In Austin, Texas for work and riding hills

Wow, first and foremost I had forgotten how hot Texas can be, but it's a different heat than Ontario.
I flew down on a Tuesday evening with Robert Brehn, with a layover in Chicago we arrived at midnight. We were up at work a little later in the morning. The store was ready for us, and we managed to get a lot of work done, despite the scaffolding company had given us the runaround about delivery, in the end it was delivered to the Houston store and they sent it over to us.
Back at the "house" after work the first task of the day is to assemble my bike, I was quite tired from Tuesday being a long day so I just pedaled around the neighborhood, which is very hill, to make sure the shifters were going to work. The route I had planned for Austin is from epicRides a cycling training video company, and epicAustin literally passed outside of our house. So I had it all setup for Thursday and after grocery shopping Robert and I went out for BBQ brisket. On to Thursday where we had another very productive day at work at the store. I then headed out on my epicAustin ride, in 33°C (92°F) heat, which is not bad for flats but it takes so much effort on climbs it is very hot, some of the grades are at a max of 20% and I'm about 10 pounds overweight so I felt every percentage point and every pedal stroke.

You might observe in the route a lot of "pig tails" in order for epicAustin to punish you and get the steep climbing they head off of main roads. The video/Map my Ride route also starts and finished under the MoPac by the river, not in front of my house. Texas has a rugged beauty and I do miss it a lot.

Friday was another day at work and rest in the afternoon then Robert and I went downtown to watch the bats come out from the bridge and he then treated me to a fantastic Mexican dinner... Some bosses are "OK". :P

Saturday I ran Robert off to the airport and I went out for Mexican breakfast. All this for under $5 including a 15% tip! BTW that's eggs with cactus 

Back home, and I did a little bit of office work, try and fix my map so I could find my way around the Colorado River, Garmin Connect likes to have a good internet connection and we don't have much more than a fast dial-up at this rental, ARGH! I then got ready for my ride and grabbed my flashing rear light as it might rain at 2:00 p.m. and out to do the full epicAustin.

And it sure did look like rain when I got down to Westlake drive...

So I attached my flashing rear light and headed into the clouds the rain held off till I was on Riva Ridge at the end of the climb, which was nice. For those of you who are not cyclist climbing on steep hills in the rain is very difficult because your wheel will slip on the tarmac especially on grades over 7% and Riva Ridge is one of the climbs that has a max of 20%. It poured rain I could not see anything in front of me on the shoulder of North Capital of Texas Highway. When I turned off the hill at Hidden Valley was a sit in the saddle the whole time to keep the rear wheel from slipping too much, it has gone from down pour to a sprinkle and by the time I got to the top of that it had stopped all together. City park is an easyish downhill all the way and an easy return 4% or less, so I was in a nice rhythm and working on my mental skills for getting up Jester, it's long, and it's at the end of my ride so this time I wanted to be prepared for it, and I just started a bit slower at the bottom, because I knew that it would slow me down anyway, climbs like that are best when your done with them, the last tail home is not hard and as I was coming up Smokey Hollow the Taxi was dropping Jared off. I met him, took a shower and a nap.

For the evening I had planned on going to the Pecan Street Music Festival, and Jared was game. Great fun and we got to hear some good music.

The rest of the week was a bit more work and cooking at home. Because of Austin's hills I just could not ride every day. Tuesday I rode on "flat" and Thursday I made a run to Mellow Johnny's as Jared went golfing. Some how my bike computer did not charge up and did not record all of Thursday's ride.

We went out one night to Rudy's and had more Brisket... sitting outdoors drinking Iced tea.

Saturday was an all day trip home... then Sunday was church, and the church picnic at Mohawk Park, with a great fall day, and in the evening I took the dogs out for a run, then off to work in Burlington on Monday.

Go East for them Hills!

I have been in two cities I did not know too much about, but have driven through the area. The first city is Pittsburgh, I was here for a few days and I just was mostly working and I did not fare too well getting served in a locals restaurant, and that happened to me again on this visit.

I arrived to do the store here with Robert Brehn, with our bikes in tow. I think that if it was not for Karen all the Brehn boys would eat only spaghetti and burritos! So while he was here I at Chipotle which is a burrito chain, a pretty good Oriental place and a burger joint... So food (or is that fuel?) was consumed!

On the first day after work we headed out south, to find out we needed to make a few detours as bridges were out. I later found out that Pittsburgh had had two major floods this year that had taken out several bridges. Detouring routes around bridges or cyclo-crossing over bridge construction became the "theme" of Pittsburgh riding. So without any further adieu here are the Pittsburgh rides:

These are by my lonesome:
This one the "pigtail" to the West is where on a descent the paved road just disappeared, turned to a rock road and it took me awhile to slow to a stop and turn around.



Friday after my ride I went to the southside flats where the "hipsters" hang out, here there wanna be's and really just college students on bikes. But I found a very nice restaurant with an inexpensive dinner (bonus). While down there I found Pittsburgh Pavé.

Now on Saturday it was Thunderstorms (feels like a theme for this summers travels), then it cleared up about 2 p.m. So should I ride or see the town, I went out to see the town. There is a tram that lets you see the whole of the city and the stadiums.

It seems that there are very few cyclist for all the great riding, but no shortage of bikers, and if your into sports and bars to watch sports in this would be a fantastic city. 

Sunday a.m. I was up early to head off to my next assignment Baltimore, but via Gettysburg... I grew up with a Civil War buff, and I took Civil War history at A&M with one of the great scholars before he retired. I did run Strava on this, just to see where I had gone, but if you do get a chance, a bike is a great way to do it, but bring a MTB or a cross bike with shoes you can walk in, and a lock. I had the lock and a change of shoes, but riding up Big Round Top I met up with people walking down and I had to dismount and walk the rest of the way up, in road cycling shoes. If you don't know what they are well go here. I have a lot of photos of the fields and views but here are just a few...

David Wills on Lincoln Square where Lincoln stayed while in Gettysburg

This is general Unknown, but there also by state plus all the known.

The plak from cemetery ridge

The real thing

view from Warfield ridge of little round top and artillery ridge

artillery ridge looking at Devils den.

Then on to Baltimore, I arrived not knowing much at all, and found out I was in the middle of the shoppers mecca of Baltimore. Monday was a nice evening and I sat at my computer looking for the best place to ride, I had picked a few areas that were drive and ride (not my first choice). Tuesday it rained and rained and thunderstorms, so I went looking for food, and Yelp failed me BIG time, shoppers mecca means chain food places, and no real good places to eat. I was depressed no ride and no good food. 

Wednesday it rained and then looked like it wanted to rain, but a co-worker had told me about Fells Point and Bertha's Mussels. It is a historical part of Baltimore and in a revival. I had parked down at O'Donnell and  Boston at a park and talked to several dog owners, this is Michael Phelps home turf. I walked down the waterfront promenade to Fells Point, which is where Meg Ryan lived in "Sleepless in Seattle" and had nice evening looking at all the old buildings.

Oh BTW Baltimore Pavé

Thursday RAIN again, but again a co-work had told about a place call Iron Horse for good food and Nati-Bo's on tap. I binged on "junk food" I had $5 pound of wings with, OF COURSE, in Baltimore Old Bay seasoning and Sweet Potato fries, ah well not healthy but good, and this place was out of town a bit... on rollling hills. "Oh my what's a cyclist to think?"

Friday as some may know from my post it was raining after work and I began my laundry which was FREE at this hotel, score! As soon as I got the first load in the sun came out! Stupid Baltimore weather! So I planned Saturday while laundry was going. It was going to be tricky, light showers in the a.m. cloudy afternoon and a T-Storm at 4:30. The weather was not quite so stupid, it became sunny around 1:00 and I got a little red, and the evening was cool and fantastic (cept the mosquitoes).

Sunday I wanted to see the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum so after hotel breakfast off to see planes and spaceships! The engineer in me.

Once I got back to the hotel it was just too nice not to go riding so... 

Monday was just a very long day of work, then hop in car and drive all the way up to Long Island, getting late. Today rained but after work it cleared up. I was oh so tempted but just too too exhausted, so I made the Thai Curry recipe that Greg Niemialkowski had given me, its easy and forgiving for travel with small grocery stores. Tomorrow's ride is planned and no rain in the forecast! 

Where I've been

I know that the last post was leading up to the weekend, but my bike computer crashed, and once I got home I spent an hour with tech support. Basically I had to reformat it and do a factory reset... technology is great until it fails.

That weekend was a pretty good weekend, I attempted Mt Diablo, but my legs were not into it. Being a person not to waste great day enjoed the day and ride. On Sunday I went out to Alameda which is flat, it is also the home of the abandoned Alameda Navel complex where the Myth-busters do there car smashing. This was intended for a spin and an active recovery (it's hard to find flat here). Monday Robert and his son Cam arrived and we rode for a good 90 kms with good climbing.

Then I went back to the frozen tundra of Brantford... weekday riding was motivated by my friend Greg where we got on our bikes in his basement a couple of times to keep/get our legs moving. The weekend was some good roller work for me. Yesterday was supposed to be a fairly nice day in Brantford, but at 9:00 a.m. it was pretty darn chilly (0°C) and it went up to 2, I bailed and planed to ride on rollers in my sunroom, I had wanted to do the Sufferfest's Blender using Trainer Road but alas I wimped out.

Then today with daylight savings I got up very very early to fly to California... and when I got here it was +18°C  and very sunny, so what do you do with a Sunday afternoon? Go riding. No great photos I was just out to enjoy myself clear my head and put in some klicks.

The LSD cell phone ride.

I'm not sure if my head is always on straight when it comes to opportunities to ride my bike... This morning around 7:45 I received a text from my friend Greg:: "do you feel like riding to Georgetown and back? 160 kms approx." Me: "sure", Greg: "Agnes (Greg's wife) forgot her cell there", Me: "OK I'm in".

Now this ride ended up being 183 kms. and that is a long way... Plus we went via the Three Sisters, which are three pleasant hills in a row, then once you cross the 6 there are a few more hills to deal with. Needless to say it was a long hard day in the saddle of  6 hours and 20 minutes (I think I have the right to say day).

The destination is Greg's friend who has build a custom pizza oven... it's very very nice, and if I had time I'd have one in my backyard, with a custom smoking pit. mmm food.

LSD Ride in Minneapolis

Today was again supposed to be sunny and nice out. Jeff and I were both tired but we were planning our rides last night, we had picked up a MTB/cruiser type rental for the week for him and he is still on the trail at 6:30 p.m. and I am not expecting to see him till much later tonight.

My plan for the ride was to do an appropriate ride for this time of year a LSD (Long Steady Distance) and I fuelled up the bike and planed on a five (5) hour ride, I was not positive if I could do 5 hours of trails but if I could do it anywhere it would be here. I looked at the map and there is a loop that went around the "lakes" and to the Mississippi River then down and back to the lakes. This was my first go around, I got a chance to see some fantastic architecture on the river, so I did a bit of sight seeing took some photos and went on to do another loop and this time I went a wee bit further north seeing what there was to see, and when I came back toward the river I connected up with a young engineer named Ben out for a ride. We got chatting and I was able to join him on his ride and he took me over to St Paul, up a couple of good climbs (oh boy at this time of year those HURT!). We then went through the U of M (the university of Minnesota), and through a couple of other campus' in town. Looking at more fantastic homes. We finished up our ride down the green belt where we met up with another U of M cyclist who's studding physiotherapy (sorry I don't remember you name). They pulled off at their respected exits and as I arrived home I peeled my butt off of my saddle with a total of 5 hours and 15 minutes of riding time in the saddle, a good day! Two bottles of Recoverite, a shower, a beer, and a nap... and at 6:45 it's still sunny and gorgeous outside!

BTW, I don't take photos too well when I'm tired sorry Ben...

Find more in Minneapolis, MN

Improvements Physically and Spiritually

First, the physical; I have a hilly loop that is a bit difficult but I enjoy riding it. I head over to St. George and do Cheese Factory Road, the cut across Maple Manor. The hill there by itself is easy but cumulative of Cheese Factory it burns a bit. Then over to Footbridge Road to Greenfield over to Ayr, down Paris Road which is now paved nicely most the way and makes for a nice head down hammer fest. Finish up through Paris and back home on Powerline (which is also a hammer fest road.)





I rode it on July 26th by myself and then again last night, August 13th. Comparing the two last nights ride was 1.4 km/hr average speed faster over 62 kms which cut 4:48 minutes off the overall time. Now what would be impressive if I could cut another 4:48 off in three more weeks... we'll see.

Now for anyone reading to give input and for me to RANT (so you've been warned). My bike computer is a Garmin, they have a Cloud training log at Garmin Connect, Which I've used for the links on the dates because if your truly interested you can see my metrics from the ride. I use Map My Ride for most postings as it shows the route, elevation and no metrics because most the time it's about the ride not how I rode. It also lets us plot out and share courses in our riding group. Finally I've been using Training Peaks because "its free" and all the cool kids use it. My rant is why does Training Peaks take less than a minute to download my training file and Garmin took last night 5 minutes? When in Denver with a bad internet connection it would not even take it. What do any of you use, if you use at all? This would be between Garmin and TPeaks as downloading everything twice is silly. OK there that complaint is off of my chest.

Spiritual training: I have been receiving the Blog from the Desiring God website and have used that as a point of prayer and challenge in my life, it is also a fantastic resource for reading and devotional material. I have read through Matthew and now I'm in the middle of John. Matthew because, the pastor at my church has been working through the book and the life of Jesus, and John because it's the most "intuitive" of the four books and the ideas of Christ's teachings come across more than the facts; thus providing me with a contrast of Christ's life.

Then on the Team FCA Endurance "The Body" website under forms the topic of fasting has come up. I've been participating in that discussion which has lead me to get the book from John Piper A Hunger for Desiring God and I have read through that, not as quickly as I would like as the Notbook's screen is a bit small, and then at the Desktop I've got the distraction of work duties. Fasting is a way to seek God and reminder to our body and soul that our true food is spiritual as Jesus said in John 4:32 "I have a kind of food you know nothing about."

So my physical training is going well, and I'm thinking it might be a good year to go out and race cyclo-cross, and my spiritual training is going quite well to, and the fruits of that are harder to qualify. But I still visualize my "life verse" 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, as I study and as I'm riding. There has to be a greater purpose in it all, and The Eternal Prize is worth it all.