Heading off to TX in about 15 minutes (to the airport to go there anyway).
Had a great weekend riding in Madison. Took my googled route out to Mt. Horeb. Didn't end up going all the way there, turning off about 4 miles before it to follow a different route back for the sake of variety. It never got superhill overall, but some nice semi-gentle rollers. I did veer off on a few singular quests when I saw a pretty harsh looking hill. Here's one that had me wheezing on the way up (in the distance there) and having to ride the brakes to keep it at 40mph on the way down! Pretty fun though.
Here is a lovely little creek-y, drainage-y oasis out on Saddleback Road off Hwy 14 and County Road P where I (in the parlance of Phil and Paul) took a "natural break!"
Rode a total of 55 miles on this ride, about 45 on this big loop then puttered around the lovely Shorewood neighborhood in Madison, riding around a loop on this biggish hill about 4 times. Also tacked another 10 on it later that evening riding back to my folks-in-laws' house.
Here's the mapmyride result. Still losing about 20-25% of my miles with this alleged GPS stuff. Oh well, get what you pay for I guess!
Put in another mellow 23 miles with the missus on Sunday. Just regular commuting after that. A lovely weekend all in all. Just my regular commutes this week. Going to try and get in a nice 20 miles with Ryan in TX tomorrow and then it's off to the big ride.
Not bringing a computer, so will probably have to report on all this next Tuesday or Weds. Supposed to be something like 50% chance of rain both days, but rain in the 70s sounds pretty alright to me. Dry wouldn't be awful either though!
Heading off to Madison today for the weekend. Not a ton of riding this week. Ended up doing something like 150 last week though. Probably rode 60 miles until today, but I went on a mellow 45 miles today with my pal Shea. I have a ride planned tomorrow from Madison to Mt. Horeb that I'm hoping will be some sort of approximation of my MS150 day 2. Supposed to be good and hilly out there. I will report back! Got some good tips from folks at the Serotta forum and just riffed off of those and came up with a route. It goes like this:
Should end up being something like 65-ish miles from the look of it. The title is a riff on the Horribly Hilly Hundreds ride that is apparently a staple of the Madison area. I'd be tempted to try it, but my experience last fall or riding the North Shore Century all alone (boring, not that fun) will probably keep me from doing it unless I make a new cycling buddy right quick!
Tour of the Basque Country stage 5 is almost over in my replay watching. Inspiring hill riding going on now! Txurruka just wiped out, bummer for him. That guy's got moxie!
I squeezed in a 22 mile ride after work today. Went up the really stinky North Shore Trail again up into Evanston. It really, really smells like ripe and mildly toxic sewage anywhere within about 15' of the Chicago River. Way to go Chicago! At least we send it out to those poor saps downstream of us, misery loves company as they say.
Rode into downtown Evanston and stopped at Turin, as I like to stop at a LBS anytime I pass by one and just pop in, pick up something cheap, etc. I discovered while buying a tube there that Turin joins Rapid Transit in Wicker Park in having the distinction of the most expensive tubes I've ever bought. Not $5, not $6, but $7 for a regular 700c/23-25 tube! I mean, REALLY! How can the same thing be $5 at Boulevard Bikes, $4 at Smart Bike Parts on Armitage and need to be $7 at these places? Methinks I shall abstain from shopping at Turin in the future. Tubes are not a luxury item, they are like oxygen to a cyclist (or beer). Anyway, I got my 22 miles in.
Also, I spent the weekend in Madison, WI and enjoyed riding about 85 miles in 2 days on the bike-tastic paths that the city is infested with. It was like shock treatment coming back to the streets of Chicago. Oh Madison, why can't you not be a frozen wasteland in the winter, I love thee in the spring/summer! While there I popped into Cronometro and had the pleasure of being entertained by the owner Colin for a good 15-20 minutes as he showed my wife and I around the shop, discussed the fitting process, Seven and Serotta bikes, etc. etc. A VERY nice guy and a perfect example of what a small bike shop owner should be like, i.e. FRIENDLY! Anyone could be your next customer. And while Cronometro may have $7 tubes as well (I didn't check, but I like to think not), greeting someone in a friendly manner and taking the time to give them a nice shop tour even when they say they are just there to look around would make such things go down a lot smoother. I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to buying a new bike in the $4,000 to $12,000 range, but when I do, that place will be a the top of my list. Thanks Colin!
If you are all carbon-fibered out from Le Tour, here is a little old-fashioned racing to cleanse the palate:
Finally, I'm seriously considering going ahead and building up a 29er bike. I keep thinking about doing more of that riding. I'm now online browsing and early-lusting, we'll see where it goes. Could be fun for some fall trail riding and also really handy for the deepest armpit of winter as I don't think my big ice tires will fit on my Surly Pacer very well, but they'd go swimmingly on a 29er frame. We shall see!
And finally-finally, my other developing lust is for putting together a S and S coupled bike. They had an incredible Seven Alaris at Cronometro with that setup and my wife was being a super sweet enabler and telling me how I had to get one. She is really good for being the "just do it" devil (or angel depending on your point of view) on my shoulder when it comes to not prudent purchases, god bless her! Anyway, I think I'll manage to hold off on that insanity for a while, but it got me thinking about doing that to my Paramount frame. Waterford Cycles, where I was planning on sending that thing for the beauty treatment, does the retrofits and I could also have it done by Bilenky Cycles in PA, which is perhaps the leading retrofitter of this setup. If you do not know what I'm talking about, click here. The idea of having a regular sized suitcase to take on trips is pretty awesome to me. I hope to be doing more and more bikeable travel in the coming years, and I think the Paramount was coming in at just over 20 lbs. with a pretty heavy set of wheels and pedals, so I think it'd make a pretty swell sub-40 lb. suitcase bike. We'll see on that one too. Probably at least several months away no matter what, but my interest is piqued!
