Two Wheels and Other Things

 I’m in a “Baker Street” kind of mood and just wanted to share it with all of you.

Gerry Rafferty was bad ass with those glasses.  How can ANYONE not like this song?

Palin just confirmed she is a d-bag.

Jesus.  What are you religious right wing idiots so scared of?

Sitting here watching my two dogs, Annabelle and Maggie, play together.

What a hoot.

Then Annabelle (the fat old dog she is) slides to the ground in instant nap mode while Maggie lays down next to her and gently nibbles on her sisters ear.

Bliss.

and… Discuss

:-)

Rosanna and I headed out Sunday morning to meet the IJM/ TPR team as they left from Fremont and rolled through Logboom Park.  We were super happy when we noticed there were THREE other tandems on the ride.  AWESOME!  Martha and Mick, Martin and Shelly and Clint and Allison. We also had about 10 others on singles so we were rocking.

Martha brought her camera with her and attempted the “hold the camera over the head” trick, which I thought worked VERY well!

Notice the fog?  Ummm.. yeah.  It was a tad chilly down in Snohomish.  Brrrrrrrr!  The fog lifted though as we climbed out and it turned into an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day.

Rosanna had a great time and having M&M and M&S there really helped out.

Rock on.

Ride-

40 miles.

Bike - Cannondale Tandem

Breakfast - Bagel, Eggs, ensure, water and 5 sport leg pills

Ride Food - bag of shot blocks, 1 small bottle of water and 1 small bottle of accelerade.

Oh… and if you were wondering, yes.  My leg was killing me for the first 20 miles.  I have a feeling I’ll be a little sore for the next few days.  I need a massage!

Bike - Tempo Fixed Gear 42 x 16

Thank GOD we took a different route. Props to Martin for suggesting we head out to May Valley.

I don’t have the time right now to map out the ride but I think it was about 55-60, rolling miles. Great company with Martin, Todd, Kurt and Chance. Towards the end of May Valley my right hamstring started feeling really tight then down the hill on Renton/ Issaquah it got so bad I had to ride one legged to the bottom. A few stretches and a left hand turn later and we are on Newport where it balled up so bad I almost fell off my bike. The guys turned around and gave me some time to work it out, stretch and un-humiliate myself and then kept going. Todd flatted so it gave me a little more stretch time.

I had a small problem with a d-bag driver getting onto Factoria. He almost clipped me with his mirror (even though there are TWO LANES) and gave me the “hey how ya doing finger”. So unload on him… I didn’t cuss but I really wanted to give him a piece of my mind but he just stared straight ahead with his pipe and funny hat. Bastard.

By the time Martin and Kurt pulled off my leg was feeling a little better and I was able to cruise over to Fremont and grab a cup of coffee and a Motrin before heading home.

Now it’s off to work on the house and get the tandem ready for tomorrows ride. I hope the leg can take it….

Yes or no?

There are two artists that over the past year I have wanted to do a FMI for but I have hesitated.

One of them is Howie Day… the other, well, only Evan knows that one and it’ll come out later.

I have been a HUGE HD fan for years.  I have over 120 of his live shows bootlegged on CD, 95% of them as a solo act before he went “big”.

A few months ago I did a FMI on Matt Nathanson, one of my favorite artists.  He and Howie are pretty much the same for me, two different styles but right there on my rank of substance and absolute talent.  Howie today is a result of a label grabbing hold of a talented musician, twisting him into nothing and then wiping their hands of him.  It disgusts me.

Anyway… Howies live set consists of him, a guitar and a series of pedals (looping, delay, octave and others) that he uses for both his voice and guitar.  Everything you hear is him and his guitar… that’s it.  His live performances were spell bounding.  His talent is out of this world and I hope someday he returns to his roots.  Playing just to play.

When I used to do open mic performances I covered a lot of Howie’s songs (and Matt’s) and always had the best time.  Here are a few of my favorite selections-

Bunnies-

Ghost (w/ Beams of Light outro)

Disco

Sorry, so Sorry

And this… one of my most favorite selections of all time. Both Matt and Howie onstage together doing a GREAT Radiohead cover.

Matt Nathanson and Howie Day - Fake Plastic Trees

Really though, I could go on for a lot longer. Because of his amazing live shows and looping, each song comes out different each time.

Check him out. buy the album Australia and Stop All The World Now and if you REALLY want to delve deeper into it, maybe I’ll burn you a live show or two (if you are super lucky)

Enjoy it… and Have a wonderful weekend.

She is ALWAYS interupting me when I talk…

Both of you suck ass.  I’m glad you got caught.

Please… stop destroying the sport.  Thanks.

Do you uBRDO?

“There probably isn’t a shop with louder music than us within 200 miles..”

“We know first hand, that running into a moose on the trail is 100 times worse than running into a bear.”

“We believe a healthy, balanced diet is built on the foundation of coffee, beer, burritos, Hammer Gel, and fistfulls of vitamins.”

So… Do you uBRDO????

You should.  

Official shop of IJM.org/ Thumbprintracing.  Rock the “eff” on.

uBRDO.com

81 miles. I’m cooked

Bike - Flyte SRS2 50-34 x 11-21 Ksyrium SL wheels

Breakfast - 2 eggs, Bagel w/ cream cheese and an Ensure

Ride Food - Powerbar, 2 small bottles of Heed

Nice cruise around the lake with a great bunch of guys. I say it a lot but mean it every time… These guys kick ass and am so happy they all came over to IJM.org/ Thumbprint Racing. We pushed the pace a few times and as trashed as my legs were I was still able to rub elbows, that is, until RC jumped on LWB out of Seward.  I got BLOWN out the back.  I just didn’t have the speed left in my legs.  I caught back up to them at Leschi and we put in in cruise control for the last few miles.  Greg K road to Fremont with me since he had to head to Ballard and then it was the lonesome chug back to West Seattle.

Now it’s beer, food and football over at my mom’s house in Port Orchard.

Stay Beautiful!

76 miles

Bike - Schwinn Tempo fixed gear 42×16 

Breakfast - Leftover potatos, cottage cheese and a powerbar

Ride Food - One small bottle of water, one large bottle of Heed.

Man it was cold this morning!  The day turned out perfect, what a fun ride. Martin, Todd, Kurt, Jeff D all showed up fixed and it was so awesome.

Learned a few things today.

• Do not drink heavily the night before if you are planning on actually performing well on the ride
• Fixed gear rides should NOT be started from West Seattle.
• Martin is right sometimes.

I’ll explain some of these.

I spent a lot of last night wiring up my shop in the basement.  Added a breaker and ran new romex to the room.  3 new 4′ strip lights and switch, 3 double duplex receptacles and some clean up. Nothing makes working with electricity more fun then draining beer and scotch into my gullet… so I did.

It’s a good 15 miles from my house to the Dog in front of Husky Stadium which is the Saturday meeting place.  which means whatever route we take, I need to remember to mentally add another 30 miles before I leave the house.  I should have parked at the U.

As we crossed I-90, Martin asked why I hadn’t gone through the tunnel to head home.  He was right.  In my state I should have headed that way instead I followed them up Madrona and headed to Nickerson.

I’m cooked.

 Working on the bikes last night and had my Ben Harper playlist on.

Burn One Down-

Sexual Healing-

Indifference (With Eddie Vedder)

I normally don’t wake up remembering dreams, just vivid emotion.  To be able to revisit the actual content is a rarity and something I can’t shake right now.

And I don’t WANT to shake it…. well kind of.

In 1992, Dad and I did a few training rides for my upcoming solo RAMROD.  The first ride consisted of a super long and hilly ride around Hood Canal starting from Port Orchard which hurt pretty bad.  He and I both barely made it home as we hammered the South Shore pretty hard forgetting the hills coming out of Belfair and the headwind that usually accompanies it.  The second was the Penninsula Metric Century course that winds from Southworth, through Port Orchard, out to Gig Harbor, Ollala and then back to Southworth.  We did the rout twice, once clockwise than counter clockwise.  I remember bonking that day pretty hard coming out of Purdy, stopping for a Coke and a Snickers bar at the gas station.  Dad took the time with me I needed to feel better and then we headed on out.  Our third ride, 1 week before RAMROD, was from the base to the top of Hurricane Ridge (next to the climb to Paradise this is one of my favorite routes) and dad and I planned on not racing to the top but pretty much hitting it as hard as we could.  The stretch to the Ranger station hurt pretty bad and I remember telling him that my legs didn’t feel so good, maybe lack of a decent warm up.  He backed off a little until I found my legs and then we were off.

It was a great tempo.

This is how climbing should be, setting pace for each other, encouraging words, a longer pull to give the other a breather when you can.  I was feeling great.

but then I did something completely stupid.  I surged and dropped my dad.  I looked behind me and didn’t see him around the last corner.  I hesitated for a second but then pressed on.  In my mind it was a training ride for me so I should make the most of it.  Looking back, it was probably more than that for him.  He just wanted to ride with his son.

I got to the top where mom and Evan were waiting for us with food.  Obviously mom was a little worried about where dad went so I turned back around and headed down for him.  He didn’t speak to me for the rest of the ride back up or through lunch.  In fact  He blew my doors off on the way down and I couldn’t even touch his descending skills.

Ive lived with that almost everytime I touch my bike now.  It hurts.  I would give anything to have that day back and finish the climb with him.  Not everything is a race

Well last night, in my dream, dad and I finished together.  Every turn, every pull, until that last corner to the top when he dusted me at the sprint to the RV sign by the picnic tables.

Thanks for the ride dad…  We’ll have to do it again soon

96.2 miles for me today, meeting the team in U Village and heading up to Snohomish and back.

Bike - Klein Performance Touring 53-42 x 12-27 Sun Wheels

Breakfast - 2 eggs, bagel w/ cream cheese and an Ensure.

Ride Food - 1 powerbar, 1 bag of Shot blocks, 1 small botlle of water and 1 small bottle of HEED.  (not enough)

I actually felt great on the way out and tried to run over J Dunn in the sprint at River Road but got shot out of the back so fast on the way back it made my head spin.  I was able to catch the group along with John N and Kurt A but ended up off the main group as I stopped with Tony, Jeff and Gabe at a gas station so Tony could pump up his tire.  I lame ducked it back with the three as I was in no shape to take a pull and then actually hit part of a break off group as it turned out there was another flat (of the 7 total).  I split off from the group and road the trail at about 15 mph all by myself as I started getting shakey and my vision was in and out.  It was a long ride home.

We have some serious power in the group.  Alex T is always in race mode and can dust you without even trying.  Gabe T is the surprise.  I hope he focuses on the road racing and forgets that track stuff as he will own the road season.  Greg is Greg and Tony B is a damn freight train.

I’m having so much fun right now I have a hard time not smiling.  This is going to be fantastic.

Oh… Note to my teammates, LSD is Long SLOW Distance.  Not hammer until people puke.

That’s for February :-)

Saturday’s are team fixed gear rides.  Not necessarily fixie only but the pace is driven by those who are fixed.  Well last night I broke the post on my fixie so I had to show up on my rain bike.  It only turned out to be Martin, RC and myself but I felt a little out of place with gears.

Bike - Klein Performance Touring  53-42 x 12-27 Sun wheels

Route - North Lake WA and Mercer Island

Breakfast - scrambled egg, bagel and an ensure

Ride Food - a bag of shot blocks, 1 small bottle of water

I slept wrong last night and tweeked my lower back.  I took a couple of motrin before I left but our right turn up to Juanita Hill found me getting dropped before the stop light.  Felt like someone was trying to pull my spine out.  I let RC and Martin go, content to sit and spin the rest of the way to the top at a comfortable pace knowing that since they are fixie I would catch them on the down hill.  That plan failed as I got caught at the downhill light and both RC and Martin have sewing machine cadence.  Luckily they waited for me at the bottom and we all shed some gear.  As we road into Kirkland the rain pretty much stopped and the sun started to come out.  Days like today, even when the roads are wet, are some of my favorite.  I love fall.

Martin peeled off at Leschi and RC and I rode back to UW together and I was SO happy to be done as my back was pretty much shot.

Lunch was a well deserved Dick’s cheeseburger (two of them actually), fries and a chocolate shake as well as a stop at Recycled Cycles for a new post.  I spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the bike and working on another two wheeled project.  Now I sit typing away, cursing the fact that Oregon just blew coverage and SC tied it up to 10-10.   I have given up on the UW game… let me check the score real quick…  Ouch, 31-7 AZ.

Tonight is left over Lasagna that Ro made last night (bad ASS) and a few hands of Uno as this wind storm passes over our house.

Tomorrow is the Team ride up to Snohomish and Monroe. Supposed to be fairly good weather.

Stay Beautiful!

My youngest sister…

Visit CCY Junior Cycling Team for more info on how YOU can support.

First of all, my wife should be a paid pundit.  After the debate we flipped from CNN, to MSNBC, to FOX and back again and EVERY single thing that came out of there mouth was exactly what Ro said 2 seconds earlier.  She can either read minds through the tube or has a complete grasp of today’s political battleground.

Both, me thinks.

Anyway, I was amazed at what I like to call the “Mcain regurgatation”.  Last week we saw the REAL Palin and last night we saw the crap force fed to the hockey mom puked out on to the airwaves with a wink and a toss of her hair.

“You Betcha!”

Daily Kos blogs-

Palin was a smashing success because when you pulled the string in her back, she looked down at her cue cards and recited her talking points perfectly. Awesome! Of course, it’s easy to avoid any deer-in-headlights moments when you ignore the questions you can’t possibly answer, but let’s give it to her.

Palin is totally awesome, an asset to the ticket, and really, really competent to be vice president.

So let her free. Take her out of Cheney’s undisclosed location and let her campaign. Let her do media interviews. Let her do town hall meetings. Take her out of tightly-scripted environments, shed the McCain chaperon (which is a bit creepy and quite a bit sexist), and “let Palin be Palin”.

I’m sure she’ll just do great. Because really, all that Palin awesomeness shouldn’t be limited to the single vice-presidential debate. It should be unleashed on the country! If not, Republicans will be deprived of a potent weapon in this final weeks of the campaign.

Who am I though?   What do I know? 

Well, gosh darn it.

*wink*