I’m doing this move so that I can provide better features, especially when it comes to showing route maps and profiles. In the future, I hope to make these dynamic, and allow you to zoom in on the courses. This is not possible while hosted at wordpress.com, as they don’t allow the necessary scripting in the pages. But by self hosting I can do all the scripting I want. It will still be a “wordpress” blog, in that I’ll be using the wordpress software, just on my own site.

From the north Usery Pass is 3.5 miles long, with approximately 660 feet of climbing.

After viewing statistics for my blog, I’ve noticed many readers are searching for information on Usery Pass, probably due to the upcoming Tour de Mesa, which includes this pass as part of its route. I just realized I’ve never put up a post for Usery Pass in my Mountain Poses section. Well, I’ve remedied that. Click here for more information.

Riders in the Bry. There are many. Some real, some imagined.

There’s Mr. Alpine Dreamer: Hill-climber extraordinaire, ready to leap tall mountains in a single pedal stroke. Spirit’s in the high places. Known to stay in mountain pose all day long.

There’s Mr. Pack Man: Social, against his nature. Goes with the flow, at one with the herd. Never misses a call-out for the pothole, the road glitter, the car back.

There’s Mr. Lurker: Hangs in the back. Doesn’t say much, kind of quiet and shy. Usually has a fiddle tune or two in his head.

There’s Mr. Free Spirit: Rides as free as the wind blowing down the road. The lucky one.

There’s Mr. Locomotive Breath: Over his head, determined to hang with the group no matter what. Rarely succeeds, keeps trying.

There’s Mr. Navigator: Knows the routes, all of them, even ones he’s never ridden before.

There’s Mr. Velo Asana: Cool, collected, in the moment. Lives and breathes the cycling pose. Never falters, never fails. Hills, flats, curves, straights, they’re all the same to Mr. Velo Asana. Loves being “out there,” endurance his calling card.

There’s Lt. Solo: Rides epic rides, the whole day, all by his lonesome, through city, farm, coast, desert. Perfectly at ease with his puppy mind.

And then there’s Mr. Weak and Slow: Sometimes seen riding an old mountain bike. A heavy old mountain bike. Rides at 4 mph, in granny low. Even on a lighter road bike, Mr. Weak and Slow’s nature holds firm. Somehow manages to make it to the top anyway, to go the distance.

Lately, it’s Mr. Weak and Slow that’s in charge. Eight months and a mere 180 miles will do that to a person.

I note this not only in support of my new site and book, but because the first posting on the new blog relates to yoga: Write it down dog. And the book, while not relating directly to cycling, has a main character that I call “The Dark-Haired White Mountain Bike Woman.”

See, I just had to get cycling in there somehow!

Be sure to check it out!

Whoopie ti yi yay
I’m on my way
Back in the saddle again

~~~

After riding 41 miles yesterday, I guess it’s safe to say I’m back in the saddle.

I’ve been slowly ramping up the miles. During the month of February, I’ve done rides of 1 mile, 4 miles, 10 miles, 21 miles, 30 miles, and 41 miles. These have gone from being very scary to almost normal.

I will say I’ve lost a ton of speed. My cardio-vasky has a long way to go. I was gassed at the end of the 20/30 mile rides, but a bit better on the 40 miler yesterday. I climbed Mohave last week (a piddly little climb, but with some 6% grade) and it felt like a big mountain. Climbed Desert Cove yesterday, (not quite as piddly, but still a mild climb) out Via Linda way, and I’m noticing the improvement.

It felt weird, riding my old training routes. I haven’t seen these roads in quite some time.

I doubt, though, that I could ride South Mountain. I don’t think I could make it to the top right now. And I’d be scared to death zooming back down.

And we’ll have fun, fun, fun

Yesterday’s ride was the first time I’ve had fun riding since coming back. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever enjoy riding again. It’s funny, I’d been so eager to start cycling, wistfully watching groups ride by when out walking the dogster, but then when I did start, it was like … meh! But yesterday, it was definitely enjoyable. It was fun seeing numerous riding acquaintances from various cycling groups – people I haven’t seen in a long time.

The Woolies

Can’t say enough about using a (merino) wool base layer this time of year. It’s absolutely the perfect material. It keeps you warm, yet it doesn’t hold moisture, so you don’t get the evaporative cooling effect that makes you feel cold after you take your jacket off – but you also don’t overheat, even after the temps warm up later in the morning.

I wish I’d known about this years ago – I learned this trick from the double century riders. So much for the fancy-dancy modern materials.

Riding probably short-lived

Shoulder is ever so slowly improving, though it’s likely I’ll have another surgery this month, which means being off the bike again – right when the weather will be at it’s finest here in Phoenix. Hopefully, (hey all you grammarians, I don’t care if using hopefully in this manner is grammatically incorrect … tough doodoo), having the surgery will be a short-term setback with long-term gains.

Hmm… maybe I should put off the surgery until summer, when it gets a wee bit hot here in the Phoenix valley.

On the yoga front

I can almost do plank pose. I’m so close. All those iso-strength exercises in therapy are paying off. Downward dog is still a ways off though. It’s frustrating not being able to do many of the poses I used to do. Power class is out of the question right now. It’s shocking how limited my range of motion is. I don’t notice that much anymore, for normal, everyday activities. But it’s the attempts at yoga that are convincing me maybe surgery would be worthwhile.

Yours truly in 2005, 2/3rds the way up Grand Mesa, near Grand Junction, Colorado, on the 2005 Ride the Rockies tour. If you look closely, you can see the road we cycled up way down below. This is a tough climb. And it was hot that day – 95 degrees on top, and in the 100s after we rode back down the other side.

Went on another bike ride today, my second of the year, and second in the last six months, a whole four miles – 1/50th of a double century. Woohoo!

I discovered that I could even ride out of the saddle, and it really wasn’t any more difficult than being seated. Not that I’d want to do it very long. Overall, four miles was enough for the day. But the good news is that being on the bike didn’t feel as scary as last time. I’m still awfully cautious, though.

No doubt about it, I’m making progress.

It can’t come soon enough. The weather here in Phoenix is starting to warm up — I think it was near 80 yesterday. And that makes me want to get out and ride. I’m starting to feel even more wistful about seeing groups of cyclists ride by.

What dreams may come

Lately, I’ve been having dreams about cycling, dreams of riding in the mountains. That’s where my spirit wants to be.

One of my dreams was confused, though. In the dream I was running, and I ran 66 miles! I was supposed to be on a metric century run (62 miles), but I sorta went past the 62nd loop (apparently the track I was running on — was it a race? — was one mile long) and I did an extra four laps for the hell of it. It felt effortless.

I hope this dream was really about upcoming cycling adventures – and there is some precedent for that. I’ve been known to have dreams about running that turn out to be about cycling. A particular dream from the past comes to mind. A long time ago, back in my early 30’s, I had a dream about running up mountains, racing, I guess — and besting all my peers. Yessiree, I was an athlete. Woohoo!

It was later, once I started cycling and found myself gravitating towards hill climbing and riding in the mountains, that I realized the dream was really about cycling, and that I could ride just as strong as anyone else. Not that I was besting my peers, per se, but at least staying with them.

As the above picture shows, I’m not exactly built to be a hill-climber, and now, after being off the bike for six months, my “little ol’ belly” ain’t so little any more. But with any luck, I can make that belly shrink as the miles accumulate. Here’s hoping!

It’s yoga time!

Oh, and in other news, I went to my first yoga class in six months. I can’t do many of the poses very well, and discovered that it’s the little things that will get ya – I found it hard to push up off the floor while seated, in order to sit on two blankets folded up for height. I had to stand up first, before I could sit back down on the blankets.

But I was there, in class. So woohoo again!

Somehow, life has gotten in the way. Four  weeks later, I still haven’t even tried riding on the indoor trainer.

Well, this afternoon, I decided to do just that. And I quickly realized that my shoulder isn’t ready. Much to my suprise, it didn’t feel so hot on the trainer – there’s an uncomfortable pressure, and my shoulder feels a bit blocked up.

Then I had the idea it might be worth trying to ride out on the road. I had a suspicion things might feel better under actual riding conditions.

I went out for a one mile ride.

Woohoo! One mile! 1/200th of a double century!

And it was true, my shoulder did feel better under actual riding conditions – as long as I was coasting. But for whatever reason, pedaling constantly is not pain free. Not that it’s bad, but I can’t see riding more than a couple of miles.

That’s not the only problem. After not having ridden for almost six months – SIX MONTHS – it felt very strange being on the bike. Riding the first block was nerve racking. My bike felt “squirmy” (some of this was due to a slightly low front tire), and I felt out of balance. On top of that, I had very real fears of falling over and landing on my shoulder. And that would not be a good thing!

So, my hopes of possibly riding to AJ’s tomorrow (a twenty mile round-trip) to see my Los Freeloader friends have been dashed.

I’m just not ready for prime time.

I was going to put a map of this ride (which winds through Tempe and Paradise Valley) on this post, but alas, I wasn’t able to do the ride this year, so maybe when I find some spare time, I’ll go out and drive the course with my bike GPS and record the route, and update this post.

My wife and I took our camera with us when we were out on course, guiding the riders at two of the critical turning points along the way. But we were too busy being guides to get the camera out and take pictures. Oh well.

Instead, here’s a picture stolen from the Los Freeloaders website, taken during the annual “awards” dinner put on by this group, last October (November?):

These red and white jerseys (which many of us got for free, so we can advertise United Blood Services – we are freeloaders after all), are often seen on Saturday mornings at one of northeast Scottsdale’s most popular cycling watering holes: AJ’s at the corner of Mountain View and Via Linda, conveniently located along the popular Via Linda route. Other cycling groups frequent the AJ’s watering hole as well, most notably the Wheezers and Geezers. They often chide our red and white jerseys, calling us the “blood suckers.”

It’s all in good fun, especially since I sometimes ride with the Wheezers and Geezers as well.

Well, I sat on my bike anyway. I didn’t actually clip in and go for a ride or anything. But I can tell that day is coming, soon. I can reach the handlebars with only a bit of soreness.

A few months ago, when I started driving again, I came to the realization that the best test for determining whether I was ready for riding my bike was how well I could steer a car with my right hand. If I couldn’t steer a car without pain, then there was little reason to attempt steering a bicycle.

Lately, I’ve been able to drive almost comfortably, without pain, and can steer with my right arm only, if I want to – that is, as long as it’s not right after my physical therapy sessions. Then, my shoulder is too trashed to do much of anything for a few hours.

So, this morning, I went out to the garage and pumped up the tires on my bike. Turns out, I can easily pump them to 100 psi, and then it gets a bit dicey. My shoulder is not quite ready for the forces needed to pump a tire to 120 psi.

Even so, I climbed into the saddle and experimented with turning the handle bars back and forth. It’s not too bad. I dare say, that yes, a bike ride is soon to be in the offing.

Yay!

I was almost tempted to go out for a ride, to ride down to AJ’s (a twenty mile round trip) and see all my cycling friends. But sanity prevailed. Maybe I’ll get on the indoor trainer first, and then see how it feels next weekend.

Two Mennonites riding their bicycles down a snow-packed highway, in traffic, legs-a-pumping, lights-a-flashing.

Too bad I couldn’t get my camera out in time to get a picture as we drove past …