Jacob

I met with Jacob Rathe today. He is potentially coming to the University of Oregon next year. Man, would that be awesome!

Recent training (and lack thereof)

David, Lenny and I on Seavy Lp.

I haven’t been riding much, but the few hours per week I’ve gotten out have been pretty solid. I rode over Briggs Hill with David last Tuesday. I was surprised to see a 90 minute power of 243W- some pretty solid zone 3 work. Here’s the file on TrainingPeaks.

I got in 8 hrs last week, but only 4-5 hrs for the weeks before that. Not enough. Hopefully winter break/term will go better.

I got my socks (Woolie Boolies) from DeFeet today. They are excellent. I’m wearing them right now.

I have so much helmet cam footage and it’s so good, but I’ve been bogged down with school and haven’t posted very much. Soon! I hope! Maybe over Thanksgiving…

Stop signs

One of my friends just got a $242 ticket for slowly rolling through a stop sign on her bike at 15th and Agate. The motorcycle police pulled over two other girls right after her. I’m all for safety, don’t get me wrong. Blowing stop signs is dangerous and gives cyclists a bad reputation, but I that is too much. The Oregonian ran an article about a similar police stop-sign sting in Portland, but they gave warnings instead of handing out fines. Hmm.

PowerTap, Pictures

PowerTap is back. New bearings. Gonna go ride in a bit.

The GoPro Helmet Hero Wide camera takes good pictures too. Here’re a couple from a ride with Chris last week.

Watch out…

The situation: I was walking to the football game on Saturday. A group of girls was walking on the perpendicular cross walk. As we approached our crosswalks’ intersection, one of them said to the other three,

“Watch out for the geek,” obviously referring to me. I couldn’t believe it. Does that kind of thing actually happen? I guess so.

I’ll admit it stung a little. On the other hand, I was playing with my waterproof helmet camera, so I probably deserved it.

Video!

Lenny, David and I went to do Seavey Lp. to Dillard this afternoon. I got some sweet footage with my, umm, other helmet cam. I decided the descent on Dillard was definitely blog-worthy among the pedal strokes recorded, so here it is, plus some Modest Mouse.

Highlights of the ride also include my “throw down” against David that ultimately led to extreme blow-up-age and racing for Deer signs. I wanted to go for mailboxes too. Anyway, the Stop Ahead score was David: 1, Ivar: 1. But David cheated for his.

UO Cycling Video

Helmet cam!

I put together a little video from Saturday’s ride. My editing skills are a little rusty. More footage and more practice should help get some sweet videos rolling.

Check it out:

Caffeine.

I’m definitely back on the coffee full time now. Early class everyday combined with some stress and not-so-early bedtimes have put me into a fairly consistent slept debt. I got some solid nine hour nights this weekend, though, and I’m feeling a lot better. Makes sense.

I got hit by a girl on a bike while walking to class today. I was walking on the very rightmost edge of the sidewalk, allowing for the coolz fixie kids to roll through. Despite the ample room to the left of me, she clipped my arm as she sped by with her handlebars. She sweaved violently and went into the grass, but didn’t crash (amazingly). She said something like, “I’m sorry my bad.” Whatever. Weird. No damage to anyone.

Fischer put up my training plan. I’ve been feeling lost without it. I didn’t realize how dependent I am on that little box labeled Scheduled Workout:

I’ve been without the PowerTap for a couple weeks. It should be back next Tuesday. I wonder if the (my) numbers have changed…

Time for organic chemistry. Mmmm… enantiomers.

Crash!

Sorry for the extreme negligence in updating this-here blog. I’ve been really busy with school and cycling coordinator stuff… and just doing normal things. I’ll hopefully start some serious training for the looming 2009 road season. Sponsors, jersey design, membership dues, group orders, purchase orders, postage stamps and at least a dozen emails a day has kept me off the bike more than I’d like. And I need to get Mr. PowerTap going.

On to the goodness- my crash today. I was half a mile from home after a miserably wet hour and a half on the bike, rolling slowly down University St. towards Agate. Mr. Punk Skateboarder was in the middle of the lane. He was holding a pretty good line, so I didn’t think too much of drifting past him on the right. Right when I’m about to pass him, he turns right to get up onto the sidewalk. I lock up the brakes and scream “HEY!” but hit his board/him and go down. I did some sort of awkward roll/slide combo that left me awkwardly on the wet, dirty pavement. I laid there for a few seconds, thinking more about how unhappy I was about the cold, wet, gross pavement then how I got there. I got up and had a dangerously potent urge to scream foul things at him or hit him, but I did neither. He was apologetic. Half a dozen people were looking at me. I got up, grabbed my bike off the ground and went home. No damage to my body, no damage to my bike. Thanks winter clothing and wet pavement.

First crash of the season out of the way… woo.

P.S. My helmet camera came. The video’s a little shaky and I’ve already misplaced (not lost!) one of the important pieces… great. Anyway, there’ll be some footage around soon. I hope.