I'm in the Netherlands

Well, if any of you are wondering, yes, I've made it to the Netherlands safely, and have adjusted to the time zone change quicker than I have anticipated. The first day was hard, but I think forcing myself to stay awake in anticipation of a good nights sleep helped the most. I hope to post some pictures eventually of where I'm at (Amsterdam), but the weather has not made it very easy to go out and take pictures. Its rained here every day since I've gotten here, and hasn't made it much above 70 degrees. I'm glad I brought some long sleeve shirts, but I fear I did not bring enough.

Everything is about as I expected here, except that it seems a little more "run down" than I thought it would be. Perhaps because all the pictures I've seen are taken of the best parts, on bright sunny days in perfect settings. All in all though, thinking about the age of places such as this, I am reasonably impressed with it all still. Language barrier doesn't seem to be that much of a problem. Most everyone here knows at least some English, and a majority seem pretty fluent. That along with what some knowledge of the German language has helped a lot. A lot of the words sound the similar to the German equivalent. A quick read on how to pronounce the Dutch spellings has helped me out there. Hopefully the sun will come out soon, and I can get some pictures for you to see.

a few pictures of my race.

Well, MR was nice enough to share some of the pictures he took of me racing.... Enjoy.

Nice game face huh? Don't worry, he's all bark, no bite :)

And they're off.... In my usual style, I'm out in front in the beginning. Perhaps its a good thing. Avoid confusion, etc...


And here I am in the lead group, in the beginning, holding my own, for now at least...

And here I am finally, off the back, maybe I shouldn't have start out so fast, hehe.... ouch.

My First Race

Well, I apologize for letting this thing go dormant for a while, as usual, no excuses, just figure no one would be interested in my day to day ritual I call life. Anyway, of note though, I participated in my first bike race (a criterium) yesterday. I can safely say..... I finished. Not a spectacular performance by any stretch, but I'm not disappointed.

Several have requested an AAR of my race, so here it is....

Holy crap, that was hard! At least no one crashed.

To look at the statistical details, you can go here.

My overall thoughts are positive. There were 39 racers, and I placed 20th, and I was not the last guy across the line :)
The Yo-Yo'ing effect from being in the back of a group in Criterium pretty much killed me. I found it harder and harder to keep with the pack around each and every turn. There were 2 guys in front of me from the same team, and I tried to get around them to help minimize my Yo-Yo'ing but they just wouldn't let me. I clearly had better cornering abilities than some, but others just had more of a kick in their sprint.

I've also decided that looking at all the data that my cyclocomputer gives me during a race isn't necessarily a good thing. I think next time I'll change the fields I can see so I don't start analyzing myself in the middle of the race.

I'm now looking forward to my first road race, which won't be until next year. Hopefully I'll be able to maintain at least some kind of fitness program this winter so some of what I gained this year will not be lost.

I'll be headed off to the Netherlands in a few weeks too. I hope to update this with some of my experiences of my first trip to another country as well (Canada doesn't count) . So start looking again around the weeks of August 21st. I'll be spending 2 weeks in Amsterdam, then I'll be spending a weekend in Ruedesheim am Rhein, Germany.

Don't use that tone of text with me!

So I've been thinking recently.... I wonder what percentage of conversations handled in text actually come across as the writer intends. Whether it be an IM, and E-mail, a hand written letter, or whatever. I had a conversation with a friend earlier this afternoon that totally left me feeling offended. I'm not sure if he meant to, or what, but it certainly got me thinking about his subject.

I went a little like this....
me - 'bout time you woke up ;)
him - been up since the crack of 11:00
him - well, got up at 8:00 to feed/walk the dog, then went back to bed
me - heheh, I was 20 miles into my bike ride by then.
him - thats cool, then again, 3 hours after you were asleep last night, I was up doing stuff
me - sure about that?
him - I'm logging off now, later.

This isn't the first time he's logged off during a conversation, but in the past it has been because I've been purposefully prodding him, and teasing him to the point where I know it would upset it him. So the precident here is when this person logs off, its because I've annoyed him.
So at first, I have to wonder if he went into the defensive from my opening statement, which I had meant to come across as a kind of jovial teasing comment, knowing he's not a morning person. The next exchange was merely meant to be in an informational context, to let him know, that yes, I did go for a bike ride today. I was half expecting him to ask, since he has in the past, and the weather this morning was horrid.
Next, it seems to me he has to come up with some excuse as to why he got up at 11. (ie, "I was up late"). Which is fine, I didn't need to know that, I wasn't about to grill him for not getting any exersize in or anything. That was actually furthest from my mind. What gets me is that he automatically assumes that I was in bed and asleep at some time. Which is why I responded the way I did. I didn't happen to fall asleep until around 1:30 AM this morning (last time I looked at the clock anyway). I was going to comment that I was actually impressed that he got up at 11:00 AM if he truley was up and active at 4:30 AM (3 hours after I fell asleep). Before I could comment, he signed off in a manner that made me feel as if he thought I were attacking him and accusing him of something. Who knows. It just makes you think, how often what we write, really gets interpreted the way you meant.
Got any good stories? Comment on this, I'd love to hear them.

Memorial Day Ride

MH, MR, and I took a nice bike ride this morning. I had driven a loop last Friday that turned out to be right around 57 miles. MH was supposed to be home by 11:30 AM so the loop was out of the question, especially since MR only picked me up when we were supposed to meet at the designated parking spot, taking 30 minutes out of our rideable time. Oh well. It was still a great ride, overall, mostly flat with good sized rollers that were just big enough that you had to work to push over them, but not too much that you really killed yourself. I think it would be a fun road to ride on with a good group that likes to do pace line riding, the 3 of us averaged 19 mph for the whole ride. I did most of the leading, but that's normal. MR did his own thing, when he wasn't drafting. That's okay it doesn't bother me that much, at least when we don't set an expectations before hand, which we didn't. We made it 18 mph up the road before we decided we should turn around to get MH back in time.

When we got back, MR took a quick transition run, I stretched, and MH got ready to leave. After MR got back, I decided I wanted to go climb Peters mountain (on my bike of course) since the decent down the south side, the same side I would be climbing, looked like it would be a blast. Didn't do to bad, I thought, averaged 8mph on the way up from 3B's ice cream place to the top, with an average ascent of 53 feet/minute. Climbing Millers gap, my best time has me averaging 64 feet/minute, but that climb is only 1.3 miles long, where as Peters mountain is 2.1, so pacing is important. I also just finished 36 miles of rollers before Peters mountain, I do Millers gap mostly fresh. I don't know how the ascent speed compares to most other people, but I would like to think I can hold my own against most. Motionbased is being slow again, so I can't grab the links to post directly to the activities, but they are named well enough that you can figure out which they are should you visit my digest (see links in previous posts).

After all was said and done, and I got back, I had a wonderful bowl of Teaberry ice cream at 3B's. Talk about tasting wonderful. I hadn't had that flavor in a long time, and it was quite satisfying. Its quite a nice ice cream stand I think, lots of flavor choices, good prices for the portions, and an excellent product. I'll be going back there again to do my 57 mile loop some day. Hopefully sooner than later.

No, I am not there yet.

So yesterday, I went for another Saturday morning ride with the folks over at World Cup Ski & Cycle. There were a lot more people there than there was the week before. I imagine mostly because the weather was a lot nicer. I think there were about 16 total. The beginning of the ride was uneventful, and was riding at what seemed to me, to be a pretty easy pace, at least when you are in the middle of the pack. About 12-14 miles into it though, the group splintered, into what I believe ended up being 3 different groups. Maybe 2, but as we arrived back at the shop, it seems they came in, in 2 other packs after the group I came in with. Anyway, when the group split, I think I let my ego get the best of me, and I decided to stay up with the lead pack. It was mostly a mistake, but I sure learned a lot. There were I think 6 people including myself in the 'breakaway' and as long as I was in the middle of the paceline, I seemed to do alright, though I was working quite a bit to stay there. Which is good, I need the exercise. Then the rotation came and I was in the lead, Which was hard, I figured I wouldn't be able to put much time in it, but I should at list give it a strong concerted effort, so I went with it for a few miles. A turn came up that I wasn't sure of, the person behind me told me about it, so I had decided to fall back to the rear. That was my downfall. These folks were powering around turns and quickly getting back into a swift cadence. I didn't setup for the turn right and didn't push hard enough to get back with the pack, and fell off the rear. Never caught back on. As hard as a tried, I just couldn't get myself hooked back on.

The waited for me at the next turn to make sure I didn't miss it, when I had told them, that they should just keep going, and not wait for me. They deserve a ride at the pace they wanted to go, and not worry about dropping me. I even explained to them that I had a GPS on my bike, and could find my way home. (While My Garmin 305 doesn't show me roads, I could see where I was relative to where I am, and can just follow roads till I hit something familiar) They then explained to me that their Saturday rides have a no drop policy. That's cool. Good bunch of people.

Then, one of the leaders of the group said he would ride me in, and let the rest of them go ahead. He was really cool about it. Turns out he is a cycling coach, and I believe at least Class III racer himself. He was giving me advice on what I can do to help me stay with the pack better (cornering techniques, and how to best position for drafts). He let me ride his wheel and we tried to catch back up with the pack, but it just wasn't working. I find that even being the 2nd man back in a paceline is significantly more difficult that 3rd or more, so the 2 man group we had going wasn't doing enough for me to give me the strength to go faster at this point. My HR was between 90-95% of my sustained max, and it wasn't getting any better. Anyway, we made it back, and close to the finish, I caught up to everyone because they got caught at a long red light. And we all ended up coming in together.

Overall, I ended up riding 40 miles in 2 hours and several seconds. Average speed ended up being 19.9 mph. That's my record fastest average speed yet, and even more over 40 miles... I believe my previous best was 19.3 mph average, over 10.5 miles, though that was by myself, and a TT course, I spent a lot of time in this ride cutting wind too, only because I fell out of the paceline :(

So the things I'm taking away from this are:

• I need to be put in my place once and a while, it gives me something to strive for.
• If I want to improve, I need to get serious about it, my occasional lunch rides, and a weekend "stroll" aren't going to put me in the league I want to be in.
• I need to realize what my abilities are so that when I do ride with a group, I don't put a burden on them (I felt bad making them wait for me, and causing a leader to ride slower than he probably wanted to.)
  

So that's how they do it in the Tour De France

So I've always wondered how can people cruise along at such fast speeds on a bike. Well, I finally got a taste of that yesterday. I went out on a group ride that leaves from a local bike shop. There were 11 of us there. So we all were cruising along somewhere between 18-22 mph (Normally speeds that fast by myself take everything I've got). As long as I was surrounded by people, the ride was so increddibly enjoyable. Easy to pedal along with, etc etc... I guess that's way people stay in a large peleton in the big professional races. I don't blame them. All I have to say is I feel bad for the guys in front. Once I was due for riding in front, it was completely different... Keeping up that pace and cutting the wind spiked my heart rate up there pretty good. Then by the time my turn up front finished, the organization of the pack started to subside a little, needless to say, I never really recovered, and the nice shelter of the group was now gone :(. Still an enjoyable ride, and I'll be riding with them again. Its a good excuse to get myself up on weekends, and the morning ride doesn't seem to break up my day like the afternoon rides do. You can view the details over here if you are interested.

A Month Later....

Yeah, yeah, I know, its been a long time since I've posted here, and I apologize to those of you who stop by and see if I have posted anything recently. I don't have any excuses really, other than lack of creativity I suppose. I guess I figure my life is boring enough that its not worth posting about. Since my last post, I have ridding my bike several more miles. As of today, I have 637 miles recorded for the season on my bike. It seems weird to think that I've put on enough miles that I could have easily biked up to Rochester to see my Dad and back, and have miles to spare. I participated in the PA. State Police Metric Century ride last week, which put on 70+ miles. I've also been taking longer weekend rides to, which have involved going up and over the local ridge at least twice per ride. I'm actually really starting to like climbing hills on my bike. If you want to see where I've been riding, you can see my digest over at motionbased.

On another note, a few weeks ago, MR and I went down to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to do some hiking. I wanted to scope out some trails for group hike I'll be leading down there in June and check for some good camping spots. It was okay, Friday (the first day) was fun, and we saw some good stuff, and we made it to camp before it started raining, but then it rained all night and into the next day, and we got absolutely soaked. As usual I way overpacked, and had more stuff than I needed, which just absolutely destroyed my legs trying to keep up with MR's pace, who brought probably half as much as I did. Long story short, we hiked back to the car on Saturday, and went home, after stopping and eating a wonderful hot pizza.

Not much else is going on. Finally finished up Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University with our Small Group from church. Overall I'd have to say its a good program. Some of his stuff seems dated, but then again, I guess it is, as I think it was published around 2000. Its all good though. I'm really looking forwarding to paying off all my debt. I can't imagine what its going to be like not having any sort of "extra" payment. Its been a good wake up call, and I'm just glad that we (my wife and I) did something like this now, rather than later.

Not really planning much for the future either. I hope to make it back down to Shenandoah and finish what I had planned to do earlier. I think I can do it as a day hike, so hopefully I can take Jess and Geoffrey with me. Put Geoffrey on my back and we can hike it all. I think its about a 12 mile loop that's left, with one mountain climb in the middle. Should be doable for a day.

50 miles of LSD

The weather was great yesterday and just begging to be enjoyed, so MR and I decided to go for a nice LSD ride. He has a Triathlon coming up soon at Gifford Pinchot park, and wanted to go see what the bike leg is going to be like, so we rode down there, did about 1.5 loops, and rode back home. Totaling about 50 miles in just over 3 hours. We took our time. I was still recovering from last Thursdays racquetball game, followed by a bike ride on Friday that left me feeling awful. I managed to get a sunburn on my arms though... Oh the Horror! I got a sunburn in April. Guess I'll be working my way up to one of those cyclists tans soon.

Yup, you read that right, I tried to play racquetball against MR last Thursday. Its been several years since I've played, and I was never very good to begin with... So yes, of course I got beat, pretty bad actually, but it was nothing unexpected to me. MR seemed pretty happy that he beat me, but to me that's like saying that it felt great to beat a 10 year old in a 400 meter sprint... hehe. Oh well. He did manage to find a really good serve that I was having a difficult time returning, which was half my problem. So all in all, by the time Saturday rolled around, I could barely move, I can't believe all the muscles that got used playing that game. Crazy. It was fun none the less, and hope to play again.

Pics from Iraq

Not sure how many people actually read this, but I thought I would share some interesting pictures that my brother-in-law has taken while he is deployed in Iraq.

I have to say, those Iraqis have some pretty sweet commuter bikes over there! Super knobby tires, with front and rear fenders, headlights, pannier mounts, and a horn. To top it all off, its sporting a trunk as well, fits smaller children perfectly! I'm not trying to make fun of them, I just think its a great shot, that has a lot of character in it.

Other shots of Saddam's palaces are in there too. Pretty impressive, I'm not sure what I think about such extravagant government buildings when the rest of the country is not doing so well. I think we have a little bit of that here in America as well, though probably not to the same extent. Perhaps the Iraqi's will be able to turn them around and use them as tourist attractions if they can ever get themselves into a position where people would actually want to visit their country. Here's a suggestion folks: Plant some Trees!

I can't believe how barron that place looks. To think it was once a fertile land that had so much to offer. I'm told it is the way it is now because all the trees where cut down. Good luck getting them to grow now though, I guess you'd have to start somewhere near a body of water where irrigation could be consistent, and slowly grow outward.

On another note, I actually brought my bike to work with me today, so I could ride, but I'm feeling lazy and I don't have anyone to ride with today, so I guess the bike is staying in the car... That's fine go ahead and ridicule me. I also hope soon to post a little personal review on my thoughts of Garmin's Edge 305 CAD/HR unit. I've been using it for about a month now I guess. I think its a great tool. More to come later.

Up and Over, times 4

So today 3 of us went out on a bike ride we like to call the quadruple bypass. There's a nice ridge near here that has some steep roads on it, with a 4 way intersection right at the top. Its always rewarding to get to go down the hill you just struggled to go up, but I have to say, it was a little cold today. I also decided to try wearing my HR strap on my back this time too. I think it works a lot better, normally with conditions like today, I would have gotten lots of false readings, but I don't see any this time.

I have to say, doing this ride already this early in the season, I'm pretty surprised with myself. It didn't feel nearly as bad as I remember it being last year. Maybe that's because I went up Millers Gap road twice already, and its grade makes this thing seem like a speed bump. I've decided Millers gap is as bad as I can handle right now, and these hills (sterrets gap) are just annoying. I probably could have gotten a better workout than I did, but I held back a little, mostly because I wasn't certain how the other legs of the climbs were going to be.

Mark couldn't make it out to ride with us because of a meeting, so he went out and rode our little TT course that we made up. I'm proud to announce that he didn't beat me (he's all bark anyway, Dog owners are like that). Granted, he was only slower by about 30 seconds, so I'll have to work to keep the title. I look forward to the friendly challenge this season. Especially when its warmer and the wind dies down. Good job Mark, not get that GPS unit working so we can dot race on motion based!

Friday afternoon prologue of sorts

So after talking with Mark, and trying to come up with a nice little course we can time trial on, we came up with a nice short little 10 mile course, that is pretty much a subsection of our default lunch ride. It kind of is like a little proglogue ride that they have at the beginning of those big fancy European races. I managed to get an 18.4 mph average speed, as per my Garmin Edge 305, though the data upload to motion based says its only 18.3 mph. I think it might have to do with the way auto pause works on the unit, as well is the distance discrepancy. Software says 10.57 miles, where as MB says 10.55. Either way I'm mostly happy with the results. I was aiming for a 19mph average... hopefully I can obtain at least that by this fall.

Yesterday, we also went up Millers gap again. That was also a good ride, I took my cyclocross bike though, since it has the triple chainring up front. I wouldn't say it was any less tiring on than my road bike, but it was nice to not have to do those little mini switchbacks. I felt like I was cheating though. Not sure why.

The weather is being wacky here too... in the high 70's on monday, now the mid 40's and super windy. Quite annoying. I wish it would just make up its mind. Or at least not be windy. I think the wind is my least favorite part about biking... give me hills any day over wind.

3 rides

Well, the weather has been really nice lately, and I have taken 3 bike rides since I have last posted. The first was last Friday, where I took a quick lunch ride around what I thought would be a short course. Turned out it was longer than I expected, but that's okay. Details here.

Second Ride was a nice long ride with Mark on Saturday, all in all, it was 38 miles for me. Lots of climbing. Ended up not realizing where I was half way through, I guess I didn't memorize the route well enough, so we didn't go where I planned. That's okay though, it was still fun. Just have to do the planned route next time.

Third ride was today. Did the normal (Default) Lunch time ride by myself. My Co-workers are to lazy to actually want to work out during the lunch period lately I guess. They keep giving me excuses, but I think they are just lazy. I rode the loop a little more aggressive than usual just to push myself. Didn't do to bad. 17.7 mph average, and that's with hills, and stopping/slowing for traffic and stuff. Mark thinks he can beat it (and he probably can) but he insists on shortening the loop first... Well of course you can beat it then Mark! So can I. So I guess I'll just have to go out there with him when he tries to do it. Draft him, then beat him in a sprint at the end... :) I know its not that nice, but its probably the only way I can do it. He is just way more cardiovascularly fit that I am. I think I have more power out of the saddle though... time will tell. And yes Mark, if you are reading this, I AM taunting you.... perhaps a 2nd time even!

I think I can, I think I can

So yesterday, Mark and I took a mid afternoon bike ride. You can see his comments on the ride here. I figured we would just do a normal route and glide along and have some fun.... but nooooo, Mark decides he wants to go to the top of the "hill" on Miller's Gap road. A road I have yet to make it up without dismounting.... So I figured what the heck. Needless to say, I had blast. I made it all the way up this time. Had to use a little trick that Mark taught me, that involved switchbacks up the road, but it gives you that 2 second rest you need to go up another 5 feet. Its quite a good feeling to make it up there, despite the fact that you physically feel like your heart's going to explode.

Speaking of heart rate. I really need to find a way to make mine work consistently. At least in cold weather. It doesn't seem like cold skin or something. As you can see from the HR graph on the motionbased page, it was all over, and 240 bpm isn't exactly realistic. I believe that could be classified as some sort of fibrilation, in which case you better be getting the AED. Oh well.

The weather is supposed to be near 60 today, but I'm stuck at a customer sight doing an install today. :-( Oh well. The weather will be getting nice soon, and I won't have be sad about missing the good days that we are having now.

Is it spring yet?

Since everyone else can't suck it up and ride in this slightly chilled weather, I ended up going out by myself today. Details here. I'm trying to get a handle on what's going on with my heart rate. It seems really easy to push it way up into the 170's. So I figured I would try and keep it right around 165 today, except for hill climbs. It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be I guess. Anytime I felt like I was exerting any kind of energy to keep myself in a good exercise, fitness building pace, it would jump to 170+... If I relaxed it would drop to low 160's. Overall, I did okay, average HR of 167. But I don't feel like I really exerted myself. I could probably do that loop like that all day. Definitely, could have very easily held a conversation with someone. I guess the good thing though, is if you look at the HR graph it doesn't really have a negative sloping trend line this time (provided you ignore the sections where my heart should have exploded, I think caused by the cold air). I wonder if I set goals to high for myself sometime, but I'm a firm believer that if you aim low, you'll never push yourself to your fullest capability. I guess I'm also never satisfied with what I have either, always striving for better... Wonder if that's a healthy attitude. I think it gets me into trouble sometimes... Oh well.

Wind Sucks Part Deux

Finally was able to find someone to go riding with me on a weekend. It was really nice out, so I couldn't pass up the chance. I was afraid I was going to miss the opportunity, since Lower Allen had a fire that I was at, but we got out of there quick enough that I still had some time left. You can view my ride here. Overall the ride was really good. It wasn't as gusty as the last time I did that circuit, so I was able to keep my pace up. My heart rate is still way up in the high 170's low 180's most of the time. I wish I knew why... Am I that out of shape, or is that just me? It will be nice to compare that ride at the end of the season this fall I guess. Mark was drafting off of me a lot of the time, so I guess I'm going to have to make him lead next time. He has the excuse of not knowing where he's going though. I'll have to convince him to buy a Garmin 305 so he can load the courses in.

I probably should have had more to eat today too, got a nasty cramp in my right calf muscle, but with Church and the fire, I didn't get much of a chance to ingest salts and proteins like I should have. I was fine as long as I kept moving, but the moment I stopped using the muscle, it got pretty bad. I always get them on the same side too, when I do get them. Mark had mentioned cleat position, so maybe I'll mess with that to see if it helps.

<rant>Sigh</rant>

So just when you think the weather is going to start to turn for the better, and that spring will soon be on its way, it gets freezing cold. Then has the nerve to snow at night in such a manner that the cars running over the fresh powder snow causes a sheet of ice to form on the roads. Not only does this make my night miserable because of all the people who don't know how to drive carefully, it also causes the highway department to put more salt on the roads! Arrrgggg

Fortunately, the salt doesn't seem to be on too thick, at least on the roads I have view of outside my work window. Though, it was slick enough coming in this morning, I'm not sure they salted this road at all. I have an erie suspicion that other roads might be a different story. Maybe since they (the highway dept.) weren't prepared for it, they only salted the main roads, and didn't get to any of the side roads that I bike on a lot. Guess I'll have to take the long way home tonight and inspect.

On another note people, if the roads are icy.... SLOW DOWN.... for crying out loud. If you see vehicles smashed into jersey barriers, or in ditches along side of the road, its probably icy there. Further more, if you see big fire trucks with bright flashy red lights, there are probably firefighters walking around too! SLOW DOWN! We had a multi-car (more than 2) accident on a bridge that was iced over last night, with cars on the shoulders of both sides of the road. Crazy people flying through the accident scene at 50+ mph, with state police, and big fire trucks there all over the place. Granted, I feel that there could have been a better effort to give the traffic a fair warning to slow down. But in my opinion, they shouldn't have been driving like that in that weather to begin with.

02-25-06 Wind Sucks (unless its behind me)

So I took a quick ride over to a local outfitter to pick up some maps of Shenandoah National Park for a group hike I'm planning to lead in June. I discovered how nice out it was and decided that I couldn't pass up the nice weather and had to go for a bike ride. Mark was out of town and I couldn't get a hold of Tex, so I was on my own. The first two miles were great, as usual though I think I started out to fast and it took me a while to get into my grove. I left my chest strap at work so I have no HR data for this ride either. Oh well. You can see details of my ride here. Over all I enjoyed it, but the wind picked up about 10-15 minutes into the ride, and made things quite difficult, gusty cross winds made going in a straight line difficult. I swear for a while I was riding at an angle going down a pretty straight road. It was nice to get out and just pump the legs for a while. I tried to concentrate on my cadence and keep it consistent this ride. I think I'm liking the 90-100 rpm range.

02-23-06 Afternoon Ride with Mark

So after all the nagging Mark hounded on me for not riding, I decided to finally give it a go. The weather was forecast to be nice this afternoon although not so good this morning. It was pretty wet and rainy this morning (yay, wash away the salt!), and Mark was almost chicken enough to back out on me! He's lucky he didn't, he would have never heard the end of it. The Ride was pretty good. About as well as I could expect for not having done anything active all winter except for 2 previous bike rides last month. Details of my lack of fitness can be found here.
Nothing else interesting is going right now. Work is the same... Its work. Eat - work - eat some more - work again, eat some more, relax, sleep. Wash rinse repeat.

First Post!

So I've decided to setup a blog. Not really sure why.... I guess partly because I feel I need to defend myself against posts of certain other people who like to defame me publicly on the web. Partly because I thought it might be fun, and partly just because. I dunno. I suppose it's kind of an experiment to see if I can actaully convince myself to keep this thing up to date. Who knows. I don't always claim to know why I do things. So here it is, we'll see what happens, and if I have something profound to say (wouldn't that be a miracle!), you might find it here. Later.