Cool Pic from Ensenada

As I mentioned I was in San Diego and Ensenada for my brother's wedding (wedding in San Diego and reception in Ensenada). I took this picture at sun down from the balcony of our hotel in Ensenada with a 15 second exposure. The long blur in the middle is from a cruise ship that was going by.

Airport Fun

So I am sitting at the Reagan National Airport waiting for my flight home after some meetings here today. It snowed in Chicago all day, hence my flight is delayed...YIPPEEEE! The riding has been a bit sporadic, obviously I am on the road now and I was out of town for my brother's wedding in San Diego last weekend and didn't ride. I did ride the bike at the hotel last night but that is not the same thing, not to mention the fact that the bike did not have straps on the pedals so all I was able to do was "push push" instead of spin. On the positive side, I did get a work out in and that is always a good thing.

On a totally unrelated topic, cell phone cameras suck! It amazes me that phone companies suggest that it is a benefit to have a camera. There is no benefit and serves to make phones more expensive. When did this epiphany come to me? Well, today I was driving on I-495, the belt route that circles Washington, DC. One of the coolest things about this freeway is that the Washington, D.C. Temple is right next to it. When you are heading west, there is this awesome section of road where the freeway is going directly towards the temple. The temple is the only building you see and it is right in front of you. It looks like this (still not a great shot, but you get the idea):

I tried to take a picture of this, realizing that it wouldn't look great but I at least expected it to resemble what I was seeing. Well, I took the picture and I couldn't even tell that it was a temple. I couldn't even see the temple. Very annoying!

2008 Goals

Let me start by saying that my ultimate goal is to do the LOTOJA in 2008. This is a race from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY in one day. 206 miles and 3 mountain passes. All my goals are designed to get me to the finish line in Jackson Hole in September.
They are:
1. Ride 3000 miles before September, 4000 for the year (I did 2000 this year so going for the double up here)
2. Ride in 7 century rides before September (if I can't find organized ones I will do the route followed for the North Shore Century). This is a century each month March - August
3. Ride in one competitive bike race this year. I don't think I am well suited for crits but there are a ton of those in Illinois so I will likely try one.
4. Ride in one charity event this year. Right now I am hoping to do the MS 150 in Utah. It is early in the summer and would give me the chance to ride some mountains in preparation for the LOTOJA (not many mountains in Illinois).
5. Take two trips to Western Illinois before September, where there are actually some sizable hills I can climb.
6. Complete the LOTOJA in September
7. Figure out a way to prevent my wife from leaving me because I am spending too much time on my bike (I am taking suggestions on this one!)

I am really looking forward to a fun year on the bike, it should be awesome!!!!!!!

Crash Pictures (as promised)

Update

I rode on the rollers on Wednesday and noticed some marginal improvement. I am about to head down for another go on the rollers tonight. I am trying to get in 30 hard minutes each day this week. I missed Tuesday but what can I do at this point? Happy rolling!

Car Crash

Before Christmas I was in a car crash (I'll post some pictures later). I was told by the doctor to rest for several weeks, including no bike riding. My Monday ride was the first since the accident and as you can see it was weak, both in distance and speed. I am sad to report that I couldn't have done much more. I was tired and my back was sore afterwards.
For those of you who don't know I have had problems with a bulging disc in my lower back for the past several years. In fact, I started cycling as part of several lifestyle changes aimed at managing the bulging disc issue. My back problems were largely a result of a sedentary lifestyle coupled with infrequent, high impact activity (i.e., sitting on my ass for 10 hours at work and 3 hours in front of the T.V. at night for 29 consecutive days and then deciding to play competitive basketball on day 30. I know, strange that I suffered an injury). Bike riding was my cure for that and conteracted the sedentary lifestyle I natrually live in cubicle hell.
I digress, point is that I have some work to do in order to get back to my summer riding form. It is amazing how fast I lost it and I am pretty sure I won't get it back as quickly as I lost it.

New Wheels

As mentioned in my first post, I am on the hunt for wheels. I ride a Bianchi Giro that I bought in September of 2006. It has been a great bike. I got it at the LBS, Turin in Evanston (also a link under My Links). I absolutely fell in love with the frame and the fact that it was built out with Shimano 105 and a set of low end Shimano wheels made it affordable, perfect for a beginner like me. Now that I have become much more serious about cycling I am ready to move up from a beginner bike. The frame has enough mojo in it that I cab build it up with better components and wheels and have myself a decent race bike (this idea is validated by the fact the the Turin Cycling Team rode the same frame during the 2007 race season, obviously built out with high end components and wheels).
So, I have been dutifully saving money for the past few months and I think I finally have enough to go get new wheels. I spent a lot of time looking at all the options and I settled on the Campagnolo Eurus.
Here is how I came to that conclusion. It was immediately obvious that I was not going to be able to afford carbon wheels, so very early on I eliminated carbon wheels from my search.
At that point I focused in on aluminum wheels. Towards the end of the summer I finally got up enough courage to ride with the fast race training rides that leave from Evanston and I noticed that a lot of the riders had Mavics, either the Ksyrium ES or SSL (by the way, the guys on those race training rides are really fast, wow). Due to that I initially thought that I would go with one of those sets but I spent a lot of time on Road Bike Review (also a link under My Links) and read a lot of reviewers that seemed to consistently complain about breaking spokes and the subsequent headaches created because of it. I quickly soured on the idea of getting one of the Mavic sets so I started looking elsewhere.
In the meantime, Bianchi released their top of the line 928 Carbon bike that had a set of Campagnolo Bora on it, the first time I had seen a Campy wheel. I am a bit embarrassed to admit it but the reason I started looking at Campy wheels was that the Boras looked totally sweet!! I love the G3 asymmetrical spokes on the rear wheel. I started researching Campy wheels and immediately focused in on the Eurus and Shamal because they where in my price range and had the G3 spoking. (Side note: I am a bit embarrassed to admit that it was the looks of the the wheel that drew me to it because it had nothing do to with me understanding the reasons why that spoking pattern might actually make it a better wheel.) I am happy to report that while researching the wheel I took the time to understand the technology the best I could so now I am drawn to buying the wheel on both looks and technological merits. Anyway, again I went to my friend Road Bike Review and read really good reviews for the Eurus and many not so good reviews for the Shamal; and since the Eurus is cheaper than the Shamal it seemed my decision was made.
Since that point I have been saving and looking for a good deal. At this point, my impatience is probably going to get the better of me and I will buy them without waiting longer to see if a deal comes along. A local shop here in the Chicago area had a set at $700 a few months back but I wasn't ready to buy. The best I have seen lately is $800. What will happen is I will get impatient, buy them at $800 and them see them a day later at $700, not complaining...I just know how it works at this point. Here is a picture of the wheels:
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Introduction

Since everyone else I know (including my own wife) is a blogger, I figured it was time for me to also become a blogger. I have actually been wanting to blog for several months but I didn't feel like I had anything to write about since my wife already blogs (see it at http://locolunds.blogspot.com/) and pretty much writes about everything going on in our life. About a week ago, the idea occurred to me that it might be fun to write about my second love, cycling (I'm sure you can guess what my first love is, and no it is not flyfishing, although that could possibly be the subject of a future blog). I am new to cycling but I have become very passionate about it. My plans for this blog are:

1. Detail my riding goals and chronicle my progress towards those goals. I will have a box on the blog dedicated to my riding during the week, with vital stats such as distance, average speed, etc.
2. Talk about my bike and my upgrades to it (or lack thereof, bike stuff is spendy!). I am currently on the hunt for wheels, which I will write about shortly.
3. Muse about all things cycling, including racing (domestic and international), new products, etc.

Thanks for reading!