100 KM

One trend I'm noticing with David Blaine is that he seems to be an early riser when it comes to getting back on the trail. This morning his spot tracker shows him heading out of White River, MT at around 5:40 AM local time.

Yesterday, David was briefly the race leader after leaving Butte, but Geoff Roes and John Nobile caught him on the way to White River. Apparently those two riders continued on towards Polaris during the afternoon while David rested up in White River. Based on Geoff's last Spot Tracker signal they may have stopped about 3 quarters of the way to Polaris to camp overnight.

It's interesting to watch the rest and riding strategies that the different racers are using. On a long haul like this it seems crucial to be in tune with your body's needs and maintain proper rest and nutrition, but for the top riders actively competing to win the race there are times you have to push yourself to the very edge. Finding the proper balance is the key and not a simple task.

Case in point: yesterday it sounded like John Nobile was thinking about resting up in Butte a little longer because of a cold he is dealing with, but when Geoff and David caught up to him he quickly changed his mind and got moving again. Hopefully his decision to press on as long as he did yesterday will work out for him. I'm really curious to see what time he and Geoff get going today after a longer day yesterday and if David catches up to (or passes) them this morning.

This year's GDR has been going for just over 24 hours now and thanks to Jill Homer (of Up In Alaska cycling blog fame) the coverage is better than ever before. While Jill has a vested interest in the event since her boyfriend, Geoff Roes, is participating this year she's already gone above and beyond the call of duty tracking down a bunch of interesting links and info on most of the GDR 2008 participants. It's really cool to be able to find out a little more about the roughly 20 participants that are giving the race their best shot this year.

So far it looks like David Blaine and Geoff Roes (the two guys I knew a little bit about from their blogs going into the race) are right at the front of the pack heading into Lincoln, MT. Considering David's on a single speed that's particularly impressive. Based on their Spot Trackers it looks like David chose to stop over in Seeley Lake earlier tonight while Geoff pressed on towards Lincoln and stopped a little ways outside Ovando, MT.

After checking the doppler radar for western Montana tonight it looks like some heavy rains and thunderstorms are passing through the race area. It will be interesting to see what kind of impact that has on the riders and hopefully everybody in the race has sufficient shelter from the elements tonight. The weather report for tomorrow in Helena seems to point towards some rain and an additional chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon so that could make for some sloppy and unfriendly riding conditions as the riders advance.

I haven't swung a tennis racket much beyond a couple week unit in PE class 20 years ago, but I love clever inventions that rely on bikes to power them. This Tennis Ball Launcher bike trailer is awesome on numerous levels. You can take it with you to the local tennis courts. You can power it with the bike that brought it. And then you can even aim the launcher by turning your front wheel. Very clever design.

The last few days I've been going home via the Erie Street route I figured out last Fall (but never attempted). Its ended up being the shortest, fastest and possibly most convenient route at my disposal for getting across the Spokane River, railroad tracks and one way streets that isolate the U-District from the South Hill.

Instead of heading west on the Centennial Trail, go east across the bridge over Hamilton and then immediately take a right on Columbus. Follow Columbus a couple blocks south to Trent and turn left to go east across the Spokane River. Turning left onto Trent is surprisingly easy because there is a median offering protection for people turning left and westbound cars on Trent are pretty good about staying out of the Columbus intersection when the light is red at Hamilton and traffic is backed up.

Once over the river you immediately take a right off Trent and onto Erie, a dirt gravel road that runs parallel and far below the Hamilton bridge. After you pass under the railroad bridge you have a couple options. You can either take a right up a paved one way access road that takes you up a short hill to 2nd Ave (and eventual access to Arthur for crossing I-90) or you can pass under Sprague and hang a left on 1st to head into the East Central neighborhood.

I haven't tried the reverse variation of this route to get down to work yet, but I think I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. My guess is that it won't necessarily be faster, but it will provide a slightly shorter route than the other routes I use.

Riding a metric century is extremely doable for most new cyclists given proper training, preparation and equipment. It's a short enough distance in the grand scheme of things that you can even get away with riding a daily commuter bike (as opposed to some form of touring or road bike) as long as it's one you find comfortable in every day use. If your bike is even slightly uncomfortable in day to day use, 100 km and multiple hours of ride time can turn into a painful experience so make sure your bike's fit is well dialed in.

Just hopping on your bike one day after weeks of not riding and going 100 km is probably possible, but definitely not recommended from a health and enjoyment perspective. When I rode my first metric century last September I had been averaging roughly 20 km a day and over 100 km a week for a couple months leading up to it. As my fitness improved each week I would gradually incorporated longer rides and rode a couple 50 – 60 km rides by late August/early September. That ended up being more than enough training preparation for me and I felt strong throughout the entire ride

One key difference in a multi hour ride like a metric century from daily riding is that you also have to factor in water and nutrition. If you're not going to have access to water to refill along the way you're going to need to bring more with you. The same goes for food. While you can get away without worrying about food too much for shorter rides, I find that I start to get pretty hungry after a couple hours of riding and 100 km is going to take most new riders at least 4 hours. Packing things like energy bars, bananas and trail mix and then making sure to partake every hour or so will make sure that you have a solid energy supply the whole way through.

The final piece of the puzzle when riding 100 km is making sure your bike is in good working order. When attempting a metric century, make sure that everything on your bike is tuned up and your chain is well oiled. A spare tube, pump, a couple tire levers and the knowledge of how to use them all to fix a flat tire is also important and will allow you to get to the end of your ride as planned.

Did some good afternoon riding with John (here's his recap) and Mike on Saturday and ended up logging just over a metric half century. We met up downtown at Two Wheel Transit, zipped down the Riverside hill and then did a little trail riding (with occasional cliff side walking) off Government Way before getting onto the Centennial Trail. John knows all the cool little side trails through Riverside State Park so we did quite a bit of off road riding despite the fact that none of us were riding mountain bikes.

We crossed over the Spokane River at the 7 mile bridge and headed back on the Aubrey L White parkway. This was new territory for me, although coincidentally I was actually looking at it on Google Maps earlier this week as a way to get to Highway 251. It's a nice scenic and low traffic route back towards Downtown Spokane and I'm sure I'll ride it a few more times before the summer is over.

My riding compatriots dusted me on the descent down to Doomsday Hill so there was no catching up to them until we regrouped at the parking lot at the top of the hill. From there we weaved our way through some neighborhoods over to the Maple Street bridge. The southbound lanes are currently closed to cars, but the first layer of pavement is down so it's a smooth ride for bikes. It was pretty cool to have our half of the bridge all to ourselves as we crossed the river three abreast. John snapped a few pictures with his phone as we were riding and they turned out pretty good (see his recap).

We parted ways with Mike around First and then John and I continued up the hill towards his house. Shortly after getting onto Adams John spotted a bike hauling another bike and took off in hot pursuit. It turned out to be a couple hauling one of their bikes home from the shop on an xtracycle. That was the first xtracycle conversion I've seen first hand and it looked pretty cool. We chatted briefly about some upcoming FBC events and then headed up Jefferson to John's house.

Once we got up there John and I hung out in the shade of his backyard for a while and shared some banana and peanut butter. I got a quick glimpse of John's extensive bike collection when he showed me the recumbent he's borrowed from a friend. The recumbent sounds fun to ride, but definitely different. I think he's going to write about recumbent bikes in his Out There Monthly column at some point down the road.

Right around 4PM it was time for me to head home so I hopped on my bike to put the last couple kms on my ride total. I stopped at Egger's Meats to pick up some hamburger buns for the evening's barbecue and rolled home with a paper bag full of buns and hot dogs. I really like shopping at Egger's via my bike because they're less than one km from my house. They don't have a bike rack, but I can still lean my bike against one of their windows and keep an eye it for the short time I'm in the shop.

Saturday's ride total ended up being just over a metric half century at 53 km. Overall I felt strong the whole day, but I rode fairly conservatively and my legs didn't have much pep by the time I got home. My total for this week was actually 192 km- a good 22 km more than I rode in the entire month of May last year when I was starting out. While I'm not where I was at the end of last Fall weight and fitness-wise, I'm really happy with the way I'm starting off this summer.

Thursday's edition of Bike To Work Week got off to a delayed start. I've had an occasional sharp nagging pain in my upper left chest for most of the week. I don't remember when exactly it started, but it was definitely a few days after last week's crash so I don't think it had anything to do with that mishap. I've felt strong coming home up the South Hill all the week so I also didn't think it was a problem with my heart or lungs, but it wasn't getting better as the week has gone by. Thursday morning my chest was sore enough that I thought I should probably get it checked out by a doctor before going into work. Simple enough right? Not so much.

I hopped in my car to drive down to the Rockwood Urgent Care to get checked out. Almost as if to spite me for a week off without any use, my Honda Element refused to start. Its battery was completely dead. I wasn't entirely surprised because I'd noticed the battery was pretty weak after a few days without driving back in April. The battery was over 4.5 years old so I knew it was going to need to be replaced soon, but the timing could have been a lot better.

Mary's SUV is the primary family hauler (2 adults + 3 kids + 2 dogs just isn't doable in my car) so I couldn't just borrow it to go to the doctor. If my chest thing did turn out to be serious she could end up stranded. Riding my bike down the hill to the doctor with mysterious chest pains seemed kind of unwise as well (plus, I still need a decent lock).

I decided to try to jump the battery first using my Mary's rig. Unfortunately, its battery was on the opposite side of the engine compartment from the Element's. Even though our cars were parked side by side in the garage the two batteries were simply too far apart for one set of jumper cables.

I dug around and found another set of cables. I hooked them together with some trepidation and tried to jump my car. No go. I was getting enough juice to power up the Element's electrical systems, but it wasn't enough to crank the engine. I checked the connections and tried cleaning the contacts but it didn't matter.

Time for Plan B. Mary suggested I use her car to go buy a new battery. That seemed logical since I don't have a bike that could comfortably haul a car battery so I got her keys and headed for Schucks. The whole way there and back I was contemplating whether or not my Norco Cherokee would be a good candidate for an xtracycle conversion. I think an xtracycle (or Big Dummy if I win the lottery in the next year or so) might be my next next bicyle building project (is it wrong to think that far ahead?).

I got back home and swapped the batteries. The Element started as expected and finally almost two hours later than I had intended I headed on down to Rockwood.

The visit to the urgent care clinic was pretty anti-climactic. They weren't busy at all on a Thursday morning and got me in pretty quickly. A nurse checked my vitals and they were normal, although she did comment on all the scabs/scars on my hand from last Thursday's crash. A doctor came to listen to my heart and lungs a little bit later and they were fine. After talking to me about the pain in my chest and pushing and prodding my rib cage a bit, she came to the conclusion that it was some form of soft tissue or rib injury. All I could do at this point was take some Advil and wait for it to heal.

I went home feeling a little bit like a hypochondriac had some lunch with the family and then rode down to work as fast as I could. Bad timing on the Washington traffic lights and heavy lunchtime pedestrian traffic on the Centennial Traffic cost me a sub 20 minute time, but It felt good to ride fast in the heat. Last summer I actually broke 19 minutes riding time on that route a few times and I think a sub 18 is definitely possible on that route as well under the right circumstances. Just another goal to aim for by the end of the summer.

It ended up being a rainy afternoon here in Spokane so I broke out my yellow rain jacket to keep dry and simultaneously support the Livestrong movement. I finally managed to bring a decent camera along on a day I took my long scenic route home so I got a few fairly good shots.

The upper rapids of the Spokane Falls looking back towards Canada Island from the north bank. I stopped briefly to take a couple pictures after crossing the suspension bridge that leads to Broadway.

Looking back towards downtown Spokane and the Monroe Street bridge from Ohio St.

The Maple Street bridge and downtown Spokane as viewed from Ohio St.

Looking down towards Peaceful Valley and the Spokane River. I love how densely the foliage covers the south bank with the occasional house or condo poking through. It's also especially picturesque when the leaves turn during the Fall.

Yesterday John Speare mentioned encountering the beautiful yellow flowers that are covering the bluff area of the South Hill. Turns out they continue on this side of the river as well.

Another shot of all the amazing yellow flowers. Seems especially appropriate in light of Tuesday's emphasis on promoting Lance Armstrong's Livestrong movement. And a great example of the kind of thing you miss out on when you only travel by car.

Halfway across the Sandifur bridge. Things were looking pretty shiny thanks to the afternoon rain.

A final shot from the Sandifur Bridge before I leave the scenic part of my route behind to start the climb back up the South Hill.

Since today was the first day of Bike To Work Week I planned to get up a little early and zip down to work first so I could drop off my bag and clothes at my office before heading to breakfast at Riverfront Park. That definitely didn't prove to be a problem as Houston (our 1.5 year old middle child and my nightly assignment) started getting restless around 3:45 AM. I managed to get him back into bed, but he tossed and turned for a couple hours before getting up for good just prior to 6AM. The upside to all this early rising is that he'll probably sleep soundly tonight. At least that's what I'm telling myself now.

Once I got out of the house around a quarter to seven it was smooth, but cold and slightly damp sailing down to Gonzaga. I unloaded my bag at the office and contemplated pulling out my rain jacket, but opted to go with what I was wearing. A couple fat raindrops between Desmet and the Centennial Trail had me questioning my decision, but I lucked out and no further precipitation developed.

I passed quite a few east bound cyclists as I approached Riverfront Park and I was curious to see just how many bikers would show up for the free pancake breakfast. Once I got around the carousel it was clear that the turn out was pretty darn respectable. I'm not very good at estimating the size of meandering groups of people, but I'd guess that somewhere between 100-150 people rode there bikes down to Riverfront Park this morning.

I checked my bike into the bike corral and got in line for a couple pancakes. I saw lots of Pedals 2 People crew doing their thing and once I finished up my meal I headed over to their quick tune up location to hang out for a while. I wanted to take some pictures of the whole scene, but my camera batteries died as soon as I fired it up and I completely forgot that I had three fresh AAs in my headlight that I could have borrowed.

John Speare noticed my banged up nose, so I had to give him a quick run down on last Thursday's misadventure. I also talked Surly bikes briefly with Joe Thompson. There's a Kona touring bike with disc brakes that he recommended to me, but I also really dig the Karate Monkey he has built up with trekking handlebars and a full compliment of gearing. That's a disc-brake based approach that had not occurred to me. At this point I'm still committed to an LHT or maybe even a Crosscheck (since I like the frame colors better and I have some speedier wheels now), but a new bike is still a ways down the road.

I hung out at Riverfront Park for a while longer until things started to wind down in the second hour, but I met a few new people including the mastermind behind the FBC Spokane. Looks like the next Full Moon Fiasco is going to be on a Monday night, but the Prom Ride will be on Saturday, May 31st. I'm not sure how doable either ride will be with my nightly Houston duties, but maybe I can swing something with a little planning. I wonder how the formal attire supply is at all the local thrift shops?

I was having a nice ride into work Thursday morning until just before the intersection of Sprague and Division. That's probably one of my least favorite intersections around Spokane because it's not very bike friendly, especially if you're not going west or north.

I was headed west with the intent to eventually turn right on Division, but as I started down the incline a couple blocks east of the intersection I noticed that there was a semi trailer with several cars backed up behind it. Without fully recognizing the situation at hand with the trailer (it was stuck under the railroad bridge), I contemplated pulling up onto the sidewalk. At the time I held off because I try to avoid riding on sidewalks and that was the start of my downfall. In retrospect I would have been much better off to just slow way down and get onto the sidewalk via the parking lot entrance of The Edge condominiums rather than waffle and change my mind at the last second.

The semi and cars remained at a stand still as I came up on them, but instead of just stopping at that point like I should have, I decided to keep rolling and bunny hop up onto the sidewalk at the last second. I'm not a technically skilled mountain biker by any means, but I've been doing bunny hops on bikes for going on 25 years. I've pulled off the same exact maneuver successfully on my bike on that stretch of sidewalk at least a few times before that I can remember. But Thursday I completely failed and my face and left hand paid the price.

My best guess as to what happened is that I forgot that I was still braking with my front brake and accidentally locked up my front wheel as I executed the bunny hop. The second my front tire touched the sidewalk I found myself doing a massive endo that ended with my face and left hand colliding with the sidewalk. At that point I think my bike and I kind of fell back sideways to the ground rather than completely flipping over. My right foot stayed in its toe clip and left me awkwardly sprawled with my bike on the sidewalk.

I was slightly stunned and bleeding quite a bit around my nose, but I picked myself up off the cement and tried to take stock of things. Besides the blood leaking from my face, I discovered that I had a very fat upper lip and a left hand that felt sore around the pinky and ring finger to the point that I wondered if they might be broken. A few experimental flexes of that hand convinced me that I could still ride my bike though.

My bike actually seemed fine for the most part, although the left brake was either bent or slightly rotated from the crash. Surprisingly my Detours pannier was still on the rear rack. Hoping there might be something useful for my situation inside, I fumbled around for a bit with my scraped and bleeding fingers before I succeeded in opening the zipper. Then I realized I didn't really have anything inside that I could wipe up my blood with anyway so I closed it back up before I managed to bleed all over my work clothes.

At this point all the cars that had been waiting behind the semi trailer had already left. I don't know if anyone even noticed my wipe out or not because no one asked if I was okay. A guy who I think must have been the semi driver was walking around the trailer, but I don't think he had noticed my crash either because he didn't seem to be paying attention to me. I think he was more concerned about getting his truck extricated from the railroad trestle crossing.

I decided I'd better just get into work as quickly as possible so I could get my face and hands cleaned up. I got back on my bike and started pedaling. It made a few new creaking noises I didn't recognize, but rode fine otherwise. My hand and face hurt, but I wasn't dripping too much blood so that seemed like a good sign. I had to wait a minute before crossing Spokane Fall Blvd and at least one pedestrian walked in front of me, but he didn't say anything.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. When I got to work I ran into Dan, the other computer tech for the School of Education, in the alley just outside my building. I asked him how bad it was and he kind of did a double take before saying it wasn't *that *bad. Obviously I had to see for myself so once I dropped everything off in my office I grabbed some paper towels and headed into the bathroom.

The bathroom mirror revealed that my glasses had created a nice bloody divot in the bridge of my nose and my upper lip was humongous, but otherwise my face wasn't too damaged. My left pinky was missing a couple good chunks of skin, but nothing a band aid couldn't cover. Moving my left pinky and ring finger was still very uncomfortable, but it felt more like a nice sprain than a break.

In the end it took me about twenty minutes to get myself bandaged and cleaned up. A couple Advil made the pain in my hand manageable and I didn't have any problems riding my bike home after work so that was good. I did look like a complete doofus for the last several days while I had a band aid on the bridge of my nose though. I think I'm going to have a visible dent there from now on, but it's healed enough that I can leave it uncovered. My hand still hurts somewhat, but its definitely doing a lot better overall and has a lot more range of motion. All things considered I'm pretty lucky that I didn't get hurt a lot worse than I did.