STP Day 2: Frances is still alive and speaking to me

We left the Salvation Army in Centralia where we had spent the night for the start line around 615. I had originally intended to go without my wind breaker because it was supposed to warm up and it was only going to take up space in my jersey pocket I could use for food instead (I was practically a grocery store with the amount of food I had by the end). It was mid-50s with a decent head wind though so thankfully I opted for the jacket. Frances wouldn't draft off of me so I decided to draft off of her for the first ten or fifteen miles since she was pulling anyways.

Waiting to go over a bridge

Fran was struggling but I expected that. I pushed her pretty hard the day before. However, this was the day of long steady climbs and some steep shorter climbs. Frances who hadn't even seen a hill for several months before coming to Seattle was not happy. It turns out that her left cleat was in a bad position and was pinching a nerve every time she pushed down on it. I didn't realize this until mile 160 or so when it hurt too much for her to keep quiet. I moved the cleat which prevented the pain from worsening and she had a medic tape it up but whatever pain was there stayed for the rest of the day.

Puppy in the Burley!

On the flip side, I hadn't had legs that good in a long time. Granted, I was stopping at the end of every rolling section to wait for Frances but I was flying up the hills, passing tons of people I normally would not be passing. At mile 150 there was a bridge which we had to cross in waves because of the traffic pattern. We were near the front of the wave, maybe 70 people back. I told Fran I would meet her on the other side of the bridge, then I went for it. I wasn't riding too fast for me, but I kept passing everyone whose wheel I was hanging onto so I decided to go for it. I picked up the pace and made it to the top of the bridge well before the rest of the wave. I took a minute to look around me, then bombed down the rest of the bridge. Seems like my climbing efforts of late have been paying off.

Frances riding up the road

We finally rolled into Portland around 430, grabbed some food, then headed over to our hotel to shower. We left for dinner around 930 which limited our options but we ended up getting sushi. We over ordered but figured we would just save it for breakfast. As it turns out, the chef gave us the wrong rolls so he made up the ones we ordered too. We took the rest home and watched the tour de France before we passed out. Slept for eleven or so hours and woke up to explore Portland.
In summary, Fran is still alive and speaking to me so I can't complain too much.

STP day 1

She's only smiling because
we haven't started yet

100 miles
7hr 6min of actual riding
14mph
University of Washington, Seattle, WA to Centralia College, Centralia, WA
Late start to the day after being unable to fill my tires. Not much sleep bc I insisted on going out the night before. Not much sleep the night before that bc of travel. I needed breakfast so I got a sandwich at midnight from a 24hr grocery store.

We managed to get out around 730 and went pretty smoothly until mile 22 when Fran got a pinch flat. We tried a new tube but there was still a leak so she caught a ride to the rest stop where I met her. Got everything fixed up and we were good mechanically for the rest of the day. Since we got a late start and had the flat, I wanted to make up time so Frances was a good sport and humored me for awhile as I tried to push her at 18ish mph. We encountered some hills which Fran was scared of (silly flat Midwest) but she got up them without cursing me to my face.

A few miles in and the sun isn't out yet

After the 54mile rest stop, Fran started to struggle a bit so we hung in and stopped for a quick break around 70miles. Life was much better after that and Fran was content to allow me to sprint the hills and just wait for her at the top.


We made it to the finish line just in time for dinner. Fran is still alive and is still speaking to me. We'll see if that changes tomorrow :-)

Fran just keeps pedaling away

2000 miles on the Commuter Bike

I finally hit the 2000 mile mark on Sunday 1 July while riding up to Great Falls.  It was about 12 miles into a 40 mile trip.  It also occurred exactly six months after hitting the 1000 mile mark (31 Dec 2011).  I know 1000 miles in six months isn't terribly high mileage, almost all of it came from trips under six miles, riding to and from work.  We'll see how long the next thousand take :-)

New Teaching Schedule

After taking a few weeks for vacation, my teaching schedule will be as follows (as of 25 July):

Tuesday 6am Sunrise Yoga at Gold's in Ballston
Wednesday 645am All Levels Yoga at Tranquil Space Arlington
Sunday 6pm Restorative Yoga at Tranquil Space Arlington
One Monday a month (715pm) at BicycleSpace (check either @hiccupingyogi or @bicyclespace for info)

I also sub regularly at Tranquil Space.

Hustle Up the Hancock Recap (a few months late)

Per request from my dad (and fellow Hustler) I'm posting an update to our winter in Chicago adventure.

My biggest concern going out to Chicago in February was not the race as much as how cold I was sure it would be.  The weekend did not start off well when my Thursday night flight was cancelled due to snow.  A quick aside here: this was the fourth or fifth time in a row that my flight to Chicago in February had been cancelled and I wasn't sure I was really meant to ever make it out there in February.  When I finally got to Chicago Friday morning it was overcast with some snow.  As my dad and I were walking out of the el station, we saw the Hancock building, surrounded by so much fog that you couldn't see the top.

Saturday night we went to a reception at the restaurant at the top of the Hancock building.  My sister pointed out buildings on the ground that were 20 or 30 floors high and looked tiny from where we were.  That's when I started worrying about the race.  Living in the DC area where skyscrapers don't exist, I did all my training in a 13 floor/300 stair stairwell.  The Hancock is 92 floors/1632 stairs.

For some perspective, the tower in the bottom left of the photo to the left is the Old Water Tower.  It is one of the only buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.  It was the tallest building in the area, standing 154 feet tall.  The roof of the Hancock is 1127 feet.


Sunday morning we all woke up and headed over to the Hancock Building.  I ended up pulling a fairly early wave time, while my dad was placed in one of the last waves.  My sister ran somewhere and grabbed me a sandwich since I can hardly walk in a straight line in the morning without food, never mind run up a skyscraper.  I ate breakfast and lined up for my wave.  I had read that the first third is usually the hardest and I'm glad I had heard that before that morning.  Eventually my legs got used to climbing, I started to forget how many flights I had climbed, and the race was going pretty well.  Around the 68th floor I started to have trouble getting enough air.  The air in the stairwell is already very dry and dusty, and I did most of my training doing short sprints on 300 steps at a time and weightlifting.  Next time I run, I'll make sure to work on my lung capacity.  I grabbed a bottle of water, but my mouth was too dry and I was breathing too hard to actually drink.  I started taking the stairs one at a time to recover a little.  Around the 82nd floor I got my breathing back under control and was able to take the stairs two at a time for the rest of the race.  I finished in 17:25 (31/387 in my age group).  After trying to pace around the crowded observation deck to cool off, I was finally able to chug a few bottles of water, then wait for my dad's wave to start.

I don't know much about the details of his race, except that he single stepped most of the way up.  He finished (without medical assistance :-P) in 28:43 (200/240 in his age group, but well ahead of the 1:13:18 of the last finisher).

My sister being the lazy one she is was our pack mule and in charge of running around for food.  I'm still working on convincing her to run Sears Tower with my this fall...

New Yoga Class Schedule (aka come take my class!)

It's been almost four months since I last posted so I figured it's time for an update.

I recently started teaching a lot more than I was in 2011.  I've been teaching a donation based class at BicycleSpace in DC.  It's a great local bike shop and they've been great about getting students to the classes.  I also teach an early morning (as in 6am early and it is still dark when I get there) and a weekend power yoga class at Gold's gyms in North Arlington.  So, if you want to come take my class my schedule is:
6am Tuesdays Gold's Ballston
1230pm Sundays Gold's Clarendon
random Mondays (check BicycleSpace's fb/twitter or my twitter) at 7pm at BicycleSpace

1000 miles on my Commuter Bike

I thought I'd hit 1000 miles earlier this month but I let my odometer sit at 970 then took vacation and got sick.  So, after an afternoon of riding, I finally hit 1000 while riding around the tidal basin.