One General Weblog

New blog!

2006-11-10T12:56:00.000-05:00

I moved my blog (again) -- this time to http://www.apertome.com/blog/

It's still in progress, but I'm considering it launched. Please update your links. Thanks!

Rainy night ride

2006-10-26T18:15:00.000-05:00

I rode at Brown County last night. It wasn't supposed to rain, but as I was on my way there, it started to sprinkle. I debated whether to drive the rest of the way there, and decided that it didn't look like it was going to rain too much, so I kept going.

I was running a bit behind schedule, so when I got there, I only stretched for a couple of minutes before I left. I started my ride around 6:15 pm. I had put a flashlight on my helmet the night before in anticipation of a night ride, using the Velcro Zip Tie method devised by Sarah. I will make a post explaining that soon.

Anyway, I rode a bit, and came across a guy who was going in the other direction. He pulled of the trail to let me by, since I was climbing and had the right of way. I noticed he was sort of snickering at me, and I couldn't figure out why until I realized he was looking at the flashlight strapped to my helmet.

Once I got a little further, it started raining. Fortunately, there were enough leaves left on the trees that they still shielded me from the rain a bit. It wasn't raining too hard, and I just kept going.

I rode the Aynes Loop first. I wanted to ride both it and the North Tower Loop, but I knew it would get dark partway through my ride, and I didn't feel ready to ride the Aynes Loop at night. I rode the Aynes pretty quickly, with this in mind. I did turn on my light before I finished the loop, although I would have been OK without it.

By the time I finished the Aynes Loop and got back to the North Tower Loop, it was pretty dark. I hadn't put the other light on my handlebars, so I stopped to do that. I need to find a better way of attaching it, but so far, putting it on my GPS mount and using more of the Velcro Zip Ties seems to work pretty well. The only real problem is that the GPS mount is angled back a bit so I can see the GPS screen -- far enough back that the flashlight ends up pointing up instead of at the ground in front of me. I think I could angle it down more and still have it work with the GPS. I'll try that next time.

I did pretty well on the North Tower Loop. I was riding it "backwards" and in the dark, and I kept a pretty good pace. I wasn't going fast, but there are limits to how fast you can go when you can't see too well.

At one point, I was riding along, and a bunny hopped onto the trail a bit in front of me. As I got closer, he saw me coming and hopped further down the trail. Then, he stopped and looked back at me, and hopped further -- he repeated this a few times, sticking with me for maybe a couple hundred yards.

I kept going, and things started getting kind of creepy. After dark, there are a lot fewer people at Brown County, so it gets a lot quieter, and you can hear every little sound an animal makes. In fact, it was so quiet that I could hear the wind rushing past my ears. Sometimes, I'd hear sticks breaking or the ruffling of some leaves as some kind of animal moved around. At times, a leaf would get stuck between my bike frame and my rear tire and make some noise, alleviating some of the creepiness.

I stopped to look around a bit, and I saw this pair of glowing green eyes staring back at me. I made some noise, which started the animal. It was a deer, but all I could really see were its eyes, and when it moved, its tail. As I rode some more, I started noticing lots of pairs of eyes, glowing exactly like that -- and every time I looked at them, they were staring back at me. Those deer were pretty curious about what I was doing. I love seeing deer, but it was definitely pretty eerie under the circumstances.

After I rode a bit further, I got to this point where I couldn't make out all the details on the ground (rocks, leaves, sticks, cracks, etc), so it ended up looking like a smooth surface. It seemed like I was just gliding over it, almost like I was floating. In fact, I got in "the zone", even though I couldn't see much and wasn't going that fast, and I was taking curves and dips and climbs very smoothly. I wasn't moving myself on the bicycle anymore, I was moving the bike beneath me to fit the contour of the trail.

Running into an old friend; Foliage peak

2006-10-23T21:21:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, I rode at Nebo Ridge. The leaves are finally reaching their peak colors; even a week before, things weren't nearly as colorful. I wanted to ride Nebo since I didn't get to in the Epic last weekend. The guys who rode 52 miles did. I was also determined to ride out and back on the trail, instead of taking the Combs Rd. alternate route back.

Climbing the first hill was really hard, as always, but I didn't take much of a break, and was doing great after that. A few spots were a little muddy, but for the most part, it was pretty dry. There were several other bikers on the trail -- I didn't see any horseback riders or hunters.

Anyway, I was riding along through the doubletrack section and moved over as I passed some guys who were going the other way. I didn't think much of it, but after I passed the first one, I heard "Michael?" I was pretty surprised -- there are a lot of people who I kind of know from riding a lot, but for the most part, they wouldn't know my name. At first, I thought it might be DJ, but I turned around and it definitely wasn't. He was like "Do you know who I am?" I tried to figure it out, but couldn't.

Then he took off his helmet and I immediately recognized him as John, a close friend who I've known forever but hadn't seen in about 8 years -- or at least, that's what he said. I think I might've seen him a little bit more recently than that. Sarah later pointed out that John is pretty much my oldest friend -- I've known him since before I moved to Bloomington, and I didn't really keep in touch with anyone from Northbrook, where I lived before. (It's funny I say that, because after not seeing John for 8 years, it's hard to say I've kept in touch, but it sure doesn't feel like it's been that long!)

I met John a few months before I moved to Bloomington, which was in 6th grade (probably 1992). I was from suburban Chicago, pretty much a city boy. My dad had been down in Bloomington checking out schools and whatnot before the rest of us came here and had met John's family at church. John has a brother, Jim, and two sisters, Janice and Mary. They lived out in the country.

I arrived at John's house for the first time to find all the kids running around out in the woods, barefoot, swinging on a vine and generally being rowdy. I had never seen anything like this! John was pretty rough on Jim, probably hitting him a few times. At one point, John and Jim both swung on the vine across a small ravine, but it couldn't hold both of them and broke, sending them tumbling to the ground. They got up and didn't skip a beat.

All of this was completely overwhelming to me, and of course, this being my first impression, I figured all of Indiana must be like this. I was wrong about that part, but after we moved, it didn't take long for me, the city slicker, to adapt to my new surroundings. Soon, I was romping through woods myself, some at the end of my street, in fact -- although I preferred to keep my shoes on. I would say that my friendship with John played a big part in becoming better at hiking, exploring, etc.

The last time I had seen John, he wasn't doing too well. I don't want to go into detail, but his life was pretty messed up at that time, and I was concerned about him. I knew he had thought about joining the Air Force, but had no idea if that ever happened. I had been wondering if he got his act together.

So it was a complete surprise for me to run into him at Nebo Ridge. I'd never known him to do much bicycling, either, although I can't say it surprises me to find him mountain biking. It turns out that John is living in Lafayette now, has a daughter, and is in school for something business-related. That's pretty much all I learned in the brief time I talked to him, but he said he'll be in town again in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, we can catch up more then. It was cool to see him, and things seem to be going a lot better for him now, which I am very glad to see.

Anyway, after I talked to John, I rode to the end of Nebo Ridge. There's a huge hill at the very end that I didn't ride down, because I didn't see the point in riding down, only to have to turn around and ride back up. I messed around with Sarah's old camera for a few minutes before I turned around.

Foliage at the end of the Nebo Ridge trail

I accidentally snapped photos a few times when trying to set up a shot of myself. Also notice the ridiculousness done to my hair by the vents in my helmet.

Trees casting shadows on fallen leaves

Distinguished.

The bike

Foliage and shadows

After that, I turned around and rode back. Nebo is a bit different in the other direction. Some parts are easier, and some are harder. There were a few more hills I had to walk up on the way back, even though I was doing particularly well at climbing, even with a bunch of rocks in the way at times. I did, however, have some shifting problems that were plaguing me. Pretty much the same problems I've had for a while -- ugh!

All in all, I rode about 16 miles at Nebo Ridge, averaging 6 mph. That's pretty good for me.

On Sunday, I rode the North Tower Loop and Hesitation Point trails at Brown County. It was pretty damn cold outside, maybe in the lower 40s, and fairly windy. I was freezing before I started riding. Fortunately, once I'd gone a ways, I started warming up. By the end of the ride I was actually hot, and I just wore my long-sleeved jersey, shorts, and knee warmers. I thought at first I'd need another layer, but that turned out not to be the case.

The North Tower Loop was pretty easy, as usual, and I rode it fairly quickly. I practiced shifting my weight and putting pressure on the outside pedal in turns to try to maximize traction. I rode a bit faster than usual, probably, but still didn't go super fast most of the time.

After that, I debated whether to ride the Aynes Loop or Hesitation Point, and decided to go with Hesitation Point. I need more practice on HP, and it has the benefit of that spectacular view at the top. I took some more photos along the way.

Part of the Hesitation Point trail

A particularly difficult switchback on HP. Harder than it looks in this photo, and it's hard to tell here how tight the turn is and how if you tried to turn too wide, you'd fall right down the ravine.

I did pretty well on the bulk of HP, but once again got rather frustrated once I got to the new part of the trail. First of all, it was a bit wet compared to the rest of the trail, which I think is only normal for such a new trail. Also, some of the bench cut seems to me to be angled down a bit too much, so sometimes I feel afraid that I'll slide off the hill sideways. I really need to build up my confidence; I know that in reality, that's not going to happen, but it is nerve-wracking.

I started to notice that if I kept my speed up, I could clear a lot of the obstacles on the new section a lot easier. However, keeping your speed up isn't always easy, as you are climbing the whole way, and if you make one mistake and have to stop, it's really difficult to get going again. I did the best I've ever done on this part of the trail, but still had considerable trouble.

There are some things I think I may never be able to clear.

You want me to do WHAT?!? This isn't even the hardest-looking rock garden there ...

I made it to the top, to be greeted with this view!

Hesitation Point in all its glory

The trip down was fairly uneventful, I took the fire road as far as I could in the interest of time. I wanted to get home to pick Sarah up, as I had promised her I'd take her out to Brown County after my ride to see the foliage. My ride ended up being a bit over 12 miles, with me averaging about 5.8 mph -- not as good as Saturday, but there was some pretty hard stuff in there.

Sarah and I went to Brown County and took Sarah's sister, Rachel, with us. She hadn't been out there before, and she really enjoyed it. It's hard not to. Rachel also took the greatest photo of Sarah and me!

Brown County Breakdown ("Epic" ride)

2006-10-17T18:34:00.000-05:00

07:15
I arrived at Brown County State Park, exactly on time, even though I had left a bit later than I planned. There wasn’t much traffic this early in the morning, and the cars that were on the road were moving at a good pace.

I pulled into the swimming pool parking lot inside the North Gate. Some light was just barely beginning to show over the horizon. The grass was covered with thick frost, enough that it almost looked like it had snowed. I parked my car and got out. As soon as I exited my car, I felt cold air rushing over me, and a breeze cut right through me. I was wearing the clothes I had selected for the event, a long-sleeved jersey, shorts, and knee warmers. Over that, I had corduroy pants and a sweatshirt.

I started walking toward what appeared to be the sign-in location. I heard someone calling my name, but couldn’t really see – it turned out to be Collin and Dan, who had both come in Dan’s car. I talked to them for a few minutes, and we decided to form a group with the three of us, since we were all planning on doing the “short” course of 35 miles. Everyone else was planning on doing the 52-mile course.

I had preregistered online and just had to sign a release form and get the wristband I was issued (which Sarah insists was to identify my body if I turned up dead later on). Chris was in the line next to me, so I talked to him for a minute.

I grabbed my alotted SAG (Support And Gear) bag and took it over to my car to fill it. The SAG bags would be transported to the SAG stop(s) for us – the 35-mile course only included one SAG bag. I put my spare tube, chain lube, a rag, the sandwich Sarah had made for me, my short-sleeved jersey, and a few other things in my SAG bag.

So far, I had been trying to kill as much time as possible, because the ride wasn’t scheduled to start until 8:05. I was too antsy to sit in the car that whole time, so I talked to the people who I knew, got my stuff ready about three times, went to the bathroom, etc. Then, around 7:55, they announced that they were postponing the start of the event by 10 minutes. I think they did that because there just wasn’t enough light yet.

08:10
There was a brief informational meeting, with a description of the course. We were given more detailed, printed information when we signed in. I was a bit surprised that we would be taking the road up about half a mile to the trail, not taking the connector trail up. I assume that the idea behind this was to prevent the connector trail from becoming too crowded.

A raffle of sorts was held for a new fork donated by one of the sponsors, I believe Nebo Ridge Bicycles. Everyone continued to stretch and attempted to stay warm during this time. They started the other groups, starting with the fastest and going slower, in waves every two minutes. I was pleased to learn that the shop where I bought my bike, Indy Cycle Specialist, was one of the sponsors.

08:20
After what seemed like ages of stretching, preparing, meeting, talking, and trying to kill time in any way possible, we finally started moving! I was looking forward to getting moving, to warm up a bit. The moment we started moving, I realized that it wasn’t going to warm me up as much as I had hoped.

Since we were on the road, there weren’t trees all around to break the wind, and we were moving pretty quickly. Soon, there was a big hill to climb, which could have been a good thing, except that I couldn’t shift to my small chainring. My front derailleur was clearly not adjusted quite right. I had to climb the hill in the middle ring; fortunately, this was doable.

As we got on the trail, everyone was still very close together. It was strange riding in this long line of bikes. It was a really cool experience, although a little harrowing, since I’m not used to having such a tightly-packed group. One mistake could screw over a bunch of riders – although I tried to leave more distance in front of me than a lot of the others did.

I continued to get colder. My fingers and my toes felt the worst, my fingers because my gloves don’t cover the whole fingers, and my toes because my shoes are ventilated.

Some jackass kept cutting across in places where there wasn’t any trail to try to get ahead of people, cutting them off in the process. He almost caused multiple wrecks. I have no idea what that idiot was thinking. If he wanted to pass someone, all he had to do was say so, and I’m sure they would let him. He cut Collin off once or twice.

8:50
After about two miles on the North Tower Loop, we began to approach a turn where I had wiped out before. (See http://onegeneralweblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/north-tower.html) It doesn’t look like a turn you’d have to slow down for very much, but it is slightly off camber, and there’s a slick rock or root that you can’t easily see. Dan was in front of me, and went into the turn pretty quickly.

He wiped out, exactly as I had done in exactly that spot. It wasn’t bad at all, his wheels slipped out from under him, but he jumped up and started riding again right away – I didn’t even have to stop! I was impressed with his reflexes, although I don’t think he needed to hurry so much. Then, he made another mistake. I’m not sure what happened exactly, but he tried to make another quick recovery. Apparently, his chain wasn’t quite in gear or something, because he snapped it in two! I stopped to see if I could help, while the rest of our group continued on.

There was nothing I could do to help Dan. I didn’t have a spare chain, or a chain tool, or a master link, or anything like that, and neither did he. I had thought about buying some or all of those items, but never got around to it. All I could do was let Dan use my cell phone to call Collin and let him know that the ride was over for him. I offered to give Collin a ride home so Dan could just go home and not have to come back.

I felt terrible for Dan. I knew how excited I was about this ride, and I’m sure he was, too. I have also had some similar mechanical problems recently, and I know how frustrating that can be. Sadly, there was nothing I could do, so I continued on my way. Collin said he’d wait for me by the Aynes loop so we could regroup and ride it together.

By the time I reached the Aynes loop just a few minutes later, my toes were so cold that I seriously thought they were going to break off. I thought about the guy in the parking lot beforehand who had to have two other guys help him get the covers on his shoes, and how I had laughed at him. Now, I envied his shattered pride and his warm toes.

Collin and I talked for a few minutes, mostly complaining about Dan’s broken chain. We took off to ride the Aynes loop. The climb was gruelling, as always, but we both did pretty damn well. Collin is definitely in better shape than I am and generally goes faster; I told him to go at whatever pace he wanted. We were both just there to have fun, but I still didn’t want to feel like I was holding him back. We climbed at about the same rate – in fact, I could have gone a little faster on that part. I learned to leave plenty of space in front of me, because sometimes Collin would screw up and stop, and it was better for me not to stop in the middle of the climb. I even made it over the rocks toward the top of the hill and the rock garden, which are always questionable for me.

The Aynes Loop was a smooth, uneventful ride. Collin did a great job, especially considering he had only ridden it once before. Neither of us had any major screw-ups, and we rode it pretty quickly. We were still very cold at this point, but that climb definitely helped generate some heat.

Things really started to get interesting when we reached the Hesitation Point trail. We were still pretty frustrated about Dan’s chain. I was slightly behind Collin and saw him take a pair of tight switchbacks too quickly, going slightly off the trail with his front wheel and getting thrown from his bike. He shook it off, got up, and started riding again, but that spawned a series of mistakes and sent Colling spiraling into frustration.

I’ve had similar things happen to me before; in fact, I’m sure any cyclist can understand this feeling. Things are going fine, but suddenly you make a mistake, and get so frustrated and so determined to, as Collin put it, “make up for lost time,” that you just make more and more mistakes. So it went for Collin. I kept my distance and saw him crash probably 5 or 6 times on the Hesitation Point trail. Most of his crashes were due to stupid mistakes and trying to go too fast.

9:55
I encouraged Collin to take a break, because often that can help in a situation like this one. We rested for a few minutes, but apparently, it wasn’t enough, as Collin’s woes continued, culminating with a failed switchback attempt in which he knew he was going down and tried to lean toward the uphill side (we were on the side of a big hill).

Unfortunately, his attempts to crash safely didn’t work – I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I think he indeed fell to the uphill side, only then his wheels slid out from under him and his bike fell of the ledge, bringing Collin with it. Fortunately, there was a pile of logs maybe 4 feet down the side of the hill, on which Collin and his bike both landed. I’m sure he ended up with some nasty bruises from that fall, but if it hadn’t been for those logs, he would’ve fallen a lot further, and it would’ve been much worse. He handed his bike up to me and climbed up to the trail.

After waiting for a few minutes, we continued on our way up to Hesitation Point. I had only ridden the new section of trail once, and I didn’t like it the first time. I hoped I’d like it better this time around, but I can’t say that I did. There are just too many rock gardens, and overall, it’s simply too technically difficult for me. It’s a lot harder than the rest of the trail, and I found myself first walking over rock gardens, then riding a couple hundred feet, then getting off to walk again. Eventually, I gave up and just walked a large portion of it. The good things about the new trail are that there are some really fun parts, and it’s a much more gradual climb than going straight up the fire road.

10:30
Collin and I took a break for a few minutes at Hesitation Point, took in the scenery and talked about our ride so far and his 21st birthday party November 17. He invited Sarah and me to come to the party. I sure feel old … I was surprised to learn that Collin is so young, because hardly anyone from work is.

We were on the road for the next 4 miles or so, which was actually a pretty nice change of pace. There weren’t any major hills to climb, and it felt like we were really flying after all that singletrack. We chatted along the way. A couple of times, we thought we were going the wrong way because we hadn’t seen any markings for a while, but that was simply because there hadn’t been anywhere to turn. Just to be sure, we asked a family in the campground if they had seen a whole bunch of bikes go by. They said they had, so we knew we were on the right track.

The next section of trail was some fire road, followed by some horse trail. These trails are not usually open to cyclists, and it was cool to ride on normally-forbidden ground. On the other hand, the more we rode, the more I realized that these trails weren’t well-suited for biking. They were pretty rough, with a lot of rocks, and some pretty scary descents that had a lot of loose rock and dirt. I’m not used to riding in such loose conditions – the bike trails are hardpack – so I was a little extra careful. I’m glad I was – I later learned that DJ, who was riding the 52-mile course, wiped out pretty badly in that section when he hit a rock at high speed and was launched off his bike. The dirt in this section was very dry and dusty and got kicked up a lot as we rode.

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, I really enjoyed the extra trails. Brown County is a beautiful place, especially in the fall, and I had never seen this part of it before. There were some fun hills, some challenging climbs, and some pretty damn fast sections of trail. I was getting really hungry, and every time we’d see other bikers going in the opposite direction, they’d tell us we were getting close to the SAG stop, and remind us how much the return trip would suck, since it would be mostly uphill.

The trail got smoother and narrower and began to wind more. As we approached a hill, I could faintly hear music. I knew we must be approching the SAG stop now, because I knew they had a band playing there. As we got closer, I could make out bluegrass tones. Never has bluegrass music sounded so good! It was lunch time! We descended a particularly steep hill, and Collin wiped out again. We were almost to the bottom, and just walked the rest of the way.

12:00
In all seriousness, the bluegrass band was really good. There was, at least, a guitarist, mandolin, and banjo, I think. I’m not too sure, really, but it sounded great. They were playing in front of a cabin, which I think may have actually been someone’s home. There was a fire, and all kinds of refreshments were provided, including PB&J, Gatorade, hot chocolate, apples, and some energy shot things.

Collin and I ate some lunch and relaxed a little bit, sitting/standing in the sun, and enjoying the fire before we decided to go.

We had learned before the start of the race that our SAG bags would be returned to the starting point, but not until 18:00. We weren’t about to wait around that long after the ride, or come back, so we decided that whatever we couldn’t carry back with us was getting thrown out. I found space for my short-sleeved jersey, chain lube, and a few other items. I had to throw some things away, including the container in which Sarah had put my sandwich, and my spare inner tube.

As we collected our things and prepared to leave, Collin noticed his front tire was flat! This was truly a surprise – there hadn’t been any apparent leak in his tire, nor do I think that he rode over anything that might have punctured it. It seemed to have spontaneously lost all of its air. I fished my spare tube out of the trash. We found someone with a pump, but theirs was set up for Presta valves, whereas his was a Schrader. It seemed like it could be converted, but alas, that didn’t work. Someone else had a small pump. A guy at the Nebo Ridge Bicycles tent inflated Collin’s tire. We told Collin it would be best to put the new tube on there first, but he was convinced it would be OK. I tossed the spare tube in Collin’s Camelbak just in case.

We started heading back on the narrow trail, then the horse trails, and sure enough, Collin’s tire started losing air again. He stopped to check it, and it was going down, but still OK for the moment. 10 minutes later, it was completely flat. We didn’t have a pump, so we thought this was going to be the end of the line for Collin. He called Dan to see if he could pick him up afterall. I continued by myself. It looked like I was going to be the only one of the three of us to finish all 35 miles, provided something didn’t go wrong with my bike as well.

13:10
Collin called me and said that some guys had come along who had a pump and fixed his tire. That was one thing I noticed about this Epic ride – there was a real sense of community, and people were coming together to help anyone who needed it. It’s great to see people working together like that.

We decided to meet at Hesitation Point and do the rest of the ride together. However, I took some long breaks on the horse trail to give him a chance to catch up. He caught up with me once we were back on the road.

14:10
We took a break when we got back to Hesitation Point. I called Dave to find out what the status of their group was. He said that Chris, Ken, and DJ were going pretty slow, and he went ahead of them at a faster pace, since he had to catch a flight to Minneapolis that evening. He said he was about 30 minutes behind us – which was impressive, since he was doing the full 52 miles!

Collin and I headed down Hesitation Point. I ended up wishing I had taken the fire road down – the new section is just too difficult, even on the way down. I was really taking my time by now, as I was absolutely exhausted and didn’t want to make any dumb mistakes. I made it through the Hesitation Point trail, albeit with some difficulty.

We took the short route down the Aynes, and that part was quite a bit easier, in part because it’s an easier section of trail, and in part because I’m more familiar with it. Collin had taken off ahead of me this time and we were just going to meet at the bottom. I’m glad he was comfortable with doing that, because I didn’t want to hold him back, nor did I want to go too fast. I finished that section of the Aynes Loop and started down the part of the North Tower Loop that was next. There’s a climb there that can be pretty hard, and I was really running out of steam. I did the Hammer Gel “shot,” which is really just a packet of energy goo. It was pretty nasty, and I’m not sure how much it even helped, although I’m not sure what would have helped at that point.

I made it back to the Parking Lot Connector, which is the final 2 miles of trail or so, maybe a little less. Now my memory actually gets a bit hazy, that energy goo stuff was kicking in, giving me a caffeine buzz, and I was almost delirious from exhaustion. My phone rang, but I ignored it, since I was almost done. I did the Connector trail pretty fast, as I was on a roll, I couldn’t wait to finish, and it’s a fast section of trail. I made my way down the last hill and into the parking lot, then rode back over to the pool parking lot.

15:20
There was a finish line of sorts set up by the pool parking lot. I pulled in and a guy who was standing behind a table gave me a bag with a “Brown County Breakdown” T-Shirt in it, and strangely, some electrolyte replacement capsules designed for use in hot temperatures. I hadn’t even bothered to put my short-sleeved jersey on or take my knee warmers off! It had been really cold for most of the day. Well, whatever. He pointed to another table that had some food in it.

I saw Collin and we talked about how awesome it was that we had just ridden 35 miles. It hadn’t really sunk in yet – in fact, I’m not sure it has now, either. What an achievement!

Collin informed me that Dave had called him, and that he actually finished at about 10 til 3. He must’ve taken the road down, as there’s no other way he could finish that quickly – and he didn’t pass us, which he would have had to do to finish before us if he had taken the trail. So, Dave beat us to the finish, even though he rode an addition 15 miles or so!

I don’t care about that, though. I was in it for the fun, and I had a great experience. I finished the 35 miles, which was my goal for the day – I had no timeframe in mind. Which is a good thing, because it took just over 7 hours!

Mount Gilead

2006-10-13T08:44:00.000-05:00

I didn't get my bike back yet. The chain ring did come in yesterday, but not until about 5:00. The shop closes at 6, so it was too late for them to put it on. I would've just picked it up and done it myself, but with the Epic coming up on Sunday, I can't afford any mistakes.

So, I did another road ride last night on my old bike. This time, I took 45 out to Mount Gilead Road, and came back on 45, for a total of about 14 miles. It took almost exactly an hour.

Mt. Gilead Road is a cool place to ride. It's pretty hilly, and has a strong middle-of-nowhere feeling. In parts, all you see are farms. That's one thing that is really cool about this area. I can be at the mall in 5 minutes, at work in 10-15, and in the middle of nowhere in 10 minutes. I saw a number of horses and cows on people's farms -- no deer, although it was too early to expect to see deer. I tend to say hi to the horses and moo at the cows as I pass. Yes, I realize how ridiculous that is. One young cow seemed pretty interested in my bike. On my way back along 45, there was a dude going the other way on a John Deere tractor. I waved to him, and he waved back, although in hindsight, perhaps I should have mooed.

In all this mountain biking, I sort of forgot how great road riding can be. It's really cool to be able to cover so much ground so quickly, and sometimes you actually get better scenery when road riding. This is in part because you are able to look around more -- you don't have to focus all of your concentration on just staying on a trail. But covering more ground allows you to go to more varied places, and a lot of times, you just can't see that much from a trail due to all the trees.

On the other hand, dealing with drivers is no fun. The majority of them are courteous, but many just don't know what to do when they see a bike. Sometimes, they will hang back, afraid to pass until I wave them by. Of course, in that situation, I want to be sure that I can see far ahead before I tell them to pass, to be sure no one is coming from the opposite direction. In other cases, they are extremely impatient and pass me too close for comfort.

At any rate, I definitely want to get a road bike sometime.

Winona Lake trails closed; road ride

2006-10-11T08:23:00.000-05:00

The Winona Lake trails are screwed up due to the 24-hour race DINO held there. They are closed, and trying to find volunteers.

Here are more details:

"If you missed the 24 Hours of DINO, we had one of the most bizarre weekends of riding weather I can remember. Although the rains seemed to not want to leave, the riders braved the elements throughout the cooler evening and early morning temperatures to wake up to bright sunshine for the noon Sunday finish.

However, the 3 separate rain storms that came in on Saturday combined with several hours of mud riding did a number on our beloved trails. And the 3 consecutive days of steady rain this week hasn't helped them dry out either.

Therefore, until further notice, we're closing the trails until we can get a few days of sunshine to dry them out and some work days in to clean them up. The next couple weekends will be voluntary work days. Show up on your own will and help lend a hand."

(From Winona Lake Trails Temporarily Closed for Repair)

This race was on September 30 - October 1. This post was on the 5th, and the trails are still closed.

I've been trying really hard not to look at what I call "elitist racer types" in a negative light, but I'm really struggling right now. While DJ's antics on Sunday were merely an annoyance, this is something else entirely.

I'm amazed that these guys hold a 24-hour race and have dozens of riders on the trails for a whole day, even riding through the rain, and don't bother to fix the damage they've caused. For the most part, most mountain bikers (myself included) try to avoid riding in the rain. Sometimes, it's inevitable, it'll start raining while you're riding, or whatever. A few riders in the rain is no big deal, but dozens of them is another story. Those trails have been in shambles for weeks, and probably will never be the same again.

I realize that I'm probably not being completely fair. I'm sure many people who raced *will* help fix up the trails, but obviously not enough of them. Hell, I'd go help, except I am not going to be in the area.

This makes me wonder if I should ride the Epic (a) at all, and (b) if it rains. That's being held by the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association, and I'm inclined to think they wouldn't continue if too much damage was going to be done to the trails. After all, it's their biggest fundraiser, and it would be pretty counter-productive if it destroyed their existing trails. Still, I'm not sure.

My bike is still in the shop. They ordered the wrong chain ring and had to order another, and I don't really feel like picking my bike up, then taking it back and picking it up again once it's fixed, so I'm just leaving it.

So, I bought some slicks yesterday to put on my old mountain bike so I could use it as a road bike. I think I'm going to return them; I rode my old bike on the road last night with its existing tires, and the thing is just too damn small for me. It also has a number of drivetrain problems that I'm not sure I want to screw around with. I rode about 13 miles in about an hour.

I rode State Road 45 out to Russell Road, took Russell until it intersected 45 again (it loops around), and then rode part of 45 and part of Mt. Gilead Rd. Next time, I want to ride Mt. Gilead in its entirety. I remember it having some huge hills that would be fun, and a great workout.

Training for epic

2006-10-09T07:43:00.000-05:00

I rode a total of about 33 miles over the weekend, in preparation for the Epic ride, which is next Sunday.

On Saturday, Dave and I rode all 3 trails at Brown County, including the new portion of the Hesitation Point trail. Dave was keeping a pretty quick pace -- so I was pushing myself more than usual, but I think that's for the better.

The North Tower Loop was pretty easy, and I did better than ever on the Aynes loop. Not only did I make it up the rocks I cleared for the first time on the previous ride, I also cleared the rock gardens following them, which I had never done before. I didn't clear those rock gardens in any intelligent way -- I pretty much just powered over the rocks -- but at least I made it! In the future, I need to figure out a better line.

I sometimes forget how awesome the Hesitation Point trail is. There are so many fun switchbacks, dips, climbs, etc. The wooden bridge on HP is pretty awesome, too. I have mixed feelings about the new section. Overall, the new trail is amazing -- it flows well, even though it's fairly technical, and there are some pretty unique parts, like a strongly-banked turn where you really need some good momentum to get through.

However, there are some logs you have to jump, and a bunch of rock gardens or large isolated rocks. Since we were climbing, and I was already pretty exhausted from riding the whole trail system, and I'm not that good at technical stuff like that, I had a lot of trouble and ended up walking at several points. On one of the ones I attempted, I screwed up and crashed, hitting my leg on my bike frame pretty hard. It still hurts.

Over time, maybe I'll learn to love those rock gardens, but I'm not sure. They break up the flow, and other than those, the trail flows incredibly well. These rock gardens are truly works of art -- well-designed, well-built ... but trying to ride over what basically amounts to a pile of rocks just isn't very enjoyable for me.

I think we finished the whole Brown County trail system in about 3 hours.

On Sunday, I rode at Nebo ridge with Dave, Ken, and this guy DJ. Dave had warned me about DJ being kind of a pain, and damn, he was right. Dave had told me about how if you stop to rest, DJ will say things like, "Come on, ladies, are we going to ride, or are we going to sit around a knit?" I was tempted to bring a ball of yarn to throw at him in case he said something like that, but I didn't have one. It might be worthwhile to acquire one in case I ever ride with DJ again.

DJ is your prototypical elitist racer type -- bad attitude, shaved legs, etc. He was monitoring his heart rate. Dave said sometimes DJ will set a goal, to keep his heart rate at 120 or something. Dave was like "I want to keep mine around 90!" And he definitely got irritated if we stopped for too long.

Don't get me wrong, I like bike computers, GPSes, etc., and one reason I ride is for exercise, but when you get to the point of monitoring your heart rate, that's not fun anymore. And one reason I like mountain biking is because of the scenery -- which you never get to take in if you never stop.

Anyway, the Nebo Ridge trails were in great shape. Some parts seemed a little more rooted than I remembered, but that could have just been the fact that we were going faster than last time. The trails were quite dusty, which I wasn't really expecting. I've never seen the Brown County trails that dusty, and Nebo wasn't like that last time.

Nebo Ridge is so much fun to ride -- once you get past the first couple of miles, it's really just a roller coaster ride. There are climbs and descents, but overall, you're pretty much flying the whole time.

I wanted to come back on the trail instead of Combs Road, but everyone else wanted to do Combs Road, which is the way things will go at the Epic. I thought about going back on the trail myself -- which in retrospect, I kind of wish I had done, but I did get to see where the Hickory Ridge trails are this time, and the ride back was pretty good.

Overall, even given a 30 or 40-minute detour to see the Hickory Ridge trails, we finished everything 10 minutes faster than last time. That means we rode Nebo 40-50 minutes faster! Pretty damn good, if you ask me.

I'll need to do more training this week. I am thinking that I probably won't ride tonight, or at least won't ride for too long, as my leg still hurts where I banged it on Sunday, and I could use some rest anyway. There may be a night ride at some point -- if so, I'll definitely need to buy some decent flashlights.

Night Rider

2006-10-05T23:33:00.000-05:00

I rode at Brown County with Dave tonight. We did the Aynes loop first. It went really well -- I am getting much better at the big climb there. It's still hard, but I need to stop less (didn't really need to stop to rest at all this time), and I even made it over a couple of things over which I've had to walk in the past.

In particular, there's a part while you're climbing where the trail gets pretty narrow and you're riding along a ridge, and you have to get over some rocks. I usually get over some of the rocks, but not this bigger one that's toward the end. I made it over that this time. It actually wasn't as hard as I thought, you just have to commit and build up a little speed before you try to do it, then pull your front wheel up as you get to it.

Anyway, as we finished the Aynes loop, it was getting kind of dark, but Dave had brought some flashlights and duct tape. We taped the flashlights to our helmets and decided to ride back the long/"backwards" way around the North Tower Loop. It wasn't dark just yet, so we rode for a few minutes before turning on the flashlights. I saw a few deer before it got completely dark. Well, all I could really see were their tails.

Riding in the dark is a totally different experience. You really have to trust your instincts, and it was crucial that we were riding on a trail we know very well. For the most part, I had a pretty good idea what was coming, and knowing things like "I need to go wide on this switchback" or "crossing this is easiest on the left" helped a lot.

Another factor that made things more difficult is that with just a flashlight, it's pretty difficult to see where the trail is when the ground is covered with mostly-brown leaves. The ground pretty much just looks brown, so it was hard to tell which way to go at times. Fortunately, Dave was in the lead, so I pretty much just had to follow him. I wouldn't have wanted to be in his position.

There was almost a full moon tonight -- at times, I think we would've been OK without the flashlights. In fact, at one point, we were riding toward the moon, and it was so bright that it made it difficult to see where we were going.

Riding at night let me look at mountain biking from a different perspective. I definitely wouldn't want to do it all the time, and I'd like to have some better lights next time. We each just had one flashlight from a 3-pack Dave got at Kmart for like $10. I certainly wouldn't spend $200+ per light like some of these crazy mountain bikers do, but it'd be worthwhile for each of us to have two lights (one on the handlebars, one on the helmet) and to have brighter lights.

Last night, I rode on the road. It had been quite a while since I did that. I was trying to find a good way to get to Mom's on my bike, which I failed to do, but I did make it there. However, I didn't stop because it was getting a bit dark, and I didn't have a light. I took Smith Road home, which is a pretty fun road to ride on, sort of a country-looking road with some decent hills and a few curves. I rode over 11 miles in about 50 minutes or so. I forgot how much ground you can cover when you're riding on the road. I'll definitely need to get a road bike at some point, maybe some time next year. I'd like to get some slicks for my old mountain bike to give me a better option for road riding.

I rode my bike.

2006-10-03T22:05:00.000-05:00

I finally got to ride today. It felt like it'd been ages, even though I rode just last Thursday. I'm not counting the 2 miles on Saturday. My legs had actually started to get sore, apparently from *not* riding? It might have been from all the driving over the weekend. I'm not sure.

Anyway, it rained last night, and was raining when I got up this morning, so I wasn't sure if I'd be able to ride. It had stopped raining by 9 or 10 am. Since I was working from home, I started work early, and left here around 4:30 to go to Brown County. By that time, the trails were in great shape! There were a couple of muddy sections, but the vast majority of it wasn't muddy -- in fact, most of the trails were just plain dry! It's amazing how well they drain. I guess it helped that it was a pretty hot day, in the mid-80s.

I rode the North Tower Loop and the Aynes Loop. I was tempted to ride the North Tower Loop again, but decided against it, out of concern that it might get dark before I finished. I think I probably would've made it.

Anyway, it felt great to ride again, and I didn't have any major mechanical problems with my bike. I did have some chain suck problems, and my chain fell off when I tried to shift to the small chain ring a couple of times. I definitely need to replace my middle chain ring, as it's bent, and I still think that front derailleur might be causing problems. I can't be 100% sure. My rear brake was also squeaking a lot.

I've been using the bike computer I got, a Cateye Enduro 8, and it works pretty well so far. I didn't realize I had it in manual mode today and had to hit start before it would start the trip odometer/average speed, etc. I figured out how to put it in auto mode, where it automatically tracks that information when the bike is in motion. The only complaint I have so far is that the plastic covering the face scratches really easily -- it's already quite scratched.

Repair

2006-10-02T19:50:00.000-05:00

My bike is fixed! I had to drive up to the Indy Cycle Specialist in order to get it fixed, and ended up paying for stuff that I thought was covered under my service plan thingie, but it's fixed. I thought the plan covered accidental breakage and stuff, but really, as it turns out, it's only for free tune-ups. Which is a bummer, but at the same time means that unless there's a part that I can't find locally (in this case, the derailleur hanger), there's really no point in going to Indy if something breaks.

The repairs cost about $110 and included replacing the derailleur hanger, rear derailleur (which I thought was OK, but was really broken), new chain, and adjusting everything. They only charged me $20 in labor, which I think was giving me a break. They worked on it for over an hour. I tested it around the parking lot before we left, and all the shifts were *very* smooth. It's never exactly the same on the trail, but I tried to test shifting with some load and it did fine. I'll try to ride tomorrow, probably at Brown County.

More, worse

2006-10-02T11:12:00.000-05:00

Things have gotten worse. I e-mailed Brian, the guy who said I'd be able to ride Saturday morning, to complain about the fact that I couldn't ride Saturday morning, and he wrote me back, saying I could have ridden. I should've just ignored the big signs saying, "TRAILS CLOSED TO UNREGISTERED RIDERS." Great! After all that crap, I could have done exactly what I set out to do.

Not only that, I went to the other local bike shops to see if either of them had a derailleur hanger to replace the one I broke. I had the guys at Revolution Bike & Bean order one for me, which should arrive Wednesday. I still went to Bikesmiths, hoping that I could find one locally, but they didn't.

Worse still, I scraped another car parallel parking by Bikesmiths. I feel like the biggest moron ever. I am usually *good* at parallel parking, too, since I had to do a lot of it the last two years, when I lived in/near Chicago.

I don't even know what to do now.

Exit Wounds

2006-10-01T21:55:00.000-05:00

Basic sequence of events this weekend

Friday night:
- Pack bags.
- Go outside; discover it's raining.
- Load stuff into car.
- Drive to Fort Wayne, with Sarah and her sister Rachel, to see their mom and grandfather ("Poppo"). It rained the whole way.
- Drive to cheap motel in Fort Wayne which Sarah had found beforehand. This motel seemed slightly less crappy than the one we stayed in last time, due to the fact that it cost a little more, and we learned that the one we stayed in last time is now partially being used as a half-way house. My main hope was that the guy at the desk wouldn't ask us if we were staying the whole night.
- Decide that this crappy motel is, well, pretty damn crappy.
- Drive around looking for a better place to stay.
- Find Holiday Inn downtown, but it's too expensive.
- Drive around looking for a better place to stay.
- Find other hotels on the -- I've lost it at this point, some other side of town. They were also too expensive.
- Eventually return to the crappy motel where we had been planning on staying all along.
- Check in. Place is owned by a born-again Christian (possibly Jehova's Witness) Indian family. Office smells strongly of Indian food.
- Ask for non-smoking room.
- Go to room. Upon first entering the room, turn the light on. Discover that switch does not click -- it glides. There must be some kind of substance gumming up the switch. Room appears to have been set up in the 60s and has not been updated in any way since then. ALL the switches exhibit strange gliding behavior. Some sort of fluids had somehow made their way onto many of the walls, and even the ceiling in one place. The walls were far from square, room was actually a trapezoid. My mountain bike was the cleanest thing in the damn room.
- Decide drinks are needed. Go to Curly's, a nearby bar owned by Dudley and Mary ("Under OLD Management"). Dudley and Mary are nowhere to be found, although it is Dudley's 70th birthday. Curly's is a dive with trees out back. They must be very proud of these trees, as there are large windows at the back, and lights outside to illuminate the trees. A table of people is playing poker, and there is one other couple there. The waitress is unsure how many drinks each person at the table has had as they try to pay -- seems to be an honor system. The surface of the table at our booth is on an angle. We have a couple of drinks each. I would've liked to have had enough to drink to straighten out that table top, but I had to drive back and we were tired anyway.
- Go back to aforementioned crappy motel and crash.

Saturday:
- Wake up around 8:00 am.
- Get dressed, load stuff into car. Have breakfast at McDonald's. Most of the McDonald's staff is middle-aged, which is pretty depressing. Sarah sees an older lady there who used to come in and bother her all the time when Sarah worked at the public library.
- Drop Sarah off at her mom's old house.
- Ask Sarah's mom if she knows how I can get to highway 30, which I need to take to get to Warsaw, Indiana, which is where the Winona Lake trails are, where I want to ride. She says she doesn't, but calls Sarah's Aunt Sharon. Aunt Sharon offers to drive to 30, and I can follow her there. I decline. Wants to know why the hell I'm going to Warsaw. Apparently, it's not a place people often go. Eventually get directions to 30 from Sarah's mom, who called Poppo and asked him.
- Drive to Warsaw.
- Find Winona Lake. Discover trails are closed! I knew there was a race there, but I had been told by several people just to go ahead and go ride there anyway, that the trails would be open, especially before the race. Even the guy in charge of the races told me I could ride before they started. I got there well beforehand, and found huge signs saying "TRAILS CLOSED TO UNREGISTERED RIDERS." Thanks a lot, Brian!
- Call Sarah and tell her what's up. She looks up some other trails I can try riding.
- Drive to Bourbon, Indiana, about 20 minutes from Warsaw, hoping Zedsalt from DMusic.com would call me and we could do lunch. I seem to remember him saying he lived in that area. He never called.
- Drive to Columbia City, where one of the trails about which Sarah found information is located. Get ready, hop on the bike and start riding.
- Realize I've forgotten my helmet in the car, and forgotten to put on my gloves.
- Go back to car for helmet, take gloves out of Camelbak and put them on.
- Ride about 2 miles. The trail is pretty cool, or at least would be if it weren't so muddy. It's a pretty small course, which doesn't cover a lot of ground, but has a lot of technical challenges. There are no lengthy climbs, but some steep drops and climbs that are fun, some logs to jump (I did a great job on those parts), a wooden ramp, and some other things. I had trouble going up the wooden ramp (I'm not even sure if I was supposed to be going in that direction -- there were some arrows marking the way, but I didn't necessarily follow it). The wood was slippery since it was wet, and my rear wheel started spinning under me. I managed to get to the top, and put my foot down.
- Try to go again, hear a weird sound. Thinking it's just a stick brushing my wheel, I continue riding. I soon realize that it is not a stick.
- Look at chain. See rear derailleur flopping around!
- Realize I have broken the derailleur hanger.
- Walk back to car.
- Curse a lot.
- Somehow decide that the best course of action is to remove my (just-replaced) chain, thinking it would screw up one of the derailleurs. End up breaking the chain by the master link. Throw it away.
- Drive back to Fort Wayne.
- Decide to get a room in a better hotel.
- Drive around looking for the Best Western we had seen the night before. End up somewhere else. Try to go back and correct my mistake, and somehow end up downtown.
- Go to Starbucks while downtown. There don't seem to be any Starbucks stores in most of the rest of the city, or any other coffee shops as far as I can tell. An ambulance attempts to thwart my coffee-acquiring attempt, but I manage to successfully execute it nonetheless.
- Drive back toward where I think the Best Western is. Screw up again. At some point earlier, I called Sarah, and she said she'd probably be done in about 2 hours. Now, it's been probably an hour and a half. I go to a Handy Dandy (convenience store) and decide to just wait there.
- Wait at convenience store for an hour and a half.
- Pick up Sarah
- Go to Best Western. Check in. Lock bike to pool fence.
- Walk to Applebee's for dessert and drinks. We each have a couple of drinks, once again.
- Walk back to Best Western. Now, it's cold as hell and raining. We don't have an umbrella.
- Go to bed shivering and watch Exit Wounds briefly. Fall asleep.

Sunday:
Pretty good overall! Not making a long list for this day. Drove home uneventfully, it was beautiful outside. Stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. Dropped Rachel off at her dorm. Tried to get bike fixed at Bicycle Garage, but they didn't have the right part. Will try other local shops tomorrow. Sarah and I have just been hanging out and enjoying our 2-year anniversary!

More similar

2006-09-28T19:51:00.000-05:00

Which is more similar? Domino's, Pizza Hut, or Papa John's?

Rain

2006-09-27T23:30:00.001-05:00

I broke my chain yesterday after riding only 3/4 mile at Wapehani. I tried to replace it myself, but screwed up somehow and ended up having someone install a new one. Oh well.

It was gorgeous all day, sunny, 70s, and Dave and I planned to ride at Brown County at 6 tonight. There was rain in the forecast, but no indication I could see that it would actually come. Well, just after we got there and got ready to ride, we saw some lightning and heard thunder, and it started raining a few minutes later. A guy named Jeff was riding around the parking lot a bit, trying to decide whether to ride.

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to ride in a thunderstorm, but the thunder was distant, and Jeff thought the storm would roll over in about 30 minutes. We decided to ride the parking lot connector up to the North Tower and decide then whether to continue.

We didn't so much decide to continue as simply not stop; the end result is the same. It was really cool riding in the rain. I've done that some in the woods by my old house, but those trails are nothing like this. It was, of course, slick in spots, but overall, surprisingly doable. Seeing occasional flashes of lightning and the rumble of the thunder were admittedly very cool, and the extra light was welcome, too. It was fairly dark with Brown County's dense canopy and thick clouds overhead.

After a while, the rain started letting up, and the sun came out! It was weird because it was still raining, but the sun was streaming in from the West, and you could see mist and raindrops illuminated by rays of sunshine. We stopped for a few minutes, and I noticed there was steam rising off my body! I snapped a couple of photos with my camera phone -- I wanted to be able to show Sarah what it was like. The photos turned out pretty crappy, sadly. This one gives a good sense of approximately what I could see, though, as my glasses were covered in water and mud:

My camera's vision is eerily similar to how mine was at the time

You can't tell it's raining too well aside from some glistening leaves

It's suprising as you ride in the rain, you don't even feel the mud being splattered all over your legs by the tires. You're just wet in general. Also weird is that when we started going again after a brief break, we realized our seats had gotten wet while we were standing up. Maybe it's better not to stop! That reminds me, something went wrong with my rear brake -- it still works fine, but it doesn't release properly. I guess I'll have to take my bike to a shop for the second day in a row.

Jeff told us that DINO is doing a 24-hour race at Winona Lake this weekend, during the time I'd been hoping to ride there. He said the trails will still be open to the public, so I may go anyway, but it figures that there'd be people crawling everywhere when I happen to be in the area.

Low key weekend / Brown County / Epic fears

2006-09-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

It was a pretty low key weekend. It rained Friday and Saturday, forcing Sarah and I to stay inside for most of it. It was really nice to sleep in, which we hadn't really done for a while.

Today, there was a race at Brown County, so I was thinking about riding Nebo Ridge. I didn't get up early enough to do it early in the day. Dave and Dan from work were going from 3-6 pm, but I didn't want to do that, because it's an hour or so away -- which would have me gone from 2-7. That's quite a bit ... I almost changed my mind at the last minute, but it was really too late to go at that point, and it still would have had me gone for quite some time.

Instead, I ended up riding at Brown County. I rode all 3 trails, the first time I've ever done that in one day! The race ended at 1, and I got there around 4 ... there were few people on the trails, especially for a Sunday. I suspect that the race, combined with how much it had rained, kept people away. No complaints here! I did run into some other riders, but not very many ... and I sort of knew a lot of the people I saw, so that was actually kind of cool. I saw some of the guys from Indy Cycle Specialist, where I bought my bike. It was Scott (the owner) and Chris (who worked on my bike) and a couple other guys whose names I don't know. I also ran into Rob, who is heavily involved in a lot of the trailbuilding efforts in the area. I met Rob last week and it was cool to run into him again.

I crashed once, I went around a turn too fast, and my wheels slipped out from under me. I hit the ground and slid/rolled a bit. It's funny, when you crash, you're supposed to try to roll -- fortunately, that's sort of my default reaction. Rolling helps absorb the shock, instead of just jamming your arm or something, more of your body can absorb the impact.

Another time, I wouldn't say I crashed, but I bailed because I was on a ledge, and I didn't feel very in control. I tried to regain control, but didn't have much luck -- I was just moving too slowly to be able to balance. So I jumped off my bike uphill, to avoid falling down the ravine. I'm sure that would have looked hilarious, had anyone seen me. I need to practice moving slowly, and trackstands. My balance tends to suck at slow speeds.

I'm a bit worried about the Epic ride that's in a few weeks. I just don't know if I will be able to do it. My ride today was about 12 miles (probably a little bit more), and I was beat. I've done more than that at once, but I just don't know if I'll be able to do three times as much, all in one day. I might be OK, so long as I pace myself and take frequent breaks. I'm definitely going to go for it, I'm just kind of concerned that it may be too ambitious.

A man's character is like a fence

2006-09-20T23:37:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I updated. I meant to write about our trip to the Bloomington Speedway last Friday, but never got around to it. You can read Sarah's account here.

We had a really full weekend. On Saturday, we helped my mom move things from one storage unit to another, took a nap, and then had a picnic out at Brown County. I brought my old SLR film camera (a Pentax K1000) loaded with slide film to try some cross processing, and the Kodak Retina that we found with my grandparents' things. It's a 35mm camera from the 1930s. I hadn't tested it yet to see if it'd work. Unfortunately, Sarah brought her camera, but forgot to bring her memory card. This meant that she could take about 7 photos before the built-in memory filled up. I took some photos at Brown County, and then we drove around aimlessly, taking a few photos along the way.

We stumbled on this really cool Deckard Cemetary, some 5 miles back on a gravel road. We pulled up near it and realized it was on private property. There was a house right there, and a guy on the porch yelled at us. We asked if we could look around, and he said sure. So we did. You can see the photos on my Flickr page.

On Sunday, we went to McCormick's Creek State Park and parked by the falls. We both had cameras this time (our digital ones) and we both took some photos. It's great to do some photography again. It's been a while.

I worked at home yesterday and today to minimize distractions. It seemed to help somewhat. Really just a change of scene is nice sometimes.

Tonight, I went for a ride at Brown County. This time, I did the Aynes Loop, and then did the North Tower Loop afterwards. I did it a bit differently, because I rode the North Tower Loop counter-clockwise, which I don't normally do. I actually really liked it -- some parts seem to flow better that way. Also, it's the longer way back from the Aynes Loop, but it's less intense in the climbing department, which can be pretty nice. I ran into Chris, the guy who worked on my bike up in Indy, and talked to him for a few minutes, and later encountered Randi from work and her riding buddy. I still haven't been riding enough to get to know many people, but it's pretty clear that once I ride some more, I'll start seeing a lot of the same people. The cycling world is pretty small.

My ride tonight was weird because it got off to a bad start but got a whole lot better. I was just ... off ... at first. My timing was out of whack, and I made a couple of mistakes during the big climb on the Aynes Loop, after which I got frustrated and kept tripping myself up. However, once I started riding down the other side, I got my rhythm and did a lot better. I hit 32.4 miles per hour at one point! Pretty fast for singletrack trail. I also didn't wipe out at all this time, which was good because I've had minor crashes the last couple of times I rode. I did bump my knee at one point early in the ride, and actually it looks like I rode over my own knee.

I've started cleaning and lubricating my chain more, and the difference is pretty clear. Everything has been working pretty smoothly overall. It's funny because the guy at Indy Cycle Specialist said that I'd get pretty obsessive about cleaning my chain, and I laughed because I didn't believe him, but I can already see that happening. Great. I am adjusting pretty well to my shoes, although sometimes I still have trouble clipping in, especially on a fast or technical section.

Here's my ride from tonight:

Walking Stick

2006-09-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

I forgot to mention that I saw a walking stick (the insect, not the thing you use to walk) at Brown County last night. I stopped for a minute to stretch some more, and I leaned against a tree -- I felt something under my hand and looked to see what it was, and it turned out to be a walking stick. They are pretty strange to look at, bugs that look like sticks. I had seem them before, certainly, but it had been a while, and I forgot all about them.

North Tower

2006-09-14T21:39:00.000-05:00

The weirdest thing happened a few minutes ago. I couldn't find my GPS. I worried that I might have left it sitting on my trunk when I left Brown County, since I remembered putting it there, but didn't remember picking it back up. I looked all over for it, and then went outside to look in the car. It wasn't in the car, but it WAS sitting on my trunk, just where I left it almost 15 miles away! I need to be more careful ...

I rode the North Tower Loop at Brown County tonight. I wasn't sure how the trails would be, given all the rain we've had, but they were in great shape. There were only a few puddle/mud spots throughout the whole part I rode.

When I rode through the section of trail where I saw those two deer last time, I saw a whole bunch of deer. In fact, I came around a corner and saw a deer standing on the trail. She moved as soon as she saw me coming, and had run up the hill by the time I got to where she'd been standing. I saw a bunch more as I continued riding. I'm not sure how many, but there were several going in different directions.

I wiped out at one point. I had been keeping my speed pretty conservative because of the mud -- too conservative, I decided. The next turn I came to was off camber, and I didn't even realize it until I was right upon it -- too late to brake. I thought I could make it, but I was going a little too fast and my wheels slipped out from under me. As I was laying on the ground, I also noticed a large stone embedded in the trail that was running parallel to my line of travel. I suspect that may have had something to do with my fall as well. I wasn't hurt, I just kind of landed on my right leg a little bit, so I walked it off for a couple of minutes and continued on my way.

I completed the North Tower Loop + parking connector in right around an hour. I didn't time myself exactly. I think perhaps I should start timing my rides so I can better track my progress.

Muddy ride

2006-09-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

Finally, after being sick and having a lot of rainy weather, I went for a ride tonight. It was only a short one in "my" woods, but it was pretty good. I made some adjustments to my front derailleur, which helped a bit, but it's still not right. It looks sort of like one of my chain rings might be bent -- I'm not sure yet.

I'm doing better with the clipless shoes. I still have trouble getting into them sometimes, especially in the mud. Mud builds up on the pedals themselves, and the bottoms of the shoes, and it's really tough to get them to clip. I am getting good at unclipping quickly; at one point, I thought I was going to slip, and I went to put my foot down and realized I had unclipped without even thinking about it.

I saw two deer while I was riding, although I was riding and didn't really get a good look.

One thing I had forgotten about -- after riding in mud, once you get on the road, clumps of mud from the tires go flying everywhere! That was a lot of fun.

Sick

2006-09-10T21:43:00.000-05:00

I'm sick with a cold or something and wasn't up for doing much of anything today. Didn't take a ride at all. Pretty much just lazed around with Sarah and watched some TV. It was nice to have a break from everything -- but being sick sucks.

Bike tune-up, zoo

2006-09-10T00:07:00.000-05:00

I took my bike back up to Indy Cycle Specialist for its 1-month tune-up today. OK, so it hasn't actually been a month, but I've definitely broken it in. I had a list of things that needed to be addressed.

So far, I'm not too thrilled -- the chain suck problem seems to be worse than before, and the shifting on the front derailleur isn't too good in general. The rear wheel actually seems to make more noise than before. It does seem like they did a good job of cleaning/lubricating some parts. I think I'm just going to have to deal with the front derailleur problems on my own. I think part of the problem is that things don't act the same on the stand as they do when you are out riding.

While I was there, I also got some clipless pedals and mountain biking shoes. I am really excited about these things -- I took a small ride after we got back, and they seemed to make a huge difference. It's amazing how much power you're wasting when you can only use the downstroke. On the flipside, now I have to get a whole different set of muscles in shape.

While we were waiting for my bike tune-up, Sarah and I went to the zoo. She finally decided just last night that the giraffe is her favorite animal -- before last night, she didn't have a favorite animal! Madness ... anyway, as it turns out, you can feed the giraffes and the Indianapolis Zoo. We happened to be there at the right time and got to do that. I will post photos later. She already put some up here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nightchild84/sets/72157594276852153/

I'm going riding at BCSP tomorrow. I'll probably do two of the three trails -- I'm not sure which yet. Some people from work are going, but I don't feel like getting up early enough to be there at 7:30, so I'm going to go later on my own.

Aynes Loop

2006-09-07T22:37:00.000-05:00

I rode the Aynes loop tonight. I took my time and rode at a nice leisurely pace, taking some photos along the way. Of course, I brought Sarah's old digital camera with me, not one of our nice ones, and the photos really didn't turn out. Part of the problem is that there just isn't enough light back there, with all the trees. I'll post some photos, even though they're crappy.

Map/elevation profile

It had been a pretty crappy day, with quitting smoking being hard, and a headache and upset stomach earlier. I worked from home today -- it's nice to be able to do that sometimes.

Anyway, I had a nice low key ride -- well, as low key as it can be, given the activity. I am starting to build up some endurance -- I didn't have to stop often to catch my breath. On the other hand, I did stop fairly frequently to take photos during the first half. I pretty much gave up on that during the second half -- I just wanted to ride.

Obligatory bike shot

Part of the long climb in the Aynes Loop

I had a mishap at the point where Ken almost crashed on Saturday. We really had opposite problems. He caught too much air and almost ran into a tree. I didn't jump enough and came down on my front wheel, throwing myself over the top of it in the process. Fortunately, I managed to land softly. I did throw one of my bar ends out of alignment.

View from the trail. Not one of the more scenic points in Brown County, but fairly typical terrain for this area.

I saw 6 deer on my ride, all does. I had a really cool experience with two of them as I was on my way back. I was riding on an easier section of trail, and saw these two deer. I was fairly close to them, within 20 feet or so. They watched me go by and started running with me! They stuck with me for about 15-20 seconds. We were going about the same speed, and since it was an easy section, I was able to look over at them, to find them looking back at me. I tried to stay as quiet as possible, not shifting or pedaling too hard, so I wouldn't scare them away. It seemed to work fairly well, but once I had to shift, they ran away.

This is cheesy as hell, but I was really inspired by their grace. I try to ride as fluidly as possible in general, but riding with those deer, somehow the riding just came more naturally to me and I didn't even have to think about it. Which was good, because I certainly wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been.

I actually had a number of times tonight where I was able to ride by instinct. It's always a great feeling when that happens. I'm also getting a lot better at anticipating what's coming and shifting my weight to control the bike. Those things combined are starting to make for some extremely fun and less stressful riding.

An example of how the trail sometimes goes right to the edge.

Chainstipation and goodbye

2006-09-06T21:46:00.000-05:00

The other day, Michael was complaining about how the chain on his bike gets bunched up a lot.

Michael: You know, they have a name for that.
Me: What?
Him: When your chain gets all bunched up.
Me: Ooooh! I hope it's chainstipation!!
Him: No, it's chainsuck.

This is the first time ever that someone else has come up with some dumb word dumber than my dumb word. On that note, I have a new blog called Sarahdigm Shift. I know, I know, it's dorky. Although our idea for a joint blog was nice one, Michael writes almost exlcusively about adventuring, whereas I do not. Hopefully, he'll eventually write about other things but at least now I won't be cluttering up his biking badassery with my "heh, chainstipation" posts.

Nebo Ridge, Hesitation Point

2006-09-05T21:33:00.000-05:00

Wow, I certainly shredded my legs this weekend! In addition to riding in the woods on Friday and the Aynes loop on Saturday, I rode at Nebo Ridge on Sunday with Dave, and Hesitation Point plus the North Tower Loop on Monday with Dave, Chris, and Ken.

Nebo Ridge was really awesome. I wasn't really sure about it for the first few miles, as they consisted mostly of a big climb and then several descents and climbs followed that. There were some cool spots on ridges and some good downhills, but it got a little repetitive. There was a cool spot where the trail was surrounded by poison ivy -- it made me kind of nervous, but I never realized how pretty poison ivy can be. It was really cool the way it moved with the air movement from our bikes.

(Note: this image links to a 4mb PNG with lots of detail)

Nebo Ridge map and Elevation Profile

Gently winding trail at Nebo Ridge. You can't tell too well from this angle, but it goes down into a ravine and then back up here.

However, it got better, with more curves, technical obstacles, and better views. One thing I need to get better about is enjoying the scenery during these rides. It's pretty hard when you're blazing through there, but it would be worthwhile to stop more and enjoy the view.

A horrible photo, but you can sort of see how it drops off after the trail, and get some idea of the elevation.

Eventually, we got to a point where Dave said we could either go back the way we came, go over to the jeep road and go back that way, or finish the trail. I suggested we finish the trail, then take the road + the jeep road back. I'm really glad we did it that way, because the last 3-4 miles of the trail were definitely the best. There were still a bunch of hills, but once you built up some momentum, you could easily do the climbs. That section of trail is amazingly fast -- we passed 30 mph, which is pretty fast for a bike in general, but really fast on a trail.

It was still somewhat technical, with switchbacks, and often dropoffs very close to the trail, so you had to be careful. There was another spot where all of a sudden we were in the pine forest -- and it was immediately obvious, as all the trees were suddenly pines. It was a very abrupt transition, and surprising, but cool.

After we finished the trail, we noticed there's a new parking lot at that end of it, where we might park sometime in the future.

We took a road to the jeep road, which we took back to the trail and got to do the final downhill even though we didn't go all the way back on the trail. There was a tough climb on the jeep road, which Dave conquered without stopping. I had to walk past a couple of these ridges.

The jeep road climb -- much harder than Dave made it look.

Monday's ride was, well, more ambitious for me than I realized. We were supposed to ride at 8. I was running late, but I wasn't the only one, so even though I got there at 8:30, I don't think I held things up. At least, I didn't hold anyone back until we started riding. I hadn't ridden Hesitation Point before, and it starts with an awesome descent. I'm not sure how fast we got going there, because the GPS was acting up, but it was definitely even faster than I got going at Nebo Ridge. That's one hell of a way to wake up! My eyes were watering from the wind, even though I had my glasses on.

Hesitation Point was every bit as difficult as I expected based on what I had heard, maybe moreso. The trail here is extremely narrow at times, and right on the side of a ravine. A small mistake would mean going over the edge, and it's very steep and would be a long way to fall. The trail is so narrow that I sometimes had trouble pedaling because there isn't enough room on the inside.

Don't get me wrong, Hesitation Point was a hell of a lot of fun. It's harrowing riding on such a narrow trail with nowhere to go, but there are a lot of fun switchbacks and some rocks and stuff to deal with, and despite its difficulty, it flows very well. Once you get down on solid ground, there are a bunch of cool creek crossings, and a place where you ride a bridge over the remains of a large fallen tree. I made it over that in both directions, which I think surprised everyone else, because it's harder on the way back, when you're going uphill, and I was just exhausted from all the other riding this weekend.

After Hesitation Point, we rode the North Tower Loop. It's funny, the first time I rode that, I was thinking, they call *this* easy? Now I understand why -- it's a whole lot easier from the Aynes Loop and especially Hesitation Point. We had to ride back up Hesitation Point to our cars. By that time, I was really struggling. My legs just didn't have much left in them.

Still, I got over one really hard place where the trail makes a tight turn, there's a dropoff immediately on the left and not much more ground on the right, and at this point, you're going uphill very slowly. I managed to keep myself relaxed, which was great because I pretty much just rode right through. A lot of times if you get too nervous or tense up, you'll make a mistake. I'm getting better about that.

We also took a little detour to check out a new part of the trail they're working on, which was cool, but I could have done without it at that point.

Here's the map and profile -- I had to guess at part of it because the GPS screwed up again.

I think that pretty much sums up my weekend of riding -- wow! I'm still sore. But it was great, and it helps immensely with quitting smoking.

So the latest crazy idea is to sign up for the Epic ride sponsored by the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=3702

I'm going to sign up for the 35-mile ride. I'm probably insane for even trying this! I'll have to bike harder between now and then to prepare.

Aynes Loop, Lake Lemon

2006-09-02T21:51:00.000-05:00

I rode Aynes Loop at Brown County with Dave from work and his friend Ken. I did a pretty damn good job, I think, especially for my first time on that trail.

It starts with a big climb, which is tough, but it was actually pretty doable. We did stop a couple of times, but didn't have to walk at all. There's a big payoff for all that climbing, which is a fantastic ride down. It's sort of like the North Tower Loop in that way -- at least, if you go the right way, you start off with some climbing, but it's pretty easy and a whole lot of fun after that.

Aynes is even more fun, with some pretty tight switchbacks, lots of ups and downs, creek crossings, etc. There are a fair number of obstacles, mostly logs and rocks and some roots, but not too many. Just enough to make it fun. One thing that's kind of scary about it at times is that the trail can get pretty narrow, and in places, it just kind of drops off.

The more I ride at Brown County, the more I appreciate the thought that went into building the trails there, and the execution. There are a lot of banked switchbacks and other curves, so you can generally keep your speed up, even through some tight turns. Also, the trails tend to flow really well.

After we did Aynes Loop, Dave and Ken were going back up Hesitation Point (they parked there). I thought about going with them, but decided against it. Since Dave and I are riding Nebo Ridge tomorrow, I wanted to take it fairly easy. I definitely could have ridden more, but I can always do Hesitation Point next time. Besides, I didn't necessarily feel like 2 miles of pure climbing, though the ride down would've been cool! I also found that I really like riding early in the morning. It's cooler outside, and it's a great way to start the day. It's also even prettier than usual, with more haze and whatnot.

Later, Sarah and I went to Lake Lemon. I hadn't been there for years, and she had never been, so that was pretty cool. I had forgotten how beautiful it can be there -- and it was a gorgeous day, too. After that, we drove around aimlessly for a while in the middle of nowhere, which is always great. It's amazing how beautiful a bunch of trees, run-down barns, crops, and livestock can be. We also saw a bunch of deer and some cool bridges and cemetaries. We'll definitely have to do more aimless wandering, hopefully with cameras. Getting out to someplace pretty and relaxing was definitely good for us.

Sarah at Lake Lemon (crappy cell phone photo)

Generic shot of the lake:

Yes, I'm a Slizzard

2006-08-31T09:11:00.000-05:00

I took a mental health day yesterday. One of those days when I woke up and said "Shitfuck, I can't function." Anyway, I slept late (gasp! 11:00!) and lounged around.

Last night Michael and I were going to ride at Hardin Ridge in Hoosier National Forest. Despite its claim to be easy, I wasn't doing very well. As I've mentioned, I'm not particularly in biking-up-big-hills shape. Michael got a little frustrated because he said I wasn't trying. For me, that's like saying to someone who has carved a turkey at Thanksgiving dinner, "Here, perform surgery on this patient. What, you're scared? Gosh! You won't even try?!"

Anyway, he went on without me and that was fine with me. It was at a pretty spot near the lake but from what I understand the trail itself wasn't that impressive.

Today is my first day of class. New school, new field, new campus. And I'm goofing around online. Same bad habits. Anyway, at the orientation for the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS, and its students are called *sigh* Slizzards), the dean said:

"Indiana University has the 13th largest university library in the nation. That might not turn you on, but it should."

Oh, and the assistant dean is a woman named Ralph.

What have I gotten myself into?

Life as a shoe

2006-08-30T12:11:00.000-05:00

Michael came home yesterday in a shitty mood thanks to this lack-of-nicotine business so we decided to go for a bike ride together. We went to the Bloomington Rail Trail. The idea that they simply tore out the railroad tracks, threw down some gravel and made a trail is ingenious. I really liked it there. The problem that I have with biking is that I'm not in very good shape and I just started riding again after a 10-year lapse. Of course, this means I went from riding a bike with a basket and a horn around the playground near my grandparents' house to trying to keep up with this mountain biker of mine. I'm not very good and when I'm riding places with lots of roots and rocks, I get scared and it's not much fun to be freaked out the whole time. (Crashing twice and walking away with enormous bruises doesn't help either.) Anyway, this place was great because it wasn't insanely difficult. Unlike Michael, I don't find the prospect of riding through creekbeds and up and down ravines particularly appealing. However, I also don't really want to ride the roads in the zillion apartment complexes and neighborhoods where we live. So easy trails surrounded by trees, creeks, barns (and the occasional trailer) are really appealing. I hope we go back again soon.

We watched a movie together the other night for the first time in ages. We have never gone out to see a movie together, primarily because 1. it's expensive, 2. we hate crowds, 3. it's nicer to watch a movie in a place where your feet don't stick to the floor. However, we often watch movies together at home (thank you, Netflix) until life just got untimely. We watched Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious," and part way through, this took place:

Me: "That mom is such a biatch. I hope someone calls her that to her face."
*movie continues*
Me: "Damn, no one has. How come no one ever calls someone a biatch in black and white movies?"
Him: "Sorry, sweetie, I guess they're just dated like that."

I don't know why but that killed me.

Last night, our new neighbors (a couple Muslim fellows who refused to shake my hand presumably because I have a Christian vagina) came over. We heard a knock and Dawood/Dagwood/Dahwud (I call him Dudewood) brought over some turkey mignons (whaa?). He explained that he just bought them and didn't realize they were wrapped in bacon. So he gave them to us. We considered that perhaps we should bring him the blood of some Jews in return but we didn't have any on hand.

Disclaimer: I really like (and have had friends) who are both Muslim and Jewish; I just have a sick sense of humor. Also, Dudewood seems quite nice.

Other disclaimer: That was the only time in my entire life that I've ever said "biatch."

Quitting smoking, more Brown County

2006-08-27T22:04:00.000-05:00

So, I'm trying (again) to quit smoking, and so far, it's going OK. This time, I got some Nicorette gum stuff. I haven't used very much of it, but it seems to help a bit at critical moments, which is good. They recommend you use 9 pieces of the stuff per day for like the first 6 weeks, or something crazy like that. I think that's nuts. I just use a piece now and then if I'm having trouble. We'll see how well this works out.

I went for another ride at Brown County tonight. I rode while Sarah did some reading by the car. There's got to be a better way to do this -- so much of Brown County is beautiful, but the parking lot by the parking lot connector isn't one of those places. Maybe if she comes with me, I should drop her off somewhere more scenic before I head to the mountain bike path. I'll have to see what she thinks.

Anyway, it had rained yesterday and some earlier today, so the trails were a bit wet. Not super wet, fortunately, and in fact there was almost no mud! These trails are incredibly well-designed; I think the water just drains right off the trails and down the hills, leaving very little mud.

I did the North Tower Loop again. I took a wrong turn at one point, and ended up on a trail that just ended in the middle of the woods. Fortunately, I didn't get too far before I discovered this.

After than that little mishap, the rest went pretty well. I still found myself out of breath several times, but from what I've read, my breathing is going to get worse before it gets better due to quitting smoking. I'm looking at probably a week or two before it starts to improve.

I saw a couple of deer on my ride tonight -- a doe and a buck, at separate locations. I think I may have heard some more (sometimes I will hear a stick break or something like that and I think that some of those noises are deer).

On our way out, Sarah and I drove through the park instead of right out to the highway. We didn't see any deer in the park, but we did see some wild turkeys -- three of them hanging out together. We saw a few deer later, along State Road 46.

Does eating at Denny's count as an adventure?

2006-08-27T00:25:00.000-05:00

Michael and I have decided that we should make this a blog that contains more than just posts about adventuring. I haven't decided what to rename it so I'm just going to skip that for tonight and write.

I'm typing this on a real keyboard. And I'm clicking with a real mouse. You see, today I (err, Michael) set up my new computer. It's a Gateway with a 17-inch flat-panel monitor some dual-core something or other that made Michael drool at Best Buy. All I care about is that it is 50,000 better than my four-year-old Compaq laptop whose U key stuck since day one. It's faster and prettier and I can compute like the wind. I also ordered a Microsoft Natural Ergo Keyboard 4000 from Amazon. I'm going to type with much fanciness. It should arrive at my latest possible convenience since I consider myself a free super saver.

In unrelatedness, Michael and I were doing the got-distracted-by-life-and-Sarah-forgot-to-make-dinner business so we were at Denny's at 11 p.m. tonight. Across from us was this guy talking to two fairly ugly girls. One looked like she walked out of a Green Party convention and the other ordered a steak "as bloody as possible" and eggs "as yolky as possible" (to people with language/eating skills -- that would be "rare" and "sunny side up"). Now, this guy starts talking about how he would never walk outside barefoot and the only trails he likes are made of concrete. Michael, of course, calls him a girlyman and we continue eating our Zesty Creole and Two Sausage and Cheese Bowl. Then it happens.

"Why would anyone marry a soldier except for the money?"

Our girlyman has said what has possibly been the worst thing I've heard while eating breakfast at almost midnight at Denny's. Perhaps he hasn't noticed but soldiers make jackshit. They make more than what they'd made working at McDonald's in the ghetto, but joining the military isn't exactly a get-rich-quick scheme. These are also men who are willing to sacrifice their lives, to become killers/defenders/heroes, to be stationed thousands of miles from their families, to lose their sense of decency, to follow orders and save countries so that I can eat my damn sausage in safety and comfort.

Women marry soldiers because they're human -- and lovable -- like the rest of us. Some woman out there finds that soldier sexy, intelligent, dedicated. I doubt a woman finds the girlyman to be any of those things ...

More rides!

2006-08-26T19:27:00.000-05:00

I went for a ride on Thursday with Dave from work at Brown County State Park. This was a fantastic ride. It turns out, last time I rode there, I took the wrong way around the North Tower Loop. Of course, you can *get* around that way, but it's a hell of a lot harder.

So, Dave and I went LEFT instead of right when we got to that loop, and it was a hell of a lot better. It was still tiring, of course, but the way it's laid out, if you're going clockwise around the loop, a lot of the climbs are easier, and a lot of times you get to go downhill before you go up in such a way that you can use your momentum to get over the next hill.

It was just an awesome ride. I learned a lot from Dave, and significantly improved my skills. Dave showed me some thins you can do with a suspension that I hadn't figured out, and told me about some techniques you can use to make things smoother. One of the things he said was that I should look further ahead while I'm riding. I didn't even realize I wasn't looking far ahead, and sometimes I overanalyze what's right in front of me. That simple tip made me instantly a better rider. I also learned some cool things about using my weight to steer and help my bike over things. It's surprising what the front suspension will just go right over if you shift your weight back a bit.

I'm also getting better about using my front brake, and better at braking in general. Sometimes I'll still skid a bit, but I am doing a pretty good job of braking now. The disc brakes help a lot.

Aside from all the stuff I learned, Thursday's ride at Brown County was one of the best I've had so far this year. I'm starting to get to know my new bike, and sometimes I'll get into a rhythm with it where everything just flows without having to think through every detail of the ride. Getting in the zone like that is a great feeling -- when you can just react to things instinctively, know what's coming and how to deal with it. These instances are still not common enough, but getting more common every time I ride.

Here's the map and elevation profile from this ride:

Tonight, I went for a ride in the woods in my old neighborhood. I did the loop I've been doing lately, only this time, I did it in the reverse direction. This is, I think, a better way to go. Most of the climbing is first, and by the time you get to the last half mile or so, it's pretty easy. It's better for me, at least at this point, to get that over with before I get too tired.

I tried a couple of things I hadn't really attempted before. When you go right at the first fork in the woods, you go down into a ravine. The trail there is pretty eroded, and has some roots and dropoffs. I hadn't even attempted to ride it before. Today, I did -- and I really didn't even have that much trouble with it. I don't think I could ride up it yet, but it's cool to be able to do something I never thought I could. Going back up the other side of the ravine actually wasn't that bad, either.

After that, it's flat for a while, and eventually you go down a hill. It's pretty gradual at first, but gets steeper and steeper. I did a great job of this and keeping my speed in check, especially since it had rained earlier today and it was a bit slick. That ends in a ravine and going up the other side was, well, not going to happen. I ended up walking a ways.

However, I completed the loop and had a good time doing it. I also went down this path toward the creek, which again is pretty eroded and has some logs you have to get over, and lots of roots and rocks and other obstacles. I actually didn't think it would be possible to bike down it the first time I saw its condition after I moved back here. I used to ride it all the time, but it is in pretty bad condition now. I decided to give that section a shot, too, which includes another ravine, and I did pretty well! I stopped toward the steepest part so I could look down and plan my attack -- my plan worked great. This is another part I can't make it up yet, but it's something to work toward.

Bicycle needs

2006-08-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

I'm starting a list of things that I need to have the Indy Cycle Specialist guys address when I go up there for my 30-day checkup, things that should be covered under my 1-year service agreement (in no particular order):

- Adjust disc brakes (front wheel hard to get back on without brake rubbing; check the back one, too)
- Fix creaking sound -- at first, I thought this was coming from the crank, but now I think it's the back wheel. It does it the most when I'm pedaling, but also somewhat when I'm not. Doesn't always do it.
- Seat post doesn't stay up unless insanely tight, which makes adjusting it difficult. This may require replacing it with a better one.
- Fix chain tension/front derailleur problems. I've had the chain fall off the chain rings when trying to switch to the lower gear in the front. Also, the chain has gotten bunched up a couple of times in the front derailleur.

And here are some things that might be worth paying to upgrade:
- Pedals. The ones that came with the bike *really* suck. I'd kind of like some clipless pedals. I'd have to get proper shoes for that, as well.
- Front derailleur. The one on the bike does not instill confidence.
- Stem. Possibly get a shorter one for the front.
- Bike computer? I haven't put my old one on there, and I don't like it that much, so I may not. I can use my GPS, but I don't want to take it everywhere.

I also need to get some zip ties or something to hold the cable for the front brake. The clips on the fork really don't hold it well.

New bike!

2006-08-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

Finally, I got a new bike! I bought a GT Avalanche 2.0 from Indy Cycle Specialist. It kind of sucks that I had to go to Indianapolis to find a GT, but it was definitely worth the trip, and I liked the shop a lot. Here's the bike:

Here's a cool shot of my GPS mounted on the handlebars:

I've gone on three rides with it so far, Saturday, yesterday and today.

Today's ride was to Wapehani with Chris, Tyler, and Collin from work. When I got there, I had a bit of trouble getting the front wheel back on -- I wasn't entirely surprised, because I had some trouble with that when I got the bike home. I don't know whether the disc for the front brake isn't mounted quite right, or if the thing with the pads isn't lined up right, or if I'm just incompetent, but it took me a while to get the wheel on in such a way that the front brake didn't rub. I need to use the bike rack more in the future.

Anyway, as for the ride itself, here's a map and elevation profile. I need to figure out a way to calibrate my GPS or something, it shows us riding onto the highway, and a bit into the lake -- which we didn't.

My bike handled the trails pretty damn well, better than I did, that's for sure. It's a pretty technical course, and there are lots of roots and other obstacles -- the suspension absorbed a lot of the bumps, allowing me to concentrate more on, well, riding! I need to try to find the optimal stiffness for the suspension. I think I could set it a bit softer without having problems. I haven't bottomed it out once yet.

I am really loving the brakes on this bike. I'm still getting used to them, but I already have pretty good control, and can slow down slightly or stop suddenly to whatever extent my traction allows. To a certain extent, when you're flying around a bumpy trail with loose dirt and (increasingly) leaves on it, you just aren't going to have terrific traction. I think better tires would help, but the ones I have don't seem bad.

There are a few problems I've noticed; sometimes I have a bit of trouble shifting (the chain has gotten bunched up in the front derailleur a couple of times), there's a really annoying noise coming from, I believe, either the crank or the rear wheel. Also, the pedals suck. Fortunately, I've got 1 year free service from the shop. Unfortunately, I have to go to Indy to take advantage of it.

Overall, though, the bike is working out great. I'm also getting better at going over logs and other obstacles. I still need work at that, but I feel more confident and usually can get over obstacles fairly well.

I didn't think the path we took through Wapehani was as much fun as the ones we did last time, but it was more challenging. It seems each direction you can take at Wapehani (and there are many!) has its own advantages and drawbacks.

Yesterday and Saturday, I rode in the woods in my old neighborhood. I went further than I usually do. The short ride to the pond and back just isn't enough anymore; Unfortunately, there's no way to go just a bit further without going a much more exhausting route. So I think I need to pretty much keep at it and hopefully I'll get in better shape.

There's one part of the ride that's a lot of fun, where you go downhill while curving around to the left, then go straight, through this dip, and then up and to the right. There are a lot of roots, and it used to be pretty harrowing for me at times, but I can pretty much just cruise through the whole thing on my new bike -- it's great!

Here's the map and profile for this ride:

GPS Mapping

2006-08-17T23:02:00.000-05:00

I've tried mapping my ride at Brown County State Park with a few different programs. The data is from my Garmin eTrex Vista GPS, which is mounted on my handlebars. Here are the results (click for larger versions).

Google Earth:

Garmin Mapsource Topo:

ExpertGPS Trial - Topographic map:

ExpertGPS Trial - Aerial photo:

ExpertGPS Trial - Elevation Profile

Wapehani

2006-08-16T21:51:00.000-05:00

I went to Wapehani Mountain Bike Park for the first time today, with some coworkers (Chris, Dan, and Tyler) -- I really wasn't prepared for the experience. I had heard that it was a more technical course than Brown County, but I guess I didn't realize what that meant. I also didn't realize how hardcore Chris and Dan are (Tyler had to leave when I got there).

It was definitely intimidating. First of all, my rear brakes aren't working too well, which causes a lot of problems. But more than that, Wapehani has a lot of steep drops and climbs, as well as some pretty rough conditions you have to overcome. There are a lot of roots, and in one spot, there was a palette-type thing used to cover a hole, but it was missing a couple of slats. Fortunately, Chris warned me about it and that I needed to do a little wheelie as I rode over it to avoid an accident. I pulled it off pretty well -- it was pretty exciting! The steep dips and drops were a bit frightening, but overall a lot of fun to ride through.

There are also a couple of parts where you ride on a wooden bridge, which wasn't hard, but it was fun. I enjoyed Wapehani a lot and look forward to going back!

I really need to quit smoking. I was having trouble breathing and started wheezing after a while. I think I could do longer rides if only I could breathe bettter. I also need to carry more water.

Although it was only about a 40-minute ride, I was pretty exhausted. I'm not used to riding in those conditions and on such a challenging course. I need to ride more -- I'm still in pretty crappy shape, and I can only handle about an hour of mountain biking at a time right now.

According to my bike computer, some stats:
Distance: 2.923 miles
Max speed: 15.2 miles
Average speed: 6.8 mph

I realized that I didn't write anything about my ride in Brown County State Park last weekend. It wasn't too hard technically, but the hills absolutely kicked my ass. I was exhausted by the end of the ride, but had a great time.

Weekend warriors

2006-08-06T23:31:00.000-05:00

Michael reminded me that I haven't written about our adventuring yet. This weekend we went biking on Saturday. I had to work from 10-4 so we got a pretty late start which was probably best anyway because of the heat. We changed clothes, collected our new biking gear (gloves for Michael! a pink water bottle for me!) and installed the bike rack. The instructions, as usual, were completely useless. The more stuff I try to assemble, the more I understand why men are the way they are. Well, we loaded up the bikes and headed out to Brown County. It's such a pretty place. There are some parts where every view around every bend looks the same but I'm not bored at all because they're equally breathtaking.

The reviews for the mountain bike trails made the first part seem like it should be fairly easy. Well, maybe they're easy for a seasoned biker but for a girl like me ... not so much. I fell within the first few minutes, acquiring an awful looking bruise on my right hip. I decided that the point of biking is to be having fun, and if I'm not having fun I should stop. The paths were littered with rocks and I was scared the whole time. So Vermie (my brand new red Columbia bicycle that Michael got me for my birthday!) and I waited at a playground. While I was there, I played on the swings and listened to a shaggy haired man from Martinsville play "Knocking on Heaven's Door" at his family reunion. Michael kept going and kicked his own ass, which is good and bad. I'm glad he had fun, but I worry that he's going to get hurt. I'm glad he's conceded to take his phone with him in case of an emergency. On the road from the playground back to the car, we whizzed down this hill. Vermie got up to 30 mph! Insanely awesome.

Today we decided to do some geocaching. We printed out the info for three but we only got a chance to find two before it started getting dark, too dark for me to see. We had a nice hike and saw some bones and some holes (sinkholes? ROTC?). This was the first cache where we got to deposit some of our signature items and the first where we picked up a travel bug. Michael was excited! We also had a fun time finding a clever one hid at a newspaper stand. All of this adventuring has been awesome, but we're definitely exhausting ourselves. Michael and I have both discovered how hard it is to manage work, a relationship, adventuring, and all the other hobbies we both enjoy. Hopefully, we can find ways to integrate photography, geocaching, biking, and hiking and still have time to sleep! Speaking of which, I'll be headed to bed soon ... I've definitely been kicking my ass lately!

So much adventuring ...

2006-07-30T00:10:00.000-05:00

Sarah and I have been doing a ton of adventuring lately. I'm glad we finally got this weblog set up. By which I mean, I've been talking about doing it for a while, and tonight Sarah did it. I don't know why I didn't do it myself!

Anyway, hopefully I can post some things about previous outings, but for now, I'm going to focus on today. I told Sarah I didn't want to do something too insane this weekend. Well, it didn't work out that way. I had decided to go on a bike ride, and Sarah wasn't sure if she wanted to go. In the end, she decided to join me, somewhat begrudgingly in part due to the fact that it was over 90 degrees outside.

We did our usual ride, on the path along the tracks near our apartment, then to the woods in my old neighborhood. This is at the end of the street I grew up on, so the woods feel a lot like "my woods," and I'm very familiar with them. It feels great to be able to go back there again.

By the time we got there, we were both already pretty tired and sweating like crazy. There were some kids playing frisbee by the entrance to the woods, and as we passed, they told Sarah they had seen a bear go into the woods -- riiiiight. Shortly after we got into the woods, we had a bit of an argument and I ended up going on ahead. I went back to the pond and relaxed for a minute and got out my camera. Sarah caught up with me a couple of minutes later.

Here's the pond:

We took it easy for a few minutes, and then went further back in the woods, towards the creek. The path between the pond and the creek (I realize I need to name the pond, creek, trails, etc., so I have a way to reference them) has gone downhill a lot since I last lived in Bloomington. It has eroded significantly, leaving a lot of exposed roots. There are also a lot of fallen branches and trees across the trail. These factors combined make it difficult, if not impossible, to ride a bike there. We ditched the bikes and hit the trail on foot.

The bikes:

Not too long after that, we made it to the creek. This requires going to the bottom of one ravine and back up, and the creek is at the bottom of the next ravine. It's not too bad, but pretty tiring, especially given the heat. We followed the creek bed a bit, finding some geodes along the way. I broke a couple of them open for Sarah, and really wore myself out trying to break some others that were just too hard.

Here's a small part of the creek bed and some trees:

And some tree silhouettes:

After that, we headed back toward the bikes. We got there and drank some water and chilled for a few, after which I rode on a couple more trails while Sarah rested. I rode to where the trail meets some unknown gravel road -- I need to follow the road sometime and see where it goes -- and went back.

We hadn't really brought enough water with us, so we had to conserve. We started to head back and made a stop at a park to rest and use the water fountain. Then we rode home. All in all, it was a great trip, if exhausting.

I've started trying to make some maps of the trails back in those woods. I haven't gotten too far yet, but that will be a fun project. I also want to put some geocaches back there.

Test

2006-07-29T23:54:00.000-05:00

Does this work?