Heavy on events, light on action.

Lots of developments, not a lot of riding. Fail.

I did end up commuting to school at least once last week. It would have been more if I didn't have to spend so much time writing up lab reports for my physics class. I put a solid 36 hours into 2 of them that were due last Wednesday, yuck.

The weekend was super busy as well. Ann and I are finally getting settled into this place and we got our storage locker emptied. One step at a time.

It snowed on Thanksgiving, not a whole bunch, but most of it is still around because the temps have been stuck in the low and mid twenties. I am excited for the arrival of winter. I also got a call from my boss the other day and he wanted to know if I was interested in helping set up the Freewheel Winter Bike Expo, my response was "Hell yeah!". I have been looking forward to this years winter bike expo since I found out there was one and I missed it a couple days after it happened last year. I really hope the snow pulls through and makes it a fun day. I've got the itch to put on my studded fat bike tires. I think as soon as I can put them on they will stay on until the snow is gone and I think I will be picking up some Larry's around that time, the Nate's are just far too aggressive.

I'm also going to be on the look out for a part time job through the holidays to pull in a little extra cash for presents for my loved ones and also a few bike parts I really want to score before all my races come up.

In other news about training I am going to start P90x again today, I will be following the lean schedule. I really need the endurance that this program brought to me the last time I did it. This combined with some hill training I have planned should do me well for getting race ready. I have no misconceptions that I am not going to win anything, but I just want to do the stuff and not look like a fool out there. I mostly just want to do these races just to do them, I don't really care much for competition.

I wish I had time to ride this weekend but I didn't. I also didn't take any new pictures. I have not posted any for a few weeks so I will just post some older ones that I like.

This is from spring of 2012.

Walker Sculpture Garden

Feb 2011

Boom Island Park lamp post

Awaiting the white stuff.

I know normal people don't usually get excited about snow and cold... but who ever said I was normal?

It snowed this week finally, even though it was only a little bit and it is already gone. It is a good reminder to start getting prepared for winter. I am doing exactly that. I had posted my Nokkian Gazza Extreme 240's online for sale and sold them the next day which was nice because that put a good chunk of change in my pocket. I was going to use the money from those tires to buy the new Xerxes tire from 45Nrth but I didn't get around to it. I attended the Freewheel Fat Bike Friday which is a ride out of the Freewheel at Midtown and they spend a couple hours riding the river bottoms.The ride kicked my ass big time, not just physically (48 miles at a 15 mph pace) but it also served to show me, once again, that I am not equipped for winter.

So I went to Freewheel later that day and picked up a pair of Lake MXZ 303's which we had in a wide and it fit my foot perfectly. I also have room to wear thick wool socks with them. I took them out for a spin in about 30 degree weather and my feet were toasty the entire time. I know that at some point I will have to do something about the insole and I think the answer will be rabbit fur insoles. I heard a lot of buzz about them and Sunrise Cyclery carries them for like $10. Even with my employee discount the new 45Nrth Aerogel inserts would cost me more than that. So I feel like it is worth a shot. Besides that if it gets really cold they may not work as well but I did find out that I can fit my neoprene booties over the boots. This would create a pretty nice stagnant layer of air that might help on particularly cold or windy days.

I am still going to pick up those studded tires for the Cross Check, but other than that I think I am ready for winter finally. Those boots will be a wondrous boon. I may have to experiment with gloves as it gets colder but so far a good base layer glove and the Pearl Izumi gloves that have wind blocking properties seems like it is working well.

In other news Global Fat Bike Day is going down on December 1. It is open to anyone who wants to come and I encourage you to come. We are aiming to beat out both Wisconsin and England. If you are interested then you can click here for details. It is a link for Facebook, you don't need an account to view the details. It is going to be just a ton of people so it is not going to be a super intense ride or anything. Come out with your fat bike and have some fun!

I did another ride earlier this week as well. Went out for some really good Chinese food with some people from the internet. All in all I rode about 35 miles in the cold and it was super fun. I always have a good time when I get on my Cross Check. Starting this Monday I am going to start commuting to school every day. The first week might only be 2 of the days but then I will do it every day. I am sick of making excuses about how far of a ride it is. I just don't care anymore, it makes me happy and I am going to do it.

That is all I got for this week. Get out there and ride.

A few things.

So I am back up North of the Metro and I find myself with an abundance of time, this is okay as I rode almost every single day.

I've got some things happening in my life right now that have returned me to Maple Grove for an undisclosed period of time. I have mixed emotions about this, for reasons I'll not talk about here I really despise this place, on the other hand I am only 7 miles from school. It is a really nice distance to bike, I feel like I rode my bike but I am not dead afterwards. It only takes roughly a half hour to get there because it is mostly down hill. Always up hill and always head winds on the way home; it is predictable and right now I'll take that.

So other than commuting I did a fat bike ride on Saturday afternoon. Woof, the weather was extremely beautiful. I could not believe it, when I got to the river bottoms I ditched a bunch of layers that I was anticipating needing. I wish I had brought a short sleeve jersey and some more water, I was dying on the ride. Friday night I registered for the Lake Minnetonka ice race and the first ever Fat Bike Birkie. I chose to do the 45k so I wanted to see what my time was like so there was not a lot of putzing around as there usually is on my rides, it was pretty much all business. Two and a half hours is what it came out to, that is with two Nate's for tires. If I can get that down to an hour and forty five minutes I will be happy. I believe I can do this well before March hits. I'm going to start some "training" on Monday, mostly to drop some pounds and strengthen my core.

No pictures really this week, I did snap some pictures of my bikes that I will post up in the "Bikes" section.

It's been one of those weeks...

Holy shit. What a week.

On Tuesday I said screw everything I'm going for a nice ride. So I went out for a couple hours and had a really fun and relaxing ride. Saw a golden eagle but couldn't snap a shot of him. Then I ran into this fellow:

I also found this:

and I got some "rad" air off it.

It was a ton of fun. I cannot put my finger on it exactly but something about the river bottoms between 35W and Cedar really make me happy.

I don't even remember when but my 45Nrth Dillinger studded fat bike tires showed up. For what they are, they are pretty dang light. I think that for what I have planned for them, they will work out fabulously. 

45Nrth Dillinger

So many things have happened this week that I am just emotionally drained. The best thing to do in those kind of situations for me is to go on a super long ride. So I planned on doing a century on Friday. It was a disaster.

My feet were totally frozen before an hour had even passed. I could feel the cleat just draining the heat from my foot, so I put on the neoprene shoe covers. They did absolutely nothing. A few miles later my feet were totally numb. I was stubborn though and kept onward. I kept trucking for a bit and was okay because of the increase in body heat.  

At mile 32 I took a rest and started considering turning around... again I failed to do this. I should have, but I didn't. So I kept going and made it to Water Town on the Luce Line State Trail. I needed to stop to get water and such so I did and when I got back on the bike all of my motivation had been drained. My knees were screaming because of the cold and my love handles were frozen solid too. So I pushed on to mile 40 and then turned around and started heading back. I had to stop a bunch of time because the cold was just tearing it out of me. Next thing I know it is dark. So I kept going super slow in the dark for about ten miles then I ended up having to get a ride home. I was completely shot. It is time to reevaluate my cold weather gear. We just got offered an employee purchase deal from Gore Bike Wear and I ordered a few items so that will be nice, but for now my riding is going to be a bit limited. I am also going to have to switch over to platform pedals because the cleats just act as a heat sink and it killed my feet. 

I'm hoping to get a few rides in this week. We'll see. I certainly need them.

Calming sensation.

This week was pretty rough, with a lot of things on my plate I was wound pretty tight about everything... until my ride on Saturday.

Last week was pretty lame. I had so much homework to do I didn't see the outside of the house except to drive to school. I didn't have time to run any errands or anything, it was just homework all day every day. Then Friday, my usual bike day, I had a bunch of errands to run so I ran them and then it got too late and cold, plus I was tired. On the plus side I got my Dillngers from 45Nrth ordered, they are supposed to be coming in stock by November so I should see them before the snow flies. I also picked up the front version of the Dave's Mud Shovel from PDW and a pair of wind resistant insulated gloves from Pearl Izumi, they are just big enough that I could put some liner gloves into them, so I suspect they should work out pretty well all in all. I also stopped in at Midwest Mountaineering as I had not been there in quite some time. I picked up a nice Shak City Roller jersey from Ibex. Let me just say, if I have not done so already, that I love wool clothing. Ibex in particular because of their lifetime warranty and the fact that most of their goods are manufactured in the United States. So after that I caught the movie Sinister, it was pretty decent. The only problem with all this was that at the end of the day I was stressing out about everything again.

Ann and I had a Halloween party to attend on Saturday night and I knew with my homework load that Sunday would be mostly homework so I had to get my ride in on Saturday. I decided to go explore the river bottoms between Lyndale and 494. I got there and saw another gent loading his fat bike up as I was getting mine ready. There was no wind, hardly any clouds, and the birds were chirping; It was almost perfect. I hit the trail and immediately the stress of the week started just melting away. It was so much fun to be out on the trail, it was not particularly challenging or anything like that, but something about not seeing anyone and the weather being so amazing just made the experience very relaxing. I got to see a bunch of things I had never seen before and there were some man made obstacles that I took on that were pretty fun. Mostly some cool log piles and rolling lengthwise down a log and things of that nature I also had a blast on the small rolling hills and picking up speed going around the corners and kicking up all the fallen leaves. I hit the Cedar bridge and it was a little chilly at this point but I was having so much fun I kept going. I went over the pedestrian bridge at Cedar and then continued on the trail to 494 at which point I crossed over to the island and rode around on it again and then on the way back left the island and connected back with the trail and then headed back to the car. On a side note, the Dave's Mud Shovel worked out perfectly. There was some pretty sandy sections and it kept almost all the sand off my water bottle and quite a bit of it off my legs as well. It also worked well for the couple of mud puddles I went through, I never had to worry about striking it with my pedal either. If you have been looking for a good front fender for your fat bike, I highly suggest it.

By the time it was all said and done I was a happy camper. I stopped on the way home and got a nice big hot cup of coffee and sat on the porch and drank it with Ann's cat. It was a really good ending to a really bull shit week.

I have also decided two things. First is that I am going to try to update this blog at least once a week, most likely on Sundays or Mondays. Secondly, I need to do a century on the Cross Check before the snow comes down, I have not done a century yet this year so I gotta get on it. (A century is a 100 mile bike ride)

That is all I have for this week, hopefully this next week treats me a little better.