Weekend Approaches ...

No real plans for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. It does certainly feel like I should "grill something" and I do want to see the Hawkeye game. Otherwise, I'm sure I'll get some miles in on the motorcycle and on the bicycle ... and things will continue as they should.

Looks like great weather and I'm considering riding the motorcycle up to Fargo but that's a goodly distance (500 miles) and I'm not too sure I want the stress of that ride right now.

Looks like no obvious dances this weekend (although I think there will be some stuff happening at Riverside Casino) so I'm not thinking too much about that ... singing will work both Friday and Saturday and that will be a good time.

Not much happening (obviously!) ... oh, well, there is Obama's speech of course.

Later ...

500 Miles and Lawn Mowing ...

What great weather we are having. Played some good golf yesterday and then today the bicycle riding was exceptionally fun! This evening, even though it was after 7:15, I just decided to mow the lawn and that even went smoothly. Did a little work on the motorcycle and set the bicycle up on the work rack to remind myself in the morning that I need to do a chain cleaning and lube. Believe it or not, I've gotten 500 miles in during the 4 weeks since the end of RAGBRAI and that's just about as far as I can go without doing maintenance on the chain. I probably should do it at about 400 miles but 500 just seems like such a nice round number.

Should go out and sing a few songs tonight but I haven't been practicing lately. So maybe I'll just try out a tune or two and then hop on the motorcycle and head out to Sammy's (not too many choices on Tuesday night).

Keep enjoying summer. My theory is that if we all focus on good weather and good times then summer might well last long past the upcoming autumnal equinox ... and some of the best golf days are yet to come.

Later ... I did go out and sing tonight at Sammy's and it was pretty fun as there were only 2 singers and I got 4 or 5 songs in during the hour I was there. Plus I watched the Cubs score 7 runs in the 8th inning and beat the Pirates 14-9 ... gotta love that!

Rainy Days and Thursdays ...

Raining out there today. But it was about 68 degrees and not much in the way of wind so I went for a ride on the bicycle anyway. Worked out pretty well although I didn't see any other riders (heh). It actually can be a pretty good experience to ride in rain like this and it does make one appreciate the very good weather all the more.

Looks like the weather might get nastier this afternoon as thunderstorms are in the forecast for after 1 pm. Guess I'll run out to Milio's quick and get a sandwich as that's what I have an urge to eat for lunch today.

Later ...

Interesting Ride Today ... and 2500 Miles

Definitely encountered a first today as I rode north on highway 150. At about a mile from Center Point, a car pulled up beside me on the road. This makes for a nervous situation on several levels. First, of course, I wondered if I was going to look over and see some nasty fellow about to run me off the road (or worse!). Well, that was not the case and before my mind could run crazily through other options, I did look over and observed that the driver was an elderly woman. She rolled down her (electric) window and asked me how to get to I-380 "from here". I replied that she needed to go up to the stop sign near the gas station and then turn left, to which she said "thanks" and off she went. However, I would not recommend her technique for information gathering. For one thing, she had to slow to about 16 mph to talk with me ... not good on a fairly major road unless you turn on your flashers. Better to pull into the next gas station and ask the question(s) one might have.

A nice milestone reached today as I hit 2500 miles for the year. Looks like that should make it relatively easy to beat the 3600 mile distance from last year and it would be nice to get to 4000. Meanwhile, those Armadillo tires just keep on rolling ... well over 4500 miles now without a flat tire.

With my weight down to 159, I'm feeling pretty good and I'm enjoying the Olympics ... although I think it's just too bad about the result for Nastia Liukin in the uneven bars (she was simply better and got ripped by bad scoring). By the way, does anyone at all out there really think either of those Chinese gymnasts (one got the gold and the other the bronze in the unevens) are older than about 6th grade? I think you have to be 16 to compete in the Olympics. Oh well ... and keep on keepin' on, volleyballers! The women are looking good both indoors and on the sand courts. Strangely enough, I haven't seen anything on men's volleyball ... h-mmm.

Keep on smilin' ... enjoy this "winding down" phase of summer and remember that it is *still* summer for over a month yet.

Nominal Ride Conditions-Results

It finally happened today! The "nominal" riding conditions for my 24.3 mile route (from Hiawatha to Center Point and back). Here's the definition of nominal in this case: temperature 64-67 degrees(F), wind calm. Pretty simple, eh? But the key is that there's almost always some level of wind, even if it's 3-5 mph, so it's very difficult to find a truly calm day. And the temperature can easily be much warmer depending on the time of day and cloud cover. But I've wanted to have a day such as this just to record the results of riding it as a baseline of sorts (OK, yes, maybe it *is* an engineering thing!).

So here are the stats on the ride ...

Bicycle: 2007 Specialized TriCross Sport (stock)
Tires: Armadillo, 85 psi (4488 miles of tread wear)
Rider height: 70 inches
Rider weight: 162 pounds
Rider resting heart rate: 44 Beats Per Minute (bpm)
Average Heart Rate (this ride): 128 bpm
Max Heart Rate (this ride): 160 bpm
Bike Load: 1 rack bag, about 5 pounds
Total distance: 24.3 miles
Total riding time: 86m 54s
Calories Burned: 836
Average speed: 16.78 mph
Average cadence: 83 RPM
Odometer (miles in 2008): 2399

Not much earthshaking information there ... but it's nice to have a solid baseline to compare against. Deviations from the baseline, in my experience, are generally driven by environmental conditions. Wind velocity is probably the biggest factor. But temperature does have an effect and the physical condition and even a particular day's attitude of the rider plays a significant role.

But, hey, the main thing really is to just get out there and ride (or sing, or dance, or play golf or bowl or have coffee with friends or ... just do it!).

Later.

Visiting Up North and Brett Favre

Just got back from visiting my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Don in Fargo. Pretty good time ... well, except for the fact that the main karaoke place had "summer hours" and was closed the two evenings I was there. Not to worry though ... had a good time singing up at my cousin Ramsey's house.

Elaine is doing as well as could be expected, even a bit better than that, with the cancer fight. And I'm sure I'll make it up there to visit them again.

Don and I played some pool on his table out at the shop in West Fargo and he won the majority of the games. But it was clear that the pool balls needed replacing (all of them looked dull and worn out, with two 2 balls, two 7 balls and not even a 1 ball ... basically you could only play 8 ball with what was there). So I got him an early birthday present (he'll be 79 in September) consisting of a pretty decent set of new billiard balls along with a mechanical bridge (for those long shots, especially crucial on a 9 foot table). I think he'll enjoy it.

And what's with this Brett Favre thing? I'm a big fan of his but, really, his time is past ... kinda reminds me of Michael Jordan not knowing when to say when. I'll be the happiest guy if the Jets win the Super Bowl with Favre this year but it just ain't gonna happen! He's good ... and he can get a team to the playoffs ... but I don't see him having the capability to make it all the way anymore. And I respect the management of the Packers as they both realize the same thing and also stick by their commitment to Aaron Rodgers and the longer term success options for the team. A lesser group might have caved and brought Favre back to the Packers for another chance at the playoffs (again, this would be more to just "make" the playoffs but, in my opinion, not have much of a chance at going all the way).

Well ... let the season roll on and we'll see what transpires, eh?

In biking news I had a nice 24.3 mile ride this morning with light northerly breezes blowing me home after riding out to the north. So nice after 4 full days of not riding. Closing in on 2400 miles for the year so far and I'm expecting to reach between 3500 and 4000 miles by the end of the riding season.

Great weather out there still (and likely for the rest of this week) and I'm planning on doing some riding on the motorcycle today.

Later ...

Nice Riding Day ...

The weather is just great with light winds and temps no higher than the low 80's. So I took off riding today, having decided that I'd take the "big loop" up through Center Point, Urbana, Vinton, Shellsburg, Palo and then back home. All went well until I got to within a couple miles of Vinton, coming in from the north on highway 150. The road there is still closed as a long stretch of about 2 miles was washed out in the June flood. Not being able to talk the IDOT folks into letting me pass during the work, I turned around, rode back the way I came, and ended up with 57.25 miles on today's ride. Apparently it will be 4-6 weeks before highway 150 north of Vinton reopens for regular traffic ... so that loop is not an option for riding for awhile.

My total riding time this year is now at 154 hours covering 2338 miles, with 239 miles since the end of RAGBRAI. It's nice to have such great weather ... low humidity and light winds ... it makes each day just that much more smooth.

Today I tried orange flavored PediaLyte as an electrolyte/mineral replacement fluid. My son Scott recommended this as a good alternative to Gatorade for summer outdoor workouts. It really did seem to be pretty good stuff but I will say that the flavored PediaLyte is really too sweet. I mixed it 50/50 with water and that was much better. Also, the cost of PediaLyte (about $5.50 per liter) is significantly higher than Gatorade or bottled water. The generic equivalent fluid (HyVee has this, for instance) runs about $2 cheaper per liter and it's not too bad at all (price and flavor-wise) once it's diluted appropriately with water.

Oh! and everybody remember that the summer Olympics opening ceremony is tomorrow, August 8.

Later ...

RAGBRAI 2008 Day 7

The last day of RAGBRAI XXXVI arrived on Saturday, July 26. This ride covered territory from Tipton to the Mississippi River at LeClaire. The day dawned clear and seasonal with mild winds. This last day of riding was also light on the amount of hills to cover and, as a consequence, I covered the distance at an average speed of 15.2 mph. Subsequent in town riding and a 7 mile ride out to meet my trip home driver lowered my average to 14 mph on a total of 59.02 miles and 2099 miles on the odometer. So the total distance covered by this rider in RAGBRAI was 504 miles in a riding time of 40h 3minutes (12.58 mph average).

And what a welcome sight was the last town of the ride ... it really was "all there in LeClaire" ...


With such a quick ride on this last day, I didn't stop for much in the way of pictures, but the dip site at the Mississippi was very interesting. Riders lined up in a steady stream under a balloon archway to get to the river:


The occasion in the town brought a very festive atmosphere with many spectators lining the streets as well as milling around the dipping site. I did finally get my turn to dip my front tire in the Mississippi ...


Completing RAGBRAI for the second time gave me a great feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment and sharp eyed readers will note that I'm wearing my Cubs hat in the photo above (go Cubbies!). The person of the day today would have to be Sandra, who drove all the way down from Cedar Falls to give me a ride home. Of course the route I chose to ride out to meet her (away from the madness of 10,000+ riders) involved about 4 miles of gravel road, to my surprise and chagrin. But it is a lesson well learned and I'll review options more carefully next time as riding on gravel with full speed car and truck traffic is not safe and I would not wish it on anyone. Needless to say, I did eat a lot of dust in the course of this lesson ... hehe.

Well, that's it for my notes on RAGBRAI XXXVI, hope you've enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed the ride. I did miss seeing several people, but after returning home last Saturday I took 2 days off from riding but now have more than 100 miles in over the past 5 days. And it feels good.

Later ...

RAGBRAI 2008 Day 6

This day's ride was from North Liberty to Tipton on July 25. My distance total was 69.41 miles with an average speed of 12.4 mph (5h 34m). For one of the shorter rides, this was a deceptively hilly one but nothing that phased any of the riders too much, at least as far as I could tell. I had the impression that most people were taking it in stride as they considered how straightforward (i.e., very few hills and only 53 miles) the last (July 26) day's ride would be to Le Claire and the welcome banks of the mighty Mississippi. The interesting person of the day award goes to Theresa, an ex-colleague from Rockwell ... I'm not sure if we were in Mt. Vernon or Martelle but I think it was Martelle. Theresa, as you might guess from the picture, rides with the ConeHeads.


The morning's ride was again under cloudy skies and so it was nice and cool. The kind of day where one could easily "ride forever" ... well, except for the pain in one's butt, of course ... hehe.

Upon arriving at Tipton, I was in for a nice surprise as there was an indoor place available to stay. However, it was only about 1:15 and the owner of the home, Pat, was not going to be back until after 2:30. So I stopped at a Subway and had lunch and then spent time writing notes in my journal as well as catching up on the news, as they had a few (Davenport) papers available for customers. After that welcome break I rode back over to Pat's house (see picture, immediately below) to introduce myself.


Somehow, I now realize, I never did get a picture of Pat, but we sure had fun that day. I told her I was an engineer type and would be glad to offer her computer assistance in exchange for a shower and a nice bed in which to sleep. She laughed ... and I could see that she did, indeed, have something in mind for me to help with on her PC.

That "something" involved helping her set up a mechanism to save email attachments (pictures) for easy reference and so she could then delete the associated emails and "thin down the herd" of email in her inbox. This was fun to do and I also helped her set up a new gmail account as one of her issues was an abundance of SPAM (and who among us doesn't have that as a problem?) and I really like gmail's automated SPAM filter. Got that all working and went uptown for some pasta and pie dinner while taking in a few of the sights ... then I was ready to hit the sack.

Turns out we had about 1/2 dozen more riders stay there and even more stopped in to shower. I tell you, it's so very nice of folks to offer up such seemingly simple amenities to the riders ... very much appreciated by all.

As a postscript, Pat and I have exchanged emails regarding more PC questions and I think we shall simply be friends for a very long time.

Tomorrow, the final day ... I was glad to see it arrive!

RAGBRAI 2008 Day 5

This day's ride was from Tama-Toledo to North Liberty and it took place on July 24. I rode about 75.2 miles at an average of 11.7 mph (6h 25m). This was probably the second toughest riding day for me personally and it was compounded by the "laundry incident" (see below). The day itself was quite cool and there was some rain or light mist for most of the morning. This was the only day I used my rain jacket but it helped significantly in warding off both the cold and the wetness of the day. There was only one really significant picture I want to put out for this entry. It was a home with a great garden surrounding the place (in South Amana, I think). The picture doesn't do true justice to all the "green thumbery" to be viewed, but here it is:


After reaching North Liberty, I stopped in at my friend Barb's house as she had kindly agreed to let me stay overnight there (and, yes, that meant yet another indoor shower *without* any lines to wait in ... sweet!). Well, since she offered to let me use her washer/dryer I took her up on it and promptly threw in riding clothes. However, I had removed my cyclometer (Neuro 4.0) from the bike (which was not necessary, but happened merely out of habit) and then slipped it into one of the riding shirts (instead of one of the storage bags). Yes, I can tell you're ahead of me on this one ... I actually washed and dried the bike computer. And it would not work after that beating. However, it *was* keeping clock time. I tried the reset button but no joy there.

Then I called up to Northtowne Cycling in Cedar Rapids and they had another one in stock. Barb graciously agreed to take me there and I picked it up, thinking the old one was not going to work at all. Then we stopped on the way back and I sang a few songs at karaoke (the Sip 'N Stir bar on 1st Avenue in Cedar Rapids). We arrived back in North Liberty at about 10:25pm and, on Barb's recommendation, I tried resetting the old cyclocomputer again ... and it *did* reset. Amazing! Anyway, I entered the calibration data and got it sync'd to the bike wheel/cadence transmitter and decided that if it worked all the way to the end I'd take the new computer back and just see how long the old (but very clean) one would last.

It worked to the end of the ride and it has now covered over 100 more miles of riding in the past 5 days. So I think Blackburn has a pretty good product (and see my original review in my April 21, 2008 entry) ... it's even "wash and wear" functional (if you want to try this yourself, I used cold water wash and the permanent press drying cycle). By the way, the batteries are still working fine in this unit (something I commented on in the original review) but I only have about 146 hours of operation on them (plus some time at the end of each ride before the computer goes into "Sleep" mode ... I don't know how to come up with that value but it's probably something like 5-10% of the total operating (riding) time ... maybe 7-14 hours here. It seems to me that the unit takes about 10 minutes after every use to actually go to sleep and I don't know of any way to force it to sleep earlier than its automatic "cycle to sleep" time.

Of the people I talked to on today's ride, the most intriguing was probably Yves from Oelwein, IA. She's ridden on 20 consecutive RAGBRAI's (including 2008), starting in 1989. That's pretty impressive.

Well, I got a very good (if somewhat short) night's sleep and had a fine breakfast that Barb made for me before hitting the road at just before 7am for day 6 (more tomorrow).

RAGBRAI 2008 Day 4

Day 4 of RAGBRAI XXXVI took place on Wednesday, July 23. The ride was from Ames to Tama-Toledo with a distance of about 78 miles and almost 2900 feet of climb. This ride featured many fun towns but one of the best was Nevada, where I met the Wicked Witch of the West and Miss Piggy.


And thank goodness for those much needed rest areas, like the one as we approached the halfway town for the day, Albion:


I found a great place for the hammock in Tama in the wooded acreage backyard of Don and Marian. One note of interest on hammock accessories here is that the "tree hugger" straps that are supplied by Hennessey are only about 45" long. That means they only work for trees that are approximately 45/pi or 14" in diameter. This is fine for the most part but I picked up some 1" wide nylon webbing and made a 10 foot strap just in case I had to use a larger tree. In the camping area at Tama there were more choices for trees but for the two I *really* wanted to use, one of them was much larger than 14" in diameter. Check it out:


If you look closely you can see on the nearer tree that the (longer) strap is orange in color (the standard straps from the manufacturer are black, one of which I used on the far tree). So strap length is an important consideration and I would recommend that anyone with a Hennessey Hammock get some longer straps made. In this case I stopped at a shoe repair shop to get the ends stitched up as loops, matching the original strap design.

The ride today covered 78.99 miles with an odometer reading of 1896 and an average speed of 11.7 mph (6h 43m). Tama was a fun town with a very nice swimming pool. I ate "supper" at the Dairy Queen for some nice air conditioned relaxation. Finally, the hammock was extremely comfortable on this night ... with light rain to fall asleep by.