Back to Everett Washington

The biggest news since my last entry is that I have taken a 6 month contract job in Everett Washington, just in time for summer cycling. I came here with minimal posessions including my 29er hardtail, carbon cross bike, and my steel singlespeed commuter. 

I moved in with some cycling friends who understand my lifestyle and we can really help each other improve as cyclists and eat well or at the very least, provide company on weekend rides. It has been a busy and tiresome few weeks but things are beginning to settle down into a solid training routine of 30 mile work commutes 4 times a week plus 2-3 Social/competitive rides out of Snohomish Bicycle shop or with the Fischer Plumbing team. 

Last weekend I took part in a Fischer Plumbing group century my friend Joe but together. It ended up being 11 hours on the road on for me and my biggest ride of the year by a slim margin. It was a bit hot,  peaking at about 84 degrees. 150 ounces of fluids consumed. 

I was very pleased and pleasantly surprised by my performance last week. It was my longest week of cycling so far at about 280 miles with lots of personal records and 2 KOM's to show for it. Nice!

So far my mileage for the year is 3,500 at a little less than half way through the year.  I want to keep the momentum going to surpass my 7,000 mile goal. 

Lots of fun rides coming soon. I plan on some off road adventures and some road rides that with challenge me further. See you out there!

New 29er for winter Rally Finally

In mid April, Colorado was hit with a major snow storm system ahead of the Manhattan Dirt Ball, a 125 mile mostly dirt road ride west of ft. Collins. As a result, instead of bagging the ride I decided to finish my new Carbon 29er as I might need wider than 32mm tires for the snow covered roads. All I had to do was add set up the 44-11 cassette and hook up/bleed my rear brake line that had to be cut to rout it through my frame. I was a little unsure about the gearing and fit of the new bike but after taking some measurements and comparing it to my cross bike I was pleased with the setup. The effective top tube is 1cm longer than my cross bike so the 100mm stem (rather than 110) makes up that difference. The stem is set at -6 degrees with no spacers which places the flat bars and seat at exactly the same height with the fork in locked out full extension. My gearing should spin out at 27mph on the descents with the 34/11 top end. Should be just right!

12 brave riders showed up for the 7am roll out. 3 of us were on mountain bikes, the rest were on cross bikes. We rolled southwest through town on the paved bike trails and made the climb up to Hoursetooth res. it was cold, about 35 degrees with somewhat threatening skies but the sun would soon peak out of the clouds and light up the horizon for some excellent views. 

At around 25 miles and 2,000 vertical feet we took the left hand turn to stay on Buckhorn road and at this point, the surface changed to wet dirt and then slimy mud with spots of snow. The scenery was excellent with a half frozen stream rushing between the tall pines. Road side snow was deeper and deeper as we ascended. Someone plowed this road to our surprise. 

After climbing for about 15 miles we came to the abrupt end of the line. The snow plow did not plow trough and about 24" of un packed wet snow was impassable. Time to turn around..

I decided to head back to town on Rist cantyon which required another 1,400 feet of climbing rewarded by an excellent decent back to Ft. Collins. I finished the ride by parking my rig indoors at Crankenstiene, the cyclist bar with bike shop right next to the kegs on tap.. Sadly today was the last day of its existence. Most likely another business falling victim to rising property costs in down town. 

In all, the ride ended up being 76 miles and over 6,000 vertical feet. The new bike did well and was fairly comfortable. Even the used Selle San Marco seat I had never ridden before worked out well. My gluteus and hamstring were very sore the next day due to the new riding position but I must say, I love this Carbon 29er hardtail. No regrets at all! 

Spring bounce back

Lots of exciting things to report for mid April. I'm about 99% recovered from my crash and last weekend I wanted to test my endurance as well as my equipment on a 120 mile road ride. In preparation for the Manhattan Dirt Ball, a 130 mile gravel grinder ride with 9,500 feet of elevation. The kind of ride that requires a bit of training to say the least. I road from loveland to Golden Colorado solo. I was very pleased with my pace and endurance. I have not ridden this far in one day since 2003! It was great to prove to myself what I can do on the bike and a great finish to a 225 mile week of riding.

50 miles per maple bar.. Decent output!

Green grass and bare legs. Spring time at last!

The inspiration for a long training ride, the Manhattan Dirt Ball:

I changed my bars to 44cm and set my cross levers as wide as possible for off road handling. The setup is very nice. I don't like the off-road drop barsbecuse the are wide at the drops rather than the top flat. The 44 is wide enough for off-roading with my narrow shoulders. Perfect for cyclocross and gravel rides. 

Other than the endurance riding, I also volunteered to be a weekly ride leader for the shop near my work, Breakaway Bicycles in Loveland. It will be an easy 20 mile ride at 5:30pm every Monday through the riding season. The first ride was yesterday and my wife and I on the tandem were the only attendees but I know constancy is the key. I will show up and ride the rout, regardless. Even if I'm the only one, my Strava feed will show locals that it's a great opportunity to socialize and take a spin after work. Since no such ride exists here, I figured I needed to take a pro active approach! See you all on the road!

Spring crash and MTB bike build

Last week I was out on a ride with 2 coworkers out Buckhorn road west of Ft. Collins. We had just finished the major climb of the rout and beginning the decent on very gravelly road surface when I came around a corner to see a stopped cyclist (my co-worker Robert) and a stopper car side by side blocking the road! At 25 miles per hour down 8% grade on gravel over asphalt my options were limited. Stopping was not going to happen in time. I swung to the 36" wide gap between the car and the outside of the oncoming lane. I rolled along the edge of the road for about 20 feet before sliding off the road and down a 15ft bank at about 15mph. Flipping over the bars I came to rest on some bolders and logs at the base of the 4 white trees in the picture bellow:

The impact was on my helmeted head and shoulder blade. My back hurts! I laid there a few minutes to see if the intense pain would pass but it did not. I crawled up the hill and lay on the roadside trying to find the least painful body position. My ride was certainly over, only about 25 miles into an 80 miler ride:

At that point I noticed Steven with a bloody arm and realize he crashed behind me as well. He locked up his rear wheel and skid though his gatorskin and the tube, and then swerved off the same side of the road to abound the car. His landing spot was softer but his shoulder was also hurt. 

It would seem that the lead rider Robert swung his turn into the oncoming lane whit an oncoming car ridding the line and the both stopped in a panic side by side. If either party would have kept going, nobody would have been hurt. Son of a #%*! My bike was still in one piece and I avoided a potentially deadly crash and took the painful but sirvivable option. Some times you have to pick your lemons in life. 

The pervious week I had logged my longest week ever, 275 miles including a killer 80 mile gravel road ride. I was feeling awesome and on my way to log another week well over 200 miles when I crashed. Some shots from the gravel group ride the week before. Steven riding to Ft. collins on the Horizon and myself fixing a flat:

So now after a full 7 days off the bike I am back on my bike riding to work, somewhat uncomfortable but not in a ton of pain. My back is recovering each day. I should be back at 100% in another 2 weeks, I hope. 

After the crash I saw my life and plans in a new light. I don't want to leave my wife states away for work. I need her love and support too much. Since that is decided, I also scrapped my all in one bike build idea. I'm now going to build a full on XC race bike with flat bar and lockout suspension fork. I will also need to leave Fischer Plumbing for a new team next year. No need to paint my bike team colors. I bought a blank Carbon frame from China and did my own graphics with 3m reflective tape. I'm pleased with it so far:

I am going to go with a 1x10 drive train since it will be a dedicated off reader. I'm going to run a 34 ring and 12-42 cassette. Will be killer! 

Winter training, summer planning

So far 2015 has been an excellent year. One month in I have logged 750 miles, 50 hours, and 25,000 vertical feet. By far my best January ever! Feeling fit overall and looking forward to the year ahead. 

I'm also in the middle of planning for major changes in my life come spring. I am planning on taking temporary contract work in Seattle, Washington with a target of May 1st start date while my wife will stay here in Colorado to attend school. I will be living cheap, probably living out of a 100 square foot rented room with only a car load of possessions with me. 3 bikes and all the extra gear seems a little excessive. Especially considering I only logged 200 miles on my Mt. Bike last year. I have begun parting out my Mt. Bike to raise funds for a new all around bike. It will have 29" wheels, carbon frame, drop bars with cross levers, 10 speed road bike drive train, cable action disc brakes, and no suspension to start. I may add a fork with lockout later. I will have 2 wheel sets. One with 25-28cm road slicks, and the other with 2.4" tubeless knobbies. This bike will be built for aggressive road riding, cross racing, and XC MTB racing. All my old MTB parts are getting sold on eBay to prepare. 

It's hard to part with this 15 year old aluminum bike. I got it on sponsorship when I was 17 and have ridden it about 10,000 hard off-road miles since. It has served me well but is painfully stiff and I welcome riding a full carbon bike with bigger wheels on and off road. 

I am working with www.dengfubikes.com  to build a custom painted full Carbon bike frame, fork, seatpost, and stem directly from China. This is the frame and fork, base price $480 shipped at only about 4 lbs:

And is is my team color scheme I came up with:

Very excited to see the rendering of what they come up with! Bike companies have done exactly this for the last 25 years. It's time to cut out the middle man. This technology is so common and standard now and China is much more reliable to work with than they used to be.

Once I have the frame in possession which will take at least a month, I will canabalize/part out my cross bike to finish the build. I will be down to my singlespeed commuter bike during the final transition. That $400 steel tank has served me very well so far after upgrading to white industry ENO freewheel. I've had it for 6 months and logged about 1,700 miles on it. What a great low maintenance work horse! Just what I was hopping for. I will be taking this bike to Seattle for commute and rain riding. It keeps me from getting lazy on the climbs.

Will post more about my bike project as it un-folds! 

2014 Reflection and Colorado Winter

I started 2014 with some good momentum and only had one major setback on my training, which was the process of moving from Washington to Colorado. I only took about 2 weeks off for that. Since then, I have taken on a longer commute of 10 to 15 miles each way and, due to the dry sunny weather, I

I have taken less days off the bike. I expected to log 3,000 to 4,000 miles this year and I exceeded that with well over 4,000 miles.

I did not manage to fit in any century rides and only compleeted 3 mountain bike races, no cyclocross races; those are my only regrets. I am still riding for Ficher Plumbing Cycling team which is a very flexible and diverse team out of Seattle. I really enjoy the riders, the team kit, and the encuragement to ride that the team offers. 

Next year I hope to do a bit more racing and log at last 6,000 miles. I would also like to get back to cat 1/2 (or pro/expert) level racing this year. I think my fitness is there so I would just need to do a good bit of racing and hit the podium to upgrade. I have come a very long way from 2012 when I only logged 1,000 miles. It's good to be lean, fit, and fast again! I'm 31 years one now, life is short and cycling is something that always challenges me in a fun way. 

So, back to winter riding in cold places. Colorado has been mostly cold and clear till late December but now in January, I'm thinking my studded tire, ski helmet, and ski goggle investment was well worth it. The winter shoes (Diadora Polaris 2) have been worth their wieght in gold! I have used them so much since September that the first set of cleats are about worn out on them. No more shoe covers required!

The winter shoes are waterproof and wind proof. I've ridden them down to 0 degrees F without covers! 

Studded tires? Yes please! The Nokian A10's have 72 studs each and the 32mm width fits with fenders on my cross bike. Fast for winter studs but enough bite to keep me upright on ice. Not so great in semi packed snow but fully packed/ice glazed snow like the picture above is awesome. Smooth rolling, fast and fun! 

All this winter gear is a bit of a hassle to put on but the comfort and ability to ride in anything is worth it. Colorado winter beats Seattle winter for riding, that's for sure.

Finishing 2014 strong

So far winter in Colorado has been clear and dry with a lot of daytime sunshine. Since the days are so short now, the majority of my riding has been at night. I'm pleased with my fitness and ability to ride 1-2 hours at a brisk pace 5 to 6 days a week. I fit in a few hard hill efforts on my single speed  to try and maintain my VO2 max. I have spent the last 2 years ramping up my volume so it really is rewarding to put in 150 to 175 miles a week consistently now. I was only logging about 20 miles a week to begin with. 

The most important thing I have learned this year is never miss you glycogen window if you want to maximize you're athletic ability. If I miss it, my legs feel tired and sluggish. If I hit it by consuming about 200 calories minimum within 30 minutes of a workout, I feel great! I then ride further and faster on my next ride which for me is usually 8 to 12 hour later. Can't log 10+ rides a week as I have been if I don't re-file during my window.

As I mentioned, almost all my riding has been at night so I don't have manny pictures. Here are 2 from the last 4 weeks:

Yep, it is a dark cold world out there for a cyclist in December but my niterider 600 lumen LED lamp has my back.. I mean my front.

I did manage to get a nice warm sunny mid day lunch ride in with my work riding club. It was 60 degrees but only 3 of us made the ride. I enjoyed the sun on my calves! 

I have just about completed the Ice Bike Challange which is to commute 52 times to work between October 1st and March 1st. Today was number 50! Finnally a challange I can complete! I still plan to ride every day and see how manny commutes I can get in before March. I'm sure we will have more snow days to come. That should keep things interesting.