I'm Not Dead Yet!

Contrary to popular belief, I'm still alive. Major updates coming shortly, including my sorry excuses for not updating my blog in a year!

I Really Dig the Styles They Wear

I must apologize to my glut of regular fans; I have been lax in my updates since arriving in sunny LA. I have no good excuse, other than I just haven't felt that anything blog worthy has happened. Since arriving in LA, I haven't done anything that special. I moved in my stuff (not hard, since it all fit into my rather small car), I found some yummy places to eat (too many to list, but the sushi place is closest), found the nearest grocery store (two of them, a Ralph's, and a Whole Paycheck) and figured out how to get to work (walk three blocks, turn right, walk one more).

Riding wise out here, it's spectacular. The Cervelo is in hog heaven out here, since nothing is flat. I took a ride through Bel-Air a couple days ago; in three miles I gain twelve hundred feet of elevation. To put that in perspective, Old Mill Rd. on the east side of Cleveland gains 320 feet in exactly a mile. And most of the riders I've met out here look at a hill like Bel-Air as a good start to the day.

If climbing isn't your thing, there's always the Pacific Coast Highway. The PCH is a little four to six lane road running along...that's right: the Pacific coast. Bikes are allowed on it, in fact it's usually the only way to get to some of the better rides through the Santa Monica Mountains. It is not, however, for the faint of heart. Most of the road has a very nice shoulder on which cyclists can ride. Sometimes, though, the shoulder is taken up with parked cars and every so often, like when you cross a bridge or the like, the shoulder just goes away. Usually the cars will let you in. Usually.

Riding on surface streets here is something of an adventure as well, though less so than on the PCH. The amount of traffic in LA means that often a cyclist can keep up with, if not entirely out-pace, traffic. So far, this has meant that I've not had any issues with rude or inconsiderate drivers; I'm not delaying them at all, so they mostly leave me alone. Of course this isn't always the case, as was demonstrated on July 4th.

And otherwise that's about it. Work is a lot like work, but I like the other staff on my unit, and the new hospital UCLA just opened is awesome to work in. It was designed by I.M. Pei, so it's very big, open, and full of natural light. It also doesn't hurt that I'm on the top floor ICU, with a fantastic view of the Santa Monica Mountains out one direction, and a look downtown in the other. For now it's time to chill and fine tune the bike in preparation for my first California race on Sunday. Race report here afterwards, I promise!

Damn Baby, That's a Good Ride...

Another excuse for poor performance flies out the window...



Much thanks to Sherman and the guys at Bike Authority for hooking me up with this sexy piece of engineering, and to the folks at Ritchey for making the most comfortable race saddle I've ever experienced (also awesome handlebars). I'll be taking it out on the team ride tonight, then back to Bike Authority tomorrow to be shipped to California.

Now back to packing...

Racing for Alex

Today saw me getting up at 0515, hopping in the car along with Michael L. and my girlfriend, and driving down to Mahoning County for the Race for Alex. Alex is a cyclist who also happens to be recovering from a spinal cord injury; the race was held as a fund-raiser for him. If the 54 riders in the 4/5 pack were any indicator of the fields for the other races, they did pretty well (entry was $25 each).

I was not in top form today. In fact, I was in pretty crappy form today. I got chewed up and spit out very early on, managed to hang on within striking distance through the first lap, and got dropped for real after the second lap. Potential excuses were rampant: my bike grappled with that of another rider on the first lap and I got kicked out to the side over the center-line thus ruining my poise and concentration, I was coming off night shift Friday night, my frame/wheels are vertically stiff and laterally compliant. Or maybe it's because my lazy ass hasn't seen a bike saddle since the last time I posted. Yeah, definitely the equipment.

Other than my lack of badassery today, the race was actually really awesome. We had five riders in the 4/5 pack, and Pete S. managed to pull out a 5th place. The course itself was a smoothly paved 5-ish mile circuit with some decent rollers. The corners were clean, registration was a breeze, and the weather was great.

Today's performance has led me to realize that I need to practice more. To that end, I've decided that I want 200 miles ridden by next Sunday. I'll try to get a more focused plan together soon, but that is the base goal. So if you're looking for a riding partner this week give me a call. I'm probably up for it.

Oh, and I'm likely moving to California in July. More on that later.

Bike Riding Rule #1

Headed out to Westlake, Tuesday, since it was a fantastic day and for once I didn't have to work on a Tuesday. Wound up carpooling with Matt O., since both of us enjoy the idea of saving the world. When we got to Westlake, we registered and started to warm up. I wasn't really feeling the warmup, probably since I hadn't been on the bike for a while (like since the east side ride last week with the girlfriend). I line up anyway, since there are no refunds and I'm already there, plus I usually feel better after a lap or two.

I should point out, at this point, that Snakebite makes up somewhere near a third of the B field, so we should have no problem dominating the race.

The first lap after neutral is a cash prime (which seems to be standard for Westlake), and I decide to chase it. I jumped a little too early and got sprinted by one guy, but I decided at that point to just keep hauling ass. So I do. All the way around the first turn into the wind where I die. I barely hang onto the pack for the next lap, but I feel recovered after we cross the line (where the bell is ringing for another prime). So I pick up my pace, and hit the first turn. Which is when I hear the gunshot. Except it's not a gunshot, it's my rear tire blowing out. While leaned over in a turn. You don't need to be a physicist to know that this is bad.

I don't remember many details about the wreck, except that I stayed up longer than I expected, fell in a far more controlled manner than I expected, and managed to not hit my head. That being said, both tires blew out (the front blew on the way down), and I smacked most of my right side into the ground. Work on Wednesday was somewhat less than fun, but was tolerable thanks to lots of ibuprofen.

Tomorrow I get to check out the bike and see if it's ridable. I need to hit Bike Authority anyway, since I need a new rear tire, so the plan is to have someone there give it a quick look. Hopefully everything will check out and I'll be headed to Sugar Grove race Saturday. Otherwise I guess I'll just have to wait for the Soloist...

We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.

Obviously Kipling never met me...

So it's been a while since I posted. I have no excuses other than the usual, "I was working/sleeping/eating/biking." But I have been doing some interesting stuff since my race report two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Mar. 4, I helped canvas the West Side for the Obama campaign. It's been a long time since I was involved in any type of politics, and the feeling was one I had forgotten. To be surrounded by people who love what they do and are passionate about succeeding is an awe inspiring sensation. To know that they are doing this not for compensation, but simply because they believe it's the right thing to do only adds to that. It would have been better if Obama had won the state, but at least he won the county.

The mountain bike (see this post) is coming along nicely. Now that the order is in from Crank Brothers, I have all the parts I need except the wheels, and those should be into Bike Authority within the next two weeks. Then there shall be a bike building bonanza, with a bevy of beer, broads, and borscht. The Eggbeater pedals are especially nice; they have all the float that a mountain pedal should, but they feel much more solid with better power transfer than the Shimano SPDs that I first started riding.

And finally, last Thursday I took a test ride on a Cervelo Soloist Carbon. Stay tuned for a review tomorrow, since I'm toiling in the University Hospitals salt-mines all weekend, and bed calls. Until then, Happy Riding!