Ummm excuse me, can I stop the world for a few minutes? I've been meaning to blog every day and then somehow it's the next morning and no blog has been written. I don't even really have time to be doing this right now but it must be done so here goes. The quick run down since Friday.
-My ribs hurt. Vitamin I every 6 hours combined with some reduced biking time is making a dent in the sharp pain. Sneezing is *not* fun though.
-Our washer kicked the bucket. Therefore Saturday was spent at Sears blowing large sums of money on a new one and the matching dryer (ours was a cheap-o used one anyway). Now we are all cool and highly efficient which is a good thing I suppose.
-While blowing large sums of money, Marni convinced me to get my own air compressor. I caved and purchased said compressor only to find out my father in law decided to let me keep his big one so he could also get a small one. Sunday I was back at Sears returning the unopened $500 compressor.
-Saturday night Marni and I went on a real date for once. Long John Silver's Disco was fun (inside joke) and we got to eat slowly and talk. Hmmm yes we should remember to do that more often.
-Sunday Marni, Scott, Mr.Nice, Bill, Melissa, Craig and I rode the CCTT course twice. The girls were worried about riding it in the race under 40 minutes. We rode it twice under 38 minutes. I think they'll be fine. In fact I predict times close to 30 minutes for both of them.
-While riding the CCTT course, the boys, under the influence of testosterone no doubt, decided to ride fast and take flyers thoughout the day. 1000watts on Scott's wheel did not feel so hot although we did scare Dave when we caught him. This year I'm definitely going to be gaining intensity during the series compared to last year but I think that's good.
-DQ after riding is good. I like Mint Oreo blizzards.
-Yesterday I spent much of my afternoon and evening working on random errands since Marni and I are both sort of on rest weeks. I finished a new quilt pattern for bikepacking trips although I'm going to add a little more length. I finished swapping the stock suspension back on the Colt. I also put a Syntace stem back on Cogsworth. I have to give props to Syntace, they handle warrenty issues better than any company I've ever worked with. Marni and I clipped Turbo's back nails which ended with a bloody paw and messy floor but it wasn't a big deal and all parties involved are fine. Marni also made an awesome dinner and cleaned the house which I really appreciate.
-Today I'm on the early shift and have some more errands to run after work. I'm short on supplies for this weekend's Rim Ride so I need to go to Safeway and the bike shop. Hopefully the fingerprint lady will call me back and make my appointment tomorrow so I can turn my application in to the state.
-Finally I hate my blogger template but I don't have time to make a better one. I did make some minor changes though. Anyone know of some good free ones that drop in without a ton of work?
8 comments:
Chris - I got my blog template from blogger-templates.blogspot.com. Click on their different classic templates on the upper right hand section of their website. Decent stuff. That is one thing I don't like about blogger - their templates or lack their of. Oh well.
One other thing - I've been meaning to talk to you about this for a while. I have a trek 1000 (I think that's right) road bike that I would like to fix up. You saw pictures of it on my blog a few weeks ago. I need things like shoes and pedals, new tires, needs to be cleaned, etc. Pretty much it needs a lot of things. Is there a good website to start with getting things to fix up my bike? Do you know of anyone getting rid of parts to upgrade their bike that I could buy from? I have a lot of questions and I was wondering what would be the best way to go about fixing up a bike? Any advice would be great.
Dave
Ah yes, Long John Silver's Disco was quite a treat. We should definetely do that more often. Anyone willing to sponsor us with $150 a month to go have a great dinner? Checks can be made out to me but I prefer cash :)
Thanks for all of your hard work cleaning the garage! You are awesome!
How are you using the quilt for bikepacking? I have a lot of experience backpacking and long distance cycling with support but nothing unsupported on the bike. A few weeks ago my friend told me he's doing the GDR next year and wants me to do it too. I've been interested for the last couple years so he didn't need to do any convincing. The biggest issue is time.
I'm thinking of doing the Colorado Trail Race this year because I have so much to learn about self supported racing. I'm so fat and out of shape I don't think I'll be in top form by then but I'd be doing to learn not be fast.
I don't understand why most of the Blogger templates have such a narrow column for post content. Who's still using only 640 pixels. I also hate my blogger template but I'd rather ride my bike than work on it.
It was great to see your blog listed for the keyword 'times' at blogsearch.sg ... Its awesome
Okay I'll answer UltraRob first as his is easier. The quilt is used like a sleeping bag a la Nunatak:
http://www.nunatakusa.com/index.html
Sewing my own is cheaper and lighter if I pay enough attention to size it just how I want and use very specific fabric choices.
GDR is the big pink elephant. I want to have that experience. However at this point, before having completed CTR and GDR, I cannot seriously consider it. Plus it will require extreme job and wife compromises that aren't available quite yet. In the future maybe but not now. We'll see how I feel on the subject on August 1st, 2007.
Do the CTR this year and learn. That's what I'm doing. I have a lot of learning to go at this point. I've been studying lightweight backpacking a lot as many but not all theories port right over to multiday self supported bike racing. Notably lights do not transfer as I cannot go 15mph on a bike with just a single tiny microLED. But I digress...
Dave thanks for the template info. Mostly I want what Rob was talking about with a bigger than 640 pixel post area but I also want it to just look better. But I'd rather ride, plan rides, plan trips, sew and spend time with my wife along with not getting fired from work so the blogger templates will have to wait for now I suppose.
Get some clipless pedals, shoes to match, decent tires and tune up the shifters and brakes. Then you can ride it from there. There are how-to's on the Park Tools website and plenty of cheap good bookes on bike maintenance. It probably needs fresh grease in all the bearings and contact surfaces (stem, seatpost, etc). Most things can be done with a simple metric allen wrench set and some screwdrivers. Then just collect the specialty tools over time.
Now if you want to make it nicer than that you have to ask yourself a couple questions. One, how much do you want to spend? Unless the Trek has sentimental value (my old Trek does to me since it's steel and my first real bike) it's not really worth it to upgrade it. I got Marni a modern aluminum/carbon fiber road bike with Ultegra 10 speed components for about $1100 brand new.
If you do want to upgrade your bike then is your trek 1000 steel or aluminum? If it's steel you're in luck. You can spread the rear spacing from 126 to 130mm to fit modern 9/10 speed components including STI shifters (shifters built into the brake levers). If it's aluminum, start looking to get a new bike unless you want to stay with 7 speed that will be hard to find nice parts.
Hope that helps some? Email me if you want to ask more questions, I'm happy to help.
Chris, thanks for the info on the quilt. Do you use a bivy sack with it when it rains? If I remember right MTBR, I believe you don't use a tent.
I almost always use a bivy sack as my sole shelter. I've been using the Montbell UL Bag cover (https://www2.montbell.com/america/asp/products/Spg_shosai.asp?cat=1106&hinban=2321027)
It's waterproof, breathable and about as minimal as anything not homemade. Extended rain in it would probably suck but i've been in a few showers with it no problem. Just turn over and point the air hole down :) I'm debating bringing an ultralight cuben tarp on the CTR just in case we have storms as much as last year but that might be a last minute decision.
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