Once in a while.

I've been doing some riding here and there. Mostly short rides to the grocery store or around the local lakes here. I've been too busy with school to do any real riding. Any time I am not at work I am on the computer doing homework. This summer semester has been really draining in conjunction with working full time, yet it is strange because it is nothing I have not done before and managed to get through feeling okay. As of late however, I feel like total crap. I don't know if it is just because I am burnt out or what the deal is but it has been screwing with me for the last week and last night it got to the point of being overwhelming. I got home from work, putzed around for a bit, and then finally just said screw it and went to bed. I thought a good night sleep would be the ticket, so I didn't even set an alarm and I still only got about 6 hours of sleep. I awoke today to feel pretty much exactly the same as I did yesterday. There is no truly identifiable cause for it, but it sucks.

I did end up getting my new bike and I love it. I had heard a lot of people say the Madone was a comfortable bike and I knew it was, but I had no idea to what extent. Other than the seat, which is total garbage in my ass's opinion, the bike fits me perfectly and is just as, if not more, comfortable than the cross check. I did a few shorter rides on it, mostly on trails, so I never really opened it up much, but the first really telling ride was to work a few days ago. It was insanity. There is a false flat on my work route that lies roughly at the half way mark and I am usually pretty impressed when I can get up to about 20 mph while going up it. I guess the bar was low, but I never expected to fly up it going almost 30 mph. I don't know the exact weight difference of the two bikes but I can tell a huge difference between the two, especially on hills. It is pretty impressive. In addition to improved speeds, it handles like a champ, totally confidence inspiring. All in all I regret nothing about this bike (except the saddle).

I'll post some pictures of it later when I have the time. Until then, keep on truckin'.

Past, present, and future.

Life has been crazy since my Nerstrand trip in so many good ways.

First of all work has picked up quite a bit. Despite the rain and general feeling of gloom, business has been pretty good. We re staying busy even when we don't have a lot of customers, we have been giving the shop some much needed attention. Lots of little retail projects and such. I was also given some extra responsibilities at work which is nice because I like having more things to do at work.

School is also going well. I am really enjoying my environmental history class, there is more to learn than I could have ever even imagined. I am also enjoying my data management class, I thought I knew a lot about excel before, oofda!

I joined a team for the Powderhorn 24 race in August, the team does not have a name yet but we are a full six in the mixed gender category. It should be a lot of fun and if nothing else it will be an opportunity to meet some cool people.

My new shoes also finally came in, it seems Gepeddo over there in Italy was taking a really long lunch break and just never got around to making my shoes. They finally came back in stock and they shipped them to me, I am still breaking them in but they are worlds better than the old ones. It is amazing how good it feels to have shoes that actually fit.

I also thought I had ordered my bike on Wednesday but it seems that something may have not worked out. I filled out the form and had the manager sign it and faxed it to Trek, but three days later I still have not been charged for the bike. I will have to look into it on Monday I suppose.

The Cross Check is in the shop right now getting some love. I blew through a brand new set of brake pads during my Nerstrand trip so I needed some new pads and the cables have been feeling pretty gritty so I decided to get some new cables and housing as well. I'm going back to green as my accent color, so I also went back to the lizard skin bar tape. The bar tape and the green cable housing don't match, but I also don't really care. Just a plain black bike is super boring, I just want to breathe a little life into it.

I also finally took the studded tires off the fat bike and put the Nates back on. I want to do some single track in the near future so that will be fun. The fat bike is hurting inside, I can tell when I ride it. The cranks are super grindy and gritty and the wheels are creaking like crazy. I will ride it through this coming winter and then just do an overhaul on it. Should fix it right up. I am still considering putting some Knards on it and getting rid of the Nates, they are just so damn aggressive, I don't feel like I need them for anything I ride.

That's all I got for now.

Adventure time, part 2.

The first night was relentless. I wore pretty much every piece of dry clothing that I had to bed and was huddled up in the feeble position under a very thin blanket I had brought. I felt as though I woke up every 20 minutes or so throughout the night. I would wake up and sit up and scrounge for another sock or something and forget what was going on and lay back down. Eventually I ate a cliff bar around six in the morning which warmed me up just enough to get one solid hour of sleep. I awoke at 7 and could no longer sleep. I got up and got out of the tent, the sun was out, which gave me false hopes of warmth. I immediately started scouring the area for as much kindling as I could find. It was no use, everything was wet. The small fire I was able to get started was not enough to catch any of the logs on fire. We busted out the camping stove and made some coffee quickly and dispatched it even faster.

Cold and wet morning in camp.

Nothing worse than a wet shammy.

At this point, freezing, sleep deprived, and really hungry, Brian and I packed up and hopped on our bikes to ride into town. We decided to take the shorter route that would almost for certain be mostly gravel, it was. There were a few obnoxious hills and a nice head wind just for good measure. I was bonking pretty hard on the way in but as soon as we hit the paved road a tail wind kicked up and we started moving a bit faster. We got into town and I pulled out the phone to see what kind of food options were in the area. The big green savior, Perkins was about a mile and a half away. We set course and pedaled the last agonizing mile and a half to Perkins.

"What would you like to drink?" COFFEE! PLEASE, COFFEE!

I got a giant blue berry muffin and some eggs Benedict with hash browns. I inhaled my food as though it was the first time I've ever had real food. I was still kind of hungry and was considering ordering more but I abstained and instead finished the rest of the coffee. From Perkins we went another couple of miles to Target. We were both still pretty cold, it was almost noon at this point and it was only about fifty four degrees despite the sun being out in full force. We arrived at Target and I went in first. I picked up some food and a cheap sleeping bag.I went outside attached my stuff to my bike and waited for Brian to return. The sun was shining behind the Target which put me directly in the shade. I moved out towards the road a bit and laid down on the sidewalk in the sun, I just didn't even care. Brian finished his trip inside and we packed up and headed back to camp.

On the return trip I started to warm up and the food was kicking in, I had plenty of energy and was started to feel great. We rode back much faster than we had came out despite all the gnarly hills. I have been trying to get the principal of cadence down so I had been practicing that throughout the trip but it really did me good on the way back to the camp. I was flying up the hills and wasn't killing myself, it was a great feeling!

Here I am on the attack.

This hill was about a mile long and the grade increased the further you got up it.

We got back to camp and just kind of took it easy for a bit. We drank some water and had a couple of beers and food. Then we went and sought out the showers again. After the shower we scored a couple more bundles of wood and headed back to the camp site. The day was pleasantly warm at this point and Nerstrand had some really cool walking trails that I was itching to check out so we went for a stroll. There was a ton of wild life all over the place and everything was so green, it was such a great experience. There was a nice little creek running through the park that both reminded us of places we hung out as a kid. A couple miles into the walk we discovered the "hidden falls" of Nerstrand.

Hidden falls.

Peaceful walking trails.

We finished up our walk and the trail let us out right by the camp site so we went and got our fire started. Most of the clothing from the day before was dry now and our spirits were in better shape too. We snacked on some stuff and made some more coffee and started cooking our dinner. I had picked up a fat new york strip steak and Brian had veggie burgers. It was a great ending to a day that had not started very nice.

Temporary housing.

The campsite after our walking adventure.

You can never go wrong with coffee.

Veggie burgers next to a steak...

Cow sandwich.

We finished up our food and beers and called it a night. I slept soundly for most of the night. I did wake up a few times to the sounds of great horned owls hooting and what I can only assume was coyotes howling all night long. The next morning I woke totally refreshed and only somewhat hungry. I ate some of what ever was around and Brian had already made coffee. We got all our stuff packed up and headed for home. We took the gravel roads back to Northfield. On the way some cows looked at me grudgingly as though they knew I had eaten one of their brethren. From there it was pretty smoothing sailing. We had a tail wind for most of the way back. We stopped at El Loro for our victory lunch. We got back and split the last Surly Furious. We parted ways and I went inside and plopped my butt down on the couch and took a stiff nap.

They knew what I was about.

Chips and salsa to the rescue.

I learned a lot on this trip both about the gear I had and about things that would be useful in the future. I hope to make this a monthly thing this summer, even if I have to go solo. Trial and error is kind of the name of the game and this one was much more comfortable than the trip we took to Afton. I had a lot of fun on this trip and I highly recommend trying this out sometime, it is a lot of fun even when it isn't.