COGS ride this Friday

COGS is running a ride this Friday that appeals to me. I believe I will go on this ride. I just want to get my supplies ready and the bike checked out.

Friday, July 3, 2009 Ride Around Hood Canal
Training Series Ride
Meet at: Seattle's Coleman Dock or on board the 7:05 am ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge. For those coming from Kitsap, meet at the Hood Canal Bridge at approximately 9:00 am.
Pace: Moderate to brisk. Pace will be set by the riders
Regroup: Will regroup occasionally to keep group together and for water, restrooms, food, and lunch stop.
Distance: about 125 Miles.
Cue Sheet: yes
Terrain:Rolling with an approximate elevation gain of 4500 feet.
Rain Policy: Wet, rainy weather cancels
Ride Leader: Lee Derror of West Sound Cycling Club and Tom Tanner of Cyclists of Greater Seattle Club. Lee's e-mail and phone contact: lderror2@yahoo.com and 360-271-4838. Tom's email and phone contact number: tjtanner@comcast.net and home 206-298-0225, and cell 206-384-9400.
Description: Beautiful ride all the way around the Hood Canal. Ride provides stunning views of Hood Canal from a multitude of perspectives. Route is flat to rolling with an approximate 4500 feet of elevation gain. Route is fairly free of cars. Riders may ride at their own pace, but we will regroup along the way for water, food, lunch and potty breaks.

Ride designed for those seeking to have fun, stay more or less together, and provide mutual support. Smiles and good cheers always welcome.

This ride is part of the COGS Ramrod/RAPsody Training Series and is jointly sponsored by WSCC and COGS

Stats from Morning Training Ride

Stats from Morning Training Ride, originally uploaded by Watson House.

Here is the data from my Garmin 305 regarding my training ride this morning. I am very happy that I kept my HR in zone 3 or 4 basically all of the ride. I didn't cook myself but I did burn energy going uphill to keep my average speed up. I am very happy with my results and feel that my training is going well.

I love the Garmin Edge, this would be a PITA if I didn't have such a cool bike computer.

Why we love Lance Armstrong

liamlivestrong.MP4 -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

Watch this video and tell me you don't like Lance. It is a very heartwarming video.

Update: The climb they are on is the Col del la Colombière.
Cat 1 Climb: Col de la Colombière
7.5km (4.7 mi) at a 8.5% grade.
A very impressive climb for an 8yr old.

Raptobike Pr0n

Front view commuting setup, originally uploaded by Watson House.

Here is a nice picture of my Raptobike Lowracer as set up for commuting/touring. I have 1400 miles on those tires with no flats. I would be happy to tour on them. I love my bike, a great choice.

Thoughts and Dog pictures

Click through for more Casey pictures
It has been a while since I posted some nice doggy pictures so I figured I would post one of my favorite Casey pictures. He just loves fetch, you can see how happy he is in that picture.

I have been riding a lot lately, training for the STP. I feel strong and my climbing has improved tremendously. Another rider caught up to me today on Old Redmond Road and told me "It is not often you get out climbed by a recumbent!" I thought that was quite kind of him considering he had just caught up to me on the hill. It sure did fluff my ego a bit.

There has been lots of stuff going on at work and home. Kristin and I are house hunting, so we have been spending a lot of time online and driving around to various locations. Soon this will pass and we should have a new home.

Training for the STP on my Raptobike

I am riding my Raptobike every day and have been since the beginning of May. At this point the Raptobike has over 1300miles (~ 2100km) on it. It is a wonderful bike and rock steady at speed. The bike has been very reliable and has had no flats or issues. I can ride no handed at speeds >20mph without trouble, lower speeds require some finesse.

The training for the STP is going well. I put in 200 miles the week of the STP and have been riding 26 miles per commute day. Weekends I ride farther if I can fit it in or just ride 28 miles or so. This coming weekend I will be riding with SIR on the 100k populaire in West Seattle.

I am very excited, everything is coming together and my fitness and performance is just getting better and better. I will soon have to take a week off just before the STP but right now I feel strong. My climbing on the bike is a large area of improvement lately and if I can get that to match speeds of uprights (DFs) then I am going to be consistently faster then uprights. Because on the flats or downhill I can really put out pain for any upright trying to keep up. Downhill particularly is where I pass pacelines and TT riders. On the flats I just play hound to pacelines rabbit.

All in all it is a lot of fun.

I hope my wife doesn't kill me.

There is a interesting thread on BROL that talks about the disease that recumbent riders get. There is so much variety in recumbents that it is tempting to acquire more and more of them. Unfortunately I had a stream of consciousness revelation that the disease is more than just that. There is the accessory desire. Here is my post:

The accessory disease is also strong for recumbents.

I want:

• A tailbox, homemade or commercial, maybe both. Race, or Practical, maybe both.
• I constantly fiddle with my gear range desires. Atm I want a 62T elliptical chainring for the front to give me 25-132 GI (give or take)
• Wheel covers, I want wheel covers, or maybe I want a zipp wheel or a powertap zipp wheel.
• hmm, Rob English had this really cool kevlar wheel disk in 559, That would be cool, who made it?
• Tires, Tires, Tires - Duranos today, Kojaks for brevets maybe, I wonder if there is a faster lighter race tire too, hmm
• Wheel sets. I could get lighter rims than my Velocity Fusions. Maybe I will be light enough for aeroheats soon. Or maybe a really deep dish rim. Or wheel covers, did I say that already?
• Edge 705, what about battery life for 12 hour rides, I need that setup.
• Lighting, lots of lighting needs
• Custom paint, custom patterns on my tailbox, reflective panels, oh my
• Seat pads? Actually I think that is completely sorted with my nice zotefoam pad.
• hmm, zotefoam, I think lining a tailbox with zotefoam should get rid of that rattling noise.
• I need to learn to work with composites, I could make my own Fiberglass tailbox, hmm maybe I need a new workshed, I don't think my wife wants FG fumes in the house from the garage
• should I run ethernet to the new shed?
• do I have to take down a tree for my proposed shed location?
• what power tools do I want? I could use a bandsaw.

I believe it shows the infection is deep in me. But before Kristin kills me, remember that I take forever to act on anything and this was just an inner demon speaking. I love you, I won't go nuts, I promise. Really!

Team RANS in the lead 4man RAAM

Team RANs is running a 4 man RAAM (Race Across AMerica) team this year. At this point they are 14 minutes ahead of the pack . This is very exciting for me and I am really hoping Team RANS wins this years 4man race.

Solstice Day activities

Today Kristin and I are running lots of errands so I won't be riding until later in the day. I think I will do the Lake Washington Loop even though the Summer Solstice Parade will be going on in Fremont. If it slows me down, too bad, it should provide some scenery.

How to find me?

I am on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/duncanjwatson
I am on twitter as DuncanWatson - see my tweets or follow me at http://twitter.com/DuncanWatson
And you already know my blog - http://duncan-brain.blogspot.com/