A. Homer Hilsen

I know it's now been months since D finally got his baby, A. Homer Hilsen. I've been meaning to share pictures of this beautiful beast since the beginning but just haven't gotten to it until now. Here's one of D with the bike...you can view several more pictures of his bike here.

Long Johns

A bike for those who are worried that they wouldn't be able to do without a car for hauling reasons...

You know, if you need to deliver some cheese, or whatever :)

Most of these are found in Europe (Denmark, Germany, Sweeden), as that is where they are made. However, there is one in Alaska. Now, if someone living in Alaska can use one of these to get around, you will have to come up with a better excuse than whatever you were just thinking...

There are many more pictures of different Long Johns in different countries at longjohn.org.

Me and my Honig

Me and my Honig, originally uploaded by sunpath.

...in all our garrish-clothed glory!

We rode with the Canyon Ranch group as part of Tucson's first ever Livestrong ride. Hilariously, when giving a proclamation that May 13th will henceforth be Livestrong day in Tucson, Mayor Walkup pronounced it Lyvestrong (you know, like cats have 9 lives). Clearly he didn't get briefed on what was going on before he showed up...

Click on the pic if you want to see a couple other shots from the morning.

Dylan at the finish line

Dylan at the finish line, originally uploaded by sunpath.

On Sunday Dylan rode in the Tour of the Tucson Mountains. He finished well, at 3 hours and 12 minutes. That makes his average speed 21.8 mph for the 70 mile course (and there was a head wind almost the whole way!).

Wish the pic was a little more in focus...I guess I'm really not a sports photographer ;)

so innocent...

He looks so young and innocent...he just can't be doping!
At this point, the worst thing that could happen for cycling would be if he was found to have been using drugs...dear Lord, please let him be clean!

STP!

more pictures at web.mac.com/michaeleen

Critical Acclaim

For the Critical Mass movement in the US, that is. Started by some hippies in San Francisco who wanted to mimic the method by which Chinese Cyclists cross streets en masse and add some congestion to the downtown area at the same time, there are now Critical Mass rides the last Friday of each month in cities worldwide. Since we were in the right place at the right time we checked out the Chicago Critical Mass ride for June...

Success!, part 2

77 miles Saturday, 75 miles Sunday. Hot, hot, hot.

(seriously, folks. the highs were 104 and 103. today's high is 107).

I've now finished the last hard push through my STP training! All that's left is some easy riding the last weekend before the STP and then eating lots of Pad Thai or something...

yippie!!!

Success!

60 miles on Saturday, 60 miles on Sunday. Brutal heat. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

I am thrilled each time I think about how the temperature will be much more moderate during the STP. No uphill climbs on the way home into blast-furnace wind. Ahhhh....

120 miles or bust!

120 miles
on the bike
this weekend
or bust!

(please note that the high on Saturday is 102 degrees and on Sunday is 101 degrees).

Bikin' Dir-tay

Clean or dirty? Will we ever know?

If the cars don't get you, the birds will...

I must share this because it is both frightening and hilarious at the same time...

Dylan is participating in a friendly cycling competition that involves 3 Canyon Ranch employees and 3 employees from the developer (Related Midwest) in Chicago. The jist of the competition is to see who can ride the most miles between January and the El Tour in November. There are prizes (beer, yellow jersey, pride) and many more rules than are laid out here...you get the idea.

So far, all three of the CR team members have had bike accidents. Dylan was forced off the road and wiped out on a drainage culvert (no major injuries to D or bike), Larry was hit by a truck (no major injuries to Larry, bike was runover) and Ek, well, Ek had the best experience yet...

You see, Ek was riding along with his girlfriend AND talking on the phone. I'm pretty sure that talking while you ride is as dangerous and talking while you drive...but I digress...
Suddenly two Morning Doves flew out toward him. One passed right in front of him - very close. The second flew into the hand holding his cellphone! The bird hit him so hard that it died on impact. As he put it, "if I hadn't been on the phone it would have buried it's beak in my cheek!" Apparently his girlfriend, who was riding behind him, almost fell off her bike because she was laughing so hard.

I will now be on the lookout for birds while I ride ;)

Dude, like, that's some serious wind...

Today we went for yet another 60 mile ride as part of my training regime for the STP in July. The ride was great, except that the headwind (and sidewind, at times) on the way back was outrageous. There were actually a couple to times where I had to stop and wait for the wind to die down a bit - just so I didn't get blown over.

Somehow being forced to travel at a slower speed (even though I was outputting all of my umph) gave me more space than usual to think during the ride. I thought about how the air smelled of pending rain (awesome!), how everything seems to be blooming (and we've got pollen to prove it), and how I haven't really had a real, complex thought in about a month. Well, that may not be totally true, but here's my new theory:

Excessive amounts of certain types of exercise stunt your intellectual growth.

Of course, I don't mean that excercise kills brain cells - it probably helps by stimulating blood flow to the brain. What I realized is that when I ride my bike all weekend and am either riding or practicing yoga after work I don't have any time to expand my brain (reading being the most obvious way to do this). I suppose if I didn't have a full time job, I'd have extra time outside of training to read great books and interesting magazines.

Then I thought back to other times when I have excercised a lot, but avoided this feeling of braindeadedness. In Seattle, I rode the bus to and from work. So I had about an hour and 15 minutes of dedicated reading time each day. Add to that the time I spent reading NatGeo, Utne, Mother Jones, etc. on the elliptical machine at the gym and it seems like I really had time to expand my brain - even with all the exercise I got.

This is sort of a recurring theme for me. I really enjoy the feeling you get after a great run or a long bike ride, but, oh, the time it takes...there are so many other things that I like to do besides exercise. How do I fit them all in? I suppose this is a quandry everyone has. Darned time and it's limitations!

So, I've made a pact with myself to spend more time reading. Especially at the table on the weekends with daylight streaming in the windows. Today was a great start and I feel more alive already!

zero gallons per mile

Today was round 2 for biking into work. The first time I was motivated by it being Bike To Work day in Tucson...but today I just did it because I wanted to.

My new goal is to bike in at least 1 day a week. I figure I can reduce my carbon footprint and log some extra miles at the same time...

Anyone else want to join my biking to work club?

new family member...

meet my Dolce-est one...

Next goal? Ride the STP in July!

more Dolce-ness

yeah...life is pretty sweet :)

Horray for Floyd!

Addendum: Did he really win? Why would he use steroids at that point in the race? If he did, did he really think he wouldn't get caught?

Sigh.

Oh Floyd...you really had me all worked up. I hope, for the sake of cycling and for your own sake, that you really are clean.



So, we all know by now that Floyd Landis won the Tour de France this year after an amazing/superhuman comeback in stage 17. He's the best rider out there right now. Even with an arthritic hip.

Sadly, Lance Armstrong, part owner in team Discovery, former team mate of Landis and all-around ass, has dissed Floyd's success by commenting that ""I'm glad that a guy who came through our program has won,"..."We can take a small bit of credit for helping develop Floyd."

Yeah...I guess...and Floyd can take a big bit of credit for being who he is.

heaven

Tonight was the closest to heaven I've been in a while. (Well, maybe since last August).
I went on a long bike ride and then enjoyed one of my absolute favorite dinners: fresh, steamed garden green beans and cottage cheese with a smidge of fresh ground pepper. I added some baby yellow squash and fresh ripe tomatoes this time too.
It doesn't get much better than that. Seriously.

I don't want a pickle...

I just want to ride my BICYCLE...

I've been more and more interested in cycling as I worry about the health of my knees after years of running. There's still nothing like a runner's high, but the half-century ride that we did a month a go sure got me reved up. For my birthday I just got a sweet bike computer that lets me measure everything from km/hr to distance and even cadence. Today, while browsing news bites, I came across an something that made me even more excited...

According to an article recently on Reuters (see here) bikes are selling like mad in these oil-expensive times - apparently even outpacing cars - YIPPIEE!

Says Tim Blumenthal, industry specialist and executive director of Bikes Belong, a national industry association: "Bicycle sales are near an all-time high (with) 19 million sold last year -- close to the 20 million sold during the oil embargo in the early 1970s."

Also, you may not have heard but Congress recently passed a transportation bill that allocates more than $3.5 billion in federal funds to create bicycle pathways through 2009. Maybe someday every city will be as bike friendly as Portland...

And we thought seeing so many hybrids roaming the streets of Seattle was good news!