The Spinning Season

I've succumbed to the Minnesota weather. Time to start hitting the winter trainer.

Today I did my first indoor spin of the season, over at Now Bikes. Pretty nice setup: I can store my bike there for the winter, and drop by during lunch hour to do a one-hour spin with Lance's coach or Coach Troy, or watch Le Tour or Paris Roubaix or whatnot on their big-screen TV. We'll typically have three to six people, but today it was just Eric and I; Don should join us tomorrow.

Before we started doing this indoor stuff three years ago, we used to ride thru the winter. Our limit was 15 or 20 degrees, with balaclavas, lobster mitts, windproof bibs, neoprene shoecovers, the works. Not any more; I've had enough of it. Now my limit is about 30 or 35 degrees.

Bike goodies #4 - somebody stop me!

I've been sorta obsessed with sunglasses lately. Not the really good kind, like Oakleys; I can't afford them. The closest I ever came to Oakleys was the $8 counterfeits that I purchased near Times Square once, which lasted for maybe a dozen rides before the temples snapped in two.

Last week I saw where the Toyota-United team is selling off all their inventory, and I submitted a pretty low-ball bid on a helmet and some quality sunglasses — like the Specialized Miura and Tifosi Gavia and Slip — but my bid was rejected.

Then I ran across the PBK Motion sunglasses on ProBikeKit.com. Five interchangeable lenses, 100% UV protection, $17. Tax-free, and shipping to the US is still free. I've had good luck with PBK in the past, so I'm gonna give these a shot. Oh – also ordered an Elite Ciussi bottle cage while I was there.

Tonight I went to Excel Cycle in Excelsior for their winter clothing sale. Got an awesome Castelli wool cap and a pair of Craft windproof gloves for half price. Score! Now I really gotta stop spending money for a while…

Is that a glove in your shorts?

… or … are you happy to be biking?
I guess it's a little of both. I hadn't ridden in almost three weeks, so I had kinda forgotten how to dress for the weather.

It was 37 degrees when I headed out the door. I wore three layers on top — polypro, an insulated long-sleeve jersey, and a vest; two layers down below — cycling shorts and heavy tights; smartwool socks with thin shoecovers; lobster mitts and a balaclava. My hands actually ended up a little too warm, as I sweated thru the mitts. And everything else was fine except for my privates. Luckily I had brought an extra pair of gloves, so I stuffed one of them down my shorts. Priceless.

Note to self — windproof front panel!

State Championships CX

Last cyclocross race of the season in Minnesota.

Bought new Swix gloves earlier this week. (A brand recommended by BruceA.) Found them on clearance at Gear West. Trying to go cheap, and might have gone too cheap; they may not keep out the wind like I need. Anyway, I could only find one of them when heading out the door this morning! So I brought my polypro liners to wear with my cycling gloves instead.

Walked all the way around the course, looking for the best photo spots. The course was way long! Maybe I should've just run back and forth all day between the stair climb and the sand pit / barriers. Nah, then I would've missed the photos along the lake. On top of that, I wouldn't have run into All the Way Ray. I stopped and chatted a while with him just before Race 3. He's still enjoying his cortisone shot.

Mmmm, that dark beer at the BMC tent was sure good. I met meow while I was enjoying my frosty beverage, but I didn't get a cookie from her. :-( I hope there's a next time....

I hate to sound like a whiner, but my back was killing me today. A simple little sneeze yesterday morning really aggravated my pulled muscle (geez I sound fragile). Made it hard to concentrate on photos.

Still, I'm pleased with some of the photos I got on hooligan hill, with the whiskey and beer hand-ups and the dollar primes. (The new superwide lens was handy for getting crowd shots up there.) On the other hand I wish I had spent more time at the sand pit.

Rawbee is talking about doing an online gallery of "best of the 2008 season" from various photographers. I think we'd want to get photos from T.C.Worley, Andy Frye, Bruce A, etc. We'd probably also solicit photos at the mcf.net/mboard. Lots of people are always out there taking photos; surely they've captured a few gems they'd be willing to share.

Who knows, maybe we can get One on One Bike Studio to hang them. That would be cool! Starting to look into that...

Lake Rebecca CX

Temps in the low 30s like yesterday, but with much lighter wind. Started overcast, but then the sun started to come out after a while. Kept getting alternating clouds and sun, giving me trouble with the changing light conditions. Exposure is trickier with the super-wide lens since it captures a lot of the sky (and my camera ain't so smart).

This sure was a spectator-unfriendly course, due to all the contruction in the park. I figure I walked about a mile from parking/registration to the start/finish, and about four miles total.

Tried a different pair of gloves — a pair that I thought were windproof. But my fingertips still got painfully cold — had to stop several times to remove the gloves and warm my hands up inside my jacket. Need to ask Bruce at skinnyski for some advice.

Misc. observations:

• Not too happy with my pictures in the woods. I kept trying to get a good one — should've just moved on and spent more time at the barriers or something.
• Worried that I might have encroached on PatL during the race; he was cutting some of the corners really tight. Nobody has ever yelled at me though...
• Hollywood shouted "last lap, Frank!" to me as he went flying by at the end of the race. Thanks, Hollywood!

Missed:

• Curved section of paved road in the park that had an orange plastic barrier on both sides. Might've looked interesting in a photo.
• Spectators — few, but clustered around the finish line with the race officials. Hmmm, I should get pictures of the officials and volunteers too. They're an important part of the race atmosphere.

Velodrome CX

Wanted to catch all five races (counting the kids' race) at the Velodrome today, but — owww — my back was hurting when I woke up this morning. Must be a pulled muscle from my Tuesday crash. Took four ibuprofen and eventually felt well enough to drive up for the final two races.

A cold and blustery November day. I warmed up between races — or at least got out of the wind — in the trailer that holds all the track bikes. None of these pictures convey how cold my fingers got! Need to start using gloves with some sort of wind-stopper fabric.

T.C.Worley sought me out today. He said he'd been asking everyone with a camera, "Are you Frank?". Glad I finally got to meet him; he does some great photography.

My new super-wide lens had arrived on Wednesday, so I was itching to try it today. After a few minutes I decided to do the entire race with only that lens. Wanted to force myself into thinking super-wide. Plus I liked the way the track looked when distorted a little by the lens — those crazy swooping curves. I had thought that with such a tremendous depth of field, I wouldn't have any trouble focusing this lens, but with the sky so overcast, and with my aperture wide open at f/4.0 much of the time, and with my trembling frozen fingers, I sometimes had trouble. Had to throw away several series of photos.

Overall, though, I believe I'm going to enjoy this new tool. I'll use it tomorrow at Lake Rebecca, as well.

Backfilling my Blog

I went several months without making any updates to my blog, but now I feel motivated to go back and fill in some stuff. Here's some posts that I've either been adding lately or which I'll be publishing soon:

• Nature Valley Grand Prix 2008 (photography, Jun 11–15)
  • Stage 6
  • Stage 5
  • Stages 3 and 4
  • Stage 2
  • Stage 1
• other cycling stuff
  • BSBC ride w/photos (Oct 14)
  • Bike goodies part 2 - new saddle )(Jul 25)
  • Bike goodies - New shoes! (Jul 22)
• other photography stuff
  • Wayako - photos in the yearbook
  • New Lens & Orchestra Concert (Mar 11)
• Summit Dance Shoppe photos
  • SDS Dancelines Recitals (Jun 8)
  • Starquest (May 10)
  • Hall of Fame (Apr 27)
  • Showbiz (Apr 20)
  • SDS Ballet Recital (Feb 23)
• Trojets photos
  • Trojets Slideshow (Feb 20)
  • Section Tourney (Feb 2)