KC Bike Week 2009 - Final Day

This morning I kind of missed my old truck. Did not feel like going to work, let alone ride a bicycle in. I stopped thinking about it long enough to lather up a good amount of Butt'r (yes it might seem like I use a lot, but I don't want to get MonkeyButt . If I did I would have to use Anti Monkey Butt. ) on my bibs pad, fill two bottles (one Accelerade, one water), said "good bye" to the wifey, connected my light, double checked the old rig and headed out the door. After about 10 minutes I was better, but riding more like a zombie than anything else. No big chain ring for me the morning. I coasted down every hill and spun everywhere else.

I got a little dose of rain this morning. Not much, but it appeared it rained really hard last night. A lot of the roads coming in were wet and some had large sections of standing water. Good thing we missed the heavy stuff.

Yesterday I stopped at the Briarcliff Farmers market on the way home. If you live up in the Northland (and why wouldn't you?) check it out. It is open every Thursday 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm. I wanted one of those tamales in the worst way, but decided they would most likely not stay down with the remaining hills I had.



Speaking of hills, I cut through Water Works Park on the way to Riverside. Very safe route that cuts out Hwy 9 and it's high speed traffic. It is a safe route, but be prepared for some climbing if you do take that route and the roads around Briarcliff. Especially that climb off 283....



One more ride home and this years challenge is over. I was planning on taking the weekend off, but Carolynn said we need to put in two long rides to make up for the two weeks that she took off. I am thinking that maybe next time she should not go on vacation during a critical training period :-)

Things are looking kind of dangerous for the ride home. Already getting that "I don't want you to ride home in a tornado" call from my better half. But honey, it is the commuter challenge and you have to ride..... I somehow don't have much sense when it comes to things like this. Once down in Florida I went for a nice ride before a hurricane was supposed to hit Naples. The storm was heading East from Naples to Ft. Lauderdale. I figured by the time it got to Parkland that the winds would be 50 mph tops. Well, I was wrong. The only good part was the awesome tail wind heading home. The rain and debris kind of hurt some. Maybe that is what damaged my head?

I made it home. The commute home this afternoon was very challenging. Carolynn called it "very stupid", but I call it challenging :-)

Things were going well until it started to hail and lightning just as I was flying down Hospital Hill over by Crown Center. I usually start working my way over to Cliff Drive at this point, but I could hear Carolynn in my head, so I decided to stop for cover. I went over to the Acme bike shop and stayed there for about 20 minutes until I just could not take it anymore. If you are ever by their shop, stop in and check it out. They have some very unique bikes.



I headed North into the rain. I thought the lightning was over with, but as I was passing the Sprint Center it started up again. I decided to take my chances and continue to ride. I figured that the odds of me getting hit was so remote and there was no way it could happen to me. My numbers never come up for the lottery, so why would they come up now. I proceeded to the Heart of America bridge across the river. At times I could not see as the driving rain and some hail hit my eyes. I left my sunglasses at work because I figured it would be too dark to use them. I just kept focusing on the road beneath my rig and watched for the cars with my peripheral vision. The traffic in NKC was going slow due to some very wet roads and some flooding. I took a route that worked by Macken Park. That was a mistake. 32nd Avenue was flooded and the police/fire trucks had Cherry Street closed. I had to turn around and find an open road back to 9 Hwy. I decided to jump on 9 because the traffic was only going 10 mph due to flooding by the 169 overpass. Unlike the cars that had to worry about getting stuck in high water, I was able to ride through it all. At times my bottom bracket and cranks were completely submerged in the water. I guess it is time to rebuild that thing now. Luckily my BB is an old Dura-Ace model that I can rebuild (if I remember how :-))

Once I got to Riverside it was smooth sailing. Sections of Gateway Avenue were flooded and had a thin layer of mud on the road. This was very slick, but I had my cross bike with some Ritchey tires on. I did slid a few times, but I kept pedaling through it. By the time I got home all the mud was all washed off my Colnago. I was surprised to find the Line Creek (which runs behind my house) was just about to crest its banks. I can not believe how high it was. My normal route home was totally flooded.



Like I said, it was an interesting and challenging ride home. I guess I am very fortunate that I made it home safe and sound.

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 6

The wind gods must have been listening to me yesterday because they gave me a nice North wind this morning. What a great morning to ride. Cool breeze, a tail wind (if you were heading South) and smooth roads (due to the fact that I now know where every pothole is on my route to work).

I choose to ride my trusty old DEAN Castanza today. I bought her back when I was working as bike sales representative in Florida. The representative price was only $450.00 for ti frame and Kestral carbon fork. I didn't know much about DEAN back then, but decided that I should ride the product that I was trying to sell. I won my first criterium on her way back in 1996. I have gone through about 10 bikes since I got her, including Time, LeMonds, Looks and other custom ti models, but nothing rides like she does. I even named my son after her (Christopher Dean Locke). I still can not believe Carolynn let me do that.

The last three days I used my Colnago cross bike. Those 700 x 35's knobby cross tires are taking their toll on my legs. What a difference a good set of wheels with 700 x 23's make. My baby was so smooth this morning that I had to stop and take a picture of her while going through Riverside.


I was way ahead of schedule this morning so I stopped by the "art district" in down town KC. I envy artists and their ability to create images like these. I wish I could draw a simple stick figure....

What is for lunch today? Grill day! Again, all this riding has caused me to think about eating all the time. Check out the below burgers that we have available to at the Cafe'. Now that is a veggie burger. I had the old fashion hamburger with mushrooms, cheese, onions, lettuce and tomatoes. While I was eating this afternoon, I realized that Carolynn fixed burgers last night also. Which was better you ask? Carolynn wins hands down - I think it is her special sauce.....

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 5

Another morning of fighting those S/SW winds. It is always nice to start your day with a pleasant ride into work, but those head winds usually take all the fun out of it. Today was no exception.

First stop this morning was the Wheel Cyclery for their Coffee Break Stop that they were sponsoring for Bike Week. I am usually well on my to work at this time of morning, but I wanted to stop by and support some of the functions that Eric Rogers and the Car Free Challenge crew put together. I was hoping that Heather would be in extra early, but Starbucks did not open until 0600. I was able to hang out for a few minutes and picked up some goodies including some vanilla and chocolate Petite French Cakes. With main ingredients like sugar, butter and milk cream I decided I would wait until my arrival at work to enjoy them.

By the time I got back on the road, I was about 30 minutes behind schedule. I tried my darnedest to make up the time with the mostly downhill run before the the climb up to Cliff Drive. The below view of the city gave me some motivation, but the winds were not helping my cause (nor was stopping to take a picture :-). Soon I was getting "will you be there today" emails from my director at work and Carolynn was calling to check up on me. Ended up bringing back 15 minutes of that time, but still arrived late. Damn those morning winds....

I have food on the mind today. Here at The Stowers Institute we have a nice cafe'. I missed the breakfast special due to being late so I wound up eating some oatmeal and one of those french cakes. What should I have for lunch? Grilled Vegetable Napoleon, Taco Salad, Baked Lasagna, Chicken, Roasted Vegetable pizza or breaded Cod??? The Chicken with some chunky potato soup sounds like a plan. I need to load up for the ride home....

Just heard about a fellow cyclist/commuter who was hit by a careless driver in Iowa. Kim West has the update on Leesa Shoemaker.

Time to take a nap. I ate way too much lunch. Very sleepy now.....

How did everyone fair on their commute home? Did you get wet? Did you make it home safely? I sure hope everyone got home o.k. My work schedule allows me to leave by 1600, so I missed most of the rain. The little I did get actually felt good. Was it warm/humid today or was it just me? By the time I got done with my 24 mile commute home I was soaked with sweat. It's been a long time since I felt humidity. Looks like Summer is just around the corner.

Only two more days left in this years challenge. I am getting in a good groove and hopefully will be back to commuting 3 to 4 time each week. The first part of this year I have been enjoying XM radio while driving to work instead of commuting. You get in a habit of doing something and it is hard to change. I am glad that I signed up for this years challenge again. I am well on my way to developing my commuting habit again.

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 4

Damn those South winds. Nothing like fighting winds first thing in the a.m. This morning commute was hard going, but at least the legs felt better than yesterday. Maybe it was the Breakfast Cookie that Carolynn bought for me. I downed it while I was taking out the garbage and recycling this morning. My little morning chores caused me to fall behind my schedule and I ended up not leaving my house until 0530. What a difference 30 minutes can make in the amount of traffic. With being behind in time, I had to use HOA (which could have a protected bicycle facility by 2012?). This sucked big time, especially crossing the bridge around 0615. At least they changed the grates a couple of years ago and you can now ride over them and stay close to the retaining wall. I can remember with the old grates your tires would fall right through them and you had to ride out in the lane to go around them. Or try to bunny hop them if you had the speed. Morning commute was only 19 miles. My normal route that I take on safe roads is 25 to 29 miles (depending on the lights I hit and traffic flow) and uses the Choutea bridge to cross the Missouri river. A longer route, but much safer. The added 35 to 45 minutes is worth it to me. I thinking I need to get me one of those Fibre Flares to make myself more visible.

Just as I was leaving work to head home it started to rain. Funny thing, my legs felt great on the ride home. For some reason I always feel great riding/racing in the rain. Must be all those times I rode in the rain down in Florida. The rain always brings back some good memories for me.

I did a little testing today and ate the same snack prior to today's ride that I ate yesterday (when I felt like crap). Fig newtons, 2 FSR cubes and a cup of hot tea. Today I felt fine with no problems. I kind of thought something was all jacked up with my sugar level, but now I am unsure.

Some pictures from the ride home. Always nice to hit the gravel via the levee system along the might MO.


Don't forge tomorrow The Wheel Cyclery and Starbucks are serving up some goodies. There will be coffee, as well as, pastries. We will also hand out stickers that allow participants to go to Starbucks up until 10p on Wed. and receive a FREE ICE TEA. The Wheel is one block North of Vivion and Antioch - located directly across from the Metro park-and-ride lot that is next to Walgreens.

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 3

The normal work week as arrived. That means a lot more traffic and I need to leave around 0500 to make it to work in time. The morning commute is mostly fine because at that time of the morning not many drivers are up. Heck, everyone I know at work is still sound asleep. Things start getting kind of busy right before 0600, but nothing compared to the commute home.

Last night our cat Betsy started crying again in the middle of the night. We adopted her about two years ago. She is a little weird and has some major issues such as she hides under the bed all day long until either Carolynn or I get home. She also has this weird sock fetish (BTW, do not goggle "sock fetish" at work) where she gets my socks out of the drawer in my office and take each pair and makes a trial to the our bed room in the house. Betsy was very busy last night and I awoke to all my socks being strewed down the hallway. I guess she wanted to tell me about it last night and each time I did not acknowledge her she went and got another sock.

Have you ever noticed that it actually cost more when you commute to work than when you drive? I guess this would depend on your commute distance, but with a 25 to 30 mile commute one way you burn a lot of calories each day. I estimated today I ate about $7.00 of extra food because of the nearly 2 hour ride in. If I would have just driven it would have only cost me about $3.50 in gas. Go figure....

Rough ride home tonight. I don't know if it was something I ate or "just one of those days". The weather was great, my route via Cliff Drive was very nice and pleasant, but I just had no legs today. I kept wanting to check my rear brake to see if it was rubbing or something. Every hill was laborious. I stopped by The Wheel Cyclery to get a new chain so I could finish the commuter rig build. I did a quick bike check while I was stopped. Even checked the seat height because I it felt like I was squatting. Everything checked out. It was just me. I think all the riding and house work is catching up with me. Or maybe I am just getting old and need more recovery between rides.

The ride for the day

A short cut through part of Gladstone. Can anyone guess where?

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 2

After a late night last night (watching the neighbors kids until past midnight), I was glad I did not have to get up at 0500. my lower back recovered some and an easy yoga session and ice helped a lot.

Things got going strong again with house work after breakfast. All the work cleaning the kitchen last night was for nothing as we had to rip out all the cabinet in the laundry room and move the washer/dryer so we Robbie could paint. We kept the kids busy with painting the storage shed.

We really need to take a trip up to the pet store and get a mouse for Christopher's snake Mike. While I was cleaning the cat box, I notice Mike roaming around his cage which is sure sign he is hungry. Christopher was not up for a ride up to the pet store in the early a.m., so I went ahead and headed to work to do some PM work on the phone equipment. Sunday is the slowest traffic day phone call wise and is the best time to get some required work done.

The ride in was nice. A little cloudy, but no rain. I took a more direct route to work because the vehicular traffic was again low. I usually avoid the Heart of America bridge, especially going south bound. No troubles today. It is always strange to be riding through downtown with no traffice or people around. The rain stayed way for the ride in and I was happy to get there dry because I had under dressed and did not want to be riding cold and wet. The return trip was a different story. Things started off o.k. as I worked my way past the art museum, but as I started to cross the old Might MO the chance of getting a little wet greatly increased. By the time I started to climb my way up from 210, it started to rain. I mistakenly took the the chance and left my rain jacket at work in case I needed it later in the week. This same rain jacket has some reflective matterial on it and make me feel safer. It has been awhile since I rode in traffic while it was raining. I aways feel like I am invisiable sometimes when it is raining and would have enjoyed having it on for the extra visibility. I was happy to make it home without incedent.

When I did get home, I was greeted with a crying kid that would not talk to me. I think Christopher got overworked or he was upset that his mother did not call from Florida on Mother's Day. Maybe it is was a combination of both. Either way it's going to be a long night. I have to leave early tomorrow to get to work by 0700. Christopher is going to have the responsibility to get ready himself. I sure hope he does not miss the bus. It would suck having to ride home to take him to school.

KC Bike Week 2009 - Day 1

I am not ready at all for this years Car-Free Challenge. It starts on a day with a lot of memories and feelings going through my head. My commuter rig is still not finished. There are tons of work to do around the house, painting is still not finished, the event promotion duties never seem to end and I will be a one man show at work next week. But life and the challenge goes on....

The City of Independence has been waiting for my final event proposal for several weeks, so I headed over to scout out Santa Fe Trails park and a new course this morning. There is no easy way to get over to Independence from my Northland location via bicycle. At least I don't know of any. The good thing was the roads were mostly empty because it was Saturday morning. It was a nice morning to ride. After checking out the park and working on the course (like I said the promoter duties never end..) I headed back home to fix breakfast for Christopher and start to work.

Several projects have been going on at the Locke house the past month. Everything from painting the inside to sealing the driveway. Today I needed to finish my driveway project. A trip to Lowe's was up next. I felt o.k. after this mornings ride and figured a little 9 mile trip to the store would be a piece of cake. Well, I forgot how hard it was to climb pulling 40+ pounds of weight. The downhills were fun. Those Dura-Ace brakes sure do work well.

Robbie and Christopher helped finish the sod project which required raising the level of the ground/grass so the water will drain away from the driveway instead of under it :-). After we got that done it was time to work on the backyard and get ready for Christopher's little bonfire party that he decided that he was going to invite all the neighborhood kids to. Before I knew it, I was baby sitting 5 kids, cleaning the house, moving furniture, removing painter tape (that had dried on because it was left on way to long), moping the floor, polishing the cabinets, etc. At the end of the night I was so tired about fell asleep brushing my teeth. To top it all off I still did not get my bike built up. This is going to be one long week..