What's worse, wind or ice

I'm going to have to go with ice on that one. At least the wind was at my back nearly as much as it was in my face.

The snowstorm they had originally forecasted for today failed to materialize, at least in our area, so I piled on the layers, filled a bottle and camelpack, and saddled up my trusty steed. The steed of choice today was my Quiring, set up in fixed gear format. My plan was to ride basically the same loop I rode last weekend. I headed out of town, and climbed the first hill on Attica Road. At the top, I turned right onto Summers Road, straight into north wind suckage... or shall I say blowage. Yup, the headwind would be with me for a while. I resolved to grunt my way into the wind, knowing it would be at my back for the return trip. Besides, Summers Road was in much better shape than last weekend, having no snow cover.

The headwind stayed with me until Lum Road, where I headed west. Crosswinds are slightly better than headwinds. Lum Road took me through Lum (don't blink... even on a bicycle), and out to Spaulding Road. A bit of a rear tire slip, and I had the sudden realization that I was riding on WHUMP ice. It was kind of neat in a way, a relatively painless landing, and a slide of about 30 feet before I came to a stop. I picked myself up, and walked the short distance back to Lum Road.

I rode back to Slattery Road, and started north. Slattery was in much better shape... to start. Sure enough, Ice, and another gravity check. I got back up, and rode/walked (mostly walked) northward, to see what Curtis road offered. Sure enough... more ice, and more ride/walk alternating. After a while, I came to Lake Pleasant Road. Paved at last. North into the wind. Heartrate at my Lactate Threshold and single digit speeds at points. I rode like this to North Branch Road, and headed west through North Branch.

Just past North Branch, I turned around and basically retraced my path. On to Lake Pleasant Road. South. With the wind. Speeds averaging 18mph, hitting well over 20 on the downhills. Spinning like mad but in a nice zone 2 endurance heart rate. Back through Lum. Down Summers Road. With the wind. Dirt roads seem rougher at 20+ than at less than 10mph.

I rolled into my driveway pretty much spent, and with just under 47 miles showing on the Edge.

Route from Today's ride (ain't high tech GPS toys neat)

Today's elevation profile

Spring Fever

Just (im)patiently waiting for the spring thaw.

The bountiful snowfall in Lapeer county this year hasn't stopped me from logging some riding time outside though. Just aching to get back on the trails. Over the past year, I've put together a serviceable assortment of winter riding clothes. For Christmas, my parents got me a pair of neoprene booties, and a new pair of tights (to replace the ones I tore when I crashed at Iceman). I also picked up a pair of Moose Mitts at the MMBA expo to keep my hands warm. Add to that the skull caps, windbreakers, pullovers, long sleeve base layers, and socks that my wife and parents have bought for me, and I'm just about set.

The Quiring is set up in fixed gear format, with a 16 tooth tomicog (http://tomicog.blogspot.com/) bolted up. I've worked out a nice dirt/paved road route that takes me up through the Lapeer State Game area. So far I've done that route twice.

Route for dirt road ride.

Elevation profile for dirt road ride.

I've also been out on the road bike on a few occasions during February and March. Once I met up with Dave from the RBS bike team, and we rode from Lapeer to Otisville and back; just under 50 miles for that day. Another time I met up with my teammate Curt (blog link on right) and a few others at Stony, where I logged 40 miles of riding at a pace I wasn't expecting this early in the year. I've also done the below route from home, which I had done a few times last year. Basically I ride from Imlay City to Lapeer and back. This one nets out at 35 1/2 miles.

Imlay City to Lapeer route.

Elevation Profile

The preceeding maps and charts were made possible by a great gift from a loving wife to her husband. For Valentines Day, Brandy got me a Garmin Edge 305. This came with a cadence sensor and a heart rate monitor, and has a barometric altimeter built in. I'm hoping this will be a great training tool. At the very least, it will be neat to see elevation, speed, and heart rate statistics from my rides.

Re-Runs From Last Year

Originally written on March 18,2007

Today I decided to take advantage of some glorious March weather. I laced up my hiking boots, grabbed my GPS and camera, and drove up to the Hogbacks area just north of Elba. When all was said and done, I had hiked for 6 miles.

A nice small lake within the Hogbacks area.

Looking back along the trail.


A view from the top of a ridge.

It's much steeper than it looks... basically a root staircase.

Between the trees or over the roots... you decide.



Fall line runs seem to be the norm here.


The end of the line, unless you have a horse or waders.

Another fall line run. Once again, it's steeper than it looks.

A river runs through it.




Through the open and flat.



The trail next to the lake.

Fun in the Cold

Trainers and rollers are excellent off-season training tools, so don't get me wrong here. They have one major flaw though, and that is boredom. Sitting in the basement spinning away like a hamster on a wheel. TV with the right video helps immensely, but there is still no substitute for the real thing.

Saturday, I chose to brave the chilly temperatures and met Steve out at Island Lake for a few miles. Steve is one of the regulars on the mysinglespeed.com board. We decided to start with a lap of the Blue loop (approx. 10 miles), and make the call on the ~5.5 mile Yellow loop afterwards.



Here we are about a third of the way through the Blue loop. Steve's on the right, I'm on the left.


We did the blue loop, were feeling good, and decided to give the yellow loop a go. Trail conditions were excellent for the season: snow was good and grippy, there were only a few small icy spots, and only one tree down (about 2 miles or so into the blue loop). The wind was only a factor in one spot, the open area by the swimming hole.

Here's your's truly at a crossing on the yellow loop.

I'm the drab green spot in the middle of the photo. Note the runner up ahead. We weren't the only crazy ones out today.

We completed the yellow loop, and decided that we had time (and energy) to do another go-round of the blue loop. When we rolled back into the parking lot, I had about 23 1/3 miles showing on the computer.

Here's a photo of Steve's dash after the ride. Note the temperature of 13deg F.

The Fun Stuff

May 17: Zoo-De-Mack
This will mark the 3rd year that Brandy and I did this ride. It has proven to be a fun time the past two. Picture arriving at Boyne Highlands on Friday, drinking, waking up on Saturday morning, riding, break for lunch and drink beer (or a massage in Brandy's case), ride some more, ferry across to Mackinac Island, drink more. Fun times


June 21-27: Pedal Across Lower Michigan
A 6 day bicycle tour across the state. Brandy and I did this 2 years ago, but missed last year's ride because we mailed in the application a "wee bit" too late. May 1st or 700 riders... last year they hit 700 riders by the end of February. We won't make the same mistake again.


Sometime in Late September-ish: High Country Pathway Fun 50
Click back in the archives a bit... 'nuff said!

Also on a date yet to be determined, I'm contemplating a trip either to the North Country Trail, Copper Harbor/MTU Trails, Mohican, or even as far as Pisgah NC.

2008 Tentative Race Schedule

Apr 13: Pontiac Lake TT
April 20: Yankee Springs TT
Apr 27: Bloomer Park XC
May 4: Fort Custer Stampede XC
Jun 7-8: Brighton Stage Race
Jun 14: Lumberjack 100
Jun 28: Stony Creek Marathon XC
Jul 20: Ruby Campground XC
Jul 27: Stony Creek TT
Aug 3: Big M Cross Country XC
Aug 24: Pontiac Lake XC
Sep 7: Stoney Creek XC
Sep 21: Addison Oaks XC
Sep 28: Pando XC
Nov 8: Iceman Cometh

My key races will be the Brighton Stage Race, Lumberjack, Stony Creek XC, and Iceman.

Brewmaster for a Day

Today I decided to play the part of brewmaster, and make a batch of beer. It's been around 2 years since I last brewed, and homebrew was sounding good to me. So I jotted down the ingredients for an IPA, and yesterday I stopped at a homebrew supply shop in Warren.

First I gathered up some necessary supplies.

I also arranged a few other items that I felt may come in handy.
Equipment was cleaned and sanitized. The sanitizing solution looks eerily similar in color to the beer I'd brew.
I make beer by using malt extracts (the cans and the bag of beige powder in a previous photo). This saves quite a bit of time over brewing all-malt. However, I do use some specialty grains in my brew. This gives beer some of it's flavor.

This particular recipe called for toasted malted barley, and crystal malt. The grains had to be cracked, and put into a cloth "sack" for use in steeping.
The "sack" of crushed grains, ready to go.
I filled the kettle with 6 gallons (5 gallon batch with allowance for some to boil off) of water, and turned on the heat.
The "sack" getting dropped in. This steeps for 15 minutes at 150 degrees F.
The spent "sack".


Bubble bubble toil and trouble...

Add the extract, boil for 50 minutes, adding hops at various points.

A shot of the "brewmaster". It's just about almost noonish... time for another beer!


After the boil, the wort needs to be brought down near room temperature. The faster the better, to avoid haze and lessen the risk of contamination. I use an immersion chiller, essentially 25' of copper tubing coiled up, with cold fresh water flowing through the tube. This will cool the wort in just under a half hour.
Usually I do this outside, but the ho's was froze, so I had to use the basement faucet.

Taking a reading of the initial gravity. This, combined with the final gravity after fermentation, can be used to estimate the alcohol content.

Racking the wort into the carboy for fermentation.
Pitching the yeast.

Airlock in place. The primary fermentation should be started by tomorrow mid morning, and finished in just under a week. Then will come a 1 week long secondary fermentation, then bottling. Stay tuned for progress updates.