JBlog

GROSS

I don’t know what else to say.

It was a short ride. New high avg speed of 21.5 mph, which was cool. But … GROSS

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/14158703

Tags: "group ride", soybean aphid, Wild Card

So that’s what they are! They’ve been driving me nuts on my bike rides. I’m covered in hundreds of them by the time I finish my three mile commute home. Here’s the story by Phil Nixon:

Soybean Aphid Migration Obvious byPhil Nixon,

Large numbers of “gnats” in the air in northern and central Illinois are probably soybean aphids. High infestations are present this year as far south as Interstate 70. Close examination will reveal a one-sixteenth inch long insect with a translucent green abdomen, black head and thorax, black antennae, and large oval transparent wings.

When aphids land on something, they probe it with their sucking mouthparts to see if it is good to eat. People with sensitive skin may feel a slight prick, but it is unlikely to leave a mark. Others are unlikely to feel anything at all.

These insects are migrating from soybean to buckthorn to lay eggs for the winter. Although this migration occurs over a six-week period, heavy migration typically lasts for one to two weeks. Control efforts against these winged migrants are not practical, nor recommended.

Soybean aphids pass through 15-18 generations during the summer on soybean, where they feed on the sap of the soybean plant. They live on the leaflet undersides as similar-sized, yellow to cream insects. At the end of summer, they migrate to buckthorn. Buckthorn, Rhamnus spp., is a glossy-leaved, thorny shrub common along the edge of forests and in disturbed areas such as fencerows and along streams. On buckthorn, these migrants give birth to another generation of females that mate with arriving, winged males. They then lay overwintering eggs on buckthorn. These eggs will hatch in the spring, the aphids will complete a couple of generations on buckthorn, and then fly to soybean for the summer.

Tags: soybean aphids

So my phone has this slideout keyboard, right? Right. It’s great for texting, emailing … anything that involves having to type a lot. Well about 6 months ago, it started throwing random letters on the screen when I’d hit a key. Like 6-8 characters of rubbish. Sometimes it would bring up the start menu, open some random application or send a text message while I was in the middle of typing it.

It’s an intermittent problem. Sometimes I can go days without having it happen and other times it happens several times in one day. So I brought it back to the Sprint store today to have it replaced. I figure I may as well get my money’s worth for the $7 per month insurance charge.

The girl at the front desk takes my phone, brings it back to their “tech” and he brings it back out several minutes later and says he can’t get the problem to happen. Well … no kidding. It’s an INTERMITTENT problem. I can’t stop what I’m doing it and bring it in to the store when it randomly happens, but I use my phone a LOT for work email and it’s become a huge pain when the problem occurs.

Obviously, they try to get me to upgrade my phone since I’m close to the end of my contract, but I don’t want a new phone. THIS ONE WORKS JUST FINE except for that one problem.

They say they can’t do anything for me since they can’t verify that there’s actually a problem.

Looks like I’m switching to AT&T on 11/3, when my contract expires.

Thanks a lot, Sprint. I’ve bought two $400+ phones from them over the past 4 years, have had a plan that’s run me close to 100 bones per month and they’re obviously not too interested in keeping me as a customer.

Tags: cell phone, Sprint

Wasn’t much of a fight for most of the ride. It was a pretty casual pace until somewhere between St. Joseph and Urbana on the return trip. Somewhere around Tipton, Luke decided to pull out and drag the pack of about 12 riders back to town. My relative inexperience caused me to fall off the back as I dealt with freshly mowed grass clippings on the road and tiring legs. I tried to get on the back of the pack but they were too far ahead.

Kelly, Dan and I were the first to be dropped. Kelly really didn’t stand a chance but Dan gave it a valiant effort and passed me once, getting probably 20 feet ahead, but then I dug down and dropped him in pursuit of the pack. I think the aerobars help quite a bit as it took the pack longer than usual to disappear over the horizon. Squirrelly Klein guy got dropped by the pack, too, and I blew by him about two miles after I got dropped, putting quite a bit of distance between us.

epon and another Wild Card rider were visible and it appeared I was making up some distance between us. Really threw down a lot of effort trying to catch up and I think I probably got to within 200 yards at one point, but they’re both pretty strong riders and eventually outlasted me. Any chance of catching up to them was gone after a good two minute wait to cross Rt. 130 coming back into Urbana. They never completely faded from my view and the big hill leading down toward Lincoln Ave helped me close the gap slightly, but I never did catch up to them. Got stopped at a traffic light as I crossed Rt. 45 and really let up after that, coasting back toward Burwash Park.

Apparently, Squirrelly Klein guy never gave up, because shortly after I got on to Regent Drive, he passed me in a tornado of last-ditch effort to get to the park before me. Well, I couldn’t have that, so I popped up a few gears, stood on the pedals and coasted by him with relatively little effort. epon was just emerging from the park for his ride home, so we rode together for a mile or so until I turned off on Galen Drive to head North.

All in all it was a nice, relatively relaxing ride, and the end of it gave me an opportunity to put in some strong solo efforts, so I was pleased even though my average speed was pretty disappointing.

No chest pains at all, which was a relief, because I did put in some pretty significant sustained efforts on the return trip.

Tags: "group ride", aero bars, chest pain, Hammerfest, St. Joseph, Wild Card

Olympic distance triathlon in Neoga, IL.  The swim was in Lake Mattoon and was my first real experience in an open water swim of any distance.  The biggest lesson learned in the swim was that I need clear, fog-free goggles for open water swims.  It was very difficult to spot the pylons, even though they were all traffic-cone orange and rose 10 feet out of the water.  I had to tread water once to clear them and swam a lot of breaststroke to make it easier to spot.  The poor vision really hurt my overall swim as I place 20th in the swim.

The cycling is getting better.  I think I placed 20th overall there.  Just about had a 21 mph average, which isn’t too bad for a solo effort of 25 miles.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12646399

My goal for the run was to finish it without walking, and while I did do that, I was pretty disappointed in my average speed of over 9 minutes per mile.  I think my run ranked in the 40s.  There were, I think, over 80 triathletes competing in the Olympic distance.

It was great to see an old friend there, Jon Beck.  It’s been close to 20 years since the last time I saw him.  He did the half-Ironman aquabike event and did well there.  I think he was one of the first 10 swimmers out of the water.  He also told me about the Last Chance Triathlon in Rend Lake on October 4, a sprint, and I think I’m going to do that one.

I finished this one 25th overall and 3rd in my age group and was awarded another two foot tall trophy.  I’m not unhappy with my overall result but hope that my run will make some drastic improvements over the next year.

Had a bit of chest pain all through the run, but it went away pretty quickly after I stopped running.

Tags: Great Illini Challenge, Lake Mattoon, Neoga

I’m actually getting pretty good at this.  I’m not talking about the Michael Douglas Falling Down movie, by the way.  I’m talking about the literal act of falling down – or falling over in my case.

Apparently, I’m still somewhere south of the top of the learning curve when it comes to riding with clipless pedals.  I’ve never really wiped out.  Each time I’ve had a mishap I’ve just slowly fallen over.  For me, the amount of time that passes between realizing I’m falling to making contact with the ground takes an eternity.  Maybe it looks that way to passersby, too.  Or maybe it looks like it happens fast to a third party.

Today’s failure in mainting verticality came when I was attempting to negotiate a sharp turn.  I slowed and must have turned too sharply, because the bike lost all of its momentum and I began the slow process of losing my battle with gravity.  Down I went.  I would imagine the sight was something akin to a horse falling from a chair into a ditch – all angular and thrashing, flailing knees and elbows working desperately against the empty air to gain a hold of something in an attempt to stay upright.  Of course, after falling and landing on my left side, my right foot was still clipped in, and not wanting to be on my side for any longer than was necessary, I began to try to free my still-engaged right foot from its bindings.  After a seconds-long series of odd, jerky gyrations, I finally managed to free myself and picked up the bike.

Of course, this happened right in front of my office building – and between classes, no less – so no fewer than 582 people were treated to this visual display of failure.

My thigh has a minor scrape, as does my ankle, and one of the sides of my V-Brakes needed readjustment, but other than that and a bruised ego, your author is unharmed.

Tags: clipless pedals, falling over

Same ride as last Wednesday with a somewhat smaller group.  The whole group stayed together until well after we crossed Rt 130 heading back into Urbana, when the pace picked up and I decided to take it easy.  I think I could have kept up but didn’t want to push it with the Great Illini Challenge coming up this weekend in Neoga.

46.7 miles and a 20.8 mph avg. I could have been over 21 for the first time had I hammered with the rest of the pack, but I’ll have time to get that 21. Hopefully that can happen this weekend in the triathlon now that I’m set up to be a little more aerodynamic. Doubtful, but we’ll see. There’s a chance of rain this weekend in Mattoon. It’ll really suck if that happens.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12461580

Had no chest pain tonight.

Tags: "group ride", chest pain, Hammerfest, homer, sidney, wednesday fight night