JBlog

Well, tomorrow is the big day.  It’s the reason I started running and I’ve been looking forward to it for several months now.  I went this past Wednesday to an open practice session for the lazy river, which is where the first part of the swim event takes place.  I had heard that it was easier to run through it that swim, but I was sure whoever had told me that was full of it.  Sure enough, when I jumped in and started swimming, two younger women ran right past me like it was nothing.  So … I developed a jump-dive technique that seems to work pretty well.  We’ll see how well it works tomorrow.  The flip turns are opposite of the way I’m used to doing them, so that will throw me off a little.  I’m hoping to be able to throw down about a 24 mph avg on the bike and finish the run in 15 minutes.  Hard target is top half of the age group.  Pipe dream is a top 20 overall win, which I know isn’t going to happen … but who knows.    Then it’s off to Wisconsin to watch Ben ski and spend some time with family.

The front hub on my commuter bike felt pretty loose yesterday morning before taking off for work. It seemed to have gotten worse by the time I got into the building. I met a fellow bike commuter on the elevator on the way upstairs and he took a look at it and was also convinced that my hub was loose and in need of some tightening. He cautioned me to stop riding it until it was fixed.

I had my wife come get me and the bike at around 11 or so and we went straight to Champaign Cycle to have my hub looked at. The mechanic took a look at it, wobbled the front wheel and proceed to tighten my loose quick release.

Ahhh … lessons in humility.

Tags: "bike repair", "quick release"

50.25 miles at 20.5 mph average. Got blown up at the town sign sprint going into Flatville, but was able to hang on for the ride until the fast group took off about 15 miles outside of Urbana. The group got really spread out then, but if I had to guess, I think I was probably one of the last in the top third, which isn’t too bad considering the fact that I’m still a noob.

epon took off with the fast group a few miles North of St. Joe. I did some work with a couple of other guys for a few miles, but they were faster than me, too, and they left me behind eventually. No one else caught up. Overall it was a good ride. It was pretty relaxed going out which left a lot in the tank for a spirited return to town.

Rode with the new Vittoria Rubino Pro Slicks and they felt pretty good. Also rode with the new Time Carbon RXE shoes. They solved the foot numbness problem and also allowed more power transfer to the pedal. Every little bit counts.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9447783

Tags: "group ride", "wednesday night fight"

Some time in February, I was in the process of buying a set of Cubs tickets at Wrigley Field that we could donate to the silent auction at Westview Grade School.  I was a little late in buying the tickets and couldn’t find any decent seats for weekend games, so Cindy decided that she would look for some.  It took her two minutes to locate a game with good seats and purchase the tickets, which was great, except that the home team for that game was the Washington Nationals.  They actually play their home games in Washington D.C., not at Wrigley Field in Chicago, so we had a set of 4 tickets to a stadium located a thousand miles away.

Fortunately, Cindy’s boss is located in the DC area, so we decided to make a business trip / vacation out of the mistake, which worked out nicely because her boss had a set of tickets for the same series two days later.

We were scheduled to leave for DC on Wednesday, July 15, but on Tuesday night, Cindy decided she needed to go and get herself a stomach flu.  Awesome.  The poor woman didn’t sleep a wink Tuesday night and had unimaginably painful stomach cramps, dry heaves and general sleeplessness.  I came home from work early Wednesday morning to begin packing for the trip, but Cindy had decided she would not be able to make the trip.  Though she encouraged me to go without her, I wasn’t about to do that alone.  Fortunately, her condition improved slightly and gradually and about an hour after I got back home, she was up doing little things here and there to test her ability to be mobile without feeling nauseous, so the plan to leave resumed and we both finished packing and were on the road by about 3:00.

The ride was uneventful.  She slept here and there on our way to the airport and once we were there she ate part of  some turkey wrap sandwich because she was starving.  After keeping that sandwich down, we were both feeling a lot better about our decision to make the trip.

For what it’s worth, the new Indianapolis airport is beautiful.  Very well organized and modern, brightly lit and easy to find your way around.  I recommend using it if you’re flying from anywhere within a couple hour drive of it.

Our approach to DC took us across the west end of the National Mall.  What an awe-inspiring site.  The approach goes directly over the Lincoln Memorial, putting the Washington Monument and the US Capitol Building right in line.  It kind of looks like this:

After landing, gathering luggage and getting a cab, we found our way to our hotel, the DoubleTree on Rhode Island.  Nice place, though I thought the woman checking us in was unnecessarily snooty.  Maybe they’re trained to treat their Priceline customers that way.  Who knows?

Cindy was in no mood to do anything but sleep, and understandably so, but I was feeling like checking out some local attractions, so I left her in bed and went downstairs to ask the concierge how to get to the Brickskeller Inn, which is a place that had been recommended to me by some friends.  English was not his first langauge, and his language was totally foreign to me, so there was some pretty bad miscommunication that had me walking in a big, two mile circle further from the place I wanted to go than I had been when I left the hotel.  That part of DC is pretty tourist-friendly, so I felt safe.  I also realized that my phone has a nifty GPS function complete with turn by turn directions.  After punching in the name of the place, my phone figured out where I was and how I should get to where I wanted to be and about 30 minutes later, I arrived here:

I had two very enjoyable beers there and a barleywine, which I didn’t care for so much, and then returned to the hotel.

Oh … I also passed by this place called the Urbana bar on the way to the Brickskeller. Made me feel right at home:

Didn’t sleep too well on Wednesday night. Neither of us slept well, actually, which really sucked for Cindy because she hadn’t slept at all the night before due to all of her cookie-tossin’. I chalk our sleeplessness up to the queen-sized bed and to the fact that I was stoked about having a nice road bike dropped off the following day. Sega, from bikestoborrow.com was going to swing by with a 62 cm steel frame road bike. That’s all I knew about it. I got out of bed at around 7:00 Thursday morning and went down to the hotel restaurant and had a cup of coffee. I really should have eaten breakfast, but I didn’t want to be late to meet Sega, even though I had 90 minutes to spare. So I sat in front of a TV in the restaurant, read a USA Today and drank a decent cup of coffee. He was supposed to stop by at around 8:30. At around 8:00 I went back upstairs and woke Cindy and tooled around on the Internet for a bit before heading downstairs at 8:30.

I was kind of expecting him to roll by in a car or truck with a bike rack, but this dude was ghost-riding the bike he was going to rent to me in DC’s rush hour traffic. I mean … that’s got to take some stones. More on riding in the DC traffic in a bit. Sega pulled in to the half-circle drive in front of the hotel with the bike, a Gunnar, and I’ll be honest … I was stunned at the beauty of this bicycle. It looked like a bowling ball finish or something. It was all red and black and swirly and was just awesome.

So at around 9:30 or 10:00, and after reassurances to Sega that I would be good to his bike, I was off to explore DC and the surrounding area. First I’ll say that I was pretty nervous about riding in metropolitan traffic, but I quickly discovered that I could keep pace with it as it’s rare for heavy traffic to get moving more than 20 mph in the city. So it really wasn’t all that bad. One big hauling truck buzzed me pretty close on my way down to the National Mall, but every other driver seemed very aware and conscientious.

My first stop was the Washington Monument. There was a lady walking by who noticed me taking pictures of my bike and figured she’d ask if I wanted to pose for a picture.

I made my way down the mall and almost passed on going to the WWII monument, but it was under the construction the last time I went so I decided to see it after all. I’m glad I did. The monument inspired awe and an appreciation for the sacrifices made by a few for the many.

I made my way west on the mall and rode past the Lincoln Memorial, eventually finding my way to the Mount Vernon trail, which was the trail I wanted to take to, of all places, Mount Vernon. It was a very nice ride that took me past the airport (and directly under the approach to one of the runways), through Old Alexandria and along Mount Vernon Parkway through the woods. It was a shared trail, so there were runners, walkers and other bikers, so caution was a must, but it was a good ride. I wouldn’t call it a fitness ride at all. It was a mostly slow pedal that was very enjoyable. Kind of hilly in places, but not too bad. I stopped along the way for a picture and now wish I would have taken a few more.

I had plenty of water with me, which was good, but I was really starting to get hungry about 5 miles out from Mount Vernon. I asked another cyclist if he knew of any good places to eat and he assured me there was a place with outdoor seating up the trail a bit and that I could find food at Mount Vernon. I passed the place with outdoor seating about three miles outside of Mount Vernon but the seating was all in direct sunlight, so I figured I would just ride on to Mount Vernon, whereupon I discovered that all of the eating occurred inside, which was not good because I had no locks with me. I decided I would go back to the place three miles back, but even though I thought I was keeping a careful eye out for it, I missed it somehow.

I was pretty hungry upon rolling back in to Alexandria and set out to find a place to eat. I found that place on the North side of Old Town in the Torpedo Art Center. Or something. Anyway, it was called the Chart House Restaurant and it was a very good lunch with a great view of the Potomac, nestled in a small marina.

I had some cream of crab soup, a spinach salad with warm bacon dressing and a lobster grilled cheese sandwich. Good eats all in all. I took a few pics of the bike’s paint finish while I was there. I was able to eat outside at this place and kept my bike at the table.

I was off again about an hour after I arrived and had an uneventful ride back into the city. I was passed by a roadie once and kept up with him for about a mile but backed off after a bit. Also biked next to a recumbent rider with a lot of tattoos, which was odd. You usually see old men and neo-hippies on those things.

I rode around the mall once again and up 17th street, down Pennsylvania, where a couple of nice ladies offered to take a pic of me in front of the White House.

I’m really digging this Garmin Connect stuff. Here‘s a log of my cycling activities from the trip.

After the visit to the White House I rode back to the hotel and waited for Cindy to get back from work. We planned to meet friends at the Cubs game, which started at 7:05. We took the Metro to Nationals Field and met Jeremy and Sarah shortly before the game began. I had an eight dollar chili dog, a $5 cup of way-too-sweet sweet tea and some fries while we watched the Cubs sneak by the Nats in game 1 of a 4 game series.

There were also some nice views from the stadium. How many other ballparks give you a view of two of the most recognizable buildings in the world?

After the game, we decided to head to this place called Marvin at 14th and U, and after viewing the mass of hot, sweaty people crowding around the entrance to the subway, we all decided we’d try to cram our hot, sweaty selves into a DC taxi cab. After about 20 minutes, we finally found a cabbie who would pull over to pick us up, and so began our trip to our next destination. We were loud and obnoxious and the cab driver was apparently not in the mood for loud and obnoxious, but we all made it to Marvin, where we entered another hot, sweaty mass of people, one of which was enthusiastically dancing and causing various people to spill overpriced drinks. After one round, and noticing that the hour was getting late, we all decided to head back to our respective domiciles, so Cindy and I headed back to the Doubletree and everyone else went wherever it was that they went.

After another night of tossing and turning in the dinky bed, I was up at 7:30 or so and ready to have some breakfast. So I went downstairs and instead of sitting in front of the TV with coffee, I opted for the breakfast buffet, which was pretty good. Had some oatmeal, bacon, scrambled eggs, grits and coffee and went back upstairs to get the bike ready to go. It was due back at Revolution Cycles at 11:00, which is where Sega ran his rental business out of. Before heading back to the shop, I wanted to get a little riding in, so I hit the Mall again and have a couple more photo ops with the Gunnar in front of some very recognizable buildings.

I left the Mall and trekked up Rock Creek Trail, a very nice, hilly and windy trail that goes through the National Zoo and beyond. Unfortunately it was starting to get pretty late by the time I got to the zoo, so I had to turn around and head to Georgetown, which is where the bike shop was located. After turning the bike in, I visited the Bicycle Pro Shop and then went back to Revolution Cycles again to shop around and bought a cool pair of biking socks.

So my biking was done. I decided to walk back to the hotel and on the way happened across another bike shop, Cycle Life USA. This shop was unlike any other I have visited. Very new, very clean and had a broad selection of bikes to choose from including Felt and Look, two brands I’d never seen in a shop. They’re mechanic area was big and brightly lit and there was a corner of the shop dedicated to bike fittings. There was also a smoothie cafe in the shop. It was a very cool place and I spent 30 minutes there wasting time.

After leaving the shop, I continued down K Street, crossed Rock Creek back into downtown DC and was about 6 blocks from the hotel when Cindy called, saying she was done with work. She wanted me to come and meet her at the office she was working at and it was only 3 or 4 blocks away, so I diverted my course slightly and started walking toward the Verizon Building. I met a few of the people she worked with on occasion and then we were on our way back to the hotel after her occasional coworkers recommended a lunch spot for us.

We were in the hotel for long enough to have a change of clothes, then out the door to Oyamel after stopping by the front desk to beg them for a room with a bigger bed. I guess the guy at pity on us because he found a room with a king bed in it and put us there. Me, being the paranoid IT guy that I am, wanted to make sure our laptops made it to the new room, so I accompanied the bell hop with all of our luggage so I could make sure they were safely stored. I felt like an untrusting jerk, but I’ve seen laptops get “misplaced” in room transitions, so I wanted to be careful.

We were soon on our way to Oyamel. This was, quite simply, one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Oyamel is a tapas bar, so none of the dishes are very big, but the ones we had were all very good. Cindy and I split their house margarita, the Oyamel, which had on it some type of salt froth as opposed to a salt rim. It was an outstanding drink. The salsa was good, but certainly not as good as the salsa at Fiesta Cafe (in my humble opinion.) Our waitress, Ivana, prepared fresh guacamole for us tableside and it was extraordinary. Then Cindy and I split an order of Ceviche de atun Pacifico, which was OK. We also ordered Arrachera con salsa molcajeta y nopales escabeche, a skirt steak that was very good, and Cayo de hacha con pipián de chile pasilla, a seared scallop dish. I had a beef tongue taco and we washed all of it down with a pitcher of margaritas.

With that meal down, we were off to see more of DC. The International Spy Museum was close by, so we stopped by their gift shop. Cindy was kind enough to pose with a T-Shirt.

I snapped a few more pictures of Cindy, which I think ended up get her annoyed, as can be seen in this pictures:

We walked by one of my all time favorite restaurants, Fogo de Chao. I felt compelled to pose next to the sign for a picture.

We also walked past a bunch of really cool looking bikes and I was kind of shutter buggy, so I snapped a lot of pictures of bikes. Here are some of the cooler ones I saw:

The practice of photographing bicycles was also highly annoying to Cindy. Just for reference, I’ll post another picture of her highly annoyed pose:

We were back in the new and improved and severely upgraded king size hotel room by 4 or 5 o’clock and then just kind of lounged around for a few hours. I’m sure there was something on TV, but I don’t really remember what it was. I think Ocean’s 13 was on at some point. We left for dinner at 8ish, but Cindy thinks the ceviche upset her stomach and we decided to leave shortly after our pizza showed up.

Saturday morning we woke up and I walked to a Starbucks a few blocks away for some coffee and scones. More time was spent lounging, then we took a cab to Good Stuff Eatery to meet Brandon, Pete and Janine for lunch. Good Stuff is a place owned by some dude that goes by “Spike” and was on Top Chef recently from what I understand. It was OK, but a little bit of a letdown, although the shakes were very, very good. Pete was kind enough to give us a ride back to the hotel, where we lounged again for a couple of hours. We finally left again to head to Gordon and Biersch, a chain brew pub. The beer was, again, OK, but nothing spectacular. Pete and Janine met us there and then we were off to the game. This time we walked around the side of the stadium along the 3rd base line and came across valet parking for bicycles. Hadn’t seen that at a stadium before. It was sponsored by that trendy bike shop I had seen Friday morning, Cycle Life USA.

There were some cool looking bikes in the valet, including this fixie:

Finally, at the game, we found someone willing to take our group picture.

Cubs won both games, Cindy had a good presentation with some clients, I had a great bike ride and we all had a very nice time. Washington DC is one of my favorite places to visit. I’m looking forward to my next trip!

Ben gets up on his first try in July 2009

And … Ben wipes out after a couple of passes around the lake

Tags: Ben, Skiing, Wisconsin

Skipped the Wild Card ride tonight and opted to go for a less intense but still spirited spin with epon instead. We killed it a little bit heading out and he showed me some of the finer points of riding in an echelon with two people. Bike handling still needs work, but it’s improving every time I ride.

Tonight’s ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7846643

And some pics …

I was riding with my son to swim practice this evening down a one way, two lane road. It’s usually pretty free of traffic this time of night, but one of the sections of road we passed a cop had pulled someone over on the right side of the road and there was a tree cutting truck to the far left side of the road, so a short bottleneck built up behind us.

I always try to ride a straight line and since the parking lane was clear I had my son next to me in it (and out of traffic.) I felt OK doing this because there were no cars parked there for blocks.

I held my line for about a block and cars behind me began to honk, so I thought I would be polite and pulled into the parking lane a little – the car behind me would not pass. So I pulled a little further to the right and finally he went roaring by me, engine yelling and everything.

Turns out this guy lived on the same road we were traveling on and decided he would wait for me and my son to roll by about a minute after he pulled into his driveway. When we passed his house, he beckoned me over to the curb and began to tell me how stupid I was for riding in the middle of the road and for not riding single file.

I kept trying to interject and finally asked him if he was going to allow me to speak, which he did. I informed him that I was riding in the right lane “as far to the right as practicable” and that riders were indeed allowed to ride two abreast. Also told him he should polish up on his rules the next time he decided to confront someone about them.

My preference is always to be right in the thick of traffic because I feel like I’m much more visible there, but after I thought about it, I thought that maybe I could have used the parking lane since it was empty for several blocks ahead of me. I’ve just kind of forced myself to think and act like a vehicle since I began commuting, though, and it didn’t occur to me at the time that maybe I should use the parking lane if it’s empty.  Not really sure what I’m going to do in the future yet.  I still think the traffic lane is the safest place to be.