I like Carrots

I thought I was done blogging from Singapore, but here goes one more....I set out this morning thinking I would just do a reasonable tempo on my last day...but there were too many expensive carrots here.

You all know the feeling (Fisher, you get it on almost every ride)... you see it, you HAVE to catch it.

First I saw a group of roadies...so I decided to move things up from tempo to threshold (BTW, I have NO idea what, speed, heart rate, wattage, or otherwise that corresponds to, I just know how it feels). They didn't like the pace so I was alone again.

Then I caught a group on tri bikes...and the biggest carrots of all, TTX, BMC carbon racer, litespeed among others. We played together for the rest of the ride...really nice guys and one of them was good friends w/ the guy who runs Eco Seagate (my New Zealand trip a couple years ago). Its a small world.

What I learned? They had computers, and I need a bigger ring if I want to go any faster than 49km per hour=)

Homesick...but homeward bound

I am starting to get very homesick...3 weekends have gone by without seeing my family. I am sure my little dude has grown up a lot. The good news is that I leave here ~6am Wednesday and arrive home around 11 am Wednesday...22 hours of travel, but backwards over the date line.

Either way, it has been a great trip, and assuming I ride tomorrow morning I will have ridden every day. That will be 17 days straight of riding...some hard, some not.

My bike has kept me sane when I really start missing home.
Thanks to Rochester Cycling and Fitness for the breakaway fuel idea (Matt) and for helping me out with the bike (Deb and Charly)! I won't have to leave home w/out it now.
Thanks to Jen Meyer for letting me borrow her rear shock (the one on the bike blew up after the first ride).
Thanks to my wife for letting me buy yet ANOTHER bike=)
Thanks to my son for being my motivation.

Circumnavigation

Saturday, I headed out w/ the goal being to circumnavigate and entire country in 1 day. Well, it only took 3.5 hours in the end and was 65-70 miles. About 2 hours of the trek was in the driving rain, which takes its toll.

I was planning on mountain biking Sunday, but with the humidity here, things take for ever to dry out. Instead, I found the biggest hill in Singapore and climbed it multiple times. After that I proceeded out to Sentosa Island (a resort island just off the Singapore coast). I pretty much was just cruising and exploring at that point because I almost tossed my cookies from the hill sprints. Again, it started to pour. I don't think it has been sunny since I have been here.

This morning, I rode easy because I could barely turn over the cranks....I never dreamed I would be riding this much or this hard here.

Pictures:

What I see every morning...no cars

A better view of the skyline from my hotel

How humid? Hill sprints in 80 degree dew points....

View from highest point in Singapore

I don't know what this means

Sentosa Coast

Training and More Training

So you are probably wondering why Seagate would send me to Singapore...well, the answer is training. No, not bike training, work training. I am here deploying and training the Singapore team on a new piece of metrology that a co-worker and I developed. It started out as a skunkworks project based on some ideas he and I were kicking around, but has quickly exploded. We now have sent replicate testers to Colorado, Singapore (duh), China, and Thailand, and more are being requested every day. I can't really talk about what it is or does because it is very confidence IP. I can tell you that it is being accepted well and the training is going better than we anticipated.
If the post project reward is as expected we may be getting another carbon family member...although my basement is getting full=)
I am getting a lot of the other kind of training done too...I started to get carried away and am forcing myself to rest today, so I took a easy 1 hour spin along the SE coast this morning.

I will update with this weekends activities...gonna go exploring on 2 wheels.

Singin' In the Rain

This morning it poured...but it was warm and I was up at 4:30 AM (hey it feels like 2:30 PM to me) so I rode in the rain. I passed another biker that was riding along with an umbrella...and he was singing=) I ended up riding along the coast for a good long while. It was quite pleasant.

When I got back, I took a few shots of the view on my room's balcony. I am staying in the tallest building in Singapore (or so I was told) on the 34th floor.

The skyline

The hotel pools

The equator

I am writing from far far away.
I am off the southern tip of Malaysia in Singapore.
My training/travel fuel is with me.
It feels good to hammer w/out hurting my lungs.
I found 20 miles of super sweet single track and rode myself silly on Sunday.
I still can't sleep much at night so I rode at 5:30 am this morning...dropped it in the dog (big ring and smallest cog) and raced some cabbies.
Now, I must work...updates and pics will follow eventually.

Breaking away

Who needs a break away frame?

I thought I did until the Rochester Cycling and Fitness Czar suggested I get an travel Fuel instead. Well, it worked like a charm, and now I can bring a replica of my race bike along WITHOUT paying the absurd airline charges.

Why do I need a travel bike now? ...to avoid over $400 in airline charges over the next month. I am headed on a business trip to Singapore for two and half weeks (leaving in a couple weeks). They wanted me to go to China and Thailand too. I opted out for now, but I am sure I will be going to one or both in the next year at some point. Following that, Jen's dad was nice enough to fly us down to the condo they rent down at Marco Island Florida. Basically, I am gone for the month of March and am hoping to return to more reasonable weather.

Oh, and a teaser...it is here, the new race rig. Details to follow in late March when it is complete. Charly "Jo Mama" is still helping me gather and assemble all the secret weapons=)

Ice Racin'

At 11:30 am I decided to head up to the Chili Chili Ice Race that started at noon....

I totally fried my legs on Friday in a hockey game and on Saturday during a hard tempo 3.5 hour snowmobile trail ride, so I had basically ruled out any type of intensity on Sunday. I was leaving my house for an easy spin and decided my legs didn't hurt bad enough yet, so I turned around after 5 minutes, hopped in the car and headed to Bush Lake.

After the first corner when several people were out of the saddle hammering I realized why most were running homemade studded tires (sheetmetal screws strategically placed through the studs of mountain bike tires). I had factory made Nokian studded tires that were just good enough to keep me upright.

Out of the gate, I took it easy and was 50 -75 yards behind the leaders on the first straight. I caught them quickly at the bottom of the one climb (maybe the size of the pavement climb at buck hill) and had a 13 second lead by the top. I was thinking, sweet, this isn't so bad...then it started. I crashed on the sketchy downhill and hit my nuts on the handlebar. I took my time getting back on the bike for obvious reasons. After 3 more falls that lap, I decided I should take it easy. I fell probably 15 times or so during the race mostly on the ice and sketchy downhill, but by the end, I just sat in and had a little fun. Thanks to Dana for the pictures.

Personal Best

Yesterday morning I had a new personal best...well coldest at least. As I was heading over to Lebanon Hills, the temperature was -10 (that is base temp NOT w/ windchill). Several hours later when I finished up my laps it had warmed all the way to -5.
Normally, I would have waited until the afternoon sun had warmed things a little, but my wife had movie plans w/ friends... having a kid = be flexible.

The Ride: Hardtail w/ Nokian studded tires...run tubeless w/ ~15 PSI

The only intersting thing about the ride might be the clothing I was wearing. I didn't get cold at all.
Here is the list from the top down:
Mountain Hardware Windstopper hat - sweat wicking and wind proof need I say more?
Pearl Izumi Balaclava - good for chincicles, wear it so each breath is exhausted over my face...keeps the nose running and the face thawed.
Stretch (generic) neck tube - just one more layer, as the balaclava is pretty thin
Under Armour Cold Gear top - best base layer I have found...I look like a really skinny Terrell Owens=)
Mountain Hardware fleece - I only wear this and cold gear if it is >20 degrees. It is 4x more windproof than cheap fleece
Mountain Hardware Windstopper jacket - This jacket makes riding in weather like this possible. Again, wind proof and sweat wicking
Pearl Izumi windproof bibs - I wouldn't buy them again but they are warm. The flaw is that the have no stretch around the knees so they really bind up (and make me work harder=)
Under Armour Cold Gear pants - same as shirt. see above
Nike bibs - low cut making it easier to pee
Mountainineering socks - wooly, thick, and big
Nike Shoes (same as I use all season) - tape up the holes in the insole. A lot of heat is lost through the sole of the shoe.
Performance Booties - cheap and fleece lined. The fleece lining really helps.
and last but probably most important...toe warmer packets taped to the top of my sock inside my shoe - would have lasted less than a lap w/o these.

The catch? The retail value of all this clothing is ~$1000. IMO, money better spent than on a nice trainer or power meter;)


My wife called me crazy for going riding. I called her crazy for going to see a horror movie: "27 Dresses". In the end, we agreed to disagree.

Baptism and Clown Tricks

Hello again...it has been a while. Time continues to fly, and we have been quite busy.


We have found a Church, Shephard of the Lake in Prior Lake, that we really like and today we had Tegan Baptised there. As an added bonus, my entire family - yep all 5 of us kids and mom and dad - was able to congregate for the occasion.

Training:
Has been going well and is on schedule...I think? I am not very scientific in my approach, but things feel right so far.

1. My gym work outs continue to evolve and Kris, our personal trainer at work, is always pushing us. Probably the latest cool exercise is squats on an exercise ball... when people walk by they always ask if I am practicing for the circus. I haven't ruled it out, but really it is all about core, stability and balance.



2. Hockey so sweet, and only one broken stick this year=) Breaking carbon is still a bit of a sore spot for me though (broken 9.9 frame two years ago).

3. Oh yeah, riding. I have had a training revival ->snowmobile trails. They go on FOREVER and usually end in Bonkville.