Alaskan Pack Fodder

Yesterday I sold a bike. I built up the Russian titanium frame and sold it at the bike swap. To be honest, given the amount of new parts on it, a little math would probably reveal I practically gave it away. That's why I don't keep records of what I spend on most projects. I just don't want to know. Hopefully the new owner will ride the hell out of it and enjoy it.     That's really what's it's all about, and that's a lesson I never seem to learn. I just want more.    I've been looking at Moots frames all over the place. Specifically Moots Compact and Compact SLs. I don't need another one. I now have two, in addition to the Vamoots RSL.     The first Compact is the only bike I've actually melted into. I've come close before, but somehow through dumb luck I've managed to hit on a combination that just works for me in a way that no other has before. It just feels "right", and I'm smitten. Other than the odd component in ...

It's been a while. A lot has happened. Not much has happened.    I retired from the Air Force. I pretty much immediately started working for a defense contractor on remote radar sites. How remote? Well, when this picture was taken at Point Barrow, I was the most northern roadie in the United States. Maybe North America. I bought a beat up Ritchey BreakAway CX, had it powder-coated, and built it up in a minimalistic way for trainer-only use to save weight. It's worked well, so maybe I can stay in some sort of shape in my new life. Race shape? That remains to be seen, but at least I'm moving. If the physical and emotional trauma that is the travel trailer project currently dominating my driveway has taught me anything, it's to never stop moving.    I'm very, very heavy. I may not look it, especially compared to my current co-workers, but I am. The fat sits around my waist like an inner tube, and I'm not sure I've completely accepted what the scale tells...

I doubt anyone is left reading this blog after my extended absence, and I wouldn't expect them to be. A few spambots and the occasional casual browser will pass through like tumbleweeds through a Sears parking lot, and that's about it. It seems depressingly fitting. Nothing lasts forever, and things just run their course until one day they're demolished to make way for a Starbucks or microbrewery. One day Google will decide that blogs are a horrible waste of bandwidth, and just like that years of posts will disappear- no bulldozer required.   Meh.   I'm riding again, although with no real regularity or sense of purpose. When I feel like riding, I ride. When I don't or something else interferes, I don't. I admit that I feel a bit like a failure in this regard, but that's a conditioned response. Years of riding in one way or another five or six days a week will do that to you.   My power is way down. I can't sustain what I...

I haven't ridden my bike in over a month.   My life is dominated by this fucking travel trailer. Every day I do some amount of work on it, usually spending 4-14 hours a day. I want it gone, but I committed to the project. I'm stuck in the worst possible way, so I have no choice but to put my head down and try to see it through.   There was a double-header TT/road race at Point Mackenzie I missed because I was working on the camper. The Tour of Anchorage starts in less than two weeks. For the third year straight, I will not be riding it. The Spring Stage Race was the end of my racing season. Over before it started.   I constantly ache. Not that good sort of ache from a block of training or a long, hard ride, but rather the ache of too many hours with power tools and hammers. My back stiffens up from the constant up and down required by construction. The joints in my fingers and arms won't flex some days. My hands are a mass of cuts and abrasions. I'm destroying ...

I haven't ridden my bike in a week.    Every day I get home from work, quickly change into my crusty clothes. and go out and work on the latest project.    Another fucking canned ham travel trailer. I'm an idiot.    This one is by far my most ambitious and stupid project yet. It's a 1968 Aloha 16T Custom- sorta. Actually it's a good trailer frame, some windows, and some aluminum siding. All of the wood is rotten and is being replaced. All of it, down to the floorboards. All of the appliances are being replaced. I'm not kidding.   I have a large dumpster in my driveway that is almost completely full of rotting wood and other junk that used to give the camper its shape. The aluminum siding and roof are currently laid out neatly, killing my lawn. Choice pieces that I want to retain for reference or to reuse somehow are under plastic up against the garage.   I've already framed out the wall panels with new lumber. I'...

Yesterday, a mile and a half into my ride, I hit a sharp rock thoughtfully deposited by one of the many dump trucks roaming the base with no identifiable purpose. I swapped in the spare tube, puffed it up with CO2, and was off in relatively short time to continue on my way.    Today, before my ride, I replaced the spare tube in my saddle bag, because you never know. Plus, the rear tire was looking a bit square, which indicates the center section is probably just about down to the cords.    I set off into a mild headwind, and had a marvelous ride. For some reason the legs could respond when I asked them to, and I was able to sustain more wattage than I normally do on sections. On the last third, I caught a nice tailwind and was flat out hauling.    So, a mile and a half from the end of my ride, I hit a sharp rock placed there specifically for me by my dump truck friends . Not one flat, but two. I pulled out the front tube, found a pair of pinch-flat ho...

I've been thinking about this a lot lately.    When looked at objectively, I don' t really train anymore. What I do is ride around and pretty much do whatever I feel like and then download it into some tracking medium. If I'm really feeling disciplined (rarely happens), I'll plan out a week or so of rides ahead of time. Then I'll go in later and edit them to match whatever it is I did during a particular ride, giving the outward impression that I planned it this way all along.   Years ago, I used to use Garmin's online application to track my ride data. Then I added a spreadsheet calendar and WKO+. Eventually I dumped the Garmin application and spreadsheet, which was getting progressively less functional and moved onto TrainingPeaks, with a local backup in WKO+. When WKO was updated, all of the features confused my unfrozen caveman mind and I retreated to TrainingPeaks, where I've been ever since.   So, I've been paying for a training progra...