Swiftcurrent Reflections

So, this happened on the commute home yesterday:

4999.9 miles...

...and 5000.0 miles!

5,000 miles on my LeMond Buenos Aires. The bike computer went on before I took the bike home from the shop and it has worked flawlessly every ride. Never even replaced the battery. The bike has performed very well. It is a comfortable long-distance machine. With the steel frame and Ultegra components, it should be easy to get another 5,000 miles. I figure that 5,000 miles translates into about 300 hours of time in the saddle. Not too bad!

Some of the events that we’ve done:

• Reach the Beach. My first century.
• Tour de Blast. Twice (once fun, once cold and wet…)
• Seattle to Portland. The first time was my first double-century. The second time my first over-night bike event.
• Mid-Summer Duathlon. My first du.
• Monday Night PIR Race. My first road race.
• Lyle Pearson 200. 200-mile relay bike race in Idaho.
• Blue Lake Triathlon. My first tri.

Add to that lots of weekend rides with Meg and other friends, and many miles commuting to work. Fun times! I hope I can get the next 5000 in much faster…

At the Blue Pool and the McKenzie River Trail

For my last weekend of freedom, Kevin and I went and rode the McKenzie River Trail, then camped near Deer Creek hot springs. Great fun!

Returning home, however, was not so fun: broken water main…

- Pictures
- Route

OK, just a post to update people what’s going on in my life.

Flying: With my trip to Taiwan and with my instructor taking a week vacation, I’ve been put a bit behind in my training. However, I am getting very close to having my shirt tail ripped off. In July, I am flying up with Bill (remember him from my earlyier flight?) are flying up to Arlington for the big air show there. Should be a blast!

Biking: I’ve been doing a lot of road biking lately. The reason is we (Meg, Meg’s friend Ken and I) are doing Seattle to Portland in the middle of July. When I did it a few years back with Kevin, we did it in a one day push. This year, we are doing it in two days. Personally, I think that will by much more difficult. I don’t look forward to getting on the bike the morning of the second day… Also in biking news, this last Monday was my first ever bike race. This was around the track at PIR, so we don’t have to worry about traffic or other road hazards. It was crazy riding in a pack of guys. I almost went down once, but we all made it sans road rash. I think I did pretty well, comming in seventh. It was Meg’s first time too, and she did great. You can read her take here. Final note on the bike are some upgrades! who doesn’t like upgrades? First, I got a set of wheels from a new company out of Colorado called Rol. Good wheels at a decent price. I think the look sweet too (see pictures below). Tomorrow morning, I head to Veloce Bikes to get my bike (now five years old!) dialed in to the perfect fit.

Before. Pretty much a stock 2002 Buenos Aries.

After: The new Rol wheels update it a bit. At least I think! I’ll find out how they ride tomorrow.