Ridedate 20071027

A chilly ride Saturday morning. After overdressing a bit last week, I decided to shed a layer. This was a little risky because it was colder (45.7 degrees) and windier than last time. I did opt for the balaclava which seems to make a big difference.

I pedaled away at 7:40 which is an earlier start than I usually manage. I thought this was an interesting sign outside Hiawatha.



This ivy covered church bell in Shellsburg also caught my eye. The hose stretching across the frame was being used by a 'Brick Repair Specialist' whom was up on a ladder adding mortar about 25 feet up the face of Grace Trinity Church.



Somewhere between Shellsburg and Urbana it dawned on me that it was the first day of pheasant season. The big tip off was the guys in orange caps and vests driving by in a F-150. I didn't see any hunters walking the fields and, just generally, you don't see as many hunters as you used to. The linked article provides some numbers that shows the number of pheasant hinters are down 40% over the past 10 years. It also tells the sad story of the Tama hunter whom was shot by his dog. Since he lived, can we agree that's funny?

Winds were out of the Northwest steady at 10-15 mph with gusts up to 20 mph. As such, it was a bit of a slog between Shellsburg and Urbana. But the sun came out which was nice. Even with the winds, I did feel warm enough the whole ride.

After feeling like I should have eaten more the last several times out, I brought along a Blueberry Crisp flavored Clif Bar. I ate that about 1:15 into the ride which I found about as exhausting as any hill. Smaller bites may have been the way to go. I give that flavor (and Clif bars) high marks.

As I turned around and started heading Southeast from Urbana, the computer reported I was averaging 13.8 mph to that point. The wind had been rough but now, with it at my back, was the fun part.

I sailed home at speeds of 20-25 mph reaching a momentary high of 37 mph. Even though I wasn't working as hard, I was significantly hotter with the wind behind me. The differential in relative wind speed in my face was around 20 mph (~ 30 upwind and ~ 10 downwind) which made all the difference.

• Distance: 43.4 miles
  
• Ride Time: 2:45:52
  
• Trip Time: 2:55
  
• Average Speed: 15.6 mph
  
• Average heart rate: 137 bpm
  
• Nose blown 'farmer style': countless
  
• Nose blown 'farmer style' per nostril: countless x 2
  

Temps were up about 5 degrees over the course of the ride to 51 degrees. Unusually for Iowa, Urbana features expansive views to both the North and South. Here's a look to the Southwest.



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First Trip to Kinnick

My first game at Kinnick stadium was October 5, 1985. The Hawkeyes, who were ranked #1 in the Nation for five weeks that year, came from behind to defeat Michigan State 35-31. The only specific play I remember (or think I do) was a long touchdown pass from Chuck Long to Quinn Early.

For the first time since I was a student, I purchased season tickets this year. I went in halvsies with a friend; we're attending a couple games together and then splitting the other four games.

So on October 13, 2007 I took my son to his first game at Kinnick. Unfortunately, we don't quite have the team that we had in 1985. Here we are before entering the stadium.



My son is 6 and I was worried about his attention span. You wouldn't think that a stadium full of 70,000 people would be boring, but in this day and age of 24-7 kids programming and X-Boxes, who knows? My worry was justified. He said, "I want to go home." for the first time with 7:56 left in the first QUARTER. It was 11:14 AM.



But actually it turned out OK. I held him off and we enjoyed the first half. I then made the command decision to leave at half-time partially because of Evan petering out and partially because my wife worked later that day and I was worried about getting caught in post-game traffic.

The Hawkeyes went on to win 10-6. I think Evan and I can take credit; I'm just not sure if they won because we were there at all or because we left.

The people cry out for a hero

Can the "drunken college student" demographic carry the day?

Josh Green from The Atlantic lays out a campaign strategy for Colbert '08 here.

I hope that Slate's Campaign Blog will keep us well informed of Colbert's fortunes. They're off to a promising start with historical comparisons:

A few people have compared Colbert's candidacy to that of Pat Paulsen, the comedian who ran on the Straight-Talking American Government ticket in 1968 with the promise that "If elected, I will win." But Paulsen wasn't the first, either. Back in 1928, humorist Will Rogers announced his presidential bid on the "Anti-Bunk Party" ticket in a column for Life magazine. His campaign promise was essentially the opposite of Paulsen's: If elected, he would resign. He later challenged Herbert Hoover to a joint debate "in any joint you name."

Ridedate 20071020

Last Saturday, I got off to my typical early start at 8:35 AM. I always mean to leave earlier than I do. But one good thing about being "late" this time of year is that the light is later too.

It was 46 degrees as I began. I wore similar gear to the earlier cold weather ride with the exception that I eschewed the balaclava. I headed out for a clockwise loop.

Here's the Duane Arnold Energy Center chugging away North of Palo.



About this time, I realized I was overheating. I think it was the temps and not proximity to the nuclear reactor. I took off my helmet cover and hoped that the additional air conditioning would do the trick.

Here's a view of the Cedar River from the Lewis Access Road bridge Southwest of Center Point.



And some bacon under construction East of Center Point.



It was a nice ride. Once again, I was dumb and under-ate during the ride (in this case, I didn't eat anything) so my performance suffered during the last 45 minutes.

Temperatures climbed 12 degrees over the course of the ride (57.7 at finish) so I was overdressed by the end. I'm starting to learn what to wear in colder temperatures. I'd say my threshold for long pants is in the 50-55 degree range which also coincides with the full-fingered vs. half-fingered gloves threshold. In this case I wore an undershirt, two long sleeved insulating layers, and an outer shell. I think I could have comfortably missed one of the insulating layers or perhaps the outer shell in these temperatures. But, of course, it's much easier to remove a layer in the middle of a ride than find one you didn't bring.

One great thing about riding in temperatures below 50 degrees is that you can (and do) repeatedly blow your nose "farmer style" without feeling too self-conscious about it.

Winds were moderate out of the Southwest.

• Distance: 41.5 miles
  
• Ride Time: 2:32:50
  
• Trip Time: 2:47
  
• Average Speed: 16.3 mph
  

Lastly, I have NO idea what these llamas are doing East of Robbins.



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Beetle Repair

Last Monday I was distressed to discover I had a headlight out on the Beetle. Every time I take it into the shop I'm distressed how much they charge me so I decided to do a web search or two and replace it myself. The night of the 16th, I set myself to it. How hard could it be?

I had to to stop at two auto parts stores because Auto Zone was out of the particular bulb I needed: H1 55 watt. However, O'Reilly had it and wasn't too far out of the way.



Anticipating a possible blog post, I jotted a few notes as I worked. The problem bulb was the low beam on the driver's side. Naturally, the driver's side is more problematic than the passenger side due to the placement of the battery. Furthermore, the positioning of the bolt securing the battery calls for a socket extension piece the length of a 9 iron. The first log entry contains bad news.

3:44 socket extension lost

My normal socket extension piece was woefully inadequate for the task. Inevitably, I dropped it and it lodged in a visible but impossible-to-recover location near the bolt. So here in the first minutes of the job, I was forced to run over to my neighbors and borrow his super duper socket set.

With the right tool, the battery was pulled out in short order. The bulb project was then set aside in favor of a spirited "recover the dropped socket piece" project. Once that was successful, we (somehow my neighbor Rob was now helping) struggled to understand how the headlight assembly came free. The notes I printed form the Internet weren't necessarily the most helpful. Some pictoral guidance would have been helpful, but my Internet connection wasn't working at the moment. We were on own own. Nevertheless...

4:30 housing loose!



Now things started to move quickly. Rob headed back home and I headed over to the workbench. Here, the directions were more helpful. Unfortunately, buoyed by my recent success, I wasn't reading them and I took apart portions of the headlight housing that didn't need taking apart.



But I was able to get things back together and...

4:55 new bulb in place



With the bulb replaced, it was on to what turned out to be the most difficult and frustrating part.

5:56 housing reseated

So it took an hour to get the housing back in?! Yes, thinking back, that seems about right. Even with the benefit of seeing exactly how the seating mechanism was supposed to work (once it was apart, etc...) getting the headlight housing back in was excruciating. But somehow, someway, it was done.

So I quickly got the battery back into place, and moved my assistant into position in front of the car to test the results.

6:06 WRONG BULB!

No, I didn't get the wrong bulb at the parts store. This was more humiliating. This was the part where I spent two and a half hours unwittingly replacing the fully functional HIGH BEAM on the drivers side rather than the blown LOW BEAM.

But really, I guess it wasn't so hapless. I mean, it WAS but it wasn't as bad as changing the wrong side. More importantly, all the frustrating parts would have been just the same even if I would have changed the correct bulb straightaway. Another minor perk of this particular mistake was that the low and high beams use the same bulb (which even made the mistake possible) so I could leave the high beam alone and use the bulb I pulled out to move into the low beam.

So it was back to work. With knowledge painfully earned over the past couple hours, I now knew what I was doing. The last four log entries came over a period of 25 minutes.

6:10 second bulb replaced

6:25 housing reseated (again)

6:31 battery resecured

6:34 victory lap



So the bad news was that it ended up taking three hours. But the good news is that the total cost was $5.97 for the bulb and I'm now an expert in Volkswagen New Beetle headlight bulb replacement.

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A New Candidate

It's offical! The Colbert '08 campaign is underway after our next President announced his candidacy.

I believe he explained his reasoning most succinctly in a guest column for Maureen Dowd this past Sunday:

...it's clear that the voters are desperate for a white, male, middle-aged, Jesus-trumpeting alternative.

Here's a link to the official Indecision 2008 site.

Ridedate 20071006

A couple weeks ago, I wondered if I was on my last warm weather ride of the season. It was not to be. Conditions on Saturday were humid and hot with temperatures expected to reach the high 80's and South winds of 10-20 mph.

I left a little later than I prefer. By the time I had my traditional 'ride morning' breakfast of oatmeal and got organized, it was just after 8:30am. The temperature was 72 degrees under clear skies.

For sheer convenience, I typically ride off the Northern edge of Cedar Rapids. I can be outside the city limits within minutes of pedalling out of my driveway. However, on this day, I decided to head South and set a course for Solon with the exact route to be determined along the way. So the bad news was that I had to ride through the entire length (North-South) of Cedar Rapids before hitting the open road. But the good news was (is) that Cedar Rapids has a nice trail system I could take advantage of. The Northern terminus of the Cedar River Trail and the Southern terminus of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail meet in Hiawatha just about a mile from my house.

Portions of the trail pass through industrial areas that are scenic only in a "Youngstown, Ohio circa 1974" kind of way. The piping visible to the right of the trail is carrying something under pressure. The silence along this section is interrupted periodically by bursts of hissing and stream from venting valves.





The trails pass directly through the center of Cedar Rapids. Here is a view of Mays Island. You are forgiven if your eyes insist that I must have been cycling through Paris and snapped the Île de la Cité.



After passing Czech Village and skirting the landfill, I finally reached the Southern edge of Cedar Rapids after about 12.5 miles of trail riding. That illustrates why I hesitate to ride South. To my mind, the natural state for a road bike is, well, out on the open road.

There's a certain sadness implicit in riding through the city, waiting at crosswalks, and dodging traffic and pedestrians. It's like a caged bird or a disillusioned stallion in a breaking pen. OK, OK, THAT'S a bit much. The truth is that I would rather be on the open road. That's why I ride; that's where I'm trying to get to. But, having said that, the trail system has its virtues. It's well maintained and offers a quality ride through the city without too many stops and starts and is certainly safer than riding on city streets.

It had been several years since I had been on the Southern edge of the Cedar River Trail and I made the mistake of riding to a dead end on the edge of a new sub-division. After a quick back track, I finally emerged into the county and confronted the South wind in earnest. The main road through Ely (State Street) was closed for bridge construction, but the detour was satisfyingly short.

I stopped in Solon around 10:45am to fill my water bottles and decided that I was feeling strong enough to extend the trip through North Liberty. I also noticed, for the first time, that it was hot. I pushed on and rode by our old condo in North Liberty.

Now headed back North, I found a few bucolic scenes more typical of my rides such as these horses North of Swisher.



And the record corn harvest underway Northwest of Ely.



After rejoining the trail system, I limped home. This is a long ride for me and I should have eaten more and taken in more fluids along the way. The temperature climbed 10 degrees (82.2 when I arrived home) over the course of the ride. The statistics:

• Distance: 64.9 miles
  
• Ride Time: 4:05:01
  
• Trip Time: 4:20
  
• Average Speed: 15.8 mph
  
• Average heart rate: 143 bpm
  

I lost 2 pounds on the ride while consuming about 70 oz. of fluids. For food, I had a sleeve of peanut butter crackers and 40g of dried cranberries. Safely back home...



I discovered it's time for a new pair of gloves.



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Is this necessary? Pt. 2

Can someone explain the "dual-fastener" system present on some varieties of men's pants?

The pants I'm wearing today feature both a metal hook & eye closure (primary) AND a button (secondary) positioned on a flap about two inches deeper and one inch lower than the hook & eye.

I'm not opposed to safety margins. Indeed, I heartily endorse the practice of parachutists carrying a secondary chute. But once you add in a belt or suspenders, you've got THREE different methods of holding up your pants? And let's not even consider the paranoids that are known to wear belts in combination with suspenders.

So I'm just thinking this is one fastener too many. Beyond that, it makes using only the zipper on quicker trips to the restroom problematic.

Voluntary Sadness

One of the things I don't understand is why I allow myself to become vested in the fortunes of sports teams. I know I'm not the only one and I know I'm not even among the most vested, but it's still curious.

I consider myself a rational person. I essentially have a humanist world view, although not held so deeply as to actually DO anything about it. (Are there any other non-practicing Humanists out there?) I believe in the scientific method, I've never had any supernatural experiences, and I can't think of any superstitions I hold "true." By that, I mean that I might deliberately avoid walking under a ladder, but it's out of casual habit rather than fear.

Given all this, why does it take days for my mood to recover on weekend when the Hawkeyes and Bears both lose? And can someone PLEASE explain what kind of glutton for punishment would follow the "anyone can have a bad century" Cubs? There is no rational reason that I should care what happens when a bunch of guys throw, hit, and chase a ball, knock each other down, throw a ball through a hoop, try to hit a disc shaped piece of vulcanized rubber into a net with sticks, etc...

Other forms of entertainment like music, assorted hobbies, and theater just don't have the same downside. Although actually, this reminds me of one of sports' entertainment advantages: you don't know what's going to happen. I've referred to sports generally as "The last drama." We've all seen the same story lines rehashed again and again over the course of civilization. Humans can be quite predictable. Sports can be quite unpredictable and I suppose I see value in that.

But anyway... When it comes down to it, as silly as it all is, I just can't help it. I'm in too deep. I'm doomed to a lifetime of caring about a sequence of manufactured dramas where the bad parts feel worse than the good parts feel good.

Ridedate 20070922

I think write-ups of bicylce rides have the potential to become the most annoying and insufferable recurring topic in this blog. For now, I'm undeterred.

Note that I'm including the date (YYYYMMDD) in the Title as it will typically diverge from the date of the post. Although it may be considered an homage to the calendar used in Star Trek, my impulse to actually use Stardates was rapidly suppressed. That would be dorky and obscure the well-respected and trendy practice of recording details about bicycle rides on the Internet.

• Distance: 51.1 miles
  
• Ride Time: 3:00
  
• Average Speed: 17.0 mph
  
• Average heart rate: 123 bpm
  

It was a gorgeous day for a ride or, really, just about anything. The temperature was 69 degrees when I started around 12:30PM and only climbed to 71 degrees over the course of the ride; no significant winds.

I enjoyed the accidental precision of the statistics. Seventeen point ZERO average speed and three hours ZERO minutes. It should be noted, however, that the actual time was 3:00:09 and this all brings to mind the story about how Mt. Everest was originally measured at 29,000 feet which compelled the surveyors to arbitrarily add a couple feet so it appeared more believable, i.e., it didn't appear to be a rounded figure.

I rode in a counter-clockwise loop hitting Robbins, Alburnett, Center Point, Urbana, Shellsburg, Palo, and Hiawatha. These are my usual stomping grounds, but I had never hit all these towns on the same ride before. Something else of note: no stops. "Saddle time" and "Ride time" were both 3:00:09. I really should have stopped to refill my water bottles and taken in more liquid, but the conditions were so favorable that it wasn't a necessity.

With October right around the corner, this may have been my last hot weather ride of the season.