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.