It has been a busy two days with training and work, so I’ve got to try and make this quick.

Wednesday

I had a 2 hour bike ride on tap for the day.  I did a ride out Grand Haven to meet Jennie at the end of the day.  It was a miserably windy ride with a 10 mph head wind the entire way.  Despite leaving only 30 minutes later than usual (3:00 instead of 2:30), drivers were much more rude.  I was honked at, yelled at, and flipped the bird for no apparent reason.  One driver pulled up next to me, and yelled nonsense out the window to startle me.  They pulled into a shopping center a quarter mile down the road.  I wanted so bad to follow them in, drag them out the car through their window, and stick my foot… Well, at least the anger gave me a temporary burst of energy.

I made it to Grand Haven with 5 minutes to spare and 17 new emails awaiting me on my phone.  That is what I get for leaving for 2 hours. 

Thursday

Thursday was a double workout day; 3:15 bike ride and 40 minute run on the schedule.  Again, very windy, but I was going in multiple directions so it wasn’t always a head wind.  I went all over Grand Rapids.  I headed out to Dutton, over to Kentwood for a stop at my Mom’s and then back to East Grand Rapids for loops around Reeds Lake.  At some point, I lost a water bottle out of my seat cage.  It’s odd that I lost one because I have a spare bottle that hold my tools in the second cage and it has never fallen out.

I ended up riding 58 miles, my longest ride ever.  It gave me plenty of time to diagnose some of the clicking noises my bike has been making.  I narrowed it down to the chain.  After some research, I found that a chain lasts on average 3,000km – 5,000km (1800mi – 3100mi).  I have 3300 miles on my bike.  Whoops!  So, I ordered a new chain and a new rear cassette because you are supposed to replace both at the same time as they usually wear at the same rate.  I also sprung for a bike repair toolkit.  I found three main options; the cheap one, the mid range one, and the dream.  I ended up going with the midrange one because it seemed like the best deal.  Also, I found the chain and cassette on the same site for a good price so I was able to do all of my shopping in one place and get free shipping.  I currently have Tiagra components which are a decent entry level setup.  I am taking a step up to the Shimano 105 series with the new parts.  Not a big difference, but it wasn’t much more to upgrade.

After the bike ride, I took a break for dinner.  We had grilled burgers and fries which helped refuel the tank.  After digesting for a bit, I got my 40 minute run in.  I ended up doing 5 miles in 38:37 (7:47 min/mile).  I was worried that taking the break between workouts would make it hard to get the run in, but I felt re-energized after dinner and it went better than expected.

Now it is time to get some work done and watch the Red Wings!

This is from my ride today to show how windy it was.  You can hear the wind and see the turbine at Calvin College churning out the kilowatts.

Yesterday, I did my long brick.  I was originally scheduled to do a 4 hour bike / 1 hour run, but I decided against doing the full workout.  I really wasn’t prepared for that sort of distance yet, so I backed off a bit.  I ended up doing a 3 hour bike ride and 30 minute run.  I wanted to go longer on the run, but as it was, it was after 6:00 and I was starving.

After lunch, I fell asleep on the couch which caused me to get a letter than planned start.  I headed out just before 2 pm.  My plan was to bike the White Pine Trail again.  This meant that I would be biking straight into the wind for the first half of the ride.  The wind yesterday was around 15mph gusting up to 30mph, so it made for a pretty chilly ride.  I rode the trail further than ever, almost reaching Sand Lake (it goes all the way to Cadillac, but is only paved to Big Rapids).  I turned around 28 miles in which would give me 56 miles for the total out and back.  The ride back was much more pleasant, but there was still a bit of a cross wind depending on the direction of the trail.  My splits were 1:40:01 on the out and 1:26:46 on the back, so it was over 13 minutes faster with the wind at my back.

After finishing the bike, I took a longer than normal 30 minute break before starting the run.  Because it was so cold out, my feet were numb when I got home and I wanted to let them warm up a bit before trying to run.  I took the time to grab some peanut butter and graham crackers to try and appease my grumbling stomach.  Once changed, fed, and warmed up, I headed out again.  The run went pretty well.  My knee (oddly my right knee, not my left knee that usually give me trouble) gave me a bit of trouble 2 miles in.  I walked for about a tenth of mile, the pain went away, and I was able to run the rest of the way.  I ended up with 4 miles at a 8:17 pace.

As soon as I got home, I threw a Red Baron pizza in the oven and hopped in the shower.  I had the house to myself because Jennie was at a bachelorette party.  After eating the entire pizza, I laid around and watched TV for the rest of the night.

At least it sure felt like it today.  We had sunny blue skies all day long with temperatures creeping up into the upper 30’s.  I decided to take advantage of the great weather and did an outdoor bike ride; my first since December 2nd.  I had a relatively light work morning so I decided to take off early and head to Grand Haven to meet Jennie when she got out of work.

I knew going into the ride that the wind was out of the NW – the direction I was headed.  Nevertheless, I decided to stick to my plan and head into the wind.  I figured that it would be a good mental workout as well as a physical one. 

It was an absolutely brutal ride.  I’ve done it dozens of times before, but this was by far the hardest.  The first half is rolling hills with a couple of big climbs. The wind wasn’t too bad at this point because the roads were lined with trees and/or houses which helped block it.  However, the 2nd half of the route is through farmland where it is completely flat with nothing to block the wind.  There were times when it felt like I wasn’t even moving.  I almost wish that I had been doing an out and back, rather than stopping at Jennie’s work so that I could have taken advantage of the tail wind (like Lance and Chris did in Hawaii).  Oh well, I still wouldn’t have averaged 56kmph.

Despite the wind, I managed to stay fairly warm.  My feet, which are normally the first to get cold, stayed nice and toasty thanks to my Specialized neoprene shoe covers.  I also had on my bike shorts with tights over them, a long sleeve compression shirt with a bike jersey over it, a balaclava, and gloves.  My hands and forearms did get pretty cold near the end of the ride, but stayed warm much longer than I thought I would.

When I finished, I grabbed this screenshot from my iPhone of the weather conditions.  If it wasn’t for that damn wind, it would have been perfect weather.

My time and pace for the ride was horrible compared to my previous rides.  It took me 2:20:03 to go 36.24 miles (15.5 mph pace).  Compare this with the last time I rode this route in October when it only too 1:47:27 for a 20.2mph pace.  Like I said, the wind was brutal.

After the ride, I rode home with Jennie and we got Big Bob’s pizza for dinner; the perfect fuel after a long ride.  I decided to skip my 4 mile run today figuring that the ride more than made up for it.  Now, it is time to get a bit more work done before I fall asleep at my desk.

After overindulging on turkey (and subsequently passing out in front of the fire), I decided that I should go for a bike ride on Friday.  As luck would have it, Friday turned out to be one of the coldest days of the season.  Our unseasonably warm weather appears to be behind us.  I knew that the weather was going to be a bit colder and had packed my cold weather gear.

Passed out in front of the fire… too much turkey!

I started my ride headed west into the wind.  My goal was to ride the Orchard Trail, which started about 9 miles away from the in-law’s house.  This was the most difficult part of the ride.  Not only was it directly into a frigid headwind, but it was entirely on surface streets, most of which were not suitable for bike traffic.  Some of them were busy two lane roads with 50 mph speed limits (closer to 60 mph actual speeds though) with absolutely no paved shoulder.  The frustrating thing was that there was plenty of room where there could be a paved shoulder, but instead it was just gravel.

To give you a sense of the wind, the first 9 miles was into a direct headwind and the last nine was a direct tailwind.

By the time I actually got to the trail, my feet were absolutely freezing.  I pushed forward and after 2 miles on the trail, I passed a bike shop.  I decided to stop and see what they had in the way of shoe covers.  I ended up buying a pair of Specialized Neoprene Shoe Covers.  As soon as I put them on, there was a noticeable difference.  They were a lifesaver.  Had I not bought them, I probably would have turned around there rather than adding on a few more miles.  The only downside was that I didn’t have them at the start of the ride so my feet were already cold when I put them on.  They kept my feet from getting any colder and even warmed them up a bit.  I’ll have to give them a try start to finish next week to see how well they work at keeping my feet warm to begin with.

The return trip of this ride was glorious.  I knew that I would have a tailwind nearly the entire way and it would be mainly downhill.  Knowing this was one of my motivations to keep heading out further on the first leg of the ride.  The longer I suffered on the hard part, the more I would get to enjoy on the easy part.

I flew back to the house on the return, making the wind all worth it.  In the end, it was a 35.8 mile ride in 2:05:39 (17.1 mph).  My splits were 1:10:00 for the first half and 55:38 for the second; 4 mph faster on the way home.  All in all, I think it was a good way to burn off all of the excess eating.

Today was one of those rides where nothing seemed to go right, but in the end it turned out to be a great ride.  I had a course all planned out in my head and it ended up changing twice during the ride due to unforeseen obstacles.  My initial plan was to ride southwest towards Holland and then north up to Grand Haven where I would meet my wife at the end of the day. 

So, I started off on the Kent Trail bike path hoping to take that as far as Jenison.  This would keep me off some of the busier sections of Chicago Dr.  Didn’t quite go as planned though.  As soon as I got south of Wilson, I hit mud.  You have to realize that #1 the bike bath runs along the Grand River and #2 October set a record for rainfall in month.  Yeah, not good.  After the first patch of mud, I thought I would be OK.  But it kept getting worse.  And worse.  And worse.  I ended up having to turn around before I ended up under water.  Once I got back to dry land, I inspected my bike.  I wish I would have taken a picture then, but I was so covered in mud, I didn’t want to take my phone out of my pocket.  My tires were so caked with mud, they were as wide as mountain bike tires.  I had gobs of leaves stuck in my brake calipers.  And did I mention the mud? 

I had brought a 3rd water bottle with me on this ride rather than just 2 because I knew it would be a longer ride (the 4th water bottle on the seat post rack has my tools, spare tire, and ID in it).  I decided that I would have to use that water bottle to clean out the calipers as best I could because there was so much mud between the pivots, I was worried it would affect my braking ability.  The water bottle didn’t get me very far though.  I still had lots of mud.  Thankfully (I guess), I was close enough to the boat launch that I could refill the bottle in the river and continue to clean out the brakes.  That water bottle is now going through the dish washer at least twice to clean off whatever filth I managed to pick up in the Grand River.

Miles 11 & 12 are where I ran into the mud.  Mile 19 was a horrendous winding hill that
climbed 150 feet in about a half mile.  I felt like I was going to tip over.

Finally, I was back on my way.  I had to back track about a mile to pick up Chicago Dr – the road I was trying to avoid in the first place.  It ended up not being too bad.  There was one hairy spot where two lanes of traffic were exiting the highway at the same time causing me to essentially end up in the middle of the road.  I managed to pull off on a side street and weave around there before popping out on a street called Cottonwood; one I had never been on.  I pulled out my phone at this point to see where I was.  I wasn’t as far south as I had wanted to be, but I knew this would get me where I wanted to be.  And beings as I had already lost some time messing with my bike, I knew I was going to have to cut the route a bit short. 

So, on I went.  Headed west finally.  Now, I knew going into this ride that there was going to be a wind from the WNW.  What I didn’t know was how strong it was going to be.  It was a steady 15mph or so wind the entire time.  And this is a horrible course for a WNW wind because you head about 22 miles WEST and then about 6 miles NORTH.  So, wind in your face the whole damn way.  I put this ride in the mental win category.  There were so many times I wanted to say screw it and turn around so that the wind would be at my back, but I knew that mentally I had to push forward.  Despite being a very flat road, the wind made it feel like an uphill battle the entire way.

After much effort, cursing, and worrying that I would run out of water with only two bottles left, I finally made it to the end point.  I ended up getting there a bit earlier than I had to and thought about tacking on a few more miles, but at that point, I was absolutely beat.

My bike post ride.  This is after I cleaned out the brake calipers and road another 30 or so miles.

With the bike loaded and Jennie out of work, we headed home.  I was starving at this point, so we stopped by McDonalds.  Normally, I avoid fast food like the plague, but I have been craving one of the 1/3 pound angus burgers ever since I had one on the way home from a ND game a month ago.  I gave into my craving and got one along with biggest Coke they had and some fries for Jennie.  It was sooooooo good.

Mmmmmm… post ride junk food.  Makes it all worth while.

In the end it was a 40.63 mile ride (I was hoping for closer to 50, but sometimes that odds are just stacked against you) in 2:31:29 for a 16.1mph pace.  I wish I would have had a power meter for this ride because it felt a LOT harder than some of my rides where I am pushing 20mph.

After I got home, I did my best to clean my bike.  Thanks to the time change last week, it now gets dark here at about 2:00 in the afternoon.  Ok, I exaggerate a bit, but suffice to say, it was dark by the time we got home.  I got out a bucket, turned on the flood lights, pulled out my trouble light and got to work.  Under the little bit of light I had, it looked clean, but I’ll have to check it out in the daylight tomorrow.