Sunday morning events

Going to bed Saturday night we had plans to go kayaking today on the Badfish Creek. Kevin had chosen this waterway earlier this season after watching a dvd of local paddles. The kids were up early and it was to be a hot day so an early start would be good. Chad was greeted in the living room by "I don't want to go." OK, now what?

I am fighting a bad cold and didn't want to do a lot of bike miles, and Chad and I went for a run Saturday morning. So Chad and I decided to go for a short mountain bike ride. The kids were invited, but declined. It was getting humid out when we started, but in the woods was still nice and cool. The trails today were really dry, cracked even at the beginning. Overall I did pretty good, after overcoming some timidness after a near crash or two. Chad took some video on his cell phone. In the future we will need to find a better camera if we want to do more. Or maybe we can borrow Zack's Flip Video Camcorder.




After riding and showering we did manage to talk the kids into going to the coffee shop for a mid morning snack. Along with my iced coffee I ordered this spectacular coconut cupcake. Yum!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

No not monster trucks, the big event last weekend was the Wright Stuff Century.

Held every year on Labor Day Sunday for the past 31 years by the Bombay Bicycle Club the Wright Stuff offers fully supported rides of 100, 65, and 30 miles.

I was up before our alarm and headed out to the kitchen to make oatmeal for Jen and I while she got dressed. The temperature was in the low 50's but was forecasted to be in the upper 70's later, so it was hard to dress for that kind of swing. We both settled on just arm warmers beyond the standard jersey and shorts. At 7am my mom came over to watch the boys ( thanks mom) and we headed to the ride start at Tyrol Basin.

When the Subaru's outdoor temp showed 46 I knew the arm warmers would not be enough. Oh well, we got our registration packets, prepped the tandem and rolled out about 7:45am. It was cold, really cold and almost immediately foggy. For 45 minutes we froze and crawled through fog so dense it was condensing on the bike and us to the point we were dripping wet. Finally the sun appeared and the fog broke up within minutes just as we started the first long climb of the day.


It didn't take long once the fog cleared to warm up. We had covered about 8 of the 26 miles to the first rest area in the fog and I was ready for some real riding. Even with the now easier route we had some bigger climbs between us and the first rest stop. One descent saw us roll past 48mph.

The first rest stop was at the Unity Church south of Spring Green,WI. We refueled on fresh fruit, bagels with peanut butter and cookies. With full water bottles we headed back to the road for more climbing.


It was another 26 miles to the second rest stop. Three long climbs had to be tackled along the way. I had done them all in past years but it was all new for Jen. The first hill went by rather quickly with some ribbing (e.g. a tandem has two engines) from other riders as we passed. We lost those riders in the next couple of miles and rode alone right to the start of climb two. We passed a single rider who then followed us up the climb into Ridgeway. Jen was ready to be done with this climb before it was done with us but we made it without much trouble. Unfortunately before climb three Jen's knee started to hurt. We made some adjustments and took the climb slow so she could rest.

The second rest stop in Barneveld, WI offered the same snacks as the first and we had a bit more to eat before the last 13 mile ride back to the start.

The highlight of the last 13 miles was the 3.5 mile downhill run. We were ready to get to the dinner at Tyrol Basin and found our second wind to push for the last few miles.

Once back we loaded the gear in the car and wiped down before changing into clean shirts. The dinner was a taco buffet, by far my favorite meal offered by this ride in the past five years. Tacos and beer, or in my case rootbeer, followed by chocolate cake while chatting with fellow riders was a nice way to end a great ride.

Next year we will tackle the 100 mile route if all goes well and we stay injury free.

Barefoot running

I took my first almost barefoot run yesterday, only 2 miles just to see how it would feel. Over the weekend I purchased a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. I found the KSO model to fit my foot the best and Kevin approved the blue camouflage color. They are as barefoot as I'm interested in going.

So my review after two miles is that running with minimal shoes felt good. The trail running was great, I felt barefoot without the pain of being poked by rocks and sticks. On the road it was clear that I already land mostly on the middle of my foot not my heel, which I guess is a good thing. No pain today and looking towards going again soon.

Further information can be had by listening to some episodes of The Runner's Roundtable and Phedippidations podcasts also the book Born to Run seems to be popular.

Only six days in...

Zack had an incident at school today. I guess a ball got in his way on the playground and the ball won. Down he went putting out his hands to break his fall. I got the call, his hand just didn't look quite right, not to mention all the cuts and road rash on his knees and arm.

So off to the doctor for x-rays. He was strong and did a great job, like a real pro by the time the second set of x-rays was developing. No broken bones after the first look by radiology. So now he gets to sport a lovely splint while the soft tissue of his thumb and wrist heal.

Toughest boy in the first grade.

Menu sampling

Chad and I spent the morning marking part of the course for the Bombay Bicycle Club Wright Stuff Century that takes place tomorrow. We had new tape arrows to use this year instead of pound in wooden signs, but it still took just as long. I always worry about people tampering with the course marking, you know those bike haters out there thinking they will have a little fun messing with us. There will always be a possibility for course tampering unless you have someone staked out by each turn, so I only hope everyone has something better to do tonight than mess with an organized group ride route.

After the marking we got the kids and planned on going in to Madison for the Taste of Madison. We stopped by Rutabaga on the way downtown. Chad was looking to try on a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes to try out barefoot running. He tried on similar shoes the last two times we have been in Door County but at that time it was just because he thought they were cool, not for barefoot running. Barefoot running is a theory that athletic shoes are changing our bone and muscle structure and running barefoot is more natural. He found a pair at Rutabaga that fit good, and Kevin said the blue ones were cool.

Once we were parked closed to the Square we picked a side to start the feasting. There are many vendors most of whom are restaurateurs from Madison and the surrounding area. Each stand offers three or more choices from their menus in sampling sizes. Chad and I like to try things that we normally would not order, but the kids pick their favorites like pepperoni pizza and chocolate chip cookie from Old Chicago. Chad doesn't always pick a lot of stuff because he tends to finish whatever the kids or I don't eat. I call him my human garbage can. Chad had some ribs, I had some scallops. We shared a dish that sounded like dessert but had chicken in it. Chicken B’stilla from Casbah Restaurant. It had cinnamon, almonds and a flaky pastry with chicken filling. The highlight of the sampling was Mac-n-Cheese with Bacon Bites from Bluephies. They were breaded and fried balls of just like the name says, macaroni and cheese with bacon bits. We had to order two to share with everyone and the kids made us promise to take them to the restaurant sometime for a full order. While waiting for Chad to get Zack a snow cone the kids came up with a name for the meal we were having since it was mid afternoon. They said if breakfast and lunch is brunch then we were eating lupper, since it was between lunch and supper. Everyone had their fill of lupper when we left.

The popular Mac-n-Cheese Bacon Bite

Chad sporting his new Fatcyclist t-shirt from Twin Six

My human garbage can

Is it fall?

This last Sunday felt like October not August. The Weather Channel said it was 49F when I got up, really I just rolled over to grab my iPod Touch and wait for the bad news. We were headed off to get some miles in on the tandem with the Bombay Bicycle Club.

I quickly got my Pearl Izumi bib knickers and long sleeve jersey on, topped for the time being with a fleece jacket and hat. Finally warm I headed out to load the gear and tandem into and on my Subaru Baja. After a small breakfast we headed out.

We pulled into the town of Paoli with plenty of time to spare and got out to find it was really cold with the wind blowing steadily. Turned out the vest for Jen and my jacket I'd grabbed just in case were very necessary. We went and got our map for the 54 mile route deciding, along with a friend we were riding with, that would be plenty and waited for the ride to begin.

This ride was different than most Sunday rides, this week the ride leader was hosting a picnic at his farm. After a short talk on road conditions the group rolled out to the west. We were dropped by the fast group within a couple of miles. They may have needed to push hard to generate body heat since many were only in shorts and short sleeved jerseys. Our ride went well out to the farm, small hills and a tailwind made for some easier cruising. We caught another group of three riders before reaching the farm and the six of us rolled down the long gravel drive.

The ride is called the Watermelon Ride but what we found was a long table of fruit, veggies, chips, pasta salad and drinks. Our group was the first to arrive followed shortly by two other bikers, one of which was Mike the ride leader and owner of the farm. We sat eating and chatting for a half hour or so before heading back to the road.

The wind was going to be a pain all the way back to the car. With only two bikes in our group, drafting or a paceline was hardly worth it. Maybe half way back we were overtaken by the fast group. No chance we could hang on to that crew, so quickly we were a group of three again. We figured that they had skipped the farm picnic, Jen had seen one of them at a store in Monticello, WI. I had mixed feelings about the bypass they had done. On one hand the ride leader had gone to a lot of work to provide a nice lunch for whoever wanted to stop by and I wondered if having a large percentage of the group skip would be insulting. On the other hand at least some of the same riders that skipped the farm were shockingly rude at the start of the ride during the announcements so maybe they weren't missed.

We made it back to the start feeling more tired than we expected thanks to the headwind. Hopefully the weather will warm up. We still have two big rides planned in September plus two rivers we want to paddle.

The Fire Muster

Ok, so this isn't a normal Saturday for us. This past weekend was the fund raiser for the local fire department, also where Jenny works full time as a firefighter/EMT.

The big activity for the boys was the kids waterfights. Kevin against Zack doesn't seem fair and in big brother style Kevin cut Zack no slack in a 3-0 match.















Jenny was the Incident Commander at an extrication demonstration later in the day. Being the IC doesn't look like near as much fun as getting to cut the car apart.


The rest of the day and night was filled with music from a few different bands, food and for some lots of beer. Jen and I got home about 1am, the boys spent the night with grandma. I'm sure glad the fund raisers are only twice a year.