Neil Hanson – Page 34 – Neil Hanson

10 days ’til that DANROPES ride

10 days, and I’ll be headed across the desert grasslands of Colorado and Kansas with my buddy Dave on our bicycles. Exact route TBD as we go, but we’ll try for something more than 800 miles in 8 days. I’m really looking forward to some quiet and close time with this land that was once the northern reaches of the great Comanche nation – a land rich with a magic of place through many stretches.

The first day we’re hoping to do our first double century (200 miles), assuming the wind gods are kind to us. That day we’ll travel close to (and cross many times) the old middle route of the Santa Fe trail. I’ve hunted birds in that country in the fall before, and am looking forward to the time there during the peak of summer. That day we have 75 miles between civilization in a couple stretches, so we’ll be packin’ enough water for 75 miles in blistering heat.

2 Day Ride

Riding the MS150 this weekend in Colorado. Good ride for a good cause, and will be my only back-to-back long days prior to the bid DANROPES ride in July. Collaborating on some route options with Dave for the DANROPES ride – I’m trying to make each draft option aboutÂ 800 miles – I guess I must haveÂ 800 miles in 8 days settling in as a stretch goal for this trip…

Ride Saturday

So, this coming Saturday, I think Dave and I will do our one and only joint training ride before the big ride in July. We’ll probably shoot for something around 6 hours.

May Snow

Here we are approaching mid-May on the High Prairie, and the forecast is for snow tonight and tomorrow. It’s cold and damp outside today.

The daylilies are looking so healthy and robust now, and the Iris are showing some fat buds. The Butterfly Bush are sending up shoots hoping for the warmth of summer to start sucking them faster from the ground.

But Mother Nature seems to be thinking about one last blast of winter. They’re calling for a foot of snow at 6000′.

How strong will the daylilies and the iris be on Thursday I wonder? This is so sad, to see this forecast, and to know the fate that it holds for those plants who are betting on the promise of spring.

Mother Nature is a harsh mistress on the High Prairie…

Bugs?

I’m beginning to wonder a bit about bugs on this ride. I know that in the summer when I drive across Kansas, my windshield is plastered with the guts of armies of bugs. From really small to big like grasshoppers and June Bugs, the prairie has some tiny little flying critters.

What will this be like on the bike? I thought of this while riding beside a creek yesterday, and having to go through swarms of little gnat-like bugs.

I’m fine with everything except the breathing – if I am riding with my mouth open to be taking in any volume of air, will I be able to avoid sucking the little hellions into my lungs?

Anybody have any ideas?

Spin Around Town – new record pace for this season

Well, after last Sunday, yesterday was a walk in the park. Did the loop around town, which is now only 66 miles with some route changes dictated by construction. The weather was beautiful, with light breezes (5 – 10 mph) that varied from the NW to the NE. I would say that generally, I had the breeze in my face for 75% of the ride in one way or another, but doesn’t it generally feel like that?

Last Sunday I got pounded with snow riding down from the Palmer Divide. Like an idiot, I had on only shorts, but did have the presence of mind to be wearing a winter jersey and windbreaker.

But yesterday was nice – really nice. New best pace for the year on this route – 15.2 mph average. I’m going from memory on past years, but I think that 4 years ago when I was in really good shape, I was able to average 17 mph on this loop on a good day. Can I get there this year?

I really need to focus more on keeping the water flowing into me – ended up really dehydrated yesterday afternoon when I was back home.

17.2 MPH Avg commute

Record for this year so far on the commute to work. Last year top time was 17.something – I’ll keep trying to notch it up this year – see if I can have a 19mph ride before the summer is over. Of course, a lot of it has to do with timing of the lights.

Saddle Update – Specialized Toupe

I’m feeling pretty good about the new saddle. Probably three hundred miles on it or so now, including a couple of long rides.

Clearly, the butt is building new tough spots to correspond to this new saddle, and that’s never fun. But comfort-wise and pressure-wise, I think that this saddle is doing very well.

I like it.

The first long ride I used shorts with a really great insert, and used chamois cream to be safe. All was good. This weekend I did a long ride using shorts with a minimal chamois that had been conditioned a week ago. Clear difference, and the sore spots are clearly more evident with the more minimalist chamois, but I’m confident that this will pass as the spots toughen up. This morning I rode to work 25 miles on a cold morning with no conditioner on the minimal chamois, and surely felt the spots from yesterday, but again, these spots are going to toughen up.

My opinion of the saddle is getting better.

UPDATE: October/2010: After riding the saddle all summer, including 700 miles across Colorado and Kansas in July, I have a mixed opinion. For rides around town, I really do like the saddle. I’ve become accustomed to it, and it seems that I “fit” it well. However, I just don’t think this saddle is well-suited to long-distance riding. I think the saddle-sores I developed on the 700 mile trip were partially due to the saddle. I’d recommend this saddle to an around-town rider, but not to a long-distance rider.

Can Neil Keep Up With Dave?

OK, I’m now far enough into the training year to start wondering if I can somehow get to a fitness level that will be somewhat close to Dave’s level. Dave is doing lots of running this spring, and I think that he has races in early May and sometime in June. We talked about doing some training rides together in May – we’ll see if that happens and how well I can do with him. The one thing that could work against Dave is that in doing all the training for the run, he has really had zero time for bike training. So I might have the advantage of bike-specific training, but always seem to have the disadvantage of an overall fitness level that is never close to Dave’s.

Fitness is such an unforgiving judge. Each year I get older, it takes longer to achieve fitness and it leaves sooner. And there are no shortcuts. It has to be built layer by layer, workout by workout, week by week.

It will be interesting to see how the difference in our fitness routine plays out when it comes time for the ride in July. I continue to feel confident that the ride will be fun, and that I will be able to maintain high mileage while having fun.

Next weekend should be some early indicator as to whether Dave will spend much time waiting for me on the ride…

Snow and saddles

For the last few days as we have had nice weather, I’ve been thinking about how nice it is for the plants to get a real spring this year – one where they aren’t demolished by a late April or early May snow that makes them burn lots of energy starting over. How nice it is to see healthy plants exploding from the ground in April.

Then, woke up to snow this morning. Not a lot yet, but you never know. If it doesn’t pile up too much, and the temp doesn’t drop too far into the 20’s, most of them should be OK.

It makes me appreciate the resiliency of the plants that survive here, and their ability to face each new spring with fervor, with no idea what will happen. They just keep moving forward, growing, blooming, expanding.

And then my thoughts fall back to the new saddle that I put on my bike last weekend. The old saddle worked OK, though I knew that it wasn’t the greatest design around for keeping pressure off of critical nerve areas and certainly lacked comfort after many hours in it. But I never thought about it – just kept riding it because it’s what I know.

A saddle is such a personal thing, isn’t it? Each year I go through the process of getting the sit-bones broken in to the saddle. There is predictability to the saddle, the pain it causes, and how it fits. It might not be perfect, but I know it, and know how it fits. Recently someone asked me about my saddle, and my response was the same as it always is: “Sure the saddle isn’t perfect – it’s a pain in the ass after enough hours in it – but I know how it is going to feel and how we react to one another.”

But I made the leap last weekend and bought a new one. Now I have to go through the pain of breaking it in to my butt, and breaking my butt in to it.

It’s new and unknown. A little scary, a little exciting.

As I begin the journey through the middle years of life, I realize that there are many aspects of my life that are like this. There may be some comfortable things that are not necessarily the healthiest for me – some habits that I need to change, maybe some different perspectives that I need to gain.

But like the plants that grow here on the high plains, I need to have the courage to keep growing and blooming, and not be overly concerned about the weather that might surprise me next week.