Perseverance

The conditions were perfect and set for a 4:00 ride on Saturday with some friends.  I had done some work on my bike earlier in the week to get it prepared for the weekend, and it seemed perfect and ready to roll.  We set off at 11:30 into blistering headwind and an ice-like snow.  The plan was to head out for 2:00 straight into the wind and then flip around and take the tailwind home.  All was well until about 1:20 into the ride, and then I ran into a problem.  If you look closely at the picture below you can se what my issue was.

If you can't quite make out the problem I'll break it down for you- my chain broke.  It just snapped right at one of the links.  Thankfully, I was able to avoid any injury when this happened.  But my ride was over as we were traveling without a chain tool.

Now my goal for the day was 4:00.  With my chain incident, my ensuing pick from the park and a work commitment later in the day, there was no chance that I could get back outside and finish the time.  So my options were three:

1) Ride the stationary trainer at night for 2:40 so I would total the day out at 4:00
2) Flip Saturday and Sunday's training.  Saturday = 4:00 & Sunday = 1:30.
3) Forget about the plan/goal for the day and just accept 1:20 of ride time.

In a recent comment I was asked about my motivation and where does it come from?  There are a lot of areas and ways that I use to motivate myself, and the one I drew upon yesterday/today was my love of setting goals and accomplishing them.  I receive a tremendous amount of satisfaction when I set up a training goal and then work hard to achieve it.  Knowing that about myself there were really only 2 options above that would have worked for me, either #1 or #2.

I choose #2.  I looked at the forecast and Sunday looked like it was going to be similar to Saturday. So late Saturday night I prepared my gear, fixed my bike, packed a chain tool and readied everything so I could head out Sunday when I was done seeing clients.

This time the preparation and the execution worked perfectly.  And it actually turned into a great ride because the snow started falling heavily about an hour into the ride, and I love riding in the snow.  All totaled up, it snowed about 3" in the 4:10 of ride time for the day.

-Jason

Late Night Training

Everyone I know and associate with has a very busy life.  Jobs, kids, social activities and even daily errands suck up most of our time.  And more often than not I have people tell me that their busy lives leave them with too little time to exercise.  To that I say,"make the time!"  There are always plenty of obligations and commitments to keep us from doing one thing or another, but I have yet to meet the person who could not carve an opening into their schedule to fit something in that they wanted to do.  My schedule was particularly busy yesterday.  What that meant was that I was going to have to start and finish my workout later in the evening.  Later was/is starting at 9:15 and finishing up at 11:15.  I didn't think twice about doing it, and I didn't hesitate when I needed to start.  I set aside the time, made a workout plan and executed it.  It was as simple as that, and I would suggest that it could be the same for everyone else too.  Know what you need, make the time and crush your workout.

-Jason

The Elements

I think I can speak for most when I state that last winter was brutal.  Cold, snow-filled and long.  It just didn't give up, and it made training outside very tough.  This year, however, has been great.  We have had very few really cold days, very few snow falls, and even fewer days with the combination of both.  This past Saturday we got a blast of Winter which brought us that bit of both.  We woke up with a fresh 2.5"-3.0" inches of snow and the thermometer pegged at 11F degrees.  It was going to get better though.  The forecast called for the temperature to peak at about 28F degrees.  I messaged a bunch of friends to see who was going to be on board with my planned 5-hour ride and I received 2 firm "Yeses" and a bunch of "No Ways."  The three of us who were committed braved the elements and headed out into what turned out to be a great day and a great ride.  While the temperature never got above 25F degrees, there was plenty of warmth due to full sunlight and zero wind. We rode through Proud Lake, Island Lake State Park, Kensington Metro Park and all around Milford.  It was a fantastic ride and I am happy that I didn't let the elements stop us from reaching our ride goals.

-Jason

What I have noticed

Here are a bunch of pictures of thing's that have caught my attention the past few weeks-

I am not exactly sure why this bike is hanging out of the back of this pick-up? Seems to me that there should be plenty of room in the truck bed.  I don't think I have ever seen anything like this.

I saw a bunch of the back wheel of this bike on a ride.  It belongs to a young triathlete who has some horsepower.

 I raced in Detroit a few weekends ago.  The course was right by Ford Field and Commerica Park.

This is the view I had during my warm-up.  I rode the trainer to avoid riding city streets to get loose.

 Trail work in Kensington Metro Park.

This is where the new trail in Kensington will join the existing trail that goes into Milford.

 Ride prep.  This past Thursday it was 98 degrees when I headed out.  I didn't check the heat index.  You have to be careful in those kind of temps- hence the Slurpee.  I have a lot of experience, and a decent tolerance, so I know how to prepare, and what I can tolerate.  If you are not sure what your limits are then I would recommend contacting me to discuss safe practices.

It is kind of hard to see, but my legs are covered in dirt.  The high temps brought out a lot of sweat.  The dirt sticks to that real well.

 I raced in Flint today.  It really looks nice downtown by the UofM campus.

I thought that this building looked cool.

 Wow! When is the last time you saw one of these?  It was a nasty looking one like this that made me finally decide to get a cell phone years ago.

How do you become a pipe smoking world champion?

Weekday Ride

I got out to a trail this week that I have not been to since last Fall, The Novi Tree Farm.  It is funny how different of a riding experience you can have between the seasons- in the Summer I am fit and I discovered that I can't get my heart rate up on this trail, but in the Fall that is not a problem.  It is a fun trail for riding and handling your mountain bike.  It goes something like this: Right, left, left, right, up, down, right, left, down, left up, right, right, left, left, right, up, down, right, left, down, left up, right, right, left, left, right, up, down, right, left, down, left up, right, right, left, left, right, up, down, right, left, down, left up, right, etc.
I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fun ride.

iPhone camera freaked out on this and the next pick

Yes, I am traveling at warp speed.

Lots and lots of vegetation trying to win back this trail

Log pile/jump in the trail

Hard to tell, but I am parked about 5' up on a log pile

-Jason

The Past Few Weeks

My apologies on the lack of updates lately.  The warm weather gets here, the riding intensity increases, the legs get more tired, the energy is lower, blah, blah and blah.  I'll attempt to get back on a regular schedule.  In the meantime here are some shots of some of the riding I have been doing.

The past 2 shots are of the new bridge, on the rail trail, that goes over telegraph.  It is just north of Orchard Lake Road.  A client and I rode over to it last week to check it out.

This dude was hanging out on the rail trail on our way back from the bridge.

This is a view of the bridge from later in the day.

I went north this weekend to see my friend Paul.  All the way up past Traverse City.  That is the Dune Climb behind us.  You'll find it at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore.

That is a luggage tag hanging from his bike.  It is a primitive form of a Road ID.

This is what riding in the Leelanau Peninsula looks like.  Miles and miles of rolling hills, vineyards, orchards, great roads and zero traffic.

I am an admitted non-climber.  That being said, this is my favorite climb.  It's about .75 miles long, winding, 4-8% grade and smooth roads.

A view of riding the climb.

A view of the plateau at the top.  Notice the cherry trees, and Paul waving and urging me forward.

Riding With A Friend

A good friend of mine came into town this weekend and wanted to get a ride in while he was here.  I told him that I thought that it was a great idea.  We set up a ride time that worked for both of us, and then all we needed was the weather to cooperate. The weather turned out to be decent- 60ish and overcast, but not as good as originally predicted- 65-70 and sunny.  As for the ride itself, we rode the bike path to Island Lake State Park.  Apparently many others had similar plans to ride because when we got to the mountain bike parking lot it was packed.  We were on the wrong bikes to ride the trails so we flipped it and headed back.

Check out the trick kit.  He, Paul, lives in Boulder and is riding for a new club this year.  I would give the kit a solid A in appearance.

Another angle on the gear.  Notice in this shot, as well as the first, his arm warmer has fallen down his arm.  Ever since I have known him that is what always happens to him and his warmers.  That would drive me crazy.

The best thing about this photo is the old school technology in Paul's hand.  And no, I am not talking about myself!  The bike in his right hand is a Schwinn made with Reynolds 853 tubing.  That my friends is an old school ride.

We ended up with 2 solid hours, 35 miles, lots of wind and a great ride!

Indian Springs

After finishing up my training sessions for the day, I packed up the crew and headed out to Indian Springs Metro Park.  This was the destination because it was the midway point between myself and my friend who I was meeting for a ride.  The purpose of the ride was to help my friend get fit for some summer cycling events, and ultimately The Iceman bike race in November.  After the warmth of Thursday, today at 43 degrees felt like November.  We toughed it out though and enjoyed some quality sunshine.

Mile per Degree

The plan for the ride today was simple- we were going to ride 1 mile for each degree Fahrenheit of the temperature.  We knew that we were going to need between 60-65 miles to make this happen.  Conveniently, we have a 20 mile loop that we ride at Kensington Metro Park and Island Lake State Recreation Area.  We decided that we would hammer through the 1st three loops and then do a quick temperature check to see how many more miles that we needed.  I had 3.5 hours to make all of this happen and it should have been enough, but we ran into a problem right after finishing the 1st lap.  The problem was a catastrophic cut in a tire which led to a flat.  Which led to a 2nd flat.  Which led to a 3rd flat.  With all of the down time ~25 minutes, I was left a little short of the day's goal.  Overall I ended up with 60 miles on a 66 degree day.