Bicycling Is Proof That God Loves Us And Wants Us To Have Fun

It doesn't get any better then this...

2012-02-08T00:03:00.003-06:00

It's different now, then what I've been forever used to as more then a full time blue collar worker since 1971. I'm not getting up and going to work every morning, being off work recovering from shoulder surgery. Week days and weekends don't differentiate much from each other, days just seem to run together now. I find myself falling into the same pattern that repeats itself every 24 hours.

Waking up when the sun comes up I suspect was once Neanderthal's natural pattern before alarm clocks existed and seems I am now following this pattern when my alarm clock isn't necessary.

After coffee, letting the dog out and back in again, some computer nothingness I soon find myself warming up in my dungeon basement on my indoor bicycle trainer.

If cycling only existed on indoor trainers, all cycling would soon come to an end for me. Guarantees of a longer, healthier life would not offer enough rewards to be pedaling in my basement going nowhere. I do this only because I suspect by the end of next week my doctor will release me to go back to work, and when I walk out of his office my legs will be more then ready to take me places rotating pedals on a FatTire bike on a snow covered trail in North East Iowa.

My heart rate monitor hits 130 beats per minute, telling me I am adequately warmed up and ready to begin my daily 90 minute self inflicted hurt. 90 minutes is all I can tolerate, it is my self agreement I made with myself that I need to accomplish daily.

10 minutes, 20 minutes,30 minutes, and a million thoughts now become one hour. 30 minutes left and I push harder to keep my heart rate up to the required commitment.

I am finishing now, 90 minutes is up, I am crossing the 'finish line' I beat everybody, every compromise, every excuse not to do this.

The rest of the day is spent watching Judge Judy, the local news, reading some body's thoughts on the Internet and mediocrity. I'm thinking it won't be long and I will be spending the day riding snow mobile trails on a FatTird bicycle.
CHEERS!!!!
Dave

Lions should run free....

2012-01-30T00:08:00.026-06:00

Continously, over and over rotating the pedals around, and around, and around. Staring at the clock it says 34:45. I have been pedaling for 34 minutes and 45 seconds. It seems much longer than that. My Timex heart rate monitor, it keeps me honest. My goal is to hold 80% of my max heart rate for the entire ride. There is no easy way to do this; I have to hold the mind set of push, push, push, push, to keep my heart rate at that level for this long. I close my eyes, and keep rotating on the pedals. I don't know how much time passes, it seems like almost forever. The first thing I look at when I open my eyes is the clock. It says 38:52, only 4 more minutes have gone by.

Pedaling while standing up for a while, my heart rate drops, even though it seems like harder work, I speed up, going nowhere to increase my heart rate. I am on day 2 of my commitment, to hold this heart rate for 1.5 hours every day.

This is only being done so when the day comes and two hands can be put on the handle bars again I will be able to ride with legs that will want to finish the journeys that need to be rode.

Slipping into a daydream my heart rate drifts downward, I pick up the pace to pick my heart rate back up again and I begin to train myself to keep my heart rate up and still day dream at the same time. To be able to drift away, in my mind, go somewhere else, like the places you go when you are waiting alone for a long time in a doctor's waiting room, and yet still have my legs firing up and down continuously maintaining an intense effort.

My IPOD changes songs, high energy rock. It is my training set of songs I use for hard days on trail rides. For a moment it almost makes me think I am climbing a long hill on some trail, my bike rocking back and forth with every stroke, and I am happy to be out here and to conquer this hill.
Then I realize I am still in my basement, head almost hitting the ceiling, riding on my stationary bicycle.

My mind starts drifting off again to over 50 years ago. A small boy watches a lion pace back and forth in his cage. I think about that lion, I would watch a long time ago when my parents would take me and my brothers and sisters on our yearly pilgrimage to the Madison Zoo. He would always be pacing back and forth, in his jail cell. He committed no crime, he didn't belong in there, and I think he was just waiting to die. I always wished I could break him loose, and free him from that prison zoo, and he could run free once again.

I wait for the day I am out of here, and not pacing back and forth going nowhere.

The clock rolls over from 129:59 to 1:30.00. I stop pedaling immediately. Finished for the day. I will be back tomorrow and do this all over again.

I have hopes, and dreams, and a look forward to the life that is yet ahead of me. I realize there are many that their hopes and dreams don't exist anymore

I remain grateful for what I have.
CHEERS

Dave

?? Has anybody seen the kNIGHT RIDER ??

2012-01-20T17:34:00.030-06:00

Brevity is going to have be the theme for now on this Blog. I know, hard to imagine that for me, thee "King of Pontification." But you see I am typing with one finger for reasons seen below.

After Years of weight lifting, a couple dozen bike crashes or more and 3 shots of cortisone in less then 8 months and a recent MRI I find myself Friday morning nervous and looking for my best pair of underwear for a trip to the hospital and shoulder surgery. Rotator cuff was thin and with a tear if it would have ripped anymore it would have lengthened and compounded recovery greatly. My doctor removed bone that was causing impingement, an inflamed ligament, and a swollen bursa. He did some other stuff but I was too "high" to remember anything else he told me.

So, without any further ado, I'll wrap this up for now.

I want to come back soon and write about the Triple D race I was in last Sunday. Being with some of the riders that made the top 18-25 group yet in Dyersville, past the half way point and after all the hills, and ending up 30th has some Bonk written in it. Being the oldest in the top 30, at almost 59 and with around 75 experienced riders signing up, thoroughbred stallions, with 20 or so not finishing I am quite happy with the effort. That being said I still have improvements to identify ( I knew I should have shaved my legs :-) . The nature of this type of competition fits my OCD well, and lets me obsess about the details. Training styles, recovery, equipment, clothing, nutrition, and on and on. I am not alone in this, most the cyclists competitors I know do so.

My daughter, yes I said my daughter Melissa, a new entry into the the endurance winter events took 2nd in the women's marathon. Awesome. Melissa you rock!!

Lance Andre did invite me up front for some special swag for my help in setting up the distances, but this is what I had to say about Lance and Traci, on Face Book, and this goes out to all you race directors/organizers/volunteers/sponsors you give and give and we participants get to reap the benefits of all your hard work.

"Lance and Traci: Triple D is and continuing to be one of the best run, most fun bike/ski/run races in the Midwest. The growing popularity shows that. I've seen the 100s of hours you've put in. With out these efforts and the efforts of other race directors/organizers we who bike-ski-run would lose a big part of what we do. We target races like these, set goals, train, and go out and enjoy the hell out of events like Triple D. From all us Thank you...."

Now I realize I said I was going to keep this brief but I think the drugs are kicking in....I have just one more thing to say and then I will go.

I strive to keep this Blog with a G rating for General audiences. But sometimes it slips into the PG-13 rating. So if you don't qualify for the PG-13 rating please DO NOT scroll down

Below is a picture of my bike when I broke the news to her we would not be riding for awhile.

She gave me this obscene gesture..

OK, umm, being were in the "PG-13" category now I have just one more thing to add. Try this. Stick your dominate hand/arm inside your shirt and try to do some of the basic bodily needs we do each day, and no, I am not talking about buttoning your shirt!!! Uh huh!!! You get the idea, this is going to suck.

Dang I want to go riding too, hopes this recovery goes well and fast.

Oh just one more thing, I know some of you think that I just might be the kNIGHT RIDER and your worried I won't be out there at night protecting the trails from the evil villains. Umm, Quite frankly I am worried about that too.

CHEERS!!!!!

Triple D you got your snow.....

2012-01-12T07:57:00.026-06:00

Here is Dubuque, 6:00 a.m. Thursday morning 1/12/12. 3-5 more inches coming yet. Triple D does it again. A FatTire riding event. I will post some pictures later of the Trail conditions.
Ride On.

So after this Triple D miracle blizzard most of us will now quit obsessing over what bike we were going to ride in Triple D. With this much snow, bicycling over farm fields, trails, rutted paths, and B roads, riding only a FatTire is starting to make too much sense to ignore. So being a lot of us borderline on OCD and need something else to worry about we will now change our thoughts and obsessions to what Fat Tire combination to go with. Nate, or Endo, or Larry, or Big Fat Larry or Husker. To be mounted on 70, 80, 90, or 100 Rims. Then we'll think about how much air pressure for each tire.

Then if we get close to figuring out that challenge we will then ponder what gearing combinations to use. Then I'll start to wonder how much clothing should I wear, with temps being around 11f Sunday morning, but warming up to the upper 30s as I warm up too.

Then I wonder how will I store my extra clothes, I will need to remove layers as things heat up. I don't want the extra weight of a back rack.

What about lighting, how much should I take? With all this snow slowing down the pace I don't think my helmet light will be enough. Finishing Triple D for us non front runners, is thee challenge.

Fluids, how much? I would like to pack enough to make it to Dyersville, the turn around point.

I can't forget my multi tool and chain repair tool and spare link and on and on.

Do I need my poggies? Almost like miniature sleeping bags that fit over your handle bars to stick your hands into to keep warm. The problem is I need them at 15 degrees when we start out, but they will be too warm by noon.

How about calories? I like to eat 200-300 calories an hour when cycling. I will burn up more then that but that is all I can digest and convert into glucose per hour.

I will pack a spare tire tube and air pump and a tire patch kit.

An IPOD will come along for the journey. It would be typical for me to find my pace and find myself riding the last hours alone and music makes good company.

Every bolt needs to be checked on my FatRig, and I will stop now with how most cyclist think about preparation, you get the idea.

I have friends, and know people who can win this race. They have most the same thoughts and even more thoughts based on experiences and the harsh training mentor called past failures.

Out of all these unknowns, I do know this. After riding 9 hours plus from daylight to dark, across frozen country side, and finishing at the Grand Harbor Resort that first drink, will feel well earned and taste delicious. The others that follow are just obligatory for the occasion.

There is now over 155 folks, chumping at the bit and ready to get started signed up for this race. Lance and Traci Andre, I've caught a glimpse of the 100s of hours of hard work that you two put into this 'ride' to make it work. I find what started out as a idea in 2007 and now in it's 5th year and brings this many people together in the middle of winter, in Iowa, for an outdoor event, more then wonderful. Thank you.

Ride on.

Dave

Has anybody seen a snow man?

2012-01-10T18:32:00.009-06:00

I've become quite concerned about them lately. All they do is lay around the house, depressed, drinking beer, talking about past winters, previous blizzards, and what winters 'used' to be like in Iowa.....

.....and such has been the snow season in Iowa this year. But I decided I still can ride even if the weather is 'bad' like no snow, no freezing temps, and no blizzards. I have skinnie tyred evil bikes in my stables too yanno.

Did a mud run 1/5/12 with the Trek Cycle Cross bike. I don't like to leave tracks and after climbing some hills that were shade covered I hit an open field. In 50 feet packed mud would no longer allow the tires to rotate I ended up carrying the bike across a farm field and onto the highway, finding a stick and removing enough mud to ride home and spent the evening crying and drinking beer.

I received an Email from Craig from over yonder saying him and Charles were coming to town and wanted to try out the Triple D race route and asked if I would be interested. I responded with yeap. I briefly met Craig in person last year during a Pre-race meeting. We did the customary head nod like people do when they got a thousand other things on their minds at the time. At the race he got ahead of me and I never caught up. That was the last time of real life contact we've had. We continued to corresponded back and forth in Blogdom.
So early Sunday morning I pedaled down to the Grand Harbor Hotel and saw two guys unloading their bicycles from the back of the pickup.
And we rode, and rode, over farm fields, gravel roads, and trail. We had a blast, talked and talked and had a great time. When humans share like passion to the level us bikeaholics do it's like you've known each other your whole lives the first day you hook up.
Craig is doing well and getting serious in competitive biking. Charles is a pedaling machine. We were headed up a very steep rock infested rutted hill. Charles got out ahead of us, front tire bouncing off a rock and down he went hard. Back on the bike and away he went. Not to be out done, I was next in line to bounce off the hard frozen ground. The difference is Charles is 26, I am 58.

Headed down a short hill grass path, accelerating to make the short steep climb which was next, tires hit the bottom of the hill and instantly change directions from down to up. A large boulder tip glazed with ice, and hidden in the grass met my front tire, bike kicking out from under me, and the momentum slamming me into the ground, even made my fillings hurt. Gawd I love this.

Some pictures below of an afternoon to evening ride on 1/2/12. Sun went down, moon came out.

There's a contest going on over at the Cup-O-Dirt web sight. Seems the challenge is to guess how many dirty metrics I have done for 2011. Nick the web sight master is threatening me with kidnapping all my 'gals' if I don't do a count.

Ok Ok, I will go to my blog, FaceBook and my diary work records and do a century count. But I think this borders real close on extortion.

Now I must say this, and then I will finish, I shall shuddup, and let you get going. Last week I had my 3rd shot of cortisone in my right shoulder in 7 months. My doc doing a real through examination became quite concerned about the looseness of the joint. The MRI technician with a busy schedule worked through her lunch to give me a MRI and I laid on the examining table for 45 minutes while the machine clicked away taking magnetic pictures of my shoulder's insides.
To make a long story short, and translate the medical jargon, it is this. It will never heal on it's own.
Seems bike crashes, years of weight lifting, 100s of miles as a swimmer and just an active life of wear and tear has now come to collect it's due.

So on Jan 20th 2012, I will have surgery. Impingement bone will be cut away, rotator cuff will be trimmed, bursa removed and smoothing up rough services, along with a few things I forgot.

I didn't tell my doctor I am in a 65 mile bicycle race snow covered farm fields, trails and gravel this Sunday. I didn't think he would understand. But unless you do this, most people don't. I'm not sure I do.

Well I think I will officially be entering the feared 'off season' unvoluntarily I might add.
Those close to me are frightened and thinking of running away, I would too, but I've found out that where ever I go, that is where I will find myself.

I'll be back,
Dave

The Last day of 2011

2011-12-31T23:56:00.015-06:00

It wasn't the plan starting out, but I think the last day of the year ended up being one of the hardest days on the bike for the whole year. I put new parts on my Cycle Cross, and wanted to try them out.This included Salsa Woodchipper bar which gives, I think better control in off road conditions then the standard drop bars. Combine that with new Shimano Tiagra brake and shifters which add more hand room and comfort. I wear a XXL glove and this combination gives more space and hand room in the cockpit then the smaller road version allows and the ergonomics are also improved.
Also I added bigger gears in the back end going from a 26 tooth gear to 32 teeth for aging leg engines and better hill climbing. I started the morning out with testing the trannie and failed on the hard climbs, I ran out of gear, traction and horse power all at the same time.

This is the second of a series of steep hills in the up and coming Triple D bike race. I spun out at the same time my legs gave out. My FatTire usually makes it. After some hard bounces and steep hills I hooked up on a county paved road to take me out of town, where gravel would greet me.
My 'skinnie' 42 CC tires sunk down into sticky peanut butter like gravel and lime trail and roads. Standing on the pedals at 6 mph was going to be the norm for today. I figured, might as well just dig in, and get a good work out.

So I rode on, me and the Cycle Cross machine. 4 hours later I am sweating, removing clothes, and criss crossing back and forth trying to find something to ride on without sinking into the muck. Riding on the outside grassy edge often seemed the best spot I could find to keep rolling.

As you can see some of my fans often gather along my route and cheer me on....:-)

Out of fluids, I needed to swing into the small town of Farley where I knew where there was a pop machine for the Mayberry price of 75 cents a can.
It was there I made the decision to get off the gravel and dirt and ride back to home on county pavement.
An hour later it was going good, I was making good time, and thinking I would get back before lights out. Hands starting to get cold with only light glove liners on I reached into my windbreaker pocket for my
super-duper best gloves ever I packed away earlier, and ONLY HAD ONE!!!!

Sun going down, hands cold, I needed to back track and find my lost glove. Simply a stupid mistake, zipper up your pockets you are storing equipment in. Little mistakes can bring to a halt, rides that might be a year's plan and the race you worked so hard for.

Well one hour later there was my glove, laying in the curb of the first town I rode into to that 75 cent can of pop. Getting dark and not wanting to ride county highways due to fast moving vehicles and New Year's eve revelry, I headed to a combination of seldom used gravel roads and lime trail. Sticky muddy, gravel roads and trail that I decided to get off of over two hours ago.

I phone Birgit my lady and warn her I might be looking (pleading) for a "Sag" ride, cause I am running out of gas, out of daylight, and a couple of hours from home yet. I can't find a place in the road where the tires will roll, everything is like sticky muck.

Not expecting to see another soul out here I ride past Sundown Ski Resort, seeing all those lights and hearing people's voices made riding on the trail seem like a social event for that moment.

Almost darkness totally drops in, the moon tries to help me out, but it is frosty fog out and hazy, and the moon cast little light. But thank you anyways Man in the Moon. Now your eyes start playing tricks on you and shadows start becoming something your afraid of. You tell yourself that that is not a wolf off to the side, but just a stump as you ride by and see that it was really a large rock. I turn on my helmet light but it is not enough to find the right spot on the road for my tires. As I am mounting my headlight, my daughter Melissa calls, chats, and tells me about her marathon training, and we shortly there after good bye each other, both knowing I have to to get going. . That picked up my spirits. I didn't want to call for a ride, I wanted to pedal for what ever it took and arrive home under my own power. I can't explain why, that is, but in some strange sense that was how I could win, by not stopping, not cutting this journey short and calling for a ride. But to keep going, finish what I started. Maybe this is primal, some strange inner sense of survival. Maybe as a human species we don't have to hunt for our food, to survive anymore, and this satisfies that drive in some other way.
And besides, I don't recall Columbus calling for a ride 3/4s across the Atlantic Ocean and bailing out when the going got tough.

Hallelujah, I arrive home, zonked, tired, thirsty, and hungry, perfect way to end the year.

Most people are saying "HAPPY NEW YEAR" to everyone. Having happiness won't change for you by me saying "Happy New Year" We are primarily a product of choices and how we choose to deal with the things that come at us. I am always inspired by those of you that get dealt some tough blows and choose not to surrender, but to persevere, and play the best game you can with the cards you were dealt.

Let's kick some ass for 2012 and get off the couch or picnic table like my dog Pitty the Pit Bull who gets tired from sleeping all day and have fun, play, love, be who we should be.

Dave

Happy New Year everybody ......

One of these days

2011-12-28T20:28:00.004-06:00

"One of these days the ground will drop out from beneath your feet"

"One of these days your heart will stop and play its final beat"

"One of these days the clocks will stop and time won't mean a thing"

Foo Fighters from "These Days"

So I just don't want to waste my moments.

My legs were tired from riding three days in a row, that I had off work, for the Christmas weekend riding with wind and hills . One day of rest, (back to work) and then one last day vacation day to use up before the years end found me planning a days ride on my Trek XO2 Cycle Cross. I still need to do two more distance certification runs for the full and half marathon race for Triple D this Jan 15th. So this would be about a 67 mile day.

I should have started earlier, with all the stops and counter monitering I would need to do I would be finishing in the dark, and wanted to use as much daylight as I could get. I ride back and forth for 5 runs across the measured 1000 foot runs and make note of the counter mounted on the front of my bicycle tire at each start and finish of each run.

Glad to have that part out of the way.Next I would note the counter value with my front tire directly over the half marathon finish point and ride the most straight line I could to the Marathon Half start line and again note the counter value. Thus obtaining the half distance in reverse for the upcoming Triple D races.

But I can now ride uninterupted. This is the place I find myself often. The place where if I had something that was bothering me, I forgot about it. The place where I consider 'not wasting my moments.'

Squirrels are darting all over the place. I don't know why but it seems they are always running as fast as they can. Zig zagging across the jungle floor of Iowa wood lands, seemingly without purpose. I suppose if foxes, coyotes and 22 caliber bullets were always trying to put an end to my life, I'd be running too.

I ride past the tree where I would see Big Eagle sitting, every previous winter that I have been riding out here. Big Eagle would always show up after the leaves have all fallen off the trees and sit in the same branch, always alone. Eagles mate for life, I tend to think Big Eagle had outlived his mate, and now was just waiting for his end. I could never get very close to Big Eagle, as I approached on bicycle I would watch his nervousness turn into a slow lumbered fly away. This the best picture I could get of Big Eagle, off the bike, walking slowly, and using camera magnification.

But Big Eagle did not come back this year. His tree with his branch has remained empty this year after all the leaves have fallen. Maybe Big Eagle is now flying with his mate, in some other place.

The empty tree without Big Eagle

Our moments are precious, a gift, temporal, best not to be wasted.
Thanks for the visit.
Dave

Tale of Two Rides

2011-12-23T20:51:00.000-06:00

SATURDAY

My plan was to get a rock solid long ride in. I didn't feel the energy, and was slow getting started. I started out with a series of grassy hills, and spun out with the frost on the first one, and again on the second hill. That was with a Nate on the rear, I think the best hill climbing bicycle tire manufactured.

After the first series of hills, I swung out onto the gravel roads for a route that is either going up a hill or back down. I started feeling fluish, almost to the point of turning around but I decided to stay on the level trail and put my head down and just ride and get some base miles in.

My cell phone rings, it is my 87 year old papa. He says my brother Al, my baby brother, the youngest of us 5 kids, is meeting him out on Heritage Trail at 4:00 to go hiking if I am around. Well I haven't seen Al who lives out of town in over a year, I miss him. Al and I spent several years Power lifting and competing together in the 80s, lifting in my basement together 4 times week, and traveling all over the Midwest together competing. We loved what we did, but it came to an end. Al needed to start earning a decent living, so he went away to school, graduated and got a good job out of town.

I got another lifting partner, but it wasn't the same. A back fusion of L4 and L5 ended competing anyways.

But we all met on the trail, my papa, Al and his lady Suzi. I rode along slow for a couple of miles while they hiked and we talked and talked. My dad doesn't show his age and walked briskly along with all of us. By the time I got home it close to 7:00 p.m. and spooky dark.

There was this note on my messages on FaceBook when I got home. It was from Lance Andre, who is putting together Dubuque lands biggest snow bike/ski/run race together this Jan 15th. 62 bike, and 31 or 26 miles ski or run.

"Ride tomorrow morning?"

SUNDAY

And we rode, and rode and rode. 8 hours, on every surface imaginable. Fields, gravel roads, county roads, and the killer ride, soft muddy, lime, trail. The frost was coming out of the ground, the wet muck would stick to our tires, and act like suction cups, standing going 6 mph is torturous.
After 6 hours, I was sucking on Lance's rear wheel, now wheel sucking doesn't help a whole lot aerodynamically when you are plowing mud, but somehow there is a 'psychological pull' that goes along with it. Lance turns around to me and says "How about you but I am exhausted" Now I was dying and trying to hide it. I am 16 years Lance's senior and he is a highly competitive bicycle racer, so I wanted to answer, "Heck this is a piece of cake" NOT!!!!! Actually I had no free oxygen available to even speak.
We also spent some time marking out 2 1000 foot spans, to begin the certification of the distances for the Triple D route. This Saturday I hope to make my frst runs with a certified counter for the half and full marathon runs.

OK, OK, I did say "Tale of Two Rides" but Wednesday was good ride worth mentioning. About 65 miles through some real sticky riding, the gravel roads and crushed lime trails were 'sticky' and made pedaling a hard push in most places. Stopped and had some "Iowa Ribs" along the way. Everything, every square inch of me and bike were coated with the 'lime spray'

So plans are to ride the country during the day and do the family holiday gather tomorrow and Sunday.

Dave

To be or not to be, that is the question.

2011-12-15T21:31:00.003-06:00

What do you do about those days you just don't want to do it? I took a day off work today, for the sole purpose to ride myself into that pleasurable exhaustive endorphinated state of tranquility. Waking up early I found I had more of a desire to sit around and eat a whole package of cinnamon rolls, the kind with the thick white frosting on top, and drink a pot of coffee then to push myself for 6 hours on a muddy hilly gravel metric century. I usually don't feel this way and I knew if I opted for the rolls and coffee and not the planned ride I would not be able to stand myself at the end of the day.

So after procrastinating long enough that I had to pack lighting to finish in the dark I rolled my FatBack out the front door and down the front steps. The front tire didn’t have the bounce it should have for the 20 psi I put into the tires last night, and I found it soft and checked it with my digital gauge and confirmed it had a leak with only 10 psi remaining. I couldn’t find where the leak was even with submersing the tube in water, so I replaced with a new tube then to try to deal with a flat tire somewhere in the dark and tired.

Now that package of cinnamon rolls and pot of coffee was even sounding better the later it was getting . So back out the front door and down porch steps and onto the street, on the bike and riding out of town. Well no sense wasting any more time with this, time to get it on. Up a series of challenging hills, on grass, dirt, rocks, and gravel, the same hills the Triple D race starts out with and should be covered with snow by now, and packed down with continuous snow mobile traffic.

To funny after climbing those hills and now back on pavement to drop back down into the country to ride on trial and gravel one of my son’s friends, who I have known since my son and him were grade school buddies saw me riding by from his apartment window and snapped this picture below and had it posted on FaceBook when I got home.

Too funny guys.

I finished my planned ride, and got home just before total darkness. The cross winds at times was so strong I had to lean the bike into it to keep from getting blown over. My only fear was a tree crashing on me.

The evening feels better now, I did my job.

A big shout out for those taking on Tuscobia this weekend a 150/75/ and 31 mile Bike/Run/Ski Race.

GodSpeed to Matt Maxwell, Craig Irving, Lance Andre, .Lisa Paulos, Nicholos Wethington,

Check out their links these are really neat unique people and amazing endurance freakazoids. In fact when I got home tonight I missed a Facebook note from Lance and a invite to go riding today. Now he wanted to ride this morning and then car ride 5 hours to Tuscobia, to get up and ride a 150 mile race tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. Geeeesh!!!!

OK, I rambled on long enough, only one more day of work and then the weekend, hmmm, what to do? what to do?

LaTa,
Dave

Rambling thoughts and time to go.....

2011-12-10T07:32:00.026-06:00

PRE-RIDE NOTES

I wake early this Saturday morning. Seems I always do on my day off. I think there are a whole bunch of sections in my mind that are just too excited to stay sleeping when the plan is an all-day bike ride. I am now waiting for the sun to show, it always does, but its arrival keeps getting later and later, as the Solstice approaches. I have no problem riding in the dark, but my plans are to leave after sunrise, and return after sunset.

My bike is leaning against the dining room table, waiting too. A lot of folks think that to be crazy. But I get everything ready, on the bike the night before. You can't just put your bike in the garage after your last ride, and expect to hop on it and ride for hours and more hours in these winter conditions or any conditions for that matter. Seems always something to tweak, or repair, or modify. Last night I worked on sealing up my Bar Mitt covers, cold has been sneaking into them. I made a slight adjustment on my left shoe SPD clip, my heal was sometimes clicking on the crank bolt when pedaling, and that is way to annoying. A shorter stem was installed, my bar position seemed too far out of a reach, and a shorter stem brought it in closer. I lubed my chain, and added Velcro to the bottom of my 'gas tank' pouch on top of the cross bar to keep it from leaning, my night riding light battery is charging, IPOD is charging, camera is charging, I look at Google maps and think about new explorations. I think about the cold forecast and what exactly would be the right combination of clothing. I check tire PSI and on and on and on. Funny I usually won't take 10 minutes to stretch, but will spend hours fiddling on the bike, and a whole bunch more hours riding on the bike.

I check Weather.com and see it is only 8 F out. I like that, there is clothing combinations I want to try out and see how well I can stay warm for many hours of bicycling without freezing, or overheating, often a very thin line of difference.

I have pretty much been following a schedule of 2 or 3 gravel metric centuries on the FatTire bike a week for the last several months. Today after looking at Google Maps I think I'll ride one of my favorite routes which starts out with a series of steep rolling hills on dirt and grassy trails. Sometimes I will fail on climbing one of these hills. My FatTire spins out, or my legs quit and I try to get my feet out of the clips and go down off the bike without crashing. Those that don't do this call this extreme, or crazy, or I'm a health nut. For the life of me, I cannot imagine anyone doing all this if that is what it took to be 'healthy'. I just want to beat those hills, ride all day, enjoy the country side and push myself to there is just enough energy left to sit on the couch, drink beer and feel good about it. Makes perfect sense to me. These pictures are of my last two rides this week. The massacred pumpkins had about a hundred rounds of shotgun shells scattered around them. You can see them laying there in the picture. Target shooting for this weekend's big deer hunt I reckon.

I can't stay here any longer, the sun is up, the bike is ready.

RIDE NOTES

POST-RIDE NOTES

This weekend is the biggest weekend in Iowa hunting. Deer Season. I think some method needs to be in place to trim down the size of the deer herd or there would be millions of them and highway travel would become too dangerous. Deer hunting plays a major role in keeping the size of the herds down.

What I saw today just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I was climbing up a gravel hill and a large buck deer and a doe came flying over the top, then into the ditch and down into a corn field. They looked like they were running for their lives. Next I hear vehicles racing my way I hugged tight to the right side of the road. Four, yes four pickup trucks are now racing over the top of the hill. There were two or three men in camouflaged coveralls and jackets in each truck. These were brave men, they only had semiautomatic shotguns and were not afraid of these two deer. I was glad I was hugging the right side of the road, they weren't looking where they were going. The first truck went into the field in the direction of the two deer, one stopped and two kept going, as fast as they could hold on to a gravel road, I suppose to circle back around. I kept going too, I just wanted to get away from this place, and thought to myself run deer, run, please get away.

I saw blood trails, in many places, deer running wounded. I saw dead deer with their heads removed. Head hunters only wanting a trophy rack. I saw bloody deer in the back of pickup trucks.

It was now getting dark, shadows were as long as they can get before disappearing. I was on the out and back section of today's ride, and was now returning in the opposite direction near the area where I saw the chase. Riding in between two corn fields that were picked, a silhouette of something standing less than 100 feet to my left caught my eye. I was thinking what is a cow doing out here all alone this late in the day? I stopped pedaling, put my feet down and turned my head to get a better look. It was a large buck deer. Severely wounded. I believe he was the large buck being chased by the road warriors. He was standing still and then he looked at me as I was looking at him. He began to move away, his back legs were not working, he could only hop a few inches at a time on only one of his rear legs, and that was slow going. But he was going to move away from me, find a place, lie down, and die alone.

Another National Holiday

2011-11-30T22:38:00.000-06:00

Well I have officially declared this day, November 30th as a national holiday, Ms. Lard'O's 1st birthday, my FatTire Bike. So to celebrate we went and out and busted our butts on 70 miles of grinding gravel.

Before I talk about that I must give a little history about how the FatBack FatTire bike, appropriately named Ms Lard'O entered into my life.

The winter of 07/08 I put the skinnie tired road bike away on Dec 1st, I was out riding when the first significant snow of the winter hit That was it, I only owned skinnie tires, I couldn't ride again until the snow and ice finally left in late March. As much as I tried to ride indoors, I lost my bicycle butt, and my riding legs.

The winter of 08/09 I bought a used Schwinn Mountain bike from my LBS, and bought a pair of Nokian Studded tires from the local winter riders the Andres. That sorta worked and sorta not worked.

The winter of 09/10 I bought a used Trek HardTail from Ebay. I put the fattest tires on that bike it could accomendate, Big Earls, 2.5" The bike was shot, and after spending more money in part replacement then a new bike would have cost, I rode as much snow trail as I could. I entered my first snow race that year, and found out there were these beasts called FatTire bikes and they dominated the race, hands down.

During these last couple of years, I also purchased a new Road Bike, and a high end XC bike that I rode for 1000s of gravel miles.

So how could I buy ANOTHER BIKE!!!!!

Well I did, I had been talking with Greg up in Alaska owner of Speedway Cycles and builder of the FatBack, the sweetest FatTire bike on earth.

So somewhere around October of 2010, I ordered one. I came up with this plan to explain the presence of yet another bike. See picture below.

I wondered if this would work. I wondered if Birgit would believe me. In the end I decided to tell the truth, and I did. I was greeted by this comment, "You wear your bikes out, it is your passion, it is what you do.' MUAHHH!!!!

So the FatGirl arrived and Creepy Baby and me stayed up late wrenched and assembled.

So zooming ahead one year. Today. After trying to figure out exactly what to wear with the temps starting out in the teens for the coldest ride so far of this winter season. I hit the hills of the start of Triple D first, and found out I was over dressed, zippers make for great climate control modulatoin. After a series of grass covered hills soon to become snow mobile trails I cooled down by the long drop into the valley and wandered around, up and down the gravel roads to the town of Dyersville.

Picking out clothes and opening zippers to cool down afterwards.

Started out a frosty ride this morning and a ride past the local residents.

I picked up Heritage Trail in Dyersville and figured 31 miles of level pedaling to get back home, and put myself in cruise control. I found the trail closed in three sections, so that left my climbing up out of the valley of the trail and onto gravel roads, so hills and distance were increased. The sun went way out west and down which left me riding home in the dark with lights. Tired and comfortably exhausted upon my arrival home.

Well I hope Ms. Lard'O has another great year.

See you later.

Dave

Black Friday

2011-11-25T23:16:00.010-06:00

ahhhh yes Black Friday. I wasn't interested in the mad shopping spree thing.......So plans were made. Lance Andre, and his better half Traci, and I had plans to ride the wild wilderness of Iowa, or in other words the Triple D bicycle race route. This is Lance's 5th year of being race director and competitor for this rapidly growing in popularity winter bicycle race.

So the three of us met at the Grand Harbor Hotel to emulate as best we could the start of Triple D race, minus the sub zero temps, blowing snow drifts, and the unpredicableness harshness of Iowa winters.

The ride out of town was just chit chat, then over the curb of Highway 52, through tall grass, and then 'the hills' Up and down rutted, hills. Traci was riding like a pro hill climber. Lance was riding like the Iditarod (click here) finisher, Dirty Kanza winner he is. I was riding like well um, here's a actual conversation after hill #3

I said, "Lance my HR was pegged out at 175, on those hills, that was it, I had no more"
Lance, "Yeah but geeesh, your almost 60 years old"

umm, thanks Lance.....I think....:-)~

After the steep roller coaster hills we continued on. Crossing 3 Creeks, which left mine and Traci's feet wet, and somehow Lance's feet dry.

We rode on. Then we saw them. The attacking, foam in the mouth dogs. I could tell by the rapid rate we were being approached this was a serious problem. One of the dogs was huge, over 100 lbs, leading the attack. What I saw next amazed me. Lance pulled a "Bear Spray" canister from his back jersey pocket, pointed it in the general direction of the attacking dogs and mainly at 'the beast' and burped out a orange fog, stopping 'Cujo' in his tracks, and left him trying to wipe his eyes with his paws. Cujo, I will make you a deal, you leave us alone we will leave you alone.

Now before PETA jumps on me, and punishes me by making me live off of the dog biscuits I feed, my most spoiled child, Pitty the Pit Bull. Well at least I buy the favorite ones. I love dogs. Always have and always owned them. It is a shame when dog owners do not control their pets. These particular dogs have a history of attacking bicyclists. I would prefer to bear spray the dog owners. But instead the dogs had to take the hit for their owners not being responsible.

Traci had enough of us guys and headed home. Good lawd, who blame her, Lance and I were now talking about titanium spokes, carbon gears, and secret bike builds. I fed Lance some granola bars and we headed down Heritage Trail

During the ride, this Text Message came in from my daughter Melissa, "18.5 miles in this morning. Triple D here I come." These are running miles. She is running the Triple D marathon. Run Melissa, Run.

After all this, I hooked up with my family, all my kiddies, my lady, son in law, Brook, and Mr. Cole my grandson for some beer, and pizza, and some more beer. They all said I had to much to drink. I say they don't know what they are talking about.

What can I say. The thousands, and thousands, and thousands of miles I have spent riding a bicycle, is always new, always a new experience, and I look forward to tomorrow's journey.

OK sleep sounds like a good thing. Hope your day had fun in it. Mine sure did.

Thanks for stopping by.

Dave

Triple D, Amazing Grace, and "You Suck" award.

2011-11-19T22:35:00.002-06:00

Best laid plans of Mice, and men, and Dave. I had maps in my back jersey pocket. I plotted a route from Google Satellite. A lot of hills on C clay hard roads, and grassy paths. First steep hill I shifted into my small gear of my 2X9 set up and I came to a fast halt. My small ring had fallen off the crank spider. YES!!!. The bolts must have been vibrating loose, I could find only one. So a change of plans, to keep from blowing out a knee I didn't want to hill climb in the Big Gear only.
Took the flat route, worked on keeping my heart rate up and finished out with 62 miles on Ms Lard'O my Fat-Tired bike.

I found a small cave awhile back. Today this became my very own "Man Cave" I think every man should have his very own "Man Cave" John Gray, thinks so too, author of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" A multi million dollar seller. I didn't think his book was as great as a lot of people did, I thought he kept pounding the same theme, but I digress, now back to my "Man Cave" Here I am at the entrance of my man cave, and next picture I am in my Man Cave.

So being I was in my Man Cave, I thought manly thoughts. I thought of all the manly jobs I have in my household

Manly Job #1. It is my job to roll up the toothpaste roll as it is emptied. No one else does this. It is my responsibility. I make life a lot easier for the tooth paste users.

Manly Job #2. Those little small almost used up bars of soap in the shower. Yeap, you guessed it. It is my job to take care of them. I will squish them together and make a soap ball. I think I am then the only one using that ball of soap, while others opt to use the easier newly opened bar of soap.

Manly Job #3. I can't think of any more, but #1 and #2 are quite enough.

Triple D a snow race, of bike, ski, and run sorta made it's official announcement less then 24 hours ago and has all ready 38 participants on Face Book committed to competing. I will be one of those for the 64 mile bike race. Andddddddddddddddddddd. My daughter, Melissa, is in for the 26 mile foot race.

She started running in 2010, serious training just this year, and so far has competed in 2 full marathons, a 20 miler, 4 1/2 marathons, 1 10k and 4 5Ks. Now some say to me, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" Well perhaps she inherited my insatiable desire for endorphins, but my contribution stops there. It was all Melissa's hard work, and it is not like she has nothing else to do, she's also a wife, mother and a more then full time employed Chemical Engineer. She's an endurance athlete just being discovered. Shout out to you Melissa, you give me encouragement.

OK, it is time for my new feature. The "You Suck Award" Now I am not saying this makes me any better then any of the winners of this award. In fact, I will be one of the up and coming winners. But not today. Today's winner is Mr John Newton.

Most people know John, from his well known song he wrote, "Amazing Grace" For many this is a spiritual awakening song. Now John wrote this song when he was scared out his mind, aboard a sailing ship when a ship sinking storm blew up. That I can understand, I've heard there are not to many atheists in fox holes once the bullets start flying. So John, you wrote and sang "Amazing Grace" that night the big storm almost sunk your ship at sea. Your slave ship. You wanted YOUR God to save YOU. OK after this conversion you had, WHY did you continue to work on slave ships. Here is what Wiki had to say about the conditions of slave ships. "In order to achieve profit, the owners of the ships divided their hulls into holds with little headroom, so they could transport as many slaves as possible. Unhygienic conditions, dehydration, dysentery and scurvy led to a high mortality rate, on average 15%^[4] and up to a third of captives."

John what did you think when you removed the corpses from the barely living? When you pulled children from their mothers. When you sent men to the auction block to live a life of slavery. Was the money worth it? John I guess your God was only interested in saving you. John, You Suck.

OK, my bike is repaired, I still have the maps I made for today and didn't use, and tomorrow is another day YaHooo!!
Well glad you stopped by,
Dave

Riding my day away...

2011-11-16T21:26:00.000-06:00

I have no explanation as to why I desire this and really don't need to know why? Nor do I make any excuses regarding this drive, it just is, what it is. I enjoy spending as much of my free time as I can on a bicycle. Today was no exception, I took a vacation day to ride. I would have to say it was my most exceptional ride of the year. I needed a different flight pattern, so I followed some 4 wheel tracks off the side of a road and into the woods. That began a series of riding up and down hills, trying to hold into one of the two tire ruts on each hill. Many, I almost didn't make, I was on edge of dumping the bike often. One hill I couldn't make it, and one hill I didn't even try. It was a blast.

After several miles of 4 wheeler hills and almost running my gas tank into empty I found myself back on county roads, allowing me to recover. The winds picked up, and I could feel the warmth getting sucked out of my body and a chill entering in.

After being chased by the dog from bicycling hell, I went down a C road that was a steep decent down steep slabs of exposed bed rock. My senses were on hyper awareness dodging and weaving around rocks from baseball to shoebox size.

At the bottom of this knee cap breaking decent was my old travel companion, "Heritage Trail" but to keep with the exploratory theme of today's ride I found new paths. Riding tractor paths and gravel roads I ended up in Dyersville Iowa, with 40 of the hardest miles I've had since snow plowing.

The shortest path to home now was 30 miles, I took it, and if there was any possible way to make it shorter I would have. Arriving home just as it was getting dark.

"Get on your bikes and ride" Queen.

Let us ride.

2011-11-13T22:02:00.004-06:00

It is 8:48 a.m. Sunday morning, I have sat around and drank coffee long enough. I am becoming irritable. That's OK, I know my medicine, and I am procrastination taking it. Ms. McLard'O my FatBike waits to go play in the dirt. My legs are feeling the effects of yesterday's Metric Century, they wanted to knock of the back half. Now they complain about riding another one . It is 50 degrees out all ready, warmer then I expected, not much clothing to pack along. Not sure exactly where I will travel, I will head out of town on city streets and out the highway and go where I go.
People at work, my co-workers, acquaintances, and friends, the vast majority of people I am in contact with do not understand why I do what I do. I hear about it regularly. Those of us that do this, find pleasure in pushing ourselves, testing our limits, overcoming injuries, challenges, managing tight schedules, and beating that hidden lazy bone inside us all. We that do so, do not understand why others won't jump in and do the same...

BUT!!!!! It is now 9:03 a.m. and Ms. McLard'O is leaning against the dining room table and says "Let us go!!!" So I know I must. I shall return.

This was the snow cover yesterday on the trail. I saw these bike tracks, Mountain bike tires, I followed.

I was thinking someone was ahead of me and not yesterdays tracks because I didn't see any return tracks. Not often I see another cyclist out here, especially with snow cover. I could tell he had good bicycling skills, by the way he weaved in and out of fallen trees with the snow cover with ice underneath. I figured he was a 'he' because of the size of the footprint in the snow. I did not know how much of a head start on me he had. We met at 31 miles out.
We exchanged small talk about bicycling, age, Iditarod and Triple D. I introduced myself, he replied, " I know, I read your blog" I think to myself, "Good Grief, anonymity has sure disappeared with the digital age." We parted ways and rode to our destinations.

Today all the snow was gone. Soon that will not be the case. Snow will soon come and stay and cover all of Iowa. It is the way Iowa winters always are. The 15-20 mph headwind was making my southwest travel much harder then my legs wanted it be. My pedaling engines were zapped. This was the 3rd gravel Metric in 4 days. I pushed to keep things moving. Slowing down on a FatBike means settling into a 'crawl' I didn't want this to take forever. I had a goal, and wanted to finish. I was bonking, it wasn't fun. Quiting now, without finishing would be more of a discomfort to me, then it was to keep going. I reached the turnaround point, the wind that had been my enemy, was now going to be my best friend, and helped me keep moving. I finished.

Miles from No Where. Sun meets earth.

I saw a cave entrance today in the side of a cliff. I will return and explore, I'll show you the pictures.

Thanks for visiting, and a shout out to you sir for riding your bike yesterday, snow and all.

Dave

I put my bike on a diet.

2011-11-05T21:31:00.004-05:00

I've been riding lots. Probably a good thing, because I'm prone to eating frenzies. Like last night, I picked out a mini snickers out the leftovers from Trick-or-Treat bowl, then another one, and another one. and before I knew it, I ate every mini snickers out of the bowl of leftovers. I didn't count how many, it lessons the guilt not to know. This wasn't the first time I attacked this bowl. The first assault came right after Trick-or-Treat night was over.
So to compensate for any weight gain I might encounter, I put Ms. Lard'O the Fat Tire bike on a diet, I've chipped away about 10lbs off of her, with carbon, upgrades, and part removals, so pass the Milky Ways bars. Here she is Ms. Lard'O weighing in at 35 lbs with no water or gear.

Today was Metric Century #3 for the week, hoping I got something left for another one tomorrow, might be one of those slow-grinder rides, the old legs might be low on zip juice. 30 mph hour winds are going to add to the challenge. With the leaves falling and brush dropping a whole bunch of new routes are opening up. My fattest of fat tires
will ride about anywhere.
I did something, I wish it wasn't so. But I did. I ordered a indoor cycling trainer. Last winter I rode often after work, at nights with lights in ice and snow. My shoulder is to blame. The last shot of cortisone didn't help much, it keeps me up at nights, and that usually means the "s" word. I can ride hard with it as long as I don't have to hop or work the bars hard. If I crash on it, I think it's game over. Hence I will reduce riding risks. I am hoping all works out and I can race a couple of races this winter. I used to go to spin classes several times a week, and rode my bike on rollers in the basement before I had my snow bikes in these Iowa winters. With this indoor trainer you can pick routes and race others on a screen, I am hoping to beat the mental challenge of indoor riding. I can ride 10 hours in snow, or heat, or rain, or anything outdoors, but one hour an indoor trainer, is a long, long time, I count minutes left to ride, and is mentally a challenge. I know a lot of people have suggested to watch TV, I want to ride harder then watching TV would allow. I need it that way, to feel good about the work out, and get me some of those endorphins.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, I just think the scenery is much better out here then in my basement with rafters and spider webs.

Well I gotta go, there are is a good UFC fighting cooking on TV.
Dave.

Everything Changed

2011-10-29T21:49:00.012-05:00

I wake up early on my day off. As usual. Several hours before the morning sun did. Sleeping longer would have been a treat for my body, but somebody needs to tell my mind that, seems that not long after 5 hours of sleep for me and nap time is over. Coffee is always waiting, about the time the sun starts coming up I am on my 3rd cup. Looking out the window I see frost all over. I am hyper by nature, and overdosing on caffeine gets me fidgeting. I am glad that soon I will be working the pedals of the FatBack for a all day ride on gravel roads on a route only to be determined at every fork in the road.

My bike has been parked leaning against the dining room table since last night. I have to take care of the small details the night before, or I too often forget something, like a tire patch kit, anti-bonk snack, and other things like that. I walk my bike out the front door, turn on my heart monitor and am surprised it is only 52 bpm my mind is going much faster.

I am on my bike now, I ride out of town through city streets, knowing the risks I hop on the highway with no shoulder and hug the white fog line like it's my imaginary safety net from 5000 lb bone crushing four wheel killing machines, and onto a county trail at last.

Everything is now changed. I no longer have a low heart rate, thoughts in my mind have slowed way down, the frost is leaving, and I am feeling very relaxed. Perfect.

Here's a Iowa road for ya, this will be a mud slide after a rain. This next picture was a standing corn field last week, now it is all picked, the scenery is changing fast at this time of year out in Iowa farm lands.

Now I know how the Gnomes make it to the top of the trees to their Gnome Tree Top huts, they build tree steps. Who would have known??

I was becoming satisfied with mediocrity in today's ride effort. I have been pushing the metric centuries and the last couple of weeks to 3 a week. Lately I have had some pleasurable hard rides. My legs felt heavy but willing to just keep moving so I could get home and get off the bike. Then this happened.

These two road race jockeys, riding a full suspension and a Surly Cross X, pulled up behind me, then along side of me and we chatted a bit, and then they said good bye, and said they needed to get going and passed me. So that means, now I have to hang with their pace. So we three flew away. We were rocking. Before my delusions of grandeur run away with me here, they could have cranked harder but had a zone they were working in, and my goal was to keep up. We rode for 15 miles in a tight group, at a fast pace. At their turn off, they asked me my name, shook my hand and said amazing that FatBike rode along that fast. My head grew and I found it necessary to make adjustments on my helmet fit.

To end the night my son Josh stops over with his Halloween costume. Josh is a free spirit, he knows how to enjoy today and we work at thinking about tomorrow just a little bit. He was really acting the part. Priceless.

Well seems tomorrow's agenda is the same as today's. Imagine that.

Dave

"It's better to burn out then to fade away" Neil Young.

2011-10-22T22:43:00.007-05:00

I tell Creepy Baby to hang on, we are going to dance on the dance floors of gravel roads in NE Iowa.

I say to myself, "My hands are freezing" The challenge is long bike rides in Iowa at this time of year is the temperature differences, like today temps start out at 35 degrees, and end up at 65 degrees. If I dress for 35 degrees I have to bunch up too many clothes somewhere on my bike as temps get into the mid to upper 60s. So I compensate and under dress for 35 degrees, and find myself waiting to warm up. If I stay cold for an hour or more, I made an mistake. I then make myself a mental note, and begin my learning curve of dressing exactly right for the temperature(s) seems I have to have relearn this every approaching winter.

I ride on, I warm up, I remove clothing.

Mile 25: I was moving at a fair pace, about 16 mph, and get passed before I know anyone was approaching. I am on a dirt trail, the man says good morning and flies by. I pick up my pace as I analyze "Mr Mark Cavenish" He is fit, he is young(er), he is on a much lighter bike, and dressed to ride. I am old(er), and on a much heavier bike. That is my handicap.
My ego, begins to flood my blood stream with adrenalin, in preparation for the 'battle' We both start riding faster simultaneously. I look for a mirror on his bike or helmet, I don't see one, how does he know I am working on passing him, and he keeps accelerating at my same rate.

We are now flying, my heart rate is actually 4 beats above my maximum and staying there. 23 mph, his bike is sliding all over in the gravel. I am dying this is now going on for several miles, I can't keep up, I am losing him, he is slowly disappearing, he is laughing inside, I know it.
We cross a county highway, and he pulls up to a parked car. The 'race, is over, but I took 2nd.

Mile 40: I am in Dyersville Iowa. I pull into the town park, to fill my water bottles. The bubbler is shut off, another sign, winter is coming. I decide to ride out to the Field of Dreams movie sight. I buy water.

Mile 50: The road is closed, I continue on, and this is the reason why the road is closed. I cross the creek riding the plank.

Mile 60: Headed home, ate my 3rd and last energy bar.
Mile 66: Drank the last of my water.
Mile 68: I run over a snake, and regret it, I don't like to hurt these creatures. I turn around to see the damage, to see if he is wiggling in agony, and maybe have to put him out of his misery. He is slithering into disappearance, probably OK. I will pay more attention.

Mile 74: I feel a "BONK" I am out of gas. My shoulder is hurting. I try to stretch while I ride. I have a cramp coming on in my right quad, peculiar, never had this before, I stop and stretch it out, and say to my quad, you don't decide when the ride is over, I do. I have a cell phone, I have someone I can call to end this, to pick me up. It's funny how thoughts can fly into your planet brain, like a meteorite crashing into earth. My thought was this. Something I heard a man say after riding in a snow race for 10 hours with hours to go yet to the finish line, alone, frozen, now dark, and exhausted. He said, "I would have quit, but I could not think of good reason to do so" He continued on and finished the race.

Mile 84: I arrive home. Here is the difference of being single versus being in a relationship. If I was 'single' I would eat something, pack on lights, saddle up and make it 100. Being in relationship, and we both had the day off from work, and I just spent the majority of the day light hours on a bike seat, I say "Hi honey it's nice to be home" Grandson Cole says smart move Grandpa.

I love bicycling.

I hope you can follow your passions too.

Thank you for visiting.

Dave

The Art of Blogging.....

2011-10-16T19:48:00.000-05:00

I need to jump back in here. Blogging that is. I originally started blogging to maintain a diary of sorts, of primarily bicycle travels. Then I was reading other bloggers and other bloggers were reading me. So with no further ado, I shall just jump back in,

Look at these bad boys, meet Big Fat Larry and his little brother Nate. Put 3 dirty M centuries on these two boys in the last 4 days. Nate in back with the big knobs and 4.8" Larry guiding the way in front. My opinion they will make a great pair for snow grinding. I climbed some dirt hills this weekend, that I think a better rider would not have with an Endo, or Larry in the rear.

I have been dealing with my shoulder flaring up again. In April I had shots of cortisone in both shoulders and it was like a miracle cure, until a bike crash a few months ago when my front tire kicked left from a rut, and I stuck out my right arm to break my fall. Ever since then it has been slowly getting worse. Probably some tendonitis with mayhaps some rotator cuff injury. Another shot of cortisone last week, and then I did this, snapped my Crank arm climbing a hill, threw me forward putting a lot of strain on right shoulder, dang that hurt, arm was numb for awhile. I am going to have to think about what level of risk, and icy snow rides. Doc says I should try to avoid surgery, recovery will be longer off the bike then I care to think about.
However my LBS installed free of charge a complete new assembly. Wonderful. Is why I believe in supporting your LBS instead of some warehouse in Chihuahua, Mexico owned by some royal family in Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia. Free replacement says it all for my 2007 crank.

I posted this on FaceBook, I re post here, because I find it so true. Oh and it seems I drop in FB more and more lately and less blogging. I would be happy if you read this blog and want to friend me on FB, just type in my Email address daviegie@aol.com and send me friend request. Thanks.

Cycling/running/training : Sometimes it seems more like work then play, your not sure why you are even doing this. You say to yourself, "I'm tired, or I don't feel well" or whatever you use on yourself to take the easy way out. But plans are plans and goals are goals, and a day off work is an opportunity to pursue such. Then later on somewhere out there on a gravel road, pavement, a basement gym, it becomes all very clear to you why you do what you do, and did what you did, and made the only choice you could have made.

OK I shall return, I got a bunch of things to share yet, but gotz to do my 'man chore' and take the garbage out.

Thanks for the visit.
Dave

Free from Guilt....

2011-10-04T20:37:00.003-05:00

It had to change, me that is. Spending most of my free time riding a bicycle, or working on one, or reading bicycling blogs. Too many home chores not getting done, not doing my duty. I have been on a bike a lot lately, last 5 days three centuries, 2 Metrics and one 100 miler, all on a fat bike, lots of fun riding, but takes lots of time. Pretty much the same schedule the previous weeks, centuries on a fat bike, with road riding in between.
So I made a very big decision, time to put on the manly man home fix it tool pouch and get some of the needed chores done around here. So after work, tonight, I went to work on one of those neglected needed chores. I built me us a .................................................scroll down..................please.........................
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I built a toob shelf in the basement, so all my bicycling tubes could stay organized. I can share instructions if you want to make one for you and yours. In a month or two, I might even make a handle bar rack, or even a stem hanger.

So the guilt was lifted, and I went out and had a great ride........

These are my 'can you see me now' lights to keep from getting crunched from the big trucks, and small cars, they are all much bigger then me..............................Creepy Baby is trying to fly......

Have fun, ride a bike, thanks for visiting.
Dave

seems bicycling used up the whole day......

2011-09-28T23:02:00.004-05:00

Out the door on my FatTire this morning, thinking maybe I could do a 100 miles on gravel roads somewhere in NE Iowa. Headed north out of town, my son Caleb gave me directions to a abandoned quarry he used to Motor-X on that had different elevations of riding. I was thinking that would be fun to ride, even if it would not accumulate much millage. To get there required riding along side rail road tracks, and then between rail road tracks. So that I did, keeping my ears open for the sound of a train that could really ruin my day. I came to a gate, and signs that said under watch of the Canadian Pacific police, (WTHoot, who and what are the Canadian Pacific police) and more signs saying "NO TRESPASSING, then it said something in Spanish also. So I think is said something like any trespassers would be thrown in the lower dungeon with some very huge nasty bad people. ::Gulp:: I did turn around.

Wasn't sure where to go, so I decided to get lost somewhere out in the country. Rode up the longest hill I think I have ever seen just to see what was on top of it. What was on top of it, was the same things that was on the bottom of it, farms, cows, and corn fields. The ride down was fun and had me going 40 mph on the FatTires and they just roared with noise.

Next I headed to places I've never seen before, sorta of lost with a general sense of direction of where I was at, always on the listen for the dog attack coming at me that all cyclist fear.

It was getting later and I was getting tired-er hauling these big tires around and wasn't sure I was going to get 100 miles and started thinking do I accept that and just home or go home and get lights and just do it. The bike started to wobble around and as I suspected my front tire was going flat on me.

After fiddling around I patched and pumped the FatTire up and proceeded. Arriving back in town now on pavement, 75 miles in, and thinking maybe I should just go home Then Jim
pulls up from behind, riding an ultra light carbon road bike. Ex competitive racer Jim. He says I am doing a 10 mile loop through town, and then head out on county roads, you want to ride the loop with me? So we rode, he slowed down, I sped up and worked hard my front tire was low on air and was making me work my butt off. We talked about all the time spent riding bicycles and all the chores that don't get done as a result. We figured the ladies at home didn't complain (much) because it got us out of the house and gave them some peace. :-)

We rode Jim's loop and parted and now I had 85 miles in, 100 miles was too close to stop now. Headed home, ate, drank some juice, mounted a headlight, saw my new Jersey arrived, changed and went out and did 15 more.

Spent the rest of the evening drinking beer and eating, and thinking what a perfect day it was.

If someone shows up at the house tonight saying I won the "Publishers Clearing House" million dollar prize I will do this again tomorrow, otherwise, I will be at work.

Thanks for visiting.

DAVE

Riding down by the river...

2011-09-26T22:47:00.000-05:00

It was raining after work tonight, 50ish something in temp, with the rain falling from some place up above that was much colder. I was dressed in light wool socks, wool leg warmers and long sleeves wool under my jersey. Wool lets you get away with getting wet and cold longer then most fabrics. It didn't matter to me getting wet, I needed to ride, rain or not, was the plans and I had energy stored up to do so, not burning that energy off, would just make for an uncomfortable evening. Just the way it is.
Riding the road bike, with the skinnies, wet, and leaves can ruin your winter riding season. Sliding out on a corner and busting up a few bones just would not fit into my schedule at all.

Looking forward to my Wed ride, spending the day on the FatBack exploring some new territory. My son, Caleb who rides the Motor Cross bikes told me about a place he rode this summer. He says to follow a path on the side of the rail road tracks that head north of town, the path comes to an end at a rail road bridge, He says ride the tracks across the bridge and continue riding down the tracks for about a 1/2 a mile and there will be an old quarry that has multiple riding elevations, Me and the FatBack are going to like this.

and I would be remiss without showing you this, this surely means the end is near, Dairy Queen closing for the season.

yawn.........sleep time beckons.....

Proof.

2011-09-25T19:33:00.001-05:00

Dear Melissa in Mn, I made you a short film clip regarding your commentary that you posted on my Blog yesterday.

Late start today, worked on bike, then heavy rains, fell asleep on couch, ate an entire loaf of zucchini bread, and finally rode out of town for 40 miles on gravel with the CX bike.

Saw up head on the trail what I thought was a dog limping, as I got closer I saw it was a coyote. It was trotting about 12 mph with limp in one his rear legs. I was getting closer and wanted to pull up right behind him and film. Just as I was holding my camera in one hand, pedaling, and trying to make some quick adjustments on my camera, Mr Coyote decided I need to get away from this nut. That he did, and ran into the woods. I hope his leg gets better and I get to see him again.

Very old rail road bridge.

Dave

Anoher Century and the Giant Turd.

2011-09-24T21:27:00.002-05:00

Shhhhh, do not disturb, man sleeping

Me and the Lard'O bike decided to ride a metric C on gravel today, following a 100 miler on the FatSo two days ago, made the legs work and me tired. Energy was good for the ride but feeling it now.
Tomorrow, I am going to lighten up and take the CX out for some gravel, I don't think I would have the ummph, for another long Fat Ride. Seems I need to ride. Thinking another Metric C. Totally clueless on how many centuries this year, I'm thinking 50,60ish mayhaps. So no tracking for the Cup-O-Dirt run this year.
I think I said a bad word too, I must confess. Wasn't paying a attention, flew over some ruts, bounced out of the saddle and my foot popped out of my pedal, crank spun around and put dent in my shin. I didn't have the right size allen wrench along with me to tighten the clips up, and with a very sore shin, a bit later I did it again on the same sore spot, that time I know I said a bad word.

Not sure where I am headed with all this fat bike, biking. Thinking about a couple of snow races, my favorite, this winter. Riding a lot of FatTire doesn't make you faster, but makes your ride stronger, you don't move fast, but you keep moving for longer period of times as you develop. Riding long hours is pretty much the standard for snow rides.

What I have to say next is nasty, please click the X in the upper right hand of your screen for those of weak stomach. I ran over the mother load of all turds I think it was either Yeti or a 150 lb St. Bernard. It splattered all over. I had to hose everything down before my honey would allow her back in the dining room. Geeeshh!!!

Ya'll come back now...

Makes perfect sense to me.

2011-09-22T21:32:00.008-05:00

I'm riding, I'm cold, and I'm wet. It wasn't supposed to rain but it did. I am soaked to the bone, it is about 50 degrees and daylight is leaving. I need to stop and dig my light and battery pack out of my back bag and mount them on my bike, it is getting dark, I don't want to stop, I want to get home. I am riding on dirt trail, the trail is covered with walnuts and it is getting too dark to avoid them. I hit a pot hole, I didn't see it coming, my teeth bang together, so I stop and mount my lights. Today's plan was to ride 100 miles on anything that isn't pavement on the Fat Tire Bike. I have just over 80 miles in. After the thundershower from hell, I was hoping I would dry up, with the ride, but with the sun going down it is not happening, my hands are cold, and don't want to open up easily after they have been squeezing on the handle bars.
I really want to get 100 miles in on a bike that weighs 40 and some lbs after I put her on a diet and losing a few pounds, riding on dirt and gravel roads. I suppose none of this makes any sense to most the population. To those that know what I mean, Amen. I'm home now, I finished, I'm happy, I'm tired, I rode my century.

I think I shall do this again as soon as I can.

Meet my friend, Mr. Cliff Tree as we share a snack before rain and darkness.

Thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be bicycle riders.

2011-09-19T21:36:00.011-05:00

I am riding shotgun in Craig's vehicle. Craig is my manager. We are headed to a meeting regarding obtaining Natural Gas from the local supplier for our electrical generation. My mind wanders as I stare out the window. I am following an adjacent gravel road as we travel along the highway. I think about riding my bike there, and begin my bicycling daydream. I remember checking out weather.com early this morning after crawling out of bed, 2nd only to pouring myself a cup of coffee supplied by Mr Coffee and his automated timer. I am planning this weeks rides. I want to know what day I should take off work for my weekday long ride. Thursday looks like the best weekday to do so. I think about pedaling the big fat bike 100 miles on gravel, Craig speaks, and wakes me from my bikedream, back to the chore at hand, and my day job, as we pull into Black Hills Natural Gas distributor parking lot.

Back at my desk at noon. I google for a riding plan on Google Maps for bicycling. I work out a tentative route for Thursday.

The work day is now over. I stop at my local bike shop on the way home. I want to talk tires and tubes and some ideas I have for weight reduction. A standard 4" FatTire tube is 1.2 lbs. TOO HEAVY!!! I am going to try a 2.8 mountain tire tube at .65lbs. I chat with Parrish the owner and David who is helping Parrish put together a 3 wheeler on the shop floor. David and his Son Evan are just back from Sunday's Cheq race in Wisconsin. A Shout Out to Evan he has got a lot of heart, soul and endurance, and is an up an comer.

I pull up in front of my house and see a UPS box sitting on the front porch. It has been my plan for several months now to obtain all the necessary parts to have 4 bicycles all ready to go at all times. Instead of needing to rob CycleCross parts to pay for road bike parts to ride that bike for the day. I am just about there, working on bike #4 my Hard Tail

In the house I see my bike still leaning against the dining room table from yesterday's ride and an invitation to attend lil Trent's baptism. It is scheduled for a Sunday in Oct starting at 11:00 a.m. In my mind I think, I will go, give my blessings, and ride later that day and have lights and bike ready to go ahead of time.

Time is slipping away, I know I need to get out the door and on my road bike. Daylight hours are running out. I won't feel right if I miss my ride. Today's/night's ride plans are to push the pace, climb hills, ride 25 miles hard, same medicine for tomorrow. Not sure I even know what I am trying cure, but it's best that way not knowing, I think.

I am now on my bike. I guess this is what this is all about. The bike feels perfect, everything finally tweaked just right, I am in my own world now, flying by, watching pavement roll past me. My shoulder and knee are behaving well, and letting me run myself out of gas having fun.

Dark now by the time I get home on after work rides.

It is now 9:20 p.m. I still need to shower. I would like to eat some more, but I want to get my riding weight down. any rider knows dropping 10 can put the zap back in your zip, especially on the hills, and in this county you can not go a mile without going up or down. I think of a quote I heard from a Face Book friend, it went something like this "Choose what you want the most over what you want right now" I lean on that.

I am watching the DVD "Bicycling Dreams" as I Blog. Turning TV and computer off now, shower and then well needed sleep. All I can say is.

MOTHERS DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE BICYCLE RIDERS

Living for the moment.

2011-09-17T20:11:00.002-05:00

Totally epic ride today, seems most are, or maybe all are I'm not sure. Those that ride have these 'thriller moments' and when they happen, nothing else exists, we are consumed by the here and now, totally living for the moment and then time passes and that moment is gone, most are ultimately forgotten. I thinks somehow they are all stored up, somewhere in our being, that make us, us, or me, me, and you, you.
Like today, flying down a gravel road, the hill gets steeper, I don't like to brake if you are not going to run into anything or anything is not going to run into you. It seems counterproductive to the spirit of bicycling. But the hills gets steeper, and I am now going 25-30 mph. The gravel is loose, so I try to stick to the insides of a tire track where there are few loose rocks. Now I am over 30 mph, the last time I can look I am close to 35 mph and rounding a small curve, I start to slide out of the small tire track, back wheel in loose gravel, my senses are all at 110 %. I'm floating, trying to avoid a disaster, trying to avoid sliding face down on a gravel road, I make it this time, the hill tapers, and I have regained control of the bike. WoW!!! What a rush. I can not do this moment justice, my words don't know how. I won't remember this moment in a few days, but I will find another one, and another one.

Then over the next hill, I see a farm house at the bottom, my eyes always looking for the "nice little farm puppy dogs" There sat Cujo, looking like a halfbreed between a Pit Bull and a German Shepherd. He doesn't see me yet. I brush my arm against my jersey back pocket, pepper spray in place. My strategy is to pick up as much as speed as I can, and blow by this canine. I watch his movements as I accelerate, he sees me now, stands up, barks, and is now running towards me. We are both at full gallop, I am going to win, I have enough speed built up, safe this time. I'm just saying it doesn't get any better then this.

I made a one page map from Google Maps, if you enlarge Google Maps enough about every dirt road shows up. I make a route plan, and proceed. So I come to this sign, think about it for a moment and turn around. A mile down the road, I come to my senses turn around and head back. The road goes from softball sized rocks to hard dirt surface. 5 miles latter I am riding on the side of the hill. Even 4" tires are having trouble not sliding downward. I am now at a fork in the road. One lane heads into a valley, the other up over the hill, I stop and look at my one page Google Map, I have not a clue where I am at. I now hear vehicle tires spinning out, I look down the road that leads into the valley and up comes a truck, all head lights broken out, huge monster tires, more rust then body metal, and the truck stops, because I am blocking the way out. Inside the cab sat two monster guys, huge, looking like offspring of 1st cousin breeding, and they are not happy for stopping on the side of the hill. I don't think these guys made it into town or the bathtub too frequently. I feel the driver look me up and down, like eye candy. I am wearing Spandex biking pants, arm warmers that have fallen down below my elbows, a bright colored jersey, spandex leg warmers and Velcro strapped bicycling shoes. I am not feeling like the Alpha male in this situation. I swear I hear Dueling banjos playing somewhere off in the woods. I speak first, I ask, "Is that a dead end down that way" He just looks at me funny, stares for a moment, and finally speaks, "Yeap, it is. My cows are down there, don't go down there spooking my cows" He points up the road, and says, "That way will take you North of Farley, you'll find it." They spin their way out, and I head up the hill behind them. I get the to top of the hill and can see for ever,
I look for a town's water tower. I find one, and head that direction.

Two Iowa beasts of Burden and my favorite cliff mushroom.

I am thinking about tomorrow, it is supposed to rain, I wonder what my legs will have in them. 70 miles of hard FatBike riding today, might take some of the zip out of them tomorrow. But I will ride, somewhere.
Thanks for visiting.
Dave

Fat is Fun.

2011-09-14T22:11:00.002-05:00

Took a day off work to ride around. The plan was to zig zag around the wide mixture of gravel from Dubuque to Dyersville, up and down the hills, wear myself out, and finish with 30 miles of level Heritage Trail to home.
My FatTire FackBack Bike couldn't be more fun of a ride, handles great, and controllable in the ruts. Some of the hills had even the Fat spinning out on the loose gravel climbs.

Was cold this morning. Cold relative to what it has been. 50s. Seems I have to learn, again, exactly how to dress based on temp, wind, and sun. Fortunately bicycling clothing is in layers, and zippers which allow adjustments as you travel.

DOGS!!! Damn Dawgs, that can be the challenge riding on a road that seldom sees another traveler other then a resident. You become a dog treat. I take out my ear music, when I am in suspect areas. My hope is I can hear them coming before they take you out.
My defense is as follows.
1st. Out run them. See them coming, and get on the pedals, great incentive for high heart rate work outs.
2nd. If they catch you. Get off the bike, get the bike between them and you, and shout like your "Da Man"
3rd. I carry a dog biscuit in my front bag, toss that to them.
4th. Hope the owner walks out of the woods and saves you.
5th PEPPER SPRAY.

Iowa Roads

Check this one out. Craig has got a good idea cooking. A night ride, not a race. 65 miles, Oct 15th on gravel. Beer and campfire to follow.

http://ocolonomle.blogspot.com/2011/09/moonshine-metric-gravel-ride.html

This is the night of my High School 40th reunion, I was thinking one is supposed to go. Then I changed that plan to I need to see my grandson that weekend, was one a few weekends that would work. 

Now I anguish, might rearrange, might do the mighty Cole a.k.a my awesome grandbaby, on the prior week, ride the ride, and skip the reunion. Churning this over.

That's all I should say, because seems I need to get to bed because bosses seem to like you to show up on time. If I had my way, I would get up tomorrow and spend the day rotating pedals. What can I say?

Yours truly
Dave

I blogging....

2011-09-11T21:23:00.000-05:00

Been bicycling all over God's graveled earth lately. Not sure how many gravel metric centuries it is anymore, lost track. Riding a lot on the FatBack, fat tired bikes can be a lot of fun, the fatter tires and heavier bike makes your ride stronger, the weight and fat tires takes it's toll after awhile, but that's a good thing.

Found this giant puffball today, I had never heard of these before, I was quite amazed. I was surprised to hear they were edible and delicious this giant dinosaur egg could feed over 20 people.

Tried to find a away across the Cedar Valley River last Labor Day, there was a trail bridge but has been damaged since the severe flood of 2008, weeds and down trees made this a fun exploration. Finally took a county road across.

Yesterday rode with Lance Andre, I was on the big FatSo bike and he was on the ultra light carbon Niner,,,,,as if I needed a handicap riding with Idititrod finisher, DK200 winner, Triple D winner among others. Dang, and he even made me do all the drafting, ok ok, I fibbed about that....

Oh and we were talking about Triple D of 2012, I am not going to let out the date, I'll let him announce, however here's a HINT......Martin Luther.........;-) wink wink

I'm ready for Fall riding, a freeze to kill off some bugs and leaves to fall, When the leaves drop off the brush new paths open up that have been covered up by all the foliage, Fall is a great time of the year to be bicycling but come to think of it, so is Winter, Summer and Spring..............Ok gotz to go, will try to get here more often...thanks for visiting.

Dave

What to do? What to do this weekend ?

2011-08-28T22:24:00.004-05:00

Well I didn't get the garage staining finished this weekend.
Oh, and I didn't get the grass cut either.
Come to think of it, I was going to go to Sam's and stock up, and seems time ran out for that too.

However.........I nailed it out on the bikes this weekend.

Rode the FatOne Saturday for a metric C country style. Really pounded the tires, lots of rocks. Fun and challenging. This bike with enough water, weighs close to 50 lbs, as the ride went on, I had to push myself, keep the pace up, and not drag this out. Heavy pedaling has a way of slowly grinding you down, you start out zippy, and it comes and gets ya.

Today, Sunday, I rode the HardTail. My Ebay special. By the time I replaced all the wore out parts I should have bought a new one. But she rides well now. Lost my wallet today. At my turn around point I noticed I didn't zip up my back bag. Dang!!!!!!! I figured the chances of getting it back were slim. I had my two credit cards in there, my company's credit card, 100 bucks and other stuff. I followed my path back, watching, looking, gravel roads, county roads, and trails.
I didn't notice a call came in on my cell phone. I class mate of mine, Didi, was walking on the trail with her dog, and found it. Yahoooooo. I will go see her at her work sight tomorrow at noon. Remarkably lucky I'd say.

That makes two gravel metric Centuries this weekend, one last Wed, one the weekend before, and some more the week before and the week before but I no longer know how many, quit counting, I ran out of toes and fingers. I am just enjoying the ride.

My legs are fried now. I don't know a good reason why many of us enjoy riding into exhaustion. A fellow riding friend of mind thinks if we ever find out, why we ride as often as we can, as far as we can, in any weather, and preferably challenging terrain, we might stop doing it. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, I hope I don't find out.

I now have three bikes that need work, tuning, cleaning, and lubed. I spose I better take care of this, and try to avoid looking at the garage.......

Going to try to go back this week, and find out what happens to that trail I was on last week that went from manicured to abandoned.

Hope your weekend was fun too.
Dave

Biking on my mind.

2011-08-26T23:08:00.003-05:00

It's Friday night, my lady and I went to catch some outdoor music and brews. I found myself leaning against a wall, beer in hand thinking about my riding this weekend making plans. My plans are to hit the FatBike hard tomorrow, on rough trail for 62 miles. Not too hard though, I need to have something left in my gas tank for Sundan and put my HardTail back together and ride all over Iowa countryside. Cycling fanatic some might say. :-)

Wednesday I took the day off work, so I could take the psycho-X bike and car ride to Cedar Rapids and hop on the Nature Cedar Valley Trail and head out for 80 miles. I did. It was fun. The trail started out boring and was so well kept I could have closed my eyes. That all changed. After a change of counties the trail almost disappeared. It was unkempt, a lot of down trees, and just a small tire rut in 2 feet of grass in some places. Now we are having fun.

See the picture of my bike leaning against the downed trees. Is what the trail turned into. I moved several smaller trees out of the trail paths. Seems nobody was keeping this trail up anymore or using it. After a total of 40 miles I turned around, I would run out of daylight to keep continuing, and was not packing lights. So I turned around carrying my bike across piles of brush and trees. I shall return with lights, I hope soon. A lot of interesting sights along the way as you can see with the abandoned silos.

I got lost, and ran out of water, not good on both accounts. However running out of water at 80 some degrees and humid was a much worse biking sin then being lost. Found the small town of Brandon, refilled my water bottles and asked directions from the town man that rides a bike up down the 3 block main street. We rode out of town together as he showed my the path to Urbana Iowa, and we gave each other the fist high V. I could tell that most would label him as 'handicapped' and growing up in a small town along with the cruelty that often comes out of the playground life probably wasn't always pleasant for him. But we were both on our bikes and damn the rest of the world we were where we needed to be. We could both forget the thoughts we didn't like, and pedal on.

I made it back to my car before nightfall, and rode an off road to a corn field out of sight, so I could change back into my going home clothes and car ride 70 miles and nobody would arrest me for such indecency.

Tomorrow, I shall pack up and travel again. Food and water, and a good bike being my only necessities. Life at it's simplest, is life at it's finest.

Dave

Off the beaten path.........

2011-08-20T21:30:00.005-05:00

Took Thursday off work, and the plan was to ride my CycleX out to the Field of Dreams movie sight, using the back roads of Iowa, and just enjoy the country side. The problem I found out early was that just wasn't enough tire (35CC) for the gravel. I was spinning out on the climbs and sliding around on the downhills. Sometime the gravel roads ride like pavement, and are hard packed, not today, however, too much loose gravel.
What amazes me on some of these rides, is I am on a road that is just two tire tracks wide, winding in and out and up and down, and then I will round a corner, and there will be some body's home. Miles from nowhere, alone, and, no traffic unless you are coming here.

I was on such a road, and heard about a half a dozen dogs starting to bark as if they were going to show me I don't belong here.

This wasn't going to be good, with all the twists in this road I would not out run them.
Their barking became louder, I couldn't tell for sure if they were behind me or in front of me, the ruts got deeper, my heartrate hit my high zone. Then I saw him walking. A large, strong, fit looking man, 60ish, Tshirt soaked with sweat, a 5 year unshaven beard that went from just below his eye sockets to his Tshirt neck line. He was swinging a large stick in the brush. He knew something was headed his way, his dogs told him. He did not expect to see a man riding a bike out here. I thought he will save me from these animals, I need to say something, nice, so he would like me, something so he would not turn me into tonight's dog food. I started to say something like, "It sure is beautif...." and he interrupted me and said, "You are off the beaten path" with out a smile. He then went on to say, the dogs are all in their pen, and watch out for road washouts" That was it, he was done talking to me, he was living out here so not to be bothered by people, he looked down to the ground, which told me not to talk, and ride through.
Rode to the Field of Dreams movie sight, watched the tourists for a bit, bought a cold pop drank her down, stopped at the local park refilled my water bottles and rode back home.

All in all it was a good ride, my legs were spent, one wipe out in the gravel, and a bike that needed a good wash, air dry, and lube.

Today, (Saturday) I rode with the FatGirl. Those 4 inch tires ride well in washouts, ruts, and gravel.
This bike fully loaded with gear, and water is weighing in at 50lbs. It doesn't feel that heavy, but you really notice the difference when you ride the pavement on a road bike after riding a bike like this for a time, makes the road bike seem like weightlessness.

Rode 70 miles for a gravel Metric. Even took a moment to "plank" it has been awhile, and I didn't want to get rusty at planking.

Saw this sink hole big enough to fit myself and bike in. It twisted downwards and out of sight, maybe one of the 100s of buried old lead mines that are known in this area, that have been covered up and open up sometimes with wash outs. I couldn't resist climbing in.
I rode 70 miles out here, and surprisingly ran into a man that I have seen out here perhaps a couple of dozen times in the last couple of years. Today he called me by my name as I rode by, and told me his. WoW, was a good friend from 35 years ago, and we hadn't seen each other since or so we thought. He had not recognised me either the last couple of years, riding out here, but he read an article the newspaper did about my winter riding, and recognised that was me. He still didn't know it was me he was seeing out here until somebody told him about my century goals and I rode out this way often then he put two and two together. We had fun talking, and said we will talk again. He is retired and rides as much as I do out here, and he had me wishing I was retired too.

Rode hard, and the 50lb bike didn't feel so light as the day's travel lengthened. Well my legs are now toasted, I hope they have something to give me tomorrow. Well after all it is Sunday, yanno, my day off work.

:-) Thanks for visiting my ramblings.

Dave

Seems I put myself on a bicycle as much as I can,

2011-08-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

Been riding as much as I can, did a night ride with lights on trails that primarily serve as Snow Mobile trails, was lotz of fun. I have a very bright 900 lumen lighting system, I rounded a corner and surprised a mama, and her baby deer, they froze with my bright lights. 10 feet away, they just stared at me, I tried to slowly get my camera out and I spooked the baby and she jumped one way, and mama went to the other way hoping to draw me away from the most important thing in her life.

Rode through some serious hot spells a bit back, my legs were starting to feel like I had 20 lb weights attached to my ankles, exhausted, and full of lactic acid. Been riding allot, heat and humidity were taking its toll on me. So I took a day off the bike, hoping to drain the lactic acid and soak up some energy. I took vacation day the next day, to explore all the flood damaged trails thinking I would be ready to ride all day. Woke up and my legs still felt like they had 10 lb weights attached to them. But I had the day off, I didn't want to 'waste' it. Spent the day riding the back roads and trails that were damaged from last weeks 15 inches of rain, and severe flooding. Riding in and out of ruts, on closed roads, was a blast.

Been working on my FatBike. Put drop bars, STI shifters and brake levers, aero bars on her, and it is working great. I power better and ride more comfortably with this set up. Aero bars give my shoulder and hands a break if the path requires little maneuvering. The wide flair of the Salsa Woodchipper bars give control in the ruts.
There is nothing like riding 4 inch tires through ruts, weeds, creeks, fields, sand, and wash outs. The extra weight and big tires slowly grinds on you. Fattire riders know you ride with great zip at first, and as time goes on the extra weight and rolling resistance comes after you in the form of fatigue. But on the other side of this is the fact you are riding where no other bike could.

Worked 13 hours today proving our method of measuring cubic feet of air exhausted from a boiler stack was accurate and to satisfy the EPA and DNR strict requirements. Now that just seems crazy to me. Need a day on the bike, on a dirt trails, and I think I will just do that after I finish up testing tomorrow. :-)

OK gotz ta go, things to do yet and a body that want to crash.
Thanks for the visit.
Dave

2011-07-27T22:36:00.001-05:00
Hi my name is Dave, I was thinking of starting up a blog so bear with me please.
I am 58 years old, work more then full time, engaged to a good woman, who puts up without complaint to me spending most my spare time, money, thoughts, and planning on bicycling riding. So with that I will proceed.

This past weekend I rode two gravel metric centuries back to back. Was hot and grueling. Metric #1 I was able to keep a hard crank going, drank lots of water, and finished strong.
Metric #2 another hot day, was dragging, but kept forcing myself to keep the pace moving. Stopped and rested three times for 15 minutes each, something I rarely do, but was needed. Even took off my shoes and socks to cool down, and almost fell asleep here or maybe I did, I'm not sure. My blood felt like lead paste to get things pumping again.

I had to take two days off the bike due to a small medical procedure I had done to my knee on Monday morning, a shot of lube, synvisc to be exact. Maybe I was supposed to take off the bike a few more days, but I forgot my doctor's orders.

Tonight after work the weather forecast had flash flood warnings out. It was really super humid out, but I was anxious to get some ride time in, and didn't see anything significant on the weather radar. That sure changed in a hurry. I seemed to have good energy, was riding hard and sweating profusely with the high humidity. The rain started. I could taste my sweat as rain washed my face, my eyes burned, I realized how much salt you lose by sweating. Then downpours, and then lightening and thunder all around me.

What happened next I will never ever forget. I started feeling an electrical charge building up across my soaking wet back. I thought I am going to get struck by lightening, I might get toasted right here. I thought stay on bike, I wasn't sure why, but felt that would be the safest place to be. The next instance a loud crack and lightening bolt went off all around me. So I'm thinking I need to pedal straight home as fast as I can and get off the street before I am zapped. Then it was one lightening bolt after another, 12 inches of water in the street. I started feeling the tingling again, and then BAMM!!!!!!! another lightening strike seemed to be all around.
me.

That does it. I pulled into a unloading area at an old folks home, called my lady, begged for a ride, and she obliged.
I'm thinking of maybe packing lights tomorrow on my after work ride so I can ride after dark, to make up for the shortened trip tonight. Told ya, seems I spend most my spare time pedaling these days.

Knock Knock, anybody home??

2011-07-12T21:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry been taking a bit of a Blogcation.
However been riding like a fool
Acting like a idiot
And babbling like a moron.

Generally a couple of Gravel Centuries a week and pavement in between.

Will be back very soon with incoherent ramblings, poorly PhotoShopped photos with silly themes, and more. I promise ya, cross my heart.
Dave

Bicycling and Parties

2011-07-05T20:23:00.002-05:00
Spent the 4th of July weekend riding bicycle. Imagine that. :-)   Rode Metric gravels Saturday and Sunday, tried eating 100 calories of carbs every hour or less. That is all it took to keep from seriously bonking as mentioned in an earlier post. Was able to ride a lot stronger, ride until my legs had no more on Monday, much prefer that style then to be hit with wipe out overall fatigue. It was fun.

At my turnaround point on Monday noticed my sidewall was starting to bulge outward. Reduced air pressure and thought I will just ride as far as I can before tire failure with no repair possible. Well tire held up, and is now in the garbage can.

Did some road riding too. Does wearing roadie shoes, and riding a road bike on pavement make me a roadie?

Pedaled down to Joshua's house, my oldest son's house on July 3rd. He and his room mates live right underneath one of the most spectacular fireworks show one will ever see. There is over 100,000 people in the immediate area to watch the show.

He was having one hell-uva party. Keggers where flowing, mixed drinks were going down, check out his front yard.

My son Caleb was there too. He put his bicycle in the back of the car parked and pedaled the rest of the way because you couldn't even park with in a mile of the place.

The next morning I pedaled back down to check out the "morning after"

I was glad I was not inside some peoples' heads that morning.......
Pedaling around I ran into John, he was making a killing on empty beer cans,

John found a few unopened cans of beers on his can hunt and not wanting to waste any he was downing a 'warm one' on his ride to cash in his bounty. I tried to hook him up with my son Josh, and collect the cans but Josh would not answer the phone. Go figure.

Ok it is now Tuesday night, I am watching thee "Tour" don't know who won it yet, but they are getting close.

See ya,
Dave

Simply BONKING.

2011-07-02T22:29:00.001-05:00
62 miles, 100 Kilometers, on dirt or gravel, I consider my 'base workout'. It is not supposed to be an endurance event, even for this old carcass. Lately I have been dragging the tail end of this ride. Lately I have been burning more calories then I consume. I am shedding some of my whale blubber, whale blubber doesn't allow one to attack hills well. Beer, Pizza, and Beer are all to good of friends of mine. So I have restricted my calorie intake.
I didn't take into account that 4 to5 hours of pedaling requires adequate blood glucose levels. I invested in a blood glucose meter, they are under 30 bucks. My last metric C I came home with a blood glucose level of 83, to low, not enough fuel. So today I packed a PBJ sandwich and inhaled at the half way point of the ride.
With 17 miles left, exhaustion set in. I was leaning my forearms on the handle bars, pedaling slow, with a low heart rate. 17 miles from home, I woofed down a granola bar, sweet and surgery. With in about 12 minutes I was kicking some high heart rates, riding hard, and enjoying the ride again.
When I got home I checked my blood glucose and it was still too low, 81. Sorry for anybody reading this, and thinking 'who cares' but my point is, keep yourself fueled, for those that want to push themselves. Ok, I'm done, off my soapbox. :-)

I promised ya'll a picture of the UFO, that has been frequenting the area of my ride, but maybe next time I will capture the pic.

After arriving home, I grilled up a happy ending......

Over and out.
Dave

Just passing through.

2011-07-01T20:46:00.001-05:00
Been riding a lot but not stopping by and posting. Riding to much perhaps that I am a tad on the exhausted side often. Also working the non biking muscles and stretching, makes for a better ride. Today's heat index was 115, humidity about 75 and temp 96. I lifted after work, strengthening shoulders, arms, and chest, doing sits, and leg curls. No ride today trying to store up some energy in the legs for a metric gravel tomorrow and finish stronger then I have been. I have in the freezer two 32 ounce water bottles and a 24 oz V8. Hot rides V8 makes a good blend of minerals and such. It is easy to overdo the salts and 24 oz of V8 is about right for a 5 hour ride. I'll need a refill of fluids somewhere out there.
Ok, ok, I'll stop rambling with this boring talk. On tomorrow's ride I will try to capture a picture of the UFO I have been seeing, or that Sasquatch apeman I have been seeing out there bicycling. The fastest I have ever rode in my life is when he tried to chase me down, and who knows what he had in mind if he would have got me.

So ya'll come back now.
Dave

Weekend riding pleasures

2011-06-26T21:43:00.000-05:00

At about mile 30 of my scheduled Gravel Metric yesterday, I felt something wet misting on my legs, I thought one of my 32 oz water bottles was leaking. Realizing I drank both bottles empty and was on my way to a bottle refill I looked down at my bike frame and saw "green slime" flying around, I said the "F" word. "FLAT" tire. The spray of green slime...
I was a mile away from my turn around point and a small town park with a picnic table and water bubbler so I leaned over my handle bars putting all my weight on the front tire, and drifted to the picnic table and with a spare tube, tire levers, and air pump. I was ready to go in short order.
Well that left me with not another spare tube and DUH!!! no tube patches. So for some reason I felt if I ride as fast I can and if I get a flat I won't have to walk as far because I will be closer to home, not much cell phone coverage out here in the woods either. The next 30 miles I kept pushing myself, and made it home.

Today was road riding day. Had fun riding through parks, along the Mississippi River front and camp grounds. It was a great ride except the part where the fat guy, smoking a cigarette showed his displeasure of me by passing me close, slowing down along side of me and honking his horn. :sigh: if I could only be a manly man like you sir. Freak'n moron!!!!

I received my RAGBRAI registration in the mail, I tried to hide it from Creepy Baby, she found it. I don't want to take her along, however, she has other plans in mind.

Well thanks for visiting, Monday through Friday, here we come.
Dave

The pleasure of nothingness.

2011-06-23T20:18:00.003-05:00
Today's forecast: Rain
Today's situation: Scheduled vacation day
Today's plan: Ride a bicycle
Today's expectation: Lots of miles and anticipate getting WET!!!!

For me, rain isn't a reason to cancel a ride. I try to avoid thunderstorms, high winds, and hail, but sometimes I get stuck in them. If I know they are coming my way, I try to wait them out. But just rain, makes a peaceful country ride.
Starting out today the air was thick with moisture. That soon turned into a mist, and then light rains, and then thunderstorms. With the rains came solitude out on the trails. The longer I rode the less everything else became. If was I worried about anything, I had forgotten what it was. I was pulled into my own little world of endorphins as I was viewing the trail in front of me and rotating the pedals. Flying down a dirt trail. I love the simplisticness of that.

Riding was now lost in my daydreams, no cell phone calls, no time restraints, no reason to care what time it was. Feelings like these, is why a lot of bicyclers bicycle. Health gains are only a side benefit of something done for the sheer joy it.

Perhaps it is something like a former major league pitcher, one Tug McGraw said:
“I think the reason I like baseball so much is because when I come into a game in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, none out and a one run lead, it takes my mind off all us screwed-up people.”

Thanks for visiting, and have fun out there.
Dave

Things I gotta do

2011-06-20T21:44:00.007-05:00

COMING OUT OF A TUNNEL

Mr. Bill my bik'n friend from down Linden Texas way, asked in my last post how my shoulders and other body parts were holding up. Awhile back I went through a serious bout of rotator cuff injuries, along with carpel tunnel flair ups, and general all around soreness and stiffness. I think it all started with several fly off the bikes banging down hard on ice and snow. So after a run with a chiropractor, a neurologist, who confirmed the nerve impingement in both wrists and a ortho doctor who confirmed the rotator cuff injuries I was given two heavy doses of shots of cortisone in each shoulder. In a few days that really got everything to flair down. So now I have become a believer in stretching and strength building exercises I try to do at least 5 times a week to help prevent these conditions. It doesn't take long about a half hour each of stretching and strength work. I found with 1000s of hours bicycling and not doing any counter stretching or exercising wasn't going to work on an old carcass my age. Particularly stretching the hams, and shoulders, and building some upper body strength. It's a pain in the butt for me, I can ride and enjoy 1000s hours of pedaling easily but strain at doing any stretching or stregth work. But I am trying to make this part of my routine, I need too. I need to keep pedaling and now some auxiliary body maintenance is needed.

Perhaps a bit about nothing for some here, but if your getting up age like me, Mr. Bill, Trevor, even that young looking DanO, and Tom the rocket guy up north and a bunch more I didn't mention give this stretching some consideration. Like I said, I'm feeling the best I have in a long time, and looking forward to building a real solid bicycling base.

If your young, old, or in the middle and you stop and visit here please leave a comment if you are doing any counter exercises or stretching to enhance your bicycling I'd like to get an idea on what is working for you, or if you don't need to do anything but ride and lift a pint or two afterwards. Thank you.

Peace.
Dave

A BOTTLE IN FRONT OF ME IS BETTER THEN A TOTAL FRONTAL LOBOTOMY

2011-06-18T22:52:00.001-05:00

.....drank a few beers too many last night, was at "All that Jazz" first one of the year, downtown, outside. So upon awakening this morning, I told all complaining body parts we were going to hit it hard today. Air was warm, heavy and humid. Rode a Metric in the Gravel, thought about a few thousand things, things to do, things I've done, and days gone by, and days ahead.  Rode until I had no more legs left, felt good, feel zapped.
I wrote Nick and Cup-O-Dirt and told him that was #11 for the year. The crew at Cup-O-Dirt have elevated me to a deity status, somehow I blew right past sainthood, and into deity, good grief!!!

Last year I had 32 Gravel Metrics in at this time. I'm glad I am not doing such this year. Gives me more freedom, like tomorrow to ride hilly pavement on my road bike. The feeling of freedom I think is a big part of why many of us are always bicycling as much as we can. We really can't fly on our own power, so flying on two wheels is a close 2nd to those feelings.

Stopped and took a picture of all this beef cooling down in the creek.

Oh, and Happy Papa's day tomrrow to all the Papas out there. Raising kids has taught me everything I know about life. Raising kids as a single parent showed me more about myself, good and bad, then any other experience could have. Thank you Melissa, Joshua, and Caleb for being who you are.

Riding away....

2011-06-16T20:27:00.001-05:00

Stayed up later then I should have last night, not doing anything but Blog surfing, and channel surfing and wasting time. I knew I could sleep in late this morning, because I was taking the day off work, and would have plenty of time to ride a gravel Metric. However, shortly after 5 a.m. this morning I am tossing and turning in bed, knowing, I am free to bicycle today. I roll out of bed, stand there for a minute and say no, this is nutz, I need sleep, I am always running short of Zs. I crawl back in bed, lay awake for 30 minutes, and decide if I can't sleep, I might as well get on a bike.

I see it is going to be 80 degrees and I try to pack enough fluids for 62 miles of gravel. I don't like spending $3.00 on vending machine fluids, but yet I don't bat an eye and paying $300.00 to switch my HardTail over to Shimano STI shifters because I like the feel of them, and that didn't include the cost of handle bars, cables, and mechanical brakes, even though my thumb shifters were in perfect condition. Such is the mind set of a cyclist.

The first 20 miles were rip roaring, I didn't know where all the energy came from but I liked it. Then I think there must have been a hole in my gas tank because all that initial energy seemed to have leaked out and it started to become a grind just to maintain a decent pace. Such would be the rest of the ride. I stopped at mile 40 to eat my half of a PBJ sandwich. I was almost falling asleep sitting here, and thought about finding a place to take a power nap but the bugs were out in the billions, and stopping left me swatting em away the whole time.
Finished my ride, came home and fell asleep on the couch.

Started thinking, I want to plan a night gravel century, would be fun, and spooky, maybe pack some blackberry brandy along in my flask to make it sporting. :-)

Saw this bad boy on the way back home. Wasn't paying attention and all most ran over him. I served as fast as I could. Don't want to hurt him. He was huge. 

So, one more day of work tomorrow, then the weekend. Looking forward to a day of exploring Saturday, seems it just never gets old, and every ride is always thoroughly enjoyed.

Riding Bikes

2011-06-14T21:50:00.000-05:00
Today makes day 4 of riding since coming back from a 11 day hiatus after catching a plague or something. Legs feels whooped but good. Pushed the pace for a lot of that riding. I've been working on something I read in Mr. Bill's blog, he mentioned about following through on a hill. My pavement route is all hills. I now try to carry all the way through and over the crest without breaking pace. It takes dicipline because the quads are lactating out, and begging to catch up on O2 at that point.

Been busy, lifting weights, working on son's car, visiting my papa, yard work, my real job, taking time to stretch seriously now and it's helping, and more stuff. I like busy, is how I thrive the best.
Met another bike rider about my age tonight. I saw him up ahead and began the 'push' We went from 16 mph to 18, to 20, to 22. The wind was against us and I was trying to stay as aerodynamically tucked the best I could. Finally I caught up and we rode onto my neighborhood, introduced and parted. I looked him up on FaceBook and saw we had 7 mutual biker friends. So I sent him a friend request.
Will make myself stay off the bike tomorrow, and take off work Thursday, for a all day gravel ride. YAHOOO!!!!

Here's a shout out to Tom. Tom took one helluva whoop when a young rider turned in front of him over a week ago. Tom is tough, is hurting like all get out ,and is very slowly getting back on the bike. I admire in Tom's post of the wreck he never said one negative comment about the rider turning in front of lane. He helped the young'n out got his bike back in order, and went home to the pain cave.

THE TABLE OF STRANGE THINGS ON THE ROAD TO NO WHERE

Rode up to papa's and found him out back watering all of mom's stuff, mama would like that. That big maple on the left my brother planted a long time ago.

Gotta git, get to bed, and start er all over again tomorrow. Thanks for stopping.
Dave

Has anybody seen Dave?!?!?!?

2011-06-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Oh there he is, down in the dumps, see him there?

After my near heat exhaustion ride last Memorial day, something hit me, started with a nasty sore throat, went into my lungs, sinus, and eyes. I had no wind, went to the docs three times, loaded up on eye drops, antibiotics, and cough meds.
Couldn't ride, lungs were not cooperating, and coughing fits would start. Lifting weights and lotz of stretching kept my mind from crazy with all the bike down time.
Felt good when I woke up this morning, legs felt good.
So checked out the legs today. Had 25 miles of gravel riding in, and decided to see if I could make it a century. Did. Legs were begging me to stop the last 15 miles, probably bit off more then I should, but that's how it goes.

Don't think I can get the time tomorrow to ride a full Metric C, working on Josh's car, spending some time with pops, and some errands. I try to make some time, cause I'm back in the saddle again.    :-)

My goose is cooked

2011-05-30T19:22:00.004-05:00

YIKES!!! Got Zzapped riding today. Was about 90 and humid. Usually I have tolerated much better then I did today. Perhaps, just maybe it's due to I am older, fatter, and uglier each passing year. At about mile 20 on a gravel road, riding my Trek XO2 Cycle Cross, my fluids were gone. 82 ounces. 10 more riding miles, I came to a small town park water fountain. I drank 24 oz, and filled my 24 oz water bottle full. I didn't know just how much I could trust this water, and needed to drink about a gallon before I would be back home. So I found a vending machine and paid to fill up the rest of my bottles.
My stomach was full of fluids but yet my mouth was dry, I wasn't processing fluids as fast as my body was evaporating them to stay cool.
Then signs of heat stress hit. With out the detail I found a bush to hide behind, I don't know why, I was somewhere in nowhere, and I couldn't hold on anymore, and was glad I packed some wet ones along for the trip. I would have two more stops at outdoor small town park out houses.
Feeling dizzy, no cell phone service, I started heading home. Sprinkling water on me and down my spine to help cool off. The wind picked up and the added evaporation had me feeling better. I had some concern about going down in this heat. I kept a close watch on my thoughts, was feeling a little whacky and my eyes played tricks on me.
I thought about getting in the creek for more cool down, but felt good enough to just keep going and get home.

Lessons learned riding in the heat:
Don't go sleeveless when it's hot and sunny to much skin to absorb heat.
Pack something like V8 to keep the salt and mineral content up.
Don't just apply sun screen, bring some along.
Pace yourself, I rode too hard the first half, and bonked the 2nd half of this metric dirt century 62 miler.
I think with some more warm rides I'll adjust better.

I came home and grilled chicken breasts and burgers all with cheese, and baked potatoes. My 24 year old son Josh came over conveniently just as everything was done. I saw it with my own eyes. Josh ate two cheeseburgers, and two chicken breast sandwiches, a potato and a bowl of Frosted Flakes to top it all off. I don't think that kid ate all week end. So now he is in a coma on my couch snoring. The guy doesn't have an ounce of fat on him, I get fatter just watching him eat.

Keep on riding
Dave

What can I say.

2011-05-27T22:15:00.000-05:00

Been a good week for getting my 'stuff' done. My 'stuff' is not work, or house chores but cranking the pedals, and lifting and stretching that I have added to my routines to keep everything in balance for turning the pedals. Used to be I could just ride and ride, but now I gotta work the muscles and stretch em to keep things moving.
Tuesday it was warm enough to sweat in bicycling shorts and sleeveless jersey, Wednesday is was staying barely warm with wool legs, and wool long sleeves, with hat, gloves, and jackets. Riding my 25 mile roller coaster all about town.
Tuesday I flew, it felt effortless, stayed 'on it' the whole route. Wednesday, I was zapped, the lazy parts of my mind tried to talk me out of the ride. I was just tired, not injured, not fatigued, so I knew I needed to ride. Just tired, makes a good mental and physical training ground. If I didn't ride I wouldn't feel good about myself. The ride turned out OK, and was glad I got out there.
Today a century on the gravel, I was waiting for energy to pick up, it never happened so I just kept pedaling and finished.
This weekend headed up north to visit Grandson Cole, return Sunday night and ride another century Monday on the dirt.
Seems this is going to be another year of not getting the garage and deck stained, or not remodeling a few rooms in the house, seems my heart is set on spending as much as my free time as I can riding a bicycle somewhere out in nowhere for no good reason. I guess it is what it is.

2011-05-22T18:47:00.000-05:00
Attention if anyone sees the end hose of my Mountain Morph Tire pump please return, I backtracked 30 miles on trail looking for it. Not being able to repair a flat out here means you might push a bike one heck-of-a-lot.

Just so you know, it was not the end of the world this Saturday. So those that spread this myth please stop with all this nonsense in the future. You must think you are pretty special that God tells only you these things and you can tell me when my goose is cooked.

Good grief, I am going to have go back to work Monday to rest up. Two days on the bike 135 miles of gravel travel. Both Friday and Saturday night jamming out with live musics and brewskies.

Rode 20 miles in the rain Saturday, and then the rain stopped. I rode 50 miles more on gravel roads and dried off.

Sunday's ride I had to stop and turn around when there was a large bull blocking my path and he would not move, kept his head down, and was staring at me. He was scaring me.

Wore my special modified shoes for rainy day travel. Water in equals water out. My high end SIDI shoes won't let the rain out, so I cut the toes out of these Shimano shoes and works ok in the pouring rain.

Planking is the action of lying face down with arms to the sides of the body, in unusual public spaces and photographing it. So says Wikipedia.

Well ummm, I now am 'planking' it has changed my life, I can't stop, I plank everywhere I can.

Just kidding, I can stop planking, anytime I want. But before I stop, I need to plank the Golden Gate Bridge. Plankcoholics I need you.

Melissa, my 30 year old daughter finished her first marathon Saturday, It was warm and very humid. She dug in and finished. Amazing effort. Melissa puts her mind to complete something, consider it done.

The Dancing Man,

2011-05-20T23:59:00.001-05:00
Just enough time to get home from work, lift weights, shower and get out to the door to go listen to the music. I've always loved music people, people who spend their whole life immersed in playing music and performing, to perfection. For them it is for the love of music and not the money. So I get to enjoy, all their hard work, and let the music take me places. Tonight was the first outdoor music to start the summer season. Something we do, my lady and I is watch people, and the outdoor music arena is the place to this. Tonight we
saw the "dancing man' this guy danced by himself song after song, as if in some other world, go man go, I love the free spirit.

Got home and my son Caleb was leaving, to a party, on the bicycle, well wise choice young man, riding a bike, cause a DUI he knows all about and the 'goods' are in the bag.

Tomorrow is rain, rain, and rain, I am hoping to ride, ride, and ride anyways. A gravel century is the goal. Not bicycling because it is raining just doesn't work. Would be too many days missed if that be the case.

Melissa my wonderful daughter runs her first marathon tomorrow in Fargo ND. The girl is amazing. When she puts her mind to something, consider it done. She has mastered flute, piano, motherhood, marriage, 4.0 student, National Merit scholar, Chemical engineering degree, and about a year ago has decided to take up running. Well after a well plotted training schedule including 20 mile training runs she is ready. Thunder storms might make this race a killa. Run Melissa, run.

Yikes, I stayed up past my beauty rest time, Lord knows I need it. :-)
Lata
Dave

THIS IS THE END

2011-05-19T21:51:00.001-05:00

I hope I don't offend anyone here, but here's my view on the "new end" this Saturday. Every couple of years, for every generation some group interprets when the End is going to occur using some new revelation obtained from bible interpretation. Every group seems to think their right, until the day after. This has been going on for centuries. I'm not worried about it. I enjoy my life now, more then I ever have, but if the end is going to come, then I'll get in the check out line, check out and see what happens next.
This Saturday is the "new end date" I'll be out on a country road, riding a bicycle, for a metric century. I will be disappointed if the cold beer in the refrigerator goes to waste and I don't return.
Seriously however, if this does nothing else but causes some to reflect on how precious life is, and the importance of our relationships with those we love, then I say thanks again End Timers.
Tonight after work I was able to ride a bike, lift weights, stretch and watch American Idol. Can it get any better then that?
Tomorrow night it is outdoor music and beer, YaHoooo!!!!!

Ok, I think I should zip it now.

Dave

A day on the bike.

2011-05-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

The weather peeps said 67 degrees and partly sunny today. It was 53 degrees when I left, and thought it should warm up fast, and didn't pack a lot of warm wear. At 30 miles out, the wind was blowing, it was starting to rain, and I was cold!!!!
I turned my IPOD radio on and the weather report came on telling me it was raining, windy and 53 degrees. So with fingerless gloves, shorts, and a light wind breaker on I was chilling. I stepped up the pace, pushing myself, to help stay warm. Riding on a road on top of a ridge, I decided to drop down onto a valley road and get out of the wind.
Stopped at the "Cement Slab Cafe" they were closed, fortunately I packed the American staple, PBJ.

Rode a gavel Metric Century and some more. I am taking the time to stretch out every day. It takes time and patience, but I gotta stay on it. Shoulders and other moving parts are feeling well. Looking forward to riding these back gravel roads this year.

So, over and out,
time for some zzzzzzzzzzzs.
Thanks for visiting
Dave

Gnome, Mr. Toad and Blog Stalker.

2011-05-14T23:36:00.002-05:00

A drizzly grey day, but it was a much brighter inside my head on this Metric Century 63 miles in gravel day, so I brightened the sky color. Banging down a Snicker bar here, been loving them since about the time I could first walk or maybe even before that. Was able to push the pace, energy and strength levels were there, some body parts were hurting but they all hung in there and was able to stay on a good pace.

The Gnome and his pet Toad were out. Later they went to their shroom deck.

Wish I could do this everyday, and not have to go to work, or do house chores, and other things like that. But the Gnome and Mr. Toad didn't offer me any pixie dust to sprinkle, so I will continue to juggle duties and play in my life.

Recently I have become aware of a blog stalker. So with the help of the FBI, CIA, and other assorted law enforcement agencies we have determined what this man looks like. For now we will call him "Joe" Here is a picture of him, if you see him please exercise extreme caution and lock up the women and children and call in the Navy Seals.

Hope your day had some fun too.
Dave

vanity of vanities; all is vanity

2011-05-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

Ecclesiastes 1

So tonight's road ride, a good wind at my back. Feeling full of energy, feeling strong. My neighbors. Ed and Peg, pass me on their Honda 3 wheeler motortricycle and we nod at each other. I hang on to their wheel, and follow. The pace picks up, a windy day at my back and makes it possible for me to keep up. I stay on their tail and check my speed. 28 mph. YIKES!!!! OK the only way I can do this is a good strong wind at my back, a good road bike, pavement, not too long, and vanity. I'm thinking let me show them what this old guy has in him. I am dying!!!! I am sucking air. I need oxygen and maybe a AED machine. So after a couple of miles of this we approach a stop sign, just in time, I get to stop. I could not have kept this up, and I pull next to them. Peg the passenger didn't know I had tailed them, and looked surprised. I pretended not to be in an extreme oxygen dept, smiled and peddled past them, they turned left. 10 minutes later I was still sucking air, and in an oxygen dept. Next time they see me they'll think, man that guy is an manimal.
Vanity of Vanity, all is vanity.
For goodness sakes, for your own good, don't be like me. :-)

Dave

Escapism

2011-05-09T21:06:00.001-05:00
One of those days at work I don't like. My personality finds it easier to work with equipment easier and much more predicable then working and overseeing people. Today I had to tell a man, an apprentice, that he is not doing the job. Which means he can no longer be employed in that position. I don't like to do that, but I had too. It was the right thing to do.

But that being said, my point is this. I had a bicycle ride to escape into. To remove any feelings of awkwardness, to fly away, for as long as I please, and that I did.

Found this table on the road to no where.

Now the day is over,

Thanks for visiting.

Dave

I never knew it would feel this way.

2011-05-08T19:51:00.002-05:00

People would often tell me that when someone as close to your heart as your mother is, passes on, there is a void that occurs that never leaves.
I didn't understand, then. I do now.
My mama left this place last July   see blog post here----> 'sailing away'

Some days I don't think of it, some days the void comes out of no where, like a freight train rolling through in the middle of the night, unstoppable and overwhelms my thoughts. I want my mama back, and nothing will change that, I can't bring her back, and nothing will change that.
She was an magnificent, wonderful, lovely, incredible mom.

Spend time when you can, with those you love, it is much more important then bicycling, work, houses, and employment, and a lot of other things we wrap our self's around. There will be plenty of time to spend on our passions. My mama would most always say when I was visiting, did you ride your bike today David. :-)

Over the handle bars and through the woods I go

2011-05-07T21:47:00.000-05:00

I've been through here dozens of times, without a problem, until today that is. The public trail ends here. To keep going you pop over a small curb, square yourself with the gate, drop off the ledge and turn some to the right as your back tire is dropping off, to get on the single path. Today I wasn't paying attention, my right shoulder bumped the post, knocking me to the left as my front tire dropped off the ledge, and I tried to correct the situation when my forks turned too sharp, and I was ejected from my seat as quick as a fighter pilot out of his plane, flew over the handle bars, and landed hard with outstretched hands, in nettles, jamming my right shoulder some. I hope and pray this doesn't flair up my shoulder again, I don't think I would like that very much. This was only mile 3.

I walked it off, and saddled up, for a Metric C. Legs felt strong, I'm ready for more. This is only Gravel century #2 for the year. Last year I had 17 by this time, but I'm hoping to get er going now.

The wind was at my back on the way out, gusts up to 20 mph, I knew I was going to pay the penalty for the assist on the way back and that I did.

Please don't hold this against me, but I 'juiced' today. I needed a boooooost. Was feeling a bonk, after the turn around and the wind was putting me standing on the level to pedal.

Saw these wild animals today a beeffalo cow and a grizzly bear with a long long neck, I think that is what they were, I'm just a city boy yanno.

Stopped and visited with my one eyed tree face friend.
Wasn't expecting to ride a metric gravel century, 62 miles, but had plenty of energy, and legs, to keep on the pace. Now as long as this shoulder behaves, I'll be happy.

Thank you for visiting.
Dave

My pedals want me

2011-05-06T21:48:00.002-05:00
Doing lotz of things, lotz of things going on, been busy, but I like busy.

I received a couple of letters from two different local bike shop owners this week about attending a meeting the Conservation Committee meeting, regarding a home owner wanting to stop completion of a bike trail that has one small non finished piece to make a 31 mile country trail complete. A trail ride I have rode thousands and thousands of miles on. This missing piece disconnects the trail from the city.
So I was all set to give it to em, to get up and speak, this was close to the heart to me, some anger, was stirring in me and I wanted to challenge who would challenge this.
Due to circumstances beyond my control I arrived late, too late to speak. I walked in late, and picked a chair next to Parrish, LBS owner and bicycler extraordinaire. He tapped me on the shoulder and said it was all over and motioned for me to go to the back and talk, local bike club president Joe, and one other guy followed us to the back.
Well long story short, the 'other guy' was the home owner, he shook my hand, said he was sorry, said he was all for the completion of the bike trail. The problem was, with it's design, and the raised trail would build a damn, and every spring his commercial property would flood, the DNR had agreed tonight, and more studies needed.
I was glad I was running late and didn't shoot my mouth off. Seems I often shoot my mouth off before listening to the whole story, like Judge Judy says, there is a reason we have two ears and only one mouth.

Been working it. Stretching lotz. Lifting weights, riding every other day. Trying to work out some joint inflammation problems I've been having. Tonight I ride a Time Trials 5 mile loop around my home area, totally hilacious, for 5 laps. I won't be timing myself, however. This hilly course makes old man legs like mine scream and beg for mercy, I'm not ready for that yet. My doctor wants me to do a 24 hour pee in the bottle test so I stay close to home and then he will analyze, to see. I don't know what he wants to see but I guess that's his business.

Tomorrow my hopes are to ride a bunch.

Here is a picture of my 87 year old papa, with two of my brother's 6 children. My dad still works out every day, and is very serious about stretching, the proof is in the pudding, he is in great health, and still working.

I like this house on my TT route. .

Couldn't resist took a breather from TT and rode some trail with my roadie.

Visiting with grams and gramps. Take time to visit those you love in your life before this is the only way you can.

Ok time for nitey nite, hopefully looking for some mileage tomorrow.
LaTa,
DAve.

Why ride a bike?

2011-05-02T20:46:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, being I had some spare time, because I wasn't going to spend my whole day on a bicycle and had a 30 mile recovery sort of ride planned. So I thought I would do the manly thing like the rest of the neighborhood man crowd and do some yard work. My first thought was WOW!!!! weeds have taken over. Now I am not a 'yard freak' but if you don't do some basics, especially with the hard soil I have here, this yard will get totally overtaken with weeds. This was the worst I have ever seen it. So I mention this to Birgit.
She says back to me, "Well remember last year you
were going after your "ride a 100 centuries" goals, fell behind, and said you would have to let some other things go, and 'get er done'?" It wasn't a complaint from her, but just an observation. That got me thinking about all this. Seems I use almost all my vacation days, weekends, and times after work riding a bike somewhere. All that riding requires a lot of time consuming bike maintenance and part replacement also. So it takes a lot of time. Spose I could change my evil ways. Keep my yard up, wash and wax my car on weekends. Could probably get my house projects completed, maybe join a bowling team on Tuesdays, and darts on Thursday. Maybe a golf league on Wednesdays or perhaps find a 8 ball team. Take my dog for walks, and join a pet club. I bet there is all kinds of other stuff I could find to do.

But where would that leave me at the end of the day? The end of the year? The end of me? I get along with people fine, but I am not that social of a person for these gatherings. Activities like golf, bowling, darts, don't seem to have meaning to me. There is too much time in between turns, you have to count on others, you can't push yourself, take risks, or face challenges.

So I guess I'll remain a bike rider. It doesn't have a thing to do with what is better, or who is better doing what. Makes no difference to me, because see, I get to ride a bike in rain, on hot days, in snow and ice, and beautiful spring days. Being sidelined from physical endeavors with some chronic joint inflammation recently, made me realize what a wonderful gift health is, I am not going to waste that health and sit on the couch and know all the TV shows. I choose instead to fly like an eagle, down a dirt road, somewhere in Iowa, on my well tuned bike, with all kinds of thoughts in my head, and a smile on my face.

I say no more, I have a bike waiting.
Dave

Recommended reading, my seeesters blog tonight.    click ----> Here

A pair of dirty 30s this weekend.

2011-05-01T20:07:00.002-05:00

Rode 30 miles yesterday on dirt trails and 30 of the same today. Normally I would call that a lazy weekend. But a week ago at this time it was hard to put on my shoes and socks, or open a car door. Won't go into all that again, even though I like to whine, but looking forward to riding into exhaustion again soon and hope I continue on the healing path.
Rode my HardTail yesterday with fat 2.5 tires, was a soft spongy ride but the traction helped. Today rode my Cross bike, my favorite, the zip of this bike is great. Tried her out today on some MotorX trails which is the short video at the end, it was fun plan on spending more time on these jumps and drop offs. Thought about acting my age once, but got so terribly bored.

My so called life,,,,

2011-04-29T21:36:00.005-05:00

Me and the 'Creepy' are getting a hankering. Yeap. You can see what that hankering is for by looking over here -------------------------------->

The double dose of Cortisone shots I received this last Tuesday reduced dramatically my shoulder, and joint aches. I have been working on developing a stretching routine, and exercise program to get better muscle and joint balance.
My blood test came back. I don't have RA, or Lyme disease. The test did show an inflammatory condition, which is causing joint pain and that is all we know at this time.
I feel good today, best I have felt in a couple of months. Hallelujah for Cortisone.

I'm thinking I can get out and ride some trails tomorrow for a bit. I haven't rode a bike for about 2 weeks and then some. I have not been off a bike this long since 2005, and that is another story regarding an Internet relationship from hell, and a year of despair. Well meeting someone in a AOL chat room and then shortly afterwards having her move in from 1700 miles away with her dogs, cats, and birds is nutz. That all seems so crazy now, I gotta share that one some time. But I digress. Hmmm, I wonder, can you actually digress if you don't have a point?

So I will kick back and drink a couple of beers and think about pedaling tomorrow, tonight.

Thanks for the visit, and listening to my rambling.
LaTa
DAve.

A visit with the doctor.

2011-04-26T21:21:00.002-05:00

I was told by daughter Melissa, and older sister Dawn, I just can't disappear from Blogdom just because I haven't been bicycling. I told sister Dawn, but my endorphin supply is down, I'm just want to spend my free time whining to everyone who will listen. It got so bad around here that Creepy Baby and Friend started hitting the bottle. So now I drink with them. I know it's wrong, but it's only for a season

I saw the orthopedic surgeon today. He injected something cortisone like into both shoulders. Movement is quite restricted lately. He determined both wrists have significant impingement, which was what the neurologist's report said last week. There is something else going on besides the muscle-skeletal problems here. Other joints are now hurting. Lots of blood tests were done. He mentioned maybe Lyme's disease, or RA. I wait.

Perhaps that explains something. It seems earlier this year I was putting more hours in the saddle then most bike riders that I know. Seems I was slowly getting slower. I wasn't gaining on it. At Triple D race this January I didn't have my 'normal motor' running that I am used too. I said to myself I'm 58, my MOJO supply just isn't what it used to be. Maybe something else was working on me.
Other riders saw it, I stayed in the back half, a couple of guys dropped along side of me, and asked if I wanted to start 'working it' I told em go ahead, I'll find you.

So my plans are just to hang out, rest up, get this problem figured out and ride again like I have never have before. The bikes will be ready, it'll come.

Meanwhile I am mounting a pedal system to my '6 wheeler' for some easy does it riding. :-)

Time for reflection

2011-04-18T18:45:00.050-05:00
What I have done to pay da bills has been to keep 'things' running. moving up the food chain and today I am foreman of the Technician/Electrician shop for an Electric Utility that I have worked for the last 34 years.

When a device breaks down and quits doing what we would like it to do, I always say that it was no accident. It's failure occurred because we didn't do what was necessary to keep it running. Improper care and maintenance occurred somewhere along the line. The malfunctioning equipment was precisely obeying the laws of physics when it had it's break down. Perhaps it ran too long, or not enough cooling, or misalignment, insufficient lubrication, among many other possible causes for failure.

And so is the bio mechanics of our bodies.

I checked back on some of my past blogging and seems I didn't pay enough attention to all the reports I had coming in for a predicable failure.
Shoulder blogging..............among others.

Jan 29th
I didn't see the rut right in front of me, I didn't have time to react, my front tire kicked sideways throwing the bike and me to the right. I bounced hard on my right shoulder and head. This one hurt. My arm, neck, hand, and shoulder ached. I climbed back on the bike. I had 5 miles to go. My neck stiffened up and I could not turn my head.

Feb 5th
nursing some sore shoulders

March 6th
Shoulders are the same, both sore, but tolerable

March 12th
shoulders are a bit beat up

So seems I let wisdom go out the window on this one and didn't read the reports coming in.

Tomorrow, I see the neurologist. Tests are going to be done on nerve conductivity to determine where the numbness in my hands is coming from.

I've often heard said to me, " How can you ride so many miles on a bicycle it's 90 + degrees out and blistering sun? " Or it's a blizzard outside, what are you nuts?"
Life is much easier on bike. When all you have to worry about is the next pedal rotation. Nothing else matters. Dealing with life's issues is the real challenge,

"If we don't change our direction we'll likely end up where we're headed."

Talk at ya later.
DAve

Need some healing time

2011-04-16T13:49:00.001-05:00

This post is funny. Cup-O-Dirt. Nick did it. Nick is a neat guy, SciFi writer and veteran of many epic endurance snow and gravel races, including Arrowhead 135, Tuscobia, Triple D, and now is entered in Trans Iowa this coming Easter Sunday. Go Nick Go.

NOW MY ISSUE.
I gotta be doing something.I need to bicycle, or something, something that takes my full efforts, heart and soul.

THE ISSUE
The issue is this. Readers of this blog have lately put up with me whining about shoulder problems. This has crept in over the last couple of months. I suspect due to a combination of hard crashes this winter landing on my shoulders, 100s of hours of riding with a change of handle bar designs that didn't feel right, my continuance to keep riding as shoulders were getting worse.
So this week I made an appointment with a chiropractor, I thought I would start there. Today was my second visit. Today he told me he wanted to set up an appointment for me to see a neurologist The problems is numbness that has developed in my hands, wrist, and fingertips. Shoulder impingement could do this, so could nerve stenosis, among other non wonderful things. Also I have an appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon, to look at shoulder repairs. So not much bicycling for awhile. I will get this all straightened out. I will be back on the ride.

The 5 main problems of not riding a bicycle.
1. I'm not on my bike
2. My spirit doesn't get to fly.
3. My soul goes stagnate.
4. My body becomes a reservoir for pizza and other assorted junk foods with no burn off.
5. I don't get any faster by not riding my bike and drinking beer.

Today was freezing rain, drizzle, snow and windy. Perfect day for bicycle riding, but I think they are all perfect.

Oh well, I think I'll mix myself a margarita that would comatose a horse
and commence to partake.

Hey thanks for visiting, see you out there on a bike SOON.....
Dave

Me and snow mobile trails

2011-04-10T22:13:00.000-05:00
Had fun riding snow mobile trails. All the snow is gone, and in a month or so these trails will all be grown shut by brush. So today I took the opportunity to explore. Rode my HardTail with 2.5 Big Earl tires. The 4 inch tires and the FatBack would have rode better on these soft trails, but I want to keep putting my new handle bars and STI shifters, and brakes through some testing on the HardTail.

Tried climbing a long rutted hill, I was holding a slow climb, HR was maxing out, I was trying to stay in the seat to keep more weight over the rear tire. With about 30 feet to go, I had to stand up to get more power on the legs. The rear tire started slipping and spinning out, when I took my weight of the back seat. The hill was steep, with lots of rocks I was worried about dismounting and rolling down. I was able to get off the bike without biffing, and walked the remaining section of the hill. When I got to the top I was in some guys back yard, he grilling out and drinking a beer. I waved and he waved back and I turned around and went back down the hill. That was a trick riding back down without going over the handlebars.

Explored the back country, the trail followed along a creek. I noticed a spot where the bluff was about 30 feet above the creek. I pedaled over to the edge and looked down. I saw the monster of all Snapping Turtles laying on the sand. I was looking for away to get down to the creek edge and take some pictures of this beast. He saw me and disappeared. On the way back I checked to see if he was there, and lo and behold he was. This picture doesn't do his size justice. He was now hiding in the water waiting for me to leave with his nose out for breathing. I would say 50 to 70 lbs in size.

Saw several snakes crawling across the trail, warmer weather brings everybody out. I could have explored all day, a lot of new sights. Would be neat to ride and camp out, and put on lots of miles.

Shoulders behaved well enough all things considered, so I hope to get some road riding in this week after work days.
LaTa,
Dave

Has anybody seen me???

2011-04-09T22:29:00.001-05:00
Oh there I am having a drink with myself.

Rode today, the WoodChipper Drop bars work great on the HardTail. I won't go back to Straight bars or Surly angled bars again. The Drops give me 4 distinct hand placement which take a load off of my shoulder problems and give great ergonomics.

I think I damaged my rotater cuffs on both shoulders. Been here before. The problem. My mileage is way down. I took this week off from riding. Didn't help. Arms, shoulders, were hurting, today, hands were going numb. Too many crashes I thinks this winter. Shoulders act that way, fly off the bike, and land on em, and they flare up later. Spose I will be calling my doctor this coming week. May a 'shot' will get them to simmer down. Oh well I will work through this.
Seems my blogging is down when my bicycling is down. Seems happy times are related to 'happy rides' Is what it is. Tomorrow there is supposed to be thunderstorms all day. I hopes to ride anyways. Rain riding has a different feel all to it's self. I look forward to it.

Dave

Birthdays in bunches

2011-04-03T22:44:00.002-05:00
Today is my dog, Pitty's birthday. She is 8 years old. Pitty was snuck into this house by my son Joshua. in spring of 2003. I was a single parent and had full custody of my two teen age boys. Josh has a big heart, and he found Pitty the runt of the litter at a Pit Bull Breeding farm. She wasn't as marketable as her larger siblings. Josh saved his money, and made a deal, and purchased Pitty. She was about the size of a squirrel with and over sized head.
I wasn't going to keep a Pit Bull in this house. Well she got my attention and my favor and is part of the family now. Here is Pitty and Josh taking a nap, and to the right is Pitty with her bling, hat, and glasses on.

Today is my son's Joshua, birthday. He was born 24 years ago. The doctor that yanked him out and into this world was having his birthday that day too. Josh is high spirited, full of fun and energy. He makes a lot of people smile and laugh, everyday. Happy Birthday Joshua David.

Now you would think that would be enough birthdays for day. But believe it or not, it is my birthday too. Yes 58 years ago today, I was hatched. To me it is just another day. If I would have had a birthday cake with candles, I would have made this wish, that I would spend the day bicycling out on country roads. Guess what? I got my wish
Stopped at this old country church, built in 1867, suddenly I don't feel so old.
Saw Martha out giving Sophie a walk. She's trying to get Sophie to turn around and look at the camera. Sophie could care less. Martha loves Mountain Biking. She offers riding skill classes during the season to get other's interested. Awesome

Rode a metric century on gravel. 62 miles. Legs felt plenty strong for the job. All I need is for my shoulders to start behaving and I can start working in some longer runs. Is what spring is made for. Made this video of today's ride. Taped my camera to the handle bars.

Ok I better drag this 58 year body to bed. Work comes early. You know how bosses are, they think you should show up on time. Good night..DAve

Creepy Baby's friend, a good country ride, and coming clean.

2011-04-02T22:23:00.001-05:00

Sorta dragging butt this morning, getting on the pedals was a slow start. Then I find these two girls on my ride wanting to bike today too. Seems winter gets over, weather gets nice and everybody wants to bicycle. I don't know who Creepy Baby's friend is, they came home last night together. It is one of those 'don't ask, don't tell' things yanno.

But ride, I did. 50 miles on gravel. Legs wanted to ride more. Seems I am having 'equipment problems' no not bike hardware.
Somehow I threw my shoulders out this winter, and I haven't gotten them right yet. Crashes and old joints I spose. So as I ride I develop a ache that starts in my shoulders, and moves into my arms. This too shall pass.

Stopped at the "Cement Slab Cafe" a granola bar, fruit bar, and a OJ was on the menu.

Returned to the neighborhood, and my three mechanics were ready, as always to break down the bike, tune, and dial her in for tomorrow's ride.
Big thanks to Christel, Kayla, and Gillian.

OK, I have been stalling with this. Time for me to come clean. A couple of days ago I posted a link to my last year's April's fool spoof I did. In that I posted a picture of myself at the end.
My daughter, Melissa, posts this publicly on my blog for all the world to see.

Melissa in MN said...
Come on now, how old IS that picture of you sir? ;-) Didn't think you still had abs.
April 1, 2011 8:36 PM

Now I don't know if you know this but Google has a "GoogleTranslator' that you can put any language in and have it translated to another language. They recently added .'a what did my kid really say translator' So I ran what Melissa said through this and this is what she was actually saying.

DAD!!!!!! Puleeaseeeee, accept you are a fat old fart. Don't post yesteryear pictures, glory days are over for you, just accept it. You are just fine who you are. Love, Melissa.

So I got looking at this picture below I posted. So, yeap, she's right, this was a few years old. I have aged since then. This was kinna a false representation of me.

So I decided to keep this blog open and honest I would take another picture of me, today, using the same backdrop so you could judge for yourself the aging changes.

Aging just adds character, right?

Have some fun, it's the best thing for body and soul
Lata, DAve

THIS IS VERY BAD WHAT I DID ONE YEAR AGO TODAY.

2011-04-01T06:18:00.000-05:00
CLICK HERE ---->   "a very bad thing"

See I told you.

Today's random thoughts that come with a great bike ride.

2011-03-30T20:13:00.004-05:00

Beautiful Evening for a Ride

2011-03-29T21:41:00.000-05:00
After doing my official duty a.k.a. picking up all the dog poop in the back yard, I headed out on my road bike. Beautiful evening for such.
Rode through the rolling hills of the two cemeteries in my neighborhood, headed down and road along the flooding Mississippi River and then up through Dubuque's largest park, Eagle Point Park.
I was surprised to see a large Red Fox run right in front of me, and then followed a parallel path along with me on my ride. I took a bunch of pictures, talked to him, let him know I appreciated the visit, and then he trotted away.

Great view of the flooding Mississippi river from up here

Chatted today with superb bike wrench Joe today, and we got a plan for my Hardtail conversion to a Cross Bike geometry. Pictures will follow.

Hmmm, yanno, I think I really enjoy riding a bicycle. Always have since the first time I was able. As a youth it gave me freedom. I could go where I wanted. Today as an adult, it still gives me freedom, I can go where I want, my thoughts travel where ever they please, as I rotate the pedals.

I gotta scoot, thanks for stopping by,
DAve.

Stuff and things.

2011-03-28T21:58:00.005-05:00

Spent the weekend up north, near St Paul Mn, visiting the tiny Cole Alexander, my grandson. As always he is such a joy to my soul. Melissa my daughter is in dedicated training to run a marathon in North Dakota or maybe it's South Dakota, I forget, but anyways it is this May 21st. Saturday the day I arrived Melissa and her husband, Brook had both taken turns running before I arrived. Melissa going for 18 miles. To me that is bicycling distance.
Oh note to Tom and Amy the bicycle rocket missiles from that area. Melissa says she often runs in your lake area I showed her your route map, and she says "Oh you mean Hairy Legs.

A short clip of Cole looking for me after I went downstairs.

I have been converting my HardTail over to drop bars. I am going with the Salsa Woodchippers. Seems the ergonomics of the dropbars are much kinder on my old bones. I have to decide between STI brakes/shifters or bar ends shifters. I will dial in the bike riding the rollers in my basement.

Went for a hard ride after work. Seemed my soul needed such. Kept the lungs wide open for an hour and some. Road riding is a rush, so crisp clean and responsive. It can be fun playing in the traffic too.
I ride most my mileage on dirt and gravel, and the road tonight was a refreshment. 
Shhhh, I am in hiding, I tore the tag off my matress.

I see you all later, Dave.

Let it ride.

2011-03-25T21:32:00.000-05:00
GOOD GRIEF!!! Knees were stiff and sore today, must have been the cold weather ride yesterday with all the hard pedal through the trail muck. Felt comatose exhausted when I got home from work tonight almost called the mortuary and told them to get the embalming fluid ready, we got a warm one going cold.
So was thinking maybe take tonight off and not ride. The problem with that is I am out of town Saturday and Sunday to visit a man named Cole, a.k.a. my grandson, and will not be riding.
So I debated with the voices in my head, yes, no, yes, no, go, don't go, and fell asleep sitting on the couch.
30 minutes later I wake up with the unfinished piece of pumpkin bread still in my hand, and Judge Judy reaming somebody out on TV.
Said to myself, ya gotta go man. Saw the temp was 36 degrees on Weather.com and put on 36 degrees bicycling apparel and hit the road on my roadie bike.
It never ceases to amaze me, often when you think you have nothing in the gas tank, and you start pedaling, pushing yourself, and finding out that feels good, and push yourself harder, and you find yourself flying, cranking, loving it.
I climbed a long hill, and started the descent, it was winding curves on the way down, I saw 34 mph on the cycling computer, and feathered the brakes a little bit, thinking I need to make all these sweeping bends. Then my next thought was this bike will hold these corners, get off the brakes, and my adrenalin and speed picked up. I thought to myself I almost stayed on the couch and missed this.

Dubuque's largest park, Eagle Point Park, I had all to myself tonight.

Almost back home, running out of daylight, and packing no night lights.

Peace
Dave

Vacation Day

2011-03-24T18:39:00.000-05:00
Took a vacation day. Headed out on my Cycle Cross bicycle with a bunch of new parts. New front tire, new rear wheel, ring gear, free hub, derailleur, chain, cassette, bar wraps, pedals, brake hoods, brake pads, cables, cable housings, and other stuff. It was 26 degrees out, I forgot the exactness I had for dressing just right based on the temperature out. The warmer weather we have had, made me forget what I should be wearing at 26 degrees.
So with two light layers of wool under a light wind breaker was giving me the chills with the winds. I decided to keep moving and let the exertion, and sun to get me warmed up.

The gravel roads were soft and sticky in a lot of areas. Was like riding through 2" of peanut butter, dragging my tires.

Was going to cut through this drainage ditch. Then I saw 'him' a Troll, a rare sighting. I turned around and took an alternative route. They can be dangerous. 

My rear tire started flatting on me. Saint. Green Slime took care of the leak, and with a refill of air I was back on my way. All and all I rode 25 miles out, and turned around and retraced my steps back for a 50 mile ride on the gravel and dirt trails. Legs are good and tired, a lot of soft spots had me standing up on the pedals to plow through.

Was a good day.

Dave

UFO and other things.

2011-03-22T21:23:00.001-05:00
Been working, riding my Roadie bike on pavement after work, and working on my two beat up winter bikes a bit each evening.
Was drizzling, windy, and 39 degrees tonight for tonight's ride. But I found the ride very enjoyable. Wet payment on skinnie slick road tires is much more predicable then riding on a snow covered snow mobile trail.
The smoother riding that road riding brings is giving my joints and aches a break. It seems that all the snow riding, all the slide outs, and the different ergonomics that heavier snow bicycling brings was beating me up.

I am working on taking my FatBack snow bike and changing it's riding dynamics to the same as my cycle cross, this is going to take stem modification. salsa woodchipper bars, STI shifting, among other alterations.
But I have much better power transfer and endurance on a Cycle Cross or Road bike frame design then the mountain bike styles. So we shall see.

Spacious cemetaries in my neighborhood offer great rolling hills for road riding. Rarely see a car or a live human for that matter.

Rode out to the edge of town and had to make a quick stop here, to ummm, well use the rest room.

Caught this UFO, hoovering over the city above the Mississippi River bluffs, you can say you heard about this first here, it's going to be in all the grocery store tabloids I suspect.

I hope to get the Cycle Cross out for a full day on Thursday. Will see if the trails are dry enough to ride, if not I'll ride the gravel roads. Should be sporting. 

Hope all is well with you
DAve.