My new fixed-gear bike?

This bike would satisfy my twin enjoyment of cycling and lawn care. (Photo courtesy of crazyguyonabike (though I forgot which journal)).

Went running yesterday morning but I probably won't do anything more until Saturday because my office is moving. We're going to be busy.

Short long run

Saturday, I stayed stateside to run on Grant's Trail for a short long run (or a long short run). Went 16 miles and had a great time. Went slow and steady on the way out and picked it up on the way back while rockin' the tunes on my MP3 player. Ideally, I'll carry some of that magic over to next weekend's 20-miler.

Another good run in the park

Repeated last night's run again this evening. Very enjoyable. Though when I got home, I ate too much leftover pizza. I really need to jump on a November marathon to take advantage of this fitness.

Surprise Run

Today was to be bike-run-bike day. Rode into work, moderated some squabbles, and left around 5:30 pm for a run around the park. All the way there I obsessed about the growing darkness and the dropping temp's thinking I should bag it or just run 3 miles. But as so often happens, once I hit the course, I had a great run. A steady effort at a good pace for 5+ miles - altogether a satisfactory workout. That is so often the case; when I'm pumped for a run, it's merely okay. But when I dread the run, it turns out well. I don't know why it went so well, but I'll take it and put this evening in the positive energy bank.

Excellent Bike Ride

Decided to get some biking miles in today because I had the day off of work. Rode over the McKinley Bridge with the intention of riding to Edwardsville. Honestly, they should call the McKinley pedestrian bridge the "Bridge to Nowhere." The MCT Schoolhouse trail is but a mile or two away from the foot of the bridge, but there is no easy way to get to it. Nevertheless, I still reached Edwardsville for a cinnamon roll, iced coffee and bookstore perusal. On the way back I met Sharon - originally from Bristol in the UK - and her kids in tow. We had a nice visit as we were both headed the same direction. You meet the nicest people biking. All told, I guess I logged about 70 miles.

Second long run of the season

Really, second 20-miler of the year on Saturday. Went back to the Madison County trail network for another stab at 20+ miles. I did so a couple of weeks ago and it was tough because all the water was on the front part of the course. I ran it in reverse yesterday, but it was still a slog because the weather was warmer 70's to 80's. Still, I stayed on my feet and I don't feel bad today and I didn't binge yesterday, so I guess it was mission accomplished.

Trail run a bust; sausage shop a boon

Court yesterday lasted too long - if I had run I would have been home late. I decided to visit Stonie's Sausage Shop instead - it was great fun. I even bought a shirt for the boy (though he was decidedly underwhelmed).

Ran in Forest Park this a.m. Six miles were fun and a good start to the day. I can't understand why there aren't more people out in this mild weather.

Bike commuting

I only rode to work and back with a detour to the supermarket on the way home. Good riding weather except for late afternoon gnats. Still beats driving. Tomorrow I'm off to Charleston, MO. The bootheel region has very few recreational opportunities so I will try to hit Hawn SP on the way back for 6-10 miles of trail running.

Morning run

5.5 miles in a newly chilly Forest Park. Very enjoyable; I wish every run was so delightful. What will I do when it starts getting dark at 4:00 pm? Weekend was a bust. My planned 100-mile ride on Saturday was cut about 65 miles short by rain. But Molly and I did ride to Church on Sunday, a first for her.

Summer training

Not much to report really. But I have been running and bike short distances. The past two weekends I rode with friend Stephen to get ready for the MS150 on September 11 & 12. It should be a fun weekend and if I can do so without abandoning Stephen, I might try the Century option at least one of the days. Runningwise, I have been out at least twice a week including a good 12+ mile effort last Sunday morning. If work would ever settle down, I think I could get some good running in this fall. Now is the time to start planning for a spring ultra.

Update

The 600km event went well. Memorial day weekend featured good weather and, remarkably, a tailwind both ways. Saturday, I hooked up with George "El Diablo" Jarad and we worked our way south in good order. I was a little apprehensive at the start because I did not have a motel reservation. But John agreed I could share their room. I made it to Vienna, IL, in good time reaching the end of the Tunnel Hill trail before dark. Sunday went well, but the heat slowed our progress a bit. I finished in 36:30 which was a new best for me.

I wish I could say the same for the 400km this weekend. I thought it would be hot, but hoped that the forecasters would be wrong. No such luck. I crapped out - a total bonk - around mile 120. I knew I had I bonked when I fantasized about walking the bike - always a bad sign. It was so bad that before I reached Pickneyville, I was stopping every mile for a five-minute rest in the shade. I hung around P'ville for an hour before deciding to call it quits. John, with whom I rode my first 400km in 2006 (until he hit a dog and broke his collarbone), noted that it wasn't worth riding if I wasn't having fun. That was all it took. While I waited for my rescue team, I noted that the thermometer on the local bank read "102" That's too hot. I had a good ride until my collapse and averaged 17.5 miles per hour up to mile 120. I feel bad about quitting but it was impossible for me to ride any further. I'll have to see if I can make up a 400km some time this summer.

A lack of talc was the least of my problems

This year's 400km ride did not go as planned. The winds were very gusty even as we headed out at 5:00 am. While the NW wind pushed us south, any westerly travel was positively mind-numbing. Still, I was feeling pretty good at mile 120. I was on pace for my quickest 200km ever, when my front tire flatted. I joked to Andrew that, due to an oversight, my spare tube wasn't packed in talc, but that was not so much a problem as the seemingly bad valve which caused the spare to flat right away. No patch kit either. So I was, as the French would say, MOL. Fortunately, my mobile support team was able to rescue me, but I was disappointed at not being able to finish, though I think I could have.

So my plan now is to go ahead and ride the 600km on the 29th and make up the 400km at the end of June. The first setting for the 600km is the better bet because there will be more riders - hopefully Andrew will ride with me again - for the lonesome miles. And doing the 400km in June might be a good bet - if the heat is not too bad - because I'll have an earlier start and slightly more daylight. I'm going to switch the Rando bike over to Gatorskin tires, they're easier to change and seem just as durable as those damnable Vittoria tires. And you can bet I'll have at least two spare tubes and a patch kit when I leave Edwardsville. If the weather is predictably sunny for the 400km, I might try it on the "race bike" which has a more sprightly ride. Rode that bike today for 55 hilly miles and had a great time.

Edwardsville-Roubaix

"I was having a hard time following the accelerations and I basically ran out of fuel. I just wasn't firing on all cylinders today. I didn't feel as good as I have been feeling prior to this race, so it's definitely a disappointment."

Cycling-superman Bob Lundt is far too modest. Yesterday's 300km Brevet proved a challenge with high winds for 111 miles south, but it was nothing that couldn't be overcome with a little intestinal fortitude. Uncle Bob and I rolled out of Edwardsville about ten minutes after six a.m. The weather seemed promising but the southerly winds beat up our legs so that it was a bit of slog working our way back north. It was, however, a good, hard effort that brought us home when other, lesser riders, would have packed it in. It was, looking back, another audacious performance by Bob.

In other news, I have been working hard on getting the butterfly garden of good and evil ready for this summer. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures up this week. It is really taking shape and the hardest part will be waiting for the bloom to arrive. So far I have dill, fennel, butterfly weed, liatris, russian sage, echinacia, rudebeckia, bee balm, cardinal flower, sunflower, iris, loosestrife, goldenrod and iris in place. If there are fewer butterflies at your place this summer, it will be because they're in my backyard.

This is Randonneuring

The first official Brevet of the 2010 occurred Saturday. The ride itself was unremarkable. The wind out of the southeast made the southward trek a challenge, but the final 40-50 miles were very enjoyable. The company was remarkable, however. I reconnected with a few riders I had not seen in a while and had plenty of company throughout the whole 200km. Even with a dead cyclocomputer, I managed a 10:14 finish, a new best for me on the fixed-gear.

The (bad) Luck of the Irish

Feeling guilty about not having worked on the old house lately, I decided to forgo a long bike ride and instead run the St. Patrick's Day 5-mile race so I might have my afternoon free. I have never been superstitious, but one mock superstition I hold dear is: never wear the race shirt to the actual event. For 25 years, I avoided doing so. Initially, because I felt I needed to earn the shirt. And later, so not to look like a total piker. But this morning I wore my new shirt because it was one of the few green shirts in my wardrobe. Sure enough, I spilled boiling water on my leg minutes later while making coffee. Apart from a few minutes of cursing and a small blister, I was no worse for the wear. The run went fine, though I did switch from tights to shorts.

In other news, I was disappointed "Up in the Air" failed to gain the Oscar attention it deserved. I think that was in no small part due to this scene below having been deleted from the final edit. I know, this is really Facebook content, but I was reading the 2009 Boston Marathon results:

Build up Ride #2

Last Saturday I rode 100km for my first official Brevet Series training ride. Yesterday, I went out again. To more closely simulate battle* conditions, I started from Edwardsville and rode a portion of the 200km course in reverse. The weather was cold (but not as cold as some people made it out to be - sheesh, thin-blooded biathletes!), but not too bad. I rode out the MCT trail east before heading south on Marine Road toward New Baden. Once in New Baden, I rode further south to check out Mascoutah where my buddy Patrick resides. A nice little town, I'd say, and fairly accessible from the course (only a small stretch of Rte 177 to deal with). I turned around and headed back north. All together it was 85 miles on the fixed gear or a shade under 150km.

I'm pleased with the effort, the weather was cooperative with winds out of the southeast. Mechanically, the bike worked fine but the rear tire needs to be remounted because it has a flat spot. And I ought to lube the chain. Physically, it was what I might have expected. I was tired at times and I felt a little metabolic burn but no bonking. It was a steady effort thanks in part to a quartering wind that helped push me home. My shoulders and neck bothered me, but they always do early in the season.

Mentally, I tried to focus listening to my body rather than "pushing past" rest and stretching opportunities. I was helped in that regard by my dead computer. Because I wasn't obsessing over average pace, I was able to stretch out every hour or so. I also tried to cultivate positive mental imagery by concentrating on the scenery, the terrain and good thoughts and not the effort. I resolve to remove the "no pain, no gain" stream from my internal monologue. The first thing to go is the martial vocabulary; I'm not out to "do battle" or complete a "campaign" this season. Rather, I'm focusing on the memorable (good memorable) aspects of randonneuring.

San Juan Solstice

It does seem, as I contemplate another Springtime of traversing the featureless expanse of south central Illinois by bike, that there are certain, undeniable positives to trail ultras.

(photo credit, Blake Wood)

Skirting oxygen debt and the law

This is a closed trail. (Photo by Dennis McGlasson).

Went for a brevet training ride yesterday along the Riverfront Trail from my house to Alton, IL, and back. Though the computer on my fixed-gear is out, I know from previous experience it is approximately 100 km. All in all it went well, it was very hard near the turn-around point because of the wind. And again at the very end, riding toward my house, I thought I pulled my quad muscle. But I got the kilometers in and I pray the decent weather holds. Wind I don't mind, but I can't ride in ice or temps below 20 F.

The Riverfront Trail north of the Chain of Rocks Bridge has a comical, "closed" section. Not the part featured in the above photo which is on the Missouri side and now repaired. The section I'm referring to is north of Choteau Island. To my knowledge, it's "closed" more often than it's open. And for as long as this important north-south connector has been open it's been a rough, gravel trail. I have long since given up hopes they will ever pave it (like the other 80+ miles of the MCT network). I just wish they would stop randomly putting closed signs up. The dredging/fill operation going on on the side of trail has been underway for eight years; I doubt trail traffic is slowing progress that much. I just ignore the signs. But the Madison County Trail network is great recreational asset, it is too bad Illinois lacks the will or funds to really maintain it.

The Off-season is On!

Not much to report from Ultra Scott Central. I caught a cold at Christmas time and have been in low energy mode ever since.

Cold weather and general malaise have been the order of the day though I am starting to pull it together for the occasional run and short bike ride. I ran four or five hours a couple weeks ago in St. Charles and managed to get muddy and lost, but at least it was a good workout.

One positive of my layoff has been that it allowed me to start homebrewing again. I brewed a delightful pale ale shortly before the first of the year and have already consumed the whole batch. This past weekend I brewed a brown ale that I'm excited about. I do wonder if it had a high enough starting gravity, but if not, it'll just be a mild. I have been brewing with a partial mash - mashing a couple pounds of grain and adding extract.

But on the exercise front, I am hoping to get some riding in in the next few weeks to get ready for the Brevet series. Stephen invited me on a trail run Saturday, but I think if the weather is halfway decent, I should ride for a few hours instead. It's time I went out on the Riverfront Trail for windy, punishing ride. I'd like to do everything, but realistically I need to ride myself into shape this spring and use the summer to get ready for a trail ultra in the fall.