Oh how I would love to be a Plain Pedaler

I did Pedal the Plains the first year in 2012.  It was remarkably well organized for its first year, most likely because they have gained some knowledge and experience from the Ride the Rockies series of tours.  I really wanted to do it the second year, but couldn't due to my trip to Oregon for Cycle Oregon.  But this year really looks interesting in particular to me, as they are heading up to the northeastern part of the state, venturing through Ft. Morgan, Sterling and Wiggins.  Those towns were once home to huge sugar mills, but since then have had to redefine some of their agricultural offerings.  In spite of this sugar crash, the towns all have respectable populations on their own, and local economies based not just in agriculture, but also education.

So imagine my delight when I saw the contest to become a Plains Pedaler.  Instead of paying to do the tour, I can have my entrance fees paid, and do what I was going to do anyway, tell you all online how awesome it is.  Plus, it will give me an opportunity to see Colorado's sexiest governor, John Hickenlooper in his spandex, visiting his constituents.

I'll keep you posted, but fingers crossed, you will all be riding behind me tandem in September, pedaling the plains.

2013 Cycle Oregon (The Week Ride)

Few places in America give Colorado a run for it's money in terms of natural beauty.  One of those places would be Oregon.  Most people think of the entire state of Oregon as tucked away in the sleepy, rainy part of the Pacific Northwest were hipsters go to retire, but Oregon has several different ecosystems.  Cycle Oregon's route this year took us through the Eastern part of the state, which is arid, and mountainous with large sweeping desert prairies.  In other words, not entirely unlike the Colorado front range:

My mom had never been to Oregon, so she signed up to do this ride with me.  In early September, we jumped in the car, and did the 1,000 mile ride across the Mountain West to John Day, OR. When she found out that the route would basically take us through what looked like Eastern Colorado, she said, "I came here to see a different ecosystem, call me when you're done with this ride." and got in the car and headed west. 

And yes, the ecosystem was not quite what we were expecting,  but it was a beautiful, late summer ride.  If you do it, you can expect really any kind of weather, being that it is high altitude, high latitude, and only a few hundred miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.  Fortunately, we were spared any rain, but there were a few days that were oppressively hot.  Even if the ride is flat, riding 90 miles in the desert can make one exhausted.  Oh, and since we are riding through the desert, don't forget, it gets cold at night.  Bring your sleeping bag that is rated down to 10 degrees, and lots of layers!   Oregonians take their cycling culture very seriously.  And no where was it more apparent than in the management of the Cycle Oregon event.  In previous rides, I may have ridden from town to town, reveling in the local night life, and even feasting on a local dinner.  The rides really were a way to bring money into a local economy.  In this cycling event, towns were few and far between.  In fact, there were many places where Cycle Oregon had to bring the town to the riders.  One night, lacking an overnight layover, Cycle Oregon leased a farmer's pasture, and brought their own food, showers, entertainment and beer and wine.


Sometimes Oregonians take their cycling culture too seriously.  I met lots of Oregonians on the trip, most friendly, but some that clearly had to prove they were taking this hobby to a level you'd never seen.  I would be bossed around by extreme riders who didn't like if I was riding cautiously on the right down a mountain pass (just had a concussion 6 months ago, still a little jumpy about that, sorry!) Our sponsor bike shop had a segment in the afternoon called, "Ask a bike mechanic." And a lot of the answers to questions were ironic.  And while we'll never have to question who the coolest bike mechanic is on the tour, those kind of answers lack heart and soul that brings us all together.  Which is really a shame, because in spite of that, the mechanics working for him as support on the tour were really decent salt of the earth type people.

Cycle Oregon entertainment stage

And as you'll see in the pictures below, it was not ONLY desert on Cycle Oregon. Yes, there was quite a bit of it.  But there was also a decent amount of mountain passes and alpine ecosystem.  I heard this was one of the flatter rides, and with that in mind, if you do it, you'll still want to train adequately.  There were a sufficient number of days with over 3,000 feet of climbing.  Depending on where you live, this may or may not sound like much of a challenge, but 3,000 feet is not insignificant, and you'll probably want to plan a route at least once a week in your training so you can understand what it feels like to do that level of climbing.  You also want to get comfortable with the downhill portion, which is exhilarating, but can also be a little frightening if you're not used to long, steep descents. 

It's not just desert in Oregon, lots of ranches too

The cost of this ride is $895.  For the price of admission, you will receive a nice place nightly to pitch your tent, three square meals (with vegetarian options), remarkably well-supported rest stops, and showers. This is probably one of the pricier rides, but in my opinion was well worth it.  Going in-between desolate mountain communities requires a higher level of support, from sag wagons carrying ill-prepared cyclists, to finding a sponsor willing to hand out so many fizzy electrolyte tablets and goo packets to athletes. Oh, and one huge benefit to bringing the town to the cyclists: for the first time ever, I was able to have a glass (or bottle, don't judge) of wine with my dinner at camp.  Widmer Brothers also had a wide variety of beers to enjoy after a nice long ride, which, I'll be honest, I was always craving at the end of a ride. 

Lastly, I'll say they did do a good job of capitalizing on the natural scenery, entertainment and culture of the area. The ride took us through quite a few National Forests, Wildlife Refuges and even a natural hot springs.  Nothing feels better after a long ride than a communal soak in some hot medicinal waters. 

A natural hot springs in the middle of a ride?  A great place to rest your legs!

Nutrition and weight loss in those winter months

Most cyclists, myself included, ride to eat.  There's really nothing that feels better than getting to spend your summer months riding your bicycle, all weekend, then going out to lunch with friends and asking if they are going to finish that bread, or those nachos, or even waving the waiter down for that third margarita.

This year, however, winter came a little early to our household, and when it came time to put the bikes away, those cravings did not subside.  Couple that with the stress of buying a new home and moving.  Throwing a large Christmas party, and the result was that by the end of January, we could barely even fit into our fat pants.  I knew something had to change.

About that same time, I had a day off and was watching Doctor Oz.  He was unveiling his new 2 week rapid weight loss plan.  The plan which is here, boasts that one can lose an average of 9 pounds in two weeks by simply eliminating a few items from one's diet.  Those items are gluten, dairy, caffeine, alcohol, refined sugars and fun (just kidding about the last one).  The only exception to the dairy rule being greek yogurt. I already knew for a while we needed to start a diet, but had hesitation starting because giving up that after work beer or glass of wine was so challenging.  Then Dan had to go on a round of antibiotics due to an ear infection.  We figured that we may as well seize the opportunity and try the diet out.

The diet starts every morning with a berry smoothie, recipe here. Which in my opinion wasn't half bad.  Locating the ingredients can be a little bit of a challenge, but if you're local to Colorado, you'll be happy to know that King Soopers carries both the brown rice protein powder, and ground flax seeds.  I didn't really believe them when they said the smoothie would keep me full until lunch, but it did do the trick for 3 hours.

The rest of the day, you plan your own recipes, making note to exclude the danger items (dairy, gluten, etc) and capping your grains at 1/2 cup of brown rice, and 6 oz of lean protein daily.  As a bonus, you can include as many low GI vegetables as you want.  And the doctor encourages you to snack on things with healthy oils in moderation. Really it's that last part that kept me from having hunger pangs at all.  I love avocados, hummus, and pistachios, so having those as a go to for a quick snack was a huge help.

The first 3 days, I stepped on the scale and I had lost a total of one pound.  This is when I thought, "Well this is kind of stupid."  I actually almost gave up, my brother was going to have an outing at a Belgian brewery, and that definitely tasted better than this version of thin felt.  But Dan came along for support.  Knowing that he couldn't drink either was a big help, and we ordered veggies and hummus along with some mussels for lunch.  In the days to follow, the diet became easier to follow, and the weight began to pour off.  By day 9, each of us were down 9 pounds.  I also noticed a lot of auxiliary benefits to the plan.  I was able to stop a heartburn medication I'd been taking for 5 months, as the symptoms went away.  I was able to wake up at 5:30 am for work, instead of hitting the snooze bar multiple times.

The hardest part I think for people online is finding recipes.  I'll help you by giving you a couple of recipes I found, along with a couple of my own:

Turkey/Lettuce Wrap Tacos
6 oz Ground Turkey Meat
1/2 cup water, divided into 1/4ths
1 tbsp Taco Meat Seasoning recipe here
1/4 Chopped Jalapeño (optional)
1 Medium Tomato
2 tbsp Prepared Salsa
2 tbsp Guacamole (recipe follows)
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
1 oz Daiya non-dairy cheese (optional, but I liked the added texture)
3 Romaine or Bibb Lettuce leaves

In a frying pan, add turkey and 1/4 cup water, brown turkey meat until water evaporates.  Drain any excess grease.  To the pan, add your chopped jalapeño, taco meat seasoning and 1/4 cup water to the cooked turkey meat, remove from stove when meat is fully cooked and seasonings are well mixed.

From there, use your lettuce leaves as a taco shell, and build the tacos, with meat, salsa, tomato, guacamole, greek yogurt and non-dairy cheese.

Guacamole recipe
3 large avocados
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp finely chopped white onion
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
1 tbsp finely chopped jalapeño
Juice from 1/2 lime
1/4 tsp kosher salt (or more to taste)
1/4 tsp black pepper

Mash avocados, until they are to the consistency you prefer, then add in all the ingredients and stir.  Once all the ingredients are well-mixed, you may want to let the guacamole sit for a couple of minutes before serving, to ensure the flavors meld together.


Another recipe I enjoyed making was Chicken Tikka Masala Kebabs (a slight adaptation on the recipe given here)
2 bamboo skewers
6 oz of chicken cubed into squares
3/4 tbsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp sweet hungarian paprika
4 oz greek yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 lemon - half cut into round slices, the other half for juicing.
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 tsp mild curry powder
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp garam masala

In a bowl, first combine your red pepper, and paprika with a tbsp of warm water.  Once the spices absorb the water into a paste, mix in the yogurt, olive oil, vinegar, tomato paste, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, lemon juice garlic, curry power and turmeric until you have a well combined marinade.  Stir in the chicken and cover the chicken with sauce.  Cover and refrigerate the mixture for one hour.
After marinade has set for an hour, preheat oven to 400 (or use a grill for summer cooking).  While oven is heating, put chicken pieces on skewer.  Garnish each end of the skewer with lemon slices.
Grill chicken for 30 minutes in oven (or until done on grill).
Serve with cardamom, vegetable broth rice.

Cardamom-Vegetable Broth Brown Rice
1 cup brown rice
2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Place brown rice in a sauce pan over medium, tossing the rice frequently for 2 minutes to allow the rice to release an aroma. Slowly add 2 1/4 cups vegetable broth (do this slowly, as the pan will be hot, and you will have some sizzle/steam release into the pan!). Stir in ground cardamom and bring to a boil.  Once the mixture is boiling, reduce to medium low heat, and cover.  Cook approximately 30 minutes.



Here are some other recipes I enjoyed:
Spaghetti Squash with Paleo Meat Sauce
Very Green Lentil Soup

Best wishes for health to you!

The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure (2013)

After my lengthy cycling injury, I had to make the tough call as to whether or not I proceed with my plans to ride with my superstar cycling team in June.
It wasn't just the injury either.  I had taken on a lot at work this summer with a large project, and no help.  So the reality was, I hadn't trained a bit, and even forty miles on flat terrain was a push for me.
But I paid $260 for this ride (probably the lowest of any 7 day ride I've ever signed up for).  And do I quit when the going gets tough? That was a resounding NO!!!
Plus, there were two things working for me.  I had a team, a group of friends that I had known from previous rides, that would be my cheerleaders, and also, knowledge of the fact that Ohio (and this ride in particular would be flat.
So I got in my car and made the two day journey to Ohio by way of I-70 from Colorado.  It was a two day journey, and my first time in the state.  I'm sure you won't be shocked, when I tell you I saw a lot of this:

The tour goes through a lot of rural, Western Ohio, by way of old state and county roads (and yes, a few bike trails).  Keep in mind, that even rural Ohio is pretty populated, and you won't go halfway through a ride without a stop in a town with a Subway, or a Quick Stop. So, despite the fact that meals weren't included in the $260 admission price, there was plenty of support on the ride.  

This was also one of the first rides that I had done that had optional days.  That is, on some days, your beginning and ending point are the same.  So for those that don't feel like they have as much to prove, they can take a break and tour some of the sights of Western Ohio.  One of our riders did tours of the Airstream Camper Assembly plant, the Kitchen Aid factory, and even did an airplane tour.  Admittedly, these are not things you would probably plan on seeing in your lifetime, but since you are there, they are kind of cool to see. 

You'll also be delighted by other hometown curiosities.  For example, in the city of Troy, an artist made real-life sculptures throughout the town.  It was pretty cool to go out and see catch a photo of them all (like real life Pokemon).  

The ride itself has gathered quite a following in Ohio, as evidenced by the multitude of people who were making this ride their 5th, 10th, and 15th GOBAs.  However, it's not my style (or my level of paid time off) to repeat a ride.  

All in all, this was a laid back relaxing tour of the country.  Not too hot, and actually not very rainy either.  You'll probably make some new friends.  You'll definitely find a place to have a beer.  And if the going gets too tough, you'll probably be able to take a day or two off.  

This ride would be great, if I could just find my BLACK bag. 

The importance of good safety equipment

Folks, today I'd like to talk to you about something that I hope you never need to use, but you should always have: Good safety equipment.

When you're in your car, you are protected in so many ways: seatbelts, airbags, oh and lets not forget the 3,000 pounds of metal surrounding you.

But, when you're on the open road, there is not a whole lot separating you from the open road below you.  And even if you aren't going that fast, it doesn't take much to really do harm. In fact, let me give you a little testimonial.

Last Wednesday, I was having a very stressful day at work.  Lots of looming deadlines on projects, I got "the business" so to speak from one of my IT partners. Then I came home and got news that one of my family members is severely ill, and we aren't sure how much longer he will have.  I decided to do a bike ride to relieve myself of some of that stress so that I could continue on my day and be helpful to those around me.

I went west on a beautiful trail west of Arvada.  Before I hit the foothills, however, I was surprised by a rain/snow/hail mix on the trail. Had I been better prepared, I would have brought a pull-over to keep myself warm.  But I didn't, so I felt the need to hurry home more.

While I was hurrying home, I went down a road with some railroad tracks that were placed at a steep angle relative to the road.  I was probably only going about 13 miles per hour at the time, but my tire got caught in the tracks and I was thrown about five feet off my bike. Fortunately, it is a well-traveled road, and within seconds, three motorists stopped to help me and called an ambulance for me.

I was under a lot of shock and so it took me a second to get my barings with me.  But when I finally did, I realized both my head and my right side took the brunt of the incident.  The EMT came to check me out, and thanked me for wearing my helmet.  Upon further inspection, the right side of my helmet caved in.  I had a pretty significant black eye, but that was nothing compared to what my helmet went through.

They cleared my back for injury, and took me to the emergency room to get CT Scans and X-Rays, just to make sure there were no other problems. Fortunately for me there weren't.  No concussions, no broken bones, just a ton of road rash.

When the nurse came back to wash my wounds, I had the deepest wounds on my hands (remember, the other part of my body that took the brunt force of the fall).  And while the wounds were deep.  Thanks to the gloves, they were mostly clean, and should heal nicely in spite of their size.

So always, ALWAYS wear your helmet.  Think of it this way: If you paid a lot of money for college, think of the $100 helmet as protecting your investment.

Also, the cycling gloves did save me from any additional pain and scarring to my hands.

The lesson here is, stay safe, stay covered, and enjoy your ride!!!

Ohio Bound

So it's official, I'm registered for the Great Ohio Bicycle adventure in June.

I'm excited to get one more state done in my quest to bicycle all 50 states.  I'm not sure how challenging it will be however, as I've never been to Ohio.

Winter time is always a time of reflection for me, and not nearly as much riding. December has been unseasonably warm in Colorado, however, it's not without it's problems.  The snow comes, albeit sporadically, and the constant freeze and thaw leads to icy patches which are dangerous to traverse on a road bike.

I do have a mountain bike for such things, which I should probably get out today.

I will keep you posted on my training.

Meetup Groups: Your Mileage May Vary

I was interested in finding a way to increase my cycling time, and meet new people.  That's when a friend suggested I look into meetup groups. 
For those of you not familiar, I am talking about the site meetup.com.  This is a site where you look for users with similar interests, and meet up across town.  They have groups on everything from dating to cars to fitness.  But I will focus today on cycling.  I joined a cycling meetup group and waited for someone to organize a ride.  Within a week, another user had posted a 50+ mile ride around Denver.  It was on a Saturday, with planned good weather.  So I loaded up the bike and headed down to Southeast Denver. 

A beautiful scene from Cherry Creek State Park, part of our meetup route.

What Meetup is:
1. A good, low pressure way to meet up for a ride, stick with the riders, talk with riders, ditch the riders, whatever gets you the most out of your experience.  If you like the social aspect of meeting other cyclists, we had up to 15 with us at one point.  It's a pretty loosy goosy organized ride, so if you get tired, no big deal, turn around and go back to start.  At one point we were down to 5 riders.
2. A good way to get some experience riding in a larger group, and drafting. When you train for bigger rides alone, you neglect the impact of climbing a hill in a group.  Consider what it will be like if you have to climb that hill, and you're a little wobbly, with 10 riders surrounding you.  Well good news, now you're in a group, so you'll get that practice!
3. The best of cycling culture.  You will share snacks, sunscreen and tubes with your new found friends. 


What Meetup is not:
1. This is not a recommended dating service (unless you join one of the dating meetups).  Every guy on this ride was married or had a girlfriend. Even for grins, I chatted up the lone lesbian in the group, (hey, in the event I ever wanted to swing that way!) she had a girlfriend too. 
2. A professionally organized tour.  The person setting this up, bless him, is going to organize the best route he can, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily done the route before, or could get confused finding roads or even - eek! put you somewhere that isn't really safe (like on the shoulder of Arapahoe road during rush hour traffic)
3. This is not always the best of cycling culture: Ok Lance, I'm impressed that you powerfully climbed up that hill.  You know what would be more impressive?  Not telling me I needed to ride behind you because I'd get tired.  I passed you and left you behind because I spend a lot of time cycling.  Remember when you told me the biggest ride you did was 50 miles.  Well not to brag, but I've done twice that, in the mountains. Oh and by the way your average 15 mph pace is my 13 mph pace.  But guys lie about size all the time.