17 posts tagged “cycling”

After a little summer vacation from blogging, I'm back. Hello World! as they say in C Sharp, Powershell, and every other beginner programming class. After you say "hello world" what happens next?

Well, that's for us to make happen I guess.

A few things stand out over the last month.

Cycling: The kid is back!

Well, at least in my own mind:) Still, I recovered from being blown out at the state crit championship in Olympia and went on to finish well in my next 3 crit races. Crits tend to be the fastest of all cycling races and usually feature courses around several city blocks. They are intense, a little dangerous, but thrilling nonetheless. They're spectator friendly, which is good for Amy and the kids. They are over quickly and usually close, which is also good for Amy and the kids. 

There's no one better to give honest feedback than a four year old. I asked my daughter Lucy if I looked okay at the state crit in Olympia, hoping she might say "Sure, Daddy you looked great."

Instead, she simply hit back with a simple "No." And she was right. It was one tough race, eventually won by a 16 year old up and comer. I lasted a few laps before calling it a day. It was a good chance to explain to Lucy the value of participating rather than winning.

Still, I felt extra motivated after that race. I knew I needed to get back into the sport and prove, I guess, to my daughter that I could still ride with the best of them.

And since then I have done that, finishing decently in the lead group of guys in each of the crits since then. No blowouts, no getting dropped.

Reading: relaxation and reflection

In this day of lightening fast information delivery, I realized I have missed the simple pleasures of reading a full length book from cover to cover. Reading is a refuge from kids, interuptions, and the noise that has become commonplace in everyday life.

Since returning from a management IT conference in Vegas last April, I have been on a tear, reading up on business management topics and getting through a few novels. I have been able to reflect on some important issues at work and in life overall.

Plus I finally got some reading glasses and that has made a difference too. I didn't realize I was straining my eyes so much. 

Cycling to Work

I rode into work today thanks to some nice weather and a little inspiration from my friend Mike Doherty, who has started riding 25 miles each way to work and back. Mike and I chatted down at the Seward Park bicycle race Sunday, where I showed up with my daughter Lucy for the kid's race. Mike, who is about my same age and has 4 kids, has been commuting now for a month. We joked about both making cycling comebacks next year. There's always next year!

Anyhow, I'm hoping to get back into more consistent bike commuting. I rode through a stretch of about 5 years, riding both ways -- until the birth of my second daughter and subsequent purchase of a second car, a high performance Ford Focus. Don't laugh. The car rips around corners. It also gets somewhat less mileage than advertised. Costs look destined to go higher -- in what can only be a motivator to ride to work more.

Plus, I reach the office energized -- "fired up and ready to go!"

Speeding around the crit course Saturday between 25 and 30 mph, there was a moment when I could have vaulted myself into the mix. It would have been a risk. A redlining risk. Instead, I felt a little spooked  by the pace and dropped to the back, the danger zone in crit racing. As riders peeled off the race around me, I too lost contact and had to call it a day with 2/3 of the race over. Should have the taken that risk. 

It was the best weather of the year yesterday, great for the first crit of the season. The whole family was out. Today, there is another cirt at Boat Street near the Univ. of Washington. Debating rolling my bike back to the line. Round 2 anyone? 

I should have known from TV that this rarely works. About 3 or 4 miles from the finish of the Market Street Road Race Sunday, I broke off the front and led the race. At one time it seemed like the gap between me and the field was huge. But just like the races on TV, the chasers caught me in the last 1,000 meters and I finished with the mass of riders instead. Still, I was heartened that I felt strong enough to try it and that I stayed away for a good while (well, maybe it wasn't that long but longer than I've been able to do before). Plus it was a rush. This is what cycling dreams are made of, after all. And as a team tactic it's good to have someone who is not as strong a sprinter (like me) put a little pressure on the other teams. In the meantime, it's time to study the cycling footage of the guys who make the breakaway stick;). Oh, and I guess do a few more situps.

With the cold weather and rain lately, I've been riding indoors a fair amount lately. So I guess my training plan has been 1 movie = 1 ride. Plus it's easier to respond to the needs of the family if I'm down in the basement instead of pedaling up Tiger Mountain.

Because I'm notoriously bad at returning videos and we don't have any cable or satellite TV (we don't even have a TV), I've been using Netflix on demand -- just watching instantly online. Lately the movies have come in almost perfectly and it looks like watching a regular DVD. It's included in the membership and I have now returned as a fully paid Netflix subscriber, abandoning my Blockbuster plan. I'm trying to be fiscally responsible and eliminate wasteful personal spending on redundant products and services that I don't use:). Here is what I've been watching lately:

• The Contract. Surprisingly taut thriller set in Washington State, starring John Cusack and Morgan Freeman. Any movie with these two actors has to be good. This was.
• Changing Lanes. A tense drama exploring ethical dilemmas with a simple message: lying and cheating are bad; honesty is good. Even if you mess up things can work out in the end. (So there's a happy ending).
• A Charles Bronson western set on a train. I don't remember the title but who cares? It was Charles Bronson putting everything right on a steaming train filled with scheming bad guys. Maybe it's time to give Bronson another look, a tough guy from a more graceful era.
• The Fifth Element. I've seen it before but figured it would be a good movie for indoor cycling. Lots of action chases and great lines from Bruce Willis. A good dose of humor thrown in too. I only made it halfway through the movie when I felt a little too sluggish on the bike to make it through the full two hours.
• Puccini for Beginners. This was not a bike ride movie -- Amy put it on our queue and we watched it the other night. Very fun story. Guys, you need to be confident in yourself and your relationship to watch this with your sweetheart! I'm glad there are quality movies that explore other themes than the typical travails of a heterosexual couple.

That's it so far. Today will be different. Today, I'm set to saddle up to my rain bike and venture out for a real ride, up and down real streets. The challenge is on -- I'm back to eating oatmeal in the morning, lentil soup for lunch, and holding back at the all you can eat dinners. The question remains on the table though: can my love of hill climbing and dreams for glory win out over my love of chocolate, ice cream, and croissants?

So I cycled back from Olympia today, riding along the back roads of Southwest Puget Sound and returning via Belfair before catching the ferry in Bremerton. Overall this is about 65 miles. (I didn't have an odometer or a watch). As I approached Bremerton, I decided to ride through neighborhood streets up in the hills rather than along the highway. These were steep hills, the road winded along for a while, and you could see the highway most of the time. But then there was a dead end and the only way to get back to the highway without retracing my route by a mile or so was to throw my bike over a fence and climb over myself -- cyclocross style! I thought I had plenty of time to spare but this little detour cut it really close. Pretty nice though to make it in at 4.11 for a 4.15 ferry. Makes pushing hard on all those hills worth it because I really did not want to have to wait an hour and a half or so for the next ferry.

Weather usually worse here

At least that's what it seemed like out on the roads today as I rode in through the tail end of a wind storm. There weren't many others out there except for the few hard core guys that I usually see. Some of them are the same guys I used to see when I first started riding to work in 2000.

Weather reports around the Puget Sound tend to be exaggerated and overblown. There are a lot of news reporters just ready to pounce on the slightest of weather downturns. But it is usually never as bad as many other places such as another place called Sound -- McMurdo Sound, as this picture shows.

Or dressing like a dork depending on your view. Twice in the last week I've ridden to work but cut it too close to take a shower and change. The first time was when Bill Clinton came to Microsoft to speak early on a Friday morning, I had to make a critical decision as I rode in under cover of darkness. Do I take a shower and risk not getting into the venue? Or do I just ride straight to the Executive Conference Center and waddle around in cleats, tights, and the rest of my Garage Racing clothing? I figured Clinton's VP wrote the book on an inconvenient truth and wouldn't mind. Plus it doesn't get any more convenient-- park my bike right outside, walk right in, wash up a little, and relax until the speech. It turned out to be close to an hour before the former president appeared. No one seemed to mind or notice really, which is a big change from years ago when walking anywhere in bike clothign would elicit instant attention and invite comments like "I can't believe you rode your bike here."

The second time that I skipped an initial shower was last week when I was set to lead a team discussion at 9.30, which is early for Microsoft. So early, I was able to joke about only managing to be partially dressed with tights and no street shoes. Still, I had an agenda prepared and printed in advance so I was ready:).

Overall, the last few weeks I've started riding in more consistently: 6 out 10 commutes last week and 8 out of 10 for the week before. It's been mostly dry but the rains are due to kick in next week.

A Sunday in Hell

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I couldn't ride in to work today as I had too much stuff to carry. So I tried the next best thing -- riding for an hour on the indoor trainer to one of the best ever cycling films. (There aren't many so that's not such a great claim:)

It features, as the picture shows, the great Eddy Merckx even though he doesn't win the race. Great footage of 1970s rural France.

Talking about Merckx, I still have to get pictures of my Garage Racing teammates who had the amazing privilege of riding with him along with Lance, Hincapie and several other greats of American cycling at a ride in Portland, Ore. See, our little Garage Racing team is one degree away from greatness:)!

Lancevjan

Probably cycling's most famous photo from the last decade. A little inspiration -- on the eve of a week-long workshop--  to dig deep and reach further into the zone that is ZiggitySplit.

It boils down to results. Lance basically said to Jan, "Are you coming or not?"

"The answer is not"

Why is this such a famous moment? For most of the race Lance lurked in the back of the pack and bluffed that he was hurting. The idea was to get the other teams really excited and push super hard to try to shake Armstrong out of contention. But just as the stage reached the final climb on Alpe D'Huez, Lance rode to the front -- to the surprise of everyone.

Then he gave what is now known as "The Look" where he stared hard into the eyes of his rival. Lance recalled he wanted to look to straight at Jan to see whether he was going to go with him or not. The rest is history as Lance stormed to the top and effectively sealed the Tour win.

Why is this motivating?

Well, Lance surprised everybody in a wily strategy that required his whole team to work closely together. The bluff, which took full advantage of the TV cameras tracking his every move, had never been tried in cycling before. It was risky. And he won! 

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