Weather Forecasts Stink

I'm sorry, but weather forecasters stink!

I've got a medical appointment today that will require me to take a half of a day personal time off. The good side of that was that I sold myself on the fact that I would have the opportunity to ride my bike to work and to the appointment. My outpatient test will require me to wear some monitoring equipment that must remain dry.

Dressed and ready to go just before 6am, I delivered a cup of coffee to my sleeping spouse and turned on the morning news to wake her up. I stuck around long enough to catch the weather forecast calling for rain showers all day.

Considering the logistical challenges and near impossibility of keeping the medical equipment dry during the ride home, I decided to abandon my plans to ride at the last minute. It's now almost time to for me to leave and look at the sky:

Different Strategy

I doubt that it's a good idea, but I've 100% committed myself mentally to planning for TransIowa Version 6.  Life circumstances have changed and although I still find myself feeling resentful, I am going to try even harder to have a different perspective. (I feel like crap, so we will see how well this works?)

Right now, I am unable to ride to work every day. I had that luxury before, but now am limited to times when when between my wife and I we can coordinate a schedule. So, for purposes of training, I am going to be trying a little different strategy.  More cross-training, perhaps some free-weights, more running (so much as my ankle will tolerate) and some longer rides on the weekends.

Granted, the weather for TransIowa version 4 was absolutely terrible.  Even though I had ridden thousands of miles leading up to the actual event, I think riding EVERY day may have left me a bit more fatigued than I would have liked.  (That's what I am telling myself anyway nearly 2 years removed.)

Started Many Times

I've started either physically started typing or at least thought through the beginning of sharing so many thoughts.  Struggling to keep focused and extremely occupied by trying to concentrate on keeping track of the important things, I've failed to ever finish.  That would include this thought I was about to share and which I've now lost track.

Thursday Recap

After careful consideration of an insightful comment left by an anonymous reader, I've decided to ammend my earlier post. Please see the last paragraph. The change should be evident.

I was doing some reading last night and came across this little blurb over on the TransIowa spot:

08/16/09: Trans Iowa V6 Date Announced: The dates for Trans Iowa V6 will be April 24th-25th, 2010 with a pre-race meet up on Friday April 23rd at a site TBA. The event will be a loop again run out of Grinnell, Iowa. Look for Registration to be announced in November. Stay tuned!!!

Yup, for the last several months, it's been all about sufferin' and the gears are turning inside my little pea brain. Wondering about doing it again.

Out on the road again today on the bike after Tuesday being the day to go see the chiropractor Dr. McCracker (not his real name by the way) in an attempt to get my neck and back straightened out. It's a major inconvenience at an inconvenient time, eats into my week, and it means driving. Yes, I am resentful :) Wednesday I drove again because I volunteered to drop my brother off at the airport.

Today, amazingly, I was out the door on time at 5:30 in the dark. It was misty, wet, and raining. I love it! Wet again on the way home. There's something I really like about riding in the rain. The sound of the tires, it feels faster, and it's child-like.

Not Proud of Ill Wishes

It was a restless night's sleep and I found myself wide awake and out of bed at 4:20am. Sunday night capped a productive weekend with me surprising even myself by putting away most of laundry. My work clothes had been set out already and I'd showered just before going to bed. In short, all I had to do was put some cycling clothes on and I was ready to go. It's ben a LONG time since I've been up so early for a ride and I found myself actually excited.

For those of you not familiar with this time in the morning, it's amazing. Unlike riding after dark in the evening, mornings are quiet and peaceful. There's something special about riding through the city before dawn.

All was well until I was riding down Como Avenue. Clipping along, I moved left out of the bike lane near a building with it's irrigation system set to water the bike lane. I could see by the light shining up the street that was a vehicle approaching from the rear, but there was NO other traffic to speak of. As the woman on the motorcycle passed me, she begins yelling incoherently swearing, something about "...God damned bike lane..."

Great. Not one to take it silently, I sped up to catch up with her (she was still yelling) at the stop light. I begin trying to catch her attention to defend my rationale (and right) to be in the vehicle lane. As I approached, I could just barely hear her continuing her rant. By the time I was catching up to her, trying to yell "I was trying to get out of the sprinkler" She accelerated and left me to listen to the sound of her "loud pipes save lives" and to the smell of her cigarette that she tossed to the ground.

C'mon... really. Did I really interfere with her forward progress? Was I really in her way? On her motorcycle? Really...? I don't generally wish ill on others, but I hope she gets lung cancer. I wish her the best of luck in her pursuit of two-wheeled total world domination!

Lots of Drafts

I've been silent for a long time. Lots of drafts, but find too much negative in sharing my thoughts. Sticking with the theme of silence being the new scream, I've been quiet and left drafts to languish.

I couldn’t come up with enough words to effectively describe all of the experiences that I’ve had over the years on RAGBRAI. I did my first one when I was 14 and missed last year for the first time since. I had my doubts about attending this year. As fate would have it, I was able to attend with my good friend Scott for 2 days of the actual RAGBRAI event sandwiched between 2 days of riding to and from.

This was my first opportunity to try out my Atlantis in full touring garb. I mounted my Rivendell Nitto front and rear racks with Arkel panniers full of gear for a quick 4 day self-contained bike vacation.

Weight using the “bathroom scale:” Bike loaded with gear, camping equipment, and food weighed in at 87.5 pounds, more when loaded with a full cooler, ice, and “adult beverages.” Bike with racks and empty baggage was 47.5 pounds. Quick math tells me that I was carrying 40 pounds of clothing, toiletries, camping gear, etc. It doesn’t really matter much to me, I was traveling in style and over the period of 15 years of traveling self-contained I am willing to accept the fact that I sometimes over-pack. I’ve got the list fairly well figured out:

Linky link to Google Doc

We drove down on Tuesday to leave a car and Knoxville, IA to make approximately a 30 mile ride to the Tuesday overnight town of Indianola.

The route was loosely “planned” and quickly turned into an adventure. The sign said it all, but not one content to accept things as stated we had to find out on our own.

The riding quickly turned into hike-a-bike.

From what I was able to determine as the midway point using GPS and the maps application on my iPhone, we questioned our senses. We pushed on to find indeed that the road was closed.

We managed to cross the "bridge" and once back on regular gravel, both Scott and I had to take wheels off of bikes to get the mud out of the fenders so that the wheels would roll again.

Once under way, we had smooth sailing and primo gravel conditions for the balance of the day’s ride.

From RAGBRAI09

Too much fun was had during the following few days for me to take many photos. The only on-route shots that I got were of this stop for “free beer.”

We wrapped up our adventure with a peaceful and hilly ride from Ottumwa to Knoxville to make for something in the order of 250 miles in 4 days. Low in comparison to my historical mega-mileage tours of RAGBRAI in years past. I hope to be back in condition for next year and to resume my “normal” ride to Iowa, across, and back home. Though, I will likely never repeat the year where I rode 1,151 miles in 12 days. That was the year that my lovely spouse Anika summed up with her comment when I returned: “You look like a burnt raisin.”

Time Flies

In 2007, I completed the TransIowa “race.”  I felt it at the time, but understand even more now how deeply this event affected me.  This year’s version has since elapsed, over two weeks by now.  I find it interesting how much interest I have in following the participation by others.

In the weeks before TransIowa, I think I felt myself being angry that there was no way I was going to be able to participate.  I know how many times in the last couple of years I’ve been hanging the carrot out there and using TI as a tool for motivation as well as a benchmark for suffering.

I had mailed my postcard way back in something like November in hopes of being accepted for participation this spring.  In hindsight, fate intervened and my postcard never arrived nor did my good friend Scott’s.  We decided to volunteer instead.

The opportunity to volunteer served very valuable personally.  Not only did paying it forward this year guarantee an entry next year, but it served as a much needed escape and an opportunity to see the event from the “other side.”  My initial excitement and desire to want to be there on the bike, toeing the line at the start was tempered by seeing the few surviving participants roll into the 3^rd checkpoint in various states of mental and physical condition. I still do hope to be able to be there next year.

Spring is well upon us here in the frozen north.  This is one of the best times of year for riding. I’ve been trying to do my part, but have only been riding back and forth to work now and then.  I’m still trying to remain optimistic.