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.

Adventure time... Part 1.

Last week was the Nerstrand trip and boy was it a lot of fun.

Weather was beginning to concern me but it ended up not being as bad as I thought. I went to Brian's place with all the gear and we figured out who was carrying what. He had prepared breakfast burritos and they were delicious. I went back and loaded up my bike and he met me where I was. It started raining as soon as he showed up and we headed out. It would rain the entire way.

My rig all loaded up.

Brian and the bikes.

The trek was pretty easy through Minneapolis and into Apple Valley. It wasn't raining too hard and luckily I had purchased a rain jacket the night before from work. We had a tail wind and the first 25 miles were easy. We stopped at a CVS to utilize the bathroom and I took the opportunity to stretch and snack on some munchies to hopefully warm up. The more we stood around the colder I got. When we were ready to leave Brian's front tire was flat. He changed the tube, used his frame pump to pump up the tire, and then ripped the valve core out of the stem and the tire went flat again. He changed that tube out and I let him use one of my Co2 cartridges and we were off to get some warm coffee.

Pee break.

Look at that handsome guy.



So we went into Farmington and right about at mile 30 we hit Dunn Bros and stopped for some nice hot coffee. If you are ever heading through Farmington you need to stop here. The manager was super friendly and offered to refill our water bottles and even gave us a Dunn Bros water bottle. We also had some random fellow stop and ask where we were headed and if we needed to crash in a warm house for the night. At first I was kind of creeped out but then he mentioned he was with adventure cycling and it all came into focus. So we drank our coffee and headed out. It started raining a bit harder at this point as I became thoroughly soaked after that.

Coffee to warm the soul.

I was trying to photobomb his selfie, little did I know he was trying to get me in there anyway.

The ride between Farmington was farm land and the roads were rolling hills. The tail wind picked up and we were moving along at a good clip, most of the time it was over 20 miles an hour, I was impressed at our bikes going that fast with all that gear and handling as good as they did. So ten miles of that and we were in Northfield. We were both famished and we stopped at a local diner called The Quarter Back club. If you are passing through Northfield and looking for some cheap eats, the food is pretty decent for the price and you get a lot of it. I pretty much inhaled my food and then felt sick from eating way too much. So now cold and sick I was eager to get to camp. The rain was till coming down pretty good and I was getting fatigued from being cold and wet. So we headed to the beverage store and got some beverages. We then checked with Google for the nearest grocery store. It was about a mile in the opposite direction that we needed to go. I made the call to skip it because I had some bike food with me, it was a bad decision. Another 17 miles of biking in head winds, off the side of a horrible highway and we finally arrived at the entrance to the camp. I thought I saw a dead body, but it was the rib cage of a decaying deer. It scared the hell out of me.

So we finally got to camp and got the tent set up and then it stopped raining. Once we had everything situated we headed out to find the showers. We found them, there was hot water, it was life changing. After the shower we headed back to camp with a bundle of fire wood and tried to get a fire going. It was a major fail. We were also really hungry and I had not really packed as many cliff bars and such as I thought I did. So we pigged out on some trail mix and called it a night. Mistake number two happened before we even set out on the trip, we had no sleeping bags. I did not expect it to dip down into the low thirties over night. We spent the entire night not sleeping and freezing our collective asses off. It made for an interesting second day.

We had an inappropriate knick name for that lower shower head, I'll let you guess what it was.

(To be continued...)

Dear Diary

Life back at the bike shop is good. I'm staying busy and having a lot of fun, even more fun than last summer.

The ol' bike camping trip is rapidly approaching. Since school has been out I've been at the bike shop nearly every day. I am getting a little tired but the three days of booze consumption, sunshine, fires, and bike riding should be good for recharging my batteries. I bought this collapsible cooler from REI and I hope it works out. The plan is to go to the campsite, dump our gear, then head back to town and pick up booze and "food", though that would be a lot of riding for one day. We'll see what happens though, nothing is set in stone, which is the best part. I picked up some trail mix and food stuffs for the journey, as well as peanut butter and honey fixings. The last time we went we had no back up food and by morning I was starving and it was about 10 miles of rolling hills to get to the nearest food source. I vowed to not let that happen again.

In other news, I have figured out what bike I am going to get this year. First I decided I was going to get a road bike. In my current situation, being so far from everything, a road bike just makes more sense, plus I really just want to get some more miles under my belt. Once that decision was made I had to make a choice on which road bike I want. My first thought was to go with the CAAD 10 with SRAM Rival. I have Rival on the Cross Check and it works well, but if I am going to have a road bike I want to have a nicer group set, so I figured the cost of buying the bike and upgrading to SRAM Red, and the cost came out to about as much as it would cost me to buy a Supersix Evo with SRAM Red already on it. I have always thought that I would probably not own a carbon fiber bike, but after test riding a handful of really nice plastic bikes, my mind was changed. The Cannondale guys were out last week and I rode the bike I wanted and holy smokes it was nice. I acquired the money to buy said bike and when I went to check availability on them, they are out and there is no ETA on when they will be in stock. Well poop!

Then my new boss was talking to me about the new Ultegra di2 electronic shifting. I tried out a Madone we had with it, wow that is nice. Okay so I looked at the Cannondale with di2 on it, meh, the specs on it are not very impressive really. It comes with their Cannondale "hollowgram" crank set, which I am not really impressed with, not to mention everything I read said you want to use an Ultegra crank set for ultimate performance from your di2, so why would I want to spend more to have to upgrade the crank set any way? Well, in short, I don't. That is about the time I just happened too look at the 2013 Trek 5.9 Madone. Shit yes. It is still very light, even better riding than the Cannondale, better wheel set than the Ultegra tubeless, and the full Ultegra package and I can get it for less. That is a no brainer. So, my bike for this year is going to be a 5.9 Madone. My goal is to get my commute from home to work down to less than an hour. Even if it is 59 minutes I will be happy. Plus I would like to be able to ride 40 miles without feeling like I am about to die, not from being out of shape, but because my Cross Check is just so damn heavy.

The last thing I have had on my mind is my knee problems. I know that whenever the hell my new shoes come in, that will take care of some of the issues. I got re-fit yesterday and we made some adjustments that felt pretty good, but the boss was also telling me that I should stretch my feet. I have never actually heard of this but it sounds like a very legit idea, plus the man has been in the industry 10 years more than me so I shall take his advice. One other thing that I have been toying with the idea of is cadence. I know for a fact I do not generally pedal at a very efficient cadence and I am willing to bet that if I were to start doing so that it would help alleviate some of my knee pain. I am a pedal masher, I've always been, but I think it might be catching up with me. I need to start riding correctly. Funny story, cadence also influenced my decision to get the Madone. Trek put that "duotrap" in the chain stay on their bikes and it just makes the sensors so much more clean, instead of having that stupid thing zip tied to the chain stay. At any rate, I am hoping to start working on that stuff when I get the new bike, which should be early next month.

My riding recently has been sparse and very random. Just a lot of short-ish 15 - 20 mile rides around Maple Grove. I really have not been taking a lot of photos. I will be taking plenty on the camping trip next week so look out for those.

Be good out there.