Going to the Sun Road Video

Thought I'd share a little video from summer of last year. Typical silliness a cyclist will do from time to time. See that hill - let's ride that thing. Bottom was bottom of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Top was Logan Pass. Thanks be to G-O-D, I had a support crew there! The road had just opened a few days before on July 13th, 2011, second latest ever.  The top half of the road was all being ripped up by construction crews and was just a gravel bed. Ack - the Seven did not like that.

Click on pic:

Bike Overnights

Fun little vid of some young vagabonds riding their bikes on an overnight excursion. Looks fun. Heck yah don't need to ride too far, or have the best bike (oops, did I actually write that?) to enjoy some fun. I have read in some magazine somewhere, the idea of the existence of a bike culture. Tis about may things I'm sure, but, there is something about riding a bike. Takes you right back to being a kid. My first bike had a banana seat and orange tires - that left orange skid marks on the side walk. Very cewl!

Burro Mondays

Took the Salsa Fargo out for spin today. Second time on the bike. This time she had 700cx32 cyclocross tires on it rather than the two-niners. This bike is a hoot. It will be the bike I take on my extended tour this summer. It's a bit of a plodder. She's a wee bit heavy. But with the SRAM X9 it climbs like a goat. At first, I was feeling the bike was slow and awkward, but she grew on me. I decided after about a mile to kick back and enjoy the ride. Turned up Norway Hill and geared down and climbed away. At the bottom, turned around and did it the opposite way. This type of training was a nice change from the normal get miles, cheat the wind, razor focus, hey my pro kit is fookin' brilliant, take no prisoners training that I have been doing as of late. Today's ride was a slap happy experience. I went slow and smelled the roses, er tulips (since it is tulip time in the PNW). I decided to incorporate this type of ride in my training regimen. I'll call it Burro Mondays.

Sunday Desperation Ride

There is life after Manhattans. Jen and I high-tailed down the mountain from Suncadia and arrived back into Seattle by about noon. Knowing I had not ridden the bike in week, I was a bit anxious as I wondered how I would navigate the decision point - ride or no ride (aka lame out you looser head). We went to pick up Luna from her weekend of romping with Kya and Marley and when we returned home I stared into the clock face and it read a quarter-to-looserville. Now was the make or break moment. Ok, fight the urge to stay at home, fight the urge to fall blissfully asleep in a nice, we partied for two nights, cat nap.

Have you ever heard of the 50:50:90 rule? This states that when a person is faced with a choice of two options, a la a 50:50 chance, they will pick the wrong one 90% of the time. I dunno if this is a real rule or not - but today, I felt like I picked the right one. I suited up and rode down the road. So- after a couple nights of debauchery, there is a training life. I actually smoked my ride today - 28 miles in 98 minutes or about 16.25 MPH. I am happy with that. Happy I forced my self to work out. Small wins, lead to bigger wins.

Location Testing

Saturday east of the cascades, on holiday with my sidekick. I'm location testing if you will! Suncadia will be my terminus, where I meet Jen after four days of mashing the pedals. Not a bad place to stop. We come here from time to time and always enjoy ourselves. There is some wacky drink in the lodge called Kittitas Cowboy. Kind of like Manhattan, whisky and such.

Friday is here! An end to the work week - but not the training week (that ends tomorrow). This week was rather pathetic in how little I trained. I did go out two hours on Sunday. But went to the gym on Wed and proceeded to fry my quads, hamstrings and the junk in the trunk. So, now I can't really even walk let alone hop on a bike. So this week will go down as a bust. There is always next week though!

Up at O dark 30 with Jen - went to gym. Luna gets to go too. Well at least for a ride. Did lunge at some lunges, but they fought back. Now, my hams are aching. Training for some epic whatever takes a lot of time from a persons life. Hat's off to those who prevail!

Creed

This is my bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My bike is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My bike, without me, is useless. Without my bike, I am useless. I must ride my bike true...

Ok, so you may recognize this as the rifleman's creed. I knew I needed a creed - so I started with this proverbial gem. The creed, will get me to where I need to go - right? Say it over and over again. And there I am.

This blog (my first) is my journey to ride over the Cascades and back - on bicycle. It will be interesting. Not only do I need to (s)log a few training miles - but, I need to be coherent, creative and a may be a little bit cheeky in my posts- so one at least partially enjoys the journey.

So, here we go.