Dusty's new paint job !

Woo-hoo! I just got Dusty back from the painters today - the frame had developed a crack in one of the seatstay joints so it had to be re-brazed, good a time as any for a new paint job.

Rick at D&D did a fabulous job, the pic doesn't do it justice. I stayed with the original Dusty Rose color. The color seems a bit deeper than the original, but the could just be due to fading of the old paint or yellowing of the old top coat. Rick blinged it out a bit, with some of the lug cutouts filled in in ivory (which is more apparent on the fork). Rick couldn't find the original Waterford-era decals (with the arrow motif) so we went with the current Riv decals, which look lovely.


She's being built up by Robinson Wheelworks, so I should have my sweet bike back by the beginning of March.

I'm giddy as a little schoolgirl! :^)

SuperNana's got it right.

Check out SuperNana's Ode to Coach Troy.
So funny!
So true!

2008 goal rides

OK, here are the big rides I have planned for 2008:

Mt. Hamilton Challenge on April 26 (125 miles, 8300 ft climbing) - I can wave hi to all the hardy souls riding the DMD route going in the opposite direction.

Grizzly Peak Century on May 4 (112 miles, 8550 ft climbing) - I've never done this ride though I've done parts of the route. Although I just realized it's only a week after the MHC, argh. Well, hopefully I'm up to it by then.

And my really big stretch goal ride:

Mt. Shasta Summit Super Century on August 3 (135 miles, 16500 ft of climbing) - allegedly tougher than the Death Ride - not that I'd know! - but the out-n-back route allows for bailouts if need be. Plus Lee & I will be staying at the Mt. Shasta Resort, only a few miles away from the start and the location of the lunch stop, which could be a tactical error for me. :D But it's a nice place to stay. Lee will be doing the metric century.

I also plan to do a 200K+ brevet or permanent each month starting in (uh... March?) for a RUSA R-12.

I think that's plenty - I'll put the double centuries on hold until next year. Unless I change my mind.

My new friend Troy

On a more positive note, I've made a new friend in Evil Coach Troy.

With all the crummy weather we'd been having, we got our Cyclops trainer back from Lee's sister-in-law and Lee graciously hooked up his Atlantis to it. I first bought Spinervals 25, aka Aero Base Builder V, which is a 2-hour compilation of selected workouts from ABB I-V. I really enjoyed it, so I sprung for the Intervals 5-pack which contains No Slackers, Uphill Grind, Suffer-O-ama and a couple of others I'm too lazy to check at the moment. Currently I'm doing two interval workouts per week, alternating between NS and UHG (I'll add the others into the mix eventually), separated by at least a day, with ABB V another couple of days. I generally only manage 1-1.5 hours of ABBV at a time, I haven't made it through the full 2 hours, yet.

I'm inherently a lazy person, and left to my own devices, I won't push myself very hard so these workouts are just what I need. And it's so convenient to be able to hop on the trainer without having to figure out what to wear for the weather conditions. And I really think it's helping.

The year so far

Yikes, almost 2 months into 2008 and I haven't posted my goals yet. I guess that's because I'm still figuring them out...

I was hoping to ride the SF Randonneurs 200K at the end of January. There were some heavy rain storms starting a few days prior, and I was up late the night before watching the news reports of flash flooding in the areas thru which the route went. So, I wimped out of the ride. I wasn't alone, out of about 85 registered only 32 actually rode. And naturally, it hardly rained a drop during the ride (despite forecasts of heavy rain that day as well) and the roads were quite good for the most part. Still, the very strong winds that day likely would have done me in so it's probably just as well I bailed ... I guess.

I started commuting into work some in January but a combination of yukky weather, committments which required a car, and just plain laziness, I got out of the habit just as quickly as I started. Maybe next month :p

I've done some fun rides with some friends from bikejournal, bikeforums, & TE.