Despite the deluges

I/we got some riding in. Sunday between storms:





Monday around them:



Yay bicycles.
And wild irises:

Shade tree wrenching under the flowers

I think I finally have my Kogswell PR dialed in. It is tricky to get the dirt drops right for me. I think I have the tops 1" above the saddle. I need to make sure that it is right and then I may tape the bars.

As you may note, the wrenching is done under the spectacular pinkish blooms of the hawthorn tree. I hate this tree, except for when it is blooming. We are at the tail end of the flower season now. All the fruit trees are done, same with the lilacs, tulips and daffodils. The lillies and the sages are up next.

I am glad to see that we will be getting cherry, apple, plum and peaches this year, the fruits are starting and are going well, barring the everpresent danger of the late may freeze. The apricot tree looks to have maybe a dozen apricots, which is impressive given the number of hard freezes we had during the flowering period. It looks like the grape vines will be flowerless again this year. Especially since the deers have got at them.




See more at the everything in bloom set on flickr.

Knoxville road find

Channel locks



Found on the Gay St. Bridge on a night spin, took this photo when I stopped to pick it up.




The nice JFG sign (Special Coffee, the best part of the meal) for the not so great local coffee that once was roasted in the middle of the city.


As I said last time Knoxville is ridiculously good for road finds. I was not in the city for more than 48 hours when I found this.

Big South Fork Mountain Style Biking

When I was in Knoxville a few weeks back, I was able to sneak in some mountain biking with much of Team Ed. Plans were afoot for multiple evening rides, but we were thwarted by an inch of rain a day. Cleverly, we took advantage of G's thursday off and a hole in the interesting talks at the conference to set forth to the TN-KY border where lies the well drained trails of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area. We set off early in Gary's mini Race Squirrel and headed up to the Norris exit to rendezvous with Hammer and KD.



We met up at the Starbucks at the Norris exit of 75 north. The fact that Norris rates a starbucks cracks me up no end. Poor poor waffle house, usurped as the default meeting point. After coffee and oatmeal and nary a grit nor biscuit, we headed into the wild jungles of northern Tennessee. Along the way I enjoyed the cultural dichotomy of the big cross over Adult World:


Eventually we rolled into big south fork, unleashed the bikes and changed into our matching outfits:


After a few miles of gravel road riding we reached the trailhead:


And enjoyed 20 miles of swoopy fast, mostly smooth singletrack.

With gorgeous views:


And tiny little bicycle men:


And valuable trailside artifacts:


Despite the torrential rains the trails were clear and fun. I borrowed a well undergeared singlespeed cannondale from an honorable judge and spent most of the day fruitlessly trying to keep up with the other three on their properly geared single speed 29'ers. After a while I pushed the hammer down and stole his bike and was relieved to be able to at least hang onto G and KD. While my single track skills have eroded somewhat, they are not as bad as it appeared.

After the ride we headed back, firstly negotiating the drive through big south fork canyon:



and then enjoying more cultural oddities along the way:



Once back in town, I went back to the Tomato Head and ate my third (of four) Kepner Melt of the week.


As I was heading back to the hotel Clarko called and coerced me into attending Cycling Specific Pilates taught by the Geri Mewetmaster5000. Alas there are no photos of this event, but it was painful yet fun and I was able to see more people.

The day was capped by a visit to the bar in the sunsphere. The sunsphere was closed to the public for my entire tenure in knoxville, but now there is a bar up there and I was compelled to visit. G, KD, hammer and myself all met up there and were surprised to find the bar nearly empty. No matter, the beer was cheap and the views were great and the decor was barely updated eighties woodgrain lounge and the bathrooms sported black toilets. The champagne of beers was served in champagne glasses:





After a short while a horde of identically dressed young women from UT and their prospective paramours ascended upon the sunphere for fancy attire drunken revelry. I do not really miss this part of knoxville at all. Fortunately when you are not living there anymore, it is funny.


And with that, the long day came to a close. It was good to get back to Knoxville, I was able to see almost everyone through planned events and random occurrences. I want to thank Gary for making the mountain biking possible. It was great to see everyone.

The official Team Ed take on the day's activity.
Rest of the photos here

Say it aint so tommke, again, sigh....

I have grown tired of writing about doping and sports, both because it is overwhelming and because it is getting better coverage in the press. It seems like the tide has been turning. The truly unbelievable grand tour performances have been reward with two year suspension lately, hopefully indicating a cleaner sport. Now that baseball actually tests and players are getting suspended right and left, cycling does not look like the only pharmacy sport out there. I am sure both american football and the rest of the world football are not far behind. But as far as boonen goes? Well, go read this which I wrote last year.
At least he now admits he has a problem. Poop on all of you who said "it was no big deal, just recreational drug use". Recreational drug use that he can't handle, that is. He needs to get off the highway to Pantaniville. Just go read the post from last year, my feelings are the same, as I concluded with last year:

he needs to get turned around before the Tom Boonen memorial kermisse is all we know of him

Exploring the mini rainforest of downtown Knoxville

Back from journeying. Much to share. More soon.

Atomic Man Duathlon 2009, a race report

Last Sunday was the Atomic Man duathlon in nearby white rock. Just like last year I got up buttocks early and hopped on the Big Dummy loaded with road bike and gear and cruised the 9 miles down to the race start. This year I got up extra early as I had not picked up my race packet yet. I awoke to completely allergy clogged sinuses at 5:30 am and snorked and wheezed my way through some espresso, bananas and oatmeal before leaving the house at something like 6:20. 37 minutes of riding mostly downhill in the cool, yet not frigid morning got me to the race site at 7am.

I got my package, got suited up, got the bike off the dummy into the rack, warmed up a bit. I also ran into my buddy Ryan from Albuquerque. He was came up to the race with a firend of his with the sole purpose of riding the 100 miles or so back to Albuquerque in an attempt to finish a big loop that he and Chad were thwarted at a few weeks back, read the excellent tale in two parts one and two. Amusingly Ryan was caught by the race photogs, unamusingly Ryan rode off with his friends car keys and ended up having to chill out in Santa Fe to give him his keys back and he did not finish the loop again. Bummer. Next time, dude!
Ryan on his super fantastic Boulder Bicycles Randonee bike:



Anyhow, I got to the start line and joked around with the familiar faces I see once a year at this race.



Stretched a bit, and then we were off


As usual the race started with a long down hill stretch. i got a fast start and hoped to put alot of time on people around me before I fade due to no training. This usually works pretty well, but this year I have run less than 20 miles all year, so it was not too successful. Also it took at least 5 minutes of running to finally clear my sinuses from the allergies. When the run started going up, lots of people passed me. I chugged through the race, feeling not so great, and finished the first run in 12 place. Got through the transition without sitting down. cyclocrossed onto the bike and started riding.

I was pretty sore to start and got rolling slowly, but soon I settled into a rhythm and started picking off riders. It was decently windy and pretty tough going on the rolling course. Not much else to say. I tried hard, but did not have good sensations. I think I passed two people who passed me in the transition almost immediately and then picked off three more on the out bound leg, and then passed two more on the way back toward the end of the bike leg. I had been chasing two people in front of me forever, but gaining little ground, but using an extreme aeo tuck and my mass advantage i gained ground on a couple long fast downhills, while resting. Just at the end of the ride one guy passed me with full on aero kt with carbon disk everything, I thought it was a car coming up behind me it was so loud. Using maths, I think I stood in 8th overall at this point. Not too great, but better than 12.

me bike


Literally in the first 1/4 mile of the first run, I passed carbon guy and then the two guys I passed on the second half of the bike passed me. And that was it. I was pushing it a bit as I did not want to loose some more placings at the end of the run like last year, but in reality, there was no one near me. My pal Gustavo finished a minute ahead of me and the next person behind me was 45 seconds. I held on for 9th overall. I did not feel too terrible on the second run, I was not particularly fast, but it was OK. I could feel that I would be really really sore, but other than that, no biggie.

me finish


Turns out I was second in the 35-40 age group, scoring me a sweet pint glass with the race log on it. With a shirt, good awards, nice raffle stuff and a running hat given to those who fill out a survey, good post race pizza and snacks, this race is pretty fun to go to.

award



Photos courtesy of Pet Pangea

After the race and awards, I saddled up the BD and spun on up the hill to home. It took me twice as long to get back, but it was an enjoyable long day. Elena made me a great sammich when I got home and then I napped for a couple hours. Perfect!

Now the stats

My splits were:

18:14 run (12th fastest) - 1:12 transition - 27:39 bike (9th fastest) - 1:01 transition - 19:48 run (17th Fastest) Total time: 1:07:52 9th place overall.

In 2008 it was:
17:30 run (10th fastest)- 1:15 transition - 26:18 bike (fifth fastest)-1:07 transition- 18:49 (10th fastest). Total time: 1:04:57 for 7th overall

in 2007 it was:
00:17:06 run (6th) 00:27:05 bike plus both transitons (7th) 00:19:21 run (7th) Total Time: 1:03:33 fifth overall.

Disturbingly, just using trends, I can predict that I will finish in 11th place in a time of 1:13:50 next year. In reality, I hope this is not the case. I think the lack of running made me suffer so badly in the first run that it carried over into the bike, harming that time. The second run was kind of silly as no one was near me after the first bit. I might have been faster with some competition, but it is not really relevant as the competition was nowhere near me, or they just did not show up...

My post race summary from 2007 was:
Maybe next year I will break an hour with a bit more running training, some lace locks for the shoes and some aerobars it should be pretty easy... unless i get old.

The post race summary last year was:
The short version of this years report was that I got old and I neglected to get lace locks or aerobars.

This year the summary is:
I successfully have continued to get older. No training is not a path to success, this year was slow enough that I cautiously predict that I can do better next year with a modicum of training. I also predict I will age again next year...I will not make any lacelock/aerobar plans.


2008 atomic man duathlon race report
2007 atomic man duathlon race report

Thanks for reading my typically long race report, As a bonus for those who still are reading, I provide a race report from 1991 inspired by a photo that my pal from HS greg R sent me via the facebook recently:
Ocean Grove Biathlon 1991, From right to left, Greg, his brother mark, and a oddly skinny version of me


So the summer after my senior year of HS I did a couple of run-swim biathlons (as they were called then, none of that duathlon crap). These races were on the Jersey Shore not far from where I grew up. The first was the Belmar run-swim-run, which I recall as being a 1/2 mile dry sand run, 1/2 mile ocean swim, 1/2 mile packed sand run. It was a chaotic first run in really dry soft sand. I was an aerobic monster at the time with some pretty fast track running under my belt. I went into the water in third place, just behind the leaders, got passed by something like 50 people on the long long rough open ocean swim. I think little kids passed me. I blame the cool nike aquasox I inadvisably wore for the race. They are not so much fun to swim in. But I was pretty freaked out by having to go around the jetties in a pretty choppy ocean. I did not die, and then passed 25 people back on the 1/2 mile run. Scary scary dark ocean, I was a good swimmer, but not ready for a long open ocean swim.
For the Ocean Grove race I was a bit trepidatious, but looking forward to it as it had a 2 mile run followed by a 1/2 mile swim, and then a short 50 yards or so of beach running back to the finish line at the boardwalk. The run started in Ocean Grove, on the boardwalk and headed to Asbury Park, turned around at the convention hall and then back to ocean grove. It was pancake flat. I figured I could do the run in about 10:30. I think it took my 11:30 or 11:45, I was really disappointed in how slow I ran at the time. I would pretty much kill for 5:45 miles now.... Anyway, I went into the water in second place not too far behind first. I did the swim, concentrating on not getting freaked out by the open ocean and to keep paddling. We went around a buoy and came back. The swim was more like 1/4 mile, if that. Got passed by one guy in the water and finished third overall. I think I got a trophy that may be sitting on the dresser in my parents house in NJ.

Take a good look at that picture above. Do you see it?
Cans of gatorade! The future ain't got nothing on the past.
The end.

Look Ma, I am flying

Made a quick trip to Amarillo this week and got to fly for about 15 minutes.

Hit some sights:




ate some grubs:


The rest of the photos here,
including takeoff and landing videos and lots of great aerial photos of the New Mexico and Texas

Cat blanket

Osmium with the Wink256 blanket:

One more day

First there was this:



And then this:


So the next day (4/18/2009) there was one more (last?) day of this:



More here

Schrader Dorknuts!

Man, ain't technology grand!

Fact: Nebraska has Pelicans

One of the things I learned on the trip last week is that there are pelicans in Nebraska. I learned this by seeing them. Otherwise I would have thought that I was being BS'd. They were all over the wetlands along 80 in middle Nebraska. Apparently they are just passing through, but there were sure a lot of them. Thanks to google, I learned that they probably breed in South Dakota. I also saw herds of wild turkeys on the sides of the highway, groups of more than 10 in some places.

Needs Serif

I think they probably could have broken out a Serif font for this one, Colorado roadsign stylebook be damned. Photo taken, uh, one mile from Illiff.
If you geek out about stuff like this, the NYT had a nice article on road sign fontage a couple years back.

Link

on.


Out and about. Blogging shall resume shortly.

Good omen for the Garage Sale season

Garage sale season is a fair weather sport in these parts, but despite the high winds, subfreezing temperatures and flurries, the first few garage sales of the year happened today. The first two were useless, but the third was a treasure trove. On the first visit, we got this for 10 bucks:

click the picture to go over to an annotated photo on flickr. But yes, there are two etch-a-sketches, two viewmaster viewers and a whole bunch of books that I had as a kid. It was great. When Elena and I were going through the booty after we returned we realized there were more books that we probably wanted and the price was right and it was only two blocks away. So after a couple of breakfast burritos we walked back down there and bought 15 more books and this treasure:


this may have come with a plane as well, but it was well populated with little people and there even was one piece of luggage for the luggage cart. The rotors on the helicopter work and the radar still rotates mostly:


Now we bought all this for Aida, but she is a bit young for most of it, but she already took a liking to some of the delicious new books:


After talking with the sellers we learned they had kids born about 5 years after Elena and I, hence the similarity in what they were selling and what we had/wanted as a child. It turned out they had the very much coveted Fisher Price Barn, garage and some other sets that were not for sale waiting for grandchildren's visits. Can't win them all, but we did pretty darn well today...