Status check

Well, here's a picture of my bike computer showing my total mileage for the year. I was able to do a fair amount of riding, and took a few outstanding trips. My overall season goal was to reach 3000 miles. Well I obviously didn't do that. I was distracted, in so many ways:  house renovation projects, my pregnant wife, a cranky but super fun toddler, new baby, walks to the beach, camping, trips to the cabin, walks to the park, neighborhood BBQs, extreme heat. You get the picture, fitting a ride in just isn't that easy anymore. So the fact that I logged as many, and the quality of miles as I did makes me pretty happy. Having kids is so much fun, and my wife rocks! So much of the time I used to have to ride is spent at the park or beach, making laps around the block, having snacks, changing diapers, or whatever else you do as a dad/husband/homeowner. I can't say I'm disappointed about not reaching my goal. My time was was spent in any case.

I've got 'adventure' on my mind

I've mentioned my friend Frank before. Well, one of our first conversations was about an adventure he embarked upon with a friend, more specifically it was via bike. It totally flipped a switch in my brain. Now, that coupled with the relentless Googling I've done since to see where and how I can get some adventuring in my own little world just bounces around in the back of my head most days.
Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about in most of my free time. What does adventure mean to me? How can I get some? Is it even tangible, or is it a state of mind, or can it be predicted or expected? I think what I've decided to believe, and these words are not entirely my own, is that "adventure is holding your breathe for that extra three seconds." I have begun to try and keep that thought front of mind, and it has come in handy on many occasions already. For example, the million or so times that my son wakes up in the night and I'm exhaustedly rocking him back to sleep, that situation could go in a lot of directions, many of which aren't good. So I tell myself, hang in there for a few more swings, you'll live to tell about, and I do. I can sleepily tell my coworkers why I didn't shower and I'm wearing almost the same thing as yesterday. Adventures in parenting. Another place I apply this thought is at the gym, in spin class. Step it up a few RPM, or actually hang on for the final 3 counts of the interval. Those actions take me places too, because then I think of how those are the efforts that will really power me in a race some day.
The last place I'll mention I've incorporated this way of thinking is in my job. I can use it as a tool to help me be more deliberate in my strategies because what I find to be very difficult these days is the planning components that are necessary for me to perform well. So I keep in mind now that if I can see in my mind all the steps necessary to get me to the next milestone, then I'm ready to take action. And that takes a considerable amount of effort; the reward is worth it.
So there you have it, my thoughts on adventuring.

Sent from my iPhone

Taking Felix to the races

I know I may be pushing my luck with how much bikey stuff I expose Ami to, but I think she has good time. So, to be fair I thought I'd give Felix a taste too. Even though he didn't stay awake for much of it, you can't say he doesn't have a cool style.

I'm not the only one that loves to ride a bike

There's room for more than one cyclist at our house! Here's a pic of Ami lining up for her first race at the first annual Southside Sprint. She was definitely a crowd pleaser and likely one of the youngest racers. She could have a bright future...

Bike packing, it's my new road trip

I couple years ago now, just days after we moved into our new house and neighborhood we attended the block party. National Night Out. That's where I met my buddy Frank, who got me thinking in a new way. He told a few stories about his adventures by bike. We got out on one together this season. We rode from our street, we live just a few doors apart, up to St. Croix Falls, WI to camp overnight. What a trip! We didn't end up camping because there were no sites left, but we had a few beers, swam in the river, stuffed ourselves at the Winery, and then had a really wet ride home the next day.
I'll definitely be doing more of these.
Here is a pic of Frank leading the way to the Gateway Trail, past the Capitol.

Born to shred

This girl was apparently born to shred. That's one of my old snowboards that I dug out to finally sell. While I was putting a Craigslist add together she helped herself to a little shred session. Damn I love her!

My blog, 2.0

Well, I'm sure this isn't a first in the blogosphere, I got distracted and a bit lazy about this whole blog thing and let it slip away. You see, I had good intentions, and the content was there. But I couldn't pull it together. I could make a lot of different excuses, like my wife is a laptop hogger, my kids are so demanding of my time, I work too much, etc. And those are all legit distractions and limiting factors, but the real reason most likely is that I am forgetful, and all the times that I really think I have something great to blog about I am not in a place to capture those thoughts, probably the most epic of ramblings. From there I always feel like I should just wait to regain those amazing thoughts....its a vicious and sad cycle of procrastination.

Anyway, I'm going to take another crack at this. This time around anything goes, you can look forward to some flashbacks to this past riding season, likely a bit about the birth of my son, adventures in daddy daycare land, and if all goes well maybe a few words about my foray into XC skiing.

Peace.

My first real ride of the season with my favorite little lady. We logged a few hundred miles in the Burley this year!

What's this challenge all about?

The contest is simple. Ride your damn bikes, use your computer to track your miles. The first to show 3000 is the Champion! There will be some sort of sweet, trophy and jersey awarded to the winner, likely in an elaborate, well-attended ceremony with lots of beer and celebrities. The trophy and jersey design is still a work in progress, so once they are complete I'll put them up here for all to covet.

The blog will be my means of tracking the progress of each challenger. I guess you can consider it the scoreboard and highlight reel. I'm looking forward to some sweet photos to juice things up a on here.Ginger, The Beav, and I are planning on attending several popular events as a means of upping the mileage, so keep an eye out for some legendary performances. I'll be doing my best to capture some quality content at them all to publish here on the interwebs for all to enjoy.

Challenger profiles will be coming soon!

Looking forward to a challenging season!

Well, I think this is a fitting topic as it is mostly why I wanted to start this blog. I've got big riding plans for this season. Last year was a game-changer for me, somehow I started road riding and now I'm hooked. I don't know exactly how many miles I logged, but my best guess is somewhere between 1000-1500. The whole thing sort of snuck up on me. And not all at once either.
A couple years ago I was digging around in the basement of a local bike shop when I was introduced to my first road bike, a glamorous Peugot Grand Prix, the touring edition. This was a real beauty, what everyone's first bike should be like. It was in too good of shape to be where I found it, someone wanted me to find this thing. I was so pumped up I carried it right up to the counter and paid the asking price of $50. For the next two years I did my best to wear it out. Initially, I rode it the way I found it, the full 10 speeds, chain guard, touring fenders, headlight assembly, even the original bar tape. Then I thought it would be cool to have another singlespeed, so I craiglisted some sweet bladed wheels, splurged on some new tires, and chopped the bars. That thing took me places, and it was fast. A whole new side of biking found its way into my tiny shop in the garage.
Fast forward about a year. A commute to work ends in disaster. I'll keep it short and to the point. I road to work and Bri picked me up to get to an appointment. Next thing I know Bri is hate texting me from work. This is how the news came to me, via text. The Peugot was in an accident, it didn't look good. In a hasty exit, Bri left for work with my bike still on the roof rack, a few minutes later it had the misfortune of colliding with a parking structure, piling it helplessly to the ground with the roof rack following.
Fast forward another few months. We had just moved into our new house. Naturally we are shopping craigslist for some new appliances to replace the nappy old ones that came with the place. This is where it gets a bit creepy to me. I go to pick up a stove from a guy in Highland park and we get to talking about things. Mostly he's rambling on about how he and his wife moved to the area when they were about my age, blah blah blah. Then he looks at me and goes, "hey, you look like a biker," then he headed into his garage and told me to look at that bike over in the corner piled under a few other bikes. From a distance it looked like any other crappy old ten speed. I wasn't really interested but this guy was certain I would like this bike. So I waited while he dug it out. Turns out it was worth the wait. After this guy broke down the recent history of how the bike came to be his, he told me to buy it from him. It caught me a bit off guard and he knew it. I told him I only brought enough for the stove. Then he said, "whatever, just give me what you have." It turned out to be $27. I went home the proud owner of a Raleigh Technium 12 speed. Right away I fitted it with the bladed road wheels that survived the Peugot incident and road it as a two speed, using both chainrings in front with just one in the back. Then I got sick of that and shelved the singlespeed idea for a while.
Up until that point, I had been riding the road bikes as transportation, not really getting into the fitness aspects at all. Then, a few months later in a boring meeting at work I noticed the new guy is wearing biking socks. I couldn't let it go and called him out on it right away. That was when I met the "Ginger", aka Jeff. Jeff transplanted from Atlanta and brought his bikes with him. The rest is hard to write without sounding like a bro-mance so I'll keep it to the point. Now Jeff and I spend a fair amount of time talking about bikes and planning rides. I beat him in a race on the Technium, too. He was so proud of his carbon race machine and all the miles he was putting in on it that I made it my goal just to beat him. I remind him now and then about the victory.
Now I'm putting a new road bike together, which is how this whole blog thing got started. Jeff and I are competing again, this time in the "3000 Miles to Graceland." A challenge to be the first to log 3000 miles this season. The competition is simple enough, first one to log the miles on their computer wins the trophy, and probably a sweet jersey that we will design. Any riding counts, as long as it gets logged on the computer.
I plan on commuting a lot, most likely that will be the bulk of my miles. We are also planning on doing some racing, both mountain and road. I'll leave that stuff for future posting.