20 posts tagged “cycling”
No worries about gas prices when running on human power!
For several years I've been hoping to go for an epic bike ride from my house in Lowell to my parents' house in Ann Arbor, a distance of roughly 120 miles. With my recovering hamstring preventing me from planning any running races, I thought that maybe this year I could squeeze in an all-day bike ride.
However, "real life" gets in the way as it often does and I wasn't able to put in enough training to prepare. Sure I could've pulled it off, but I figure that to do something like riding my bike across an entire state ought to be done right. For example, a decent road bike would help compared to my 6-year-old "comfort bike".
Yeah, that's what my Giant Cypress DX is called and it's since been "tricked out" with a new seat (twice), bar-end hand grips, new pedals and second-hand pedal clips, bottle rack, speedometer, rear rack, and a cheap bike computer. It has served me well over the years on the roads, mountain bike trails, and even in adventure races. But it's not a fast bike.
A few years ago I bought a 25-year-old Peugot road bike for $65 just to see what a road bike feels like. Despite being an old 10-speed I easily averaged a full 1 mph faster on my standard routes. That bike is now in need of repair so the Cypress is all I have, meaning that a 120-mile ride would take 10-12 hours including food stops whereas a nice road bike could shave a few hours off of that time.
Ready to ride despite the rain.
Instead I planned a ride that traveled 55 miles, starting near Lansing and finishing at my parents' house. Last Sunday Amanda dropped me off near Webbersville at the I-96 exit in a heavy, steady rain! I was standing in a two-inch deep puddle as I unloaded my bike from the car and got ready to go. Due to the weather I had to keep all of my gear in a dry-bag bungeed to the rack on my bike and I wore a rain jacket to stay warm. You can see what the weather was like in Amanda's video:
The first 15 miles of my ride were solo as I pedaled my way to Stockbridge where I would meet Dad. It took me about an hour despite a strong WNW crosswind on my southbound road and the steady rain blurring up my sunglasses. Believe it or not I found the glasses to be of help because they kept splashes and road grit out of my eyes, but also being polarized it really cut down the glare from the wet road.
No frogs here, yet...
Worse than the wind and the rain were the frogs - dead ones. The shoulder of the road was littered with hundreds of dead frogs! I don't know why so many were trying to cross and getting hit and why they ended up on the shoulder but I was constantly weaving my tires among the slimy amphibian bodies, not wanting to get a taste of frog leg sushi kicked up into my mouth!
Finally I made it to Stockbridge and rendez-voused with my parents. Dad's raincoat was rather heavy - it's meant for field work, not cycling - so Mom offered him the $1 "emergency poncho" that she keeps in her car. He was quite pleased although the poncho went down to his knees and he just about fell over trying to hop on his bike when the plastic caught on his seat! Mom had to trim off a foot or so of plastic and after the obligatory photo, we were on our way.
Dad and I are "waterproofed" prior to hitting the Lakelands Trail
Our route took advantage of the Lakelands Trail, a linear state park created as a Rails to Trails project. The first several miles of the trail were packed dirt that was rather rough in some areas due to horse traffic. We'd had several days of rain here in Michigan and the ground was wet but not soft. The bumpiness was pretty rough on me as Dad kept looking back wondering why I was lagging behind. I think his fresh legs had a bit more pep that mine after having ridden for an hour just to meet him!
Soon after starting down the trail the rain stopped and since the temperature was already 70 degrees even in the rain, we were plenty comfortable. It was actually splendid weather for a ride with overcast skies, a now NW breeze and warm air temps.
When my water bottle ran dry we stopped in Pinckney at a gas station to refill and we also chomped on some food: a Power Bar for Dad and some Clif Bloks for me. When planning the ride we talked about stopping here for food but we both were feeling very good and decided to just continue to our "dessert stop", a Dairy Queen in Hamburg.
For quite a while I was telling stories about the interesting politics I've been getting involved with in Lowell, only to be occasionally interrupted when Dad would point out one of "his" many projects in the area - a water tower, a subdivision, a boardwalk, and more - he's a land development civil engineer with lots of handiwork in Livingston County.
Suddenly Dad said "Oops!" It turns out he completely missed the turn for Dairy Queen! We'd been distracted by the conversation and since I've never been on the trail before, I was relying on his navigation. We only went about half a mile out of our way so it wasn't too bad, and when Dairy Queen is the destination you don't lose any motivation to get there.
At the DQ Dad got a large chocolate shake and I ordered a Blizzard with M&Ms, but asked if they could use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. The guy at the counter suggested their "Chocolate Extreme" flavor - chocolate ice cream with hot fudge syrup, fudge brownie chunks, and pieces of hard chocolate mixed in. Awesome! Yes, I love chocolate, but I also learned that even I have limits - a large Blizzard more than filled me up, but it was worth it.
Sitting at the outdoor table at DQ my dad whipped out his Blackberry and showed off some coolness, like how he can pull up a weather radar image. Days before our ride he had mentioned this and I teased him, saying "How would that help us on the ride? Are we going to see imminent rain and decide to pedal faster?"
We'd been riding precipitation-free for hours but looking at his Blackberry the radar image showed that a ton of rain was right upon us despite the bright but overcast skies. Wouldn't you know it... five minutes later as we pulled out of the DQ parking lot some big, fat drops of water started to fall! We could only laugh at the irony and besides, we'd been soaking wet since Stockbridge.
Soon we were at the end of Lakelands Trail and heading south on back roads near US-23 on our way home. The skies never did manage to open up - occasionally it would sprinkle a bit but then stop. Since the rain was coming from the NW and we were riding south I think we were keeping ahead of the weather.
Recharged with chocolate I was feeling pretty good but Dad was starting to tire out and we took a couple of extended water breaks on the side of the road to rest the legs. With about five miles to go our quads began to cramp up - both of us at the same time! Yet fortunately a couple miles later our legs relented and allowed us to finish our ride in comfort.
All smiles after dozens of miles.
But not in style - the first thing Mom said when we pulled into the driveway was "Wow, you're muddy!" Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Mom insisted on a "rear-end view" photo nonetheless. Dad explained how only a two mile stretch of Warren Road was to blame - the rest of the entire route was paved or puddle-less dirt.
If Mom thinks this is "muddy", wait until we go mountain biking!
Dad and I also discovered that one or both of our bike computers isn't calibrated correctly - mine had logged a couple more miles than Dad's over the same course! I used MapMyRun to determine that my Webberville-to-Stockbridge solo ride was 15.2 "mapped" miles compared to 15.4 "computed" miles so it seems mine is a bit off. However, it's hard to say for sure about the rest of the ride since our double-back for missing Hamburg can only be guessed for distance.
All told my computer showed 55.3 miles, so assuming that it's off by 0.2 every 15.4, my total distance would be 54.6 - not a major error. I'll just call it 55 miles and be content.
Soon after getting home the "Blackberry rain" arrived and it began to pour cats and dogs. Two of the dogs were mine - Haven and Beacon arrived with Amanda and her parents, as did Ryan and Megan. We all (except the dogs) went to dinner at Red Robin where it rained even harder and the restaurant even lost power for a couple seconds before the backup kicked in! Perhaps it was a good day to not be riding 120 miles after all!
Overall the ride was a total blast and surprisingly "easy" if 50+ miles can ever be deemed easy. The route was pancake flat except for a few short hills between Hamburg and Ann Arbor and traffic on the non-trail roads was never a problem. My legs were sore for the next couple days but I never felt bonky or worn out. I'm already thinking about doing this again! But not this weekend. :)
As far anyone who respects animals is concerned, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin could not be more different...
Really, this isn't a political blog despite my recent silliness. In fact, I'm just waiting for enough daylight so I can go for a long bike ride. You know what's the toughest aspect about cycling long distance? Da' BUTT. My legs are fine, my lungs are fine, my head is as good as it's gonna get, but holy cow does my butt ever get sore on a bike! I'm trying out another seat on this ride that I swapped from my old bike to see if that helps.
Seriously though, did you really want to hear about my butt or about the VP candidates? Just like Bush claiming that global warming - something I was cognizant of in 1989 when I was 13 - is a myth, Palin believes that polar bears are not endangered. Why? Because she wants hunters to be able to shoot them from airplanes. Any middle school kid could tell you that when an animal depends on the icepack for survival and the north pole was actually liquid this summer, that species is in trouble. So let's put the polar bears out of their misery, eh? And let's kill some wolves, too, while we're at it.
Biden, on the other hand, has tried to keep misery away from the polar regions, specifically the annual harp seal massacre. Until I read this detailed VP comparision from the HSUS (a blog worth subscribing well worth subscribing to) I hadn't realized the extent of how different two polititians could be regarding animal welfare. Except for Mike Huckabee thinking it was OK for his son to torture a dog to death...
Time to go trade one pain in the butt for another! ;)
Michael Phelps is the new "Mike" and one of my favorite moments was his interview aired this morning on NBC when they asked Phelps about his plans. He said "I miss my dog! I want to go home and see my dog."
While Phelps has a good excuse for not seeing his dog, I don't have a good one for not writing. I've been in a prolonged writer's block in a way - not for a lack of ideas and topics as I have several half-written articles laying around, but in the evening when I have the most time to write, I have the least energy to do so. I can't figure out why, but one possibility is a lack of running has messed with my energy/metabolism/something in my system?
Anyway, for those who are curious, a chronological rundown of some highlights lately:
- 23 July - My last run; since then have only skated twice and cycled twice.
- 26-27 July - Along with Amanda, my parents, my uncle, and my cousins and aunt, we helped said aunt build her new deck. Two long days in clear-sky sun were pretty tiring and somehow my hamstring got sore doing this work, which prompted the break from running.
- 02 August - Amanda and I watched some of the Ada Criterium inbetween reorganizing the Critter Cottage. We moved literally 1-2 tons of food plus shelving, etc. That evening we drove to Kalamazoo to attend a party with one of Amanda's friends.
- 03 August - Amanda's parents drove out to help us finish up at the Critter Cottage, which looks amazing now that we've taken lots of products off of the floor and put them up onto the walls.
- 04 August - We took Haven and Beacon to the beach on Lake Michigan and had a blast. The dogs tried out our new Ruff Wear float coat and the liked how it keeps their head a bit higher above the water, especially with all the big waves. Haven joined me on the ankle-deep sandbar about 70 yards out and I learned that I'm no Michael Phelps - I raced Haven back to shore and she kept up with my freestyle!
- 12-13 August - Two all-day off-site meetings for my new project at work, which looks like it will be a lot of fun.
- 13 August - Attended a city council public work session with 50 other residents for a highly contentious issue about money, of course. When it was clear that nobody was moving towards a resolution I spontaneously stepped to the podium... Apparently I rambled a bit in my speech but it seemed to help everyone refocus and someone even suggested I run for city coucil!
- 15 August - Went inline skating with Haven! Using a new Ruff Wear roamer leash helped and Haven loved the fast running, but boy did she ever get tired! We managed 4 miles at about 8 mph average so she's been resting this weekend.
I suppose some folks can do that all at once, but for me that happens to be the average between the total "on foot" and total "on wheels" miles this year. Normally I'd never bother to look for such an average but right now, it happened to be obvious.
You see, my total running miles are 227.4 on the year. The total "wheeling" (biking and skating combined) miles are at 227.6 total. Yes it's a bit nerdy to be fascinated by this, but still, what are the odds?
Sadly, at this point last year I had run 715 miles... Injuries suck. On the bright side, though, I cycled only 229 miles for all of 2007 and from 1976-2007 I had inline skated zero miles. :)
Speaking of numbers and geekiness, about a month ago I was driving home from work and noticed that my car's odometer was at 73073 miles, and the temperature (displayed right below the odo) was 73 degrees! Earlier this week it was 74 degrees and guess what, the car's odometer read 74444.
Yep, I'm one of those people that can't help but to notice idiosyncrasies like that.
4th of July weekend I set out for the fourth time in my new inline skates; my previous three sorties carried me 7.5, 7.5, and 5 miles. I figured it was time to stretch into the double digits so I drove over to the White Pine Trail and laced up the boots.
Almost three hours later I arrived back at the car after covering 33.4 miles! I felt great - yes, I was definitely tired, and my heart rate had been 150-170 (that's above "easy run" range for me) the whole way - but I was nowhere near toasted. My quads felt a bit crampy over the last half hour but not painful. Before setting out I was confident that I could finish 30+ miles, but I never thought I'd cover it in 2:58 and still have some pep left over.
Last Sunday I talked Amanda into joining me on the White Pine Trail again, but instead of skates she was riding her bike. The night before she kept telling me "I think I only want to go to Rockford" (that's an 8 mile round trip) and I assured her that we'd just go until she got tired then turn around since it's uphill going north and downhill back south.
After riding and skating for an hour I asked her to check her bike computer and it read 10 miles, but we hadn't turned around yet! I knew that Amanda had been selling herself short the night before. We continued on since Amanda felt OK still, but within a couple miles she wanted to turn around. I pressed her on for another mile since then we could say we did a marathon.
And we did, going 26.8 miles in 2:31 although strangely I felt more tired than after my 33-miler. Amanda totally bonked at the two-hour mark and we inched along for about 10 minutes until her system finally rebooted and we cruised back to the car.
As impressive as it felt to be skating along at 11 mph for 2-3 hours, it blows me away that elite runners would've dusted me! I skated a 2:30 marathon and folks out there can run that same distance in less time. Wow.
What can I say... It's been eons since I last posted here and this will only be a "here's what I've been doing" update, but I figured it's better than remaining off the radar.
I'm still setting up my "new" blog. With Amanda and I moving our old Why Dogs? blog to 2 Feet 4 Paws, I was left with just Why Run? and Vox. One problem with Vox is that it's more of a "social" service than a "publishing" one, and Facebook works better as the former. Vox is still cool as a personal blog for stuff like I'm doing right here, so I'm going to re-start my original havybeaks blog on Blogger as a platform for my "articles" on various topics like running, flying, etc. Problem is, I'm having trouble finding time to write good articles...
Last week I went on a business trip to Cincinnati on short notice and I still don't have a company laptop yet so during my three days in Cincy I had no email access. Ten years ago that would be no big deal but next time I'm sent somewhere, I better be connected with more than a pad of paper! Not only did it limit my contributions during the meetings, it also prevented me from keeping pace with my outside-of-work life...
Mach League, the fantasy baseball league that I run, is way behind schedule. Three weeks ago was our monthly stat update that happens every four weeks, so I'm close to getting lapped by my own procrastination. Unfortunately, my title of "League President" is by definition a *fantasy* job, which means that my real jobs of "engineer" and "pet store owner" take precedence...
2 Feet 4 Paws is still chugging along thanks to Amanda and we're *still* trying to re-arrange the store layout to fit more products. Finding a means to display items that a) is attractive, b) is cheap, and c) can use the odd-shaped and small space that we have has been a challenge. I think we know what to do now, though...
However, I don't know what to do about running, specifically my long-time goal of running the 100K in early August. Believe it or not my right hamstring is STILL not 100% and I'm having doubts that a) I can put in enough training to do more than hike 100K, or b) my hamstring can last for 100K. It's not that I can't run on it, in fact I can maintain a 9:00 pace without problems, but going under 8:00 per mile is too fast for the hammy. Running on back-to-back days is not feasible yet so my training consists of a weekend long run plus one mid-week short run; that's it. Plus, the long runs tend to wear out the hamstring so I've replaced a couple long runs with long bike rides...
Cycling is a lot more fun with a bike computer - simply having a way to track distance and time is such a luxury! It's better than using mapmyrun every time, especially when my two long rides were 37 and 40 miles each. Ever since middle school I've wanted a pair of inline skates and I may have convinced Amanda to finally let me buy some. Now I'm going to hear more of her begging for a new digital SLR but I've still got that kayak up my sleeve that I've been pining for so I can match her beg-for-beg. :) Right now I'm leaning towards the K2 Moto 90...
My hope is that they'll be an effective cross-training tool. Cycling is great but it's hard to get my HR above 150 without burning out the quads in short order. One odd thing about the hamstring is that heavy impact makes it sore, e.g. stomping on a shovel to dig dirt. Running downhill also stresses the hammy, perhaps due to impact, perhaps due to higher turnover? I don't get it, but hopefully skating falls aerobically between cycling and running...
Viruses can affect aerobic performance; after my bad case of the flu in February I somehow caught a fever in April - rarely have I ever been sick twice a year. Both times my resting HR went up to around 64 from it's usual 54; in fact it had only gone back to 58 by the time I got sick a second time. Right now I'm at 59...
Viruses also afflict computers and I spent countless hours the past two nights fixing Amanda's computer. Some kind of spyware got on board and fooled SBC/Yahoo/AT&T/insert-dot-com-merger-name-here (they provide our DSL service which includes anti-spy and anti-virus). The anti-spy found most of the evil files but not all (yes, the definitions were up to date) and one would remain hidden and re-install the malware just minutes after deleting it. I finally killed it by downloading Microsoft's "malicious software tool" which found just one file, but it was that pesky installer that the others couldn't nab. So far so good...
I didn't want to end on a sickly note so I saved the best for last. While in Cincinnati I got to visit our friends Kim and Tony who live just minutes from the hotel where I stayed. They treated me to a home-grilled dinner and even some fancy ice cream (it's a famous Cincinnati brand but I forgot the name). I got to meet their new daughter Kate for the first time, who only likes wearing winter boots inside the house during summer. :) After Kate went to bed we shared some great conversation about baseball, airplanes, and of course dogs...
I also met for the first time their two golden retrievers, Zeke and Nellie, who are apparently cut from the same nutty cloth as Haven and Beacon. Nellie is the boss and likes to play-fight with Zeke by literally sitting on his head! I brought a couple toys for them from our store and Nellie promptly stole Zeke's toy but once he got it back he didn't set it down again, not for one second! By the time I left a few hours later he was falling asleep with the plush salamander still safely in his mouth.
I haven't written much lately for a couple reasons: 1) Amanda and I have been busy starting up our new business, and 2) I haven't been running.
The latter is significant because much of my blog is about my running and without that, what do I write about? OK there are plenty of other topics, but also important is that not running can be depressing. It frustrates me to no end that I haven't been able to run - I missed all the good 50-degree weather in early November and now with snow and ice on the ground I can't even ride my bike. I've used the stationary bike at home a few times but that's even worse than a treadmill. I did get in a great long ride in mid November - 35 miles in 2.5 hours, and it was fun the whole way. Since I don't have clips on my pedals it's hard for me to engage my hamstrings, which is good for my injured right one.
I don't think I ever recovered from the Harvest Hustle and Doggie Dash, running 5K PRs on back-to-back weekends. Or rather, I didn't allow myself to recover. I was feeling so strong after those races that my next couple workouts were faster than usual and after the second one my hamstring tightened up afterwards. I took a couple days off and then ran a couple more 5-milers, the last one on Halloween, but it was still feeling tight, so I figured I'd be conservative and rest it for an entire week.
After the week off I ran a couple short runs under 3 miles with a day rest in between, and my hamstring felt no better than before! Ugh. So I took TWELVE days off with no running, although I did get some cycling in. I ran on Thanksgiving day for 3 miles with Haven and my hamstring felt great! No problems. I took the next day off just to be sure, then ran 3 miles with Beacon and as soon as I got home and stopped running, my hamstring was more sore than it's ever been and I was even limping for the rest of the day! What the heck?
Partly I can "blame" Beacon. We ran at what felt like a 9:00 pace but when I mapped it out afterwards I was alarmed to learn that he had pulled me to a 7:30 pace! Still, it felt easy and I was paying close attention to my legs and never felt a twinge of anything until after the run. Now I'm in the middle of another forced layoff and just hoping that my hamstring will actually heal.
Hopefully it is healing. I haven't felt any tightness in about a week and I'm actually considering running on it - very slowly and very briefly - sometime soon. Yet there's some trepidation because the last two times that my leg felt healed it turned out not to be, so maybe I should wait another whole week just to be certain?
I know that healing takes time, but what's so odd to me is that my initial injury never felt anywhere close to serious. Just a little stiffness in the hamstring; in fact I've had that before after some speed workouts. It's never hurt to the point that I couldn't run without pain but I wanted to catch it early before injuries started cascading. This has never felt like an injury that would've required more than a couple days to heal, yet here I am.
The good thing is that Amanda and I have been busy with 2 Feet 4 Paws so most days it's easy to forget that I'm not running that day, but I can feel the effects. It's harder to wake up when I'm "not a runner" and food doesn't taste as good when I haven't been exercising. Time heals all wounds and eventually it will heal this one, but boy is it tough having to wait!
...that I went for another long run! Focusing on 5Ks this year has allowed me to neglect the weekend long run a bit too much. Since I'm signed up for a trail marathon in two weeks, I decided I better find out today if I'm still in shape.
Before that, I had a very busy schedule this weekend. Friday afternoon I left work early to drive two hours to my middle brother Eric's bachelor party where his buddies had rented a cottage on a lake. We fished for bluegill and smallmouth off the dock, tried out the canoe, enjoyed the sunset from a pontoon boat, and I learned to play poker.
I got home a little after midnight and six hours later I was awake and driving to the Critter Cottage with Amanda to open shop early for the expected crowds of the Ada Criterium cycling race. Unfortunately the crowds weren't nearly what we'd hoped due to a course change, but it was still fun to hang out with Vicky and watch some of the racing.
However we had to leave early to drive over to the West Michigan Whitecaps ballpark where my company co-ed softball team got to play an exhibition game on the professional playing field! My company bought 3,300 tickets plus BBQ passes at the 10,000-seat stadium and the Whitecaps rolled out the red carpet to ensure we come back next year. First at-bat I hit a 3-run HR over the outfielder's head! Rounding 3rd I saw that the cutoff man didn't have the ball yet and I was going to score easily, so I made the most of my opportunity to dirty my "uniform" with a head-first slide into home plate! Woo hoo!!! We won the game 6-1.
After our exhibition was the real baseball game, where we watched the Whitecaps lose to "Mantis Boy" quite badly. Amanda and I called the opposing starter "Mantis Boy" because during pre-game warm-ups he spent about 15 minutes repeating an exercise where he squatted, arched his hands like Mr. Burns and then walked sideways for about 30-40 feet. Being tall and lanky made it look even funnier, but apparently it worked. After the game we watched the fireworks before heading home, barely making it to bed before midnight.
Up at 7am this morning and two hours later Amanda and I were out the door for our long workouts. Amanda walked 7 miles in two hours while I ran 16.6 miles in 3 hours. It was my first double-digit run since a 10-mile trail run with Haven and Beacon six weeks ago, and my second since running 16 miles in the countryside back in April! Luckily it appears that I still have my endurance since I felt good the entire run; well, as good as "good" can feel while running for three hours but I was really enjoying the cool, misty weather. Hopefully this means I'm fit enough to survive a spontaneous marathon!
Finally after our workouts and some shopping errands Amanda and I were finally "free", so we plopped on the couch to watch Indiana Jones on DVD while I played my weekly baseball games for my fantasy simulation league. I also finally wrote a new article on Why Run about two runners of the Badwater Ultramarathon, so hopefully those of you who read that blog weren't getting too bored!
While following the Tour de France live coverage today I was shocked to read that a rider had crashed due to colliding with a dog! Apparently both dog and rider were not badly hurt, which is very lucky for both of them as this could've had more serious results. Keep your dogs on a leash when near traffic or among crowds!
You can view the full-size slideshow at the Guardian.
Notice in the 3rd photo how much the front wheel gets deformed during the collision. At first glance I had thought that the wheel bent against the dog, but I don't think this is the case. What appears to have happened is that the collision forced the wheel to swivel hard to the right, becoming perpendicular to the cyclist's direction of travel. His momentum - not the dog's body - then taco'ed the front wheel. Still, it's quite a collision.
The 2007 Tour de France is here! Even though I'm not a hardcore cyclist, as an endurance athlete I can identify somewhat with the sport and it's exciting racing regardless of one's background. One of my favorite aspects to the race is that I can follow it live... while I'm at work! VeloNews provides live coverage of the TdF every day; thanks to the time zone differential each stage lasts for the bulk of my work day. Whenever I need a break from tedious work at my desk, I click over to see how the stage is progressing.
Speaking of breaks, I always wondered why an escape group would gain time on the peloton due to a "natural break". A natural break in traffic? Weather conditions? Then I saw that photo on VeloNews and it all made sense... in a way. I can't imagine this happening in a marathon!
I wonder, though... why can't they just "go on the go" like ultramarathoners?
