Steady Rollin

Winter, you win.

2010-02-23T10:44:00.000-08:00

Post Industrial.

2010-02-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

It seems like the more interesting the part of town I'm in, the worse the photography conditions. Spent the morning on foot inspecting signs in the industrial area around Dahlman Ave. and F st. Stinks like shit over there but I can't think of a better job right now than getting paid to walk the city and take photographs.

More Signs. More South Omaha.

2009-12-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

A dreary day in the cold, at least it was in one of the more interesting parts of town.

Your traffic signs of the week.

2009-12-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

All of a sudden this job has gotten kinda riduclous. If it keeps snowing, I'll be on social security before we get this thing done.

NO SWIMMING: MAY CAUSE EXPRESSIONISM

2009-12-07T10:02:00.000-08:00

Edvard Munch would be proud.

Happy Thanksgiving.

2009-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

From me and the least photogenic dog I know.

OBVIOUSLY.

2009-11-23T09:44:00.001-08:00

The things you see/this weeks graffiti.

2009-11-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

Well, Im gonna start blogging about work. Sounds boring, right? No, I spend the majority of the day on the streets of Omaha, and every day is an adventure out there. From now on I'm gonna shoot for one weekly post+photos of the crazy shit I see out there. To start things off here is a double shot of funny/fucked up sign graffiti. These are signs that were removed and put out in the sign yard for recycling. Dicks, fuck obamas... you don't know how many swasitkas I've seen out there.

in the spirit of "stupid bikes"

2009-11-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

these are the dorky new google bikes people ride around the Mountain View campus..

i think i like the old dorky ones better:

high five new york city

2009-09-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

A guy on a bicycle high-fiving people hailing cabs in NYC. AWESOME.

on another note.... this reminded me of my favorite song by the band Local H.

Dakota 5o

2009-09-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

I didn't even consider racing the the 5o this year. I'm in decent shape, but no where near good enough condition to have fun riding that race. I emphasize have fun. Ive done alot of traveling this year but for various reasons I wasnt able to have fun or relax on any of the trips Ive taken in 2009. Traveling while collecting unemployment checks is about the best thing you can do while unemployed, but each trip was a temporary escape from impending doom back in Nebraska. With my employment situation finally resolved, I was able to relax and and enjoy the biking, hiking, fishing, drinking, and eating in Spearfish. FYI you gotta ride the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. 30 mph hairpin turns on a Long Haul Trucker is a good fucking time on bicycle. Speaking of employment, the new job with the city is pretty cool. All you need to know is Friday I got to listen to a bearded lady complain to a 911 operator about what an asshole I am. No joke, it was absolutely one of the more awesome things to ever happen to me. GIS can be a hazardous business.

Here is the link to all of the photos on Picasa

Stupid Bikes.

2009-09-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since Ive steadly posted on steady rollin and even longer since Ive checked the Google Analytics account, but Im happy to report that the number one search keyword used to find this site is "stupid bikes".

back from the 5o

2009-09-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

The fall trip to South Dakota was awesome. Spearfish Canyon was definitely the coolest biking I've ever done. Full post and pics coming later.

Oh shit

2009-08-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

three days of work then off to the black hills for the 3rd time in the past year. I predict bob finishes in the race 9 hours and i manage to catch a trout on the fly rod in spearfish creek.

The Crack'O Dawn.

2009-08-21T05:20:00.001-07:00

New commute, through Mutual, then down the Field Club before I hit F street. If the F.C. ever gets completed (it may not since parks & recreation basically got shut down this week). Ill be able to take the trail to the front door of my office in the Traffic Maintenance Building on 50th and G.

The view from Ponca

2009-06-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

Live from the mean streets of the Quad Cities.

2009-06-04T18:38:00.000-07:00

She canna go any faster Captain!!

2009-06-04T12:30:00.001-07:00

5 hours to Davenport. SLLOOOOOOOOWWWWW.

click to embiggen

2009-06-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

Full res panoramas

Harney Peak

Bismark Lake Campground

Click on the photo for the full size. Havent had much motivation to discuss the S.D. trip, but it was awesome. Harney Peak was cool, but French Creek was better. We only hiked about three miles of the 12 mile out and back trail, but it was still an adventure. We started off on the Centennial Trail for two miles until we met up with French creek and then proceeded to hike until we got hungy and turned around at the FIFTH creek crossing. Some of those creek crossings were tricky, I managed to get through with only one soaked foot, but I think Jeff got a little bit wetter. Unfortunatley I was too immersed in the hike and too busy trying to stay dry to take very many photos. Heres the few Ive got.

One of the easier crossings and an inadequate shot of the canyon.

Hope you got a big monitor.

2009-06-01T18:28:00.000-07:00

Finally gettin around to stitchin together the panoramas I took in South Dakota. Heres Harney Peak and Bismark Lake in 6000x1200 goodness.

Edit- blogger is reducing the size of the phots by a 3/4ths when I upload them.. wtf. Blogger has a 1600x1600 size limit.

YO

2009-06-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

Number of blog posts directly related to amount of boredom in life. May=Zero blog posts. I even deleted my livejournal account. Ill get some SD photos up eventually. The adventure continues in June. Thursday I'm off to Davenport Iowa for a campus tour and a complimentary two night hotel stay thanks to Palmer Chiropractic College. Doctor Clowers has a certain ring to it.....

Its that kind of day.

2009-04-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Damn rain, no biking, no workin.. just hangin out and listenin to music. I don't usually get into "pop" music, but the new Bird and the Bee album is completely awesome. If you've never seen any of Eric Wareheim's music videos, prepare your self for the greatest choreography ever.

The Bird and the Bee - Polite Dance Song from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

Camp Camp Camp

2009-04-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

So everyone is agreed that its time to do some camping and a warm up camp before the big SD trip sounds like a pretty good idea. So by request here are pics of the three camp sites at hitchcock.

Campsite #1

Neat place, easy to sit around the fire, but lacks the one feature the other two campsites have, a view.

Campsite #2

Ahhh thats better, sweet view, cool little place, but little. Only room for two tents.

Campsite #3

Booyah, the pics are pretty non-descriptive but the third site is a big flat area on the ridge looking over the Missouri Valley. Tent pad for about 4 tents, but enough space to put as many as we need to hang out and do some drinking while surveying the valley.

Hitchcock is a pretty cool place. Planty of fun hiking and it's only 15 minutes from Omaha.

Taco ridin with the Hazard.

2009-04-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

I still regard the decision to trade the instruments for bikes as a pretty good one.

Thinkin bout Texas.

2009-04-09T18:51:00.001-07:00

I came back from California with about 100 photos. I came back from Texas with 7. I think the reason is because I did California on foot, bicycle, boat and airplane. Texas was in a rented SUV. 1977 miles. It was nice having the car in Texas cause having a car is like having a mobile comfort zone bubble, everythings ok once you get into it. When I was riding that bike in Marin county, 60 miles away from the couch I was sleepin on, that was about as far out of my comfort zone as I could have been and not been in the wilderness somewhere. So heres the last of the Texas photos. Why is the one picture I took of Kristen infront of a wall in San Antonio? Least I could have done was make her stand infront of the Alamo.

Drank.

2009-04-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

So my search for Brawndo:The Thirst Mutilator came up empty in Texas. Not that I searched very hard but when I saw this stuff I thought It'd be ok to Settle.

Drank - the extreme relaxation beverage. An herbal approximation of real drank which is a combination of prescription cough syrup and soda which is apparently popular with rappers from Texas and people who wish they were rappers from Texas.

Inspired by Bill Latham's drank test, I sat down with Joe, a case of Miller, two cans of Drank and season Two of Human Giant.

After six episodes, the two cans were gone and I estimated that Joe had drank about 8 bottles of beer. One can made me want to take a nap, two cans and I dont have any idea when I passed out. And oh did I pass out hard. I woke up around 6 am this morning (I probably passed out around 11 pm) and gave Drank the thumbs up. I just wonder what three cans would have done.

San Antonio blows.

2009-03-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

So I've got about two pictures from Texas. 1977 miles, 34 hours of driving. Seriously, almost Two Thousand Fucking Miles. And I hate cars and driving in general. This trip was the opposite of the California trip transportation wise. Made it back to Omaha today in under 12 hours. Had to come back a day early for a job interview. Im tired as hell. Too tired to write anything very sensical. And Austin is as cool as its supposed to be. The rest of Texas is as bad as its supposed to be. Oh and why didnt I grab my camera Friday night.....

Texas can't hold em.

2009-03-27T23:58:00.000-07:00

Austin has been pretty awesome so far, but we've managed to leave our cameras at Bill's the whole time. Your just gonna have to take my word that the Mexican karaoke bar in East Austin that we went to was totally awesome.

Santa Cruz / Wilder Ranch

2009-03-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

I'm completely embarrassed to say this, but I'd never seen the ocean until I went to California. The Pacific, and California in General did not disappoint.

Wade and I standing on opposite cliffs taking pics of each other.

It was the headline that caught my eye.

2009-03-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

"While riding bike in Bethpage, man catches fire, dies."

Sad story but I think 50% of journalism these days is in the headline. Another reason for you to quit smoking Bob.

San Francisco

2009-03-14T14:03:00.000-07:00

As bike rides go, it wasnt anything special. But the whole trip from San Jose to Sausalito was pretty epic. When I was sittin on the train back to San Jose after 10 hours of travellin I just thought wow.. I just did that.

Wade dropped me off at the San Jose train station. Train from San Jose to San Francisco. Rented a bike in San Fran. Rode across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. Took a boat back to San Francisco. Multi-modal transportation epic win.

Bridges/that f'n hybrid

Sausalito/What is that look on my face? Wheres the damn boat Im cold.

Japantown (wade's hood)

2009-03-11T16:16:00.000-07:00

I now appreciate digital cameras. I think a digital slr is in my future. Its been a while since I tool out ye olde film slr and well, the pictures from Cali turned out pretty good, but Walgreens processing totally sucks. Color is off, all kinds of artifacts, very grainy and the images on the cd arent even close to the prints. Oh well. Im not gonna bother scanning the prints even though they look much better than the digital copies they gave me. Here we go with the pic posting.

Home base for the trip was Wade's apartment in Japantown. Pretty sweet.

Japantown was pretty cool, nothing too exciting to take pictures of but it was a real nice little pedestrian/downtownish area with all kinds of crazy sushi and asian cuisine places. Im not a big fan of sushi, but the place we went with the sushi boats was pretty awesome. Here is the cool budhisht temple a few blocks from Wade's.

Greetings from the Google Plex!

2009-03-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

Live from the Golden State.

2009-03-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

So Im having a good time in California.

So is Wade.

Laugh all you want.

2009-03-06T22:38:00.001-08:00

I spent all day on this piece of junk hybrid in San Francisco and it was Awesome. Im using my film camera on this trip so no real photos till i get back.

wtf'

2009-03-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

They say there's no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole. I say theres no such thing as an atheist cyclist hoping for good weather in San Francisco on Friday.

Omaha Forecast for Friday: Partly Cloudy, High 55, low 30.

San Francisco Forecast for Friday: AM Showers, High 53, low 45.

Yeah theres a big difference in low temps, but please shoot me if the weather in Omaha is better on the one day this year i chose to ride from San Francisco across the golden gate bridge to Marin County.

fn weather

2009-02-25T11:46:00.001-08:00

Seriously, I hate the weather here. Today, jogging in a T shirt, two days ago, walkin around the frozen waterfall at platte. But there is hope, in nine days ill be riding a bike across the golden gate bridge enjoying some hopefully awesome california weather.

fn trains

2009-02-23T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hey.. didnt plan it out this way, but this is kind of cool. Went to platte and farted around for a couple hours. Never been there with out a bike, the other half of the park is some good fun.

whoa nelly

2009-02-19T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hit Manawa up at 9:45 am today, thinkin itd still be cold enough for the ground and snow to be frozen. Epic fail. In the shade it was pure ice, in the sun it was mud already. Came back home and went joggin. hoo-fucking-ray.

Winters back.

2009-02-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

Manawa, Sunday noonish. Its been awhile since weve been out in the fluffy stuff.
.

Ugh.

2009-02-11T10:54:00.001-08:00

I made it from my apt to big lake and back in around an hour and a half yesterday. Slow, but the fact that I was able to breath comfortably for the whole ride is a big deal. Went to the allergy specialist this morning for some tests. When looking at the test results on my back, the nurse said "wow" when the doctor came in first thing he said was "youre a disaster". According to the tests I am allergic to every living thing in the state of Nebraska that will bother your allergies except Oak trees. First thing i thought... oak trees.. wtf... second thing, who the fuck besides me is allergic to maple trees?

Resumed!!!!

2009-02-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

So, I still dont have a fucking job. Im getting pretty close to abandoning hope of continuing to use my geography degree. In light of the realization that I'm probably going to have to find a new line of work, I sat down to write a non-gis resume. For shits and giggles I went to the office website and started browsing through the templates where I found this gem that surprisingly only had a 3 star rating. Ive found the resume that will solve all my problems.

Spring.

2009-01-29T17:11:00.000-08:00

Cannot get here soon enough.

goalz....

2009-01-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

next year, no car. I hate them. I have two bikes, what else do i need to get around. i can stay warm. Yeah, it was -11 this morning but others do it, I can find a way. Buy warm clothes, that is my new motto.

New Parts

2009-01-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well after having the LHT on the trainer for a couple weeks it became painfully (literally) clear Ive got some fit issues on this bike. So thats all the motivation I needed to start upgrading the ass/bicycle interface. First step, zero setback seatpost puttin me bout an inch further forward. Feels like its supposed to. Picked up this Thomson from Bike Masters, the guy was good enough to pull it off his own cross check he was building and sell it to me. Next step, a black Brooks B-17 saddle.

1st ride of the year + gear review.

2009-01-11T13:48:00.000-08:00

Set out this afternoon planning on riding up to dodge park, but as usual I didn't bother checking the weather and was woefully under dresses for the wind. So I headed east to CB hoping for at least marginally better conditions. Only rode for bout an hour and a half.. didn't take much before I was hurtin. I'm not sure I even sat on a bike in December.

The good thing about today's short and boring ride was that I finally got to test out the new tires, hat, and pants I got for this winter. The tires, some maxxis cross tires I got at extreme were pretty good in the snow. Not that this snow was a big deal by any means, but juding by the tracks in the snow I had a lot better luck than the cyclists that came before me. The 02 rain pants I got worked pretty well over a pair of tights. Not as warm as I hoped, but with shoe covers on, I was bone dry. And the new hat I bought? Almost awesome. Its a insulated cycling catp I got from the trek store. Looks cool, pretty warm, but just not big enough to cover my dome and ears. Looks cool, but one size fits everyone but me.

little san jose ride

2009-01-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

hi, i'm wade. i ride a bike, sometimes.

i was hoping to make my first post a super good one, but um. maybe next time! instead, i'm relating a small trip i made this morning to file some handgun related documents in my new state of residence.

here's the route i took, it's just under 3 miles and quite flat.

my first stop was at Mi Pueblo market, to pick up a money order for $19. it's a sweet little grocery, with a huge selection of awesomely fresh meats and produce. there's a little tent outside where they peddle grilled chorizo and other yummies.

on the way to stop and put some air in my front tire after leaving the grocery (i need to invest in a good pump), i saw this interestingly customized bike.. it's way cooler than mine.

then to the SJSU library, to print the docs.

after stopping at the local geek hangout to inquire about upcoming M:tG tournaments, it's back to Japan Town, or Nihonmachi. there's a really neat Buddhist temple thing there.

and i'm home.

soon i'll hit some nice trails or try a commute to my office up in Mountain View, and actually bring my real camera. it'll rock.

until then!

Saturday Ride

2009-01-02T11:24:00.001-08:00

Leaving Hillside 10'ish and headin over to exteme winter fest in cb. Short easy ride to go say whats up to team extreme. On another note of boredom, been thinking about starting another blog about old houses. I love bikes. I love old houses. Basically Im lookin for an excuse to go take pictures of houses and write about it. For today-- Hillside then and now. I need to go out and line this photo up, these are real nice old apartments, but the house they knocked down to build them was ridiculous. And wtf is up with this formatting, sometimes i hate blogger soo much. Guess its time to man up and start doing this in dreamweaver or start from scratch using ruby like bob told me to.

Chris out did him self!

2008-12-31T17:56:00.000-08:00

F**K FOTOSHOP!

rock and roll and the narative

Photoshop?? I dont need no stinkin photoshop!!!

2008-12-31T17:51:00.000-08:00

Hmmm well, I thought this thing would look good in black, but I dunno. I planned on spending alot of time givin the ol blog its '09 look, but a couple whiskeys convinced me to go simple. That logo is almost there, but needs a little work. Im figuring that the crushing boredom of my unemployment will give me plenty of time to get it right. For now this look sticks, for better or worse.

The impending doom.

2008-12-22T08:55:00.000-08:00

December 30th is my last day at UP, sucks to get laid off but Im lookin forward to getting out of this mold and rat infested office. A couple weeks of unemployment is gonna be nice, do some biking, gonna remodel the blog, get out on some epic winter sufferfests. No luck on any jobs yet, time to start applyin out of state. The feds are hiring cartographers in Belle Fourche, SD, 20 minutes north of Spearfish. That definitley sounds appealing. Dakota 5-o every weekend.

news flash!!!!

2008-12-14T20:01:00.000-08:00

Here is some important news. If you live in the midwest and there is a large scale zombie attack. The first rule is this.

Own a Pugsley. In my foretelling dream, everyone with a Pugsley Lives.

Why not?

2008-12-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Last week I rode the LHT over the bridge and over to Manawa and it was pretty interesting. I put the cross tires on the bike for snowy weather commuting, then I got sent out of headquarters to airlite (
back to driving to work) and it still hasn't snowed. So that's zero use of these tires for their intended purpouse. So I thought, whats this thing like on singletrack? Minus the fact that the bike has zero clearance so bunny hoppin any sort of decent sized log is out of the question, it was fun as hell. Not sure I'd do it again, but it was fun.

What up dog.

2008-11-27T07:46:00.001-08:00

Never thought watching the Dog Whisperer would ever come in handy. Im watchin Walter Meldrum while Joe is in Cedar Rapids for a couple days. This is the most emotionaly needy dog ive ever met. Not to mention he wasnt gettin comfortable in his new temporary surroundings very well. Way to fix that? Three miles of walkin in the cold at 8 am, now hes passed out under my desk. I think Joe's eventually gonna train him to go biking, ive always thought itd be cool to have a trail dog. When i move out of this apartment, might have to get one.

Bike Hero

2008-11-19T16:43:00.000-08:00

Flippin awesome.

Soooo....

2008-11-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

The other day at lunch one of my co-workers asked me if i had any good biking stories lately. To his and my dissapointment, no. Lots of commuting and miles but zero good stories and nothing to blog about since South Dakota. That ride from my apartment to Mineola was pretty awesome, but I brought a camera with no memory card and got home with no blog worthy photos or stories (total bs, the fall scenery was awesome that day). Doesnt help that Bob and I have been sick all fall, although Im feeling real good right now, bronchitis seems to be mostly kicked. Just in time for the winter sufferfests.

I stopped in Boulder during my Denver visit...

2008-10-23T08:00:00.001-07:00

How many bikes do you spy? It was so awesome to see so many people riding.

Hey Tim

2008-10-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Bring on the suffering.

2008-10-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

So Monday I roll up to the bike rack at work soaking wet and freezing, and how many other bikes are there??? One. Far as I know two dudes rode to work Monday. Weak. Other dude, mad props (I know we've bs'ed, don't know who you are though.) Im lookin forward to the first nasty, cold, snowy day when the Surly is the only bike on the rack. But I hope I am wrong. The more the merrier when it comes to hardcore commuting.

wades pics.

2008-10-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

yeah thats a big train

The one day I dont bring my camera......

2008-10-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Is the day while riding towards the ped bridge that we see a man walking a dog, and a donkey loaded with stuff up Burt street. Needless to say it was one of the more ridiculous things ive seen lately, so there you go, to make up for no pic of the donkey, have a picture of a lol cat. After that we hit up the bridge and headed over to xtreme to tell them that it looks like they finally fixed the LHT. FYI you cannot run 5mm cable on an LHT. 4mm cable looks to have solved all of my problems. On the way back, we ran into UP's Challenger locomotive, and as a railroad employee and a dude who is fascinated by machines, that giant train was awesome. And about the bridge, all I have to say is that it is extremely usefully, but aesthetically disappointing. Hopefully wade will post some pics of the bridge and the train.

Holy Crap

2008-09-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

When i hit 24th street this morning, it was like riding in a cloud. Which was cool at first, but riding in that and sharing the road with cars is kind of frightening. Wish i would have brought a camera, from the 16th floor you cant see anything. Outside its a wall of white.

D5-0

2008-09-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

I can stand again!

well, I didn't finish. I got 32 miles in and could no longer pedal or walk. Cramps abound. Thinking back, on the drive to Spearfish, i didn't even drink one full bottle of water. That was my biggest mistake. I will fix that next year.

Yep, I am already excited for next year. I can not climb a flight of stairs without pain or spasms, but i am excited.

The first 4 miles is the other thing that killed me. I will do that different next year. I was running a pretty easy gear. 32X20. So i was spinning my guts out on the first half-mile through town. then the gravel started and a 3.5 mile climb. There was no coasting, no rest, just pedal. This is something that can not be replicated in omaha. At one point, not knowing how long i would be on gravel, I stopped. I even called lynden and said i might quit.

But then something funny happened. This car stopped beside me. It was over heating. that is how this hill was, the car was over heating going up it. They needed me to move to turn around and go get their truck. So i slowly started pedaling and decided I would at least stay out 2 hours.

The people that turned around came back by in their truck and said that i am almost to the single track and that made me feel way better. I wanted off the gravel road.

Once i hit the single track i think it was 4 more miles of climbing. But, there where little breaks. like downs and some coasting. I was having a ball. It was after the 1st aid station and before the second that cramps started. So i just drank a lot of water and kept saying i will continue to try for 2 more hours. I lasted about 4 hours after the first cramps.

To be honest, i do not remember a whole lot. I remember falling over in a Cow pasture about 5 feet from a cow because both legs locked up. I remember going through the creeks. I remember "heart attack" hill or something like that. Old baldy. And I remember that i did not have my camera.

I took some with my phone. One of them is funny because other omaha people took one at the exact same place it sees like.

the creek about 50-60 feet below...

here is what i took...

here is someone else's from omaha...

I can say it was really fun. An 8 year old rode the whole thing. I will go up 2 day early next year. I was not ready for it. And I really want to do it again.

5o

2008-09-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well the 5o went about as I expected. My bronchitis/asthma kicked in about 3 miles into the
race and I was done. I was chugging along feeling good then all of a sudden, the oxygen was gone, and I was in real bad shape. I didnt have any buisness trying to race but Im so glad I tried. I dont know if I just didnt give myself enough time to get better (only a couple weeks) or its worse than I though and need to go see a specialist. But at any rate, Bob has a much better story to tell than I do.

Its go time.

2008-08-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

My knees hurt, my lungs are still full of gunk, and my allergies are killing me. South Dakota here we come.

Awesome

2008-08-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

"I saw you riding to work, couldnt tell if you were wet or crying"

Thanks guys.

2008-08-27T07:31:00.001-07:00

I am the only dry cyclist in the office. Woe are those without rain gear.

Fall is almost here.

2008-08-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well the 5o is a week away and im about as prepared as I could be. 1030 miles so far this year, a ton of jogging, I quit drinking and have been eating pretty healthy. Im in the best shape Ive ever been in and am actually hopefull that Ill survive the race pretty well. Some where in the 6-8 hour range is my goal. Sucks I wont have a chance to get one last weekend of hard riding in this weekend, but hey, Joes getting fucking married.

my first race ever....

2008-08-18T18:57:00.001-07:00

Disappointed. I am working on a longer post about with pics.

Has the pugsley met its match?

2008-07-29T14:30:00.001-07:00

The Best Bike Ideas.

F YEAH. BACK IN THE SADDLE

2008-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

I finally feel well enough to get some decent riding in. Tranquility Saturday, Swanson Sunday. Still no-where near 100% though. Had to hit the inhaler on the second lap to keep going, all that soupy air just made my lungs want to fill up with gunk, and thats just what they did. With only a month till the five-o, this is not good, if I'm having breathing issues after two laps at Swanson, the five-o is gonna be suicide.

Medical Update.

2008-07-14T14:54:00.000-07:00

After the breathing problems ive had riding and my near death experience on the Lincoln ride, I figured i better go see a doctor. Well, I walked out of the doctor's office with scripts for two inhalers, an antibiotic, orders not to touch a bicycle until I get better, and to get a new job in a healthier environment with better benefits. This kind of sucks.

Omaha-Lincoln Gravel Grinder #1

2008-07-06T16:10:00.000-07:00

We did it and it was ridiculous. Here are the photos.

Today, these facts were learned.

2008-07-05T18:53:00.001-07:00

1.Fuck the wind. All of it. Everywhere.
2.I have some sort of asthma and need to go see a doctor.
3.I am as tough as I think I am.
4.The Long Haul Trucker is probably the best money ive ever spent.
5.Google Maps can be wrong. Painfully wrong.
6.I think Bob and I are going to do just fine at the 5o.

Dry Trails

2008-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

Last time I hit up Lewis &Clark was about 600 miles ago. With all the wet weather, Ive been getting in some serious road mileage and wondering what kind of shape I'm actually in. After a few climbs I was just.. wow. Lewis and Clark feels like Swanson now. Seems like my routine of easy riding/commuting/jogging during the week, and riding till i pass out on the weekends is paying dividends. I am almost confident that i will survive the 5-o now. I just watched the forecast for the week and Bill Wrongby is saying rain Wednesday, so its looking like Swanson Tuesday evening and taco ride thursday.

FYI

2008-06-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

Commuting in the rain is totally worth it just for the looks on your co-workers faces when you show up soaking wet with a huge smile on your face.

Yesterdays ride...

2008-06-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

Chris and I had a good ride yesterday. I am getting more comfortable on the new bike, though I will probably change the seat.

here is a map of the ride

boyer chute
Find more Bike Rides in Omaha, Nebraska

The Ride home and the drive in...

2008-06-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

2 days and about 70 miles. that is 12 dollars in gas.

I rode the new bike to work two days in a row. I have a decent route home that seems pretty safe. There is a great short hill around 79 to 75th street right before Pipal Park.

home from work
Find more Bike Rides in Omaha, Nebraska

My back started hurting on the ride home yesterday. I am not sure what happened or why, but it was really bad when i breathed deep on the right side right around the last lower ribs. So, I drove to work today. Driving is STRESSFUL. Bleh. Maybe not having that stress first thing in the morning is the reason my days at work seemed better.

I think the hardest thing is getting up earlier to eat and the extra time to ride. I have found that if I don't try to go fast and just keep a steady pace I am not worn out at all. I think i use to try to get to work as fast as I could and the made me really tired all day. Now I feel great if i take it easy.

Taco Ride

2008-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hey taco ride people, I need to know whos coming so I know how much beer to bring.

How much beer can I haul on my bike?
The better question is how much can you drink on your bike?

New Bike First Impressions...

2008-06-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

First, I am glad I got the Long Haul Trucker over the X-Check. I got to work today and I do not even feel like I have been on a bike. It is really smooth. The parts of the ride that use to vibrate me to death on the LeMond were smooth rolling today.

It only took me 45 minutes to get here but I also cut the route down to about 11.5 miles. I took the direct approach. I will have to see if I can do this riding home. But it is nice that riding to work and stopping out of the way for a quick coffee is only an hour.

The weird thing is that the bike feels more like a 58" than a 56". I have ridden two 56" and i thought the stand over was lower. Also the bar reach seems longer than I remember. I will have to let it settle in and see if it positive or a negative.

I love the higher stem. I actually used the drops and it was really comfortable.

It is of course way heavier then my Lemond was and I noticed it on starts especially. But once I was rolling I just kept the momentum up just like I do on my SS MTB and it was easy to get up the city hills.

Well go take it for a spin over lunch now also.

Mass Transit

2008-06-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

On my way to work this morning, I saw a fancy new bus with a bike rack on it! Looks like after years of MAT saying they are coming, they are here. Question is, how are we actually going to use these things? I guess taking the bus out to westroads or wherever out there it stops and riding the rest of the way to tranquility wouldnt be bad.

I aint got time to bleed.

2008-06-15T15:27:00.001-07:00

Dakota 5o training has officially begun. Mountain biking is fun again.

today...

2008-06-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

first do you read the Surly blog?

people riding fixies in the RAAM is pretty amazing. One of the videos on their page shows one of them pushing 48X16 up a huge hill.

Tranquility is a go this evening. Jim, Lynden and I are gonna hit it. Then stop at Whole Foods for some steaks and a tuna steak for lynden. Then we are gonna cook them (barely) then we're gonna eat them. good times!

submerged!

2008-06-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

Not going to Manawa for a while.

Check out the pics taken by our extreme friends at the xteme wheels blog.

a little dirt...

2008-06-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

rode a little at tranquility tonight with broken rib girl. ("BRG") She did great, the interior hill was easier for her than she remembers and there was water only in one little spot. The rest was dry and dusty.

I pushed a 36 X 18. 2:1 is not bad, and i rode it slow-ish, which makes it harder. If i can get use to that gearing I know i can get down to 25 minutes for the beginners lap and may even try a 36 X 17 or 36 X 16 to get to 22 or 23 minutes. We will see.

Has any one who checks this out ridden the Dakota_5_0? I have some questions.

happy trails!

Ramblings.

2008-06-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

With the rain keeping us off the single track, Ive been spending alot of time riding the roads and trails along the river north of downtown. Nice flat, low traffic and somewhat scenic roads. Scenic except for barb wire that runs from around the airport all the way up to the North Omaha power plant. At least when you get north of the airport, you get on top of the levee and can see the river. BUT thats when the barbed wire get serious and gives you that maximum security prison cycling atmosphere. The fences are there for a reason though, trash dumped everywhere. Bob summed it up well Sunday (in so many words), its too bad human beings are so horrible". Sorry about the bad qoute Bob.

Long ride. Longer walk.

2008-06-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

Rides like this make me begrudgingly admit that I like living here.

522 for the year

2008-06-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Lots of good riding this week, getting back on track for my riding goal of 100 miles a month. Ive got nothing on Up in Alaska , but 100 a month is an accomplishment for me.

Frakin Awesome.

2008-05-30T14:29:00.000-07:00

Only took me three weeks, but I found a way around the filters at UP that have kept me from blogging at work, success! Now if i could only get the mobile blogging thing to work out so i could post pics from my phone, id be one happy blogger. Wednesdays Boyer Chute ride was the longest solo ride ive done, 38 miles. Ive never really bothered riding long distances, ive always been content with sticking to the single track around here. But you can only do so many laps at swanson and tranquility before it gets boring. Heres the route i rode to Boyer, think were gonna do a similar route through the hills this weekend.

Time for some mileage

2008-05-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, were not going to be hitting the dirt anytime soon, so non-dirt riding it is. Wednesday after work, roads and trails up to Boyer Chute, or the Wabash to Silver City.

Life in the slow lane.

2008-05-25T15:05:00.000-07:00

Since I started working at UP two weeks ago, my car use has plummeted, I am thoroughly enjoying this new, near carfree lifestyle. New fenders on the commuter, it looks pretty sweet. Cant believe I almost got rid of this bike not too long ago, i love riding it.

tacos....

2008-05-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

since bob is busy wearin out tranqulity, ill be headin out on the taco ride thursday around 6-6:30 ish.

tranquil...

2008-05-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

I think Tranquility will be my first try at the whole 'race' thing. I rode it saturday with Jim and Lynden. Then sunday did 4 more laps. One with Chris, One with Lynden and 2 alone. The two i did alone I pushed pretty hard and had some decent times.
Today I went out and Did a lap alone and then did another slow lap with Brad before band practice but I attacked the last hill that they are going to cut out of the Beginners race. I was shocked because I went to a 36 X 20 (from a 32 X 20 I had on from Platte) and I just sprinted right up it. I could almost say it was easy. That felt really good.

Maybe I am getting in to OK shape, plus losing 12 pounds in the last few weeks and gaining 3 pounds of muscle probably helps with the hills.

I will probably be there tomorrow with jim and then again thursday with Lynden (if there is no rain) if anyone wants to ride.

I am loving this weather but it looks like the rain is coming which may push camping out a week.

maybe i will try 36 X 18 next week and see what kind of times I can get.

New beginning!

2008-05-18T16:39:00.001-07:00

I am proud to make the announcement that I've gotten my lazy bum back on my bike! Yesterday Bob, Jim and I went to Tranquility and they were patient enough to let me keep up with them. My lungs tried their best to keep up, but there were several times where I wanted to reach for an oxygen tank. My leg muscles also had a hard time, I have a lot of building up to do. I really love being on my bike and am glad that my rib is cooperating.
Bob and I went back to Tranquility today and he went at his speedy pace, while I tried my best with a reallllly sore gluteus maximus and pissed off adductor magnus and gracilis.
I'm hoping for a nice transformation in my body at the end of the summer.

Pic of me now

Pic of me hopefully by end of the summer

For Sale

2008-05-17T16:37:00.001-07:00

Well, its time for the Pilot to go. Just was never the right bike for me.

Heres the listing on Craigslist.

friday ride...

2008-05-16T08:19:00.001-07:00

after work i am either going to Swanson, Tranquility or Jewell. If anyone is down let me know.

Great Rack

2008-05-14T11:34:00.000-07:00

So, a few weekends ago I bought a Yakima Load Warrior off Craigslist.

I also wanted a roof top bike rack but didn't like how the typical roof top racks cover up so much of the basket. That would mean being able to carry less camping gear.

Sunday I came across the Yakima Boa. It came in today and works like a Charm! I just ordered a second one. No Rails!

New Commute

2008-05-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

New job at UP, new commute to 18th and Nicholas. Super boring but super short and easy. I miss the aesthetics of my old commute to UNO, but I do not miss having to ride up and out of the Saddle Creek valley everyday. That is 130 feet of climbing I do not miss.

more cartography

2008-05-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

heres the newest version of my trail mapping site im slowly working on. the site is finished for the most part, but ive got a ton of maps to still put up, and more improvements to the google maps to be done as i figure out the code.

Gmaps
http://myweb.unomaha.edu/~cclowers/trailsite/main.html

I took the leap

2008-05-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

So it is all set up. Kristen is ordering me a crosscheck. They only have the Grey ones available, but i could care less about the color. Just slap some fenders and rack on that baby, Ride it to work 20 weeks Straight and it paid for itself. :) just 3400 - 3500 miles. hahahhaha

but being able to buy it and not having to spend 45-50 dollars a week on gas will feel like the right decision either way. If I fill up once a paycheck the would even rule. Of course i will need more bike shorts, I like the new Pearl Izumi boxer/brief thingys... and summer rain gear. and a water proof computerator sleave.