Riding the Hill 'N' Dale Hundred

First, I want to thank my wife (C) for supporting me--both with moral support and physical support--for doing this ride. If she didn't agree to drive me up and convince me that she would be happy to entertain our daughters in the middle of Nowhere Ohio on a cloudy, windy, 40-degree day, I'm not sure I would have done it.  Knowing I had a ride to pick me up in a bad situation far from home was extremely comforting. I'm extremely grateful for the support C gives me even when I have a hard time finding confidence in myself.

And thanks to my mother- and father-in-law. They were generous enough to meet the girls in nearby Lodi to help entertain their granddaughters.  Just mentioning "Nanny and Jagee" is the magic password to transplant two young girls from cozy beds at 7:30 on a Saturday morning into cold car seats.
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Yesterday I participated in a ride called Hill 'N' Dale Hundred organized by Swallow Bicycle Works of Loveland, Ohio. A route of 100K (~62 mi) was mapped around Mohican State Park area, starting at Pleasant Hill Lake reservoir. This was marketed as a "choose your own adventure ride"--an unsupported jaunt where only a map and cue sheet were provided. More or less: every rider for him/herself. A few weeks prior to the ride, when it was announced, I realized it miraculously fell in a weekend on which we didn't have prior plans. The day I decided this was a fun idea I suspect it was 70-degress and sunny and I wasn't yet sick with a cold. This was the ride I've been wanting to do all year long.

Up until the moment I strapped my bike to the car I had unsuccessfully tried to talk myself out of the trip. In the days before the ride, temperatures plummeted, rain clouds took up residence, and I was coughing up loads of phlegm while binging on a smorgasbord of honey-infused tea, Ricola drops, and generic Tussin. At 7:31 am on the day of the ride, I told C I had decided not to ride. Without hesitation, C dismissed my lunacy. She reminded me of the alternative: staying at home all day without plans. That was all the motivation I needed.

We hurriedly woke the girls and packed for a day trip up north. Coffee from Starbucks (a grande bold coffee with an added shot of espresso for me) and breakfast from Tim Hortons were bought and we bolted up the highway. C and the girls dropped me off at the start point around 9:45am. The reported temperature at this time was about 38-degrees. Winds of 23 miles per hour accounted for a wind chill of 28-degrees. The sun peeked out as if to jump start our internal engines. A group of about 16 (?) of us bumbled around until everyone was mounted on their bikes.

To my delight we rode together as a pack the entire time. We would get spaced out slightly, but generally met up at points of interest or after nasty climbs. Grey clouds and increasing wind really started to break me. Around mile 20 I broke the news to a couple riders that I would be breaking away from the group at an alternative route on mile 30. I called C and told her of my plans, noting also my phone was low on battery [great planning!]. It was a fortuitous decision made not too soon. Around mile 23, I'd guess, we exited pavement for gravel back roads. Up hills no less. Pure brutality. Forsaking the group, knowing I'd be splitting off soon anyway, I walked my bike up two major gravel hills and cruised down their other sides. That's not to say I didn't try to bike up them, but my thighs started to spasm at the extreme effort so I opted out. My eyes began splitting time evenly between the terrain ahead and the odometer mounted on my stem.

The road on which I deviated from the planned route at least promised to drop me off in the town of Perrysville. Knowing I was nearing places of business was comforting even though the hills were long and car traffic was increasing. After a quick stop at a gas station I attempted to rejoin the planned route but was stymied by what appeared to be a wall of a road ahead of me. I literally couldn't see the top of the hill obscured by the trees in front of me. I shouted an expletive and backtracked to yet another alternate route that appeared to circumvent the damned hill. What I didn't account for was the exposure to winds in the openness.  I pushed hard against incessant headwinds, stopping at a farm to eat a Snickers bar.  To my chagrin the thing was FROZEN hard. I made it to an inviting gas station that sat at a major intersection but I decided to keep moving forward. That is until--while trying to coast down a hill--I was hit with such a gust of wind I said "F*ck it" and hobbled back humbly to that store.  I grabbed a bottle of chocolate milk and sent C a text to tell her where I'd be waiting. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't quite finish the ride, but was proud that I was able to participate in such an adventure. I biked about 42 miles, averaging 11 mph (with a maximum speed of 33 mph), over a total time of 3hr 44min.

I looked back at the weather data from Saturday. It was reported that at Mohican State Park, a high temp of 45-degrees was reached at 3:05pm. Wind speed was recorded as 27 mph, gusting up to 48 mph.

What I wore:
Long-sleeve merino wool baselayer
Short sleeve cycling jersey - I stashed one of 4 water bottles
Mountain Hardware Epic rain jacket (never took it off)
Pearl Izumi Cyclone gloves
Bib shorts
Pearl Izumi thermal knee warmers
Tall wool cycling socks
Toe covers (worn over top of my cycling shoes, purchased the day before the ride)
Buff-style neck warmer
Cotton cycling cap
Giro Reverb helmet

What I ate:
3/4 of PB&J sandwich
Shot Blocks - one pack
4 Water bottles
1 Snickers
1 packet of Scratch drink mix
(+ 1 bottle of chocolate milk to celebrate)

Alum Creek P1 Video

This is one of the two trails I ride as often as I can, Alum Creek's "Phase 1" Trail. Someone recorded this hi-res video of an entire 6 mile lap, though they finished in just under 30min. I think a good lap time for me has been closer to 40. At 13:00min you can see a pretty awesome boardwalk section that usually keeps me nervous, followed by a wicked rooty descent. And the section after 23:00min, just after the trail dips back into the woods from the road, is a pretty fun, techy part. Because the camera is strapped to the rider's chest, it's hard to tell when he is climbing and when he is going down. The elevation gain/loss is not crazy, but it is very much like a roller coaster in my opinion.

Alum Creek P1 whole lap on Pinkbike

Bikes! Bikes! Bikes!

Here is a pretty creative sideways view of Ellie rocking her balance bike down the hallway. She has been rolling around on this thing every waking moment since we bought it yesterday. It was pretty much an impulse buy--I couldn't resist it--which was easy to cave into considering the price was $13. These things usually run $50, up to $100. This particular model is the Chicco "Red Bullet" bike and I wouldn't have bought it if it was much more. Then again, Ellie is all about this and I've been super proud about how much she is enjoying it. This video shows Ellie's skill level after using it for almost 2 days at 32 months old (a.k.a. 2-years-and-8-months). I can't wait to post her improvements after a year... Maybe on the mountain bike trails...

a review: the burley encore

Earlier this year I got excited about warm weather and the fact that our youngest daughter was getting close to that One Year tally mark that signifies, above all else, an appropriate age to be strapped in a seat with wheels that travels 15 miles per hour in a relatively bumpy fashion while wearing a helmet. What with having two of these young'ns, a bike trailer was the way to go.  After hours of deep consternation, pouring through internet reviews, images, and videos, I had narrowed my choices to those of the Burley variety.  Coincidentally, our neighbors had a new (2012) Burley Encore AND a two-year old they were willing to lend me.  So with their kid and one of mine all strapped up, we set off on a ride around the block. Ellie enjoyed it. That's all I needed to know. I decided we would go with the same model, as reviews of the more expensive deluxe model (the D'Lite) were mixed and I'd rather keep the difference.

Well, this thing has been a treat. It's light weight, has a good amount of storage capacity, and has made my life better. The handlebar that folds forward to double as a roll bar offers me some peace of mind and adds to the perception of it's safety.  The large 20" wheels appear to offer a fairly stable, cushy ride for the girls.  Granted, our two kids are young (14 months and 29 months) and small, and they don't seem to mind being in such close quarters, but they are pretty much shoulder-to-shoulder.  My one complaint is really that, at such a young age and short stature, my daughters' helmets get pushed forward by the back of the seat. This accounts for the most common reason for fussiness between them.

Our ride to the nearest park is maybe 5 minutes by bike path. It also enables us to get to another cool park about 1.5 miles away without having to drive. Lately, as summer temperatures have cooled a bit, I've set out on a couple longer rides to the grocery store.  That trip turns out to be about 4.5 miles, round trip, exclusively on a bike path.  I'd say I fit about 3 canvas bags full of groceries in the rear storage area of the trailer.  There is a lot more vertical space back there, it just get's tricky trying to stack groceries.

In the past two weeks my two-year-old has fallen asleep in the trailer twice. I think that is about the best compliment a trailer could receive.  Big ups to Burley.

Holidays, Excitement

This video is a tiny excerpt from our conversation with Ellie last night before "bedtime," just after watching our town's firework display from the end of our driveway. It's a long one but I'm glad we caught a bit of Ellie's hilarious ranting which is something I want to look back on forever. The volume is low, so crank it up. You can hear me say "I love you, El" a couple times, at around 02:30 and 02:50, which was my weak attempt at shutting down the conversation and wrapping up the video, but Ellie keeps on trucking. So we kept rolling.

Good stuff: Basil

Besides being at the top of my list of favorite herbs, here's a fun fact about basil: plug a cut stem into some water and it will put out some roots so you could theoretically plant it again. This guy has been sprouting its new legs on our kitchen windowsill for the past week or two. Good stuff

Trail-er

Yesterday morning I went out on an early solo ride at the nearby trail, Alum Creek "Phase 2." I'm not much of a cyclist; my commute to work is at best .25 miles (and all of 3 minutes if bad traffic holds up my left turn to the main road). I don't go on long rides anywhere really. Last summer my shop-mates turned me on to mountain biking and with only a handful of trail rides before winter I fell in love pretty fast. This trail has easily become a favorite ride of mine and it is chock full of challenges for a "noob" like me. It's funny because for the entire ~6 mile loop, which takes me about 50 minutes to complete, I feel like I'm going to die. But on the drive home I feel like a million bucks. I've managed to do one trail ride every week for the past 3 weeks and I can feel the improvement. There are a bunch of stream crossings like the one above, varying in size and shape, and this is one of narrower ones that I crossed for the first time last week. Unfortunately the poor camera phone pic doesn't show the depth of the scene, but it's pretty awesome and I was also proud for finally having the cojones to cross this one without bailing. In fact, this week I crossed a skinnier "skinny"--consisting of two 2-by-4 planks placed together--for the first time.  I'm still slow and the short climbs through the woods really get me everytime, but if I can try to keep up the frequency of trail riding (approximately once every couple of weeks), I can hopefully get faster, walk less, and start improving my pace. I like these solo rides though because I can take my time, stop for pictures/water/etc and not feel like I need to apologize to my mates for holding them up.

So there it is: my workout plan for 2012. 

Amazing (100 Days of Emery: Day 1)

This is one of those "once in a lifetime" shots considering i was a fumbling idiot, trying to get the camera off ten-second-timer mode, and didn't even look through the view finder as I took this one of two shots... Amazing

Pickin

Today we went with our family (including a caravan of siblings, a nephew, and a few cousins) to a pumpkin farm and orchard to harvest sundry things that comprise the cliche cornucopia of this season, including several pounds of Fuji apples (that we picked!), a gallon of cider, and a couple pumpkins.

It was the first time I had gone "pickin'" and will hopefully ripen into years of tradition.

This week we will fashion our Halloween costumes and maybe roast some pumpkin seeds while drinking pumpkin beer and consider the goal of eating pumpkin pie every day of November.

Triathlon - we finished!

This morning my dad and I finished the Little Miami Triathlon: 6 miles canoeing; 5.5 miles running; and 18 miles biking. We woke up to 40-something degrees "eff" and while Monroe, Ohio, may have warmed up to the mid-50's by the finish line, the mid-40 windchill brutalized us. Biking was by far the hardest part. Canoeing, while slow, warmed me up much more than I expected (too much) and we managed to stay upright, unlike a surprisingly high number of teams...

Anyway, not only did I get to bond with my dad and do something awesome today--if only to prove to ourselves that we could do it--but we had the great pleasure of having an amazing support team to pull us through and keep us lifted. C and a very bundled Ellie were there, as well as my mom who brought a ton of food, and my step mom who graciously acted as coach and cheerleader along the route. As my dad said in an email later today, "we are lucky guys."

Update: I just looked at our results online and in the "Parent/Child" division we finished 32 out of 38... Overall I was in 1,010th place out of 1,174.
Question is: would I do it again?

Charity Album: Do Fun Stuff (Kids songs)

so this here widget links you to a charity album that just launched from a good blog I frequent, Pacing The Panic Room. In his words "100% of the proceeds from the sale of this album goes to a grant fund I established with PRISMS. The money will be made available to grad students who wish to make SMS their field of choice, the benefit of this is more hard research being done, which leads to more case studies, which leads to more answers for parents and researchers." I'm pumped about having some cool kid songs to enjoy with Ellie.

Finding Stuff: The Dog!

100 Days of Ellie: Day 84

daily

about a month or more back our Mr. Coffee machine tapped out. This turned out to be my excuse to open up the french press given to me as a gift from my sister probably a year (two?) ago. While I'm still trying to figure out the proper ratio of grounds to water, I've managed to make some good cups of coffee (amidst some terrible ones). I love it because it makes me feel real old school. Like, a legit coffee connoisseur. Mais oui. Like, instead of wearing some swim trunks right now, I should be wearing some nice trousers. Anyway, this photo is an homage to my french pressing experience. Cin cin.

100 Days of Ellie: Day 69

^ probably my best idea ever

if this doesn't blow your mind

nothing will

Updates: June edition

So this blaugh has really taken a turn for the worse as I've all but abandoned posting of photos and wisdom and unsolicited (and unwanted) opinions. Well I'm breaking my own accidental silence with this post; a hodgepodge of updates and thoughts, which might be followed up later with a couple photos of a particular cute baby. I can't promise that this is a complete revitalization of ADITGL, but maybe a reminder that I'm still alive and all has been well, but busy at home and work!

First off, the garden is doing well. We've been eating lettuce, sugar snap peas, a couple cherry-roma tomatoes, some basil, some spinach, and plenty of kale! Strawberries came heavy this year and I gave up on harvesting them by the end of May. There is more lavender and oregano than I know what to do with and German Chamomile has turned into a weed that is taking over all the bare soil it can find.  I've also been tending to our flower gardens. I recently added a hydrangea (C's favorite flower), a blazing star, a peony, dame's rocket, and some creeping phlox. I've also been transplanting some goodies like purple coneflower, creeping thyme, bugleweed, and lamb's-ear to places that need some more color. I've tried to add mulch to make bare soil look like something other than bare soil and zucchini is about to explode. Days have been very very hot and precipitation has been little and far between lately, making gardening a challenge.

Ellie has been wonderful. She is growing so fast and learning new things I can't even catch you up. Namely she's holding her head up like a champ and loves staring at trees. The biggest bit of news is that C starts back to work next week and we're both pretty nervous about the huge change.

I was able to celebrate my first father's day this past weekend and it was a great one. I got a great card declaring that I am the world's best dad--which I wasn't even expecting in my rookie year as a father. It was a very humbling honor. I also got a sweet monogrammed wallet from my infant daughter--funny because it's huge, but awesome because it's really nice and will always be my first father's day gift. Thanks Ellie! (Thanks C)

That's all for now. Be on the lookout for some photos coming soon...

Good Life Go!

Inspiration

Been reading my way backwards through this blog. This guy seems to be living a pretty charmed life--which is easy to say based on a condensed collection of beautiful photos and stories of amazing trips... Just a great inspiration to share...

Aaron Teasdale - Deputy Editor at Adventure Cycling Association
Click here: Aaronteasdale.blogspot.com

where the wild things skate

destroyer will kill

Can't remember why I thought of this, but I revisited this link to a bunch of photos I uploaded about 6 years ago to a graffiti website called "Robots Will Kill": DESTRO

Good memories about my shitty skills and some fun times spent alone trying to get good and dreams about getting down with big writers

enjoy!

dont worry about critiquing this art, positively or negatively, it was a hot minute ago