Wickham's Biking

Banner Elk, NC

2011-04-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

Took a trip down to Banner Elk, NC with my friend Neil to ride in the Mountains for the first time. I finally got to experience first hand why climbers in the cycling world are not typically 6'4" tall and 215 pounds... It was a humbling experience, but it surely made me want to move to a location with mountains to ride. Our buddy Momber who lives in Raleigh was kind enough to be our guide and give us a solid riding plan. It was an amazing day.

First we tackled Roane Mountain (Carver's Gap sign is on the top) beginning in Tennessee and crossing into North Carolina a few hundred feet before the pinnacle. We started in the valley where we then climbed for 8 miles of distance to achieve the altitude of 5512 feet. I guess I wasn't paying attention to Momber when he told us we would not be on flat or declining road for the next 8 miles because I was constantly looking up the mountainside wondering how much longer this shit was going to keep on. Looking back now, knowing the distance would have not helped. Anyway, we made it to the top. One thing that I noticed to be very foreign was constant and noticeable resistance on the pedals during the entire climb. As soon as I would want to coast, even for a second, I would lose literally any speed/momentum and it was a bitch to get back up to speed. This surely never happens on flats! Well we made it to the top.

Above: Neil atop Carver's Gap the first time we climbed it

Above: Myself atop Carver's Gap - First time

It was amazing to follow Neil down a mountain descent, another first. By amazing, I mean it was quite terrifying. I had never "descended" anything other than a few hundred feet of hills in Michigan. Once I became more comfortable on the descent, I looked back over my shoulder and there was a Hummer following us down the descent. As soon as the road began to take more sharp turns, I looked back again and we had opened a huge gap on the Hummer. Pretty funny how much faster we could get down than a giant/gumpy SUV.

Above: This hidden treasure was in the valley below Carver's Gap

This gas station was in the valley. This old dude, presumably the owner, had the most gnarly accent. I still have no idea what he was saying to me. I just kept smiling and laughing assuming he was making fun of my pink spandex, although I cannot be sure. We left the gas station to ride to another climb - Hughes Gap. I believe this is where I noticed there is no substantial length of flat roads in TN or NC. Along the way to Hughes gap a jeep Wrangler locked up its brakes in an attempt to not kill Neil and I. Fortunately for us, he was sucessful in not killing us. I would have been pissed if I died before I got the chance to do more climbing. I rode into a ditch and almost flipped over my bars trying to get out of the Jeep's path of potential destruction. Neil just kept riding ahead, totally unaffected by the situation. He is fearless.

Hughes gap was a shattering climb, one of the first times since I have been biking where I thought I would have to walk my bike to the top. I ended up making it, very very slowly to the top. Both Neil and I ended up doing ladders (zig-zagging across the width of the road to decrease the effect of the incline) to get to the top. This was followed by another fast paced descent where I began to gain more confidence in my ability to descend without falling off the side of the mountain.

Finally we got back to the base of Carver's gap - Neil and I had a quick discussion of whether to head back to the car or climb Carver's gap again. Of course we chose to climb again. Which we managed to do, it was by far my favorite day of riding bikes I have had thus far. I cannot wait to go back! The ride ended up being 58 miles and climbed just under 7000 vertical feet. I mapped the ride - it can be seen here: Wickham.cc Roan Mtn Ride.

Walked the bike home three times in two days!

2011-04-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

Spring is surely here! Breaking shit becomes routine again. This week we started having solid shorts weather, it was in the 40's every day! I don't often wear leg warmers when it's in the 30's either, but I never wear them when the thermometer hits 40. Anyway, the warm weather typically means I can push it harder which always takes it's toll on the bikes. I took the road bike out a few days ago (no mechanical issues) came home, switched into normal clothes and took the track bike out. I ended up cranking really hard to run a light and it pulled my rear wheel out and skidded through the intersection. I didn't have a wrench, so that was the first walk home. Next day, I got a flat on the track bike, walked my bike home took my road bike out for a ride - broke my derailleur hanger off.
While I was walking home a guy, who used to come into the restaurant I worked at, stopped to offer me a ride. I would have taken him up on it, but he has a nice car and my bike is ALWAYS so dirty I didn't want to ruin his car. A little further along my walk a random dude in a truck stopped and offered me a ride. I assume he was a cyclist, he had a Thule roof rack on his truck. It was pretty nice out, so I thanked him and told him I was pretty close to home - kept walking. I am always amazed by how helpful strangers are willing to be.

(I don't know if I would stop and offer a ride to some giant walking
his bike around wearing pink spandex)

Last summer two ladies who were out walking offered to go home and get their SUV and give me a ride home! It is always a nice reminder how generous people can be. I wouldn't do that for somebody, haha. So now I am stuck not racing this weekend and waiting for FELT to mail my second derailleur hanger replacement... Looks like I will be on the track bike until then.

Track Bike Downtown

2011-04-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Still my favorite way to bike, in traffic - in the city

Switching back to Blogger.

2011-04-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

I am switching Wickham.cc back to Blogger. I have found that I missed a quite a few features and the overall simplicity. So this is it going forward.

Morning Motivation

2010-02-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

Today was not one of these days, but...

Often times I really don't feel like getting up in the morning and rushing into the cold to ride my bike. It would mean being hungry, frozen fingers(my fingers are beginning to look like a mountaineer's), wet feet and bum(I know what you are thinking... From snow, not messing my pants). Last week I came across a video that just puts me in a good mood and when I am happy, I bike. So here is the gift of happiness/motivation for everyone else. *I am not sure if it will motivate others to go to class, work, write a thesis and so on, but you may long for biking - adorning giant animal heads.*

'What's a Girl to do' by Bat for Lashes. Also don't give up on it too early, I am not crazy about the song but the video is awesome.

Bat for lashes | What’s a girl to do | Dougal Wilson
by Festival-Mecal

I am going to go walk around for a few hours and check out the roads... Mainly to decide if I need the mountain bike or if I can ride the fixed gear. Ride on.

It Has Been Ages

2010-02-22T15:28:00.000-08:00

Biking This Winter

Well I have still been biking like usual, pretty much all I do. In the late fall or early winter, I can't recall the specific time, I snapped the seat tube on my fixed gear frame. Along with practically crying, I started riding my mountain bike almost solely. That was fine seeing as there seems to be much snow during winter in Michigan. Last Friday it was nearly 40 degrees and sunny, I could not bear to crawl around on my boat anchor of a mountain bike... I was debating whether or not to just ride my busted fixed gear without a seat and a chunk of tubing missing. Then it dawned on me, why not just jam a few receipts in there and see if it wouldn't hold together. It worked like a dream! I rode around for three hours and it didn't explode or anything. Saturday I did a ride with a friend that ended with quite a few miles under the belt, an olive burger and a few pitchers of beer. While riding Sunday for hours on end I came to the conclusion that I need to get my shit together and race seriously this season.
Today while eating my egg whites and oats I made a conscious decision to not waste another summer racing traffic on a fixed gear. I wrote a contract with myself in my notebook and signed it. No turning back now.

The Race Steed

Well I need to go to Alger this week and see if they have a 63cm Cannondale CAAD9 1 in stock and make sure I like the geometry, but that is the bike I plan to be racing. I will sell my car or soul (I think the car will yield much more cash), I would even consider WORKING to make sure I have this very shortly.

Last Night's Snow-Storm - Crash City

I went out this afternoon, equal parts riding my bike / picking myself up of the pavement. Still felt amazing to be out there on something faster than a MTB. I am happy to feel as though biking is all that matters, I wasn't far from this mindset through the past few months, but now back to the obsessive state I was in last year.

Ride on, pedal carefully in the snow.

Sprints/ A New God

2009-06-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

Amazing

Mike Wong (now called Bike Wong) a bike obsessed friend from Michigan State sent me a link to this video. I have watched it about 30 times now and I still drool every time. This guy can spin so incredibly fast that it makes me winded just watching. I assume he is a Keirin rider in Japan. Mind you while watching he is doing this on rollers, not a stationary trainer that hacks like me use. Well after watching this I must go out and do some interval sprinting. Ride on.

Back to weighted riding, 30 day drinking ban.

2009-06-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Back to the basics

Last night while riding from downtown we stopped to pick up some refreshments to drink on the porch. I loaded my bag with my 12 pack and a 12 pack for a friend. When I hopped on my bike it reminded me of the good old days when I began getting into biking. Prepare for a flashback.

Back in the day, sophomore year of college to be exact I was tipping the scale at 305 pounds respectively. I was regularly consuming 30 packs of PBR. Those were the days. I began riding my bike with hopes of dropping some pounds. After riding for a few months, I reached a bit of a plateau and started riding with a backpack containing 60 pounds of weights. Ultimately I would say it worked out in my favor, the only negative result is an insatiable bike fetish. I must say though I am much happier now after biking off a third of my heavy frame.

Riding with these beers last night made me think that I should start carrying weights again to put my body under some more strain while riding and see if it can take me to a new level. I will keep you posted on the results.

30 Day Non-Drinking Bender

This morning Rob and I were at breakfast in the company of two great ladies and were chugging coffee and water. I cannot speak for Rob but I was fighting the good fight against my hangover. I somewhat jokingly said that I am not going to drink for 30 days. Rob being a total loon chimed in "Fuck it, let's do it!" So here it goes, I am vowing to not drink for 30 days. If anyone is interested I have 6 Miller High lives (not sure how to pluralize) sitting here next to me that you are welcome to, just let me know and I will drop them off, they are looking for a good home. I was thinking about putting them on Craigslist in the for free section. With the new weighted riding and not drinking beers, I assume I will be in top riding form! Slow no more!

On The Way

I am planning on interviewing Neil Hubert of Push/Pull. His website is www.positivecycling.com. Check him and his shirts and other bike goodies out. He is a cool guy and his stuff is awesome. You can expect this interview to drop midweek. Have a good ride, it is windy as all hell today. Ride on.

Heat Causes A Lapse Of Good Judgement. Also Stitches No More.

2009-06-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Dead iPod While Riding = Self-Reflection

So today I was riding back from a friend's in East Grand Rapids, leaving the driveway I hit play on my iPod shuffle and it was dead. I would rather get hit by a car than ride my bike without my iPod. Riding while listening to music is far and away my favorite thing in the world to experience. Fortunately my body was feeling great, I have greatly increased my water intake when I plan to ride in this heat, and it seems to be working in my favor. I was thinking of all options of how to charge my iPod, the only thing that came to mind was to go to my buddy Rob's house but I knew he was working at the hospital. Damnit. So with no way to charge the inevitable set in, thinking while riding... Something I hate to do.

Approaching the top of Fulton St hill you can see a long stretch of downhill and tons of traffic lights and well, traffic. I charged down the hill, the light was red, rode on the dotted line, managed to avoid the cars turning left into the lane I was trying to claim. I noticed a cute girl who was obviously on her way to work and it prompted tw

o thoughts, only one of which I am going to talk about... Maybe I should get a job. Here is how the pondering went in my head from that point forward.

1st thought - Jobs I would like - bartender,

Sommelier, waiter, anything involving alcohol.

2nd thought - If I get a job I would have to stop riding my bike all day!!!

3rd thought- If I were to get hired at a job, even if I started today, I would have had to turn in my two-weeks notice 5 days ago. Which of course does not make any sense. Let me explain though. If you were to do the math, two weeks from June 20th would put us at The fourth of July. I know you are thinking what a great patriot I must be, I need to be done working so that I can be a great American, get drunk and eat veggie dogs on the fourth. If you were a cyclist you would think "HOLY SHIT, THE TOUR STARTS TODAY!!!!!!" which is why I would need to be comfortably unemployed so I can wake up early for 22 days in a row following the fourth, watch 5 or 6 hours of cycling, then go out and do 6 or 7 hours of training for my own benefit. Obviously that leaves me with no time for a job. Sorry Mum.

Stitches No More

I got back from riding yesterday and was looking at my hand. As a trained medical professional (no truth in that statement), I felt confident that my hand was healthy enough to take out my stitches. Armed with a pair of nail clippers and some deep breaths I began my work. I took the stitches out one by one (obviously). I would take one from the left side, the next from the right, alternating until I met in the center. This was not the way to do it. As I got closer and closer to the center (the deepest part of the cut) they were more and more reluctant to come out. Also they seemed to sting when I was removing them. They are all gone now though and I am still alive, so I would call it a victory. It is still a bit tender, but my riding is almost back to 100%. Until tomorrow, Ride On.

Sweat, Water Bottles, Boonen

2009-06-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

So Hot

I am sure that everyone who has been biking outdoors in the past few days would agree, IT IS TOO DAMN HOT! It would be awesome if I did not have to show up everywhere I ride sweating like crazy, that must not be in the cards for this week. Riding around yesterday in downtown GR I soaked through my clothes in a matter of about 45 minutes. When standing up to pedal or climb the sweat was conveniently running off my forehead and chin right onto my bar-tape making the bars feel as though they were covered in butter. It was gross. Tonight there is a race so my training consisted of drinking lots of water at the beach in Grand Haven, trying to save the legs. This was not the best plan, now all I want to do is sleep and the race is in a few hours. Not good. If anyone wants to go, meet up at Reed's lake 11pm at the end of Wealthy St.

Swobo's "Tap water rules" Water Bottles

Swobo is trying to bust the bottled water industry's balls so to speak. I do not knowhow large of an impact this will really have, but it is kind of a cool project. They have produced a biodegradable water bottle with the address of Nestle Corporations address with hopes that once the bottle has lived its life as a mobile water carrying vessel, you will affix postage and send the bottle to Nestle and rub it in their face that rather than consuming their bottled water, you drank tap water. Forgive me for not conducting the market research as to the proportion of bottled water drinkers that happen to be cyclists. Fortunately for you, I love making uneducated assumptions and came to the conclusion that this will make very little impact. That being said, Eco minded people though will tell you that even a small decrease in waste is a good thing. If you want one of these you can find them here, www.swobo.com .

Tom Boonen Files Civil Suit Attempting To Race In Tour d' France

Not a whole lot to say about Tom Boonen's case as of yet. As I blogged about previously, he tested positive for cocaine for the second time in the past twelve months in out of competition testing. The UCI could not ban him seeing as cocaine is only considered performance enhancing when used during a race. The tour board has chose to keep him out as of right now. QuickStep team is filing a civil law suit to have him admitted, they better hustle, the tour starts in just over two weeks! I will keep an eye on the developments. Until next time, Ride On.

Back in Grand Rapids, Saturday festivities to check out!

2009-06-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Faster in GR?

I am happy to be back in Grand Rapids, I love biking here. I just got back from riding around downtown and racing around Reed's Lake. My iPod ran out of battery so I actually started thinking, instead of the usual blank mind. I feel as though I ride much faster when I am here rather than in East Lansing. I began hypothesizing as to why I would feel that way. All I could come up with were two influences. The traffic moves at speeds closer to the speed limit which would make me feel as though I am going faster and riding down big hills I obviously ride much quicker than on flat land.

Tomorrow's Events in Downtown Grand Rapids

World Refugee Day Celebration - From 1 to 5pm tomorrow in Ah-Nab-Awen Park 303 Pearl Street. There will be local food, Refugee art, dancing, speeches and a soccer tourney hosted by the American Red Cross. Also my friend Tassja who has been working on this event for the American Red Cross advised there will be a program called Ride for Refugees. I am planning on getting the information tomorrow and will post about it then. Come out and check it out!!!
Founder's Fest 2009 - From 3 to 11pm tomorrow Grandville Ave will be closed down from Williams to Bartlett. Fill the streets with beer, music, and food! So everyone go to the World Refugee Celebration then go over and treat yourself to some more great food and BEERS!!!

Upcoming

This weekend I will be posting about both the Ride for Refugees once I gather information and also the World Bicycle Relief's launch of Project Zambia. In addition hopefully I will have some great tales from these two events I will be attending in downtown GR. Have a good night, drink a beer for me. Ride on.

Thanks to my hand, a few days off. Monday was World Naked Bicycle Day!!!

2009-06-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

The Cause

Thursday morning I got an early start on my day, for some odd reason I woke around 6:30am, feeling ambitious made my oatmeal and egg whites, then decided to begin cutting the carpet out of the family room. I only worked on this endeavor for a matter of minutes when I broke the double sided blade on the carpet knife and proceeded to drag it through the pad of my hand. The knife was sharper than my skin was tough. Once administered the anesthetic, then the doctor and I started playing with it, moving my fingers, watching the tendons. Dr. Bosworth took a few pictures with his digital camera which I am supposed to receive when I get my stitches out. . I ended up with 8 stitches on the inside of my hand and 26 on the outside. I was told not to be biking for 10 to 12 days.

The Effect

Thursday - Anyone who knows me personally realizes that biking normally takes up approximately 6 to 8 hours a day, no biking meant LOTS of free time. I called my friend Tsoshi when I got back from the doctor in the afternoon and we went to Old Chicago and drank for a while, then went to Harrison Roadhouse and drank for a while, then went to the Green Door and drank for a while. I gained a new respect for the way people used to endure serious surgeries with only taking shots of whiskey to dull the pain. This is a terrible method of pain relief. It was really hard to sleep even in this beer fog, the hand was sore.

Friday - Most would assume that I would wake up Friday, learn something to the effect of drinking all day does not make the hand stop hurting... Friday rolls around and we waited until the afternoon and repeated a similar process. I did learn something about myself though. It is very important for my well-being that I keep my body in decent enough health to ride my bike, or I will find horrible ways to occupy my time.

Saturday - I don't really remember anything about Saturday, so it must have been dull as well.

Sunday - Reached the conclusion that not riding my bike was nonsense. I knew that I would not be able to ride the track racing gearing that I had on my bike, without brakes, one-handed. I got around this by putting a smaller gearing on my bike with hopes I would have a fighting chance of stopping. So now I decided its time to ride!!! I go out on my bike and ride all of about two miles. It was horribly painful so I did what any reasonable person would do, I went home, took more Vicodin, and screwed around on my bike in the driveway until the numb set in. I did crash in my driveway and open the hand back up a little bit but that was not all that interesting. So the numb finally came and went out and rode around for a few hours. It was amazing to finally be back on my bike. Later that night I went to the Roadhouse Pub for some beers. The night went like this; broke my chain, took out link and fixed chain, drank beers, broke chain on way home, chain too short to remove more links, walked home. It was a good day.

Monday - WellI decided to put my big gearing

back on and just fix a front brake on for stopping power. All went well, I rode around for about

5 hours, I was able to actually get in some moderate sprinting (as hard as the hand allowed) and I was finally getting used to holding the bars on my bike with just two fingers on my left hand. All was well, no crashing, not much bleeding and a lot of fun!!! Also today was an epic day worldwide, it was World Naked Bicycle Day. I did not see any observers in East Lansing unfortunately. I did my part by working on my bike and cleaning it, nude in front of a giant window at my house.

Tuesday - Pretty much back to normal riding now. I rode around all day, still cannot sprint and mash as hard as I would like to because I cannot hold on tight enough. I was yelled at twice today for riding in the road, once by a woman on her cell phone. I suppose she could have been just yelling at whomever she was talking to on the phone and just happened to be looking in my direction. The second time was by what seemed to be a white supremacist, he was not nearly as passionate about yelling at me once I stopped next to him at the traffic light and leaned into his passenger window to have a cordial chat.

El Fin

Well now that I am able to spend many hours back on the bike I will be back to blogging full steam. I am heading back to Grand Rapids today where I will be able to ride on some hills (something we do not have in East Lansing) and be in a community that is quite noticeably more bike friendly. Hope everyone enjoys riding in the rain today. Ride on!

Boonen - cycling cocaine user twice confirmed. Sprint training for me.

2009-06-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Coffee and Wheel Lacing

Well after talking yesterday about the reliability of steel spokes being superior to Mavic's carbon fiber alternative. My friend brought over a wheel with six or eight busted spokes. Some were broken at the elbow, others were stripped out at the nipple, so this late morning/early afternoon with a pot of coffee and breakfast in the belly. I got a chance to re-lace up a four cross pattern 32 hole wheel. Good times.

Ghetto Rigged Speedometer and went to do Sprint Intervals

This evening I decided to add a little more structure to my interval sprint training. This did not take much effort once you understand my prior system. Up to this evening I used to basically just ride rather leisurely down to the intersection of Hagadorn and Grand River in the eastern part of East Lansing. From there I would take off and sprint like a mad man until either the Capitol in downtown Lansing or go down Grand River to Frandor. Then ride back casually, then repeat. I would judge my pace by whether I was being passed by cars. Now I know how fast I am going due to my new gadgetry (it is not really new, its been laying in a pile of bike stuff in my room for about a year and a half). I am trying to be able to sustain a pace of 28 miles an hour for 4 minutes on my fixed gear. That may sound pretty easy if you are not a cyclist. The majority of non-ProTour riders though can likely agree that is pretty difficult. I still wish that I could figure out a way, short of getting hit by a car and causing a massive pile-up, to stop traffic along this stretch of road. It can be a bit unnerving going those speeds in traffic without brakes.

Anyway enough about me. Let's talk about Belgian Professionals with Cocaine habits...

Tom Boonen Cannot Keep His Nose Clean

Rock Star of Belgian cycling Tom Boonen has again tested positive for cocaine for the second time this year. Fortunately for Boonen this was an out of competition test, therefore he is not subject to the typical anti-doping sanctions. The UCI has said that he is still eligible to race in the Tour d' France, although the Tour board still is considering "not inviting" him. Personally, I think "not inviting" someone to the Tour d' France does indeed sound like a very French twist on "banning" them. Currently Boonen is racing in Dauphine Libere, which is like the pre-season friendly for the Tour d' France.

That is all for today, off to Old Chicago to have a few beers and ride around a bit more. Have a good night all. Ride On.

Rest Day, sort of. A local bike fundraiser. Random news.

2009-06-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

Well I took it easy today as far as riding my bike goes, I did a little ride this afternoon and will go back out this evening for an hour or two to spin the legs and loosen them up for tomorrow. There are a few interesting things that were sent to me today. One being a matter of cycling technology and the second being a matter of a ProTour teams finances. And finally a bike ride in late July that is only 20 dollars and for a great cause.

Mavic R-Sys Wheels, Fail.

Mavic who is obviously a reputable wheel builder in the industry has re-released their wheels after a recall. The first generation wheels had some serious problems with the carbon fiber spokes breaking "too easily". Now the second generation spokes(which I am writing about) are constructed with five unilateral layers of carbon fiber, two angular layers of carbon and finally a string of kevlar is inside the center of the spoke. This obviously makes a pretty light wheel, yet after seeing this picture, no hype about carbon fiber spokes is going to get me to excited seeing as I am a heavier rider. This wheel was terminated by a guy who only weighs 190 pounds under no unusual strain. For your viewing pleasure.

Until this problem is solved I will stick to the higher revolving weight stainless steel spokes. *Also anyone with any interest in Materials Engineering* obviously you do not need much experience to get a design job at Mavic, just throwing the idea out there.

Team Astana, Pay your bills or lose you UCI ProTour Racing License

Team Astana finally cleared an outstanding debt to the UCI after nearly losing their ProTour license just before the Tour d' France. I personally would have loved for this to happen. I have no personal admiration for the Kazakh team. If they were to have lost their racing license, it would have been interesting to see how the members of the Astana team would have been scattered and mixed in with other teams just in time for the beginning of the tour on July 4th.

Ability Tour - July 25th 2009

The Ability Tour is a bike ride taking place late July in Lansing with the aim of "erasing the stigma surrounding people with disabilities". It is being organized by two avid cyclists that work for Peckham (a local organization focusing on vocational rehabilitation). You can choose to ride a 8, 30 or 50 mile loop around the Lansing area. I will be doing this ride and hope that others will join in also. If you would like more information visit www.abilitytour.org .

Wrap up...

Well that is about all thus far today. Unless I crash, get yelled at, or have something hilarious happen while out riding this evening. I will post again tomorrow. One final thing, I am constantly getting sick of the music that I listen to while riding. If you have any suggestions of music you have come across recently please leave suggestions in the comments following my post!!! Thanks, Ride On.

Thunderstorm bathing-suit bike ride.

2009-06-08T14:27:00.001-07:00

Today was a shitty day for biking. I woke up with a rather familiar hangover from drinking too much at Harrison Roadhouse Pub last night with Tsoshi and Peter. Tsoshi and I went to my house around noon to make some pancakes, on the way to my house we stopped to get some milk and peaches to go with our breakfast. Upon arrival at my house I was locked out, which is a somewhat common occurrence so we walked to the neighbors to get a spare key they keep for me. We ate whole wheat pancakes after gaining access to my house. I then went out riding, nothing out of the ordinary just sprinting around East Lansing, my legs were feeling pretty good and I was moving quite quickly through traffic on Grand River, sweating like a madman. After some more sprinting I started to take it easy and just cruise around, let my legs loosen up. Then the rain started, so I rode over to my Granny's house to change into more appropriate clothing for riding in wild thunderstorms. I put on my Grandad's teal bathing suit. Just to put it into perspective this particular teal bathing suit is very short and large enough around the waist to fit two of me comfortably in. I then headed back out into the rain/thunder/lightning to ride. It was raining pretty hard at this point but I was enjoying it. I was in the left turn lane trackstanding waiting to cross the remaining half of Saginaw when my iPod decided to die as a result of being full of rainwater. This by the way is the second time I have killed this particular iPod while riding in the rain in the past three weeks. So I rode around East Lansing sporting just my Grandad's teal bathing suit, broken iPod, and bike shoes. It was a short ride because it was raining so hard that I could not keep my eyes open to see where I was going, also I hate riding my bike without music so I went back to my Granny's rather soon. It is not raining right now, so I will head back out to ride. Until next time, Ride On.