03 June 2006 - Wind, mountains, but luckilly no rain

Today started early with a co-worker arriving at 8AM for a road ride. The roads were still a bit damp due to heavy rains last night. Pete is training for a triathlon this fall and plans to compete in the Olympic distance. He's road with me at Skyline drive and today I took his legs to the point they were about to snap! I planned out a nice route that took us over North Mountain 4 times. I really wanted to put him to the test and drive him into the ground, but as you know you can't make someone go harder than they want to. I gapped him on each climb with over a 3 minute gap at the top of the 4th and final climb of the morning. Our ride time was 3hrs 15mins with 4501 vertical feet of climbing over a distance of 52 miles. Below is some of the data from my Polar for each of the 4 main climbs. Climb#1: Duration 0:23:10 Energy Expenditure 387 kcal MinHR 135 bpm, AvgHR 160 bpm, MaxHR 176 bpm Min Spd 5.3 mph, Avg Spd 12.2 mph, Max Spd 26.3 mph Distance 4.7 miles Min Cad 41 rpm, Avg Cad 73 rpm, Max Cad 102 rpm Ascent 970 ft, Avg Grade 6.3% Climb#2 Duration 0:11:35 Energy Expenditure 200 kcal MinHR 117 bpm, AvgHR 163 bpm, MaxHR 172 bpm Min Spd 4.9 mph, Avg Spd 8.4 mph, Max Spd 19.2 mph Distance 1.6 miles Min Cad 40 rpm, Avg Cad 60 rpm, Max Cad 86 rpm Ascent 665 ft, Avg Grade 8.0% Climb#3 Duration 0:09:05 Energy Expenditure 152 kcal MinHR 125 bpm, AvgHR 159 bpm, MaxHR 174 bpm Min Spd 5.4 mph, Avg Spd 7.0 mph, Max Spd 13.6 mph Distance 1.1 miles Min Cad 40 rpm, Avg Cad 49 rpm, Max Cad 68 rpm Ascent 470 ft, Avg Grade 8.4% Climb#4 Duration 0:23:45 Energy Expenditure 387 kcal MinHR 123 bpm, AvgHR 157 bpm, MaxHR 170 bpm Minimum Speed 3.3 mph Average Speed 10.3 mph Maximum Speed 26.3 mph Distance 4.1 miles Min Cad 31 rpm, Avg Cad 65 rpm, Max Cad 100 rpm Ascent 1010 ft, Avg Grade 4.7% Returning home I fueled up and tinkered with the car a bit. Placed the front end on jacks and removed the wheels. Took steel wool to the rims and I plan to check the numbers for authenticity as they look to be the original rally wheels. I also scrubbed on the convertible frame some more and used some Rustoleum paint on it. I also re-mounted one of the drawers to its track on the tool case that came with the car.

31 May 2006 - Restore started

Today was the day that I decided to drop off the engine for our Corvette to be overhauled. By suggestion, I took it to a local CarQuest location. It is a distribution center as well as a store and machine shop. A co-worker has used them in the past for 2 Corvette engines and 1 Chevelle engine with great results. They will be contacting me once they clean all of the parts and get them measured. We will then go through what I will have done to it. I’d like to have it built for 350-400hp, hopefully they can make it happen. Below are a couple of pics of the engine, in pieces, when I dropped it off. I’ll be taking photos of the entire restoration process. Last night I also stripped the convertible top frame. The next step is to pull it out of the car and grind off the surface rust and prime and paint it. Julie and I took Thane for another ride tonight in his Burly trailer. He’s lovin’ it! Whenever he sees the trailer he grabs his helmet and puts it on, he just needs to understand which way is the front of the helmet! :)

29 May 2006 - Long weekend

It was nice to be home after the long hours, not in the saddle, of driving! Julie and I left Nathaniel for the first time on Thursday morning to drive up to Boyne, MI for the 24Hr race this weekend. Without Thane or the dogs we were able to fit everything into the car. This would make the gas prices a little easier to deal with. We managed a total round trip avg of 27mpg. Our trip started at 5AM with an arrival time at our 1st destination, Dexter Bike shop, at 11:30AM. Arriving it was discovered that my parts for the new 1FG, Cannondale Single Speed bike, were not yet in. The frame arrived over a month ago, and I immediately requested to have the needed parts ordered to build the bike. Well, they weren't ordered until last Tuesday! Murphy was glad to help as well, as the wrong single speed cogs were ordered and the frame was never checked and it came without the eccentric bottom bracket shell!!! Luckilly I took along my Scalpel to be used as the 2ndary bike, but now it was the main and only bike! Friday night we stayed with our friends Robin and Shari, along with John, at their cottage on Higgins Lake. It was then just a short 1hr drive to Boyne Sat morning. The set-up of camp went smooth with Julie's help, and I was able to get everything assembled on the Scalpel and eat a sandwich before the start. Everything went great at the start. I was leading the Solo Single Speed class, as well as all of the Solo classes while riding easy and walking about 4 of the climbs! After completing lap 3 I had a very comfortable lead. Even though I was walking portions of the trail I knew my legs would burn-out if I did not down-gear a little. So, Robin was nice enough to help me change gears while Julie helped find tools/parts and prepare some food for me. Then all heck broke loose! The smaller gears did not work out with the chain lengths. We tried every combination possible! As 2nd place rolled into the pits it had been 30 minutes. He rolled out and we discovered that we would need a 1/2 link, I didn't even know that such a thing existed! We finally found a match of 44/24 but the chain was as tight as a piano wire. I got rolling again to later have to stop just a couple miles in to tighten the chain ring bolts as they were working loose due to the chain being so tight. I somehow managed to make it through the lap without anything breaking, and Julie had actually acquired a half link! But the damage was done...for me the race was over and now it was just for fun. It took almost 1-1/2hrs to get out on that last lap with the gearing issue. So, I took another break and decided to eat and associate with friends that we haven't seen since before Christmas due to our relocation for work. Upon darkness setting in I began setting up the bike again using the 1/2 link and re-installing the singulator on the Scalpel. I ended up running a 32/17 on a lap departing at about 11PM. I had a blast powering out a 50 minute lap flying by the other riders out on the course. It was a lot of fun. Darkness is my favorite time to ride, and I'll claim to be the best in the dark with the results to back it. By 3AM the leader of my class packed it in, but I was takin a nice long nap. I was then awakened by thunder and lightning with a downpour of rain at dawn. Then everyone racing began packing it in, except for just 2 riders who chose to continue. My sister also came up with her kids, Brenden and Taylor. We met with them for breakfast and then I went into the waterpark with them for about 2hrs before Julz and I headed home. It is a nice waterpark, but at $40 per person it is a rip-off! Hopefully the kids got their mom's money's worth. Then it was on the road again back home. We left around 11:30AM and made it home with a couple of stops by 9:30PM. Today we took Thane on his first bike ride in his new Burley trailer. I bought it from a guy in MI off the MMBA BB for just $150. It has been used very little and is in great shape. We rode to Wally-world and bought a flag for it and I mounted it when we got home.