I Opened a Local Bike Shop Specializing in Randonneuring

Then I woke up, and realized I was in Madison, Wisconsin. I don't own a bike shop, but I did stumble upon this Williamson Bicycle Works (my name is Williamson) in my travels. I'll bet actually owning a bike shop is a pretty tough row to hoe these days.

Below is the sorry photo I took of the actual shop I saw. I didn't realize they had two locations, and the lovely photo from their website above is obviously the more beautiful shop.

I also discovered a local fried fish shop where I got dinner. Yum. I had wondered why there were so many varieties of fried fish until I remembered the Great Lakes. Now, I just have to find some of that squeaky cheese or Wisconsin Cheese Curds. In that wiki story they allude to a New York Times story about how the sound of eating cheese curds is like "balloons trying to neck"! First I heard of them was yesterday from a local who told me you have to get them fresh to experience the squeak.

So off I go in search of fresh and therefor truly squeaky cheese!


Keep it squeakin'

CurioRando

Fall City, Granite Falls, Falling in Love with Fall, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a post I began months ago. For a refresher of Part 1, please go here. Hint, there were cool pictures of horses' heads poking out from a barn.

Given it has been so long since the earlier post, this post will be a little disjointed. Mainly pictures.

Do Woolly Worms predict Winter's severity? I sure don't know, but I wasn't taking any chances. I avoided every one I came across. Then, I got down for a closer look. Legend has it that it is the size or color of that middle band that is the tell-all. Clearly, this one has a rather funky middle band, don't you think?

Eventually, I figured why not just ask him/her. This tiger moth caterpillar, the proper term, didn't answer but just balled up when I queried. Maybe that is the answer. Maybe he/she was telling me I better curl up this year. I don't have a control from another milder year to compare/contrast, so who knows? Now that we've had our Winter, mostly, did this little furry guy correctly predict for us?

These fellows weren't saying either.

OK, if you squint and look for two narrow reddish-orange fishy-looking things in the middle of this photo you'll spy two spawning Sockeye salmon. They certainly know Winter is on its way, whatever the severity.

At the Alaska in Pictures website, they have this picture below of a spawning Sockeye.

Fall Flowers.

But here, I do remember what I was going to say. This is the Skykomish River looking downstream toward Two Bits, an old Steelhead fishing hole of mine and many others.

Here's the Sky looking upstream. All this Fall day moodiness and fishy-smelliness reminds me of my old fishing pal, Boz (no, I didn't mean to say he is moody or fish-smelly). Sadly for me, he moved to New York. It was understandable, as he and his wife needed to be back East with grandkids and such. But I sure do miss fishing or plotting to go fishing or reminiscing about fishing with Boz.

Remember these old Northwest, fishy haunts, Bozzie? Of course you do. You are nothing if not a genuine adventure-is-just-around-the-corner kind of guy. I love that spirit, and we had some times together. I learned Steelhead fishing at your wadered knee, and I loved it all. Best to you and yours in New York. And don't bother with getting all the facts straight as you regale your kith and kin of all your Northwest fishing legends. Facts don't matter, but the spirit of exploring our natural world with good friends sure does! Tight lines, buddy!

 Here, I came along this beaver-chawed tree right along the roadside. I guessed the "X" meant this tree was designated by the authorities for removal. Or could it be the beavers mark their trees first?



Here is my bike for scale. This is one large tree this ambitious beaver was taking on. On a later ride, the tree was gone, neatly sliced off by a chain saw. Efficient, but not nearly as charming.

Keep it spirited,

CurioRando

The Hills of Pittsburgh

This is Dan of the blog ranDanneuring. As you can see he's at the top of one of Pittsburgh's hills, Mt. Washington maybe?

I checked out his blog the other day, and his Ground Hog Day post has a great video from a TV show on WQED TV. This is the public station I was weaned on, so it was cool to see. But the video is fantastic.

I will say no more but you ought to check it out. And you gotta love those Pittsburgh accents!

Here's the video. I hope yunz enjoy it.


Keep it climbing,

CurioRando

Indians on Indian Cycling Phenomenon

Rohan Kini owns a the local bike shop in Bangalore, and I tried visiting with him on our last trip. Sadly, we missed him. He tweeted about the latest story in the Financial Express called "Wheels of Change".

To get Indians sense of the state of cycling in India today, it is a good read.

I Got the Call: "You're Going to Wisconsin, so Pack Your Randonneur Woolies!"

As you might imagine of a lifelong trade unionist, I was ready for that call. Wisconsin is now emblematic of the struggle between corporate powers--like the Koch brothers--and working people. I wanted to be in the thick of it. This is a struggle without borders. Folks are flocking to Wisconsin from all over joining the tens of thousands of Wisconsin protesters, because that's how Americans have always protected our rights.

But there is a randonneuring connection for me. The randonneur who has taught me the most about randonneuring, and mostly on lonely wooded lanes during the middle of brevets and often at night, is a public sector worker. He told me about his job in the way we randonneurs do on a brevet when it's just us two. I think he and others like him are nothing short of public heroes. There just aren't many people who choose to be Special Education School Teachers in the public school system. Could you do it? Could Wisconsin Governor Walker do it?

All my life I have relied on public sector workers: teachers, of course, but also health care workers, garbage collectors, snow plowers, street workers, social service workers, tax collectors, city planners, engineers, NASA employees, the Armed Forces, forest and other natural environment protectors, letter carriers and mail handlers, food safety inspectors, parks employees, transportation workers, and police and firefighters. Apologies to all those I haven't called out here.

Where would I be without them?

This struggle has been ongoing for a long time. But the rhetoric has changed dramatically. Corporations, and in this case their Republican governors and state legislators, are blaming public sector workers for our current financial woes.

So yes, when I got the call to go to Wisconsin I took it as my very minor paying back for all the good that I have received from our collective endeavor we call democratic government and the people we hire to make that endeavor work. Damn right I'll go and protect their right to bargain collectively for their wages, hours and working conditions. I don't know a one of them that is getting rich working for...well, ultimately, working for me.

Now as to the reason for all this brinkspersonship, I think we must analyze root causes.

Does Wisconsin Governor Walker think everyone has forgotten the housing crisis that was a direct result of unfettered and unregulated greed: derivatives and the making of fortunes for a few at the expense of millions who are losing, or are in danger of losing, their homes? Or the resulting tanking of our overall economy and the acommpanying stubborn and painful unemployment? Or the serious decline in corporate taxes that are contributed to state coffers due to tax loopholes and such? Or the decline in the percentage of taxes paid by the wealthier?

Scapegoating is an old tactic, and it seems that public sector workers are now being set up to be the goat so that we'll turn away from sensible ideas like re-regulating the financial industry, closing unwarranted corporate tax loopholes, and investing in ourselves, our infrastructure and our future.

Well, we'll see. Governor Walker has been caught on tape acknowledging that he and others had considered bringing in troublemakers. The Governor of a state admits to considering bringing in agents provocateur? The American people don't cotton to elected officials who conspire or stoop to pretense.

The fact of the matter is that the Wisconsin public worker unions have agreed to all of the Governor's economic demands so that he will get his balanced budget, even though as I say they are not to blame. But to continue to insist on eliminating their rights to collective bargaining is going just way too far.

I'll have more to say about this soon (hopefully from Wisconsin), but there is another randonneuring connection. My orders to fly to Wisconsin included the following phrase: "be advised to pack warm clothes and coats !!!" I could have figured that out, but you know where my mind went: wool randonneuring clothing, baby!

Wool upper undies, CHECK!
Wool lower undies, CHECK!
Wool cap, CHECK!
Wool balaclava, CHECK!
Wool mittens with fingerless option, CHECK!
Wool glove liners, CHECK!
Wool socks, CHECK!
Wool arm warmers, CHECK!
Wool knee warmers, CHECK!
Wool iconic blue Seattle Randonneurs long-sleeved cycling jeresey...well, I think I'll keep our cycling club out of it.

In the meantime, let's take a hard look at the decline in tax revenue from corporations due to unwarranted tax loopholes that don't generate jobs. Let's remember why we're in this financial morass. And let's not let the downturn turn us into self-haters. It is We, the People, after all, not We, the Corporations.

Keep it united,

CurioRando

The Times They Are a Changin'

The times aren't really changin'. It's the sunlight at the particular times that's changin', and boy, you can really feel it now. As Dr Codfish told us Northwesterners at the beginning of this past weekend, we had great weather. Translated, that means it was sunny!

When it's dark and gloomy, a few more minutes of end-of-the-day light goes unnoticed. But when it shines, it's great, and you're reminded of how much later it remains light.

On Monday night (Presidents Day), I took off from the house at 4:30pm and returned just before 6:30pm. It was light until just near the end of the ride. I'd have never done that same ride a month ago. It wasn't like that soft, sultry June evening ride at 9:30pm, but it was delightful.

And that got me to thinking about how it was February 21, this evening ride of mine. When is it that our time springs ahead again? I know they've been messing with that (in our favor) for a while. And guess when it is this year?

March 13!

Yippee!! And the first day of Spring is March 20. Wow, this is getting great.

And on Presidents Day, the day of my evening ride, it was exactly 180 days until Paris Brest Paris. The clock is ticking, and the days are thickening!

I guess the times they are a changin'...on March 13, ready or not. I, for one, will be ready to spring ahead!

Chart courtesy of Wiki.


Keep it changin'

CurioRando

Training with LSD: Long Slow Distance

Joe Henderson wrote a treatise in 1969 promoting the promise of running long and slow and for long distances. Go slow to get fast was the idea. That's Joe, above, from his website where you can find his treatise--complete with a revised Introduction--all in one place.

Wikipedia summarizes the theory thusly:

Long slow distance (LSD) is a form of aerobic endurance training in running and cycling.^[1][2] Physiological adaptations to LSD training include improved cardiovascular function, improved thermoregulatory function, improved mitochondrial energy production, increased oxidative capacity of skeletal muscle, and increased utilization of fat for fuel.^[1] Ernst van Aaken (1910–1984), a German physician, is generally recognized as the founder of the long slow distance method of endurance training.

The theory certainly has its detractors, but I like the notion of fewer injuries and focusing on the enjoyment of one's sport rather than the pain-for-gain approaches. I'm not saying it's for everyone and certainly not claiming any proficiency about training, but I do assert it is an attractive approach.


One of the runners that Joe writes about is Tom Osler, about whom I posted here a while back. As with Tom, I was turned onto to Joe Henderson by Ian Jackson, but again, that is a story for another day.


Given that I'm of a certain age, I also enjoy the context of Joe's writing. It was a time of change, rethinking, and shatterings of the status quo. It's refreshing to me to capture that sense of all thing's possible again. Not that Joe gets into that, more that if you went through any of that time you can catch a whiff of it. Those times were certainly a counterpoint to today's days of retraction.


Joe, like Tom, writes about endurance running, but all is applicable to endurance cycling, at least I think that's true.


I'm also just now getting into this book that came out in 2007 titled Base Building for Cyclists: A New Foundation for Endurance and Performance by Thomas Chapple. He also argues that if you build your anaerobic system up by going hard all the time, you do so at the expense of your aerobic system. This is too bad, he says, because you can build and build and build your aerobic capacity over years. And once you do that, you train your body to burn fat, so that when you really need to burn carbs for anaerobic performance you've got some available to burn.


Or at least that's how I'm getting it. My response is to go even slower instead of striving harder. At least for now as I work to build that base. Again, remember I am a neophyte when it comes to all this training stuff, so use your own judgment.




Keep it challenging, but slow, man, slow,


CurioRando

I, Cyclist, Go for a Run to Cross Train Again

Here's our crew, my son Mike, DartreDame and SingingCyclist at the World Wraps after our respective runs. Dartre did the most she's done. The SingingCyclist had a fine run, and Mike and I did a walk/run combo to ease me into running.

What a beautiful, sunny day we had in Seattle today. Game night with the VARK's this evening!

According to the chart on introducing running into a cyclist's base training, I'll be doing 50% running with my walking next week.

Mike and I got new running shoes at Jock and Jill's so we toured around the Green Lake area. All the Seattlite's (two and four-legged) were out for a shot of Vitamin D today. Lovely.

Keep it sunnified,

CurioRando

I, Cyclist, Go for a Run to Cross Train

I did it! I ran!

All that talk with Duane Wright on my recent 300k and running inspiration from DartreDame got me out there running along Lake Washington. And it was good.

I liked the freedom, and the physicality of moving different muscles than I'm used to moving.

I won't go into all the reasons why cross training is alleged to be so good for athletes excepting the most popular: injury prevention. That alone is a pretty good one, but if you'd like to read a little more:

• Runner's World
• About.com Bicycling
• Easy Cycling
• Runner's World again

A few of my previous posts about cross training opportunities:

A post of mine on wood chopping.

A post of mine on Snowboarding.

A post of mine on Snow Skiing.

A post of mine on Snowshoeing.

A post of mine on Firewood Slinging.

A post of mine on Weight Training.

Wow, I had no idea I'd drilled down into this cross training idea so much. Problem is looking at that list, the only ones I have done more than a few times of late are the ones that have to do with firewood and double as chores.

Well, at least I keep my aspirations crossed and varied.

Photo courtesy of Wiki.

Keep it injury-free,

CurioRando

My Valentine: Our Cross Training Coach



My Valentine, Pramila Jayapal, with my second-favorite Cross Training Coach, Cornel West.


My Valentine is of course my wife, Pramila, also known here as DartreDame.

I call her our Cross Training coach because she trains us to synthesize what we might initially believe are disparate disciplines into a greater whole. Take her Seattle P-I column published today titled The Root Causes of Immigration. In it she links poverty, the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, agriculture, global and village economics, immigration, unionization, and our very humanity...because in fact they all are linked. I commend this column to you with enthusiasm. There is nobody putting this all together like she does.

Many find Pramila's writings, speeches and organizing inspiring. And it truly is. This ability to translate what's going on, break it down and put it back into a whole that causes folks to act with passion for the greater good is a unique gift. It is Cross Training Coaching.

But, since she's my Valentine, Dartre's also my inspiration. And for me, Dartre inspires in many ways far removed from this cross training of our intellects with our souls I've just been alluding to.

Her latest inspiration for me comes out of her recent taking up of running. It's been a trip sharing the running pains--of all kinds--that she's been dealing with as a re-athlete, much as I have had to deal with in my re-athleticism via cycling and randonnering. But every day Dartre runs, she comes back more excited, rejuvenated, committed. It is fun to be around.

So it got me to thinking...maybe I should incorporate some running into my cycling base training. No sooner did I get to thinking that very thought than I turned the page in the current book I'm reading, Base Building for Cyclists by Thomas Chapple. What did I find? Nothing other than a chart for cyclists who want to begin adding running into a cross training program.

Very practical. And humbling. Check out how slooowly Chapple encourages you to go. A whole lot of walking before ever really running much. Probably smart advice.

Well, truth be told, she did inspire me, but I haven't run at all yet. I think I'll start tomorrow. OK, by the chart that means it will be walk 5, run 3-5, walk 5, run 5. OK, got it. I'll report back later on how it went.

I am very proud of my Valentine. She is taking on tough stuff. Convincing a world that barely ever pauses that we better take stock and take action for our collective welfare. And, she's conquering her own inertia by taking stock and taking running action. Both are inspiring.

Now, I just have to keep an eye on Cornel West. He sure is holding my Valentine pretty darn close. If he weren't my second-favorite Cross-Training Coach, I'd be worried!

For more on Pramila and the organization she founded and leads, see the OneAmerica website.

Photo by Jack Storms. Check them out, great Seattle photographers!


Keep it crossed,

CurioRando