I set out for lunch today not feeling so hot. I rode hard yesterday for lunch coming in at an 18.5 average then commuted home and back this morning. I had the right clothes on but I was cold. And route-weary…I tried to piece something together before I left to no avail. I thought I’d run the “Marty route” and be done with it. It’s 21 miles, rather flat with some good speed areas and rollers. 4 miles into my mopey riding I thought…buck up! I was just today counting up my miles for the year to figure I had pulled past 3500 with two months to go. There is only one way to build the miles…ride ‘em.

With that I decided to change course at St Joe Road and go left instead of right. I knew there was a hill there and I was right. It led to Dug Knob which carries a 9% average over 0.65 miles and includes an 18% switchback zone. I find it always hardest to climb a hill the first time because you just don’t know what’s coming. This one kept giving and giving. I chased it with a beautiful run across Skyline leading to a drop down Moser Knob and back to work.

A great posting popped in on the Rapha blog today titled “Killing Me Softly” about a Continental ride in Nashville.

I really like this paragraph:

Assuming your bike fits, position is less about the ergonomic fit, but the rider’s fit or engagement in the world around them. The way pedaling and effort lead consciously, or unconsciously, to meditation. Without the noise of lists, missed calls, an ever growing inbox and responsibility—under self imposed but manageable duress, up the side of a mountain, legs firing, breath labored but in control, eyes focused ahead and around all at once, sense and perception heightened—things begin to sharpen. Life in these moments are simple, pure and clear; where you fit for that moment or those few hours becomes lucid.

It says so many things I think while riding alone through back country roads.

I’ve been thinking about bike racing a lot these last few days. I am going to give it a go in the spring and have very nerdily acquired this classic tome:

“Bicycle Road Racing – Complete Program for Training and Competition” by Edward Borysewicz

Here is a picture taken last week post ride when the conditions were Belgian at best, wet and full of road-grime:

Ride safe, ride lots…

I have been feeling ill so I laid off the bike ride on Friday. That freed up some time at lunch to work on a sketch I have had in my mind. I started off thinking about something to the effect of “Ride your Bike – It’s good for America”. But I soon settled on something at least a tad more subversive with a pop culture tinge to it. I finished with the drawing above. It’s a clear homage to the Woody Guthrie guitar seen in this famous picture:

I was thinking it would make a great cover for a pocket sized bike journal. To the bike riders in the crowd – what information would you like to see inside a bike journal? Obviously date and mileage spots, then maybe the rest of each page for a brief summation of the ride?

Tim suggested maybe a shirt as well, I still have screen printing equipment in the basement. I might be inclined to make a screen if there was interest. It would mostly hinge on getting a colleague to take care of the actual screen making part. I’m gonna look into that.

This was also my first sketch into this beautiful book my friend Dave brought me back from St Louis:

It came from a letterpress shop called The Firecracker Press. It’s a beaut’.

I first became interested in Woody Guthrie as a result of the Wilco/Billy Bragg collaboration called Mermaid Avenue. I suspect I am not the only one. Here are two tracks off of the album – one upbeat, one a little slower. It is Americana at its finest.

California Stars

Sad and Lonely
[audio http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/8/28/2070901/07%20At%20My%20Window%20Sad%20And%20Lonely%202.mp3]

I used the time to work up some book designs to print on the Indigo. On Friday night I stitched up two books and made my first posting to Etsy.

The first design is one my friend Dave drew for t-shirt purposes. It is an interpretation of the Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

If you don’t own it – get it immediately.
If you are listening and you don’t like it – turn it up some.
[audio http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/8/28/2070901/03%20In%20The%20Aeroplane%20Over%20The%20Sea.mp3]
Here is the link to my Etsy Store

Here are the two books I made:

regards..