Wednesday Night Worlds

I joined up with about 20 other riders for the year's first running of the Trek Store Omaha's 'Wednesday Night Worlds' group ride. I think Bryan made that title up. Good choice. In a word (or four): it was totally awesome. With light winds and temperatures in the 70s, what more could you ask for?

The riders gather outside the Trek store

The roll out down the Keystone. Nice turn out of riders

Newcomer Sarah on her first Trek Store Omaha ride

A first for Rafal (front) Kevin, and James (not pictured)

The peleton bunches up on a hill climb

After I took this shot, the tempo picked up and the camera was tucked away. As usual, we rode into Ft Calhoun and made a quick pit stop at the convenience store before turning back to Omaha via the Boyer Chute and Ponca Hills. In Boyer's Chute, the tempo ratcheted up until a complete hammerfest was going down. Limpach and Vaughn were mercilessly driving the pace as we approached the hills. Then Mod launched an attack at the foot of Ponca. Man, it was on.

What a ride (exclamation point).

In summary, great weather, great turn out, great (<--last great) ride. Regardless of how well one performed, it's safe to say that warm spring air and open road was a tonic to the soul, especially after the brutal winter we've endured.

Here's to Wednesday Night Worlds.

See you all next week.

Trees are Tomorrow's Burden

This is not a rally cry for tree huggers. Although it could be, because man, I really love trees. In fact, I cry a little when I have to pull the volunteer maples that sprout up from acorns each year. Poor little buggers.
I digress. This post is an answer to Rafal and Mike Miles comments on Bryan's recent mountain biking post. By the way, nice wookie sticks Bryan. The forests of Endor are calling for your return.

Since my priority has shifted from running to riding, some (a few (actually one)) have asked when I'm also going to begin riding mountain bikes.

To this, I say mountain biking among the trees is tomorrow's burden.

You see, I'm broke. I don't mean broke as in cash, although purchasing a previously loved Madone hasn't helped my cash flow. No, what I'm referring to is the commodity of time. There just isn't enough of it. Especially if I want to continue running and swimming. (I do). Not to mention having time for a life apart from bicycles, which also includes blogging about it, Mike Miles.

So there it is. I'm broke. Brother can you spare an hour or two?

Now I'm sad. I'm gonna go hug a tree.

A Mile for Every Degree

After ten days of clouds and cooler weather, we finally had sun and +60°F yesterday. Hands down, it was the best day of the year so far. And with nasty weather looming, I acted quickly and took the afternoon off to ride.

Earlier in the day, I had tweeted that my stated goal for the day was to ride 1 mile for each degree F. As a group, we did exactly that, riding 64 miles (map) in some 3 hours and 45 minutes.

I caught up with Shim and the Real Wes J. at 11:45 AM. We formed a three man echelon to attack the 15-20 mph SSW on the open plains before arriving at the base of the seven mile climb into Glenwood. The sunny warmth and beauty of the scenic Loess highway more than compensated for the winds. In fact, it was just warm enough to feel the heat reflecting off the tarmac for the first in a long time.

The roads are obviously in bad shape. Potholes and sandy conditions are everywhere. Anticipating this, I rode Bontrager Race X Lite Hardcase tires. Hardcases are excellent all-around training tires because they significantly reduce the chances of flatting. They're also quite durable. The last set I had lasted many seasons and thousands of miles.

Still, hardcases aren't bomb-proof. Shim was riding them when he flatted about 50 miles into the ride. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Wes and I fought over the spoils (a patchable innertube). Wes won. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

When times are bad, frugality is good. Which reminds me: hey Shim, do you have any slightly worn Ultegra (or better) pedals that you're gonna toss aside?

Hill Repeats in CB

I joined Shim and Jonathan Wait for a ride into the hills of Council Bluffs after work tonight. The weather was almost perfect: sunny, very little wind and temperatures hovering around 50 F. After ten days of cooler weather and clouds, it was euphoric.

There are some steep hills over there, some topping off at 22% gradient. Coach Shim says that it was probably too early in the spring to be hitting that kind of intensity, but we did it anyway.

We spent a couple hours chasing wheels before peeling off on our separate ways. Overall, a great ride. In the end, I was exhausted, but nevertheless content from enjoying nice weather in the wholesome goodness of the great outdoors.

On the way home, I encountered a car coming up Hamilton Street on the wrong side of the road. Four blocks later, a pickup truck belched blue diesel in my face as the driver yelled at me to get off the F*ing road. Nice.

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone.

As*fault

Ride-quality has been neutralized