Cycling and other Prejean Stuff

My first spill

2009-08-23T20:37:00.003-05:00

I had my first spill on my bike this weekend. In the middle of a 55 mile ride, while we were trying to fix a buddy's derailleur before it wore the chain off of his bike, the group I was with rode over to ask a nearby cycist who was stopped for a break if she had a tool we could borrow. Well, when we stopped, my weight wasshifted the wrong direction and I was too slow to get my other foot clipped out of the pedal, so over I went. I bruised my elbow and got a little wound on my knee from a cable rubbing against it, but the only thing injured at all seriously was my pride, and it has healed nicely, to the point where I am more amused by the experience than embarassed. It was bound to happen eventually, and at least my bike didn't get hurt.

I did it...sort of

2009-04-20T14:04:00.003-05:00

So the MS150 was this past weekend. The first day got rained out by some pretty wicked thunderstorms that came through Texas, so only the second day happened. After finishing the second day, that might have been a good thing. I made it through the 75 miles of the second day, but I was pretty worn out at the end. Riding through the state park which I only heard referred to as "The Park," which is where all of the worst hills were took quite a bit out of me and then, when we got into Austin my legs were pretty well drained, but I made it through and finished the ride. The high when you cross the finish line and there are all of these people around yelling and screaming is pretty amazing, especially considering this wasn't even a race, just a charity bike tour. It really gets you pumped up to hear it, though. And then I saw my wife and daughter yelling and heard my wife yell at the top of her lungs, "Go Ryan Prejean!" Totally cool. I love that woman.

So now I have a century tentatively planned for June...and one for August...and one for September. May as well keep finding harder things to do if I'm going to ride a bike. Keeps it interesting.

What a weird dream

2009-02-26T12:16:00.003-06:00

I had a very weird dream a couple of nights ago. I dreamt that I was a Steve Carrell character from a movie. Not an actual Steve Carrell movie, but one that I made up in my dream state. This is unusual, because when I dream, I usually am aware that I am dreaming, which was not the case here, and my dreams are usually exceedingly boring and uninteresting. This story involved three charactes other than myself which were my brother and sister (not my real brother and sister, but my made up movie brother and sister) and a strange flight attendant who was visiting our house for an unidentified reason. The only major plot element I recall is a faucet on the kitchen sink that would not turn off after being turned on. To compound the problem, the drain was slightly slower than the sink, which was causing the sink to slowly fill with water on its way to overflowing on the floor. The drama was intense, let me tell you.

Seriously, this is one of the more interesting dreams I have had. My dreams are that lame.

My Training So Far

2009-01-20T16:33:00.002-06:00

I have right at three months until the MS150 from Houston to Austin. So far I have trained not one bit. I am well on my way to making this ride as miserable as I possibly can for myself. My grand plan to ride the trainer at minimum three times a week this year has so far been a total flop, and it's been too cold here to ride outside without winter gear, which I am not willing to pony up the cash for. My other plan to lose at least 20 pounds before the ride is also going floppingly to date. Going back to my last post, which was before Thanksgiving, I am down exactly one pound in weight. How's that for pathetic training so far?

But, as of today I am turning over a new leaf. I am going on my sandwich diet, which is not to be confused with Jared of Subway fame's diet. My diet consists of having a sandwich for lunch every day instead of the more substantial meals I habitually eat. Hopefully, this difference in calorie intake together with a reunion with my trainer will jumpstart my weight loss.

Winter Riding

2008-10-27T15:58:00.002-05:00

It's starting to get cold here in Arkansas, and that means one of two choices for cycling. I can either get cold-weather clothes to wear so I can ride outdoors or go the trainer route. Since riding outdoors also entails battling the limited winter daylight, I have elected to go with the trainer. I borrowed one from a friend to try it out, and so far it seems a whole lot more like work than riding outdoors does. I bought one for myself (a CycleOps Fluid2, in case you're interested) and so I am determined to tough it out. My brother shared a tip with me that he uses when he trains. He'll watch a TV show of some sort and ride hard through the commercials and do a more normal spin through the show itself. Seems like a decent place to start at least. Maybe after I get a little more used to riding on the thing I might even try to flip-flop the two options and ride hard through the show and use the commercials for a bit of recovery. But at least with the trainer I am able to ride a little more often. That should be a double bonus through the summer when I just don't have time to get out and ride on the road.

MS150, baby!

2008-10-15T12:48:00.003-05:00

I am officially registered for my first MS150. For anyone who doesn't know, the MS150 is a two day bike ride from Houston to Austin (about 90 miles each day) to raise money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis research. Two of my brothers have ridden in it the past couple of years, and so now I am going to join in the fun. To learn more about the MS150 or, if you are particularly kind or otherwise so inclined, to donate to the cause (it's tax-deductible!), check out http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/ryanprejean.

I am ridiculously excited about this ride and I can't wait! The ride is not until April, so luckily I will still have time to train and get in some sort of shape for the ride.

I'm not so sure about Dell

2008-10-06T10:06:00.003-05:00

About a year and a half ago, Laura and I got a new Dell Laptop. It's an M1710, or something like that. I thought we were getting a pretty darned sweet machine. Well, in the 15 months or so since we've gotten it, the hard drive on the original computer crapped out about four times. Then they sent a technician to our house and he changed out the motherboard and the hard drive again. After about two more burned-up hard drives, they exchanged the whole computer for a new one. Couple more hard drives burned up. This has, by this point, gotten extremely old. So I got back on the phone with them and let them know that this was not in any way acceptable to me. They told me that they would switch out the computer again, but this time for a different model, the M1730, which is a gaming laptop and so should be pretty robust. Well, when they sent the computer, they sent another M1710. Not happy. They have agreed to send me a 1730 and just let me use the 1710 until the new machine is built and sent over here to me. If I have any sort of problems out of this machine, I will be done with Dell for all eternity.

New personal long ride

2008-08-17T21:02:00.002-05:00

Jake and I rode 55 miles Saturday. Next weekend I think we're going to try for something in the range of 60 to 70 miles. I think my saddle bag is big enough for one of those automatic defibrillator thingies, which might come in handy.

Crawling

2008-08-17T21:00:00.003-05:00

I now have two mobile kids. Natalie started crawling in the last week. So far, her favorite place to crawl is to the power cord for our computer. At least she doesn't have any teeth yet, so her gnawing on it is mostly harmless. I guess it's time to start thinking about childproofing the whole house again.

Almost halfway

2008-08-11T12:47:00.002-05:00

Did my first 40 mile ride this weekend. That's almost half of the century I would like to ride with my brother in early September. Compared to the hilly 35 miler in 105 degree heat of the weekend before, it was a walk in the park, in spite of the wind blowing straight into our faces for a significant portion of the ride. The highlight of the ride was the moment when the light bulb finally went on and I figured out how to ride up a decent-sized hill without losing a tremendous amount of speed and still being able to move my legs once I got to the top. Turns out that smaller gear on the crank does have a purpose and my ego can take the beating of using it a whole lot better than my legs can take the beating of not using it. For my next trick, I will attempt to tame River Mountain Road.

I'm not quite sure this was a good idea

2008-08-08T10:34:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday my buddy Jacob and I went out for a 35 mile ride. Seemed like that should be pretty cool. I'd get to ride with someone else again for a change of pace and on top of that, we were going to go out and ride near Pinnacle Mountain, so I'd also get to ride somewhere besides the River Trail. As it turns out, riding up some majorly large hill when the heat index is 115 degrees is not such a bright thing to do. I didn't throw up, but I really wanted to. We both survived to make it back to Jake's Jeep, at least.

At last!

2008-07-26T22:40:00.005-05:00

Well, after about a month of searching for the right combination of sweet bike and sweet price, I finally bought a bike today. I got a pretty good deal on an Orbea Onix at the annual sale they put on at Chainwheel, the local bike shop I prefer. I only took it out for a short four mile ride around the neighborhood today, but I'm digging it so far. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to go out for a little bit longer ride and really see how it does for me. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like this sport all that much, but so far, I am loving it. It's much more fun than running ever was. Now all I have to do is get enough miles in to be ready to ride the 100 mile Tour de Pink, a charity ride to raise money for breast cancer, with my brothers in early September. Hey, I have a whole month to get ready. No problem.

In any case, a couple of pictures of the bike follow.

So far, not so good

2008-07-09T09:10:00.002-05:00

Recently, my doctor advised me that continuing to run for exercise would be a bad idea, as I was beginning to get a little wear on the bones in my surgically-repaired knee. Since two of my brothers are into cycling, that seemed like a pretty good alternative, especially since one of them was willing to let me use his spare bike. When I finally got the bike, I was pretty excited about the prospect of going for a ride. I finally got to take it out for a quick ride through my neighborhood and was really looking forward to going on some longer rides. Last night, I went out to attempt my first 10 mile ride. Well, when I got a little over three miles from where I had parked my car, the rear derailleur (the mechanism that makes the chain jump from gear to gear in the back) gave up the ghost and snapped in two pieces. This piece dented the frame, which cracked at the location of the dent, rendering the frame unusable. So now I have to buy a whole new bike if I want to continue riding. Lucky me. At least my wife is awesome and is supportive of me buying a bike, even though they cost a small fortune. I love my wife.

Let's try this again

2008-06-27T12:26:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try to resurrect this blog after a really really long hiatus. Hopefully I will be more succesful at the whole experience this time than I was last time.