Finally some nice weather!

It has been a rotten June and start to July! It's rain almost every day, many with thunderstorms. So finally this Saturday (July 4 20009) it was gorgeous (well it was windy but I'll take it anyway), sunny and mid-70's. We rode from Cranbury to Brielle. I was tired of visiting the Pine Barrens and we hadn't been down the shore this year. Technically we weren't down the shore yet as the shore traffic is dangerous once the summer season opens and we weren't going to play in that kind of traffic. Anyway, Mark and I decided to keep it short and not do a century as neither of us had been on the bike since the Longest Day ride (206.5 miles @ 17.5 mph avg). We also decided not to bust it like we usually try to do. When we hit the Manasquann rails-to-trails path it was full of tons of people (it's very popular). We had to be careful as there we lots of kids and dogs. There were several large groups of non-club cyclists who were all over the place. made the ride interesting but like I said we weren't busting it so no big deal. Our return ride was just as interesting the trail traffic was still busy as it was the first nice day in over a month and the 4th of July weekend. For Mark and myself we had to do battle with a head wind. Summer winds in NJ are generally out of the West when it's warm and this was no exception. The difference here was that it was quite strong. I probably should have gone to Ringo but I need to hit a bike shop and Brielle Cyclery is one of the best. Overall it was an excellent ride.

On the subject of Brielle Cyclery, I must say it's really is one of the best shops I've been to. I needed a new cluster as I had worn out the current one. I also thought I needed a new front ring as the chain was shot and I had ignored it since early June. I put the chain on two months earlier and I must have put on a lot more miles than I thought as I wore out a new chain and a rear tire (also put on with the chain). Anyway the gentleman from the shop took a look at my bike (outside) while the place was packed and busy. He told me just the chain and cluster would need replacing. He could have sold me the ring but told me I didn't need it. He said they probably last a lot longer than I thought. He was very polite and helpful. We spoke of the saddle as he's a Brooks user too. and the radical setup I have (nose down, handle bars lower than the nose). I told him it was very comfortable for me (yes it's weird). Brielle will be getting a lot more of my business in the future.

Leading up to the CJBC's Longest Day ride

The last few weeks have been interesting. Last year, around this time I was dealing with leg problems that were scary. I was pushing a pace of around 18.3 mph over 120 miles (a flat route). By about mile 110 I could no longer push up an over pass (South Jersey mountains ;-). I had no strength at all. I'm not talking about the lack of snap you may have towards the end of a long ride, I mean had nothing! At the start of the month I had a little scare on a century training ride when I managed to keep pace until mile 90. I had been off the bike for two weeks and played catch up just days before. This year my scare turned out to be rather minor. It was my diet, I bonked. Since then I've been pushing the pace and chasing cyclists late in our long rides (phew!).

Last week my friends (Gina and Mark) and I rode from Cranbury to Batsto then Tabernacle and home again. It was a nasty ride. Gina's tires were low for the first 40 miles so she was beat up. It was warm and windy. So windy that we had yellow/green fog (pollen) in the Barrens (great for making it difficult to breath). I was hot but we couldn't tell because of the wind and as usual it was humid in the Barrens. The Chatsworth to Batsto section (20 miles) was into a decent head wind. Then the ride back up Rt 206 from Hammington to Taberbacle was just plain nasty (too much traffic and high speed). The only good thing to come out of the ride was that we checked a good portion of the Longest Day route route, we determined that Rt 206 is no longer an option for this ride and that it was a great training ride. It was great for training because it was a ride from hell, we survived and we we experienced everything one would expect on the Longest Day ride. Oh and most importantly, we survived.

I am an odd individual

Today I came to an odd realization. I am an odd individual. I Work in a place with lots of brilliant people but few have an interest in the curriculum they took in school. Is this what lone inventors and mad scientist feel like? Yes I have a lab at home and yes I build experiments. I've asked my colleagues and none of them have any interest in conducting experiments. Maybe it's because my they have families or that they really weren't that interested in what they took in school, I don't know. I do know that it makes me somewhat lonely individual when it comes to having others to share my ideas with in a face to face manner. I have no one to bounce ideas off, argue with or share discussions with. I know I have the Internet and there are chat rooms, forums and newsgroup but sometimes you just need to have whiteboard discussion face to face.

Of course, this feeling sorry for myself maybe due to the fact that I'm stressed and exhausted from school, work and the economy. But they will each resolve themselves in time. :-) Now if I can just get the weather to cooperate I'll be able to get out and ride a few centuries (100 miles).

It's February and that's not a bad commute

On Tuesday (Feb 17) I rode to work. Unfortunately it was on my older Trek 1100. My nice Giant TCR3 snapped a cable. Odd, I've put a lot of miles on my other bikes and not broken a cable this soon (2 years, about +10K miles). Right now the cable end is stuck in the STI but the STI is still working. I'll take the STI off the bike and put new cables on the bikes (brake and shifter). The Trek needs a bit of work too as it's not shifting as smoothly as it should but it worked well enough for a ride back and forth to work. I was going to leave before dawn (around 5 AM) that way I could use my new lights. But I ran into some problems and need to do a little work to the Trek before I could leave. So I postponed my ride until later and stay at work until 9PM. So I got to use my lights anyway. I was really surprised at the level of traffic at that time of night (it was lot). The good news was that I was well lit (two read blinking on my Camelbak and the Niterider MiNewt,X2 Dual on the front). Oddly enough it was easier to climb in the dark because I really couldn't see the top of the climbs. The ride in was sunny but it was a bit colder than I had dressed for so my chest was cold for the entire ride. On the way home I dressed more appropriately. I thought I might have been a bit too warm but as the temperatures continued to drop (22F when I arrived home) it wasn't a problem. I'll do it again next week but I'm hoping that I'll have the Giant this time. It looks like I'll only be able to squeeze in a single day of commuting as the weather doesn't look to cooperating.

I was going to go out and ride tonight but the wind is howling and I'll have more than the 10% increase for the week. So I'll just stay warm indoors tonight. ;-)

A few places to visit

In a few weeks my bike rides will start to stretch out the mileage so I can start training for the Longest Day (and possibly a new Princeton Freewheeler Double Century ride). In the mean time I still need to lead winter rides, a time for building a base. My friend Mark suggested that I keep it to less than 50 miles as I hadn't been riding for the last three weeks, I just got over the flu and my chest is pretty much congested. So I came up with a Mid-Winter's Ride (54 miles). It includes sections I normally do when I do lunch time rides or late night rides. Seeing how I'm going to start commuting to work I won't get much time for those and still get what I need to do for the day. I chose the route just so I can visit some different places. Now I probably should have listened to Mark's advice on the ride length but I wanted to ride. I knew it would push me past my limits (0 miles for the past 3 weeks, a jump to 80+ miles this week, and not so good lungs). Every thing felt fine until the last few miles where my lungs were sore (that's not good). It didn't help that my cable snapped for my rear derailleur (early in the ride) and I was stuck with a two speed. Still it was a nice ride and my lungs feel much better today (as long as I don't laugh ;-).

The weather for the week looks like I'll be able to commute to work on Tuesday (20 miles each way) but I'll probably only be able to do a late night ride on Thursday night. Next Saturday looks to be more of the same , cold, possible snow. I may plan out a metric but I'm not sure. If I can't lead Saturday I'll do another group ride on Sunday. Possibly ride to and from the group ride to get my additional miles. So next week I hope to have more than 100 miles for the week. Not bad for February! :-)