Late hours

That past couple of weeks I’ve been working a lot for long hours.  A couple times when I knew I’d be leaving the office after 10p and the temperature was minus zero I’d take the CTA in the morning and get a taxi home.  Most of the time I would ride home, maybe taking a detour to clear my head, and go to sleep right away.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be keeping this schedule, but it is at least nice to know I have a place to work that I for the most part enjoy.  Even if every article I read uses the adjective “embattled” to describe us.

My first time voting in Cook County; in DuPage you get a receipt and a sticker.

Books

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Weather.com has the current temperature at 6 degrees with winds up to 41 mph causing wind chill temps at - 17 degrees. In other words a perfect night to stay in and read a book. Or at least take a picture of all of your books and nerd out statistics-wise.

Total books: 367
Technical (UX, CS, and Art/Type): 27
Comic/Graphic Novels: 82
Not read yet: 13

Will never read: 4
- Webster’s New World Dictionary
- English / Chinese Dictionary
- Concise English / Chinese Dictionary
- Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities

Book I own which I hate the most: Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities

Authors with the most books:
- David Mamet: 9
- Charles Bukowsk: 8
- Chuck Palanhiuk: 7

Top 5 Most Read:
1. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood
2. Carl Sagan’s Contact
3. Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air
4. Alan Moore’s Watchmen
5. Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice

Sunday morning I headed out to go race Stage 1 of the Tour Da Chicago when I got a flat within spitting distance of my front door.  Getting a flat always involves some calculations in terms of what to do next.  This time my options were:
1. Fix the flat right there, go race, & pray I don’t flat again.
2. Go home & grab my tubular wheel & again pray I don’t flat again
3. Go home & change flat in the warmth of my apartment
or 4. Go back to bed.

Later, after my long, much needed sleep, I went to ride my trainer and found it totally broken.  Instead of the low roar that used to drive my downstairs neighbors crazy I was hearing a piercing scrapping noise that drove me nuts.  I tired my best to fix it, but I’m pretty sure it is trashed (I’ll try & warranty it)

Believe it or not my biking expenses have really lowered in the past couple years mostly since I own most everything a biker like me needs to get by.  My racing bike is in pretty great shape & other than a few tubes & a new chain I don’t have to really worry about it.  My jacket & shoes are getting a bit sloppy, but they’ve got a year left in ‘em I hope.

Winter Biking

Today was a tough day to commute.  The morning news had low temperatures at below 0 with the wind chill factor and fresh snow had fallen the night before.  On top of that I had a long day of work scheduled which had me leaving the office at 9pm.    I’ve been a 4-season Chicago rider for several years now and every year I learn a few new tips, but for the most part I’m dialed in.

– Get full fenders.  It keeps both you & your bike dry & clean.
– Keep a set of clothes at work.  I do this year round, but it is nice to know if you get wet you have something  to change into.  Especially socks & shoes.
– It get’s dark early so bring a red blinky light.  I have one attached to both my bag & my bike
– If you ride fixed, go free.  Some people may argue that a fixed gear will help you maintain traction & that there is less to go wrong than on a singlespeed and I won’t say they are wrong.  I will say that it is nice to be able to wear a big bulky pair of boots and that if you are taking a turn being able to coast & stick your leg out in case you slide out is clutch.  I go singlespeed so there isn’t too much else that can go wrong mechanically.
– Trade out your clipless pedals & cages/straps for some platforms.  Mine have the bonus of having reflectors.
– Good wool socks will last a long time & are usually enough to last a 30 minute commute.  I wear SmartWool which are pricey, but are really high quality (they don’t fall)
– Look for a snowboarding helmet in the spring on closeout.  Or get a skateboarding helmet and for extra warmth tape up the air vents.  I got my Giro snowboarding helmet for $30 at REI.  Buy a bit bigger so you wear a hat underneath even if you do end up looking like Dark Helmet.
– Use a front light!  It is against the law to ride without one.
– Use wider tires & lower pressure.  Again some will say that thinner high pressure tires cut through snow to the pavement.  I find that in slick or ice situations it helps to have more contact to grip the road.  Also you can roll over cracks with a lot more confidence.  Especially those crazy steel grated bridges.
– Know your route.  Does the kinzie bridge freak you out?  Take the sidewalk.  What about the Chicago ave bridge?  Don’t forget about the stairs on one side.  Michigan ave is great as long as you remember the tire sized gaps that start & end each bridge.  Remember those giant potholes on Milwaukee you’ve been dodging all summer?  Well now they are hidden by a layer of slush
– When you get home from your commute be careful not to grab your bike with your bare hands.  That stem has been out in the freezing cold for 8+ hours already.  Getting frozen to your bike sucks.

Favorite Discoveries of 2007: Music

For this installment I list not only the album, but also my favorite track.

Music:

Chuck Ragan: Feast or Famine (2007) - Don’t Cry

Wilco: Sky Blue Sky (2007) - Hate it Here

The Weakerthans: Reunion Tour (2007) - Civil Twilight

Gillian Welch: Revival (2001) - One More Dollar

Crooked Fingers: Dignity & Shame (2005) - Call to Love

Award for “I initially thought this sucked, but now it is growing on me” goes to:
Against Me!: New Wave (2007)

Favorite Discoveries of 2007: Books

There was a time when at the end of the year I could list off what was the best new whatever of the year. Lately I’ve noticed I struggle to even name a single thing I enjoyed that was actually new for the past year. So instead I give you my list of my favorite things I “discovered” this year.

Books:
Dave Eggers - What is the What (2007)
Jonathan Lethem - Men & Cartoons: Stories (2004)
Bob Deans - The River Where America Began (2007)
Guy Delisle - Shenzhen: A Travelogue from China (2005)
J.K. Rowlings - Harry Potter & The Deathly Hollows(2007)

Special “White Whale” award for book I still can’t finish:
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest

The last race at Montrose marks the end of my cyclocross season. 7 races in total which all in all isn’t so bad. Performance-wise this has been an extremely frustrating year since I feel like I did exactly as well as I did last year with no improvements whatsover. In theory I should be proud of the fact that I did as well as I did after spending 2 - 3 months essentially immobile. Afterall it took a lot of practice of my off-road handling skills, and dismount/remount technique to make up for my lack of fitness.

In the end I should be looking forward to next season when I will hopefully be able to increase my fitness & still maintain (or even improve on) what skills I have. And while there are no longer any USCF/ABD races for quite awhile I would still check back every once in awhile since I have a couple cool surprises in the works.

Hint: one of them will ensure I have plenty of base miles for next year.

Montrose Harbor - Race Report

There are three really great things about the Illinois State Champtionship race at Montrose Harbor: 

1. It is only 20 minutes away from my apartment

2. Racing in front of friends

3. It is the last race of what is usually a hard season for me

There are other reasons of course (great course!), but it really hits home how much work it is to race up in Wisconsin every weekend (remember I am not a morning person). 

Getting to the race at around noon it was pretty cold, but really not that bad compared to Hale’s Corner.  The Turin people had impressively shoveld out the course which I first thought was kind of lame, but then I remembered how awful the race was last year with all of that ice.  So good job Turin keeping it sloppy!  I missed my opportunity to pre-ride the course before the Cat 1/2/3 Men raced so I stood around and watched the racing abit and checking out the course.  Other than a few sections it was exactly the same as previous years.  My prediction is that I would straight up crash 5 times, wipeout at least 10, and get 2 mechanicals.  My goal was to minimize those stats.

After sitting in the car trying to keep warm I rode out on the road around the course for awhile warming up with Jacques right up until the everyone was lining up at the start.  I picked a spot in the back knowing that with how I’ve been feeling it wouldn’t really matter that much.  This being my first Chicago race this season I was shocked at how many men were in the 4A’s.  I sort of figured it would be this large with the 4’s being split into the A’s & B’s, but there were at least 50 racers.  It was also really cool seeing so many xXx-ers like Luke, Jacques, Kirby, Jason, Ben, Max, Andrew, and everyone else I forgot.  

The start was nerve wracking with a lot of elbows getting thrown for positions and pretty soon the race was strung out singlefile.   Even with the course all dug out it was single track the whole way.  If you wanted to get around someone you had to ride around them in the chunky slop which took a lot of power.  Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but whenever I stand up in the slop I always seem to lose control of my steering so instead I power through seated.  This actually suits me well since I’ve been practicing climbing from the saddle ever since my leg got broken. 

The hardest part of the race was the long run up Cricket hill which ended with a 3 pack barrier, then you turned aorund and had to run again.  Every lap I would run slower & slower, but one thing I noticed that was that as tired as I would get running it had almost zero effect on how hard I could pedal.  How is that possible?  Are those muscles really that distinct?  Maybe I should learn how to not drown & try a triathlon sometime?

There were lots of people on the course.  A group of xXx-ers were hanging out by the chicanes shouting the right line to take to xXx-ers (I think I heard/saw Brit?) and at the top of a short steep hill was Ansgwar (Formally xXx, Currently Metlife) taking pictures.  When he was there I was able to pedal to the top no problem, on the last lap he disappeared and I faltered and had to dismount.

The results are still not up to answer the mystery of what happened next.  As we came into the finish I was behind Jason and in front of Ben with some small gaps.  I heard someone yell “One more lap!” when I crossed so I kept going.  I kept asking people if I was done, but never got a good answer and when I looked back I saw Jason was done.  I still didn’t know what to do so to play it safe I did another lap.  The entire time it totally felt wrong and so I’m very curious if this will be reflected in the standings.  I should’ve stuck around to check the results, but instead I went home & Lucas & I got Chipotle.

Montrose Harbor - Preview

Photo by Lucas Moellers