Where the hell have you been?

Yes,  I've been very delinquent in my postings here.  Lots going on,  finished up my Post-Treatment Cancer stuff (more on that in a later post....),  and as expected it was all pretty good news,  so there was some Post-Treatment-celebrate-get-outta-town-vacation behavior as well.

My dear wife had planned a vacation for when we were "done" with the stupid Cancer thing again for this round.  We had a nice week in Puerto Rico to celebrate the end of that nonsense,  and in general get away from "real" life for a bit.

Puerto Rico turns out to be kind of strange place,  Very much "American",  but feels like Mexico at the same time.   Definitely has that "island Time" and Caribbean vibe,  VERY laid back.  Everything is in Spanish,  but most everyone speaks English,  and you use US Dollars.  One minute you feel like you are in a foreign country,  the next minute like you are in a Mexican Carnecheria here in Colorado.  Pretty strange contrast,  but all in all a cool and easy place to visit.

We spent a couple of days in Old San Juan,  a crazy old,  16th century walled city/fortress.  Neat old streets and buildings,  lots of cool dive bars and even a brewpub with kicking good beers.  Rest of our time was in Liquillo,  a VERY sleepy "surf" town on the N.E. coast.  Great beaches,  some wild and sparsely visited rain forest,  and by far the coolest and the strangest thing,  kayaking in some really cool glow in the dark water in a "Bio luminescent Lagoon" to round out the trip.


 Did note that bicycle culture is alive and thriving even in Puerto Rico.   Of all things,  they are having a full on boom in the urban,  Fixed Gear,  Hipster bike riding thing.  Lots of people skidding & fixed-gear humping their way around some crazy busy and narrow streets on brightly-painted,  matching aero rimed road & track bikes.

All of them acting like NYC messengers,  tweeting away on whistles clenched in their teeth while trying not to run into stuff with no brakes.  Course also see a lot of "cheaters" on single speeds with freewheels and the odd cheater brake.

It is so prevalent that you see people doing glamour photo shoots on the waterfront,  posing up their latest custom fixie.

While no big fan of riding around on converted road bikes with a fixed gear & no brakes in a traffic-filled city of 16th century cobblestones,  it is good to see that the "Bike Thing"  in one twisted form or another is taking off all over the world.  Urban Fixies may be a bit "out there",  but at least it's not Triathlon or Road Riding,  thank God.

All good things must come to an end

All good things must come to an end, or so the saying goes. I am sitting here at 39,000 feet over the South China Sea, heading from Kuala Lampur to Hanoi, part of the LONG journey back from the far east. Long vacations are great, all except for the return to reality part. Besides coming back to chores, work, and the rest of “Normal Life” I’ll be getting back on the bike after a 3+ week layoff. Can’t wait to see what that training strategy did for my fitness. While I managed some “stair climbs” and hikes on the trip, mostly I was just running around or eating like a pig the entire time. Guess I am in for some serious interval time once I get “de-Lagged” on my return. Cross season is just around the corner.

I was successful with my training plan for the trip. I ate like a pig.

I DID do a hike or two in Penang, and lord they do have some "trails" there that will give you a workout. Thousands and thousands of stairs STRAIGHT up thru the jungle.

The closest I came to a bike was watching others ride by. Malyasia seems to have experienced a huge boom in "recreational" cycling in the last 5 or so years. Before, you would see one or 2 other cyclists out in many days of riding, and I NEVER saw a roof rack in the many years I was there before. This time you saw packs out riding on the roads, lots of roof racks with & without bikes, up to a full-on Yeti Downhill Race rig on a car. a HUGE boom in riders in 5 years. Heard about lots of off-road riding, even though the closest I got was coming off the stair hike, seeing guys riding up "Penang Hill" road. While paved, I can attest that it's one of the singular hardest climbs I've ever done on a bike. The strange thing is almost all the people I saw were on flat pedals and tennies. Even saw one guy riding up the 20%-ish grade on flats with FLIP-FLOPS as his riding shoe of choice. Hard core. Trust me, the hill is steeper than it looks here....

There MIGHT have been just a bit of asian pilsner consumed during the trip as well. Maybe even the odd Gin & Tonic. What with training like that, and 3 solid seeks sleeping at an altitude of at least 10 feet, I'm sure I'll be ready to KILL it on the bike.

Coming from a place where cargo bikes and riding out of need, not desire, to thinking about racing bikes for fun is a bit of a hard one to wrap your head around. Bikes are still used to haul everything from people to street food stalls in most of the rest of the world. Not sure we have taken the bike thing to a place it does not really belong.

Even with utility in mind, MAYBE it's time for a new rim on that bike though.....

So, will be back home & trying to restart my cycling legs. With Cross season closing in, it's time to start in earnest, if one is to have any hope for some kind of results.

With the return from vacation, and the hopeful completion of some other distracting projects, I hope to refocus my ravings here on more cycling related, and more cross related subjects. With a preliminary Colorado Cross schedule floating about cyberspace, and USA Cycling trying to make sure NO Colorado riders have any results at this years National Hypothermia Championships in Madison, there are things to talk about, for sure.

Far East

Greetings from Penang, Malaysia. Yep, it's hot & humid here. The summer vacation is in full swing. Sitting here in front of a Starbucks (Much like McDonalds, some things are a constant almost world-wide....), since my cheap-ass budget hotel wants US$10 a day for Wi-fi access. Some things have NOT become a world wide constant. I am working dillegently on my previously noted training plan of a 4 week killer hard block of LT intervals, followed by 3 weeks of sitting on my ass, eating a lot and ingesting beer. so far, I am fully on track with the second part of that plan.

A bit of bike-related notes from the Far east here. 10+ years ago, while doing a lot of "factory-sitting" here in Penang, A couple of us sent over mountain bikes and rode all over the place. At the time, we only saw a VERY small handfull of locals riding for recreation. As late as 5 years ago, did not see hardly any "recreational" riders here. This trip, I am seeing a LOT of riders, Bike racks on the roof of cars (unheard of 5 years ago...) and some serious, high dollar hardware under a lot of lycra-clad asians. Even saw a fully loaded Yeti 303 Downhill rig on the roof of a car here. I guess the riding bug is spreading across the pacific now.

We came here via Vietnam, a short visit. a crazy, hectic place. There I did NOT see high $$ bikes, but a lot used for transportation & work. Mostly, you saw people rocking the normal, rocking Vietnamese cycling "kit"
But then one morning I saw this guy
I guess no matter WHERE you are living, the appeal or riding a bike can get you out and going. It's cool to see the passion showing up all around the world.

Summer

Well, I have not managed to post up much here lately. Turns out life can get in the way of many a good blog post ending up becoming actually PUBLISHED on a blog.

Just plain a lot going on. Seems like the employer actually wants some of my attention span (Who the hell do they think they are?) Geez, it's like they pay me or something. We've had a couple of projects around the homestead here that have drained my energy and motivation, AND The wife and I are headed out for a little family visit. Now, when your wife is from Malaysia, that becomes a bit different than hopping in the car and heading down to Denver. We'll be in Asia for a couple of weeks, so I am not thinking my posting will get any more frequent.

The plan is to try my best to eat and drink a lot, exercise little, and see how my fitness does. Have not found the "4 week hard training block then 3 weeks of hanging out eating" training plan documented anywhere, so I'll take one for the team & see how that works. Hope to get a little news in from over there if I can. I'll try my best and suffer the indignity of being in the tropics. (Yep, I'll be on THAT beach...)

I hope all of you "beer-drinking-dads" have your own issues to keep you off the bike while I'm gone. Don't want anyone else "stealth" training on me now, Hear?

Dinosaurs!

Bikes & Dinosaurs? Really?

Well, only connected in a very distant way. The wife & I did a quick overnight over the Memorial Day weekend. Wanted something that would not be too crowded, was not TOO long of a drive, and "different". So we ended up heading to the "Largest Dinosaur Track-site in North America". Located in Colorado, just south of the scenic, thriving tourist trap of La junta.

La- What?? you say?? Seriously, there is SOMETHING to see on the South East plains of Colorado. Maybe not the end all attraction of the world, but something lurks out there in the grasslands.

Picketwire Canyon is a strange little canyon, dropped below the TABLETOP flatness that is eastern Colorado. Below the flat nothingness is a relative oasis of Pinyon trees in the canyon of the Purgatoire River. Deep history of Ancient "Picketwire People" along with very early Spanish influence, and it being a shortcut on the Santa Fe trail leaves a lot of weird history in the mix with the dino tracks.

The Canyon has limited motorized access, so hiking, horses and bikes are the only ways in. With no horses, and not wanting to hike an 11 mile round trip, we elected to use the bikes. A STEEP, loose drop down into the canyon, then a nice, smooth double track spin past some old cabins, pictographs and of course, like everywhere in Southern Colorado, the remains of an old spanish church.

The Dino tracks were pretty cool. Unlike most of the tracks I've seen (mostly in Utah.…). These were not isolated prints, but tracks extending for almost hundreds of feet, wandering about in singles & pairs. Big Brontosaurus tracks, too, not little things.

While this was really not the vacation of a lifetime, it turned into a cool little getaway. OK, it was not really THAT scenic, and driving out there is only interesting in that "good god, there is NOTHING out here" kind of way, but it was indeed "different". Just one more example of the MANY kinds of things we have here in Colorado to experience.

It's summer.

Get out there.

Back in the USA

Back "In Country" after a wonderful break.  11 days in Iceland (Yes,  Iceland...).

While it was possibly a strange pick for a vacation destination,  it turned out to be a LOT of fun,  quite scenic,  and in spite of the hordes of Euro-trash-dour-faced-German tourists,  a really fascinating place to visit.

With less people than the population of the Peoples Republic of Bould-Aire,  spread out over an area the size of Kentucky,  there was NO problem finding some lonely,  beautiful places.  Volcanoes,  Glaciers, Wild mountains,  Steam & Hot water bubbling out of the ground at random,  and more world class waterfalls than could be imagined,  it was a great place to wander about.

A week plus at sea level,  only a couple of hikes for workouts,  and some minor jet lag have me NOT fired up for King of the Rockies this Saturday.  Post-vacation lethargy reigns supreme.

Only bike-related items form the trip was watching poor,  wretched euro loaded bike tourists battle 40 mph,  cold north winds and pissing rain in 4 deg. C. temps.  Kinda like Cross!    Most looked like near death.  Made me glad to be old,  lazy,  and in a car.

Cold Euro Touring from Dale Riley on Vimeo.
Cross season seems to be coming right up.  The ACA has blessed us with a "new" series this year,  and the race flyers have started to sprout like flowers in the spring.   Even did a bit of CX-type practice yesterday with the boys....   The "Excitement is Building"!!

Time to get Serious

Seems like I'd NEVER get over my Laramie death march.  A week later and my body was still whimpering and whining from that little adventure.  Everything hurt,  and kept hurting for FAR more days than I expected.  Did not want to ride much last week.  Ah well,  none of that.  With cross season bearing down,  it's time to get busy,  get that body tuned to a fine razor edge for the suffering to come,  to dig into the intervals & hard training needed to meet my race goals for the season,  to forge the iron mind & body needed for testosterone fueled cross butt-kicking, yes,  it's time to HTFU and....... 

go on vacation.

Yes,  Friday the Wife & I jet off to the far north,  a visit to Iceland (yes,  Iceland...).  Place has had a draw for both of us,  and until the great financial collapse of 2008 came,  was priced WAY out of our range.  Now that the Icelandic economy collapsed into a highly leveraged pile of poo,  us normal folks can now afford to visit.   The last thing that pushed us to pick Iceland was an article in the December,  2009 issue of Bike Magazine.  3 or 4 pictures of the countryside,  and a more "appropriate" measure of the costs sealed the deal.  

Using the International Mountain Bikers Cost Measurement Unit  (IMBCMU...) the cost of a Pub-poured Pint had dropped from north of  US$15 to under $7.  Not the best bargain on the planet,  but within mortal reach.

We are off Friday.  No bikes,  but plan on getting out into the wilds a bit at least.   Not hard there,  2 of the "towns" we are staying in don't seem to have many streets.  "Kinda" Rural,  to say the least

  See you all in a week or so.  I'll be working hard.