Watch Dave Lose It

I haven't posted in a while

The summer has kind of been a blur.

I just got back from burningman and here is a link to some of my pictures.

Burningman Album

 

Made it (with 20 minutes to spare)

i can't say that everything went as planned.  But we did in fact make it.  But let me start at the beginning.

We were a little late to the start line.  Luckily we had secured our purple mohawks to our helmets the night before.

It was a beautiful morning rolling along lake Washington.    We did our first support stop at the 30 mile mark.  Jane and Marshall had chairs set up in the shade of the suburban.  We had sopping wet wash clothes to wash the salty off our faces.  It was very refreshing.    We had our second support stop just past Spanaway.  Guess what July 11th is free Slurpee day.  They don't mention that the Slurpee's are about 4 oz.  But still no Slurpee is too small for our support team.

After Spanaway we had our longest stretch without our support team.  It was on this section that someone turned up the thermostat.  We measured 84 degrees in the shade.  For these parts that is hot.  Particularly on the longer stretches without shade.  The trail around Tenino was much better than last year.  So that was nice.  We also made a last minute mod to our bikes.  We added a little piece of pipe insulation to the handlebars.  We attached them right at the center.  So for rough sections this gave us a place to rest our hands and isolate them from road vibration.  It worked out really nicely.

I had hoped to make it to Vader the first day.  But it became clear we weren't on pace to do that. So by Centralia we were pretty much done. This was the McDlt of STPs.  If you remember the McDlt kept the hot side hot and the cold side cold.   We went to bed at 7:30 and woke to thunder and lightening at 5:00.  After a nice pancake breakfast we hit the road at about 6:30.  The next section was much nicer than I remember from last year (when it was 95 degrees).  We had our first support (and last) stop at Vader.  It was right after this that the whole trip started to unwind.

Howard took a spill and broke a spoke.  We stopped at Castle Rock to have that fixed.  Then Jane called and the fuel pump went out on the suburban.   She managed to meet us as planned at Les Schwab in Longview (with a cab ride).  They were doing a car show and grilling hot dogs and burgers.  So that was nice.   We got our Camel backs and a few food items and we set off.  Now we were dependent on the regular food stops. That isn't such a bad deal but now we also had no ride home.

We made it over the bridge into Oregon.  I have been over that bridge twice now and it seems unnecessarily high.  We really didn't have any more problems except it rained on us the whole way.  At the last stop before Portland, Scappoose, we talked to a volunteer.  She told us the last bus was set to leave Portland at 7:00.  It was 5:15 and we were 18 miles from the finish.  So we had to push the pace.  For the first 5 hours on sunday we were averaging 12.5 mph.  For the last 2 hours we averaged 17.5.  We crossed the finish line at 6:40.    We had the luxury of 20 minutes to buy some dry clothes and get on one of the sold out buses (without tickets).

We put on dry t-shirts and socks in the bathroom on the bus.  But we still had to wear our wet bike shorts the whole way home.  I got to my house at about 12:30.  Had a hot bath and crashed.

Jane and the support crew were treated to a night in Longview and after a relatively quick fuel pump change came in Monday afternoon.  So for those of you keeping score, the bikers beat the drivers.  In the end we had a tough goal and we accomplished it.  It didn't all go as planned but as I pointed out to Howard I bet the stories on the last bus were a lot more interesting than the stories on the first bus.   

 

2 Days Until STP

Today's weight: 264

If you are keeping track at home that is 20 pounds in about 10 weeks.  Not bad.  I am still not ready to go into the details of my magic wonder diet, but it is working and is also easy.

Tomorrow we pick up our packets.  Friday we pack the car and get a good night sleep and then it is just an early start, pedal 200 miles and home again.  A nice relaxing weekend.

We did a quick 20 mile training ride yesterday and it felt really good.  The weather is supposed to be in the 70's, a nice change form the 90's last year.

So watch this space for the after action report, and maybe some pictures.

2 Weeks until STP

Today's weight 268.5

I would still like to be 260 by the STP.  That is starting to look like a tough goal.  But as long as I am solidly in the 260's I should be alright.

We did a 40 mile ride today and I have to say it was tough.  I am starting to worry about being in shape in 2 weeks.  I plan to get as many rides in as possible between now and then.  I have ridden the last three days in a row so that is good.

I am consistently losing about 2 pounds a week.  Not dramatic, but I will take it.

Getting Ready For STP

Today's Weight 273

My 16 year-old Godson was intrigued by the STP and after I did it last year he mentioned that he might like to ride it with me.  He brought it up a few more times so I knew he was serious about it.  So I placed an ad on a local version of Craigslist asking someone to help me out with a bike.  After a few weeks I got a call.

A guy was cleaning out his garage and had an extra bike.  i rushe dove to check it out.  The cool thing was he didn'twant money, but did want tools.  Hey I got tools.  So I traded him a paint sprayer.  The bike needed some work, but in it's day this was a hot bike and just needed some TLC.

According to Bikepedia it is a 1998 Canondale XR800 Cyclocross bike.  The bike was $1500 in 1998.  It had a little rust which I easily buffed out.  We also got some matching fingernail polish and fixed the dings in the paint.  Howard and I have really had a good time working on the bike.  We put on new tires, new cables, bar tape, rear cassette, and some elbow grease.

For Howard this is his first "light" bike.  He couldn't believe it when he picked up the bike.

We have started our training rides.  On memorial day we did 16 miles.  We will work our way up to over 50 miles before the big ride.

For his 16th birthday we gave him an Amazon gift certificate so he could order a helmet, gloves etc.  Oh and I dug out some of the clothes I ordered online where I learned that bike close are made for tiny people.  XXL in bike clothes would fit an NFL cheerleader.  So he scored shorts, jacket, jersey from that treasure trove.

Finally some Momentum

Today's weight: 276

Down about 8 pounds in 2 weeks.  I am excited to be getting some momentum going.  I am working mainly on the food side right now.  The exercise will be picking up, but this weight loss is primarily food.

I am still not ready to start giving details yet.  But the early results are encouraging.  I am on track to get back to last years STP weight in time for the STP.

I have to go work on my bike now. 

OK OK time to get serious

I wanted to let my Hawaii movies run for a few days before I posted more fitness stuff.  You may have noticed a certain lack of the usual WDLI exercise, goal setting etc.

I have spent the winter doing exactly what i wanted to avoid.  Regaining the weight I lost last year.  In fact this is a 3 year trend of losing weight in the summer and regaining it over the winter.  I don't think I am unique in this but I have to break this cycle.

So I am on a new eating plan (of my own invention).  I don't want to give too many details yet.  But in 9 days I am down 5 pounds.  Not amazing but a solid start.  So last Monday I was 284 and now I am 279. 

I also signed up for the bike to work challenge and will ride my bike to work next Friday on bike to work day.

And I also signed up to do the Seattle to Portland (STP) bike ride with my 16 year old Godson. 

So I think my goal list is reloaded.

Watch this space for more details.

BTW for my bike forums reader, I picked up a 1998 Cannondale XR800 Cyclocross bike for him to ride.  We are fixing it up together.

Back From Hawaii

We had a great time in Hawaii.  I am going to post some pictures and videos here.  A cuutlefish taken right in front of the Hitlon Hawaiian Village at Waikiki:
Here is a whole slideshow I hope this works: I am adding this picture for the comic value. This looks like a poster from Despair.com. So maybe if we can come up with a great caption we can make a million bucks. I'll suggest a couple to get the ball rolling keep it PG-13 please) 1) Tortoise threeway - appendix z of the Kama Sutra 2) Somedays are just like this - you are F**ing sideways and there is some guy waiting to show you how it is done. 3) Tortoise acrobat team 4) King of the shell

50 Days

We just booked a trip to Hawaii.  I have 50 days to get into swim suit shape.  The first thing I need is low standards.  For me swimsuit shape is just thin enough that I have a 50% toe sunburn risk.  Thin enough that I don't make people sick.  Thin enough to fit in the airline seat without pressing the recline button with my thigh.

Is that too much to ask?  I hope I have hit my maximum winter weight and this trip should help to jump start my spring weight loss.

I need to drop a lot of weight to be able to do STP this summer.  I am torn between doing the one day with my Belly Buster Buddy, or riding with my 16 year old godson in two days.

So I will try to do more regular updates as I count down the 50 days.  And to make it official my starting weight is 281.  (dang winter hibernation weight)

Set-backs before come-backs

Today's Weight 277 :-(

We have had kind of a tough winter.  Both weather-wise and personally.  I don't want to get in to too much detail and I am not trying to make excuses.  But I find myself in almost the exact same place as I was this time last year. 

So for my dedicated reader I have to say you have really let me down.  I am really counting on you to keep the pressure on me. (just kidding)

I am going to have to try some new and different stuff this year to get to some lower weights.  The last 2 years I have been stuck at about 256-258,  (Which right now sounds really good).

I might have to break down and try my much contemplated, never duplicated - Put Less Stuff In My Mouth Diet.   But I hope it doesn't come to that.

Tough choices coming up

I rode the rain bike to work today.  There was a light drizzle and I stayed dry.  Even my feet were dry.  So that was cool.

I was excited to ride after getting the rear wheel trued.  They had to replace 4 spokes.  So it was pretty wobbly.  I was hoping the true wheel would not rub and I would cut a much needed 5 minutes off my commute.  Not only did I not cut 5 minutes I was actually 18 minutes slower than last time.  That is a big difference.  I am not 100% sure why.  It was 12 days since my last ride (a little too long).  But that isn't enough to explain it.  I think there also was a little bit of a headwind.

So it took me 1:48 of pedal time and over 2 hours total to get to work.  That is too long.

So my choices are how much longer can I keep riding.  The weather hasn't been too bad.  But it is now dark almost the whole way.  Colder and wetter weather is coming.  I might try to drive my truck to work with the bike in the back and ride home.  then take the bus the next day and drive the truck home.  (it is great to have a beater truck you can leave anywhere).

Once I decide to not commute by bike for the coldest part of winter I will have to add in some otehr exercise.  I really need to drop some weight to keep on track.  I have a goal to do the STP in one day and I am not going to do that at 260 pounds.

Two rides this week

I managed to do two commutes this week on the rain bike.  i had a special treat.  A co-worker, who I met on Bike Forums, rode with me on Wednesday.  Skyler even brought a camera and took some pictures.

Keep in mind it was completely dark so it was amazing he got any decent shots.  This picture shows how much the reflective tape on the vest stands out.  (at least it does with the camera flash).

You can see why lights were so important to me.  It is really dark out there on the river road.  i want to be seen from a long ways away.

He took a couple of videos too.  I will try to see if I can post one later.

Thanks to Skyler for going out of his way to ride with me.

Down time for repairs

So I ordered the axle from my LBS (that is local bike shop for you non-bikers).  I should have it Wednesday.  But that means that it will be over a week between commutes.

So Jane very generously offered to drive me and my road bike to work today so I could ride home.  The weather has been amazing; dry, with a fall nip in the air.  In fact since I put the wiper on my bike there hasn't been a drop of rain.  It is like waxing your car in reverse.

I had a great ride home.  I am officially 6 weeks past my usual end of bike season.  And that is really the whole point.  So thanks Jane for getting up early to keep me on track.

On a side note.  It seems I have created a little stir over on Bike Forums. (this is the link to my thread about my winter bike).  One of the hard core bikers started a thread just to make fun of me.  In fact the first thread was removed by the moderators and I wasn't alerted until they started a second thread.  On the second thread a whole bunch of people have come to my defense.  I have really enjoyed it.  There really are a lot of great bikers out there.  I am glad some are happy to share the road with someone who will never quite fit in.  (heck I can't even fit in to my spandex bibs).  

Observations from the first commute

I wanted to leave Jane's post up top for a full day but I want to write down my observations while they are still fresh.  i am glad I changed out that 5W CFL (dim!) with the 20W halogen.  I used that bulb most of the time.  The 37W bulb is just flat out bright.  It really puts out a nice tight beam well down the road.  Between the two I probably have all the choices I need except a low power get home light. 

i started out with 13.2 Volts but of course as soon as I turned on one of the lights that dropped to about 12.7.  By the time I got to work almost 1.5 hours later, I still had about 11.5 volts.  Since I was getting a ride home I didn't recharge the battery but when I went back to the bike it was back up to 11.9V.   So there are some days when that would be plenty to get home since it isn't getting dark early yet.  But on the coming short days I have a second battery at work and a charger.  so i will have a fully charged battery both ways and the ride home is shorter.

One of the things you notice about the bike is that your speed perception changes.  You don't have the wind whipping in your ears so you don't feel like you are going as fast as you are.  It was so dark I couldn't read my speedo most of the time.  i felt like I was riding about 8 mph and then I would go under a street light and I was going 14.  Without the wind noise and with the adding sound reflecting surface of the fairing you hear a lot of things you usually don't.  A lot of noise from the chain and crank.

The bike feels like it has a "hull speed".  Like on a sail boat.  A natural efficient speed (about 15 mph) and to go faster than that requires a lot more work.  Although looking at the Garmin data I still went the same speed down some of the hills.

I had some issues with fogging.  It wasn't really raining yesterday but as usual there was some fog.  I wiped the windshield a few times.  Tonight I installed my windshield wiper.  (pictures soon).  So I will see how that does on the rain.  It may help with fog as well on the outside.  But I may still need a fog wiper on the inside.

I made it up Lowell hill.  It was no picnic, but did it.  That is always the intimidating part of the ride.  So I am glad to have achieved that goal.  My pedal came off before gravel pit hill so still have that challenge ahead of me.

The wiper is a manual unit that someone pointed out to me on Bike Forum.  I bought is from carparts.com.  Here it is installed.  It was super easy.

 

Maiden Voyage of the Rain Bike

I know that Dave will expound further on the first ride to work but I know he would want these pictures posted right away so I will lurk on his site for a minute and do that.

He very nearly made it but a pedal broke off about a mile from his destination but otherwise everthing went well.  You can see there is a little fogging issue becasue of his breath but his glasses remained dry on this day of light rain.

 

The offending pedal.

 

 

Tomorrow is the big day

After many hours in my evil lab the bike is ready for the road tomorrow.  I have done a few trail rides.  Light tests. etc.  But the real test is the commute tomorrow.  Right now it is raining hard outside and we even have a little thunder and lightning. 

Jane will be riding support (it is a little far for Olivia).  So watch this space for my write-up tomorrow.

Testing phase

I finally got the wiring done and was able to do a short test ride.  i did about 1.5 miles with Olivia running support.  I climbed the 9% grade "mailbox hill" without trouble and on the way back hit 27.7 mph.  Which is right in line with the speed without the fairing.  So the fairing didn't slow me down noticeably.  There was a pretty good wind.  It didn't make me unstable but it did slow me down.

There was a slight drizzle.  I am actually hoping for a little more rain tomorrow for more rain testing.

After dark I did a little light testing.  The 5W CFl is completly useless.  The 55W light is great, but the draw on the battery will limit using it.  The 37W GE 10 degree bulb was really great.  I took some pictures.  I now have better appreciation for those that have posted their light pictures.  The lights were really very bright but it is hard to capture that.

This is the 37W halogen.

  

More pictures of the fully functioning death star (Rain Bike)

OK I took a day of of the day job to finish up the bike.  For weeks I have been 2 hours from being done (even after an extra 20 hours of work).  So today I really hit it hard and at least got everything working.  I am the most excited boy genius in the neighborhood.  So here are a bunch of pictures.

This is the power, a 6AH 12V lead acid battery. That should run the 37 watt bulb for an hour for the commute.  Plus the benefit of having a 12V system is you can use car and motorcycle  stuff.  Like ....
 
This one claims to be "louder than you original horn".  i am not sure it is louder than the air horn I have but as long as I have power I have a nice loud horn.  and here is the horn button.  Located so i don't have to take my hands off the handle bars to toot.

Of course if you have a horn button, you need something to attach it too.  Like a complete dashboard.

The only thing missing from this picture is the Garmin GPS computer.  It attaches at the top.  I just didn't have it on in these pictures.  Below that is the voltmeter.  It also has a clock and outdoor/outdoor thermometer in it.

Below that are the turn signal switches.  The point of the voltmeter is to manage the power.  With 4 lights (and a total of 17 possible combinations).  Oops I almost forgot to post pictures of the turn signals.

Did I say 17 settings.  Well yes with all possible combinations.  But that would actaully drain the battery really fast.  The two center lights are fog lights.  so you might see a slight yellow tint.  They are 25 watts and 55 watts. 

It wasn't even dark yet and the lights seemed pretty bright.

 Add the hokey spokes and I am ready to be the boy in a bubble.   The Rain Biker on the Rain Bike.

  

Wires, wires everywhere - ack

Ok who's idea was it to put 8 switches, a fuse holder , flasher unit and kitchen sink into one of those small Radio Shack project boxes.

The good news is I am almost done with all the wiring.  I even performed a fuse test (it works really fast when you directly connect the positive to negative wires).  I plan to take a days vacation this week and try to get it all finished and on the road.

I am getting excited but I am really enjoying this phase of the project and I don't want to rush.  There are little details that I want to hammer out now or I will never do them.

Progress on Winter Bike

This is my third attempt to post on my progress.  Every time I try to upload pictures it crashes.  So this time I will try it with Firefox.  so I am going to try to load a bunch of pictures and add words later.

The top Picture is a close-up of the "dashboard".  This will be mounted in the middle of the handlebars.  On the upper left is the horn button.  Then at the top is the Garmin GPS bike computer.  Below that is the voltmeter, clock, outdoor/outdoor thermometer.  Below that are the turn signal switches.  Then the 6 switches will be for the lights. 

I love the look of the paint.  I used the black enamel I had leftover from making my grand piano float (see down below). 

 

And oh yes there will be lights!! And turn signals and a loud horn.

Here i am testing the bike in the rain.  With Olivia for support.  The water beads up but it is not distracting.

This post is a mess and it is late.  I will fix later (enjoy the pictures).

A birthday and a Triathlon on the same weekend

So let me start at the beginning.  At about 9:00 the night before my birthday (after I finished the dishes) I was brutally kidnapped by my sweet wife.  All she said was that we were going bowling.  So off we went.

It wasn't until we were down by the marina that she admitted that we were heading toward the boat.  So we spent th night on the boat (something we have been wanting to do all summer).  We played cards, had fancy snacks, fine cheeses and wine and slept with the gentle rocking of the boat.

Then we got up and had a nice breakfast .  After breakfast we took the little dinghy over to Jetty Island.   This is the first time we have taken the little boat out with the $50 garage sale motor.  It really worked nice.  We managed to tag along on a nature hike and found out a lot of interesting stuff about the island.  Although it is man made (with 300,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from the river channel each year) it has become a great wildlife habitat. 

After our outing we headed home for lunch.  But I was in for another surprise.  While we were gone Jack, Joyce and my dad were finishing up clearing out a space in the garage for me to have a little workshop.  My dad made me a really cool bike work stand.  It is adjustable height, has a light and places to store tools.  I already have a neat workbench that my dad made me for building the house which had fallen in disuse.  Jane cleaned that up and her dad gave me a bunch of tools to get it properly stocked.

After the big surprise we had a little cake.

   

Jane's big present for me (besides all the other stuff) was a full body bike-suit for the coming cold weather.  (we have been calling it my super suit after my favorite animated movie "The Incredibles",  I wanted a cape but Jane says "No Cape").  It is really great to have a bike outfit actually made to fit.  The bike stuff you buy online is a joke.  A 2X is made for a chubby biker of 190 pounds.

After all this we went out for a nice dinner with friends.  But of course I was slightly limited in what I could have for dinner.  I did manage to do some carb loading for the triathlon so that was good.

So it was early to bed so I could get up at 5:30 to get ready for the tri.  We headed out early to get set up and make sure there was a place to park.  It really couldn't have been better.   The air was cool but the steam on the water told me the water was warmer.    I had made the decision to do it he-man style and skip the wetsuit.  It turned out to be a good decision.  I shaved a minute of my previous swim time and over a minute off my transition.  If I could swim a straight line it would have been even better.  So I was doing really well.  Look at that focus. I am ready to go.

On the bike I did well.  No sign of the charlie horse that killed me the first time.  I did the bike in under an hour for an improvement of over 5 minutes.  Then came the transition.   And that is where the charlie horse hit.  Just the act of pointing my toe to take off my shoe was enough to cause extreme cramping and a solid minute of writhing on the grass.  (this wasn't in my plan).

I finally managed to get going and complete the run.  I finished in 1:37:55.  About 6 minutes faster than last time.  I managed to talk some co-workers into doing the triathlon with me and we are already talking about next year.

   If you are a regular reader (yeah that one guy) you might recognize Dan on the right, from the STP.  Chris in the middle joined us and it was the first Triathlon for both of them.

After all this I went home for a long nap and got ready for a poker party to complete my birthday weekend.  I didn't win at poker but overall I think I came out ahead.  I was definitely well loved and hardly spoiled at all.

Another Big Goal Down

I did the Flowing Lake Triathlon yesterday.  I did itin 1:37:55.  About 6 minutes faster than last time.  i was hoping to do it in 90 minutes.  But it just wasn't to be.  The recent fall on thebike caused me to miss a few workouts which didn't help.  I had my chain come off right as I was getting on the bike and I cramped up on the transition from bike to run.

But other than those things it really was pretty good.  The water was great.  i didn't wear a wet suit and I really didn't need it.  I swam the whole way (no back floating or floundering).  I did the swim in about a minute less.  I would have done even better if I could swim a straight line.

I did the bike leg in under an hour.  About 5 minutes better than last time.  The only segment that I lost time on was the run and I blame that on the cramps.

But being able to go out and push yourself at maximum exertion for over 90 minutes is really not bad.

I will try to post some pictures in the next couple of days.  

Also I had a great birthday over the weekend and I am making progress on the winter bike.  So I will have more updates soon.

Oh and last but not least, my main birthday presents were also bike related.  My wife made me a one piece bike suit for winter riding.  It is really amazing.  And my dad made me a bike work stand.  And my wife and MIL cleaned out a space in the garage for me to work on my bike. My FIL loaded my workbench with tools.  So I really made out big.

All in all not a bad weekend for a 45 year old guy.

(in case I haven't mentioned it before, to do these things I do really takes a lot of things going right.  The first thing is the support of my wife.  Without that I would be known as the crazy naked fat bike rider, instead of just the crazy fat bike rider).

  

Just a preview

A preview of my all-weather bike project.  It is late and I need to get up early but I wanted to get pictures posted before I turn in.

Summer can't end yet

I haven't posted in a while because I didn't want to take down my post with the river float pictures.  But as Labor Day Weekend winds down it may be time to admit that summer is ending too.  This hasn't been a very warm summer here in the Northwest.  We usually are doing good to have a couple of nice weeks in September and then is is fall.

The days are also getting shorter and I only have 2 more weeks where I can ride to work before it will be dark the whole way.  The last two years I have grained about 25 pounds each winter.  So I need a plan. (If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you know i will have a plan). 

So here is my plan:

I am making my old bike into my winter bike.  I will have a lot more details of the process as I complete the project but I have started now.  I need to get it done for the week right after the triathlon or I will stop riding and then the weight will come back like Freddie Krueger.

I am working on the lights.  I am doing the MR16 based "Home Depot" light.  I will have 3 lights which will give me 7 settings.  So they are 5W, 20W and 35W.  I already bought a pair of 6 amp hour lead acid batteries.  (sure they are heavy but they are cheap).  So I will have a run time of at least an hour, which Will get me to work.  I can charge the battery at work for the ride home.

The fairing will keep me dry and out of the wind.  My goal is to be able to ride on a 35 degree misty day.  If I can ride 6 weeks into fall and start again around Valentine's day I can cut my off-season (weight gain season) by 3 months. 

So that is my plan.  Keep checking here to see how I am doing.

Having Fun In the Summer Sun

If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know that I like to take a break from all the working out and have a little fun. 

So here are some picutres of our annual river float.  This year we decided to have themes (costume and or float).  so my theme was the Titanic Band.  My godsons and I were all that remains of the famed band that went down with the ship. 

My floats were a grand piano and a double bass.  The name of the band was the Unsinkable Ti-Tones.

       I made the floats out of plywood and styrofoam.  They actaully worked pretty good.

Here I am surfing the Pilchuck.

Cowabunga Dude!!