No riding this morning, I was too beat up after yesterday evening's ride. I never know who's going to show up for the Thursday night ride I lead for the bike club. Often-times, due to the horrid weather I've seemingly had every Thursday night this season, it's no one. Yesterday I had someone who said they were going to be coming so I made sure I was there right away.
The person who said they were going to come didn't show, but I still had someone show up. He told me he was new to the club and had only been riding for a couple of years. Never estimate a cyclists ability from what they tell you.
On our way out of the parking lot he told me that last year he did his first century and this year he'd done four. OK, I'm starting to reevaluate my estimations. He then tells me that he's not very good at climbing. I tell him I'm not much of a climber either and I back the conversation up to ask which centuries he's done this season. He, of course, mentions that he did Triple Bypass.
HELLO!? You're not a climber and you finished Triple Bypass? It was then that I noticed that the non climber had started to break away off into the distance as we started the first five mile climb up a pretty sweet finished but not open road extension that will eventually let Ang and I hop over to the southeastern side of the city quite a bit easier.
Now, I realize that I was already tired from the first two rides of the day and he was riding on completely fresh but warmed up legs, but I was getting dropped hard. To make matters worse, the route that I plotted out turned out to be maybe the hilliest route I've ridden on this side of town. Way more than half of our ride was climbing and with available light, we put in around 16 miles. 16miles in an hour, with 10+ miles of it climbing... and climbing isn't little hills, I think we started out around 6000', climbed to 7300 or so and then started undulating.
At points I felt like my quadriceps would burst from my legs. So, no riding for me this morning. But, Ang mentioned on her way home from school that she saw a tent outside movie trading company. Tents outside my favorite store are not a good thing (for my pocketbook at least) so we'll ride down for dinner tonight.
I ran across the street to buy one of those $2.50 subway daily sandwich deals and between leaving the store, crossing the freeway and turning back up the road to my office, gas went from 2.59 to 2.61. DEAR LORD. UGH. There is no more motivation to ride than that.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
maintenance
I turned off anonymous commenting due to comment-spam. There should be a circle of hell dedicated to spammers. I'm fine with opt-in lists, but unsolicited spam is just obnoxious.
day two
I opened up dashboard this morning to start this post and hit play on the iTunes widget. While noticing that there were 443 days until Ironman Florida iTunes started playing BNL's Falling For the First Time. I thought they were appropriate this morning.
With stoplights it was a 38 minute ride into the office this morning. I don't know if it can be cut down to a half hour, but we'll see. Ang continues to be the one lighting the fire. As she was getting ready this morning, she stood over the bed and asked if I was going to ride. When I groggily said that I thought I would be she said "Good! Otherwise you won't get your three days in!", and walked out of the room. I love my wife.
Gas across the street is up to $2.51 at the Safeway and $2.59 next door at the truck stop. I think Safeway uses fuel as a loss leader to get people to come to the store because that 2.51 is actually 2.48 with your safeway card. In any case, it just makes me more interested in working at this commuting thing.
I think the hardest part of the commute is just how boring and open it is. Ang's route heads right into the developed area so she has stuff to look at. I follow the freeway through a big open plain. There's development once I get into Monument proper, but even that isn't all that much. Things seem to go faster if there are things near you so that they look like they're moving quickly. Try it out some time... it's truly, I think, psychologically more demanding to keep up a higher pace when you don't have anything but grass around you. Add to that that you're slowly climbing and it just makes it hard to get excited about the ride some mornings.
The ride home is different. Heading downhill, it takes just barely 25 minutes with traffic lights.
In any case, I'm here at work stuck working on some CSS issues. If you're a CSS person, e-mail me. Maybe I can pick your brain.
Barenaked Ladies Falling for the First Time
I'm so cool, too bad I'm a loser
I'm so smart, too bad I can't get anything figured out
I'm so brave, too bad I'm a baby
I'm so fly, that's probably why it
Feels just like I'm falling for the first time
I'm so green, it's really amazing
I'm so clean, too bad I can't get all the dirt off of me.
I'm so sane, it's driving me crazy
It's so strange, I can't believe it
Feels just like I'm falling for the first time
Anyone perfect must be lying, anything easy has its cost
Anyone plain can be lovely, anyone loved can be lost
What if I lost my direction? What if I lost sense of time?
What if I nursed this infection? Maybe the worst is behind
It feels just like I'm falling for the first time
It feels just like I'm falling for the first time
I'm so chill, no wonder it's freezing
I'm so still, I just can't keep my fingers out of anything
I'm so thrilled to finally be failing
I'm so done, turn me over cause it
Feels just like I'm falling for the first time
Anything plain can be lovely, anything loved can be lost
Maybe I lost my direction, what if our love is the cost?
Anyone perfect must be lying, anything easy has its cost
Anyone plain can be lovely, anyone loved can be lost
What if I lost my direction? What if I lost sense of time?
What if I nursed this infection? Maybe the worst is behind
With stoplights it was a 38 minute ride into the office this morning. I don't know if it can be cut down to a half hour, but we'll see. Ang continues to be the one lighting the fire. As she was getting ready this morning, she stood over the bed and asked if I was going to ride. When I groggily said that I thought I would be she said "Good! Otherwise you won't get your three days in!", and walked out of the room. I love my wife.
Gas across the street is up to $2.51 at the Safeway and $2.59 next door at the truck stop. I think Safeway uses fuel as a loss leader to get people to come to the store because that 2.51 is actually 2.48 with your safeway card. In any case, it just makes me more interested in working at this commuting thing.
I think the hardest part of the commute is just how boring and open it is. Ang's route heads right into the developed area so she has stuff to look at. I follow the freeway through a big open plain. There's development once I get into Monument proper, but even that isn't all that much. Things seem to go faster if there are things near you so that they look like they're moving quickly. Try it out some time... it's truly, I think, psychologically more demanding to keep up a higher pace when you don't have anything but grass around you. Add to that that you're slowly climbing and it just makes it hard to get excited about the ride some mornings.
The ride home is different. Heading downhill, it takes just barely 25 minutes with traffic lights.
In any case, I'm here at work stuck working on some CSS issues. If you're a CSS person, e-mail me. Maybe I can pick your brain.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
yawn...
Ang took off for the coffeeshop at 4:15 this morning and I wanted to send her off just to make sure she had everything she needed for her ride... afterwards, it took forever to fall asleep again. I hate laying in bed trying to sleep and just not going under.
I got up groggy a couple hours later and debated riding to work or not. Knowing Ang had already gotten up and ridden though? I can't imagine there's any better psychic butt kicking to know your still fairly green to cycling wife rode to work at 4:15 and you're debating riding because you're 'tired'.
Yes, I rode. It actually wasn't a bad morning for a ride, the fog/clouds were just rising from slightly below the mountains and there was this kind of ethereal haze from the light bouncing through them. I took the shortest route which is a little over 8 miles and 1000' of climbing. Total time? 40 minutes. The ride home will be barely 30.
I was doing math in my head and assuming I ride 3 days a week (which is the goal Ang and I've set) then that should translate to around 240 saved driving miles/month... multiply that by 12 and divide by the 21 mpg that I usually get, and that should save us around 137 gallons a year. Multiply that by the 2.47 that gas was this morning and that's an extra 330 or so that we can sock towards debt (and Ironman registrations!)
But that's just gas for the Santa Fe. Ang's ride is shorter, but with the riding she does three days a week, she should be able to fill the Elantra up every three weeks instead of two.
I can honestly say that I'm interested in finding out what cycling will be like as a lifestyle. I don't think we can park our cars entirely, mostly because of how spread out things are around here, but I think we can shrink the amount we drive by a good chunk and shrink some pant sizes in the process.
stats from the past couple days
Sunday club ride: 20.5 miles
Monday night dinner ride: 14.5 miles
Ang's Tuesday Commute: TBD
Brian's morning commute: 8.1 miles
I got up groggy a couple hours later and debated riding to work or not. Knowing Ang had already gotten up and ridden though? I can't imagine there's any better psychic butt kicking to know your still fairly green to cycling wife rode to work at 4:15 and you're debating riding because you're 'tired'.
Yes, I rode. It actually wasn't a bad morning for a ride, the fog/clouds were just rising from slightly below the mountains and there was this kind of ethereal haze from the light bouncing through them. I took the shortest route which is a little over 8 miles and 1000' of climbing. Total time? 40 minutes. The ride home will be barely 30.
I was doing math in my head and assuming I ride 3 days a week (which is the goal Ang and I've set) then that should translate to around 240 saved driving miles/month... multiply that by 12 and divide by the 21 mpg that I usually get, and that should save us around 137 gallons a year. Multiply that by the 2.47 that gas was this morning and that's an extra 330 or so that we can sock towards debt (and Ironman registrations!)
But that's just gas for the Santa Fe. Ang's ride is shorter, but with the riding she does three days a week, she should be able to fill the Elantra up every three weeks instead of two.
I can honestly say that I'm interested in finding out what cycling will be like as a lifestyle. I don't think we can park our cars entirely, mostly because of how spread out things are around here, but I think we can shrink the amount we drive by a good chunk and shrink some pant sizes in the process.
stats from the past couple days
Sunday club ride: 20.5 miles
Monday night dinner ride: 14.5 miles
Ang's Tuesday Commute: TBD
Brian's morning commute: 8.1 miles
Monday, August 15, 2005
a reason to bum around Denver...
It seems like there's never something extraordinarily cool going on around here. Denver gets all of the big shows just because, well, it's Denver and we're not... and last weekend, the radio let us know incessantly that "STEVEN PAGE OF THE BARENAKED LADIES IS GOING TO BE PRESENTING A CONCERT AT THE DENVER GRAND PRIX, SATURDAY NIGHT AUGUST 13TH" in some kind of cigarette smoking "Film Voice" crossed with a monster truck announcer voice. The only thing missing was "saturday, Saturday, SATURDAY!!!". In any case, tickets were spendy enough that we couldn't afford to go if we wanted to, so we didn't pay much attention to it.
While I was waiting for people to turn up to my ride on Thursday, I was digging through Denver's weekly, WESTWORD, and saw that Steven Page was going to be doing a free instore at Virgin Megastore the Friday before the show. Score! Anyway, we drove up on Friday. I guess Steven has a new album and side project out called The Vanity Project which is what he's out promoting, so he did a few songs from the new album. I guess it wasn't very well publicized because there maybe only 30-40 people there. It was kind of strange.
After the show he signed a few autographs and hung out. It was kind of cool. Ang still hasn't had a chance to see BNL live, but at least she's seen one of them.
After the show we wandered around the sixteenth street mall a bit and then grabbed some dinner and movie trading company. Ang was psyched to find all of the Planet of the Apes films in the bins so we picked them up. I love having a wife who thinks finding the Planet of the Apes movies cheap is really cool.
Ang and I and Steven Page...
... and some random photos of buildings I took while we were wandering around the mall.
Off to bed, more tomorrow. I promise.
While I was waiting for people to turn up to my ride on Thursday, I was digging through Denver's weekly, WESTWORD, and saw that Steven Page was going to be doing a free instore at Virgin Megastore the Friday before the show. Score! Anyway, we drove up on Friday. I guess Steven has a new album and side project out called The Vanity Project which is what he's out promoting, so he did a few songs from the new album. I guess it wasn't very well publicized because there maybe only 30-40 people there. It was kind of strange.
After the show he signed a few autographs and hung out. It was kind of cool. Ang still hasn't had a chance to see BNL live, but at least she's seen one of them.
After the show we wandered around the sixteenth street mall a bit and then grabbed some dinner and movie trading company. Ang was psyched to find all of the Planet of the Apes films in the bins so we picked them up. I love having a wife who thinks finding the Planet of the Apes movies cheap is really cool.
Ang and I and Steven Page...
... and some random photos of buildings I took while we were wandering around the mall.
Off to bed, more tomorrow. I promise.
I just want to cheer my wife on a little bit. Tomorrow she's riding to work for the first time. We bought her some lights at the bike store over the weekend and she's actually pretty psyched to be saving some gas while getting some morning exercise in. The reason she gets bonus points from ME, is that she works in a coffee shop and tomorrow's ride means she'll leave the house at 4:20 or so.
She's inherited my road bike for the moment. Someday we'll get another one, but for the moment we're sharing. Surprisingly, it's worked fairly well so far. We'll see how it goes going forward. Anyway, off to bed... Ang has to get up early to ride and I have to get up less early, but still early to head north on my bike to work. With gas at 2.50 a gallon here in town, we're now a biking family.
She's inherited my road bike for the moment. Someday we'll get another one, but for the moment we're sharing. Surprisingly, it's worked fairly well so far. We'll see how it goes going forward. Anyway, off to bed... Ang has to get up early to ride and I have to get up less early, but still early to head north on my bike to work. With gas at 2.50 a gallon here in town, we're now a biking family.
yes, I'm still alive...
Nancy just sent me a note wondering whether I was still alive...
I'm still here. I got swamped in editing the past few weeks and editing is something that ends up taking up my undivided attention. I haven't even really ridden the past few weeks. Yesterday, Ang and I climbed back on the wagon and went for a 20 mile group ride. 20 miles isn't a lot for me, but I've been SO impressed seeing how far Ang has come this season. It's been fun watching her actually get excited about riding.
We've been working our way through HBO's Band of Brothers. Movie Trading Co has the discs individually a couple weeks ago for $1.99 a disc. They're a little scratched, but they play... and $12 for the set is a lot cheaper than $80 for the whole kit and kaboodle. We've picked up quite a few DVDs lately... enough that I need to update the catalogue in the sidebar.
I promise that I'll be better about posting now that editing is over. But harass me anyway so that I don't fall as behind as I did this time.
I'm still here. I got swamped in editing the past few weeks and editing is something that ends up taking up my undivided attention. I haven't even really ridden the past few weeks. Yesterday, Ang and I climbed back on the wagon and went for a 20 mile group ride. 20 miles isn't a lot for me, but I've been SO impressed seeing how far Ang has come this season. It's been fun watching her actually get excited about riding.
We've been working our way through HBO's Band of Brothers. Movie Trading Co has the discs individually a couple weeks ago for $1.99 a disc. They're a little scratched, but they play... and $12 for the set is a lot cheaper than $80 for the whole kit and kaboodle. We've picked up quite a few DVDs lately... enough that I need to update the catalogue in the sidebar.
I promise that I'll be better about posting now that editing is over. But harass me anyway so that I don't fall as behind as I did this time.
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