Saturday morning was another super early one thanks to our non-paying jobs as race timers. I had the alarm set at 4:30. For some bizarre reason I woke up on my own at 4:10. This race was a small one with only a little more than 100 participants. I expected it to be a pretty laid back time. Well it was laid back until I plugged in the extension cord that powers the equipment into the same outlet in the parking garage we used last year. It was dead.
Shit, that’s not good. I tried the other outlet, still dead. I ran up to the 2nd floor of the parking garage and tried that outlet, it was dead too. Now we had a problem. The race was scheduled to start in about a half hour and had nothing set up and was still looking for power. I ran around the garage looking for other outlets to try. Finally I found a live outlet at the far end of the garage. The bad news is it was about 400 feet away. Luckily I brought a few of my own extension cords with to combine with the club’s cords, we just barely had enough to make the lengthy power run.
I spent a good 15-20 minutes addressing the power problem. As a result when the race started I still did not have the timing system up and running. After the runners started I had to run over to the finish and quickly finish up. It was a bit frantic. Luckily that was the last of the drama for the race. The race went well otherwise. There were a couple chips that did not register as the runners crossed, just like there always is. Luckily with the small runner field it was quite easy to keep track of any missed reads. We were packed and out of there before 9am.
I brought the new timing system along to show some of the board members that were there. I showed off the impressive three to four foot read height as well as how easily the hardware is set up. Our only decision is which timing device we are going to go with, the small wafer that attaches to the sneaker or a 
chip that gets strapped to the ankle. The ankle mounted chip is easy to attach but they are much more expensive, need to be cleaned, present more storage issues and have lower read heights than the shoe chip. I am going to push for the club to go with the shoe based chips. My only reservation about them is the recurring issue I see every race with certain people being baffled by the process of attaching the device to the sneaker. These new chips are smaller, lighter and totally flat so I am hoping there will be less issues in that area.
After we got back and had the stuff unloaded Ali retired for her nap. In the couple hours she napped I knocked out a TON of to do’s. I won’t bore you with 
the list. After she woke up we headed outside to the garden. It was time to harvest two of our three potato mounds. As you can see we got quite a few nice potatoes out of the hills. While we were out there we harvested our remaining beets as well as a bunch of “carrots”.
Our carrots are a bit odd. If you look in the top right corner you will see the one carrot was the size of a small beet. I never have seen a carrot as thick in my life. Our carrots look like they were planted next to a nuclear power plant. They have multiple legs, bizarre shapes and in this case supernatural girth. Ali and I think the mutant carrots are the result of us planting them in an area of the garden that was not loose enough. We theorized the carrot grew downward, hit the hard, compacted earth a few inches down and was unable to grow further down. So instead the carrots grew outward. Despite the bizarre appearance the carrots taste just fine.
Last week I got a few accessories for my road bike like a set of conventional pedals to replace the shitty toe clips, a water bottle holder and a multi-function bike tool. I installed the new parts Saturday and decided to put it to the test on Sunday while Ali was at the gym. Up until this point my longest ride on the bike was a little under 4 miles. I decided I wanted to ride the bike to the grocery store and back. As far as I could recall it was approximately 7 miles each way, a huge increase in mileage. Yea I knew it may not be the smartest thing to more than triple the distance of one ride to the next but oh well. It was in my head, I needed to do it.
I packed up my back pack with a baseball hat to wear in the store to cover up my helmet hair, a small towel to wipe off sweat, a spare bottle of water and my new bike tool. I threw on a regular pair of baggy shorts and a tank top. Add a pair of sun glasses and my attire was complete, I hit the road.
The ride started out just fine, the weather was beautiful with temps in the upper 60’s to lower 70’s. When you ride a bike you get to see much more of the road in detail. Along the way I saw a twisted 6 foot long level by the side of the road, road kill, a bike chain, spilled tomatoes and oranges from the delivery trucks and even a loaf of bread that must have blown out of the back of someones truck on the way home from the store. I saw some wildlife as well like a hawk that had something that two mockingbirds weren’t happy about at all. They were diving like mad at the much larger bird. I also saw an osprey that flew off with what I assume was a fish in it’s talons.
Riding a bike in Florida isn’t all that hard, everything is flat. My breathing and heart rate was elevated but nowhere close to the levels it can be while I am running. The hard part of riding a bike for long distance is the discomfort. It didn’t take very long into the ride until the never ending rotation of positions started. I find myself switching my hand position on the handlebars all of the time so a different pressure point was used. Then there is the ass pain. A human ass on a bike seat just is not a comfortable thing, especially for long durations. As I got closer to the store I found myself raising my rear off the seat for a few seconds on a regular basis to restore the blood flow. The red lights at intersections were a welcome sight as they meant I got to stand for a few moments.
Then there is the dreaded head wind. For the first third of trip out I was into a steady head wind. It slows you down and dials up the exertion level. Since it was early in the ride I had plenty of energy to power through it. When I hit another head wind on the ride back it was not welcomed at all.
Ironically Ali was on her way back from the gym as I was riding to the store. She actually saw me turning left towards the grocery store so she pulled in without my knowledge. I was surprised when she came up from behind me with a “Hey handsome..” It was nice that she stopped. She went into the store with me where we bought the soymilk I came for as well as some spray on sunblock. Ali saw I had on the tank top and thought it would be wise for me to wear some sunblock since my skin cancer areas were all exposed. She got a kick out of spraying the cold sunblock on to my warm skin. I didn’t find it quite as funny.
Having Ali stop was nice because I was able to offload the back pack and groceries to her. I told her the ride there was a bit tougher than expected. She asked if I wanted to throw the bike in the car and ride back with her. I am sure she knew the answer before she asked. Of course I was going to ride back, it was set as a goal in my head so it must be completed. I told her I would see her in a half hour or so.
The ride back was not tons of fun. That head wind I spoke of was now amplifying the considerable burn I was now feeling in my legs and hips that are not accustomed to doing a bike riding movement for such a long time. There was a lot more hand shifting and ass adjustment on the ride back. I just kept plugging away. By the time I got back I had been out more than an hour and a half. I originally thought it would take me much less time. It felt quite good to get my ass off the bike. My legs were pretty spent as well.
Later in the day when we headed out I set the odometer on the car to measure the distance. I found out that the trip was actually about 8.5 miles each way meaning I trekked 17 miles instead of 14. No wonder it took longer than anticipated.
We thought it would be fun to take the dogs on a “trip”. Nothing gets Nicki more excited than the phrase “wanna go for a ride?” She runs around and hops up and down in excitement. We piled in the Camry and headed out. Nicki slept in the back seat while Sadie sat on Ali’s lap up front for the entire ride.
First stop was Home Depot. I needed to get a new sprinkler head, I found one sprinkler with the top blown off in the front yard that needs to be replaced. After that we all went into Pet Supermarket. We had a fun time with the dogs walking around the store checking out all of the stuff as well as the other dogs. We picked up two monster bones to keep Sadie busy.
After that I stopped at Sports Authority. Initially I planned to buy a pair of conventional spandex bike pants that have the padding in them to help alleviate ass pain issues. I was not thrilled with the typical spandex look but after enduring the ride earlier I was willing to pull on the tights. Well when I got back to the bike pants I saw they had a new invention, baggy bike shorts! They basically had a conventional bike pant sewn in as a liner with baggy shorts over top. I thought this was fantastic, I was able to pick up a pair of pockets and avoid putting my junk on display for all the world to see at the same time. Yea they cost 10 bucks more than the regular spandex variety but it was money well spent it my opinion. I can’t wait to try them out to see if they help with the level of ass discomfort.
After that we originally planned to head home but then Ali suggested that we could stop at the dog park. We hadn’t been to the dog park in years. For a little while we tried taking Nicki but she would not interact with the other dogs and instead preferred to sit up on the park bench with us. We thought that maybe with the addition of outgoing Sadie to protect her, Nicki might be more comfortable.
The park wasn’t very full, there were less than 10 dogs there. Initially Sadie and Nicki just did a lot of walking around smelling everything. I’m sure it is a dog smell nirvana. Slowly we interacted with the other dogs. Sadie was her normal outgoing self, interacting with the other dogs and people just fine. She was even running around chasing some of the other dogs. Nicki was much more cautious but she did interact with the other dogs. I think having Sadie along gave Nicki a bit more reassurance. We stuck around for close to an hour before heading home. The dogs had a very fun day.
Sunday night I made burgers for the dogs and I to cap off their day of fun. They both were tired, especially Sadie. She was uncharacteristically subdued for most of the evening. Late Sunday evening I decided to do some testing with the new Ipico system. I ran into a very odd problem that I was unable to figure out on my own. I went to bed feeling a bit frustrated.
Oh yea, Ali and I both love the new counters and sink. We still find ourselves randomly commenting how great they are even a couple weeks out.
