Competitive Cyclist Fit Calculator

So as a consequence of riding more recently I began to think about my fit on the bike. I had never done any sort of calculations to figure out where to set saddle height, bar reach, etc. I had always just gone with what I thought felt right but I had been feeling cramped on the bike lately so I decided to give the fit calculator over at www.competitivecyclist.com a shot and see how far off I was from "ideal".

I had Terra take the 8 sets of measurements that they ask for and then input all of them in and armed with the data they spit out I went to the bike to measure and adjust.

My bike set up previously had been with a 90mm stem which was oriented in the upturned position. My saddle to bar drop was probably 1.5" or so.

Competitive Cyclist gives a choice of 3 fits Competitive, The Eddy, or French Fit. I went with The Eddy which is inbetween the other two; more agressive than French but less so than Competitive.

After measuring my bike as it sat I needed to raise my saddle 1.5", flip my stem to it's flatter angle and replace the 90mm stem with a 110mm stem. All of this resulted in a reach that was nearly 2" longer as well as a saddle to bar drop of nearly 4" vs. the 1.5" that it was before.

Old:

New:

So after getting everything set up I headed out for a ride hoping that the new fit wouldn't be too uncomfortable.

The first few miles felt bizarre, I was more stretched out on the bike than I have ever been before, my saddle felt higher than it should be, and the handling was much twitchier due to the longer stem. This feeling went away after 15 minutes or so and I really began to enjoy the new set up.

I rode for 22 miles today on roads that I ride all the time. Typically I am a 14.5mph average speed, this is almost always true wether it is my commute to work or last weeks Petal Pedal, I always seem to end up with a 14.5 average at the end. Upon getting home today I checked my computer as I always do and was shocked by the average speed that I saw...16.7mph, a full 2+mph higher than my norm.

It will be very interesting to me to see how this fit continues to improve my power and speed, But for now I am very pleased with the results.

First Century Attempt - Petal Pedal 2011

So this past weekend was the 2nd Annual Petal Pedal in Silverton, OR. The Petal Pedal is an organized bicycle ride with options to ride 30, 62, or 100 miles. All the routes leave from the Oregon Gardens and both the 62 and 100 mile rides head to Silver Falls before descending back down and looping through rural farm roads.

Thanks to my wonderful wife who agreed to volunteer her time for 4 hours working the merchandise table your truly got a free entry to ride.

A week prior to the ride the weather forecast was for low 70's and sunny, by mid week it was supposed to be high 60's and overcast, by Saturday morning I awoke to a weather forecast that was calling for low to mid 50's and an 80% chance of rain. Figures.

I had been planning this to be my first century ride, which meant starting early. I grabbed a ride down with Mark, a friend from our local social bike club, we left my house at 5am and arrived just before 6 to the ride start.

After unloading the bikes we headed in and dropped off bags of clothes for after the ride, picked up our rider numbers, milled about a bit, and then at 6:30am I hit the road since I knew that doing 100 miles would take the better part of the day and I wanted to be sure to make the time cut off.

The routes all follow the same route for the first 4 or 5 miles(remember that for later) and then the 62 and 100 mile riders turn off and head for Silver Falls State Park while our 30 mile friends continue along on some flat farm roads.

As soon as we made that turn the days climbing began, as did a steady driving rain. I had brought my rain jacket and leg warmers and was glad to have them even on the climb. Over the next 13 miles we would climb 3500 feet or so, as a side note 3500 feet of climbing on a ride before I moved to Oregon would have had me running the other way...now it's just another day, but I digress.

The days first rest stop was on the side of the road about 15.5 miles in, I partook in a cookie and half an apple and then was back on my way, the next 3 miles were fairly uneventful and I reached Silver Falls after about an hour and 40 minutes of riding.

By this point I am not damp, not sorta wet, but completely soaked...everything from my gloves to my legwarmers to my socks was a sopping mess...and the next 14 miles were a descent down the other side of the mountain...this should be fun.

So after a quick photo of the bike in front of Silver Falls I was on my way down. Even with being cautious about the descent due to the rain I was still holding probably 25mph and my soaked clothes were begining to act like an unwanted swamp cooler. My hands by the time I got to the bottom were cold enough that I was afraid stopping the bike would be an issue.

At mile 32 I hit our second rest stop of the day and had to make a critical decision. My options were to continue along my planned 100 mile route or turn off and do the 62 mile metric century. After milling about for a few minutes, eating a few tiny pb&j sandwiches and wringing out my gloves I decided that doing my first century was going to have to wait for another time.

Just as I was about to head out of the rest stop a guy on a beater mountain bike asked me which way the turn off was "60 is this way, 100 is that way" to which he responds....."What about the 30?"...So this dude wanted the 30, which cut off at mile 4, and was supposed to have no climbing, and he is asking me about it at mile 32 and 3500 feet of climbing later. Luckily I was able to hide most of my "wtf?! face" and directed him back via a side road which would have him back at the start line in another 3 miles or so.

So now that I had made the decision to just plug along and finish the 60 miler I took the time to chat with some of the other riders, take in the scenery, and try to get back to the starting line without needing a flotation device.

The finish line party included a dinner of salad, salmon, orzo salad, and what I thought was one beer from Hopworks. As I would soon come to find out it was in fact all I could drink beer, which in my case worked out to be probably 5 or 6 beers during the course of the afternoon.

I had finished my ride at 11:45, which was considerably earlier than I had planned due to cutting 40 miles from my route and Terra still had to hold up her end of the bargain and volunteer from 1-5pm so I had plenty of time to enjoy my beers.

So all in all, the day was a good one, and also a reminder that the weather in Oregon can be a cruel mistress...at least it's not 105 and windy.

Losing Weight, and getting back on the bike.

So back at the end of May I decided that I was tired of being fat. At first it was something that my wife suggested as she was tired of her weight as well after having a doctors appointment that didn't turn out the way she wanted on the scale, but as I thought about it I realized everything that was being affected by being fat. I pay more for clothes because everything in 2XL+ gets a $2-4 "fat tax" almost everywhere, I don't look the way I want, I feel uncomfortable taking my shirt off, I can't do what I want to do on my bike, and the list goes on. Then came my turn to get my checkup at the doctor, my blood test showed pre-diabetes and my blood pressure was higher than the doc wanted it to be...not good.

So now I had even more reason to change my diet. We stopped buying boxed foods, stopped eating crappy fast food, switched ground beef for ground turkey, etc. We have also been logging everything we eat, every day, on www.myfitnesspal.com and it has been an amazing eye opener. So fast forward to today and by making those small changes I have lost 34lbs. I still have a ways to go, but those 34lbs have made a big difference already.

I have also made an effort to get back to doing something which I love, riding my bicycle. Before I met my wife, when I had nothing to do, I used to cycle every weekend, and at one point was up to doing 60+ miles on a ride without too much trouble. After life got in the way and I spent large chunks of time off the bike all together my fitness level slipped. When we moved to Oregon back in October of last year I though "cycling mecca, I will definitely get back into it now!", and I had good intentions and joined a cycling group. I went out on one ride with them and it was great! Then of course, as had happened in the past I got lazy, it was so much easier to NOT put on my cycling clothes and go. It requires zero effort to sit in my chair, so I'll go tomorrow...or the next day..or next weekend..you get the idea.

So now we have lived here for almost a year and I am finally making good on my threat of getting back into cycling as a way to not only supplement my eating better and losing weight but also just because I truly enjoy it.

Now that the back story is there I have a bit of a side story...it rains in Oregon, a lot and the only rain vest I had when we moved here was black, much like most of my cycling clothes, and in the rain and gloom that is not the best thing for keeping yourself from getting killed. So one day while looking online we found a bright yellow cycling vest...and it came in a 3XL, perfect! So we ordered it and when it showed up a week later I opened the package and excitedly put on my new vest...only to find that I couldn't come close to wearing it. I should have known that it would be a 3XL in Euro sizing, which is vastly different from American sizing. I could get the zippers a little past my nipples, probably 5-6" from actually zipping them. So into the closet it went and I essentially forgot about it.

Now here is a photo of that original black vest, from my group ride last October, which "fit" when the yellow vest wouldn't even come close. I put fit in quotations because as my friends back in CA would say I was "taxin' the hell out of it".



So today I was getting ready for a ride and as I pulled out my jersey I thought, "hey I should give that vest another shot, it might be getting close to zipping". As it turns out it not only was close to zipping it zipped just fine and I wore it for the entire ride and didn't feel like I was a human sausage. Now that first photo I posted isn't exactly flattering, and that vest is black, which as we all know is a slimming color. Yellow is not so much a slimming color. Here is a photo from today.



The feeling of being able to wear a vest that a mere 3 months ago wouldn't come close to fitting was pretty amazing. It made me happy for my ride, and I was also happy that I was able to ride 26.5 miles in 1hr 45min and feel pretty damn good at the end of it. And so the journey continues....

The big Two-Nine

So as of today I am another year older. I don't feel any different than I did at 28 but alas I am now 29.

So one of the things that I have been wanting to do for awhile is go fishing. I had fished with family years ago but had not been since. Well for my birthday we decided to finally buy all of the required gear and licenses and head out to hopefully catch some dinner.

The destination for the day; Trillium Lake on the outskirts of Mt. Hood. We were up and out of bed at 0 Dark 30 (3:15am) in order to get everything together and get to the lake just after sun-up. The target of the day being Rainbow Trout.

The drive was beautiful and since we were on the road so early there was very little traffic to speak of. After an hour and a half we pulled into the day use area at Trillium. This is possibly the prettiest place I have ever been, the view was ridiculous.



After a little bit of fumbling around looking for a spot we decided to stake out a place on a small dock and test our luck with the fish. Since neither of us had been fishing in over a decade we weren't quite sure how our day would play out. But hey when this is how you are spending a day how bad could it really be?



After an hour or so of plunking around I felt a small tug, so I set my hook and began to reel in what I hoped would be a keeper. Up came this guy...



He was about 9.5" and weighed a little over a pound I would guess. He definitely qualified as a keeper in our book, so onto the stringer he went and we got back to fishing. After a few more casts I got another bite, went to set my hook, and my pole snapped...my brand new pole, is now unusable...my heart sank and I was sure my day was over and one fish would have to suffice. Thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case as the guy who was fishing next to us graciously offered up one of his spares for me to use. I love the hospitality that Oregon in general seems to have. So as the day progressed the weather went from sunny and still to cloudy to windy a little light rain, pretty much all over the place. But through it all both Terra and I managed to catch fish. Here I am with most of our haul...



After that photo was taken we fished for another hour or so and both managed to snag one more fish which put us at our legal limit of 5 a piece. It was 3pm by this point and we were both kinda cooked from getting up so early so we thanked "Bear" for saving the day with his spare pole and loaded up for the drive home. On the way home we stopped off and returned the POS rod that broke on me and upgraded to a nicer one. The cost difference was pretty negligible and we are both hooked on fishing after today, it really was a blast and a great way to spend time together, and since Oregon has 1200+ lakes, rivers, and streams that are considered fishable there is plenty of opportunity and variety.

So after making our way home I tried my hand at cleaning our catch. I had read up on the process and watched a few YouTube videos and it looked pretty simple. Thankfully it turned out to be pretty much as simple as it looked and within about a half hour I had 10 nicely cleaned trout to work with.



We froze 4 of them for a later time and the other 6 got stuffed with salt, pepper, lemon slices, and fresh dill and went on to the barbecue. I must say they turned out pretty awesome!



So that brings us to the end of my 29Th birthday. I had a terrific day and will have a memory that will last much longer than any present could. So that's it, I'm tired, I'm sunburned, and I'm full of trout...Life is good.

A Manly Saturday

Okay so the title is a bit misleading, today was actually occupied by a trip to the Woodenshoe Tulip Farm for the annual Tulip Festival.

Being from the Antelope Valley I am used to the Poppy Festival every year, but that happens miles from any actual poppies, this happened at the farm. Woodshoe Farms is about a 45 minute drive from us, which was partially freeway and partially back roads that gave a nice view of some old school farmhouses. It really is a gorgeous area, especially a little ways off the beaten path.

When we first arrived at Woodshoe Farms we debated on getting our money back and just going home, as their didn't appear to be any Tulips in bloom. Turns out the front of the farm gets used to grow grass, a quarter mile walk or so later we came to the actual tulip fields and wow. The amount and variety of tulips was really breathtaking. As a bonus a nice clear day made for some pretty views of Mt Hood in the distance as well.

It was a nice way to spend a Saturday with the girls, and also another notch in my proverbial bedpost of wanting to get out of the house more.

So without further ado, some photos from the day:

Professionalism

Working in the line of work that I do I send emails, lots of emails, and everyday I find myself thinking the same thing at least once.

Why do people not seem to grasp the fact that their email address has an impact on how they will be percieved by others in a professional context?

I understand when I am quoting a 17 year old kid that I may run into an email address like snowboardpunk1994 (yes people born in 1994 can drive now, scary isn't it?) or the like. My first email address was chaoslord99 for christ sake (and I really was neither chaotic or a lord of anything in 1999 "I don't care if they're facist anarchists it still doesn't change the fact that I don't have a car" <---that really didn't have much to do with anything), anyway what was I saying? Oh yeah, I remember now...

What drives me crazy is when I run into someone who is a doctor and has the email address "crzychick", or a business owner using something like "hemilover65". There is no reasonable explanation for not having an email address that either A) is your name @ someplace or B) is directly related to the name of your business or your occupation. Email addresses are easy to get for free, chances are your name is available, and chances are if you work in any sort of actual profession you are GIVEN a professional email address.

If your email address is joe.smith@bigaccountingfirm.com I will respect you more than if it is golf4life@hotmail.com, I know it shouldn't matter, it's the person behind the email, "honest she has a great personality", I get all that...bottom line is it does matter, so stop it.

First Day of Spring

So the first day of Spring chose to come upon the Portland metro in a beautiful way. Today was 63 degrees, sunny and gorgeous. It was also the opening day of the Portland Farmers Market and the Portland Saturday Market, which is essentially a giant crafts fair.

Well being that it was far too nice to stay indoors today we headed out and hit up the Saturday Market. The place was a zoo but I am learning that anytime it isn't grey and wet outside Portlanders will go outside en mass so I expected that. The Market consists of probably 200 or so booths set up mostly along the river in Downtown Portland. People selling everything from soap to leather goods, plants to falafel (which had a line of about 60 people, too long of a wait today but I made a mental note to try that particular food cart in the future).

Plenty of strollers and bikes out, as well as tons of photographers taking advantage of a day that won't ruin their big money cameras (I can't help but wonder how a photographer in Portland who was trying to make a living wouldn't starve to death half the year but hey, what do I know).

Walking around out in the sun today felt really good and also reaffirmed my apreciation for the little things in life. There really is nothing like a beautiful day to perk up the spirits, especially one spent with family.