spamed. So if you get some weird Emails from daviegie@aol.com, it wasn't me. Really, truely, no kidding, hackers did this.
Niters
Dave

Getting down with Puppy Chow

A father and son moment. Joshua and I are whipping up a batch of Puppy Chow. Carbo loading at it's MAX. I'm the one with the chocolate bowl, my speciality expertise.

Had fun riding tonight. Riding pavement mixing with the vehicles. I am web surfing, LQQK'n for some new cyclecross tires. I ruined my 2nd Racing Ralph by gravel ripping a chunk out of them, and my slime tire sealant blowing out of a too big of hole to seal. So google is taking me places.

Gotta go, the Puppy Chow is calling me.

Have a good day, or evening.

Over and out.

Dave

Riding in town, and watching a Crit.

Didn't want to wait for the train, so I rode against the flow until I could cross. Rode all around this town for a couple of hours. Plenty of hills to make it fun. Some before the Crit race started and some after. Is going to be a busy work week, this week. Will be glad when it is over. We will be trying to start up the boiler/turbine/generator after repairs and new improvements. Hmm, and my concern is not working so long that it prevents me from getting my arse on a bike after work. Perhaps narrow minded, but no regrets about that. :-)

Above Cat V, just starting their 12, one mile laps.

This is the Cat 3 group. I timed their last lap of one mile that is curvy and slight rolling hills. 2 minutes flat. That is 30 miles per hour. YIKES.

Ok, CMA is on, and for those that don't like country, that stands for Country Music Awards. :-)

Over and out.

Dave

Guess what? I rode my bicycle today.

Well, I must confess, I went around this sign. (Yo no hablo ingles) Rode out on the trails. Was windy and cold for the first couple of hours, then both me and the air started to warm up, and my wind jacket, gloves, and light head cap came off. Today it took effort to push the pace, it did not come naturally as the best rides do. Faster riding equals increased pleasure. Other riders were scarce, I think I saw 4, I rode 62 miles on bicycle trails and saw only a few other riders. Makes me wonder "why" ?? Or where O where, are there not other bikaholics out there? Tomorrow is my road bike and pavement. Always fun to pick up the pace, and going from dirt to pavement always makes the ride feel zippy.

Stopped at the outdoor "Cement Slab restaurant," and ordered pizza and Mountain Dew, they did not have glasses, Parmesan cheese, or beer, but I was so hungry after skipping breakfast and riding I didn't care.

Hope you had the time to saddle a bike and ride today.

Thanks for visiting.

Dave

FaceBook and Nuns

See below, my daughters post on FaceBook tonight. Geeepers Creeeepers. That is too funnny.

"Melissa Hunter is waiting for Brook to finish staining cabinets. In the mean time, go see this post from my dad (he's mildly insane, plus he likes it when people read his blog). "

I got to fly around on pavement tonight on my road bike. Wind buffeted me, made for a fun ride. Up and down hills for an hour. Part of my route is through a private section where a nun's home is. I was headed down a hill and watching a nun walk towards me just left of center of the road, and didn't notice a car pulling out in front of me from a parking lot to my right. When I did see the car in front of me, I was going about 20 mph. I locked up my rear brake, and half throttled my front brake, and started sliding sideways. The nun in the car that just pulled out in front of me was reading something and not even looking at me, she heard my yell and looked at me as we narrowly missed a collision. Somehow I think I would have gotten the worse of this had we crashed. Ya gotta love it.

Tomorrow I am headed to country riding, and gravel roads, for 62 miles, for another 100K in the dirt. I want that tranquility and good thoughts that riding 5 hours of country roads brings. I am looking forward to up the ante and doing 100 milers, but for tomorrow I have to much other stuff I need to get done around here so I'll keep it at 100K.

Peace and happy rides at ya.

Dave

Hi Ho the Dario a bik'n I will go.

View of my ride through Eagle Point park tonight and a storm blowing up the river.

Seems the work demands and time schedule has been a bit a-typical for an outage. Or in other words I have not had to work so many hours that bicycling came to a halt. A.K.A. time for bicycling. Went out hill climbing tonight, rode for a hard hour. Leg burn felt good. Wind was blowing me around all over, was fun. I have to figure how I can get the usual spring duties done around the house and still spend billions of hours on a bike. Hmmm, I have to work on that.

My son, Caleb called me on the way to work saying he might run out of gas on the way home tonight, and had no money in his pocket to get gas. Sweet, NOT!!!! He works 15 miles out of town, so I hope I don't have to go pick him up at 1:00 a.m. this morning. He is trying to stay employed, and is a hard worker, but jobs have been scarce lately. So it is what it is.

So I gotta go see if I can find the germs that have infected one of my computers, it has been taking over by a slew of viruses and is hardly usable.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dave

Back in the saddle again.

Was able to cut out of work after 9 hours. Decided the legs had two days off and it was time to punish them. Grinded for an hour, the adrenalin rush was a good buzz. Riding my road bike on pavement, first the legs felt heavy then they seemed to get lubricated and wanted to fly. I've been missing my nightly ride after work the last week due to long work hours. The Chainreaction Criterium is this Sunday, I taped my camera to handle bars and recorded a lap, one lap is a little over one mile I think.

A turtle, A flat tire, and a metric.

Great day for a bike ride. Drank all my fluids (86 oz) by mile 25, so rode into a nearby town, and loaded back up at the pop machine. Before I got to my turn around point, I noticed I was flying 22 mph, on gravel, at only 100 bpm heart rate. This could only be one of two reason, either I had turned super human, like those speedsters in Mn. :-) Or, I was in a huge tail wind. Well when I turned around, it proved to be the second reason. I was now going 9 mph, with a zone 4 heart rate. Was glad to get down into the trees so the wind would quit harassing me. On the way back I felt something wet hit the back of my leg. The trail was dry, so I was puzzled. Then I noticed my rear tire had lost most it's air. The wet spray was "slime" blowing out of my tire from a puncture. I was amazed that the slime sealed the leak, and I was still pedaling with low psi. Well that didn't last long, 10 minutes later I felt another blast of slime, and I was riding on my rims. So stopped and replaced the tube, and put a patch on the inner tire where a puncture hole was, and headed on.

Saw this muddy creature. I think he just crawled out of his winter slumber. I think it's a snapping turtle, I tickled it's nose with a stick and there was no response. I thought should I see if I can touch it's nose with my finger, then I remember these guys can amputate a finger easily. So I left well enough alone, I hope nobody picks on Mr Turtle and he stays out of harms way until he wakes up. I wish I could ride all week, to see the march of the turtles as they crawl out of their holes and head towards the ponds. Some years I've seen some huge ones.

Stopped and had lunch on stump.

You know losing your hair isn't all bad. It makes it easier to check for ticks after a day in the woods. Rode a metric century in the dirt, I think that's dirty century #10 for the year. Maybe a good goal would be to do 100, either metric or 100 miler for the year, one hundred, one hundreds. Has a good ring to it. It's rides like today and yesterday that I realize how much I love pedaling a bicycle. I know I won't do this forever, everything has a season. But for now, I'll enjoy the ride, ride often, and be grateful.

OK I think I have another 5 days of extra hours at work Monday through Friday. I'll have to see.

This coming Sunday is the annual Eagle Point Criterion bicycle race in town. Crits are fast, bunched and curvy. I'll pass on this one, however I plan on doing some film clips.

So I hope you got to do something fun today too. Play is more important then work, both are needed for a good healthy balance.

Over and out.

Dave

Let's go, Let's go.

XO2 says quit procrastinating and Let's go your burning daylight.

Country style

I found my "happy place" it was somewhere between my ears and miles of riding and exploring country side on a bicycle.

This is part of what used to be railroad. I could tell by the very old telephone poles that followed along with me. I enjoyed exploring like this. Made for some slow-go, but was worth it, enjoyed the new sights. Rode 62 miles, my usual 100K metric dirt centuries, that are becoming a habit.
Out field riding, cycle cross Trek XO2 worked perfect for this style of ride.

Burgers and beers made for a perfect ending for a dirt century. I add spinach, chives, oats, onions, grated cheese, and eggs to these burgers, delicious they be.

I was the only one in my work group that didn't work today. I work for a electric utility we are in an outage where the plant is shut down and yearly repairs are done, I've been working there for the last 33 years. I probably have more work hours in the last 15 years then any other employee there. Perhaps at times too busy, especially back then being a single parent with full custody and raising the kiddies. Now I think it's that time in life to play more. I've never heard a retiree say, that they had wished they had worked more often. Today was great. Priceless, rides like this. Tomorrow, hope for more of the same. :-)

I hope you had fun today too.

Dave

OH lQQk "happy baby face" is here

Yes, the "happy baby face" is out. I have lots of bicycling planned this weekend. I now have tomorrow off. Yahoooo. Oh and thank you Grandson Cole for the graphics. Your a cool dude.

Hope you get to play this weekend too, it's worth the effort.

Dave

Waaaahhhhhhh.

I have a plan, fake death, and not show up this weekend for work and ride bicycle. :-)

Graphics brought to you by Cole Alexander future bicycling junkie from Lakeville Mn.

Lonely Girls

I heard crying out in the garage, so I checked it out. These bikes were huddled together, lonely and missing attention.
But seriously folks, work has been long days and challenging. So far, so good. Just no time to 'get on my bike and ride'
Drove by the bike shop on the way home yesterday, dropped in, and came out about 400 bucks lighter, wheel, heart monitor, and brake pads, all mid grade.
Dang nabbit, I don't know where I left my bike light, would like to catch a ride even if late night, if I can energize up. So ride a bike, if you can, and have good thoughts.
Dave

Easter Travels

Good day for riding. Saw other bikers, practiced my social skills and did the head nod hello's. Ran into a swarm of a googleplex bugs. I was covered with them. They looked like baby mosquitoes. If they were mosquitoes I'm glad their swords weren't developed or I'd be full of punctures.

This critter was out. Anybody know what kind of snake this is? Soon the snapping turtles will come crawling out. I see them every year out on the gravel roads and trails, still sluggish from their winter sleep. Some of them are huge, their choppers can amputate a finger easily.

This tree caught my eye, it might be a Hobbit's home.

Rode another dirty century 100k (62 miles) on the gravel. Came home and saw my mama brought over Easter bunny candies, so I went on a eating frenzy. Now the next two to three weeks will be very limited biking due to work hours. I tell myself I'll let the small aches and pains heal up with the down time.