Far behind

I think I will have three race reports for you this week. But maybe not.


post alley loop this am


So stay tuned for frozen tundra action.

Hauling away

About two miles up a gradual hill with a nice load of split pi#&241;on that a couple of friends of mine gave me when they moved this week. It was tough going with the wide load I could not get out of the saddle due to the wobbles. I did not drop any at all.

I was able to load the bike up while it was on the Xtracycle Kickback centerstand. It worked great. It is hard to engage the centerstand with the wide loaders on, but you usually can just rest the bike propped up on the wideloader, however it is really hard to load the bike with a heavy load this way, so I am really happy the centerstand is so burly and handled the loading with aplomb. That was a hell of a sentence.

Choo choo Chama

So I went to Chama, and while I am too lazy to finish the race report for that one, or the one the week after, I can at least give you pictures of cool old trains. Now, I took almost exactly the same photos a few years ago (here) but these are new ones. This is the Cumbres and Toltec Narrow Gauge Scenic Railway.

Me and the rotary snow blower train car, I still can't get over how cool this thing is:


Coal fired engine


I would like to live in this one:


A small part of the yard:


Check out the rest of the set

Three Items

Still sort of slogging away on the race report from chama. In the meantime I point you to:

1. The power of the popping uniform and by signing this waiver you have consented that your image may be used in promotional materials for this event.

2. You like the Electric Avenue? You like the laughing infinks? Well, do I have a video for you

3. Off road commute, still not rideable despite a week of 50 degree highs:

I was hoping for transcendental crust biking conditions. I got mixtures of weak crust and corn snow, all still knee deep. The winter confounds.

Skate skiing on the TV

I am working up some sort of race report for the Chama Chili Classic Ski and Snowshoe race, but I just fell out of my chair because I just saw Bill Demong skate skiing in an alkaseltzer ad on TV.
I can't seem to find the ad on Youtube but:
Alka seltzer ski sponsorship website
So uh, get out there on your XC skis and embrace the
bizarre non-olympic year celebration of your fringe sport.

Woo.

Heading out on the old Chilsom trail

Got nothing this week. So enjoy:

Heading to Durango in Sept.

I used to enter stuff like this in the campus art competition when I was an undergrad, I never won anything though. At least this time I get to race. I am guessing that it had more to do with getting the entry in the mail on 1/5 than my stellar colored pencil skills, but hell, I spent some time on it so I could hopefully avoid missing another SSWC.


I made it to 99, 2000 and 2002 editions and I am looking forward to this one.

Info here, still time to get your entry in and space is not filled, so get your coloring pencils and get on it.

I see a couple of familiar names on the initial entry list. Any one else going?

The evolution of the winter cyclist

Its not the ideal , more of an evolutionary dead end, but it was 10 degrees this morning on the way in and about 18 on the way home and the fur does its job. Alas there is way way too much snow on the off road route already. I may try some snow shoe packing tomorrow.

2008 year end motion update!

Even though I did not give monthly summaries this year, I still kept track of the mileage. The goals were 10 miles a day biking on average and 1 mile a day average running. The reality:
2817 bike and 108 miles running.
That is 7.7 miles a day bike average and .3 miles a day run average!

Not too surprising as again I did virtually no long training type rides this year nor did I do any regular running. Most of the mileage was commuting oriented with diversions. The year was nasty and cold until June, so lots of the early season mileage was depressed. Having little Aida come along also curtailed the riding a bit.

I only drove to work twice in 2008. It was last winter some time, I can't remember why, probably because I was sick and it was really cold, but I don't remember.

The yearly, per bike mileage:
536 on the Big Dummy
495 on the Kogswell PR
449 on the Kelly Singlespeed MTB about half on studs for the winter
367 on Bones, the Kelly Fixie
283 on the Stud shod Raleigh twenty
214 on the Bike Friday Fixie
198 on the three speed Schwinn Breeze
124 on the Hunter 24" BMX bike
62 on the Kelly singlespeed Cross Bike
58 on the Kelly Road Bike
32 on the Picnica

Big changes from last years profile. Still 1247 miles were on one speed/fixies. The new geared bikes were the mileage champs this year. I suspect the big dummy will win again in 2009. It is too useful. I rode it almost exclusively for 2 months around the time Aida was born.

I still plan on contracting the Picnica and the Friday Fixie in to a seasons Tikit which can both be the throw in the car bike AND the travel bike, but I need to sell some bike junk to get that to happen. The other low mileage bikes were the Cross Bike, which I usually only race cross on now, so not a big deal, and the Road Bike, which is usually high milage, but the appearance of the P/R has relegated that to go fast rides only, but the bars are a bit low and some other mechanical issues are causing it to not be ridden. I should get that fixed, I have a new fork for it and all the parts, just finding time to deal with the dozen or so bikes in the upkeep department is tough. More bikes=more that are mechanically deficient.

Running was a disaster this year. I can't remember why either, I don't recall being injured at all. I think I was too busy at work to sneak out for lunch runs in any consistent fashion this year. No big deal.

In other motion based activities, I went XC skiing 19 times in 2008 and ice skating a measily 7 times. I am not sure if I went swimming at all, certainly not in a pool. I am pretty sure I did not go open water swimming at all either. I will almost definitely swim more this year as Elena is a regular swimmer and I will need to play with the baby as she swims, and I probably will sneak a few swims in after elena is done. I think ice skating will fall by the wayside this year as someone needs to watch the baby, and I usually iceskated only to see elena at lunch a few days a week. As Aida gets older, I am sure this will return!

I did 6 "real" races in 2008. One cross race, one mountain bike race, one duathlon, and three xc ski races. I did two training bicycle time trials and one xc ski time trial. That is a lot less than the 10 real races and 8 training races I did last year. In retrospect I am a bit surprised it was half the races of 2007. There are plenty of local races this year that I will probably do, so lets see what happens. I got afflicted by the lazies, the early season doldrums and the mid season illnesses this year which made me skip a bunch of local races. Long trips with the little miss are probably going to be few with the possible exception of a durango weekend in september if I can get an entry.

Running is a weird thing. In my collegiate racing days I would hit 100 miles every 10 days or so during cross country season. I really enjoy running, but I tend not to deal well with more than one run a week. I think I should probably get my knees checked this year. My brother (with a similar running background) got his checked and the doctor told him he had arthritic knees and should not run anymore. So he now ignores his doctor. I suspect I have similar problems, but I will prefer not to know. There are a few longer trail races here in Los Alamos which I would like to do this year, but that would require two runs a week. I like being able to go out and run for an hour or so pretty fast at will...We shall see!

Tied into runnnig is weight issues. I think I weighed in at exactly 202 lbs on new years day in 2007 and 8. This year it was 196. It is a bit fake as I usually weigh around 195 pretty consistently and then shoot up a few pounds over the holidays, skewing the number. When I ran in college I weighed somewhere between 160 and 170 pounds. I think splitting the difference between then and now is a good goal. So I will shoot for 185 by years end. I think it is pretty doable by a combination of fasting and miracle diet. Or at least not eating as much at work in the snack department and excercising a bit more. Maybe cutting out the bacon in my breakfast burritos and maybe cutting down on beers a bit. I have tried limiting beer consumption by only drinking expensive beer which worked great as a student, now I just have taste for expensive beer while having the means to buy it regularly. Oh well. I was at about 180 in 2005 when I was at the peak of my dissertation writing procrastination by biking and racing alot. I don't think I can quite get there, but I would like to get the weight under 190 consistently. This will make running alot easier and will make my bike and ski racing even better.

Uh OK, where are we here. So the new years goals are the same as every year:
more gooder, less badder, more thinner, less fatter
The riding and running goals will stay fixed at 3650 miles biked and 365 miles run. I will be happy with 3000 miles biked and 150 runned, but I will see if I can push it! I am already at 15 miles biked this year, so maybe it will be a record january. Heavy winters have pushed the bike milage down with at least three months of subsitance commuting milage of 150 or so miles a month. The most recent high milage year happened during a winter where there was zero snow fall. At least the skiing has been great last few years. I am soon to have the big dummy with studded tires, giving me three bikes that are winterized, so hopefully the winter mileage will be better this year without trying too hard. I am perturbed from a commuting standpoint that there is already a ton of snow onthe off road route to work, so that really makes the commute boring. It will take some serious post holing/snow shoeing/plain old plodding through to get it ridable, discounting two-three more months of winter storms.

Random factor this year is Aida. I think she will be bike trailer and bike seat ready by spring, whenever that is, so that might help and/or hurt milage! Yay baby. I welcome whatever changes she brings. So bring it, little baby girl.

Here are the last few years milage summaries that I can find:

2005 and 2006 milages are estimated based on partial year reporting.
I have a few other years stashed around somewhere on old harddrives. I think there was one or two 5000 mile+ plus riding years in the past ten years, but for the most part, 3000 miles has been pretty typical.

And a couple of last things. Core strength, oraganization and teeth flossing. I will endeavor to improve these!

Happy 2009!

May you ride far in 2009

(possibly the martini curing room at the El Dorado Hotel in Santa Fe...)