Riding with a racer, A crash, and damn broken spokes again

This past weekend saw some absolutely beautiful weather for riding and what did I go and do? I drank too much on Friday night so my attempt at a 30 mile ride on Saturday was riddled with a throbbing headache and all around soreness. I did make the ride anyways and felt good afterward. My band played the night before and apparently I just needed to get it out...........bad news for training. On to Sunday, I didn't drink too much Saturday and figured I'd get a ride in early afternoon but my buddy Bri who actually races road bikes called me early to do a "short" little ride. I realized that my gearing is not ideal for riding hard and fast..........ugh, we were doing about 22mph the whole time, which is about 4mph faster than what I average........good for the heart, bad for my stamina. 4 miles into what amounted to a 20 mile ride for me a car pulled left in front of us, Bri broke hard left and braked, I did the same only clipped his rear wheel and went down hard.....I bruised my poor little bottom but felt ok..........4 miles later my headache from the day before was back...........ugh, I went as far as I could but had to turn around..........I do believe I'm going to get a road bike as well..........I'm going to do the Aidsride on my fixed gear but I want to haul ass on a road bike too. Oh and yesterday I heard a pop and lost 2 spokes on my rear wheel again.........it's getting too expensive to keep fixing so I think I'm going to look into some new wheels.............damn bikes are expensive!! .........

-Duggy V.

Time to start fundraising

As daunting as the idea of riding all those 545 miles is, the harder part is thinking about Danny and I having to raise 6000 dollars........Ughhh......it is for such a great cause that I don't feel bad, I mean I'm not trying to sell candy bars to fund a trip to basketball camp (not that that's bad either, but I think the concept of the ride and the way it funds aids research is bigger) so I feel like I can really sell it, but again, asking/begging for money is tough. So, I'll be sending out my emails, and working the angles, and hopefully we can concentrate on training and our friends, colleagues, and family will help with the money side of things!

- DUG

To Davis, Too much to Drink and a hurt back

Oh man, what a ride we had on Saturday. We did critical mass on Friday night and rode around for an hour or so. At the end we decided to meet at Peets Coffee at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. I rolled up first and got some caffine in me, Danny followed and then our friend AJ. We left around 9:00 a.m. and averaged about 19 mph for the 20 mile ride. We got into Davis and headed to Crepeville for some breakfast.........Danny's back started giving him problems so we decided to walk a couple of miles to a store to get tigerbalm (and yes the label assured us there was no tiger parts in it). Now, smelling like an old man we walked back to town to have a beer. By this time Danny was in noticible pain, we encouraged him to drink a large (quart) of beer. AJ and I did the same just to encourage him..hehe..........Danny was at a point of not being able to function so we whipped out AJ's iPhone and found the nearest, and most available massuese to see if something could be done. While Danny was being worked on. AJ and I proceeded to a local pub to pass time. After quite a few Anchor Steams AJ and I were obviously drunk........probably not amusing to Danny........They told Danny he had a torn muscle in his back and that he should even attempt to make the ride home. Danny called his wife and we left him at a local Coffee shop and began our drunken fixed gear ride home..........For some reason AJ and I thought it might be funny to screw around and try tricks on our bikes, which after less than a mile, two crashes (1 each), we realized was pretty stupid...............We sobered up fairly quickly though, and made it home just fine. Moral of the story is...........hell, I don't know, other than to not drink and ride, don't ride with a hurt back, and be careful always!

-DUG

WEAK SAUCE

(Above is the route of the Aids Lifecycle)

I am surprised by the amount of negative feedback I am getting for doing the Aids Lifecycle 2009. "Why are you doing that?" "Are you crazy?" "You're dumb to do it on a fixed gear" It's not all negative feedback but a lot more than I thought I would get!

Being human, It's hard not to focus on negative feedback. I actually started to doubt my abilities to do this ride on a fixed gear. All the hills and wind is starting to become an impossible challenge in my mind. Just this past Saturday I almost didn't make the 50 mile training ride. It was irresponsible to not eat before the ride. I totally ran out of steam by 20 miles into the ride. After eating at the half way point, I felt much better, but still found myself dragging my feet and wishing I was laying down in my warm bed. I have made the ride many times before and felt great in the process. I just can't help but think that some of the negative banter I have received may have given me second thoughts while I have been training.

Boo Hoo... Sorry for this whine session... Hahahaha. It will pass, it always does! :)

-Danny

First Officially Sanctioned Aids Lifecycle Training Ride

Ok, yes, I took this image off of the web, it's not us from the ride. We met 3 folks from Sacramento who are either doing the ride this year or have done it in the past. It was quite cold at Natomas Oaks Park at 9:00am and the car full of gangster looking folks was odd, but we were pumped to do a good ride. Because it's an "official" ride we had a trained trainer with us who was required to read rules, show us hand signals, etc..........Formalities I know, but it didn't bother us. So we hit the road at about 9:30 on what was to be a 30 mile ride. After about 2 miles Danny and I realized that we wanted to go farther and faster than what was going to be the norm and so we said our good byes and shot ahead. We did our normal ride into old Fair Oaks and nestled into our favorite cafe. Funny how you can build up quite the appetite as we both had 2 orders of a breakfast sandwich special, 1 sticky bun and a large coffee.......We took it easy on the ride back and stopped off at a friends house for some lumpia and pumpkin cookies, then rode back into town. Was a fun ride, Danny learned that he should eat something before we leave or he'll run out of energy and hate life for the last couple of miles. I look forward to the next ride...........and maybe I'll get some bike related gifts from Santa??

Doug

Nature Rides rule

One of my favorite things when I'm out on a ride is the surroundings, whether it's on a trail, in traffic, or just in front of your house you are hyperaware of your surroundings. Sometimes it appears, people just leave their bike leaned against a tree and walk away because it's so beautiful. I can't wait for the Aids Lifecycle ride! 565 miles of nature, beaches, cities, towns, etc... is going to be a blast. Danny and I have a training ride this Saturday, I look forward to meeting some folks who are doing the ride that live in the Sacramento area.......Keep riding!

Doug

Fog Rides and wet cold clothes

Friday's ride to work was 12 miles of pure fog and a balmy 39 degrees........It was interesting to say the least. When your light only shines 5-10 feet ahead of you and there's fog on top of that, you don't see the bumps and piles of leaves until you are right on them.....it was actually fun, my bike is quite responsive despite the longer wheel base that French frames have (apparently roads in france are quite bumpy so French frames tend to be softer rides). There's a storm coming, I have a test for work, and my home life is hecticly turned around so I don't see a ride this weekend happening............I'm going to try and find time though........

Here's an article on French frames........http://sheldonbrown.com/kunich.html

doug