Updates from DarbyRides

I'm home from church. Relaxing. Rode 100+km yest...

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:58:04 GMT

I'm home from church. Relaxing. Rode 100+km yesterday, 60km of it with a spoke broken so my avg. got all screwed up.

Team Uniforms

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:33:11 GMT

I recently received my team uniform from Skullcandy Cycling Team. As I've said before, I am racing as a geographically separated rider from the rest of the team, an opportunity for which I am very grateful.

These kits, made by Blackbottoms Cyclewear are amazing. One thing I appreciate is the soft, non irritating silicone leg grabbers at the bottom of the bibs. I also like that the material for the top of the bib is well aerated with a series of small holes. Not only does the material wick the moisture that does build up, but having less material between your skin and the outer layer jersey means the moisture gets to the surface to do so quicker. Anything that means less weight is a bonus to any serious roadie. I love the jersey as well. It is comfortable, and because I ordred the right size, it is form fitting which means less air resistance. The standard three back jersey pockets are present as well, and they provide plenty of room for gels, bottles, MotorTabs packets or whatever you want to take with you. The eye-catching bright graphics are phenomenal, with the bright green drawing the eye to the team racer who is wearing it. The sponsors' logos are prominently displayed and readable as well, not buried in the artwork as is the case with so many other products out there. If any problems arise with these kits after continued use, I would obviously bring that to light as well, but so far it looks like Blackbottoms was the right choice by the powers that be as Skullcandy Cycling Team.

If your team or charity is looking for a great product at a competitive price, you should check with Blackbottoms Cyclewear. They do great deals for bulk orders, and I am fairly certain they give special pricing if you are ordering the gear for a charity-related team, event, or group. I have had personal dealings with them on non team items and am VERY pleased with the products I have ordered independent of the team as well. I could go on and on about how much I like the gear, but I trust you to your own judgment and experience. In my opinion, you can not go wrong with Blackbottoms Cyclewear.

Tips for a Successful Criterium

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:49:17 GMT

Written By Katie Compton, CTS Pro Coach
Jul 17, 2006 - 11:09:01 AM

You don’t have to be the strongest rider in the pack to race well in a criterium and come away with a positive experience instead of a frustrating one; you just have to be smart about where and how you expend your energy. One classic way of thinking about it is to imagine that each rider starts the race with a handful of matches. During the race, you’ll burn through your matches, and when they’re all gone, your day is done. To improve your results and increase your chances of winning, you want to be careful about your efforts so you don’t burn all your matches and get dropped before the final lap. Many inexperienced racers believe it’s easiest to ride in the back and sit in the draft and out of the way, but this is actually the hardest way to ride a crit. This is where the greatest suffering occurs, as riders onstantly brake and accelerate at each corner. Criteriums are hard for everyone, but there are ways to make them easier so you can get to the finish line with more energy and the power to have a strong finishing kick. Here are some tips for successfully racing crits.

Warm up well: Make sure you get to the race early enough to find parking, get registered and do a proper warm-up with enough time for bathroom breaks, stretching and pinning on you number. Having plenty of time often helps alleviate normal pre-race jitters and anxiety as well. You’ll want to execute the warm-up properly so you get to the line with your blood flow primed and your body ready to go hard from the start. Criteriums get to full speed in the first lap so you need to be ready to sprint off the line and get into a good position early. A typical warm-up consists of 30-60 minutes of riding, preferably on a trainer to keep you close to the car and the start, which includes efforts of gradually increasing intensity. Start by riding at endurance pace, then pick it up to time trial pace, do a few 3-5 minute intervals above your time trial or max sustainable pace, and throw in a few street sprints. Your goal is to prime each of your energy systems, get your heart rate up and initiate the body’s ability to buffer and process lactic acid.

Start right: Once you have the warm-up down and get to the start line, the fun is just beginning. The next and probably the most important thing to think about is proper positioning within the pack, and a good start is the first step to riding in a good position. Crits always start off fast so start in the big chain ring and be able to clip into your pedals quickly. This is such an important skill that it’s worth practicing all by itself so you can get a good position straightaway and don’t lose ground before you get to the first corner.

Stake out your place: The best place to race a crit is in the top third of the pack or even closer to the front if you can. If the race is a big group and you can’t tell how far back you are, try to count the number of riders in front of you. If you can’t do it quickly or you can’t count that high, then you’re too far back. Once you get to front part of the group you have to work to stay there. Riders are always moving around through the pack so if you get complacent you could find yourself at the back in a hurry and have to fight your way back up again. To keep that from happening, you always need to be moving up and filling any holes in front of you so you can maintain your position and stay out of the wind.

Keep your momentum: The primary reason you want to stay in the front of the pack is simply because it’s easier. While the riders in the front are accelerating out of a corner, the riders in the back are still braking into it, so the ones at the back have to work twice as hard to accelerate and chase the leaders out of each corner. Riders in the front don’t have to brake through the corners as much, which means they maintain a lot of their momentum and don’t have to accelerate as hard to get back to top speed. Over the course of a race, this saves a huge amount of energy. If you have to brake and sprint to get through every corner, you’ll fatigue very quickly and either get dropped or have nothing left for the sprint.

Finish fast: Now that you’ve successfully made it to the final 10 laps of the race, it’s important to start thinking about the last lap and final sprint. In most bike races there are actually two sprints: one for positioning and one for the finish line. You need to be ready to sprint twice if you want to win. Also take note as to how close the finish line is to the final corner, as the real race might be to the final corner if the space from the final corner to the finish line leaves no room for a real sprint. In these races, odds are that whoever gets to the final corner first will win. Most riders need 200 meters or so to pass someone in an all-out sprint so don’t wait too long to make your move. Sit on someone’s wheel as long as you can and take note as to which way the wind is coming from and pass on the leeward (away from the wind) side so you can take advantage of the draft as long as possible. When you decide to go, make it a 100% effort and go like hell to the end.

Oh, just one more thing. After you use these tips to put yourself in the perfect position to win your next criterium, even if you are 100% sure you’re going to win, don’t sit up and celebrate until you actually reach the finish line. There’s no worse way to lose a race than through premature celebration.

Katie Compton is a Pro Coach for Carmichael Training Systems, Inc. and a champion cyclist in just about every event. She won the 2004 and 2005 US Elite National Cyclocross Championships, she’s won several medals and set world records driving a tandem in Paralympic competitions, and she has been winning criteriums, road races, and mountain bike races for nearly 15 years.

Recovery

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:57:49 GMT

I did a recovery ride today. Though I did catch myself racing some invisible rival a few times, I think I did a better job than most times of using this ride for recovery. I rode up 49 toward Grass Valley, turned onto Dry Creek Road and on through the regional park where I made a few laps around the little pond/mini lake they have there. Then it was back up 49 off through a residential area for just a quick loop and a nice little climb, and then home after a nice cool down around our neighborhood. I was quite tempted to grunt out the steep 20+% grade climb up the street my house sits at the base of, but disciplined myself out of that, remembering it was a recovery ride.

After the ride I realized I still had quite a bit of fluid left in my bottles and made a mental note to remember how important it is to hydrate and fuel on a set schedule. About 4 miles into the ride I inadvertently stopped my Garmin so I can't post a link to an accurate route map.

Crit Training

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:48:56 GMT

I had a great ride today. I prefaced the ride by taking my rear wheel to get trued at Bicycle Emporium here in Auburn. I was told they wouldn't be able to get it back to me until Monday, but when I said I would just bring it in another time when they weren't backed up they went ahead and did a quick true on it to get me by. When he finished, Bubba told me it was no charge and that since they had so many miles on them, I should consider replacing the wheels because they were true now, but may need to be trued a lot more frequently in the near future because they've got so much time on them. I wish I could afford a new wheelset, but that just is not my reality right now. I need new shifter/brake levers as well and those would come before wheels anyway. Not that either of those are anywhere in the near future.

I was pretty well hydrated and fueled before the ride. I did, however mix and consume one packet of Hornet Juice before going out. I took one bottle of plain water and one with a lime Motor Tabs tablet in it. I chose to ride from home up Hwy 49/Grass Valley Hwy to Old Town Auburn and ride the loop I'll be doing on my criterium in May. It's a nice route, just under a mile and it starts with a 100 foot climb then a turn of almost 180 degrees for another slight graded climb of much less and a sweet killer descent back to the starting point. The course has mostly right turns with one left. All the turns are sharp, and none of them are on flats. I did 6 or 7 passes on the course to get a feel for the terrain and road textures. By the time I get to the top of the climb it always feels as though I have given all I've got, but somehow by the time I get back around to the start of it, I am able to dig and start again.

After that I headed home, deciding to try a few surface streets and see a bit of the residential part of Old Town Auburn. To my surprise I found myself spinning my way up a >21% grade for what seemed like a mile but was really only a couple hundred yards. Then I worked my way home not doing too much else except for a couple more good hidden climbs through back lots, etc. that keep me out of the heavy traffic.

It was the first day in a long while that I've been able to go out in just a short sleeve full kit with no leg or arm warmers.

I am riding for Skullcandy Racing this year, but my races provide me a platform to do fund-raising for Athletes for a Cure as well since there is no conflict of interest.

Rainy days and Tuesdays

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:24:49 GMT

It is still storming and extremely cold outside here in NorCal, which prevented a worthwhile outside training ride tonight. So, I filled my two 24 oz. Motor Tabs bottles with water, dropped 1.5 Motor Tabs in each one and hit the Minoura rollers for 1 hour 0 minutes and 15 seconds, spinning out 22.56 "miles" with an average speed of about 22.5 mph at 71.7 rpm average cadence. My heart rate averaged 185 bpm/87% of my max of 212bpm8. I burned a calculated 1,500kcal.

It was a much better ride than last night because I had better music this time, listening to the Cadence Revolution podcast. That is my favorite cycling music podcast, you should check it out. There is usually just about an hour of music with the beats per minute of the song selections changing so you get a warm up, ride, and cool down phase if you choose to follow the beat with your cadence.

Also, I just completed my paperwork and got it in the mail to race for SkullCandy Racing this year. Yeah! I've been using their headphones practically since they came out, so that is awesome. I never thought I would be representing them, though. I need to find a cool head badge for my bike with a skull on it now....

Keep the shiny side up!

Racing Season 2009

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:51:22 GMT

I finally renewed my USAC license, and have registered for my first race, a criterium. It isn't until May, but that's fine because I neglected my core this winter and need to get on it.

I've realized my bike fit wasn't quite what it needed to be for the circuit vs. the long ride so it is now set up better for the cornering, etc. I replaced the factory fork with an aftermarket one that is 2degrees less rake, which makes my action super tight, and it is very responsive. I've been riding with it for awhile now like this and I have to admit I like it a lot better.

The Grand Prix recommended by a friend are spot on for the tires, I recommend them if you want something extremely durable. You literally have to pull glass out of them.

There are other races I am looking at but have to balance family and work with them before I commit. The May criterium is in downtown Auburn, CA where I live. Keep the shiny side up.

Allez!

still training. Next race, Dunnigan Hills Road Ra...

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:53:49 GMT

still training. Next race, Dunnigan Hills Road Race. http://athletes.kintera.org/other/darbyc.

Changes....

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:38:42 GMT

Hi again everyone. The move out here to CA has been quite an experience. Moreso than I can even get into at this point. I am now living in Auburn, CA which is not so bike friendly, but man the hills are great for training. I am now the Head Chef at Parlare Eurolounge in downtown Sac. but the commute and parking are killing my wallet so it's tough to decide to keep the job . Riding these hills is so much different than Houston. I thought I was fast and strong but these hills have made a liar of me in that respect. I find myself out of breath on hills when my legs are still just getting started. I am not sure what that is all about. More to come.....

Welcome FLUID

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:32:25 GMT

A big welcome to new sponsor:

Captain for Team FredCast!

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:30:14 GMT

I am the Team Captain for the Northern California Chapter of Team FredCast! The FredCast is a podcast devoted to Bicycles, Bike Gear, Toys, Racing and more. I have created Team FredCast page for BIKE-MS Waves to Wine Ride in Northern California, so be sure to join us when you register!

Please donate to my cause at http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Darbyrides

Check out the FredCast at http://www.thefredcast.com/

Last HOU Ride

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:46:26 GMT

I did my last ride in Houston today. Tomorrow the Fuji gets readied to ship and packed. The fixie is already there.

I rode to Memorial Park and rode the Picnic Loop a few times, then rode home the long way on some of my favorite stretches. I had a good ride. I was in the upper HRM training zone for most of the ride. It felt good to exert like that. I hit 34 but could only hold it for short time it was sprint-like it was so short. I was watching cadence and could feel I must be cruising. I switched the computer over to mph and was hppy to see it inch up toward 35, getting so excited. When I saw it dip back to 33 from 34 I shouted "F%*k!" and laughed a bit because I was lactated out I suppose and couldn’t pull it back up. Dammit, when will I be able to just ride and be doing that for a long stretch. Ugh!

My next ride will be in a town that goes out of it’s way to make bicycles part of traffic and cares about the safety of cyclists. Houston hasn’t even scratched the surface on being that kind of place. Houston sucks. It really does. It has no personality, no "feel". The drivers suck, the people are all disgruntled all the time, it is humid beyond explanation, it floods a lot and the list goes on.

Day after tomorrow I fly to my wife and our new home! CA, and real hills, here I come!

Peace!

"Boy" What A Ride!

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:58:14 GMT

I got my roadie back from the shop today with a new tune-up and new bar tape, cables etc. I had class today from 12 to 3 so I rode the fixed gear to school and back and then came home and stretched and fueled up before going to ride. So I took my usual route from home to Memorial Park where I ride the "Picnic Loop" for a few laps for some good training. It is 1.15 miles per lap with plenty of curves. The only thing it lacks is a hill. I think the road does elevate about 3 or four inches in a couple of places but that's the extent of the hill country in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. However as I was stopped at one of the stop signs on the bike trail just before the park a nice H.P.D. sergeant pulled up and said his hellos and asked about my bike and the sponsor stickers on it etc. before laying on me that the park was closed for xxxxxxx and I would not be able to ride on that side of the park. For those of you unaware, Memorial Park is the Houston version of Central Park. There are great mountain biking and jogging trails, picnic areas, and the paved loop for skating and cycling (they also do the local Memorial Park Crit series there) a pool, a golf course etc. It is over 1,400 acres. Okay sorry about the rant there. So I decide to go ride on the non cycling side with traffic and as I am coming around to go back on Memorial Drive a fake cop starts whistling at me, stepping out of his car which he has the entrance to the other side of the park blocked with. I am sure he is trying to employ his new found duty to keep all the cyclists out of the park. But, I already know that and just watch the light, and the traffic and wait for my opening to get onto Memorial. I continue to wait and he continues to whistle and yell "Hey You..." and I just look in his direction without answering. I'm not going to the park so I don't need to play his stupid game where he gets to tell me I can't go in the park. He yells at me just before I take off "I know you hear me. You will respect my authority and pay attention to me this second. You are not coming into the park so you can just forget it and I will stop you from coming in so don't think just because you ignore me I am going to ignore you. I just continued to watch traffic and chuckle to myself because he has yet to say "Excuse me, Sir". As I start to make my turn he yells "I told you you ain't comin' in this here park so don't try nothin'." I said "Oh boy, here we go. First of all, I'm not coming in the park. I wasn't planning on coming in the park, nor do I answer to whistles like a some kind of dog." His response "Who you callin' boy? Who you callin' boy? Oh hell naw. Who's you callin boy?" Then his partner who is obviously no stranger to a dinner table jumps (okay rolls) out of the car and says "Who's a boy. You's is the boy and you AIN'T comin' in the park". So I just kept riding and giggled to myself. It is really insulting to me to have assumptions like that made. I won't rant on that but it's ridiculous and there won't be change until that attitude disappears. Come on people, it is 2008!

So that was interesting. THEN when trying to find a safe route back to my destination after my ride on the other side of the park a few laps, I had to take the MTB trail because the paved route was all one way in directions I did not need to be going. So in doing so there were a couple of spots where I had to get off and trod through a bit of mud. No biggie, right? As I come to the intersection where I would have to travel with the vehicular traffic I came to a stop and did a track stand for a few seconds before realizing the light was going to be a few. As I tried to unclip...well you know the drill when you have muddy Speedplays right? Yeah! I did it. I did the slow-mo side dive. As is my routine I stood up, dusted myself off and did bows in the direction of all the observing stopped cars, getting a couple of honks and a couple of applauds. I get my shoes off, disengage them from the pedals, wash them as best I can with my water bottle and tire tool and go on my merry way home. As I was almost home, at the last intersection before my complex, I had dejavu except this time it was on pavement. So apparently I had not removed all of the mud from my speedplay cleats. To wit, I have nice raspberries on both my knees (AGAIN!). It's okay though, my new white tape is still all white. The crap thing is though that the cleats were basically glued to the pedals and I had to force them off. When I did so, the whole damn cleat stayed on the pedal and the adapter broke off from my shoe. Luckily the shoe is still intact so I just have to replace the cleats (which were way overdue anyway). So today's lessons are: don't use the term "boy" in any form in any conversation even if it isn't racist in nature when talking to overweight rental cops. The other lesson is one that should be common sense: make sure ALL debris is cleared out of your cleats before reingaging them into your clipless pedals. Mud is basically glue for those things unless they are cleats that are designed for MTB or CycloX riding.

Nontetheless, I had a great ride! I hit 35 again on a flat (okay that is all we have here is flats) which is something I don't often do yet. It is still awesome considering the first time I rode a roadie I was excited when I broke 20. I also need to go back to the LBS though because my derailleurs are WAY off. I rode the whole trip dialed out on the big ring.

Ride safely. Ride clean!

P.S. I LOVE MY WIFE!

Hopeless Romantic?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:42:46 GMT

Hello my patient readers. I know it has been some time since I have posted a blog. Life has been so wonderful to me lately. I have married the woman I always dreamed of. My family likes her, and she likes them. I looked for so long for "the one" and it was a waste of my time. I finally decided to stop looking and then she fell into my life. We are perfect together. The mere touch of her hand on mine sends a warm sensation straight to my soul. She is my heart, my future, my eternity. Never give up if you long for love. But let God take care of it. Stop asking Him for it and then trying to do His job. Let Him do what you ask. True love lasts. Never give in to the criticism or stupid rationalizations of those who are bugging you about your choices. Your heart knows, your mind knows. Trust those instead. As my hero Larry Winget says "Your friends want you to be successful. But, they don't want you to be more successful than them". When they see you start getting a better life, some of them, the poseurs will start trying to prevent it. Sometimes they don't even know they are. But they will. Trust your love. Don't ignore danger signs though. Angela and I have no danger signs. We got a lot of strange looks and a lot of misery, especially her, for what we chose to do. But we were right.

This marriage will last. So call off any stupid bets you made about that. We are truly in love. We are putting God first in all we do. We are trusting in that. As a result of that dedication a lot is going great for us. We were desperate to how we would find an affordable place. We wondered what work I would find. Instead of getting too stressed about it, we decided to leave it in God's hands. And the results are phenomenal and get better every day. I am almost finished with school. I have over a year in at the Five Diamond St. Regis Hotel, Houston which has been called one of the top 100 hotels in the world by The Robb Report. When I graduate I am moving to Sacramento, CA so my wife and I can begin working together toward our future. We now have a great home to rent at a great price lined up. Through the great people who are renting us the house, there is an opportunity for me to be part of a great food and drink concept as the executive chef. I have the training behind me, and the advice of seasoned professionals to help me out along the way. We go into this together and we will support each others' dreams. We put God first in that decision as well and He is opening doors for us. I will support them by doing all I can to develop a dynamic menu. In them, I have a support team that will do all they can to help me prepare and then give my food away for critique to see what hits and misses during the survey phase as I develop the menu. My parters have comitted to help me get my name established so that people are hungry for more by the time we open the doors on our place.

Biking is going good too. I am addicted to my fixed but the Fuji is cleaned and ready for my harder training to start. Life is good. There are more changes to come, and they are big as well, but we'll save those for their proper time and I will be posting happy blogs about that as well.

Tonight I sleep knowing that I have found my forever. I am in true pure love for real and I can write all night and never truly say how great it feels, or even how it feels. I will say though that I always knew it was okay to be what many called a hopeless romantic. But look, it wasn't such a hopeless thing after all was it?

How it's going.

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:56:27 GMT

Hello patient readers. Wow what a crazy last few months I have had. From the crash (see video called Forked Up Fuji) to working over 40 hours in a kitchen on top of 17 credit hours of school. I made it through somehow. Now I just have three more months of school. In March I will graduate, move to California with my new wife and start our new life together. AND I get a bonus with some great riding and racing on real hills for a change.
I got my Maruishi fixed gear conversion finished and I love it. I also picked up sponsorship from Dedicated Athlete and Rudy Project. Thanks so much to ALL my sponsors. I look forward to a lot of winning with your gear and support next year. I've come a long way from the guy who was literally dying on a sofa before my lifesaving surgery just three years ago this month, and I am so blessed to now be able to use my body and my bike to make a difference in the lives of others with my charity rides. They mean more to me with the loss of both step-parents to esophogeal cancer, and now dealing with my dad struggling for every day with Mesothelioma and just hoping for one more sunrise every night. Please continue to pray for him.

Angela has found a great house for us and we are getting a great deal that can only be divine intervention. I can hardly wait to see her next month. That will be my heaven. It's going to be great! Hey, maybe we'll elope or something. Wouldn't that be grand?

Anyway, thanks for your attentive eyes. Be good to each other. Ride your bikes!

Darby

Team Stolen Underground '08

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:51:53 GMT

TEAM STOLEN UNDERGROUND 2008

1. Kurt XXXX Alstead, NH
2. Ronnie XXXX Cumming, GA
3. Noel XXXX Mill Valley, CA
4. Darby XXXX Houston, TX
5. Giancarlo XXXX Miami, FL
6. Lindsay XXXX Ontario, Canada
7. John XXXX Portland, OR
8. Andrew XXXX Essex, England
9. Travis XXXX Durango, CO
10. Rich XXXX Bradenton, FL
11. Jim XXXX Lutz, FL
12. William XXXX Fredricksburg, VA
13. Matt XXXX Miami, FL
14. David XXXX Portland, OR
15. Jesse XXXX Charlottesville, VA
16. Ivan XXXX Ontario, Canada
17. Rudy XXXX Washington, DC
18. Svein XXXX British Columbia, Canada
19. Michael XXXX Ontario, Canada
20. Chandler XXXX Ipswich, MA
21. Joe XXXX Bethel Park, PA
22. Rob XXXX San Francisco, CA
23. Brent XXXX Killington, VT
24. Ryan XXXX Orlando, FL
25. Erik XXXX Austin, TX
26. Liz XXXX San Francisco, CA
27. Trevor XXXX London, Canada

28. Sean XXXX Chicago, IL
29. Sam XXXX Columbus, OH
30. Rene XXXX Las Vegas, NV
31. Mike XXXX Trumansburg, NY
32. Ted XXXX Chicago, IL
33. John XXXX West Hollywood, CA
34. Zeke XXXX Kansas City, MO
35. Sharon XXXX Lutz, FL
36. Shawn XXXX Richmond, VA
37. Tim XXXX Tolland, CT
38. Camm XXXX Victoria, Australia
38. Jimmy XXXX Washington, DC
39. Abby XXXX Washington, DC
40. Larry XXXX Culpeper, VA
41. Steve XXXX Culpeper, VA
42. Ricky XXXX Culpeper, VA

Been Bikin'

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:13:10 GMT

I am back from my ride. It was so good. One of the best of the shorter rides I have had. I was just in the zone. It is funny to me to recall how shaky and nervous I used to be when I started about 2 years ago. I was timid, if not fearful and then just as I got a little confident was when I got hit by the car. That could have screwed it all up for me. By making the choice though to get back out there, I got better and faster. It seems so cliche about the falling off the horse deal, but it is true corny or not.

I made my way around Tanglewood and that area around the Houston Country Club where I used to work. I went by and said hello to the guard there that used to always see me coming and lift the barrier for me as I headed in to work. He looks about the same after a year.

I rode the grid of just about that whole neighborhood and then made my way to Memorial Park via Woodway and then did a few miles on the Picnic Loop. I have been trying to put the course in my memory so I am better at the curves during the criterium races there next season. If I keep building the base as I have I should be up to speed by the time the season starts next year. I averaged about 18 - 21 there and that includes the first couple of laps that I hardly broke 15 on as I checked the course for changes.

I left there and went across Memorial Drive and to the area around Blossom between Washington and Memorial riding the grid of the neighborhoods there. I love to ride through there and see the changes. Every time I go there is a finished house or building of lofts that was not there (or finished) before. I stopped by West End Bike Shop, but did not go inside, I just rinsed the road junk off my legs and arms and got back to it.

I headed back toward home from there basically just back tracking my ride (sort of) to home. It was nice. I did a few half-assed sprints, but nothing too outrageous. Never got much above 30 mph today.

Computer Stuff: Total time riding was 02:08:33. Average speed was 15.46 mph. Max speed was 30.6 mph. New odometer total is 1,665.2 miles.

Get out there and ride your f***ing bike. It is awesome and your body will be hot like mine.

I Did Not Forget

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:56:59 GMT

Today was the anniversary of that morning. I woke up that day to the radio alarm. They were saying between stories "aparently someone has just flown a plane into the top of the world trade center". I remember thinking they must mean the top top like someone had clipped one of the aerials and crashed on accident. I was also thinking...Cessna, etc. Of course I went to the TV to see the story there and saw the burning buildings and then the second impact. It was (still is) surreal.

I just wanted to say to the spirits of those that perished and were hurt, even if no one even reads this:

I remember. I have not forgotten. I am sorry the city of New York still has a big hole there like an open grave. It is sad they aren't more vigilant about closing the hole and making a new start. I truly find that despicable. You are missed and loved.

FDNY/ EMT, and NYPD heroes who perished, you earned your bagpipe-marches with honor, thanks for truly 'serving' your city and your human race.

This Sucks!

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 10:41:34 GMT

So, Monday is the recommitment for the Leukemia & Lymphoma ride I am scheduled for with Team In Training. Since all my posts, and letters and emails and bulletins and blogs and phone calls have produced just $260 in donations, $80 of which I donated myself, I will be asked to commit to pay the remainder of the $4,400 that is not paid yet. What that means is that since I don't have the money to do that, I have to drop off the team and be happy that enough of you cared to at least help me raise that much. I appreciate all the nice notes saying how much you wished me luck, but without a donation of even $10. I think there were about 50 of those, which would translate to $500 or so. That would have been nice. To everyone who did donate, THANK YOU!!! We are able to provide enough for about 3 trips to chemotherapy treatment for a kid who would otherwise not be able to make it here to Houston without it. I still have until Monday officially, but it looks pretty grim. If I still used credit cards, I would use one for this. If I raise the funds by December then I get a reimbursement, but my debit card just can't support such an overdraft.

So, if any of you have a bright idea then please let me know. I have posted and called and campaigned only to get more empty promises than I thought existed on the planet, and working full time and going to school full time doesn't afford much opportunity to campaign with weekend car washes and the other things people with real jobs get to do. I could do it, but at the cost of my grades. So this is a final plea at least for now to see if anyone has any ideas or generosity they wish to share. If not, then thanks for reading and go on and move to the next bulletin just like you have all the times before, or go to http://www.active.com/donate/tnttxgc/DarbyRides and help us.

-Darby

Penetrate the evenin' that the City sleeps to hide...

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:58:06 GMT

I rode to the gym to swim late last night. When I finished the swim I rode home but when I got to the apartments I simply could not talk myself into going home. I wanted to ride, and I rode.

I told myself o.k. go ahead and do five miles since you feel like it. Then I told myself to go ahead and make it ten..and so on until I ended up doing 29 miles at almost 2 in the morning. No iPod, no radio. Only my body, my bike and my Buddha mind. Mine and my city's pulses intertwined and beating in unison as though dependent one upon the other. We were there last night, together on these Houston, Texas streets. I think I will do it again tonight.