The Coolest Baby Shower Give-Away?

Cezanne and I had an amazing time at our baby shower last Sunday.  To be honest, we weren't very comfortable with the attention and gift opening in front of everyone gathered, but we realize how much support we have and that is a real blessing.

I don't want to discount any part of the event because it was all so great, but my favorite parts were being surprised by my brother Jason flying in from Chicago, the slide show that my sister in law Jen created and hanging with Cezanne's Dad and Grandparents the next morning for breakfast since we don't get to see them much.

I have to give credit to my friend Pete who seems to always have a unique view or idea.  In the picture above, you'll see his contribution to the baby shower since he couldn't be there (we got his and his wife's contribution to the baby a few days prior at home).  Pete recently started his own business, Salazon Chocolate Company (http://www.salazonchoc.com/index.html), making salted chocolate bars.  They are amazingly good.  We stock up on them the few times a month we visit our local Whole Foods, but they're also available online at The Vegan Store, http://www.veganstore.com/.

I haven't been to a Starbucks in over a month, but I was due today since we had a brief coffee meet and greet here in the Pentagon and after I ordered I saw that they brought back their "salted" hot chocolate drink.  I guess they are taking their cues from Salazon...

Last Post on Austin - Rammer

Slow and steady wins the race.

Rammer, in LiveStrong black and yellow, on the left in the above picture, proved that saying right during our Austin ride.  Doug (Rammer) was in my company back in the good ol' days attending USNA and I think it's probably been 12 years since I've seen him.

We all started out the ride a little harder than we probably should have.  Rammer hung tough, but at some point in the first 20-30 miles he decided to ride his own reasonable pace.  He caught up with us while we were chatting and refueling at the mile 38 power stop.  If I remember correctly, his stop was quicker than ours and he was on his way.  We eventually passed him once back on the road...and then somehow passed him again, probably an hour or an hour and a half later...  Hmmm, there is something to that saying.

Team Toon Town did a good job fund raising. We had 7 people on the team and raised about $7,000. Rammer raised the most at almost $3,300, just shy of raising more than all 6 other members combined!

I'm hoping all of us can get together again next year for the same or similar ride (Levi's Gran Fondo on October 1, 2011 in Santa Rosa, CA?) and add more friends into the mix.

More from Austin

Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop is an intersting place. Is it just that it is a really cool bike shop owned by Lance Armstrong or is it Lance Armstrong's bike shop, so it's cool?  Maybe it's both.  I haven't visited a bunch of bike shops in my time nor have a visited some of the most highly regarded bike shops in the U.S., like "Above Category" in Mill Valley, CA (http://www.abovecategorycycling.com/).  However, I'll say that it was the coolest shop I've been too. Folks that don't like Lance or who've been to a lot more shops, would probably disagree.   

Obviously, the store is Trek centric and the basement, home to the fit studio and training center, was no different.

One thing worth noting about the shop, the same as most things in life, is that your perception of a place or events depend on a lot of things. We visited during a fun trip with friends for a great cause, on a day with beautiful weather, which was made nicer by finding the perfect jersey for our small team (and my favorite jersey yet) and even nicer by enjoying an espresso drink from Juan Pelota Cafe (part of Mellow Johnny's), outside with said weather and said newly purchased jersey in hand.

I love coffee and espresso (no, I don't have a problem, I just need a cup or two in the morning and I'm set), but I'll admit I don't know much about it.  One thing I do know is that the espresso maker Juan Pelota Cafe has is a very nice, highly respected, "La Marzocco."  (http://www.lamarzocco.com/)  You want the home or professional lite version of their espresso machine? It'll set you back $6,400.  Yikes, that kind of money can only be spent on bike stuff...

Which is what this bike might set you back (plus another $2,000 probably).  I had a little bike envy when I saw this white Trek Madone.  To be honest though, I'd take the Cervelo S3 over this...that's for you Toon, good choice.

And finally I get to the jersey and what I pinned on my back.  I really think I'd be riding if I wasn't a cancer survivor, but who knows.  That's kind of why I started and was lucky enough to get the riding itch while living in Monterey, CA, a perfect place for riding. I did the old yellow "survivor" sign, but more importantly this year and when I did one of these rides back in 2008, I wore a sign for the mother-in-law that I never got to meet.  That's something that I think about a lot.  I wish I could have and hoping I will in the very distant future.

Austin LiveStrong Ride 2010

Just finished a great weekend in Austin riding the 90-mile (87.19 miles by my computer) LiveStrong Challenge ride. Pictured above from left to right: JW, Toon (Mike), me, and Frank. JW spear-headed the effort, coming in from Seattle, and we were really happy that Toon (our USNA brother) came down from Chicago. In addition, Dan and Frank drove all the way from Norfolk/Virginia Beach to be there (23 hours straight through to get there).  JW, Toon and I have done a few of these LiveStrong Rides (I know I'm missing some of the ones JW has done on this own): 2006 Southern California: me, JW and Toon; 2007 Austin: me and JW; 2008 San Jose: me; 2009 Austin: JW; 2010 Austin: me, JW and Toon.

All the costs associated with the travel (airline tickets, lodging, rental car, and airline bike fees) and all the anxiety that goes with traveling with a nice bike is quickly outweighed by seeing great friends, riding for a common and awesome purpose, seeing the combined effort and enthusiasm of the event organizers and volunteers, meeting knew people along the way, and selfishly, finishing a decently long ride.

JW (http://jwbender.blogspot.com/), fortunately, took some great shots before, during and after the ride.  The pictures in this post are courtesy of him and just a few of the dozens he took.

Many cyclists are familiar with the "Fat Cyclist."  We were riding along during the first part of the ride and I noticed somebody riding with us.  I quickly noticed that he was the Fat Cyclist!  So, we talked for a bit and he was happy to mix it in with us, calling us the "Mellow Johnny's train." Contrary to what you might think, he wasn't fat, but has apparently lost about 30-40 pounds cycling.  He's most famous for his blog (http://fatcyclist.com/). I won't recount the details here, but fighting cancer is extremely important to him, so I thanked him for riding with us and all he does to raise funds to fight cancer.

He was doing the 65-mile ride option, so he could get back to the finish before the "Team Fatty" cyclists who did the 90-mile option.  We rode for probably an hour or so with him until we stopped at the 38-mile power stop (refueling point), which also served as the splitting point between the 90 and 65-mile rides.

As far as the "Mellow Johnny's train" comment goes, he was right.  For the first 10-15 minutes we started out at an easy pace (the opposite of my prediction), but the pace was quickly ratcheted up, mainly by Dan.  I know JW and Frank were in there pulling a ton, but it seemed like Dan did a lot of the work for the first hour and 40 minutes.  We picked up a lot of riders who wanted to get in on our fast-moving train.  After the Fat Cyclist commented a few times on the Mellow Johnny's train, I had to confide in him that we didn't work at Mellow Johnny's (Lance Armstrong's Austin Bike Shop).  He said, "I really thought you guys all worked there!"

For those that know me, I'm not a cocky person in the least, but I think we were the best dressed group out there.  Those green Mellow Johnny's jerseys did the trick. 

I'm so glad to have gone.  The only thing that would have made it better is if Cezanne and Michelle (Toon's wife) could have made it.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of the professional photos, particularly the one of me, Toon and JW coming across the finish line together and I'm looking forward to doing this ride or another LiveStrong Ride next year...depending on what the new little one on the way has to say about it.

The ride details: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/54367456

We finished with an average of 18.8 mph.  That's pretty good for 90 miles and 5,300 feet of climbing and in no small part due to the work of Dan, JW and Frank.  Toon is trying to downplay how well he did, but he did some monster pulls and finished strong.

I felt pretty good on the ride for the first 40 miles, but my left knee started killing me during the last 45 miles.  It came to the point that whenever I was doing anything other than lightly spinning the pedals, I would have to almost one-legged pedal, using my right leg exclusively and only using my left leg to pull up on the pedal (sharp pain when pushing down).  I've never had that happen before.  I'll have to see how it heals up and if there are any lingering issues.  I adjusted my seat higher by about 2-3mm (yes, that's it) about a week before the ride and I'm not sure if that had something to do with it.

Hoping to post some pics of Mellow Johnny's bike shop in the next post and maybe some video of the ride that JW and Dan took.

JW, thanks for pulling Toon and me from the Fire Station Power Stop to the end! 

Columbus Day Ride: Chester Gap

Cezanne had to work yesterday, so I headed out to Marshall, Virginia for "the team's" Columbus Day ride.  There were only 5 NCVC riders that showed, but it was a good time.  We did the "Chester Gap" ride which is a 50 mile ride, with the highlight being a decent climb to cap off the first half of the ride.  By decent, I mean brutal at points.  It was steady along the main road and then once we turned onto Chester Gap, there were pitches up to 18%.

Above two photos are from the first part of the ride, heading out from Marshall towards Front Royal.  We were on beautiful back roads with little traffic.

After the Chester Gap climb (which you can see on the elevation profile of the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/52640782) it was a long and fast descent into Front Royal.  We stopped at the "Daily Grind" coffee shop for a quick break before the last 20 mile push back to Marshall.

Harry pulled us almost the entire way back and then proceeded to ride everyone off his wheel without a whole lot of trouble.

"What you think about is some little boy or little girl is never going to have Brendan Looney as his or her father."

Every day we get an email with a series of news clips about the Navy and other related subjects. At the end there is a section for blogs.  I read the below blog by Patrick Stevens today and thought the coaches' comments were really telling on how Brendan Looney lived.

http://d1scourse.typepad.com/blog/2010/10/brendan-looneys-former-coaches-mourn-the-loss-of-the-best-of-the-best.html#tp

The section I thought most impactful:

"I told my wife that I don't have any bravado over this; we've got to move on, have to come to work after this, and that's all going to happen," Meade said. "But I'm never getting over this. It's not about me. The reason I'm never going to get over it --- and I'll think of him every day until I die --- is it's always difficult when somebody dies like this so early in life. What you think about is some little boy or little girl is never going to have Brendan Looney as his or her father. And he would be good. He'd be a better father than me. Those are the types of things, the immediate-impact things, you think about that make it so difficult."

Who Wants a Free Pair of Giro Monaco Gloves (large)...Worn Once

My black "made by Assos" gloves (black gloves in the photos) are starting to get a little worse for the wear.  Translation: they don't smell so great even after washing them. 

So, I looked for a pair on sale and decided on the Giro Monaco gloves (white & black gloves in photos).  They are actually really nice fitting gloves, with high quality, tacky leather palms.  Problem is, the leather didn't get along so great with the palms of my hands on my long ride this weekend, so that's that.