PARISNICE

PARISNICE. It's one of my favorite words. It means daylight savings time is right around the corner. One week away to be more precise. Winter is almost gone and spring is almost here. The shadows are getting shorter and the days are already getting longer. It's still windy and cold. It still snows here and there. But for the most part it means that we are turning the final corner on the grey sapping haze of winter and can just see the promising red kite of spring up the road off in the distance.

PARISNICE means that it won't be too many more days until a ride on the trainer is something that fades into a not so fond memory and the fresh air outside replaces the stale air blown from a fan that you have been pumping in and out of your lungs all winter long. There will be that day soon when all of a sudden you notice the little life giving buds there on the cold stark winter worn tree branches and you wonder how your fitness is going to respond on your first long ride of the season where your legs and arms get touched by the sun again.

PARISNICE means that it won't be too many more days until a ride up one of the canyons turns out to be more than a "wish I could" and instead becomes a "wish I didn't" as you take stock of the lost glory that has slowly leaked out of your legs and the extra pounds that have quietly crept onto your body during the off season. It means 70% savings on all the cold weather gear you wished you'd had over the past few frigid months. PARISNICE. It means so many things - all good - not the least of which is that it's time to shave your legs. Again. Finally.

Well That Didn't Taste Very Good

It's a good thing my first crit race was free. Otherwise I would not have gotten my money's worth. I found out today that I am as slow as I thought I was. Everyone in the D flite must have started real slow because I felt pretty darn good for about 2 laps and then I just fizzled right off the back going around the first turn on the third lap into the headwind.

Everyone in my flite just kind of slowly glided past me until - poof - there I was spit out the back and the elastic just snapped. Doink. Without the protection of the group I simply could not hang on and they slowly motored away. It's much harder pushing all the wind yourself so I learned for next time that I MUST hang with the group NO MATTER WHAT.

original art work by @936ADL

After a bit here comes the C flite and they cruise right by me too. Talk about feeling like a weak sissy. Near the end of the race my flite comes back around to catch and pass me as well. Just like crushing a bug. So that was my first taste of racing. I thought: "well that didn't taste very good." OK no problem. Now I know what I need to work on. Today I figured out my weakness: I am slow. I have to work harder on getting faster. I must keep calm and apply the five and dime. More. Much more. And much more often.

I was off the front for about 2 minutes. photo courtesy of Alex Headman

Number 537

Well it starts tomorrow. D flite should be off at 12:55 or so. I am excited and nervous and really don't quite know what to expect. I'm sure I will be breathing hard and I'm sure that my legs will be burning. I'm sure that the speed (even for D flite) will surprise me and I'm sure that my bike will be dirty. I am ready to start close to the front and I am ready to try and stay within the top 25%. I am also ready to take corners really fast from the outside and lay off my brakes as much as possible and I'm ready to try to position myself in the top 5 on the final few laps and cover every attack.

I am ready to get a good nights sleep tonight. I am ready to eat a good breakfast in the morning and I'm ready to pack my bike in the car and drive down to the race. I'm ready to be too cold before the race and too hot during. I'm ready to put that number plate on my bike. It is number 537. I don't know, but I wonder if there is some significance to number 537? I'm pretty sure the digit 5 stands for Category 5 and I am. I guess after 10 mass starts I can be upgraded to Category 4. But I wonder if the 3 and the 7 mean anything?

I will find out tomorrow. I am ready but being ready and being able are usually two different things. Tomorrow the able? question will be answered too. I'm looking forward to that answer. I am looking forward to learning and improving. I am looking forward to the able. I'm looking forward to the race and the season. The ready part is over and now it is time for number 537 to get on with the doing.

Leap Day

It's Leap Day today. I look at it as kind of an extra day that I don't normally get to have. I figure with a whole extra 24 hours that I don't normally get, I would be a lot less rushed and frazzled and I think that's the case. Today I'm going to hug my kids a little bit more and give my wife some nice long kisses. I'm going to make the most of my extra day. I'm going to smile and have fun. Later I'm going to take my bike upstairs and lean it on the edge of the couch. Later I'm going for a ride.

It won't be a long ride or a hard one. It's going to be short and easy. Partly because it's been snowing off and on all day and will probably be raining or snowing or both once I finally get out there on the road. It is going to be windy and cold. Not just one windy but too windy. Cloudy also. And I'm going to enjoy myself out in the winter air on my new(er) bike. I'm going to ride for an hour or less and probably only cover 15 to 16 miles. Maybe even only 13 miles. It's going to be great.

I look at this free day as a gift and I want to make the most of it. It's not just another day - it's a day that I don't normally get. It's a perfect opportunity to sharpen my focus on what's important to me. To be a better friend. To be a better father and to be a better husband. A day to calm down and focus on what really matters. I want to give it my best shot. I'm going to try to do that today. That's why I need to spend at least about an hour on my bike.

His Name is Trouble

I'm sitting here in my office waiting to go to work. In thirty-five minutes it's going to be my son Trevor's birthday. At the tick of midnight while he is asleep in his Lightening McQueen bed two stories above my head he is going to snooze right into that milestone of childhood that is known as being four years old. I'm sure not much is going to change for him really. One sleep doesn't really do a lot to make that much of a difference in a little boy's life but I know that tomorrow he is going to feel ten times more important than he usually does every other day and believe me that feeling of importance is something that he has to tote around in a wheelbarrow along with his awesome personality.

Trevor cracks me up daily. Two things about him are especially funny. When he is at home and playing with his older sisters or baby brother he will dig around in his closet and drawers and find the best pants he can find and a nice shirt and a vest and a tie. He puts them on and calls them his boss clothes. His sisters let him boss them around a little bit which is surprising because he has such strong opinions about everything and has no problem telling you where he stands. My older daughter is always playing that she has a restaurant or a store or a refreshment shoppe or something and Trevor is always the boss as she tries to make him think that her ideas of how to be a good boss when they are playing are actually his ideas. It is pretty funny at times.

The other thing that I find especially funny is when a grown-up asks him his name. He answers: "Trevor." The grown-up always laughs and says: "Oh, Trouble!" because when Trevor says "Trevor" it sounds EXACTLY like "Trouble." When the grown-up says that, Trevor gets a little louder and says "No! Trevor" which sound EXACTLY like "Trouble" so the grown-up laughs a little more and a little louder and repeats "Trouble!" which starts to make Trevor a little mad.

Trevor has a way of being mad and still being able to smile and raise his eyebrows and exude very animated facial expressions and body language so the conversation escalates rapidly with the grown-up laughing louder and saying "Trouble" over and over because they think Trevor is trying to be funny and Trevor gets louder and louder and more animated because he is getting mad in a happy expressive kind of way thinking that the grow-up is making fun of him and playing with his name in a friendly way.

It always gets to a point where my wife or I have to step in and let the grown-up know that he's actually saying "Trevor" and that it just SOUNDS like "Trouble." The grown-ups always immediately correct themselves with a lot of laughs and smiles and at that very instant they have a new best friend named Trevor who won't stop talking to them about anything and everything. And how do you break off a conversation with a little boy like that? You can't. He will just follow you around until he's done letting you know what's on his mind. It's especially funny on plane rides as you can imagine.

It's funny because it's a simple misunderstanding. Trevor is absolutely sure that he is communicating his name clearly and that the grown-up is just trying to have fun with him. The grown-up is absolutely sure that they are hearing his name clearly and that Trevor is just trying to have fun with them. It's a simple misunderstanding and it always cracks me up and brings a smile to my face.

Earlier today I was out on my bike testing my legs on some hill attacks and I ran into a couple of misunderstandings that didn't crack me up and didn't bring a smile to my face. It seems I can be just as opinionated and strong willed as my son Trevor and I frequently find myself wanting to let people know what is on my mind too. Sometimes it's hard to be tactful because I don't have much of a filter. Sometimes I just stumble right into sarcasm which I've been told is my superpower and often times its difficult to keep a smile on my face and not go from everything is great to getting mad.

I was heading east in the bike lane and cruising along a slight downhill at around 28 mph and about a half mile in front of me I spotted a salmon plodding and weaving their way up the wrong way in the bike lane. I hate salmon in the bike lane. I want to stop and then stop them and just grab and shake them until they realize the error of their ways and repent. You don't ride the wrong way in the bike lane. You just don't do it. What part of the arrows painted on the tarmac about every 40 feet do you not quite understand? Reminds me of a quote from John Wayne: "Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid."

Right after I slowed down and awkwardly negotiated my way around the salmon in the bike lane while simultaneously yelling "Don't go the wrong way!" I came upon about five vehicles parked right smack in the bike lane outside of a local church. Fortunately I had regained my speed, signaled and merged quickly into the traffic flow. As I pedaled by the cars in the bike lane I couldn't help but notice the BIKES ONLY sign and right after that the sign that said NO PARKING AT ANY TIME. I wondered what part of these signs those bike lane parkers just couldn't understand. The signs seemed pretty clear to me.

I couldn't quite wrap my mind around just what exactly the salmon or the bike lane parkers had misread or misseen or misunderstood out there on the road today. I couldn't quite fathom how a misunderstanding like they were immersed in could have possibly occured. I didn't quite get it. All I knew is that something about really big arrows painted all over the tarmac and designed to point cyclists in the right direction had failed to do their job. The BIKES ONLY on the sign and the NO PARKING AT ANY TIME I thought were pretty clear as well but somehow the bike lane parkers had misunderstood what was trying to be communicated.

It was just like Trevor and the grown-ups except I didn't think it was funny. It's hard to smile when your eyes are rolling back in your head just about as far as they can go but I tried anyway. I tried to smile at the salmon as I was yelling at him and visualizing shaking some sense into him. I tried to smile at the bike lane parkers as I rode on by wishing I had a billy club to clobber off their side view mirrors. I tried to see the funny in their misunderstanding. But I couldn't

Unfortunately these misunderstandings are not few and far between. These misunderstandings today are not really isolated incidents. It seems they happen on almost every ride I take and in almost every bike lane I'm in and outside almost every church I pedal by. It's unfortuate in my mind because I believe there is right and wrong. Things are black or white. I do believe in absolutes. An arrow on the tarmac can only have one meaning. To me it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to misunderstand that meaning.

A sign that says NO PARKING AT ANY TIME is hard, if not impossible, to misunderstand. BIKES ONLY can only mean bikes only. Even for someone who's life is harder because they are stupid. So I roll my eyes and then I think of my son Trevor and how easy it can be - how easy it must be - to have a misunderstanding. So I think of that person salmoning up the bike lane going the wrong way against the big arrows or the self absorbed obliviots that NO PARKING AT ANY TIME and BIKES ONLY does not apply to when parking in the bike lane and I say to myself "his name is Trouble" and he obviously misunderstood. Yep, his name is Trouble and he misunderstood and I can smile again and pedal on down the road.

Never Going Back to OK

It's not the end but it feels like it is
I'm waking up like I'm back from the dead
I'm stepping out and it feels so free
But as long as I'm moving it's alright

That's the opening verse in a song sung by The Afters and the song is titled "Never Going Back to OK."  I've heard the song a lot but today I listened to the words for the first time. The song isn't about cycling. It's about something else that's much more important but just like most everything else I run up against in life it reminded me of my cycling. I've had my share of struggles and have come out of some pretty bum-deal things and I don't want to get too over dramatic and say that cycling saved me because it didn't and it hasn't but cycling has allowed my to "step out" and away from some things about me that I don't like and has made me free and alright.

I can't remember how many years ago it was but it had been a long time since I had been on a bike. I decided one day out of the blue that I was going to do a triathlon after seeing one in process at Yuba Lake. Well, I needed a bike and found a used bike on KSL that looked OK and I thought I could afford it. Actually it was half a bike and after buying it from the guy I had to find a bike shop that could help me with the other half of the bike that I needed.

It was on old Vitus 979 from the mid-eighties. I could only find one bike shop in this area that had ever heard of Vitus bikes so I took it there and Scott Golsen helped me put my half-a-bike together. Looking back and knowing now a little more about bikes than I did then, Scott did an extremely good standup job of helping me piece the old Vitus together. I needed a front wheel and tires, bar tape, a seat, shoes, pedals, cleats, a helmet, a tune-up and some other odds and ends.

Vitus 979

The old Vitus was actually a pretty cool bike. It had a good mix of old components, even if I didn't know it at the time. And I remember the first time I clipped in and went for a ride. That front tire looked SO thin. That bike was SO quiet. It didn't make a sound as it rolled along. Even when I stopped pedaling, you could barely hear the pawls in the rear hub. That old bike was extremely smooth and fast. Unfortunately it came with a 12/21 freewheel and I quickly found out I could barely make it up an overpass.

I feel alive and it hurts for a change
I'm looking back its hard to believe
That I was cool with the days that I wasted
Complacent and tasteless and bored
But that was yesterday

That seems like forever ago and it did take me a few years to get serious about cycling because I didn't like the pain involved. Eventually I began riding enough to improve some and I started liking it more and more. The pain I mean. It is hard to believe that I ever got past that point of being OK with it hurting when I rode but I did and I got better at it. I never did the triathlon but I'm still convinced that someday I will.

We're never going back to OK
We're never going back to easy
We're never going back to the way it was
We're never going back to OK

The chorus of this song pretty much sums things up for me. I'm not going back to the way it was. I'm not going back to OK. I'm not going back to easy. I can't imagine not riding again. I know a day will likely come when I can't but until that day I'm going to ride. It's going to hurt. I'm going to feel alive and it is going to feel so free. It's going to be alright and I'm going to keep moving as long as I can.

This discontent, like a slap in the face
A mediocre I've had enough of this place
This party's over and I'm moving away
From the frills of your Beverly Hills
That was yesterday

We're never going back to OK
We're never going back to easy
We're never going back to the way it was
We're never going back to OK

We're here to stay
This is our time
My only life
Our chance to live


first long ride years ago on the Vitus 979
with my cotton base layer, triathlon shoes
and mountain bike helmet - total FREDness

I've had enough of mediocre and the frills so to speak. I'm not going back to the way it was. I am here to stay and it is my time. In my mind I have put a quarter in a big jar to represent every week that I thought I might have left in this life and with every week that passes I take one out. I did this in my mind because my wife doesn't want me to do it in real life. She says it makes her sad and depressed about my mortality. It seems she doesn't want to imagine a day without me.

But that day is coming and I'm counting it down in my mind by taking one of my imaginary quarters out of my imaginary jar for every week that goes by. I know that I'm not HERE to stay but I know that NOW is my time. As my imaginary jar gets emptier and emptier I try to remember to live my life in a way that makes a little bit of a difference to me, my wife, my kids and other people around me. That imaginary jar of quarters helps me to remember that this is my only life and it is my chance to live just like this song says. And every time I can get on my bike it is a gift. I feel alive and it hurts for a change and I'm never going back to OK. I'm never going back to easy.

Call it Cross Training

It doesn't take too much to make me real super happy. Sometimes. I'm a pretty simple guy and I lead a pretty simple life. Sometimes all it takes is about two hours spent on my bike. I like to think that I'm happy most of the time anyway but getting some time on the bike always has a way of amping that happiness up a notch or two. A common expression in cycling is "long rides rule." Fine but so do short rides and medium rides and medium short rides and medium long rides and short long medium rides and long medium short rides and medium long short rides. Rides in general rule so when I have a chance to get a ride in it makes me real super happy.

Last Saturday was just such a day and I was stoked. The weather was perfect as far as winter weather goes. High 40Fs and a nice breeze from the south and sunny. Just right for a ride and I had the time. In fact I had the time for a long ride even. I had the time for any kind of ride I wanted to take that day. Everyone in my family also had an expectation of me taking that time and going on a long ride. What more could I ask for? I would say that's as nice a setup for the opportunity to have a nearly perfect day as I could have and I was real super happy. I love it when a plan comes together.

There is a point in time in a day like that that I really enjoy. It's that point in time where I grab whatever bike I'm going to ride and walk it up the stairs and lean it against the edge of the couch in the living room as I get ready. I enjoy that point in time. It's right at that moment when a good day instantly transforms itself into a great day. It's right at that moment when I go from being a dad and a husband and instantly become a cyclist. It's right at that moment I know that in a few minutes I'm going to be out there riding and the road and the bike are going to let me know who I have become.

So the other day when I had my perfect day all lined out and I had a long ride planned and the weather was perfect and the bike was ready and that point of time that I really like was right there in front of me - I made a decision to NOT go for a ride. I made a decision to NOT bring my bike up the stairs. I made a decision that long rides were not going to rule that day. Not right then. The bike was going to stay home and I was going to do something else. At that moment that I like so much I made a decision to spend some time with my family.

I decided to take my family down to the river parkway and go for a long walk and that's what we did. We walked for almost two hours that afternoon. The weather was perfect and the river parkway was beautiful. My wife and I took turns pushing the boys in the stroller and the girls scootered and roller bladed up ahead of us. I gave my younger daughter a piggy-back ride a few times when she got tired and we turned around at a little playground and let the kids play there a bit before heading back. It was fun and we had a great time together. My wife and I walked and talked and we remembered all over again why we fell in love with each other.

That day was still a perfect day for a ride but the tables were turned. I was at that moment in time that I like so much and instead I decided that on that perfect day for cycling that I would not cycle. I would not go for a ride. Instead of becoming a cyclist at that specific moment in time I decided instead that I would remain a dad and a husband. Instead of the road and the bike letting me know who I had become I was going to give my wife and kids an opportunity to do that. I was going to focus on them instead of on me and I was going to have fun. When we were done I realized that everyone - including me - had had a fantastically great time and I decided right then to call it cross training. I also decided right then that I need to do more cross training and do it a little more often.