Ok, it's been a while since I posted, but I did do some pretty good rides... and some not so good ones recently. I did two 20+ mile rides on the 11th and the 13th, and then my bike has seemed to break... constantly. I've had three more blowouts... and had to come home... anyways, the good rides are below.

I also managed to pick up a rack & trunk, and a computer... more info to follow

6/11 20.17
6/13 21.32
6/20 18.37

Lessons Learned:

1. stuff breaks... fix it and get back on the bike
   

well, monday I did another commute in, on the way I blew a tire in front of the middle school that's on the way... I was sitting there changing a tire, looking weird, so I tried to go as fast as I could. Turns out that's not such a good idea: apparently you actually can put the rear tire back on a bike the wrong way... as I found out. It's not so good for riding, if you can't take your feet off the pedals quick enough, you crash... ask me how I know. So after that, I told myself I needed to hit the bike shop near work to pick up a spare tube... yeah, didn't happen. On the way home, at exactly the same place on the road, sure enough, the tube went again. Of course, I have no spares, and there's a bike shop next to my house, and one back at work, and I'm stuck in the middle. Yesterday I spent the night recuperating from a 2 mile walk home (god my knees suck).

Ending the post on a high note, I just did almost 17 miles (damn, google earth just wouldn't give me that last .23 of a mile) and I feel really good. I'm going to try for 20 tomorrow and see how it goes.

Lessons Learned:

1. 1 spare tube isn't enough if you don't like walking
2. biking really does help your knees... mine feel really good right now
   

Clipless at last

No riding today(I'm still a little sore from yesterday... I'm calling it a recovery day- light climbing as some cross)but, with my bonus from work, I was finally able to get my pedals... they're crank brothers quattro's, which are freaking awesome.

Yesterday, after getting the new gear, which consisted of pedals, shoes, a new stock of inner tubes, and a pair of Mr. Tuffy strips (hopefully they'll save me some flats) I was going to ride down to the little park south of my apartment, then I started riding. What. A. Difference. After tooling around the neighborhood, I finally made it out to Guadalupe, and I just kept going. 15-ish miles later (my longest sustained ride) I was almost home, and stopped at a light. I had my left foot unclipped, and leaned a little on the bike. Losing my balance, I tried to take my right foot off the pedal with predicable results. The cleat did it's job and I just ended up pulling myself over. The biggest thing I hurt was my pride. In the end, I picked myself up, clipped in and rode the rest of the way home.

After cooling off I realized that I was out of some of the most basic foodstuffs (damn but I really can't start the morning without my cheerios) so I rode down to the far Fry's. I got there fine, and again, I was only a mile or so from home and the same thing happened. This time I was so flustered I had to walk over to the corner (from the left turn lane) and settle down.

What's interesting though, is talking to other riders about this... it's kind of like initiation into a club... everyone falls when they go clipless, and everyone says it's worth it. Damn but I agree


Lessons Learned:

1. You really can pull up on the pedals when you're accellerating hard
2. don't lean toward your unclipped side
3. Clipless adds a whole new world of stability to your riding... you can push the bike around much more with your feet

Pictures:
all tucked in... those are the new pedals on it
a close-up of the pedals... you can see how aero the profile is

a top view... the big blue spring is what makes the mechanism work
Side viewThis is what my new shoes look like... they're all shiny so I get hit by cars less


And the sole: having a hard, stiff sole keeps my feet from getting sore on long ridesa close up of the cleat, the surrounding hard plastic makes walking really wierd
This is what it looks like mounted up
and from the front

well... I've gone a week and I've managed to post most of my rides.

Last night was pretty uneventful so I didn't really mention it... other than I got lost looking for the bridge from Greenfield over to Val Vista (the turn I missed the other night that almost got me creamed). I think all in all it was around 11 miles. AND I felt really good after the ride... some of which I blame on the honeystingers... damn this stuff is good (just rocket chocolate for breakfast before a 5 mile ride... not so much).

Today I managed my second bike commute, again, pretty routine, I can't really find a direct bike route... traffic isn't really fun, but I do have a wide shoulder the whole way.

I've started a google map thing, since the MAG map is this horrendously large PDF file... it takes so long to render it's damned near useless... even on my machine(doesn't say as much as it did a year or so ago... but I'm kind of attatched to the quirky little processor). anyone that's interested can check it out here. I hope it ends up being useful to someone else... but don't blame me if something's wrong.

Tonight I think I'm going to go take a spin around to find that bridge if there's one there... could be pretty cool, an easy ride since I already rode a bunch today.

maybe some good news tomorrow(two words crank brothers)
Lessons Learned:

1. Rocket Chocolate honeystinger bar <> good breakfast (sorry... did SQL all day... stuck on that syntax... deal with it)
2. honeystinger ginsting = no need for soda in the morning
   

there ARE cats in america, and the streets are paved with glass*

Another flat... hoo-frickin-ray. This one at least had the good sense to occur right beside my apartment at the end of my ride. This is my third (well second... one was actually a continuation of the first, and my own fault) in two weeks... I'm definitely going to have to do something...

On the other hand, getting a flat and wiping out was something I worried about, but I have yet to have a front wheel flat, that might be different, but I think I can handle it with out getting too cocky about it

I also really studied the Maricopa Association of Governors (MAG) bike map before I left, and planned a route, while I didn't follow it exactly, it really helped to know where the bike lanes started and ended... really nice

Lessons Learned:

1. flats aren't too bad
2. Planning your route ahead of time makes a really nice ride
   
   

*sorry about the title... been hanging with Edgar too much

wheew

Well, I didn't post yesterday... I was still trying to work stuff out, so I'm posting twice today.

While on the last leg home... it seems Greenfield's bike lane disappears... the only way to tell is the little sign that says "bike lane ends"... that I missed. To make things worse, the bike lane continues for about 100 ft after the intersection. Talk about your mixed messages.

When the lane ended, there was about 6" of space between the side of the road, and a rocky ditch that wanted to eat my bike... es no bueno, so I was riding a little in the lane... perfectly legal and everything. Greenfield Rd being what it is, the cars were whipping around me quite quickly... I was doing my best to stay out of the way when all of the sudden I hear brakes squeal behind me... Hell yeah I cursed... and loud. And I sped up... as much as I could (adrenaline is such a wonderful thing... they should bottle it). I got home without an incident, but yeah... it was hard getting to sleep last night as it was (even without the 1:30 "oh shit" call from the boss).

On a related note... at the time my headlight was nearly out of battery... that reminds me, I'm going to go plug it in now

Lessons Learned:

1. Learn where the bike lanes are... they really help
2. bike a plan and stick to it
3. CONDITION YELLOW... ALWAYS
4. recharge bike light early and often
   

High Altitude Hills

Well, I'm up at my parents in Williams. I took my daily ride (this time without losing a tube) to the other side of town and back. What's really fun is there was a big hill into town, I think I got up to about 30 MPH on the way in (which probably could have gotten me a ticket)... anyways I was flying. The way back was not as fun: I'm glad I've got a triple. It's the first time I've used my granny gear.

On the way back, I took the long way back to the house to get another downhill ride... and was so into it I missed the turn to the house... oh well... it was worth it.

Lessons Learned:

1. High altitude isn't really that bad
2. Mom and Dad's gravel road sucks hard
   
3. I really need to make friends with someone who's a climb specialist
   

Equipment Malfunctions

Well now, this is sooner than I thought I'd post again, but shit happens.

On the way to the supermarket (the nice Fry's (anyone notice how there's always a ghetto Fry's near a nice Fry's) it's a longer ride, and has an awesome natural foods section) I had a tube eat it... no biggie (heh) I pulled over into the circle K parking lot, and changed out the stock tube (it was so thin I think I could take it to a kid's birthday party and make animals out of it... I'm getting more like that for race day... but until then) I put the new tube in (much thicker) and started to inflate it... only to realize that I hadn't entirely seated the bead... I deflated the tire, and seated it, only to discover that that was the end of the CO2 cartridge.
UPDATE:
got up this morning... tire was flat... looks like the tube cracked

Lessons Learned:

1. I need better tubes for training/general riding
2. Carry a couple spare CO2 cartridges, and a second spare tube wouldn't be a bad idea
   
3. Coming home at 15-20 mph with food in my back pack would be more fun than walking home with a flat tube in there
4. It's a good thing paragon is so close... see you guys on tuesday
   

Starting out

Ok, here's the story. About 6 months ago, while driving to a triathalon to volunteer in my kayak, I heard a story on the radio about century races. After seeing all the people doing the various triathlons I'd volunteered for, I kind of wanted to to one... but with my knees I'm pretty sure the run would have me falling apart. Biking seemed to be the answer. Right then and there (it was 6 in the morning... don't expect me to be doing bright things) I'd heard "all about" biking from Kevin and Micheal... so I decided I'd do a Century race(mountain bikers fall too much for my tastes). Once I woke up a little more, I set a deadline of two years for me to get this done (but then again, most people know how I am with deadlines).
Well, it's more than 6 months later, and I finally got my bike last week... Thanks to the awesome guys at Paragon Cycling I picked out a Cannondale CAAD 8 Optimo 2 (Pretty much all he had to do to sell me on it was have me pick it up... it weighs like 2 pounds, plus the guy at Adventure Cycling tried to sell me something completely different than the other bike I was considering). I think I've decided on doing either the El Tour de Tucson in november... or it's sister race in phoenix in April next year. In either case, I'll ride ETDT, but maybe not the full century. I'm starting to realize EXACTLY how much I don't know, but what's the point of a life goal that's easy?
So far, I've logged about 30 miles on the bike (it'd have been more if it wasn't for that damned cold last week) and ridden to work once (5 miles there, about 8 back because I was exploring on the way back), which I currently intend to continue doing until I retire. I've also got a set of lights, a sweet insulated water bottle, helmet, and both road and mountain bike shorts(if I showed up to work in road shorts I'd never hear the end of it). I'm swapping the cheap loaner pedals out for Crank Brothers Quattros hopefully next week once work figures out whether or not they can do an "alternative commute credit".
Anyways, I'm starting this to hopefully hear from other people who are in similar circumstances, people who are experts, plus my mom will probably chip in from time to time (you know how moms are). For those who are not familiar with me on facebook... pictures of the bike follow.