Thirsty?

My body has a mystery. I am always thirsty. My beverage consumption must be in the 2-3 gallon per day range. More if there's a bike ride involved. 8 glasses of water a day? Child's play. I typically have 2 Diet Cokes, 3 glasses of water, and maybe some milk. Before lunch. BEFORE lunch, where I will consume another Diet Coke, and at least one more glass of water. Then an afternoon Diet Coke, another water or two. Maybe some lemonade or Hawaiian Punch. Then evening rolls around and the constant influx of liquid continues unabated until I fall asleep.

Anyone know what's up? Can 4 Diet Cokes a day cause that much dehydration? Sometimes I will have just chugged a half-gallon of delicious ice-cold water, stomach stretched to the breaking point, and still be thirsty. I'll wait 30 minutes and go for another quarter-gallon. Still thirsty. And yes, I use the restroom a lot. It's a good thing I don't drink, I'd be the world's most ferocious alcoholic.

Seriously. Any doctors reading this? Is there some medical condition that causes one to constantly be thirsty? Just while typing this, I had a glass of water and an A&W root beer.
Mmmm...Hawaiian Punch. Good stuff. Now I'm thirsty.

Did it

Lo, for many eons have I pined after a carbon fiber bicycle. For as many eons, I have preferred steel bikes, as evidenced by the "two brothers", hailing from the mid '80's:

Actually I have three of them, because I'm crazy. But one has a mangled downtube, one is the original and too sacred to ride, and the third (with the absurdly wide bars) is Velotron. Steel provides a smooth, relaxing ride but tends to flex, noodle, and otherwise deform under my enormous bulk.

Initially I stayed away from carbon because of my false notion of carbon having a short fatigue life. My dear brother, a wise aerospace engineer at Boeing, set me straight on that. Then I stayed away because I thought my vast mass would crumple a carbon frame in short order.

Then I meet "Big Jim" at a local bike shop. He is, unsurprisingly, a big dude. Towering over me, and out-weighing me by a fair margin. And he just happens to ride the same model bike I was eyeing. And it happened to be the same size frame I would ride. Since the shop didn't have a demo in my size, Jim was kind enough to allow me to take it for a spin. Excellent customer service, by the way.

So, a bit later, I got fitted up and plunked down some money to order this:

It will take roughly 30 days for it to arrive. Probably not as brain-boilingly orange as the SUB, but as close as I could get. Safety, you know. Yeah, that's it. Mine will have white hoods and different wheels. But you get the idea.

So now, when I get dropped by excited roadies, I won't be able to blame my noodly bike. Next thing you know I'll have a power meter and carbon wheels.

Idiots

Yes, they are everywhere. Take this guy, for example. I'm not saying he's an idiot, because I have absolutely no idea who he is, or where he lives, or even which hemisphere of the globe he hails from, for that matter. It could be that, in Upper Outer Southeastern Mongolia (a province of Canada, I believe), only true badasses who will kick your ass as soon as look at you wear seatbelts and and scowl furiously at cameras from the helm of their mighty Toyotas. Just saying. In that case, this dude is the Mother of all Dangerous People, and I am fixin' for an ass-whoopin. Or are tattoos and "Bad to the Bone" hats the new "white shirt and tie"?

The dreaded flat

So I went for another nice "base mile" cruise down the Katy with the SUB (see post below). The usual route. At mile marker 52, maybe 400 yards after going under Hwy. 40, psssssshhhhhh...thump thump thump thump: the dreaded flat. Fine, no biggie. Not my first flat, I had the tools to fix it. I was just thankful it hadn't happened on one of my winter rides...changing a flat in sub-freezing weather can be painful.


Lo! The escaping air pushed out the talc in the tube, marking the vast hole with a convenient white bulls-eye. It had flatted in the same spot as the flat I experienced while watching the finish of the Tour Of Missouri in St. Charles last year! As you can see, the tire is well past its useful life anyway. In the twist of bitter irony, I'd already ordered replacements...due to be delivered tomorrow, of course.

Fortunately, I know the "folded dollar bill" trick. Normally used for sidewall tears, you fold up some paper money and stick it between the tube and tire, to reinforce the tire casing. That's why the gargantuan chasm in the tire is white: courtesy of George Washington hiding under there.

All was well, pumped up the tire to 40psi - apparently all my pitiful miniature pump could handle - proceeded on to my brother's house to use his tire pump on a plush, smooth, low pressure tire, said Hi to my niece "M", and returned to my car without incident. It was tense, as the tiniest bit of sharp-edged material anywhere near the titanic gap in my tire could have caused another puncture. Good ol' George Washington or not. Fortunately my keen eye and catlike agility carried the day. Or I was real lucky. Either way.

Overall, a glorious ride in great weather. Three people paused to ask if I needed any help while repairing the tire. Had a nice discussion with one fellow about the SUB, and the eminent suitability of 'cross bikes for the Katy Trail. He was planning to traverse the entire trail (225 miles) later in the year, and wasn't too keen on using his mountain bike to do so. Hopefully I provided some useful information.

Jake in the Wild

A couple of pictures of the SUB on patrol at the new Busch Connector trail, linking the Katy Trail to the Missouri Research Park. At least on my screen, these pictures reflect the true cornea-burning intensity of the violent orange paint compared to the stock image in the previous post. Think of a traffic cone, only with the orange shifted more to "surface of the sun" than your average traffic cone.
Oh, and that lovely creek there? Yeah. That's outflow from the sewage treatment plant at the top of the trail/hill. It looks clean, but it is not exactly smelling like daisies. In fact it smells more like a rabid skunk who rolled in its own feces, then found a nice pile of horse manure to roll in, then topped it off with some earthy chlorine notes with rotten egg overtones for good effect. Only in St. Louis would the planners put a scenic nature trail right next to a sewage plant.

The SUB and technology-free training

Being a clever person (so I tell myself) I call the bike that gets the most mileage the "SUB" for sport-utility bicycle. This was before the name was co-opted by certain bike manufacturers. It's a Kona Jake the Snake cyclocross bike. Violent orange, aluminum, rigid steel fork. It's a few years old, but still great for all-purpose cycling. It has 700x35 tires, so it can go off road to a degree. A rear rack, so I can carry lots of stuff. It's not light. But it does have drop bars, so is suitable for 70-mile outings, and I can hide from the wind in the drops if need be. All in all, it's a great bike for everything except keeping up with excited roadies on $4,000 race bikes.

We went on a nice trip down the Katy Trail. My usual route begins in Creve Coeur Park, then heads down to the Weldon Spring boat ramp, then back. About 35-40 miles, with a new detour up the new Busch connector trail from the Katy to the Missouri Research Park. Simply because there's a hill there, and the Katy Trail has no hills. It has meandering, oblivious pedestrians in abundance, but no hills.

All was well, except for the seemingly minor, but mind-bogglingly irritating lack of computer. The battery died about 5 minutes in. It would have been nice to know how fast (or slow) I was going. So I hammered it, and now I'm exhausted. I wonder if removing the computer could be a good training tool. Or maybe having it on, but covering it with tape or something while riding. That way, your speed is a mystery but you can check the average at the end. Perhaps I will start a new training paradigm. Watts? Bah. Heartrate? Phooey. Just go as fast as you can until your legs cramp or you go anaerobic. It would be interesting to see a study comparing physiologic adaptation in athletes using modern, fully-instrumented training methods, and athletes just doing what their body tells them to. I doubt Eddy Merckx had computers, watt meters, or even heart rate monitors...

Spring (maybe) is here!

Well, mostly. It's regularly above freezing, and that's good enough for me. A little windy? Sure. Rainy? Yes. Perfect weather for a bike ride? Not really. But it IS acceptable weather for a bike ride, and that makes all the difference in the world. So far I've lost 8 pounds just thinking about riding my bike. Okay maybe a few actual bike rides have contributed. My body definitely realizes it's time to shed some fat so I can go fast.

In other news, my heart was ripped asunder on Sunday. I was 3 seconds away from the deal of a lifetime on a lovely 2003 Litespeed Classic titanium bike. Traditional geometry, oversized tubes, and pure titanium goodness. But some damn eBay sniper swooped in and stole my prize. Actually the price went over what I was willing to pay, so it's okay. I love titanium, and have always wanted a titanium bike...but I'm not going to pay stupid prices for it. I will own one eventually, or not. Either way, it's spring!

Wind? Yes. Took the single-speed, fendered bike up to the Post Office Sunday, and nearly toppled over from the 45mph gusts. And I'm not light, and generally very well-balanced. But it was warm, and I was on my bike, and no cars ran me over, so it was a fantastic ride.

Time to start putting in the serious miles...