Ice and Crunch

Date: Jan 27 Tues
Weather: 30F
Mileage: 2 (Monocog)
January mileage: 342
Year to date: 342

Damn, damn, damn. What at one time was to be a fine snow storm, which always lends to fine riding opportunities. Instead it has descended into the chaos of an ice storm, with freezing rain falling all day and now into the night. Sitting and watching our local channels (Satellite 2 not coming in) we can hear the crackle and crash of limbs falling in our area.

I ventured out for a ride today, figuring that I've ridden through a variety of conditions. What I found was either thick, dense slush on the side streets like my own. I would immediately sink down and have to churn through it like a 'cross sand trap. The more traveled roads were a bit more passable. At one time I was even having to pedal downhill just to cut through the slush and ice. I did pretty well to go to the grocery, which is an amazing 1 mile away! On the return I found a local minor artery to be a 15-ft wide sheet of ever freezing ice. I'm pleased to have ridden home with 1 bag of bagels and turkey balanced on the left and another bag with a gallon of milk balanced on the right. What deft handling.

This sucks. We'll be out again, but it's a dark and brooding, grim even, "snow" day. Ice days suck!

Night Ride

Date: Jan 26 Mon
Weather: 25F
Mileage: 13 (Trek)
January mileage: 341
Year to date: 341

After work. No commute due to Friday mishap and need to take Trek home. See more at first blog.

RCCS #1

Date: Jan 25 Sun
Weather: 23F
Mileage: 28 (Bleriot)
January mileage: 328
Year to date: 328

Rode the Maiden Voyage of the RCCS, ride report found here. 8 brave souls in the 23F cold air rode a 20m loop into New Albany, with me and Dave doing another 8m through Crescent Hill and to Champions Park. Nice time and hope to do it again.

Commute No. 10

Date: Jan 23 Fri
Weather: 38F
Mileage: 6 (SSFrankenTrek)
January mileage: 300
Year to date: 300

A day for a (near first). First (near) first was that I had cycling clothes on this morning and got really close to taking them off and driving. I feel strange, "touched", and almost just drove. I rode anyway and had a fine ride. It was 38F in the morning, which felt balmy. Second (near) first was that I rode to work but not home. I think I had a Afib episode mid-afternoon. This is on top of the 2 exercise-induced episodes in preceding week and a weird high heart rate while sitting around last night. Something's not right and I called the cardiologist from work this afternoon. I feel alright now, but it's like a cute little dark cloud following me just off my shoulder. The good wife picked me up after picking the boys up from school. I left the Trek there.

It is what it is. I still plan on riding this weekend most likely. I've found from experience that an episode sort of knocks me off a bit for a while, but then I get over it. I don't know. Life is perplexing.

Commute No. 9 Beaver Run

Date: Jan 22 Thurs
Weather: 48F Sunny!
Mileage: 27(SSFrankenTrek)
January mileage: 294
Year to date: 294

I mentioned the wildlife sighting on the other blog, but otherwise it was a wonderful afternoon with warm, 48F temps and sun. I took the West loop home via Hill and eventually to Algonquin, though Shawnee, Portland and downtown. After crossing to Spring St. and passing along the snowy Beargrass Trail I saw THE BEAVER!!! I'm hyped! Nature right in the middle of the 'Ville. The SSFrankenTrek felt a little taxing today. My crotch wasn't agreeing with the saddle, which is unusual and I was a bit fatigued, but 27m is just that. I'll take it.

Errand

Date: Jan 21 Wed
Weather: 30F
Mileage: 2(SSFrankenTrek)
January mileage: 267
Year to date: 267

After not riding today due to being tentative, I rode a quickie to church, Dundee (for Steph's bday) and then home. I was refreshed after choir but pretty dang cold going home after a couple Boddingtons.

I can't seem to stop eating. I'm trying my best just to take each day, each moment as it comes and not beat myself to death, figuring the negative energy doesn't help, but I just eat and eat. Aahhh!! There's always tomorrow.

Commute No. 8

Date: Jan 20 Tues
Weather: 16F/27F
Mileage: 15 (LHT)
January mileage: 265
Year to date: 265

Basic commute in the cold today. "footing" both a.m. and p.m. was tenuous here-n-there with leftover ice and snow. I was pretty comfortable this morning, but this afternoon a bit cold. Like Jan. 8th I had another heart hiccup which immediately brought down my heart rate. I don't feel in the least bit bad but I guess this time I'll have to do the follow up with the doctor. Bummer.

'Crossish ride

Date: Jan 18 Sun
Weather: 33F, windy from NW
Mileage: 16ish (Crosscheck)
January mileage: 250
Year to date: 250

Really nothing to report other than a 1-hr ride during the boys' youth group. Dropped them off, headed through Indian Hills and to RiverRdCC/Champions Park for some laps around the cross course. The wind was pretty hard and cold from the north so I rode hard just to keep warm. I even did 2 run-ups with the remount being my usual bane. From there it was back up Mockingbird Valley, just where I had been Friday night. Through Indian Hills again and back to the truck. I went across the street to Heine's for a warm-up coffee and that was it. An efficient way to get a little mileage in, although I was colder today than at -1F Friday morning. Go figure.

Penguin Waddle

Date: Jan 16 Fri
Weather: 12F
Mileage: 18 (TrekSS)
January mileage: 234
Year to date: 234

report of FuckGas's Penguin Waddle at texluavullcycling tomorrow. Great time at 12F. That's just short of 30m for the day with the high temp at 17F and a low at -1F.

Commute No. 7

Date: Jan 16 Fri
Weather: -1F/17F
Mileage: 12 (LHT)
January mileage: 216
Year to date: 216

See Texluavuallcycling for a write up of today's fun filled coldfest.

Commute No. 6

Date: Jan 14 Wed
Weather: 18F/38F, wind in the p.m.
Mileage: 16 (LHT)
January mileage: 204
Year to date:204

See tex's Luavull Cycling

Commute No.5

Date: Jan 13 Tues
Weather: 40F/25F, flurries of no consequence
Mileage: 20 (LHT)
January mileage: 188
Year to date: 188

I retraced much of my route from yesterday afternoon, but to no surprise, the glasses case didn't show. It's a nice bright blue, so I thought I might see it along the rode somewhere, standing out against the drab browns and greys of the season. Instead, I observed innumerable bottles, wrappers, leaves and pieces of junk. I guess I'll go without or find some supercheap ones, b/c the year-end and holidays have shot our finances (much less all my late-year bike spending). I think the home heating and health-care increases have hit the family a bit more this winter and start of '09 that in years past. We'll get by fine, but they will be no $300 glasses any time soon.

Otherwise the weather the conditions couldn't have been stranger today. I rode to work this a.m. at a balmy 40F but with rain. The problem was that the forecast called for falling temps, so I wasn't really dressed for wet but rather with layers that would supply me warmth later. And later, this afternoon, the temps did in fact fall to a windy 25F. I dressed pretty well but the toes were getting coldish by the end of my afternoon 14m.

Many Grins and One big frown

Date: Jan 12 Mon
Weather: 31F/39F
Mileage: 24(LHT)
January mileage: 168
Year to date: 168

Damn, damn, damn. I can be such an incompetent human being sometimes.

Grins:

• wonderful weather this morning at a mild 32F. I dressed perfectly for it and was really comfortable the whole way to work.
• nice weather this afternoon at near 40F with clearing skies.
• Seeing sun downtown reflecting off the bridges and buildings. I don't really write poetry, but I had "exoskeleton", "bathed", "ember", "Michelangelo" and some others ready for a poem. Nah.
• Meeting up with T. Armstrong on the way home on Spring.
• Trying to stay up with T.A. up Payne, I on the LHT and he on a '70s Raleigh with 3sp Sturmey-Archer. He's strong. :-)
• Taking a nice turn with T.A. down Frankfort, talking bikes, traffic stories and generally pushing a good gear.
• Looping through Middletown and getting that late afternoon stupid grin on my face.

Frown:

• getting home from the commute to find my pannier pocket open. I feel inside and locate the important wallet, house keys (fam is gone for evening), work key ring but...

no glasses

• this is now the 2nd time I've lost glasses on a ride. The good wife is going to KILL ME! And she should. We have that post-holiday, post-house taxes, post-insurance cash flow issue that'll right itself with federal returns and spring tennis checks. What to do in the time being? I can write descriptively enough to express my own person disappointment in myself. They're replaceable in the grand scheme but come on. I broke some May of '07 (in a ridiculous fit of rage). I lost them on a 45-mile epic commute home and now...

Maybe I'll find them tomorrow at work or on the road when I RETRACE my ride. For $300 you have to. 'Course, now's the chance at disposable contacts and/or bifocals. I've noticed the need.

A perfect 18

Date: Jan 10 Sat
Weather: 47F, wet and drizzly
Mileage: 15 (Crosscheck) + 3 (Monocog)
January mileage: 144
Year to date: 144

No, it wasn't epic nor was it the most amazing scenery or enlightened moment. It was just a perfect way to spend an hour on a Saturday afternoon, one which was extended with a more perfect 3ish miles with a dear one. After a morning of ball games (1 win w/ 'L' playing really well, 1 loss with 'Z' dazed during the first game with older kids), I escaped during a brief window to ride for exactly an hour. I needed to be back to go to 'Z's' futbol game, with shower time to spare. It had rained all night and morning so I took the grungy Crosscheck and rode for exactly an hour, give or take a few minutes, in and around Cherokee and Seneca. Again, nothing special, but all of it at a nice tempo. I took it easy on the hills with the episode from Thursday still in my mind, but it was just great.

When I got home 'L' was ready for a quick spin too, and this after his energetic bball game. Last weekend we had dropped off his borrowed geared kiddie Trek (from neighbor friend) b/c frankly the brake levers sucked. Chris at C'ville found some at a very nice price and they installed them. I know, I'm the only person in the cycling blogosphere who would lower him/herself to not do this work myself. We picked up the bike today during the window and 'L' wanted to try out the new levers, which were a big hit. Although he'll need a new bike come late summer (if he keeps growing), it's pleasing to take a chilled-out ride with a great kid.

Have I mentioned that it was a great 18 miles? Hope everyone else out there had a "great" experience too. Peace.

Commute No. 3

Date: Jan 8 Thurs
Weather: 28F
Mileage: 14 (TrekSS)
January mileage: 126
Year to date: 126

Another mundane-and-yet-momentous commtue today. It was a cold 28F and windy going to school. And this afternoon, a cold and windy 28F. It was supposed to warm up but it evidently did not. I think I might have had a heart skip at about mile 6 or so of the afternoon commute. I was riding up Spring near the parks and working sorta hard to keep warm. Suddenly, something happened. Don't really know what, but it was in m chest and it made me slow down. It seemed as though afterward I was less able to work a harder rate. It just dropped my work rate down, muscles, breathing. I just sort of stopped. I even walked the hill going up to Douglass Blvd and later the Lakeside hill, BUT I don't feel that bad.

Spooky

Real Age

A variety of asuntos, er, issues are swirling around right now to put health on the forefront. On the positive end, the good wife found an Oprah repeat the other evening and had me watch it too. While neither of us are Oprah fans, really, this program was interesting as a part of Best Life Week. In a nutshell, the big O realized that she had gained 40lbs and had lost control of her physical self again, and that was predicated on losing control of her psychological self. I can certainly relate to that, a physcial and psychological disconnect, and a constant weight battle since age ??? An even spookier Oprah connection is that she was sleeping poorly when doctors found that she had developed sleep apnea and in turn had developed Afib. Sound familiar (for those regular readers of texluavullcycling)??

Of course, this also corresponds with the usual New Year's Resolution frame-of-mind. All I know is that the one time in my adulthood that I lost significant weight was at age 30 when I got a cholestrerol check and it was way unacceptable for a 30 year-old. I hit the ground running, scared shitless, and lost 40lbs, or maybe a bit less. While a little less, it was a net more b/c I lifted weights for 6 months or more and was way trimmed down. Now I just feel fat and physcially out of control, and this on top of riding more than 3000 miles last year.

One aspect of this search, consideration, study, thought, pause... was that the good wife sent a link to a site called Real Age. I was surprised when I took the test that I have a real age 37.6, a little below my 39 year old self. I think I get some bonuses for exercise, not smoking, not living too much of a hedonist lifestyle, not having life stresses like unemployment or serious illness. So I sit here reasonably pleased with this result but physically I feel like garbage.

The last week has just not been good although I'm functional enough to still have commuted 2 times this week. I have: constipation, a beginning snotty nose, a bizarre sleep cycle where I'm waking up before 5.00a.m. without wanting to, a strange phenomenon in the "lower half", OK, the unit which could be the onset of an infection like I had some years ago when I bought the Rans. I just don't feel well and want to feel better. One way I'll try to accomplish that is riding again tomorrow. Another is that I'm going to try and get off the sweets and booze. They both present significant empty calories. I read a few articles at work today on the nutritional theories of some guy that I don't remember now. The long/short of it is....The long/short of it is that nobody agrees on how or what to eat now, and for people with life-long weight issues, there just are no easy answers. Not for me nor for Oprah nor for anybody else.

I sit here both pleased that I'm in one piece and have the health to go out and ride 40 miles tomorrow if needed. I sit her glum that I got weird shit wrong with me and no easy answers.

My, Life is vexing, isn't it?

Commute No. 2

Date: Jan 7 Wed
Weather: 35F, rain and sleet
Mileage: 13 (TrekSS)
January mileage: 99
Year to date: 99

After missing yesterday due to the need to get to work early (try 5.45a.m.), I rode the TrekSS this morning on yet another inclement, pissy, wet, cold, icky day, and frankly it was fun. Really there's nothing else to report other than that I wore the gore-tex socks and nylon sports pants as a means to deal with any extra moisture. Instead, the afternoon provided me with some sleet and darkening skies.

Commute No1

Date: Jan 5 Mon
Weather: 32F
Mileage: 18.5 (LHT)
January mileage: 99
Year to date: 99

First commute of year. Both the morning and afternoon temps were the same. In the afternoon I ventured down do the Beargrass Trail via Mellwood and then did 4 hills in the park on the way home. We'll see what this week brings. Tomorrow's forecast is for mid-30s and rain, with much the same the rest of the week. That's tricky weather to dress for.

Rainy Oldham Ride

(stolen from LithoDale's site)
Date: Jan 3 Sat
Weather: 51F, pouring rain
Mileage: 27.5 (Blueridge)
January mileage: 81.5
Year to date: 81.5

I'm still achy and sore- lower back, glutes, left knee- from today's fun-but-torrential outing in Oldham with LithoDale. He mapped out a nice ride for out warm afternoon, with the benefit of dropping his chillens off at his parents' house out there. I took the Blueridge b/c of the broken fender on the Bleriot, but really the BR is a better bike for trying to keep up with BeastoDale. We descended the steep 1793 and began on the bucolic Rose Island Rd. Unfortunately that meant we also had to ascend Goshen Ln. in the 3rd mile of the ride. Both 1793 and Goshen are found on Duc's excellent 100 Steep Ones. Take a look if you would like. From there the route took on its boring part on 42. If that road, in fact, was a minor one with low traffic it would be a fantastic route, but instead 42 is the main artery of Oldham so traffic can be dicey. Today the traffic wasn't but the headwind was. Coming out of Goshen Ln. I was flush with lactic acid and never really got a good rest until we turned off of 42 at around mile 10 on 393. We encountered another nice, steep, short hill coming out of a creek valley and found our most rural riding on Cedar Point and New Cut/1817. And again, these roads were rolling with occasional steep pitches out of creek valleys, and with all these I didn't have the climbing legs today to attack; I just put it in a small gear and inched up.

Sometime during Cedar Point or New Cut the heavens opened and thoroughly drenched us to the bone. I knew some rain might come so I rode prepared with wool sox, wool gloves, and my RBW rainhat. I guess that worked, or not, but it just rained and rained and rained. Even with the downpour the ride along 1817 and Covered Bridge was very, very satisfying, especially now that we had earned our tailwind. We turned toward the house via Locke Ln. and Mayo Ln. Knowing that Mayo ended in a steep fall to the river plain, I didn't mentally prepare myself for yet another nasty, short pitch in the middle of Mayo Ln. I, in fact, stopped and walked perhaps 10yds just to catch my breath and legs. That little pitch, though, was my fav of the day, with trees and leafy banks on both sides, very much a little bucolic, "old world" window on the ride. We finished up back on Rose Island and climbing up the formidible 1793. I was cranked the granny gear and kept turning the pedal, hindered a little bit by the need to keep the Brooks dry, and henceforth doing all my climbing seated. It was a very fun "little" ride. Interestingly, my computer showed 27.5 and mapmyride only about 27m, although in the past I had good luck with the computer's calibration. Times change, I guess.

Eastern Meander

Date: Jan 2 Fri
Weather: 45F
Mileage: 22 (LHT)
January mileage: 54
Year to date: 54

This is the first post on a new blog I've decided to create; in fact, I decided to create it on said ride today. My first blog, tex's luavull cycling, needs something fresh. While I do offer some interesting insight herenthere, I think my readers sometimes get tired of reading, "I commuted today, yada yada yada." As such, this blog is intended to be as much for me as for anybody. I'll jot down my rides and commutes and occasionally offer some extra nuggets of fun. My other blog will meander more in the direction of advocacy, or at least as a compendium of bike-related information about the Louisville area. If I undertake a particularly adventurous local ride, I'll blog there b/c I might have found something interesting for the local cycling community. and that's that.

Today's ride was slow and meandering, beginning in Cherokee (and being passed by some nice roadies on 'cross bikes, one of which motioned some road debris for me, Thanks), then through random streets in St. Matthews. From there I decided that I needed to see how the other half lives, so I made my way paralleling Lexington rd. to take in the big houses this time of year. They are so opulent and impressive, but I can't imagine changing my life enough to own one. I don't want to; I just like them aesthetically.

My route took me down to the Beargrass Trail and downtown by the ballpark. There I did a little reconnoitering @ Blue Mountain Coffeehouse. In mentally planing the first River City Cycling Society ride I thought of place to eat downtown and this one came to mind. I had never visited it, so today I stopped by for a casual coffee and visit. From 1st impressions it seems a little over-priced and "hoity-toity" for a bunch of sweaty cyclists, but it does serve coffee and snacks and is downtown. Unfortunately it is not open on Sundays right now, so that's another strike against it for a Sunday RCCS ride.

From there, with coffee mostly drunk, I headed home via the Highlands and the B'town alley before finishing with a spirited mid-traffic big-ring hammer down B'town. Damn, I love to outspeed the cars there. It was a very lowkey, relaxed ride and a perfect way to "do therapy" for 2 hours. And as with some previous ride thinking, I'm getting closer to materializing the RCCS concept. All systems go.