Urban MTB

Took the mountain bike for a spin through the city on Saturday. A friend of mine wanted to go for a ride and so I met her at her house in Brooklyn Park and she led the way. We cruised to Minneapolis and biked around St. Anthony Falls and did some sightseeing.We had to go to battle with the wind for most of the ride. Part of the reason we decided to ride to Minneapolis was so we would have a tailwind for the ride home. Well, that tailwind never showed up! We had headwind, side wind, gusts of wind but NO tailwind.

But even with the wind it was a super fun day! The sun was out and it felt great to be pedaling again!

Commuting

I decided today that I'm going to start riding my mountain bike to work. I've been commuting on my road bike and it's getting boring. So tonight I'm taking the lights off the road bike and putting them on the mountain bike.

Another reason I've decided to switch to the mountain bike is that downtown St. Paul is under construction. I have to pedal several blocks out of my way in order to avoid it. If I ride my mountain bike I can ride through the construction zone. They are not actually working when I ride to work so I don't have to avoid the area it's just that dropping 6 inches onto gravel on my road bike is not fun and trying to pop back out on the other side is just not going to happen. With my mountain bike it's not a problem.

I won't be dressed like this when I ride to work but I sure am ready for some hot summer days!

Ya Gotta Watch This! :)

New bike

OK, so I was in Seattle last month and stumbled upon a bike shop! Well, wait let me back up. I was in Seattle last month and fell in love with the city. There were bikes everywhere! All I could think about was where can I rent a bike??? I googled it and came up with nothing. I went to Happy Hour every night in the hotel we stayed in and chatted up the bartender in hopes of a bike recommendation. He told us that there was a place to rent bikes at Union lake. Kristin and I went for a 12 mile walk to Union Lake and back with no success; we could not find a place to rent a bike.

On our last night in Seattle we are strolling along and stumble upon Davidson bikes. They had the best bikes, road bikes, touring bikes, everything. I talked with the woman working and found out that they custom make their bikes. They are beautiful bikes.

I had already decided that I was going back to Seattle to take a glass blowing class with the Seattle Glass Blowing Studio so now I'm also going to have a custom touring bike built. I've been dreaming about a touring bike, I've been researching touring bikes online and I've been checking out all the local bike shops. The bikes in the Davidson shop were beautiful, I absolutely fell in love with them. Steel frames, custom built to my body and my color design! I get to pick the components and everything! My goal now is to spend the next 6 to 12 months saving money and writing down everything I can think of that I want in a bike. Then I'm heading back to Seattle taking my glass blowing class AND having a bike built! I'm so excited I could pee.

UP Michigan

Decided I would try to upload a picture using the new Netbook:

This is one of my favorites taken around Marquette Michigan a few years back when Ann and I had been there for the Ore 2 Shore race, it was the first mountain bike race I had done, damn was that fun!!

Bike on a Trainer

This is not one of my favorite things but I've succumbed to the weather and put my road bike on the trainer. It's not a really bad thing, it keeps me home on Monday and Thursday nights and I've discovered a couple TV shows. I pay for cable TV so I guess it's a good thing that I've started watching some of it. In the past I've had my bike set up in the basement in front of the TV with the DVD surround sound system and watched movies while I rode. This year my basement is full of other peoples stuff so I can't use it. I have my bike set up in my bedroom, not the best place but I have cable up there and I hooked up my big ass 19 inch TV. No DVD and no surround sound but I'm getting my pedaling in and I guess that's what counts.

Once Minnesota thaws a bit I'll go back to commuting to and from work but for the time being I'm being a wimp and riding on the trainer.

Call Me a Wimp

Around about Christmas time Minnesota went all winter on me. We had snow and rain combine to give us a lovely sheet of ice on the roadways. At that point I wimped out on my commuting to work. I don't have the tires to ride on ice, at least that's my excuse. So shortly after the New Year I put the road bike on the trainer and started riding indoors. It's not my favorite thing to do but I need to pedal every day or my knees get too sore. I still plan to commute to work but I'm waiting for the road conditions to get a little better. We received a little more rain this afternoon but the temperature is still above 30 so I'm hoping it doesn't freeze.

I've made some decisions about my riding this summer, I'm only doing the Breast Cancer ride. As much as I love the MS150, money and time dictate that I only do one ride. I've started a team and hope to get friends and family to join me.

I have my sights set on doing the Underground Railroad tour when I turn 50, that leaves me 3 years to figure out how to do a self contained tour on a bike. My focus this summer will be on equipment and taking weekend rides. Travel from my house, camp someplace overnight and ride back home. After a few trips I hope to figure out what I need then I'll take on some two and three day adventures with hopes of an end of summer tour.

I've started a new diet which I'll call my Pain Management diet, who knows maybe I can write a book and make a million dollars! I spent several days researching anti-inflammatory foods. It's going to be a slow process of removing certain foods/drinks from my diet and replacing them with better choices. I eat pretty healthy to begin with and being a vegetarian already limits my diet. My focus for this past week has been to cut out beer :( I haven't had one in nearly a week and reduce my intake of caffeine. I've also cut out potatoes, another difficult one as they are one of my favorite vegetables and not just the fried ones. Dairy is going to be hard, I'm willing to cut out milk, I don't drink it anyway and reduce cheese but I'm not giving up my yogurt, it's a staple in my diet. I'll start on the dairy products next week. I think beer, caffeine and potatoes are enough for one week. I have a long way to go on this diet but if I can get some relief and a good nights sleep it will be well worth it. And as a bonus I might lose some weight!