This one time...

It has been a pretty good week over all.

Yesterday I went on a super fun ride with a new friend. We rode down Marshall, St Anthony Main, Stone Arch Bridge, Hennepin Ave Bridge and then back up the way we came. It was nice to ride with someone who is not an avid rider, just enjoying the ride and company. Twas fun.

Hennepin Ave Bridge.

Hey Farva, what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?

Last night was a lot of fun.

I headed over to Thad's and we went over to Town Hall lanes and had a beer and some dinner. There was some general shenanigans had there. We saw a bowler that looked like one of our co-workers. There was also a couple there bowling and their nick names for the scoring screen were "Pee" and "Poo". It was hilarious on a very remedial level.

Poo and Pee, heh heh heh heh.

After the food we hit up the libation store across the street and then headed back to Thad's. I forgot my shoes so we had to figure out how to get my Shimano pedals off and put flats on, without an 8mm allen wrench or a pedal wrench. We made it happen because we are men, which is what we kept repeating to ourselves as we were standing around in front of an open garage drinking beer.

Conan, Thad's viciously cute guard dog.

After a bit the others were ready to meet up so we headed out to meet them by the Minnehaha falls. Now, I had asked Thad if I would be alright for this ride on a cross bike, he said "Yeah, you should be fine." So when we went down this super sketchy, sandy, rock filled decent, you can imagine my surprise.

"You'll be good on your Cross Check" he says...

I was okay actually. I only almost crashed once when all of the ground beneath me began to wash away as I needed to stop. I just let go of the brakes and rode it out and all was well. We rode down the banks of the river to a secret location. We stopped, had a beer, and then went and rode some single track. It was pretty gnarly but I kept up and we all ended up in the same place and had another beer. Then Joe and Jamison launched up and down the rocky creek. They came out smelling like total butt from the nasty creek water. We went on and ended up back at the beach head where we made a fire.

Another fellow from work was on his way from the bandit cross race and had two more friends in toe. Things got a little crazy once we were standing still for a long period of time, this gave us more time to consume and thus become more influenced. We were all feeling good and having a great time and we burned some things that may or may not have been explosive, don't worry we had adult supervision. Then Ben took his camera out and did a long exposure shot while a few of us rode around with our lights flashing. The shot came out amazing and pretty much summed up the night for me. We headed back on some super sketchy trails and I some how ended up leading the way out. We had to jump a fence to get back into the dog park. Thad crashed about three times. Super fun times, I cannot wait to do it again soon.

Photo by Ben Hovland

The Powderhorn Cometh.

(All photos by Birgitta Anderson)

The idea of a 24 hour race has always intrigued me. A team, yourself, and bikes for 24 hours. Racing against the clock, laps upon laps upon laps. The idea had a certain appeal as an endurance test but the social aspect is equally appealing.

Last weekend I participated in my first 24 hour race, the Powderhorn 24. I was apprehensive going into it but I ended up having a blast. I had this idea in my head that it was going to be a big old hipster fest full of drunk and obnoxious people. While there were certainly drunk and obnoxious people, they were the minority, everyone there was really cool and I met and talked to a lot of very cool people.

I showed up Friday about 4:30 and I was hanging out at Freewheel on the Greenway talking to some of my colleagues. Around 5 I headed outside and started getting my tent set up. Around this time Birgitta and her boyfriend Bob showed up with their cute pooch Shamus. We were all getting set up and then their friend Dave stopped by, he was replacing another fellow who had to cancel at the last moment. After a little bit our other two team mates, Ebbin and Tiana, showed up and we waited for the pre-ride briefing. 

From left to right, Ebbin, Dave, me, and Bob.

Birgitta getting ready to ride.

Dave passing the manifest off to Tiana.

Shamus the team mascot.

We devised our plan for how we were going to break up the riding. We would split our six down the middle into two teams of three. Each team of three would rotate people in and out twice. So if the three people on the first team were one, two and three. The rotation would go one, two, three, and then one, two three, at which point the second team would be up. Each person did 2 - 3 laps per time they were up. This meant you didn't fully cool off when it was your turn to ride again and then when you did your second set of laps, you had roughly 8 hours to get some rest. This method ended up working out really well for us.

After the pre-ride meeting was taken care of everyone lined up for the race. Luckily we were near the front because we were one of the first teams to register. Ebbin, Dave, and Birgitta were on the first rotation and Ebbin was going to take the first laps. He lined up, the race started and they were off.

I have never seen such an odd collection of riders. There were people in full lycra kits, cut off jeans, lots of beards, lots of tattoos, no tattoos, big hair, no hair, sandals, road shoes, steel cargo bikes, super light weight carbon bikes, and so much more. It was really neat to see all the different types of folks who were all coming together to hang out and ride bikes.

Some folks wore costumes.

36" wheel unicycle?

Extreme lycra irony.

There was a team of 15 year old kids that crushed it.

Racing in a dress? Why not?!

The cutest little girl with a cycling cap. She's off to a good start.

The race was underway and we were having a good time. The first group finished up their first rounds of laps around 1 am or so. My first lap was at about 3 am. I headed out ready to kill it. I was so pumped I rode right past the first checkpoint. I looked at it as I rode by it and it just didn't register. I zipped down to the next check point, the guy punched my manifest and then noticed I had not had the first one punched. They sent me back to the first check point. I was so upset at myself, I got back to the first checkpoint and then got punched after explaining what happened, then I zipped back over to the second checkpoint, they didn't remember what happened even though it was only like 5 minutes prior. They sent me on my way and I was not thinking clearly I was feeling really rushed, so I blew up 10th and as I hit Lake, I realized I passed the 3rd check in. I rushed back down 11th, hit the check point, then rushed back up 10th and hit the Nice Ride bonus stop. You were to check out a Nice Ride and do a lap on it and then come back and get on your bike. The line was horrendous.

I finally got on the Nice Ride and took off, wow those bikes are heavy. I actually had a really good lap time for riding a 50 lb bike. Then I got back on my bike and finished the lap and did one more. The only way to win this thing was to do all the bonus stops. Each bonus stop was worth 2 laps. If you did all the bonus laps and your volunteer shift, you would receive and additional 8 bonus laps, on top of the possible 36 bonus laps from the bonus stops.

On my next rotation I felt good and the sun was coming up. I headed off into the sunrise and did my fastest lap. I did two more laps, on the last lap I had a bonus at the Powderhorn park where I had to bomb down the steep hill and do yoga. It was interesting to say the least. When I got back on my bike and took off my muscles were so relaxed I could barely even pedal. By the time I got to the top of that hill, my legs were screaming at me. Fatigue was starting to set in.

Sunrise yoga.

I finished my lap, passed off the manifest, crawled back to my tent and darkness warshed over the Dude.

I slept for about three hours and felt waaaaay better.

I awoke to the news that we were in second place. What?! We started off not even caring what was going on, we were just having fun, but someone had alerted us to this news and suddenly we got a little more competitive.

The rest of the event was pretty standard affair for a large group of tired and exhausted folks. Everyone was starting to get a little loopy and goofy. What happened next I could have never guessed. Everyone got up and started cheering for the finishers. EVERYONE. It was really cool to see so many people being so supportive of each other. 

Over all the experience was an A+ and I will certainly do it again next year, actually I am already looking forward to it.

Paths of glory!

School is mostly done for the summer now and I couldn't be happier with the extra time I have on my hands. I am back to riding almost every day, there are still some assignments lingering about here and there but nothing that I am worried about.

Last Tuesday I was out for a ride on the Madone and something crappy happened. I was riding the big ring and I was approaching a stop light so I started to shift into an easier gear so it would be easier to get going again. Something happened because the light turned green I put my food down on the pedal and heard grinding. The chain had come off the cassette and lodged itself between the cassette and the spokes, bummer. The only thing that I can think of is that maybe I back peddled just enough to cause the chain to come off. It cut some of the spokes up a bit which cut my ride short. I got home and looked closer at it and it was worse than I initially thought.

Wednesday was my day off so I got up had some breakfast and went to drop off the bike at the shop to get the spokes replaced. When I showed up I had a package waiting for me from Shimano, it was a set of Dura-Ace pedals with an extended spindle for my funky q-factor. I was stoked. I slapped them off and left the shop and headed home. I got home and made some lunch and started gathering some things together to go on a longer ride. I loaded up the Workaholic and headed for the Luce Line trail. It was a really fun ride. The trail was dry and there were a few places I almost washed out in, but I kept it upright. I went out to Watertown and then turned around and headed home before it got too dark and I would have to deal with the swarms of gnats. I ended up doing a little over 60 miles and it felt really good. It was my victory ride on the path of glory.

I went on a couple shorter rides around the lakes here since then but I have had some homework to do and it has been super busy this week at work which has kind of sapped some of my energy. I got the plastic bike back today, with my new pedals, and my new Sidi road shoes. The bike is all set to go and I am super excited to get out for a good ride tomorrow, it will be my first ride ever with road cleats and pedals.

I took a couple pictures on the Luce Line ride that I'll post below. Maybe I'll get some more good ones tomorrow. That's it for now!

Path of glory!

Thanks for the socks!

Great ending to a great day.

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'.