Kayakscott's Daily Adventure

A Ride, A Fall, and a Paddle

2010-04-11T18:20:00.003-05:00

The weather has been great in Iowa and Minnesota! I got home on Thursday afternoon and Kathy and I took the tandem out for a spin with the Owatonna "B" group riders. The "A's" joined up with us about five miles into the ride so I guess we were the AB group. It was a great night for a ride, we did 30 miles and got back into town just before dark.

Thursday's route and data.

On Friday I worked on my Stand Up Board a bit, did some yard work, and then had a nice fall while coming down the attic stairs in the garage. I was one of those slow motion---THIS IS REALLY GOING TO HURT kind of falls, about 4 steps up right on my back on top of the CV joint and drive shaft I had taken off of the Camry a couple of weeks ago. It could have been a lot worse! but it was bad enough that Kathy and I decided it might be best if I were not steering the tandem on Saturday morning (I also hurt my thumb and my wrist). I must not have did too much damage though, because I was able to work in the yard on Saturday, and I felt good enough to plan a paddle for Sunday.

I got back down to Iowa on Saturday night. I met up with Reece and Steve on Sunday afternoon for a paddle from the downtown bridge in Cedar Falls, to the rowing club in Waterloo. If we were not the first SUP's on this river I would be surprised! We know for certain that this is the first time Steve has been on his board apart for a little time in the pool. Steve's Board is an inflatable, and I think it is harder to stand on than mine. It flexes front to back in addition to the obvious side-to-side rocking that standing up on a fairly narrow board would create. Stand Up Paddleboarding is really a balance sport!

I was able to stand up through the rapids in the play hole and through the rapids at the cutoff leading the the west channel near Waterloo. I am working on a two handled paddle that will hopefully make it easier to paddle while kneeling-- that seems to be something that will be need around here-- SUP's are really bad in a head wind. The second is a self folding fin the will fold up when it hit something in the water (like a rock or a log). I am enjoying this figuring SUP for Midwest rivers thing.

A Great Day For a Ride!

2010-04-05T14:49:00.004-05:00

Today was a great day (at least this morning was-- it looks like rain at the moment). I rode with John, Kat, and Keith today. The plan was to do a 2 hour+ ride in zone 2. What that means is that John tried to stay in zone 2 and the I tried to draft enough to remain in zone 2. Sometimes that worked and sometimes it didn't It felt like I was drifting high whenever we went up high or when I had to sprint to get back on the draft. When I checked the data, I spent most of the time at the top of zone 1 and about 55 minutes actually in zone 2., and maybe 15 minutes or so above zone 2. I thought I was riding a little too hard, but as it turned out I was not riding hard enough :-)

Monday's ride map and data

A Mighty Wind and a Not So Windy Saturday

2010-04-03T08:27:00.009-05:00

Mike Johnson was planning a 5 hour 15-20 mph non-stop gravel right for Good Friday morning. I was pretty sure I would not be able to hang with him at that pace for long, and I was right, but it was nice as always to reconnect with Mike! Wow he is in fine form this spring. A strong south wind and soft gravel, he just walked away from John, Kat, and me. Before long we decided that the surface was just too soft and unpredictable to ride as close as we wanted in the wind so we switched to pavement and did a loop out to Parkersburg south and back into Cedar Falls. I had some time constraints so left John and Kat and took the diagonal back into town so that I could make it out to the Good Friday Service at Hudson in time. The ride was a good effort, 42 miles for me and good company too!

Friday's Ride Data

Saturday Kathy and I took another try on Tom and Pat's Tandem. There was a bit of a wind out of the west, but nothing like yesterday. We are liking the tandem thing so I guess that is on my list of future wheeled vehicles.

Saturday's Ride Data

Peddle, Paddle, and (work)

2010-03-30T21:05:00.006-05:00

I have been getting out on the bike a bit more lately. (and on the SUP, and it is pretty surprising seeing as how it is holy week and I am really busy with the "day job (s)"). I rode 30 mile plus the last 2 day and tonight I stayed with the A group riders for about 8 miles. For me, that is a real accomplishment! The really good news is that when I was dropped, I had company-- there was this nice State Farm agent (also named Scott) with whom I was able complete the circuit.

Monday's Ride

Tuesday's Ride

This past Sunday I paddled with the Cedar Valley Paddlers. There was quite a group of them at Sweet Marsh. We saw some bird (not so many ducks), and had a nice paddle and an even nicer barbecue afterward. I put together a YouTube of the paddle:

A Bicycle Built for Two

2010-03-27T17:45:00.009-05:00

Kathy and I have been pretty sold on the idea of pedaling our own bikes but we decided to give a tandem a try today. It was harder than I thought it would be. After getting great instruction from Tom on how to stop and start, I wobbled across the street heading right for the curb on the other side pretty sure that tandem riding was for those more skilled than us. We took a few trips around the block and got a little more practice starting and stopping, and eventually we felt comfortable enough to go for a 20 miler with Tom and Pat.

Kathy is recovering from an injury, It used to be called game keepers thumb, because people who raise rabbits get it from strangling too many bunnies. When skiing got more popular than strangling rabbits, they started to call it skier's thumb from a common injury that skiers get when the fall with their hand wrapped around their ski pole. I am thinking we should rename it biker's thumb because that is how she got it-- a flat front tire on a sharp corner. Anyway she is under strict orders to stay off her bike, so we tried our friends Tom and Pat's tandem (Well it wasn't her bike and she didn't have to steer or brake).

I think we could get used to this kind of riding but I am pretty sure Kathy is not ready to trade in her road bike just yet :-)

A Stand Up Day on the Crooked Straight River

2010-03-26T21:17:00.014-05:00

I got home Thursday night with enough time to ride with the Owatonna Group. I was a good ride. It was a great night for a ride but I found myself mind wanting to go a little faster than my body could deliver. (Now that I think about it, that is usually the way it works for me :-). Todd was in good form, setting the pace on his XC bike. I was trying to keep him insight on my road bike.

While we were riding, Dave asked if I wanted to paddle with him on Friday, and I decided that I would give my new SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) a try. It is possible that a 30 mile 6 1/2 hour paddle might be a little far for the first paddle of the year, but It did give me a good feel for the new board and gave me a couple of ideas for future modifications.

I also learned a couple things about SUP's on rivers. I stared out with a 4.5 inch fin but found that it did not help the tracking enough so I switched to the 6 fin still pretty small by SUP standards. It helped the tracking but it still was a little like paddling a whitewater C-1 (tends to go in a circle) My fear about using a surfboard fin turned out to be correct. The problem is that with a rigid fin sticking down below, impacts with rock throw you right off the board.

I was thrown from the board twice in rapids, and once from my general clumsiness. This is definitely going to be a helmet, shin guard, knee pads, elbow pads kind of actively.

We Were Tourists

2010-02-27T11:59:00.013-06:00

About noon today we got new of the earthquake in Concepcion, Chile. Our thoughts and prayers are with our friends there. We are in Costa Rica on this trip but the original plan was to be in Chile, and if we were there we would very likely have been in Concepcion today....

Yesterday we did some real touristy things, and I was skeptical, but the canopy tour with zip-lines in the cloud forest was a real rush! There were 14 lines and the longest one was a kilometer long. We had a guy in our group who runs a challenge course in the US and he assured us that the safety procedures here were not near as stringent as they are in Oregon, but no one fell that we saw. Take a look at this video to get an idea what it was like:

AND, if you really want to hear Kathy scream, play this one:

In the afternoon, the girls toured a coffee plantation, and had a great time with Don Juan, the founder/flirt of the plantation. They found out all about coffee production, and heard a really convincing story about why Don Juan is not a fair trade plantation (apparently there is a rather high fee for certification and is too expensive for such a small plantation -- they actually pay higher wages than required to be considered fair trade).

Today we went on a hike to a great little water fall south of Monteverde. It was a short hike, but the view was spectacular. I even went for a swim. It is hard to believe that the water can be this cold in the tropics!

This afternoon I went up into the Monteverde Biological Preserve in hopes of seeing a quetzal. I did not see one but I had a great guide and added about 10 new birds to my list.

Kathy and Linnea went to the Monteverde cheese factory (that is really how we ended up here-- Linnea is always looking for the new culinary experience.) This area was settled by Quakers who objected to registering for the draft following World War II and 4 of the founding members were sent to federal prison for one year and a day. They immigrated to this country because at the same time Costa Rica abolished their army following their civil war.

From Hot and Dry to Wet and Cold

2010-02-25T20:16:00.007-06:00

We left the heat of the Nicoya Peninsula and headed for the cloud forest in Monteverde. We took the ferry over to Puntarenas (Ty, the ferry really wasn't all that scary, not all that different than the ones we took in the San Juan's). We had an other flat tire, but it didn't take all that long to fix. I think they are pretty common here :-)

From Puntarenas we headed up the mountins into the cloud forest around Monteverde and Santa Elena. We found a nice funky place to stay and the folks seem a lot more down to earth than the rather stiff Belgians that were our hosts at Cabuya.

Tonight we did a night hike in the cloud forest near where we are staying. It was a great hike, but we did not see all that all that much in terms of wildlife. The interesting thing about this cloud forest was how similar it is to what we know. They have the the same raccoon we have, there are raspberries, and blackberries, along with some really exotic species too like toucans, and anteaters.

Tomorrow we are going to participate in what has to be a Costa Rican tradition-- the canopy tour with zip line descest all the time innts. It is the only thing that Alysson says she will be disappointed if we don't do.

(Joel, you might notice what it missing in this picture-- hint it rains almost all the time in cloud forests too).

What a difference a day makes

2010-02-24T19:35:00.004-06:00

It is amazing how our perception of a place can change! When we got to Cabuya, we were tired and crabby from a 12+ hour long drive on rough roads. Finding a less than wonderful place to stay, meant that we were more than ready to head further down the 4x4 path in the morning. When we found Mal Pais to be a little too touristy for us and it looked like the whole west coast was going to be pretty much the same, we came back and found a better place to stay right on the ocean and a new appreciation for Cabuya!

We found a nice beach with almost no other people on it to spend a few hours. We ate mangos with our feet in the ocean and the occasional wave splashing them with salt. It was a good afternoon with only a little bit of sunburn.

Today we drove down the end of the road on the Nicoya Peninsula and did a hike in Cabo Blanco National Park. The hike was not all that far, about 5 miles round trip, but it was steep and hot, (so yes John and Kat, I am considering this a level 4+ hill workout). We saw several blue morpho butterflies on the way. There was a nice beach at the end of the trail, so it was a nice way to cool off half-way through the hike. I was able to get a little visibility snorkeling and saw some interesting fish. This is not a coral reef area, and I was surprised how little there was in terms of aquatic life.

Tomorrow, we head over toward Monteverde and the cloud forests there.

A Little More Time To Blog

2010-02-23T16:10:00.012-06:00

I have a little more time to blog now that we are not in a German coffee shop in the middle of a 400 km drive on Costa Rican roads, some of which might be considered single track, if I were on my mountain bike. We are so thankful for the recommendations that our host at Alajuela Tropical Hostel gave us. They have really made the trip! The waterfall at Baja del Toro and the lodge at Laguna del Largarta where fantastic.

I think one of my favorite photos so far was on this green basilisk. It is one of those lizards that can run across the water, but this one was doing to squirrel on the back side of the tree thing with me :-)

We have been seeing birds here that I have always wanted to see, and here they are fly right up the the perches that the folks at Laguna del Lagarta have right in front of the deck where they serve food. Yesterday's drive was a long time in the car (like 12 hours) and on these roads that was a little long even for me. When we finally got to Cabuya, the place we found on the internet was not all that great, The "junglow" felt like it was going to fall down, we had planned to stay here for several nights but decided to leave in the morning to find a better place in Mal Pais. As it turns out Mal Pais is a big surfing town like Tamarindo and it seemed a little too much like a tropical version of Hayward WI (not that we don't like Hayward, it is just that we were looking for something a little more remote, and peaceful.) We ended up back in Cabuya at a place just down the road that is run by a Belgian couple and it is just grand.

I promised a few more pictures:

Green and Black Poison Dart Frog

Our guide said this was called the Red Hot Lips Flower in English but it has a different name in Spanish if you happen to know our travelling companion Alysson you might ask her, and while you are at it you could ask about some of the subtle differences between Mexican Spanish Costa Rica Spanish :-)

On the way to Cabuya we ran across a family of howler Monkeys. A different family kept us wake during the night :-)If you know Kathy very well, you know how unusual a shot like this is, but it was really hot....

A Long Way Out!

2010-02-22T10:50:00.006-06:00

We left Alajuela early in the morning on Saturday and headed North. Talking to Alanzo, out host we decided to by-pass La Fortuna and head to Baja del Toro, a waterfall that he recommended because it did not have as many people as the one at La Fortuna. It was a gorgeous place! A 150 meter fall, and a rather aggressive hike (especially back uphill) to get there and back.

We stayed at the lodge/restaurant where the people were quite nice, Alysson met a new friend, and apart from some major sparks from the Central American shower in our room. It was a great night!

In the morning, we took a chance and headed further north almost to the Nicaraguan border to another place that Alanzo told us about. We had sent them an email to see if they had room for us but we were not able to get online so we didn't know if the 40 km drive on the road with coconut sized gravel was going to yield us a place to stay or not.

We got the last 2 rooms at La Laguna del Lagarto Lodge. We had an exceptional hike in the rain forest, seeing many poison dart frogs, a couple of species of Toucan, and OMG, a nesting Great Green Macaw! There are only about 200 left in the wild and maybe 30 breeding pairs.

That night they had a cayman feeding event. Pretty amazing, the German speaking Tico would call them out of the lagoon and up they would come for some chicken scraps.

Hopefully we will have wireless tonight so that I can say some more and post some more photos!

The View From Last Class

2010-02-19T15:46:00.002-06:00

Well, we got our Costa Rica tickets through Cheapo Air, and I am thinking they lived up to their name, the seats were not all the inexpensive, but they were a little cheap, seeing as how two of the three flights that it took to get here we sat in the very last row of the plane (as far from first class as you can get). There advantages and disadvantages to being in the last row. On the positive side you don't have far to go to get to the restroom, but on the down side, you are right next to the restroom (if you know what I mean). On the positive side you get to see them getting the drink and snacks ready, but on the down side, you also get to see them roll that cart all the way to the front and slowly work there way back to you while you are hoping they won't run out before they get back to you.

We got to CR a little late and when we got to the car rental place, they didn't have the 4 wheel drive that we reserved, so they gave us a Prius with the assurance that they will deliver our mid-sized 4x4 in the morning. So we will see.

Tomorrow we are head up north to La Fortuna and the volcanos and hot springs!

The New Board

2010-01-19T22:08:00.006-06:00

I have gotten the blank for the new SUP just about ready to go! I made a few modifications, over what I posted below. First of all I have been trying to get an idea how to do the rocker on a SUP and the truth is I have not been able to find all that much out, apart from a few general comments on the Stand Up Zone like the one I read that said there are some "crazy flat rockers out there." I suppose that is compared to your average surfboard. The problem for me is figuring out what the profile might look, and that is pretty hard to visualize this far from anyone else making boards. I can get an idea of overall shape, there are plenty of top views on the internet, but there are no side views like there usually are for sea kayaks. So, I decided to go with what I know. I cut the plywood stringer that runs down the center of the board with rocker close to what an Epic kayak has, 1 1/2 front and back, fairly sharp in the front and slow in the back.

While I was at it I moved the center on mass back making it more of a swede form than the fish form of the Stewart Campbell board shape I started out with. It is a good thing these boards are not as labor intensive as building a strip kayak, or I don't think I would be quite so inventive with my shaping.

A New SUP

2010-01-01T17:26:00.008-06:00

Well, in usual fashion, about the time I get through with my first (insert something new that I just made), I start another, sleeker, hopefully faster version. Well, now that I have more-or-less finished my first SUP, I am starting another. This one will be 18 feet long, 4 inches narrower, have a much rounder bottom. If I am able to stand on it, hopefully it should be faster.  

I am again starting with a photo of one of Stewart Campbell's boards, and then drawing it up and establishing dimensions with Illustrator, supplying the details and profile by thinking of a fast kayak. We will see how that works!

  I ordered a couple of fins. It is still not clear to me what is the right way to fin a SUP for a river. Most of the rivers I would be likely to run will have shallow spots. The problem is that most SUP fins are long-- 10 to 12 inches. I think that a long fin will hit bottom and may negatively affect the kind of maneuverability that running a river will take. I ordered a 4 inch fin (designed to be a thruster) and a 4.5 inch fin. We will see, and I am sure eventually I will be making them :-) 

There is Good Snow on the Birkie Trail!

2009-12-30T16:08:00.008-06:00

We got up to Hayward for a couple of days after Christmas. It sure is great that Kathy's sister and her husband built a cabin up there, it make it a lot easy to get there especially in the winter!! They do not have as much snow in Hayward as we have in Southern Minnesota and Iowa, but they do such a great job of grooming the Birkie trail that the skiing was great. They have instituted a parking fee to help pay for trail maintenance. $10 a day for a car is a bargain for such a good trail.

It was a really quick trip so I only got a couple of opportunities to ski. The first day was a slightly icy, it got above freezing on Saturday and by the time I got out on the trail, it was just before dark, and it was starting to ice up a little. Over night it snowed an inch or so and after they rolled the trail it was about as good as it ever is.

As for the skier, my heart rate pretty much max'es out on the hills this time of year until I can get myself a little more economical in terms of the exertion it takes me to skate up the hills:-) Sunday's Route and Heart Rate Data

SUP, And What Is That You Say?

2009-12-25T17:54:00.003-06:00

This is my latest watercraft - a Stand Up Paddleboard. Apparently, Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) is the hot new sport in some parts of the world. I had vaguely heard of it but truthfully had never even seen a picture when my friend Ty decided that we should inaugurate a new sport in the mid-west-- running rivers on SUP's. Of course neither of us wanted to buy a board, for all we know, we might not like it, so we decided to make them. The board to the left used to be a block of pink insulation foam, but with some work with a planner and a few layers of fiberglass here it is now.

I took my rough shape from Stuey Campbell's 12'6" Penetrator. From what I read, his design is more of an immersion hull (like a kayak or canoe) than a surfboard which most seem to be adapted from. I was not able to get much a sense of how much rocker to add. I shaped what seemed like a little rocker in the front, maybe an inch over the first few feet and less in the back. It has a dropped deck (about 2" from the top) and a pair of scuppers in the back to drain any water that might come over the sides.

I made a couple of paddles so I could try it out, never mind that it is the middle of winter in Minnesota. I am pretty sure that I must be the first SUP'er on the Straight River. It was a traffic stopping affair in Owatonna on Christmas Day!

I think Stand Up Paddleboarding is going to take a little practice to get completely comfortable with. The dropped deck seems like a good addition because it lowers your feet closer to the water surface, and it helps to keep your feet toward the center of the board. I do not have a fin yet but you can see from the video that I am probably going to need a big one to get this thing to track. It is a good thing I put that fin box in the bottom.

Sighting in the Conquest Pro

2009-11-12T10:38:00.003-06:00

Ok, so here is the deal. I was thinking about going deer hunting this weekend (emphasis on the was). I have not been doing much hunting lately, but I needed to pick some things up in Duluth this weekend, and it is deer season in Minnesota, and I was pretty sure my friend Steve would have thought it was a fine idea. Being a little impulsive, I came up with this plan last Thursday, and got it approved by the family powers that be. Then I got sick and basically slept for the whole weekend last week (that means the garage still needs cleaning), and Kathy pointed out that we eat red meat maybe once a month and if I actually got a deer it would be about a 10 year supply, not to mention that she and Linnea are not all that fond of venison to start with so it would probably last even longer. So the deer are safe from me this year! But there was a nice tree stand just off the loop we were doing our intervals on today so I decided to mix sports a bit...

Today's workout was suppose to be 4x90 second race paced intervals which John and Kat rounded that up to an even 10. This was my first real workout since getting sick, apart from and intermittent bloody nose, it felt pretty good. We did them on the usual loop in George Wyth Park and put one set of barriers in the course. I apparently pushed the wrong button on my monitor so I did not record my HR data but my heart rate was lower than usual, but my perceived effort did not seem less than usual.

It is nice to be back riding again!

I Had a Nice Ride on Thursday and Have Been in Bed Ever Since

2009-11-08T09:00:00.006-06:00

I decided to come back to Owatonna on Thursday, because I had a full weekend of things to do back in Iowa. After doing the interval workout that was planned I met up with a couple of guys from the Owatonna group who were planning a night ride. They showed up on road bikes (I was on my CX bike) and after trying to hang on at over 20 mph in the dark I decided to let them go. I came back into town at a nice easy pace but about 20 minutes after I got home it was clear, I have the flu! I had the chills, and a headache, and a cough, and almost all of the H1N1 symptoms. Now it is Sunday and I have really not been out of bed since Thursday night. I am really glad to have the opportunity to slowly build my immunity to this particular virus!

On a non-training note I have started to shape the Stand Up Paddle board. I have done enough to observe that surfboard shaping is a really messy job! This feels so much like when I made my first sea kayak. I had never been in a kayak when I made my first. I have never tried Stand Up Paddling. It could be could be I will not like it or I will not have enough balance to stand on the thing :-) I do think it would be funny to see a group of them coming down the Cedar River. . .

Woah Today's Workout Counted!

2009-11-03T13:11:00.003-06:00

Monday was a nice easy recovery ride. We stayed on the roads, didn't work all that hard. It was a bit windy but the ride was excellent.

Tuesday we were back into the real training again. The plan called for intervals 2 mins. on 2 mins. off; 1:30 on 1:30 0ff; then 1 min. on 1 min. off, then 3o seconds on 30 seconds off. We did 3 sets of these intervals on the practice fields behind the dome. The grass was wet and the ground was soft in some places. We were suppose to be in zone 5b-5c. When I look at the charts for the workout I am not sure I made it, I had 2 minutes in Zone 5a. The 5a time all came at the end of the 2 minute intervals so I wonder if this might be a matter of my heart not catching up with my effort. I sure hope so, because I cannot imagine pushing much harder. In fact it was good that John and Kat where there or I might have pushed a lot less :-)

Today's Interval workout

I am still trying to decide if I am going to go for the run that is on the plan for today. It is so easy to skip them, but I do think they help.

Red Barn CX Classic

2009-10-31T18:24:00.006-05:00

I was in Minnesota this weekend, so I looked to see what races there might be. (The Twin Cities is not far away). I saw this race, and when I looked at the flyer it said it was at the Erickson Bros. Tree farm near Taylor's Falls, and I was thinking "hum, if I remember right I there was this guy name Erickson who started a tree farm with his brother somewhere." When I looked a little closer I saw that there was a Erick Erickson who was the race director, and I was thinking "hummm if I remember right, Paul Erickson had a son named Erick." So I didn't know anyone at the race except one of the tree farm bros. and the race director who was about 6 mo. old the last time I saw him, but at least I knew someone!

It was a nice race course, about 1 3/4 miles per lap. It was mostly flat, winding around the Christmas trees, there were 2 run ups, one short and muddy the other long and steep. There was an interesting technical section of 180's on the septic system mound, and a few mud pits. All and all it was a fun course. I was quite a was down among the finishers, BUT it didn't get lapped by any of the 45+ riders.

Red Barn CX race data

A Recovery Week

2009-10-30T21:26:00.003-05:00

This week was a recovery week. Thursday was a high cadence, low heart rate workout. I tried to keep my cadence around 100, but I found myself getting a little impatient with the low effort and my heart rate climbed toward the end. It is great to have John and Kat to train with, especially on a grey day just before a downpour. It would have been pretty easy to roll over and go back to sleep.

Thursday's Cadence workout

Friday I was back in Owatonna, and did a short 10 ride in Kaplan's woods. It has been windy the last couple of days so it was great to be in the protection of the trees. My calf muscle is not completely healed, and I spent a fair amount of time running up the hills.

Friday's workout in Kaplan's Woods

The Last Week or So

2009-10-26T13:50:00.007-05:00

Last week was one of those stressful weeks where the race on the weekend served more as a stress reliever than a chance to perform well. On Tuesday we set up a practice course at Washington park and as we were pre-riding what was suppose to be a race simulation, something that felt a little like a big rubber band snapped in my left calf muscle. Needless to say that was the end of the race simulation. The injury does not appear all that bad but the rest of the week was so busy getting ready for the annual lock-in we sponsor for 400 middle school and junior high kids that I did not have another chance to get out riding. So I came in the the race lacking both training and sleep. Still, all and all it was a pretty good race, the course was excellent. It would have been really fast if we had not had as much rain as we have had. As it was it was pretty slow and soggy.

Psyclofest Heart Rate and Speed Data

On Monday Kathy and I had a nice easy ride on the roads around Owatonna. It sure is getting dark early these days. We came in with our lights on. Tuesday I did some easy riding in Kaplan's Woods Park in Owatonna.

Neither Rain nor Snow.....Hummm...... Actually............

2009-10-13T17:18:00.003-05:00

I would not be winning any blogging awards lately! But my training is hanging in there pretty well, around rain storms and snow falls anyway. Today was a great day in Iowa, and the plan called for practice starts. Where you get clipped in and go as fast as you can for 90 seconds. We did 2 on pavement, and 5 on the trail north of Black Hawk park. The trail was rough in places with plenty of recently fallen leaves and sticks to make for an interesting time: Tuesday's Bike workout.

Later I did a nice easy run on the trails in Hartman Reserve. I was looking for some hills to run on and there were enough there to get my heart rate high enough. Tuesday's Run.

This past Sunday I raced the Vande Cross in Moline IL. The race was 60 minutes. I think that is the longest cross race I have done. The course was great, I stayed under control for the whole race-- it was a good day! Vande Cross race data

Wow I have not blogged for a long time!

2009-09-28T11:57:00.004-05:00

It has been a while, quite a while, since I have written! Since then I have paddled in Yellowstone, and in the San Juan Islands. I have finished the front half of the roof. A new school years is well underway.

As often happens with me in mid to late summer I loose some of my motivation to train, and this year was no different. But I am back riding again, have been for the last few weeks. My first cross race of the year was yesterday, and like most races, I do not measure my accomplishment so much in terms of how I place, if I did I would quit! So I was 7th out of 10. Not all that good of a place but I felt good and I am glad I was there. It always seems that I need some sort of event to keep my riding, or paddling, or whatever going.

Here is my heart rate data from the race.

A Kinder Gentler A Group and Saved by a Train

2009-07-28T19:35:00.006-05:00

I rode with the Bike Tech "A" group again tonight, and for the first time I pretty much stayed in contact for the whole ride, that's a first. Wel,l I was helped a little by the train that crossed the road east of Finchford, but all the same I did not fall competely off the back (like usually happens :-) We did the Finchford loop, the group pretty much stayed together until the sprint up the hill into Finchford, I couldn't hold the pace and I dropped back into the second group, and stayed there until we caught the leaders waiting for the train. Then the was a nice fast ride into Janesville and back into Cedar falls (The group split in Janesville (I guess some wanted the fun to last a little longer). Tuesday night's group ride

On Monday night I rode out to Dike and around through Hudson and Waterloo for a nice easy 48 miler. (It did wonders for my crabby attitude). Monday night's ride

Saturday I rode with the Owatonna Group. I was lazy and was not able to convince myself to get out of bed to go with Kathy on the 7:00 am coffee ride, so I joined the 9:00 group and we did the 4 churches loop for windy 40 miles. Saturday's ride

I Little Singletrack, and Nice Ride Up and Back

2009-07-22T15:39:00.009-05:00

On Wednesday I got out my "vintage" MTB and did a little fat tire riding. John and Kat are getting ready for the Leadville 100, and I am getting ready for "who knows what." Anyway we rode up to the Boy Scout camp and did a lap around the trails on the south side. After a little side trip through the nettles trying to find the south trails). It looks like they have been working on the trails-- they were in great shape. I always forget how fun it is to ride trails like these! With the ride up and back it made for about 35 miles. Wednesday's mountain bike ride

I went back to Owatonna on Thursday afternoon so I was able to ride with the group up there. It was a fairly easy 35 mile ride (after we got about 10 miles of speed out of the way). Thursday night's group ride

Overdrive!!!

2009-07-21T20:48:00.003-05:00

Every year about this time I end up getting really busy with things that interrupt my routine (yes I do sorta have one) and my training takes a big hit. The last couple of weeks I have gotten a lot done-- sculpted a complete set in worship furnishings for an event up at Luther College, made 26 sterling and bronze crosses, preached a sermon every night for most of a week, went camping, paddled my kayak (family speed) in Lake superior. What I haven't done is ride my bike. That's right, it has been almost 2 weeks.

So you might wonder what possessed me to ride with the Cedar Falls "A" group tonight. I am kinda wondering that myself. On a good night, when I am well trained I really can't keep up with them. All-in-all it was a good ride. They slowed down 4 times during the ride, and then they would start off at a pace that was slower than usual for a few miles and than slowly turn on the speed till as Carl described it "your eyes crossed." That happens to me at a much slower speed than it does for Carl!

The ride was a bit over 40 miles and it did feel good to get back in the saddle again. Tuesday Night's route and ride data.

Neither Wheels or Paddles or Even Skis

2009-07-08T21:34:00.008-05:00

Ok, this really doesn't have much of anything to do with wheels, paddles, or skis, apart from the fact that I have been working pretty much non-stop on these worship pieces for the last few days and haven't even had time to ride or paddle. Some months ago I agreed to make a set of worship furniture for a youth event at Luther College. Well like usually happens with me, I did give it quite a bit of thought, I even made the large free standing cross a month ago (well to be completely honest it is not free standing yet-- but it well be!)

I decided to confine myself more-or-less to things that were left over from lasts year's serve weather. The wood for the cross came form the Cedar River which flooded, and for the rest I decided to use the wood from a maple tree that blew down at the Center. The problem was, that apart from a large section of the trunk of the maple tree that I used for the top of the altar, the rest was sawn up into firewood sized pieces. That meant finding a way to join the pieces together in a way that would both look good and would be functional. (The top of the altar weighs about 150 pounds, so the base has to be both strong and stable.)

I am happy with the baptismal font stand. The font itself will be a vessel of some sort (I have not seen it yet) that was savaged from Parkersburg last year after the tornado. I am still deciding if I am happy with the altar. I wanted both of these pieces to have a sense of destruction and recreation in them, so there are both sanded and finished surfaces, and split surfaces. The altar base seems a little clunky to me, but it will be good enough for next week, and after that I will either get used to it or rework it later :-)

The Austin Race

2009-07-05T21:48:00.005-05:00

On Sunday Kathy and I came home via Austin Minnesota and raced in a 25 mile road race there. It was a great day and the conditions were excellent . This race has been grow lately and I think there were about 105 racers in the mass start, including a big group from Silver Cycling in Lakeville, and a group of 26 from Owatonna. That is really a little hard for me to believe that Owatonna could field that many riders!

Kathy won her age class! Yea Kathy!!! It was fun to watch her come across the line.

I am clearly stronger than I used to be on the bike, but I am beginning to think I am dumber too. I felt good for the first half of the race, really good. Hung in with the lead pack, and here is the dumb part I felt so good, about 10 miles into the race, I went off the front with a breakaway group and before I knew it I was leading the breakaway into the wind! dumb, dumb, dumb. Next thing I know I look down at my heart rate monitor and I am at level 5.1! Woah that was not going to last for long, when we switched to a crosswind and then a tail wind I was majorly out of gas, and I sorta limped in about 5 minutes after the winner.

It was a good day and a nice race! It was good to see all of the Owatonna people, and to see this race grow!

A Great Weekend!!

2009-07-05T21:26:00.003-05:00

We went camping again this weekend! Wow, second weekend in a row! I have this great friend Steve, and he has this great piece of land down by Lansboro. You would think that going camping on the 4th of July is something that you would need reservations for and would be a invitation to a crowd. Well, for 3 out of the last 4, 4th of July's we have been able to camp "down on the creek," and there has never been another soul around! It is glorious.

Seeing as how there is a nice trout stream running right through the campsite, I did do a little fishing, (I got a MN license, and trout stamp just for the occasion). The fishing was not all that great but I did catch a few. Not bad for the effort I put in. I think I am loosing my "fishing patience" as I grow older. Here is the funny fishing story. So I get caught on the branch on the other side of the stream, and instead of walking across and unhooking it by hand I give the pole a snap, where upon the hook comes right straight at my mouth and hooks itself in my lip (I am thinking that if fish could laugh....

On Saturday Kathy and I got a 50 miler in on the Root River Trail. It was not as busy as we were expecting, but like all trail rides it did have its share of inattentive riders, but I guess that just adds to the excitement.

The Ride That Almost Didn't Happen

2009-07-02T23:47:00.003-05:00

Kathy and I rode to Lincoln school to meet up with the Owatonna group tonight. We forgot that some were going to head down to Austin to ride the race course for Sunday's race. We are both planning to do the race so Kathy decided to take the last place Larry had is his van and I after a little thought decided to ride home and drive myself down. Problem was Kathy locked the door to the house and had the key. They did come by (I was not sure where the race started in Austin), unfortunately Kathy did not have a key for the house. After I had more-or-less decided that I would have to stay home we realized Kathy did have a key to the car and a drivers license sooo we were off to Austin.

The race course is 25 miles, on some sweet roads north of Austin. We rode an easy ride with Ann, Andrew, Larry, Casey, and Jim. A light breeze out of the north made for a little extra work going out but a fast return when we headed south on the way back. It was a good night and good chance to ride the course before the race! Thursday's He art Rate and Route data

It looks like there are going to be over twenty people from Owatonna at the race on Sunday-- wow that's a big group! I wonder if there ever have been that many Owatonna folk participating in an out of town race? I guess I better wear my Straight River jersey so that I can be counted as a part of the group.

Two Easy and One Hard

2009-06-30T20:34:00.004-05:00

I have had a couple of nice easy rides the last couple of days. John and Kat are getting ready for the Firecracker 50 and the Triple By-Pass in Colorado and they are tapering. Tonight I went on the Bike Tech shop ride, It was pretty big group and they looked fast! They were. I am choosing to measure how I do on these rides based on how long I can stay with the them. Tonight I hung on for about 9 miles, falling off a mile or so from the corner north of Dike. They regrouped there and I was able catch back up with them and stay with for another 4 miles or so. Then I pretty much chased them all the way to Hudson BUT--I could see them almost the whole way that's an improvement over last time! Tuesday night's group ride

The Manatuk is Good!!

2009-06-28T16:09:00.005-05:00

I was hoping that there would be big enough waves to give my new surf kayak a try. Today was the day. The wind direction was not all that good (from the southeast) with the waves running more-or-less parallel to the north shore of the lake, but I did find a place on Stoney Point with maybe 2 1/2 foot waves, not the biggest but enough to give it a try.

This Kayak is the 8th one I have built (all Nick Schade designs), but this is the first plywood boat I have made. The Manatuk is a surf specific design, and I put boxes in the bottom for surf board fins (I have no idea if I will need them or not). Like all things I try for the first time it was a bit of a "learning" experience. I messed up the stain and ended up painting the boat. I installed the center fin box too far back so I might have to add another in front someday if it is a problem.

It seems to surf well. In my full sized sea kayaks, as soon as they start to gather momentum on the front of a wave, they lose their stability and want to go sideways and roll. This little 8 1/2 footer seems to track right down the front of the wave. I will be anxious to get it out in some bigger waves but so far it feels great!!! I am glad I made it.

Today Had None of yesterday's Amenities

2009-06-27T15:52:00.010-05:00

Well our plan for today was to get up early and ride to Grand Marais. That would have been about a 170 mile round trip. Well, today was not yesterday. Instead of warm, sunny, and calm-- it was cold, rainy, and windy, so we slept in. Then we went and got coffee and, the bears be damned, we took it right into the tent and drank it, (we were in a campground inside the city limits of Two Harbors). Finally about 10:00 we decided to give it a try, from Gooseberry to Little Marais instead, a much shorter ride-- about 60 miles total.

We drove up to Gooseberry State park so we could start on the Gitchi-Gami trail, and headed off in a light rain and medium head wind. Kathy was pretty sure that the reason we did not see anyone on the trail was how steep the hills were. There were a lot of steep bike trail signs to be sure, but I was thinking that it was the fact that it was windy, and wet, and cold. OK I better admit it. For years I have been likely to tell people how I used to call Kathy on the phone at work (which is inside and has no windows) and mention to her that it was raining or whatever and she would tell me "no, it says right here on weather.com... Well today we were in the tent deciding what to do and I pulled up Accuweather on my Iphone to look at the radar to see what the rain was doing. I could get Two Harbors to come up but for some reason the radar image would not. She was commenting on how cold it was, and I said-- "no it is not all that cold, it is 75, it says so right here on my Iphone..... Ooops, she pointed out that you can't see your breath when it is 75

We rode up the length of the trail, and then on toward Little Marais on the North shore drive, This road varies from being a good bike friendly road with a nice wide shoulder-- to a narrow 2 foot wide path between the white line and the guard rail. There was a nice shoulder heading out of Silver bay, but it ended a few miles north of Ilgen City, so we turned around a little early, making for a 52 mile ride.

Sea Kayaking on Lake Superior

2009-06-26T20:41:00.008-05:00

Kathy has not been sea kayaking all that much lately and we have a trip to the San Juan Islands planned for September so I really wanted to get her on the water and have it be a good experience. Today was the day! We put in at Split Rock Creek (might be river, but it was creek sized as far as I could tell.) and paddled up around the lighthouse to the Madeira wreck site, and back, (about 8 miles). The wind was calm, the water cold, and the sun was bright-- can't get much better than this on Lake Superior.

I had not put in at Split Rock creek before, and I really wanted to save the State Park sticker and the special entrance fee they charge to get into the light house area. BUT this did take a little work-- dragging the kayaks about 75 yards down to the creek (and more to the point back up when we were done), and going under the highway, and out into the lake.

The lake was pretty much calm as glass for most of the paddle up and around the lighthouse. After getting Kathy's skeg down she was able to paddle just as straight as me :-) (The kayak she was paddling has a lot of rocker and so it turns really well but it does not like to go straight).

It was a great day! Tomorrow we are planning to bike up the North Shore drive for a long (maybe very long) road bike.

An Even Hotter Day in Iowa

2009-06-23T17:59:00.005-05:00

These last few days have been really hot! Tuesday's ride was easy. A nice 35 mile recovery ride in levels 1 and 2. You know it is humid when you pour water over your head in the middle of the ride and it does not get any cooler.Tuesday's Data

Thursday I did hill intervals with Kat in the morning on Lookout drive. These were quick 30 second sprints, but this is the steepest hill I know of in Cedar Falls and between the heat and the steepness, I was ready to stop after 20. Thursday Morning's hill intervals

I was back in Owatonna Thursday evening supposedly getting ready for out trip to lake Superior for a long weekend of paddling and riding. Kathy really wanted to ride with the group for a little while (ended up being 38 miles. I rode on Todd's wheel for about 14 miles or so, and then he just pedaled away from me (like usually happens :-), after that I slowed up a bit and rode back into town with Kathy and the "B" riders. Thursday Evening's group ride

It's Hot in Iowa

2009-06-22T12:25:00.003-05:00

It was hot in Iowa, I think the distortion on my Iphone camera is about right for today, a little bit like melting. One of things I really like about biking, as compared to running on a day like today is that it is still relatively comfortable on a bike in spite of the heat and humidity. You just have to keep the water going through. Today's ride was a 50 miler with an hour's worth of level 3 speeds in the middle 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and 20 minutes. For the first 2 I drafted behind John and Kat, coming out into the wind when my Heart rate dropped below 3. The last one I did myself, and of course I was quite a bit slower (but my heart rate was higher). Monday's Data

100K and Get Me To The Church On Time

2009-06-20T22:52:00.004-05:00

I was really wanting to get a long ride today in today, but I really had a wedding I had to officiate at, at 4:00. I met up with John and Kat and we headed west of town and into a light wind. They were planning to get 5 hours of saddle time in, I was hoping to get 100km in before my wedding at 4. after a couple hours, I turned south and headed into Parkersburg and then zig zagged the gravel roads on the way back watching both the time and the distance. I got back to town with 65 miles, and time to spare. It was a great day for a ride!! I seem to appreciate good weather even more considering how likely it has been to rain on my bike ride lately. Saturday's Ride

Back in the Kayak Again

2009-06-18T18:28:00.002-05:00

Between Thunder storms I got a 10 mile or so kayak in today on the Wapsipinicon river. My friend Reece saw a nice Burl that he had to have when he was paddling there a couple of weeks ago. I volunteered to help, as it turned out it was a pretty good paddle as well. We put in quite a ways down stream of the drift wood in question, passing under a couple of bridges before we got to it. I towed it about a half mile (that was a pretty good paddling workout in itself) and then left it under a bridge that we could drive to so that I would not have to tow it the whole way back to the truck, it was a lot of work especially when the heavy piece of wood when aground, which happened fairly often. Anyway it was a good paddle. Then came the strength training part, rolling that great big hunk of wet wood up the bank and lifting it into Reece's pickup. It was a good day all in all, so much fun that I forgot to take any pics.

Race Paced Intervals

2009-06-17T15:35:00.005-05:00

Today's intervals were longer. Long enough that I would not be able to stay above my LT for the length of the interval. They were suppose to be sub threshold efforts for 20 minutes. My data looks like I was on the low side of zone 4 top of zone 3 most of the time. If I have my zones figured correctly (which I may not have) I should have been working a little harder today! This workout felt good-- I was noticing the lag between my effort and my heart rate today. Most of the time I was drafting behind John or Kat and then I would come out into the wind to "adjust" the resistance to keep my heart rate at the right level, but I would have to come back into the draft before my HR got to the right level or it would continue to rise for 30 seconds or so even though I was drafting, and I had to come out of the draft well before my heart got down to the bottom of the range or it would continue to drop for a while even while I was out in the wind.
Wednesday's workout

The Mysterious Case of the Foaming Shorts

2009-06-16T12:27:00.003-05:00

Today was my first workout after the team time trial on Sunday-- I did have a couple of 3 mile power walks with my daughter, but I am not really counting them. Today's workout was 15, 30 second hill sprints which we did in the rain on the trails around Prairie Lake. There probably would have been too many people out and about on the trails to do intervals there if the weather was better, but today, apart from a few die hard fisher folk, we were the only ones around. I felt remarkably good today! Tuesday's interval workout data.

The strange thing about today was the way my bike shorts oozed foam! There are pictures of this phenomenon but I am not going to post them. John and Kat did seem to enjoy telling me that my hind end was dripping foam, and apparently, the harder I worked the more foam I produced. In retrospect I am thinking that the problem could be a faulty rinse cycle last night when I washed the shorts, but of course one cannot be completely sure...

The TTT

2009-06-14T20:12:00.004-05:00

I have never done a team time trial, and I was not really planning on doing this one. I had agreed to coordinate the volunteers for the race. There was always a possibility that I might race, but as of about a week ago we had found a group of 4 to make up a 3rd Bike Tech team, and I was thinking that it would probably be best is if focused on the volunteers and not on racing. Well Landon and Richard showed up at the race, and John had suggested that I bring my bike along just in case. Well with the three of us we could make a team-- we just couldn't have a flat tire lol. I am certain that I was the weakest link in our last minute team, but we seemed to work pretty well as a team (I am hoping I was not too much of a boat anchor for them!) We averaged a little better than 22 mph on the 58 mile course, which for me is exceptional.

I forgot to hit the record button on my GPS so the data is only for the 2nd and 3rd laps. I was able to keep my effort under control for the whole race-- mid to high level 4 when I was pulling, and then (and this surprised me) I was able to drop to level 2-3 in the draft. Sunday's race data.

La Porte Friday

2009-06-12T11:08:00.005-05:00

Today's ride was a nice 40 mile recovery ride. I met some new folks-- Jack and Liz, along with Dave and Kat we rode south and east of Waterloo on some great roads that were new to me. It was a great day and a great ride, apart from Davey being taken out by a motley pack of attach dogs a little west of La Porte.

There was a time, not so long ago when almost all of my ride time was like this-- fairly low intensity, wait for a warm day without much wind. This year has upped my intensity a bit, and that is great BUT--Today felt great! Friday's ride

Ok, I admit it, I am a little enthralled with all of the information that I can access from the Garmin 305 wrist GPS I usually have mounted on my handlebars. So I thought hmmmm-- I'll bet I can find the actual place and time where the dogs attached by looking at the data (I could). Then I thought hummm maybe I can get a better map maybe even a satelite photo of the location (I could). Maybe I have read too many spy novels in the past......

2 Ride Thursday

2009-06-11T19:59:00.004-05:00

This morning I rode with John and Kat for a short ride with a few hill sprints. Thursday morning's workout. They are getting ready to race the team time trial that the racing club is putting on this Sunday. I am helping with the volunteers and not racing so I really did not need to taper so I decided I would ride with the Thursday night "B" group. Problem was that there was no "B" group there was just Carl, and Steve, and Craig, and two of the trio that I am thinking Carl described as the "no mercy" crew in one of his last posts. I was hoping to hang on til we got out of town lol. I was able to stay with them till the SE corner of the Finchford loop, and then I was off the back. When I got back and looked at my HR data from the Thursday night ride it was not as high as I was thinking it might have been. I am not sure what that was about, but I have not rode with the A group before and I am thinking I was suffering a little from "the little engine that couldn't :-) but it was a nice evening and the wind was at my back on the way back into town, so what could be better?

Intervals and Drills

2009-06-10T12:11:00.005-05:00

Today's workout was intervals and drills. We used the roads in George Wyth State park (they seem to be our flat course of choice for intervals lately). We started with 1o x 10 second intervals with 50 second recoveries and then 8 x 1 minute intervals with 1 minute of recovery, ending with 8 sets of one foot drills, (1 minute right foot, 1 minute left, 1 minute recovery). These are getting a little easier for me but are still hard especially for the last 20 seconds or so when form seems to fall apart especially on the top portion of the stroke.
Wednesday's workout.

Tomorrow will be an easier day-- John and Kat are going to do a quick tapper for the Team Time Trial that Bike Tech Racing club is putting on this Sunday. I will be coordinating volunteers and so I do not plan to race, but an easier day will be OK :-)

Race Simulation

2009-06-09T16:59:00.004-05:00

Today's workout was a race simulation in Geo Wyth State Park. Karman joined Kat and John and I for a 30 minute level 4+ effort. Right about the time we got around the first lap a big group of elementary students walked up the bike path and stopped at the playground equipment next to our race course, so there were so children to watch out for everytime we went around the loop. eventually I figured out that it made more sense to go up on the road and ride around them. All in all, it was a good ride and from my data, it looks like I stayed a little more under control this week than last: Tuesday's race simulation.

Too Much Thursday

2009-06-04T21:14:00.003-05:00

I have gotten a little behind on blogging the last few days. Thursday was a fairly intense day of training for me. In the morning I rode with John and Kat and we did anaerobic endurance intervals on a C-57 north of Cedar Falls. The plan actually calls for a hill that is quite a bit steeper than we can find around here, but the main issue seemed to be getting back down to the bottom within the 3 minutes of recovery time that were planned between each interval. The workout was 3 x 3 minute, 3 x 2 minute, and 3 x 1 minute intervals with 3 minutes of recovery between each. It sure does help to do this sort of thing with other people! Thursday morning's workout data

On Thursday night I was back in Owatonna , and the group that showed up was big-- 25 plus. I ended up riding pretty hard again in the evening this made for a day just short of 80 miles with quite a bit of intensity-- enough intensity that I fell asleep trying to write this blog Thursday night lol! Thursday evening's group ride

My collection of kayaks has not been getting much use so far this year. I have been having a shoulder issue that has really been showing itself when I have been shingling the roof. It has been bad enough that I was not sure that I could paddle, so I have been avoiding paddling completely so far this year. This week I finally tested that concern. I needed to collect a little Cedar River drift wood for a cross that I needed to make for an event up at Luther later this summer. I paddled upstream about 2 1/2 miles and then back down-- it was OK

Intervals!

2009-06-03T11:29:00.004-05:00

The thing that is most different in the bike training that I am doing this year is that the workouts are not simply going out for a ride, sometimes hard, sometimes easy. They are much more structured and much more planned. In general I feel like my strength is better than usual but my endurance is not as good as it might be (I really have not been getting in as many long level 2-3 rides as I think I should).

Today the workout was intervals, 10 x 10 second intervals with 50 seconds of recovery. These seem to be short enough that your heart cannot catch up with the "on" portion of the interval, but today I did find myself feeling the lactic acid building in my legs in the last 3rd of them.
These were followed with 8 x 1 minute intervals with 1 minute of recovery. These are mentally much harder to do and I found myself "falling off" especially in the second to the last one where I was in Kat's draft.

After that we did pedal drills 60 rotations with only one pedal, followed by 60 with the other pedal, followed by 60 with both. I think I was suppose to have done 8 of these but the HR data looks like I only did 6 :-). These drills are much harder than I would have imagined. I seem to start off nice and smooth and them sometime after 30-40 rotations my pedaling gets very uneven at the top of the stroke and try as I might my leg seems to resist what my mind would have it do! Wednesday's workout data

Graduation Party and a Little Biking and More Links then I Ever Have Posted

2009-06-02T12:20:00.007-05:00

It really has been a little difficult to get much quality biking in lately-- roofing, painting, party preparations, the list of what else needs to be done is really long these days. Kathy and I had a good ride last Thursday evening with the Owatonna group, and the local paper came out to write a story about the Tuesday/Thursday group. Kathy is pretty much the longest active member these days. The Photo is from the Owatonna People's Press Article.

Saturday we took a little time from the last minute preparations for Kaia's party and rode in Carver's Death Race. The truth is my mind was not really in this race-- not that that would have made all that much difference, but I was thinking about all of the things I still had to get done that day. Anyway I got to ride this 25 mile, unofficial, unsanctioned, race with my good friend Kent. We have not done all that much together lately-- but he used to be my adventure race partner for a race we used to compete in, in Duluth every September, so we crossed the finish line together (5 & 6 of not that many). My Data from Saturday's race.

Today I met up with John and Kat. We did a 30 minute MTB race simulation on a loop in George Wyth State part that we used last year for cyclocross training quite a bit. It is a pretty flat loop but it is definitely off-road with a couple of technical issues to practice on. It was suppose to be a level 4 effort, I started out a little too strong, probably above my lactate threshold for the first 4 laps and then went a little harder for about 4 more (trying to keep up with Kat who looked really strong today!), and then my lactate level must have caught up with me and I dropped right to the high end of level 4 (what I calculate to be my lactate threshold). Tuesday's MTB race simulation

Back in Iowa, and Time to Breathe

2009-05-27T15:46:00.012-05:00

The last few days have been pretty much dedicated to painting, roofing, and general preparation for Kaia's graduation party next Sunday. So finding both the time and the energy to ride have been a little difficult for the last week or so.

Kathy and I rode with the Owatonna Group on Tuesday night, for me it was mostly a Level 3 low level 4 ride which after a day of roofing meant my legs had done just about all they were capable of on Tuesday! It is pretty hard to take a good picture on the fly with an Iphone-- You have to hit a virtual shutter button on the side of the other side on the phone while pedaling, and steering, and hoping you don't drop the darn thing. Anyway, I got Dave and Jim and my shoulder lol. But there is a nice advertisement for My Friend Richard's B&B in W ashington Iowa if you are ever in the area....

I have got a first layer of Carbon fiber on the bike frame now, I have decided that I will need to let the first couple of layers fully cure so the I can fill and fair out the imperfections that have become apparent now the the core is covered with CF. I have been trying to figure out a way to bond the dropouts to the top stays and chain stays. I chose Nova Cycle dropouts I did because they are set up for disk brakes. The issue is that I think they were really meant to be welded to an aluminum frame. The challenge is that I have to find a way to wrap them with CF well enough that they are not going to be a weak point. They have a ridge to strengthen them and that makes a sharp corners that is difficult to get the CF to wrap around. I have been thinking about this ever since I first attached them to the frame. Here is what I am trying, first I thickened some epoxy with fumed colloidal silica (my universal thickening agent of choice) to fill take up some of the space. I made some temporary inserts out of a couple pieces of bungee cord wrapped with electrical tape then I folded the CF around the corner and taped it into place-- more to come lol

My Mood is a Slave to the Weather

2009-05-23T23:49:00.005-05:00

We had a whole day of outside, getting the backyard garden ready for Kaia's graduation party planned, and the weather, and the weather was not cooperating very well. It started out as a gloomy rainy day in Owatonna, and I had a mood to match, but by mid afternoon the weather and my mood had cleared up a bit, so we did get some of the yard work done and Kathy and I got a nice 30 miler in, in the evening.

Kathy was trying out a heart rate monitor so we spend part of the ride at a little higher intensity to start to get an idea where her HR zones might be. toward the end I started stopping to harvest road ditch asparagus, the other thing that I have a hard time passing up this time of year (a nice dead morel/elm tree would would be the other).

Windy Wednesday

2009-05-20T10:59:00.010-05:00

Today was WINDY! but the good thing about Cedar Falls, is that the bike trails next to the river are pretty much out of the wind. I did the today's interval workout on the roads in George Wyth Park, that was pretty much out of the wind too. Anyway, the workout was a pyramid interval at Maximum intensity 10 seconds on 10 off, increases by 10 seconds up to 1 minute on with a minute of rest and back down. It sure felt like Maximum effort, but my heart rate was not anywhere near max. I am thinking that even with the 1 minute interval my heart did not have time to catch up to the effort:

Wednesday"s Pyramid Intervals

I the frame building front, I am starting to layup the carbon fiber with some 4.7 oz. unidirectional CF cloth. I started with some of the trickier odd shaped places like the bottom bracket area, and the junction of the top tube and down tube. It took me 4 pieces of CF and quite a bit of experimenting with a paper patterns to get the Bottom Bracket area covered. I might have a little too much overlap, but I think a little extra material down near the cranks will be a good thing!

I am getting pretty good at poking holes in electrical tape to let the excess resin out when I wrap the CF to compress it. I am thinking I should order a case of electrical tape because I am going to use a lot of it!

Does Roofing Really Count as Strength Training?

2009-05-19T22:12:00.004-05:00

I spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday roofing, except for a short one hour ride on Saturday, that is about all I did, apart from spending money on the things I did not remember to include in my estimate-- like metal drip edges, step flashings, 2x6's for the roof jacks, nails for the framing nailer- the list goes on and on. The good news is I am about 1/4 done, the bad news is wow I must really be a fool to do this myself lol!

Anyway, it is kinda nice to have to go to Iowa to get away from "the project." It gives my sore shoulder (and the rest of my body) a bit of a break. Today I rode with the Bike Tech "b" group. It was windy but the ride was nice-- about 24 miles mostly in zone 1 & 2 for me. Tuesday Night's data.

Numerically Challenged I am

2009-05-14T21:44:00.006-05:00

Today's workout plan was a set of pyramid intervals. 10 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, 20 on, 20 rest, continuing up to 1 minute on and one minute rest; then back down. Wow I cannot keep very good track of numbers to start off with and it seems to get worse when not enough oxygen is getting to my brain. The heart rate data from Thursday's workout should have been a nice progression up and down, but it looks like I got pretty confused! Oh well, it felt pretty good, and was a lot more fun than shingling (and it did not take nearly as long either!)

On a completely different note, I went out and found some morels this afternoon and dropped some off for my friend John this evening. Too funny-- he had 4 nice big ones growing right by his front door!

All Day Strength Training

2009-05-11T21:46:00.004-05:00

Today was a day of roofing! There are several positives about roofing. First of all it really is a strength training exercise, there are 4 layers of shingles to be pried off the roof, and it is a balance exercise, doing all of this on a 45 degree angle 25 feet in the air. (I am wearing a roofer's harness)

But the biggest positive about roofing is it gives me an appreciation for how hard some people work. There have been more than a few who have said I am crazy to be doing this myself, but it is the craziness of how plenty of people work everyday.

A Nice Day in Finchford

2009-05-09T21:33:00.007-05:00

I did not really commit to doing the Finchford race till a day or so ago. It was looking like there might not be enough people to help at the corners, so I made that my first priority. By Friday it looked like there was going to be enough so I decided to ride with the Cat 5's. So I rode the 9:00 race and then worked the corners for the next 2 races.

The race was good the first lap, then I got behind a crash, and had to stop long enough that I could not catch the pack again. So I made a couple of laps by myself until some of the others that were held up by the crash caught me and together we caught the guy who fell off the pack that I was trying to catch by myself for most of those 2 laps. They all out sprinted me to the finish, but the race felt pretty good all the same.

After That I spend the rest of the day on Corner 2, trying my best to stop traffic coming from the south so that the rider who went wide on the corner (that would be most of them) would not hit a motor vehicle. Wow that is a dance in its own right. Judging when to stop the cars and when to let them through is not always easy, and while most of the drivers were very understanding, one in particular did not think much of having to wait 30 seconds for the Cat 3 riders to clear the corner. Oh well the old adage that says "you only have one chance to make a good first impression" is certainly true for me with respect to Corn Belt Builders. . . (sometimes having a sign on the side of your truck is not an advantage.)

Finchford Roubiax Data

A good workout and TMI (for most people anyway)

2009-05-08T01:14:00.014-05:00

Great workout with John and Kat the morning-- 30 second intervals with 30 seconds of rest. Wow do they make you feel anaerobic! I was glad to be doing this around others people or it would have been difficult to maintain the intensity

Thursday's Data

This next part casued me to stay up way too late and was interesting enough for me to stay up even later writing this account.

OK, now I have the jig, and the foam core, so it is time to get to work on the details of laminating the composite. I etched the aluminum parts before bonding them with epoxy. I used West System 860, it is a two part etch that you paint on and them wash off, easy enough!

I understand that if the carbon fiber touches the metal parts directly it will make a battery of sorts and that will cause galvanic corrosion (not sure exactly what that is) BUT I put a piece of 4oz S-cloth around the bottom bracket shell and the head tube to provide a little fiberglass insulation. I plan to do the same for the rear drop outs.

I filled the void between the foam and the bottom Bracket shell and the head tube with micro balloons mixed with expoxy.

A couple of years ago I was looking for some carbon fiber at US Composite's website, and everything, I mean everything was out of stock and not available on account of the world wide shortage of carbon fiber cloth-- Except for some really heavy 18oz cloth. I bought a couple yards and then really had no use for it, until now anyway. I used 2 peices to go around the back (inside) of the bottom bracket shell and the head tube, so it wrapped around the metal parts and then left a tab to attach to when I laminate the rest of the CF.

Then I temporary taped down the CF cloth down against the foam core.

I let the epoxy cure around the Bottom bracket for 4 hours. When I took the tape off I discovered that The foam had shifted to one side. I was worried about this at the time because everything ended up under plastic and tape. I thought about how I might loosen the nicely etched and bonded metal from the composite. I thought out how big of a problem would it be if the BB stuck out 1/8 inch more on one side than the other. Then I realized I could cut the foam around the whole assemble and shift it back into postion and then re-epoxy it in place, and re-fair the foam-- that is what I did.

I repeated the same process with the head tube.

Tempo on Wednesday

2009-05-06T14:16:00.004-05:00

I had a meeting this morning so I could not ride with John and Kat. Instead, I went out after my meeting and did the level 3 tempo ride myself. It is a different sort of ride-- it is much easier, though not as fun, to maintain a fairly constant HR when you just have the hills to contend instead of moving in and out of John and Kat's draft to adjust the resistance on the pedals, along with the hills, and along with the regular sprints to catch back up with them.

Riding by myself today, reminds me how fortunate I am to have John and Kat to ride with as often as I do!!

Wednesday's Data

Hills and the End of the Academic Year

2009-05-05T23:32:00.004-05:00

Well, classes are over and we are in finals at UNI. That made our favorite hill on Walnut street a little less predictable than usual in terms of traffic. For me it was sort of a physical and mental workout where you had to be watching as you were exerting. We did 5 on Walnut Street and then, actually I only did 4 I had a flat and had to catch up after I got it changed. Then we moved over to Lookout hill and did 12x30 second more. Here is a link to my training data for today: Tuesday's workout

In between meetings and everything else today I finally got the foam core for my bike frame on the jig! Now I have a bunch of fixed attachment points so the places where I need to do some more straightening and fairing are really obvious. So far so Good!

A Great Weekend to Shingle--NOT

2009-05-05T00:09:00.004-05:00

Well this would have been a great weekend to ride. The weather was great, the wind was calm, It could have been a great weekend for a nice long ride or two. Instead I focused on strength training and my quads are a little sore to show for it. Carrying those bundles of shingles up and down the ladder, and doing those isometric exercises on un-level surfaces while I ran the nail gun re-shingling the garage roof was my training this past weekend. Currently the shingle score stands: one garage re-roofed and one house to go. The house is bigger and is going to be a lot more exercise on account of the steep roof!

I did get a little time in on a metal lathe turning the cones I needed to complete the fixtures for the bike jig I am making. It is just about ready to go. I just have a a little more truing and aligning and then I should be able to attach the foam core on the jig.

Kaia came down to CF with me this week, and I convinced her to go for an easy ride with me. We went north of Blackhawk Park. She was a very good sport considering there still are a few places where the water has not gone down enough to cross on dry land.

Tempo on Wednesday Owatonna on Thursday

2009-04-29T11:10:00.006-05:00

Thursday Night I rode with the Owatonna group. It ended up being a pretty intense evening with me barely able to hang on Todd's wheel. He is really riding strong this year! He just peddled away from me at about mile 13 and I never saw him again, or anybody else for that matter.

Thursday Night's Data

Great ride Wednesday morning! 40 minutes in zone 3. My average HR was right where it should have been-- 163, mid zone 3 for me. Following John and Kat, I did find my heart rate accordioning a bit. It would drop into zone 2 going down hill, and would climbing into zone 4 on the hills as I tried to get back on Kat's wheel.

Wednesday's Data

Back to the Intensity

2009-04-28T10:50:00.010-05:00

I had planned to do the Ironman century ride yesterday, but the weather was cold, wet, and windy so Kathy and I stayed home.

As of today our training plan has us back into the intervals. Doug joined Kat, John and I today we started with 5x15 second max effort intervals into the wind, then 5x15 on the Walnut street hill, then 2 5x15 sets on Lookout hill. That makes 20. The thing about these short intervals is that it can be hard for me to mentally push myself to max effort when I am a little less than completely motivated (as was the case today), and they are so short a pulse monitor does not really give much of an indication of effort the way it does with a longer interval.

John and Doug

On the frame building front, I am continuing to fair and pull the foam into shape. The other home build CF frames I have seen have straight chain and seat stays. In this design they are bent. I cut them to shape but needed to find a way to make them both symmetrical and bring them to the right curve. To do this I laminated a 3/4" strip of 4 oz S-cloth (lightweight, fiberglass) to the inside of the chain stay, and them used blocks to push them into a wooden form that I cut to the right curve.

After the Resin set, it looks like this worked!! Now I will haveto repeat this with the seat stays.

a Nice Ride and Some Metal Work

2009-04-25T22:10:00.004-05:00

Today was cold and wet. It is suppose to be colder, and wetter, and windier tomorrow so we probably will not be doing the Ironman century ride. there was a break in the weather this afternoon and Kathy and I were able to get out for a nice low intensity 35 mile ride.

On the bike frame front I put together a jig to hold the foam core while I laminate the Carbon Fiber. I modified the basic plan for the jig that Marc Pfister posted on Instructables. He entitled it "The Simplest Bicycle frame Building Jig I could come up with." His jig is really designed for welding or brazing a frame. Mine is not quite as simple as his, I modified it to have a more clearance to get the carbon cloth on the backside. I am still figuring out the fixtures that I will use to hold the foam is place at the seat post, headset tube, bottom bracket shell, and the rear dropouts. I am thinking I will cover it with plastic wrap before I use it. so that all of the nice adjustment features of this design do not find themselves expoxied in place.

An Easy, Windy Day

2009-04-23T21:03:00.005-05:00

Still in the midst of a recovery week, my ride with john and Kat this morning was suppose to be a level 2 effort, but it ended up being about 1/3 in level 3. After the race last Sunday I have moved my training zones up a bit, I was able to maintain fairly level HR at about 181 for more than 30 minutes (Sunday's data). So I was not exactly sure where I was at when I looked at my pulse monitor. The real reason had more to do with trying to keep up with John and Kat, on gravel and hills into the wind....

This evening I rode with the Owatonna group. It was a good ride, in spite of the wind blowing steadily at just under 30 mph. Kathy did a great job of drafting and we were able to keep up with the lead group all evening. When we got home Linnea was putting the finishing touches on the best homemade pizza I have ever had: Pizza Recipe.

Easy Week of Training

2009-04-22T16:39:00.009-05:00

This is a recovery week in my training plan so I just did an easy 20 miler today on my cross bike. I did pretty much the same thing yesterday. It felt good to just go out and ride easy in the sunshine (and the wind on Monday).

I am starting to carve the foam core for the MTB frame. I couple of things that I am re-learning. Styrofoam is easy to find but not so easy to carve and fair. I am using 2" Dow Blue Board for this attempt, and it is working though not quite as well as I would like. I just ordered some 1" polyurethane foam sheets, from Aircraft Spruce for attempt #2. For now, I have a styrofoam core cut and I am in to delicate process of fairing it. It looks like having a foam core is going to add about weigh 4 ounces extra unless I decide to dissolve it out when I am done. It is going to take some creative thinking to get the eccentric chain and seat stays into position before they are laminated.

Chain Stay blocks attached.

Styrofoam core carved, fairing begun.

Ok Call Me a Fool

2009-04-21T12:15:00.004-05:00

Well to understand this latest plan, you have to know something about me. I am both a technique junkie and someone who believes that I can do just about anything if I put my mind to it. The first sea kayak I ever paddled I built from scratch. A longtime ago when I decide that the wood carving tools I wanted were too expensive, I found and anvil and a forge and made them myself. Same with bronze casting. I figured, that if Paul Grandlund (a sculptor who lived in my home town) could cast bronze, so could I. So began and extended period of trial and error where I built a foundry and taught myself lost wax casting.

Soooo when the money that we were setting aside for Kathy's new carbon fiber road bike went as an added contribution to this year's taxes, the old-- maybe I can do it myself mantra kicked in. After all I have been making composite kayaks for about 10 years now. The internet is such a great resource for someone like me. I actually found a couple of guys who have DIY'ed composite bike frames already: How I Made a Carbon Fiber Bike in my Garage and How I Made My Carbon Frame at Home. Now It usually takes me a couple of trials to get what I am looking for and in this case something that I am confident enough in to ride. I am starting with a MTB frame for myself first. (I would much rather have a frame fail under me at MTB speeds than have a road frame go under my wife!). So we will see, the jig is underconstruction, The dropouts, bottom bracket shell, and the headset tube are on the way. The foam for the core is ready to be cut.

My First Criterium

2009-04-19T21:27:00.003-05:00

Today I did my first criterium today at Eagle Point park in Dubuque IA today. The last time I did anything close was when we used to race on Tuesday Nights in Fargo, and that was 30 years ago! The good news is that I did not crash or cause any crashes, the not so good news was that I was 7th out of 8. But hey I was the oldest Cat 5 rider there today, 20-30 years older than most (notice how I can put a good spin on even the most unimpressive of results). Actually it was a lot of fun. I ended up pulling the second oldest rider around the course for most of 8 laps and then he out sprinted my at the finish, but what the heck, I really just do this sort of thing for my mental health!

The really interesting thing for me today was my heart rate. It was consistant for 35 minutes at almost 180, and during the sprint at the end it was 191. Wow I did not know the old thing would still beat that fast!! My heart rate data for today. This means lactate threshold is probably higher than the 169 I have been using this spring.

We had 6 riders from the Bike Tech team at Eagle Point today, this is my friend Mike leading in the Cat 4 race:

Wow Look at That Vintage Jersey

2009-04-19T20:55:00.006-05:00

Kathy thought it would be a great idea if I came home on Thursday night to ride with the Owatonna, group and do a little yard work on Friday. I had an all day meeting on Saturday, and It looked like it was going to be a great day, and she was willing to take it off from work.

I my usual haste to make get out of Cedar Falls, I forgot to bring along a jersey. So far this year it has been cold enough that I was wearing a fleece top under my jacket-- well Thursday night and Friday were way too nice to wear fleece so I really had to dig to the bottom of the drawer to come up with this long retired jersey.

I used to think that it was really out of style-- now I am thinking wow look at that vintage jersey from those days when helmets were styrofoam with lycra covers, and I was not as old and fat as I am now. As it turns out Kathy had just cleaned out her desk at work and found this photo, it is from the Chequamegon 40 in 1990 I think: Ben is 26 now and Linnea 24, but low and behold I was just as bald then as I am now.

This was a pretty intense week of training for me sprintervals in the cemetery with John and Kat on Thursday morning. A fast 20 miles on the wheels of Todd and Dave on Thursday night (so fast that I dropped off after 20 miles and rode in by myself :-) Friday was a nice recovery ride with Kathy, and a beautiful day.

Workout links:
Thursday Morning
Thursday Evening
Friday Afternoon

Wow the Weather is Getting Nice

2009-04-15T13:13:00.004-05:00

The weather has been getting nice! I think this is my favorite time of year, cool but not cold, warm but not hot. I have been getting some good rides in the last few days!

Saturday was the largest group ride I have seen in Owatonna since the mid 80's. I counted 18! we headed South of town to Hope and then west to 218 and back into Town for about 30 miles. It was a nice ride a little intensity as Tom and I chased leaders on the way out, then I rode with Kathy on the way back into town. Saturday's route and data.

Rain Monday kept me off the road, Tuesday was hill intervals, and I followed my friends John and Kat as they worked on cornering for their up coming citeriums. We did about 40 short 20 second hill repeats in this workout. I am remembering the first time I rode with John and Kat, it was last year, on the same hills, I think I went around about 3 or 4 times and decided I had enough.... Tuesday's Workout

Today was a tempo workout. It was suppose to be 30-40 minutes in zone 3. For me it was more like zone 4. John and Kat are certainly in great shape! With the extra intensity, I was able to stay on Kat's wheel for the whole 40 minutes. The last time we dd this workout I fell so far off the back that I did not even see them when they got back to town :-) Wednesday's Workout

Tempo, Sprintervals, and Recovery

2009-04-08T10:19:00.009-05:00

Wednesday brought a nice tempo ride with John and Kat. John led the way into a moderate head wind, Kat was on his wheel and I was on her's. We moved in an out of the draft to get the right wind resistance to keep our heart rates in zone 3. When we turned and headed back in with the wind I dropped behind-- surprise! my level 3 is not John and Kat's level 3. It was a good ride!

Thursday was 4 sets of Joe Friel's sprintervals-- 3 x 15 second max effort sprints followed by a 3 minute max effort interval. These felt pretty good today. I still feel like my endurance is lagging behind my strength. Great day to ride, nice to see the sun!

Friday was a nice recover ride with Kathy. I tried to keep my effort in zone 2. There was a pretty strong wind out of the NNE. It was a lot easier coming home than it was going out!

Routes and Data:

Wednesday's Tempo ride
Thursday's Sprintervals
Friday's Recovery Ride

You know its Spring When the Snow Storms Only Last a Day

2009-04-07T15:26:00.008-05:00

Sunday brought snow! enough to make it hard to drive. I thought it was going to take a while for the roads to clear, but I was wrong!

Monday afternoon was such a surprise to me. It was looking pretty good. The roads were clear, the temperature was not too cold. The wind was blowing about 25 mph out of the NNW but the day was too much of a gift pass up. So the level 3 ride that was on my plan meant a 12 mph ride out to Finchford and Janesville, following by a 24 mph ride back.

Tuesday Mornings plan was hill intervals 30x 20 second all out sprints. John, Kat, Dave, and I rode on Walnut street and circled around the block for 1:40 rests. I am still feeling strong, but my endurance sure has a ways to go!

Routes and Data:
Monday's Ride
Tuesday's Ride

Dave Heading up the hill

Before the Snow Falls

2009-04-04T22:18:00.006-05:00

I had a couple of good rides so far this weekend. Friday evening was calm and cool, Kathy and I went for a 20 miler with some of the Owatonna usuals. Well they really are some of the new usuals. The funny thing about groups that you have ridden with for a long time is that they have a way of changing both members and personalities. This is a fine group of folks to ride with, but it is different.

There are people I can't keep up with at the moment, I used to have to go out of town for that honor (I never have been all that fast, so I never had to go very far out of town) but now..... I can just show up for one of the rides in Owatonna, and have to push zone 5 just to hang on someone's wheel. And there are people who I don't see on bicycles much anymore-- well I guess that is the way of it.

Saturday's ride felt like we were sneaking in ahead of the storm. There were 11 people out for this first shop ride of the season. It was a nice ride but the clouds off to the west were building and the temperature was dropping, and there was a distinct feeling of snow in the air. After the ride I came down to Cedar Falls a day early to get ahead of the predicted snow. From the sounds of it I maybe should have put the ski box back on the car-- I hope the weather wizards are wrong about the snow

Friday and Saturday's ride details:
Friday's ride
Saturday's ride

A New Plan and Some New Motivation

2009-04-02T11:08:00.002-05:00

Ok I downloaded a new plan so that I can be prepared for my morning rendevous' with John and Kat at Cup of Joe's. Being something of a follower I think I will follow Joe Friel's Build, Peak, Race for Criterium, Under 50; Even though I have never raced a criterium and I am no longer under 50 lol. Here is what I can tell from my tagging along with them today: My strength is not too bad (I was right there on the short 20 second intervals.) But my endurance is miserable!! (I pretty much lost sight of them by the end of the 3 minute intervals!!

Well I am getting ready for the imaginary criteriums that I am not planning to race

Here is a sumary of today's ride: Thursday's intervals

A Cold but Sunny Day in Southern Minnesota

2009-03-28T12:34:00.007-05:00

Wow! have I ever fallen off the wagon with my training and my blogging! Well I am back from Pittsburgh, Spring break is over, sometimes it is not raining, spring has almost sprung, so I am back on the saddle again. Today was a nice, calm, but cold day (about 34 degrees when we finished). I rode with the Owatonna group, something I do not often get a chance to do these days. Most of them have been spending quite a bit of time on trainers this past winter. (unlike Scott, who though he has had his rode bike "stabled" at his friend Kathleen's House of Pain, a Tuesday/Thursday roller ride to nowhere, did not get very many roller miles in). I had great intentions, I really did... Anyway the Owatonna group, and my wife Kathy in particular seemed to be pretty strong today.

I rode my cross bike, because my rode bike is still idling in Kathleen's basement in Cedar Falls. I was great to get out. I think I my intensity was a little higher than it should have been, here is a link to our route and my Heart Rate data: Saturday's Ride

Hill intervals on a Nice Day

2009-03-05T11:03:00.004-06:00

Today was a great day in Cedar Falls. It started out warm and then got warmer! I again tagged along with John and Kat on their workout. 3 sets, 9x30 sec. hill repeats with 30 sec recoveries. My cross bike is starting to get awfully noisy, I think I better give it a major overhaul pretty soon.

Todays hill intervals

Intervals and a Kayak Issue

2009-03-03T10:30:00.008-06:00

I checked the weather last night and it looked like it was going to be warm enough to ride, so I guessed John and Kat would show up at the usual time at Cup a Joes. When I went outside, it sure felt a lot colder than the 24 degrees that the thermometer in my apartment read! Well John and Kat did show up. They planned to do 2 sets of 10x60 second intervals with 60 sec rests at 90% effort. I tagged along. It was a good workout and I manged to stay under control with a max heart rate of around 170.

Todays workout data: Intervals

On the Kayak front, I have had to go to some pretty extreme lengths to straight the bottom of the surf Kayak I am building. When I joined the top and the bottom the panel on the bottom center taco ed up about an inch. Not really understanding this sort of Kayak, I thought "wow that is an interesting design feature." However after checking with my local whitewater kayak expert Tye, I discovered this was going to be a problem and could be why the instructions said that I should not substituted thinner plywood than the 4mm Oukume that was recommended (I used 3mm :-). Hmmmm so now I have the hull filled with temporary braces and shims hoping that the outside layers of glass will hold it in place after it cures.

I mixed pigment with the resin on the bottom in an attempt to cover over the stain disaster. So far so good.

The canoe is fairing quite well. I leveled the strips with a slow rpm disk sander with 36 grit-- at little too course, but that is what I had. I am trying to decide what fiberglass to use on it S or E.

Another Good Ski

2009-02-22T18:30:00.005-06:00

Yesterday's ski up Hylite Canyon was so unexpectedly good that we decided to go back again today. It was a little warmer and we went a little further. In fact it was so warm that we had to take off our jackets! It was another great ski. Jimmy, Ronda, and Ben were along. We went through untracked snow for the last half mile or so. It is still amazing that the snow up here could be so good considering how poor the snow is down in Bozeman.

I have never been a fan of waxless skis, but I have to say. in these above freezing, backcountry situations they are great. I still prefer waxable skis and I don't think that will change, but these waxless skis performed better than I would have imagined.

Here is my workout file: Hylite Ski 2 (I forgot to turn it off on the way back the Bozeman I see.)

Tomorrow we travel to Tacoma, and we are back to having shoes only for our exercise, so I am not sure what we will be able to accomplish. Hopefully we wil find someplace fun to explore. Too bad there was no room for kayaks.

A Long Drive and a Nice Ski

2009-02-22T09:48:00.008-06:00

I am in the middle of a road trip to Tacoma for a college visit for my youngest daughter. The first stop (after an all night 1,100 mile drive), is Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman is sort of a second home seeing as how my son, sister and mother live here. My daughter Linnea has borrowed us her brand new Subaru Forester for the trip, and my contribution, (in addition to agreeing not to trash her new car) was suppose to be a nice Thule rack system, sort of a self-serving gift, because it would have allowed us to take bikes and skis for the trip. WELL to make a long story short Thule's online sales delivery system leaves a lot to be desired and the equipment did not arrive on time so we had to go ski-less and bike-less.

We got to Bozeman at about 5:30 am. After a short nap and attending my niece's Basketball game, Saturday afternoon my Brother-in-law decided that we should go skiing. So, I borrowed back the ski boots that I borrowed to my son and I borrowed my sister's skiis. The snow in Bozeman looked like it was barely skiiable, the south slopes were more-or-less bare and the snow on the ground in town was icy, but being always interested in an adventure I thought it would be a great idea.

We went up Hylite Canyon south of town and found a surprisingly good place to ski on the east slope of the valley. The snow was good at the start and got to be better the higher we climbed. It was not a long ski, (we didn't get started till about 3:00 pm) but it was one of those unexpected gifts. Good snow where I thought there would be none, skiing when I was not planning on it, and the company of my brother-in-law, which is always good.

In terms of exercise it was the kind of backcountry skiing that just is not possible in the Midwest, a long climb, and then a nice downhill back. Low to Medium intensity for about an hour on the way up then easy back down for 30 minutes or so. My Workout file: Skiing 2/21/09

My level 3 Is Not Their Level 3

2009-02-17T13:37:00.003-06:00

I was thinking that today would be a good day for a ride but, lacking a certain motivation and no certainty of riding partners to spur me on, I found myself at Cup of Joe's dressed for work, not for a ride. John and Kat showed up at their usual time and said they would wait so I dashed back to my apartment and put on my bike clothes. (It sure takes longer to get dressed this time of year and those booties that go over your bike shoes, I do not think it is possible to put them on fast!) well I got back before they got too tired of waiting for me.

Their plan called for 2 30 minute zone 3 intervals. We headed toward Dunkerton. The first interval started at the NW corner of the Waterloo Airport and headed straight East. There was with a strong cross wind. After about 15 minutes it was clear that I could not keep the pace even riding Kat's wheel! When my heart rate started spending a considerable amount of time in upper zone 4 so I backed off and let them go. The second interval began just S of Dunkerton and went straight S into a strong head wind for 20 minutes before turning W. I was able to ride Kat's wheel and still keep my heart rate mostly in zone 3. Easy ride the rest of the way into Waterloo, a stop at Cottonwood Canyon for coffee, and an easy ride the rest of the way home! Great day.

I just figured out how to link to my training files so here it todays: Today's Ride

A Day of Snow and Gravel

2009-02-15T22:16:00.014-06:00

Got a late start Sunday afternoon, but still went a 63 miles, for metric century #3. Today was cool (28 F) and clear, with a little wind out of the NNW (about 10 mph). I headed out west from Cedar Falls on 12th Street, went through Aplington, around Parkersburg, through New Hartford and home. I added a little jog on the end to get the mileage above 62. It was nice to get out today. Mostly a level 2-3 ride, (I did slip into 5a for part of the time). I got home about the time that I should have had lights! Riding my cyclocross bike on gravel is becoming one of my favorite things. A few years ago nobody would have convinced me that I would be riding snow covered gravel roads in February and loving it!

I am still trying to figure out how to make these blogs about my rides anything but boring. This time I brought along a little video camera, I think I have to do a little thinking about how I attach it, but here is my first attempt:

A Nice Afternoon in Blackhawk County

2009-02-10T23:28:00.003-06:00

It was a great day for a ride! The thermometer read 58 degrees when I left my apartment. I did the Finchford loop, about 22 miles from my house. I ran into Ryan from Europa out on the road. We rode together for a while and that caused me to push myself a little harder than I might have by myself (Thanks Ryan!) I felt strong on the hills which is a pretty rare thing for me. My pulse monitor says that I spent almost 30 minute in zone 5!

I used to think that riding outside was something that had to wait till mid April at least. This February riding is fantastic!

On the Strongback

2009-02-09T12:28:00.005-06:00

Well, actually only one of the boats is on a strongback, the other is a plywood boat and has no need of such support. I am building two boats this winter (at least so far) The first is a little 8' 6" surf kayak. It is a Nick Schade Design. It is the 8th Guillemot kayak I have built but it is the first time I have made a stitch and glue boat so that has been a new experience for me. The plans said not to substitute plywood thinner than the 4mm Oukume they recommended, but I already had 3mm and I have never really followed the letter of the law with that sort of thing. So far it has went together well the puzzle joint were a little tricky to cut out. I glassed the inside with extra heavy 8oz cloth (perhaps that will make up for the thin plywood!) Next step, joining the top and the bottom. That looks a lot easier on this little shorty than on the usual 18 footers I make.

The second boat is an 18 foot canoe designed by John Winters called the cirrus. It is an asymmetrical design without much rocker and a concave section near the stern. I should really track well from the looks of it It has tapered stems, and like most strip boats, it is going to be a beauty. I have all of the strips on and I am starting to fair the hull.

The New Hartford Bonk

2009-02-08T16:33:00.006-06:00

Today was bright, sunny and calm so I did a repeat of yesterday's ride around the New Hartford Hills. This was suppose to be an easy recovery ride, and mostly it was. Unfortunately being my usual less than well thought out self, I forgot to eat anything before I left, and I neglected to take any food along, soooo, about mile 24 as I was heading into New Hartford I was really bonking. Most of the town of New Hartford flooded this past summer, and while I suspect there never have been all that many Businesses in New Hartford, most of what there was is not open for business. I was afraid I was either going to have to crawl back into town on a calorie deficit, or beg for table scraps door to door in New Hartford. I was lucky. The New Hartford Diner had opened a few weeks ago, so 3 pancakes and a plate of hash browns later I was on my way, the bonk just a memory.

The ride back into to town was much more pleasant on account of the Diner. The ride was a little less than 36 miles. I am really enjoying these frozen gravel rides! (as long as the wind is not blowing and the temperature is in the mid 20's or above).

Second 100k Gravel of the Year

2009-02-07T22:04:00.001-06:00

Ok I have not had a blog before, and it is clear that I will be needing to be taking some photos or something or this is going to be one boring excuse for a blog! Anyway, today was my second 100K gravel ride of the year. It was a great day with temperatures in the upper 40's and a wind out of the west. Headed west out of Cedar Falls with John, Kat, Pete, Paul, Carey, and someone else I just met today--forgot his name :-( . The roads were firm and mostly clear. We did a loop around the New Hartford hills, somewhere on the way back, Paul and I lost track of the rest of the group, 38 miles, Paul went home and I stopped for lunch. After Lunch Kathy and I went out for about 24 more miles, it was quite a bit softer by mid afternoon, but the tail wind on the way home helped a lot!