Updating my bike miles

I continue to do most of my miles commuting back and forth to work. I was gone for a week in November. I already have about as many miles in December as I had in November.

August bike miles=319.2
September bike miles=174.6
October bike miles=308.9
November miles=163.4

Miles for 2007=3340.5
Miles since June 2006=6279.5

Follow up to my earlier post-I've figured out how to attach my DIY headlight!

"My mind was a mile away..."

On Thursday I went out to the Indiana Dunes to run run my favorite route-Trail #9. It's a great winter day to run. Although it's cloudy, there's not much wind so the weather seems mild even though the temperature is still below freezing. There are only two other cars in the parking lot at Wilson's Shelter. It's easy to imagine that I'm the only person here. For the first half hour I see nobody. As I crest a small hill about a mile from the end of the run, I see a guy walking along in front of me. He's got a walking stick in his right hand but he's not using it. He's just swinging it as he walks along. This guy has done nothing to suggest he knows I'm closing in on him. I'm now only about 20 meters behind him. It's time to announce my presence.

"Hello," I shout. He seems to jump a foot in the air.

As I pass him he replies, "My mind was a mile away!"

"Sorry," I say,"Go ahead back there."

I go around a corner and up and over a small hill. I don't look back, but, I know he's out of sight behind me. Soon my mind is a mile away again too.

How often have I had this experience-countless times. I've heard it referred to as a "runner's high" but it it seems anyone can experience it.

Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "CHICK-sent-me-high-ee")coined the term Flow to describe the sensation runners and others have experienced but have trouble describing. He's written several books about it. It's like Michael Jordan being in "the zone."

I'm a member of the coach's association in Indiana. The IATCCC coaches clinic in late January 2008 has a speaker giving a presentation entitled "Flow Theory: The Path to Peak Performance." I don't know about that, but, I'm fairly sure it's the path to peak experiences-a winter run at the dunes.

Stuff

I made it through the trail marathon in Bloomington, Indiana, over the weekend, albeit, slowly. Steve and I camped near the finish, then rode the bus to the starting line. Steve won a slab of wood signifying a top three age group finish. I won nothing. It was good.

Into the Wild was playing at the local theater so we decided to go see it. Beautiful movie but it seems they glorified this guy's journey more than was necessary. He really was a pathetic hero to my way of thinking-a sad way to die. I read the book awhile ago.

I've been bike commuting the past two days and not running. My knees are still aching from the trail run. It reminds me I'm not as young as I used to be. I used to bounce back from a long run and be back running within the next day or two. Now, it takes longer.

It looks like I may be riding home from work tonight in the snow (and the dark). I've still got slicks on my bike so it could get interesting-I'll just take it slow. Combine this and my recent headlight woes (my battery seems to not hold a charge very well over the last couple of weeks) and I'm feeling a bit anxious. I hope my 6:00 PM appointment doesn't show so I can start an hour earlier. I've got a home-built headlight that really works great but I still haven't figured out how to attach it to the bike! Maybe I'll get time this weekend. By the time I get home during the week, I just haven't mustered the energy to figure it out. I did try a couple of velcro-inspired options but it just wasn't secure enough. Buying a new light isn't out of the question but I shutter to think about spending more for the light than the bike is worth. We'll see how it goes.

Falling Back

I'm sitting here on a Sunday morning trying to get motivated for a long run. I'm planning on running the Tecumsah Trail Marathon in about four weeks and I really haven't trained for it (this is becomming a theme for me!). I ran about 20 miles four weeks ago and it felt pretty good. I've been running minimal mileage since then. I'm up an hour earlier then usual because the time changed last night. We move our clocks an hour back and stay one hour different than most of Indiana and Michigan but the same as Chicago. What that means to runners and bikers is that afternoon workouts will be ending after dark. Many bikers have put their bikes up by now anyway. There's a chance of snow in the weather forecast this week.

Our high school cross country season ended a week ago. I always feel a little down afterward. Our team made their goal of running in the state meet-this year for the seventh time in a row. We return all but one runner in our top twelve so our future looks promising. Every year, I struggle to manage my time between cross country and my regular job as a counselor. I'm constantly rushing from work to practice or from practice to work. I suppose I should feel relieved that I can give this lifestyle up for awhile but I don't.

My bike commute miles have been lower the last couple of months, mostly becasue I need the car to get back and forth from work to practice. I have been averaging 2-3 days per week. I've also been doing some modest mileage on the weekends.

I watched a little of the web cast of the Men's Olympic Marathon Trials that was held yesterday in Central Park. I've run that loop a couple of times. That's a tough marathon and an imprerssive time by the winner. By the way I was saddened to learn of the death of one runner, Ryan Shay.


I guess I need to get in gear if I'm going to do this run. We're heading for the dark season.

Where have I been?

Time flies sometimes, doesn't it? Seems like yesterday I was mourning the end of the Tour de France, and now it's a few days from the beginning of Autumn.

I had 319.2 biking miles in August. I was gone for a week at cross country camp so no riding. I'll update my yearly mileage in another post (I may just wait until the end of September now).

I bought a replacement computer on Ebay, a Dell Demension 8200 series computer for $62.00. I think it was a pretty good deal although the cost of upgrading the RAM memory is a little steep because the memory modules must be installed in pairs. I'm hoping to add this computer to the new wireless network I have at home. The primary reason I went with a used desktop is when I went to Best Buy to purchase a cable to attach my printer to my lap top, the cost was $36.00! At that point I figured for a few more bucks a could buy a used computer to connect the printer via the serial cable I already had and network it to the laptop. I'm still waiting for the Dell to arrive in the mail.

I got my yearly late summer, allergy-driven, cold about a week and a half ago. As usual it began with bronchitis-like symptoms. It started after I tried to set a personal best for the bike ride home from work a couple of Thursdays ago because I had a crazy strong tail wind. That night I couldn't sleep because I had this familiar "post nasel drip" (a nice way of saying that crap was clogging my throat!). I tried to ignor my sickness for a couple of days, hoping it would just disappear on it's own, but that didn't work. I eventually took a day to just sleep and read in bed all day. I did get a good ways into the sixth Harry Potter book. I finished it yesterday and am ready for the last book now. I'm almost back to noraml except I'm still coughing more than is normal for me.

We're in the heart of the high school cross country season now. Our team Chesterton High School is ranked in the top 20 in the state so far. Our traditional goal is to qualify to compete in the state meet that is held at the end of October. We're cautiously optimistic about our chances. As I may have mentioned elsewhere, I'm the assistant coach.

That's where I've been!

Computer Woes

I know just enough about the inner workings of computers to be dangerous. My desk top computer has been crashing fairly often, but while I was gone to camp it got a lot worse. It never recovered from the video Cathy tried to view on the MSNBC site. After trying a variety of online fixes, I'd decided to re-format the hard drive and start over. Thing is, the computer is crashing every time I try to reinstall Windows XP! Maybe it's a hardware thing? I've been surfing the net for cheap motherboards. I suppose I could just wave the white flag and trash the thing. It seems like a waste of good (?) parts. There will undoubtedly be more to this story.

Off to Camp

I'm off to cross country camp at
Tippecanoe State Park this week. As this is at least the 8th year for me to attend camp, it's become a harbinger of the end of summer and the slide towards winter. Thanks to the Windy City Biker for reminding me of this crazy biker guy! Check out the Ice Ice video for some winter fun!

Local Impact of our Unquenchable Thirst for Oil

It looks like our love of the car will trump common sense in "The Region." British Petroleum (BP) gets to dump more pollutants into the lake for the sake of increasing their refining capacity at their Whiting plant. The best they can do is to assure everyone that they've complied with existing laws. If that's true, maybe the laws need re-examination. Indiana officials seem content to inform us it could be worse and that it will create jobs (the article says 80). Here's the link.

July Bike Miles

Did an 80 miler this month on July 22nd. My longest ride in awhile. It helped boost my July miles. A also had a Sunday 50 miler this month. Steve says I should just improve on my last month's mileage by a mile or two-kind of like the East German weight lifters used to do-so I can break last month's mark every month. I think I may be tapped out unless I cut back on my run miles. With cross country gearing up I doubt it.

July miles=588
2007 miles=2374.4
Miles since June 2006=5313.4

21 commute days. The running store is now closed on Sunday so I don't have quite as many commute opportunities.

Rally Cap

It worked! Yeah, I'm a sorry Cubs fan!

Tour Day France

I know, I know...almost the entire month of July has passed and I haven't blogged a word. I'm not all that good at this blogging stuff anyway, but I've been glued to the Tour Day France as is usual for me in July. It's good stuff...maybe better now that there is no clear favorite. I'm playing the Fly to the Finish Sweepstakes too. I want to win one of those Cervelo bikes the CSC guys are riding. I find the flat stages pretty boring but the mountain stages are awesome. The new guy on the Discovery team is really shaking things up. Now if only someone in the United States with deep pockets and the love of the sport will pick up the sponsorship so we have at least one United States team in the race (Discovery's sponsorship will end at the end of this season). I did hear mention that there may be another US team next year too.

June Biking

I didn't ride my bike except to commute again this month.

June miles=499
2007 miles=1786.4
Miles (since June 2006)=4725.4

22 commuting days in June. Longest ride 29 miles.

Have you Never Been Mellow...

Why I had this Olivia Newton-John song going through my head during Saturday's ridge run with the cross country team at the Dunes State Park is beyond me. It's hard to get mellow with the summertime flies zooming around my head.

Road Trip

Steve and I took our yearly road trip to the Indiana State Track Meet in Bloomington, Indiana, last weekend. For the second year we camped at Yellowwood State Forest. Yellowwood is a wonderfully undeveloped area that suits our purposes well. It has primitive, uncrowded, camping and plenty of trail to run on. Yellowwood is home to the Tecumseh Trail Marathon in the fall. We ran about the last eight miles of the marathon course on Saturday.

Steve brought out his new ThermaRest sleeping pad (the ProLite 4) for this year's trip. Although Steve is relatively new to camping, he's the master when it comes to the cool stuff. He's also got a JetBoil that we use on this trip to heat water for coffee in the morning. Me, I've got my 25 year old Sierra Designs three person tent. This tent refuses to wear out. It's on the heavy side so we haven't used it to backpack, but it's roomy and easy to pitch when we're car camping. Between the two of us, we've always got all sorts of camping/backpacking gadgets, although I did forget my sleeping bag one time! I won't do that again.

May Biking

I'd didn't ride my bike at all except when I was commuting.

I rode at least one direction (to work or to home) on 20 days!
Longest ride-32 miles on 5/27
482.4 miles
Miles for 2007 805+482.4=1287.4
Miles (since June 2006)=2937.4

I replaced the straight bars on the Trek with some trekking bars but then rounded the hex head bolt that tightens the brake/shifter to the bar. With no way to get it out, I tried to drill the bolt out. I ended up destroying it. I've been watching eBay for another set of 3x7 shifters. Always something new to learn!

Memorial Day 2007

Last night I stumbled upon a Leonard Cohan song on YouTube that's been out there for years, I just had never heard it. It's amazing to me how much there is that I don't know. It's ironic that this song shows up in the new Shrek movie that just came out.When I was a kid another Cohen song, Suzanne, was a popular folk song and I knew the haunting words by heart. Leonard Cohan's monotonic voice seemed to hide the beauty of his songs.

I used to hang out at a coffeehouse in Porter, Indiana, called Saturday's Child. That must be where I first heard "Suzanne" sung. Saturday's Child was run by David Sanders and his wife. I remember him playing Woody Guthrie songs on the auto harp. His wife wife had an awful voice, but that never stopped her from singing. They frequently performed between sets of their featured musicians-oftentimes students at the Old Town School of Folk Music. I particularly remember the two of them singing "We're in the Money" together! They were definitely NOT in the money! Dave had his art studio upstairs. Sometime later, Dave and his new, much younger wife, were in our La Maze class. The coffeehouse is long gone now.

I chose this version of the song simply because I could make out the words easily. It's sung by Rufus Wainwright. His voice captures the sadness of this song perfectly for me. I'll be pulling weeds on Memorial Day, remembering the coffeehouse days, with the words of Hallelujah going through my head.

Thank you to our men and women in the military. I hope you'll all be home safely by next Memorial Day.

Bike to Work

It's National Bike Month so I figure I ought to mention something about it before May runs out. I see in the paper today that Valparaiso is planning a modest Bike to Work observance tomorrow. I may actually be cruising past the start of the bike to work ride when they shove off-I go by Foundation Meadows on my usual route to work. While my weekly bike totals are modest compared to hard-core bike commuters, in this part of the world bike commuting is a solitary activity (sometimes I think that there is at least one pick up truck for every person living in Porter County!). I think I've got a shot at winning the free bike they're offering for the most National Bike Week mileage!

Signs of Spring-Michigan Trail Marathon

Checking in at Zou Zou's in Chelsea, Michigan.

April Biking

14 days commuting
Longest ride-55 miles on 4/22
Estimated April miles-380.0
Miles for 2007=425+380=805
Total miles (since June 2006)=2455

My commute days increased as I thought they might. My bike needs a good cleaning. I hear a bothersome crackling noise as I ride that I believe is my bottom bracket telling me it's time for some attention. I'm back to dreaming of converting the Trek 950 mountain bike to a touring bike. I've been considering the virtues of drop bars verses trekking bars to the replace the straight bars on the bike now. Steve and I talked a bit about a trip around Lake Michigan like these guys took. This is a discussion that's been ongoing for several years.

Iron Horse Heritage Trail

It looks like the City of Portage will start constructing a second multi-use trail across the city. See where it will go here. Now the town of Porter needs to get it together to build their small section of trail (labeled the Porter Brickyard Trail on the map)! Apparently homeowners near where the trail is planned to go can't see the value of having the trail near their property. IMHO some people just don't get it...hey, build it near my house...please!

My Route to Work

Bike route to work

Not a fit day for man nor beast...

If I had another way to work, I really wouldn't have ridden my bike today. I left my car at work last night and Cathy had already left for work by the time I got up. I just got my new bike clothes from Lou at Foxwear-this would be a good test. It snowed overnight and the roads looked slushy when I looked out. No clipless ride today! The temperatures were just below freezing. The wind was out of the east-never a good sign around here. (When I got to work and checked the weather on the internet, it said 23 mph, with gusts higher!) The only positive in this was that at least I would not have a headwind the entire way as my ride is mainly south to work. As I headed out I was wearing my sunglasses (don't ask!)but the combination of fogging and rain quickly made them worthless. I was worried about traction but the roads were primarily wet so this wasn't a problem. The wind WAS a problem. As I mentioned above it was out of the east and gusting. Several gusts pushed me towards the edge of the road. Not having my feet attached to the pedals added to the challenge since my feet slipped off of the pedals. I have upgraded my commuter with Performance Campus pedals (one side cliplees, the other side platform) just for this occasion, but hadn't really ridden the bike without toe clips or clipless for quite awhile. Once while looking down to flip the pedal so I didn't clip in by mistake, the wind nearly blew me off the road and into the ditch. (note to self-don't wear the shoes with cleats if you don't plan to use them!) The Foxwear rain pants seemed to be working like a charm, and, they're cut long enough so they don't expose my boot tops to run off when I'm riding. The jacket-well, Lou never said it was water proof. It worked well to shed the wind but the wetness began to seep through. This was uncomfortable but not cold. My hands and feet were my real problem areas. The lobster mittens I was wearing were soaked and were sucking heat from my hands instead of keeping them warm. The mud flap on my front fender neatly diverted spray from the road onto my right foot. I have a pair of Stormsocks on but, they're not waterproof either. My feet were soaked. Wiggle my fingers, wiggle my toes, wiggle my fingers...you get the routine. Miraculously, I didn't take much longer than usual to get to work. When I got there my fingers couldn't manipulate the fastener on my bike helmet. After I warmed up I promised myself never to do this again...until I get some waterproof socks and gloves!

bike commuting #6

I didn't do a lot of commuting over the winter but I did get my first lessons on how to stay warm:

hand and foot warmers
Col d'Lizárd Icebike tights
Stuff from Foxwear

I used my studded tires a few times and they worked great. Now that the temperatures have warmed a bit, I figure I'll get more into a commuting routine again. For now I'm focusing on commuting on Mondays and Fridays. I may transport my bike to work by car a few times too since I sometimes need to car to get to appointments. I'm running the remaining days in preparation for my trip to the Michigan Trail Marathon.



2007 Miles=425
Total miles=2075

Illiana Expressway

The Illiana Expressway debate has swirled around our area for awhile now. I find it interesting that the Save the Dunes Council is opposed to the road. The Borman Expressway (I80 & I94)passes close to the dunes and noise from the road can be heard in the state park. Personally I'd like to see more interest in public transportation and commuter rail lines instead of creating more roads. At a time when our dependence upon Middle Eastern oil is never far from the front page, it seems counterproductive to spend money on any project destined to increase that dependence. I'd be fine with the county income tax proposed to fund the South Shore extension. We need regional bus lines and the Marquette Plan (there's an Illinois state line to Michigan state line bike trail proposed in the Marquette Plan by the way). Illinois has a commission in place to improve rail transportation across their portion of the bottleneck that makes it cost-effective to off load freight on the west side of the City and then truck it to our side of the city because transporting by rail is too slow. What is Indiana doing about this-nothing that I can see!

Spring!?

I figured I'd better post something. Meteorological Spring began a few days ago and since then we've had record highs in the 70's and more snow (not much more). I've commuted by bike three times in the last week. I'd commute more often but haven't figured out how to get around while at work. I got a bike rack thrown in with the Trek 950 I bought last fall and I've attached it to my old car. It seems to work but I haven't actually transported my bike with it yet. Here's a sunset picture from over the weekend. As you can see there were small icebergs just off shore.

An Inconvenient Truth

I took several pictures of the breathtaking sunset last night. The reality of living around here is no matter how awesome the natural beauty is, we're never too far remove from reminders of heavy industry. In the center of this shot is a coal fired generating plant. Tonight I watched An Inconvenient Truth and realized again that it's not enough to carve out a small oasis of natural beauty like the dunes because pollution from that plant looms over it all. We're killing ourselves by degrees (pun intended). It gives me a higher purpose to do as much bicycle commuting as I can. See this movie if you haven't done so already.

Remembering George Cheung

I could see the big buildings of Chicago as I ran along Lake Front Drive in Beverly Shores this morning. It's the Chinese New Year. Today begins the "Year of the Pig" in the Chinese lunar calender. I can't think of the Chinese New Year without remembering George Cheung and his 50k fun runs. It's hard to believe that the last run was thirteen years ago. I never really spoke with George as we passed one another on the Chicago bike path, but he always came to our table at the buffet afterward at his restaurant. I have some great memories of my many trips into town for that run. One year Stu Mittleman showed! You can really freeze your ass off running 50km in February on the Chicago lakefront! I notice that there's a George Cheung Memorial Race in March along the same route.

Valentine's Day Snow

I caught up with this couple just before sunset at the top of Mount Holden. I forgot to get their names. It was a wonderful evening to snowshoe at the park.

Moller geht Schielaufen

Pardon my lousy German. It's all I remember from high school. I took advantage of a couple of inches of new snow yesterday and went snowshoeing at the dunes this morning. The snow was really starting to fly by the time I was finished. I wound up with a snow day of sorts because my work decided to close at noon due to the promise of really crappy weather this afternoon and evening. Maybe I'll go for another spin on the shoes later too!

Fun on Trail -9 (degrees)

This morning's run was the coldest of the year so far. The wind was howling in the trees but it was really alright in the woods. John (left) and Steve are looking a little frosty don't you think?

My String is Broken..

Well, it looks like my string of weeks with at least one bike commute will end. This morning the weather seems ridable (Temperature about 10 degrees; 6 mph winds) but this afternoon the winds will pick up to 40 mph! With the temperatures falling the wind chill values are predicted to be in the -25 degree F. range. I'm just not ready to brave those conditions yet. I count on some of the bloggers I have listed to provide me with inspiration to get back out there sometime over the next week. Doug and many other amazing winter athletes are actually going to race in this weather. I'm not worthy...I'm not worthy....

Winter has Arrived...

Around six inches of snow has fallen in the last week. There's enough (barely enough) so that I did a little snowshoeing at the park on Monday. The cross country skiers have been out too, although, a bit more snow would really improve things for them. The photo above is almost from the same location as the photo from January 13th. North winds and cold temperatures have resulted in lake ice. There's still plenty of open water away from shore which means we could still get significant lake-effect snow if the wind is out of the North. The beach is frozen and snow free. A wonderful place for a morning run!

Oh yeah, we got some snow...

January 17, 2007-Trail #7 at the Dunes State Park

Trail Running Series

I've been on the fringe of the planning for a little trail running series in dune country. The XYZ Race Series will join some existing races with a couple of new races throughout the year. It should be a good time.

Calm Before the Storm?

The weather-people are promising snow, sleet and freezing rain for this weekend so I put the serious looking snow tires (Nokian Extreme 120's) I picked up awhile back on the commuter bike. I've got this good deal from the running shoe store where I work a few hours a week so I didn't have to pay retail. Now I may actually get a chance to try them out! The lake had those slow low-roar waves breaking on the beach this morning when I was out there for a run. With no lake ice, any storm has the potential to seriously erode the beach. I saw water marks within feet of the dune grass and the wind was not really blowing that hard yet. The last predicted storm was a dud. There's only been a trace of snow at the park all winter so far. Oh, if you look real closely you can make out some of the Chicago skyline in the distance.

Bike Commuting #5

I have had 13 more round trips to work since I lasted posted. That's another 325 miles. My total for the year is 1650 miles. I haven't figured the cost savings for the last 600 miles. Using the cost per gallon of gas as $2.25 (it's been right around this price since I last figured cost savings), that's another $54.00 in savings. My total for the year is $160.30. Of course I've spent more than this for bike stuff!