Goin' Mobile

Tonight we fly my friends! Oahu is beautiful but I say enough.

I managed one on bike ride this week and four stationary bike sessions. Yesterday, I attempted VO2max intervals with just a heart rate monitor. Ouch! I got four of them done and bailed. It really, really hurt by the time I got to the fourth interval.


Here's a picture took at the beach the other day with the paraglider.

It seems like this trip is endless. It was two weeks ago today that I left the "D" and I won't be home until next Tuesday! Many think this job is glamorous and yes, it can be, but if I had my 'druthers, I would be back in my little vinyl sided house in Saline chasing Mrs. Anderson around to the chagrin of her kids. Embarrassing them is my life's ambition!

Today was body surfing day. I went to this little beach and the surf was just right. The first beach's waves bordered on the obscene. They were just enormous. I stopped there on the way home and just watched body surfers and boogie boarders kill it...almost literally.

While awaiting a wave, I noticed the a crowd gathering on the beach and pointing in my direction. They began to shout something I couldn't discern over the sound of the waves. Concerned, I made my way to the beach when I could hear one of them yelling, "Stingray!" Big deal. Who's afraid of a little stingray? Well, it turns out this was a different kind of ray something like a Manta Ray. It had no tail and beautiful speckles on the underside of its wings. We were allowed to swim up close and examine and when the ray had enough it just left.

About this time I looked up and saw para-gliders. The beach is on the windward side of the island with a bluff which forced the trade wind straight up the bluff. The para gliders jumped off the bluff and spent well over an hour soaring. Later I noticed a hang glider that was covering serious distance. He flew into and out of view, could be seen far in the distance before returning to land on the beach.

Riding into Honolulu

After my long ride Monday I had to deal with Honolulu traffic.

One for The Cat

Doug wanted more pictures of bikini clad women. I have this offering. This lady was waaaaaay pregnant. She climbed down a rock ledge to get to this beach in her bikini with her baby leaning over its edge. Hopefully, Doug won't clamor for more bikinis after this one.

Touring the North Shore

Here's a pic from Sunset Beach on the North Shore. You might not appreciate the steepness of the grade but it was large enough that kids were sledding down it picking up good speed before plowing into huge waves that broke right on the beach. The way the waves broke reminded me of Kanopoli beach on the island of Maui. We put our kids in that water when they were much smaller and I almost lost two in the first few moments of our vacation. After a quick rescue, we decided to find more appropriate beach for the them!

Salt in the eyes

Here's a video I took nearing the end of my bike ride the other day.

Turtles

After looking some of the island over yesterday I decided to take a closer look today. I shot some video in this little cove that was very popular with the turtle population. The video is poor quality but if you look closely you can see them.

I am not a Honolulu fan but I am now an Oahu fan. The north shore beaches are very cool. I spent some time swimming Sunset Beach and Waimea Bay both sites where the big winter waves hit.

Oahu Ride

Check out these pics from my ride out of Honolulu today. I rode out counterclockwise out of Honolulu to the Marine Corps Base at Kano' he Bay.

Seattle-Portland-San Diego-Honolulu

Away

Blogs thrive when they are meticulously maintained and updated. That must mean mine is dying. I sit down to write and I just can't make anything happen. Sorry. I haven't ridden my bike in a week. James has made it onto the hotel bike a couple of times.

Jean and the kids got into town on Saturday which coincided with "Seattle Hempfest 2008". All I can say is, wow. Throngs of shirtless tattooed lovers of hemp. They scared the kids a little but seemed pretty harmless. The sad thing to me was how they were using the plight of the disabled to further their cause. It was all too obvious that the vast majority of these folks were stoners. They walked by the disabled in their wheel chairs hauling their bong pipes not even batting an eye. Medical marijuana appears to be a lame and inconsiderate way to pry open a door to legalization. Now, I am not one to make a big deal out of such things. If we want legal marijuana is it all that different from legalized alcohol? But to trot these poor folks out and run over them in an obviously insincere ploy at a sympathetic legislative response is just reprehensible. 'Nuff said.

On Sunday we attended Mars Hill Church in Ballard. This church and it's planting network have become pretty visible in the circles I travel. It is sort of a grunge church if that makes any sense. The music was led by a band that had us sing a lot of material they have written and recorded. The worship pastor preached for at least an hour and it was great! We were challenged to address idols in our lives and deal with it right then and there. I loved it and need it.

One of my favorites

A favorite of mine

Last Crit Practice

AAVC crit practice continues until the end of the month for most but not for me. I leave on a long trip Thursday that will take me away from the "D" until after Labor Day. It seems like my season has come to an end. God willing, I'll make a descent showing at the PH races but it will be tough considering the interruption in my training and the field composition at that event.

The last crit practice is always a solemn thing for me as it marks not only the end of the road season but the end of summer. My season was marked by training interruptions and didn't flower liked I hoped it would. That's okay though. My team had a good year and it has been crash free so far.

We raced the usual short races with one long 20K race. Some of the usual suspects were absent making the field a little more tame this night. Regardless, my power file shows I raced hard. I noticed that my right handlebar drop felt like it was flexing some. I didn't think much about it until the last race when I mentioned to anyone who wanted to hear that I thought my handle bar was broken. It wasn't obviously broken just more flex than I was used to. The end of that race saw me laying down a 1200 + watt sprint. On the warm down lap I commented again and James Knight said, " Oh yeah, that's broken." I unwrapped the bar tape and found a crack at about two inches below the shifter. It wasn't until today that I contemplated my fate had that bar come apart at 33 mph on the final sprint!

On another note, I broke down Ada's performance a little more after Saris sent me a new downloader, (I sheared the top off the old one). I produced 292 watts for 50 minutes in M45+ race at 174 bpm average. After recovering for a couple of hours, I was only able to produce 250 watts with the same average HR. Let me tell you, a cat 3 race looks a whole lot different at 250 watts than it does at my usual 280-290! I was working hard to not get dropped.

Hines Park TT

We were greeted by one of the coldest days of the summer when we awoke at 5:00 am Sunday for the Hines Park TT. James, Maria, Abby and myself loaded the bikes and hit the road at 530 am for the ritual stop at Starbucks before driving to Nankin Mills for the race.

Almost immediately after arriving, the wind began to stir which is a bad omen at 630 am. That would be the main feature of the race this day. Steady winds blowing out of the northwest yielding a tailwind for half the course and a headwind for the other half. This begs the question; does this result in a faster course, a slower course or null effect? I somehow remember a fragment of my college days that say drag doesn't increase linearly with an increase in speed. Dr. Speed, can you help? If I am right, this day's conditions result in a slower course but I will defer to those who have the letters before and after their name.

Maria helped me get the kids ready so that I was able to get a reasonable warm up in. James and Abby both got off without a hitch. James turned in a 31:34 which is a new personal best. Abby turned in a 46:?? cutting a minute off her 20K from earlier in the year.

After multiple trips to the bathroom, I hit the road at 8:54 am. Riding downwind was a hoot as my speed was over 30 mph for much of the time. Then the turn around and the inevitable slowdown. My power looked good holding steady at 300 watts and the average speed steadily fell. I watched it drift down rapidly into the 28 mph range then it slowed and began to settle in the 27 mph range. It clicked down slowly from there. I knew it was going to be a good time but I was loosing hope that I would equal last years Hines time of 27:14. The wind was pretty strong and I sensed the rider who could best get out of the wind was the one who had the best chance. I hunkered down as low as I could go and suffered on.

There wasn't a lot left as I saw the finish coming into view but I dialed it up to 500 watts and proceeded to blow myself up. When I crossed the line I was just happy it was over. It hurt a lot this time around. The last few miles I was thinking about the team TT coming up and that I really didn't want to do it.

No one noticed my time so I rode back to my car to get some recovery going. Giff came over with the run down on everything. He asked, "What time do you think you got?" I said, "27:30". "Wrong, 27:03," said Giff. So I won right? Nope. Third place. A 27:03 nabbed a third place in a cat 3 20K! My time from last year won by 30 seconds. This time I missed second place by a whopping 15/100's of a second and first by four! It is too bad we don't have announcers like Phil and Paul who could showcase this kind of competition. No one there realized the battle royal that was raging for this race. Pretty cool really. The winner, Steve Andriese took 4th overall with the second place finisher Jimi Minnema in 6th and myself in 7th. Considering the overall winner was Graham Howard, a pro from Bissel, I would say the cat 3's were outrageously fast this day.

My TTT partner John Burrows was working hard at recovery along with me. I was trying everything in box of tricks to get myself together in the hour and fifteen minutes I had between races. It didn't look too good until right before the start. When we rolled up I felt like I was ready to race and as we flew downwind I realized I was feeling better than I did in the first go. We battled the wind but the elements and tired old legs did us in as we crossed the line at 28:04 good for 4th place. Dybo and Kroske whooped us pretty good for 3rd. I came at Scott like a "spider monkey" but he fought me off this time! Dybo isn't afraid of monkeys apparently.

Ada Criterium

Not a great day out for me for a couple of reasons. First, when my legs were working my head wasn't and when my legs quite working, well, you can guess the rest.

I took sixth in the master's 45+ after burning match after match either trying to chase or form my own break. Neither happened. The flyer stayed away and I was left to my own devices on the last lap. I was all goofed up and shot to the front instead of doing what I have learned to do in crit practice. Stay five riders back, within striking range and follow the wheels to the sprint. The first rider will be toast and I could allow the others to lead me out. Instead, I went for a gap on the last lap resulting in a splendid lead-out for the rest of the field. Like I said, not a great day out. In retrospect, I should have shelved the whole thing and saved my matches for the cat 3 race which was more like a cat 1-2 field. It was very, very fast. It could have been perception on my part due to tired legs and one hard race already under my belt but it seemed like the pace just wouldn't slacken. It finally let up a little, (my heart rate dipped to 165 bpm), then away we went again. When I realized the pace was never going to slow and allow me the sort of natural push to the front I dialed it up to make my way to the front. As soon as I did this my legs cramped so badly I couldn't turn the pedals over. There wasn't a choice to be made. I was completely toasted. My legs no longer worked as a means to pedal a bike. I rolled though the judge's stand and retired.

The 1-2 race was a thrill to watch as usual. The Bell's beer tent made for a nice area to socialize. Overall, I have to say, I love this venue. I only wish more people would come out and give this beautiful sport a look. Men and women are absolutely giving their all to compete. I love being there as a spectator every bit as much as a bike racer.

We are looking forward to next year.