He's Here!!!

...or rather he has been here.  Baby Harrison is 4 weeks old today.  He is pretty awesome.  It's pretty crazy to think of how much he has progressed in the past 4 weeks.  I really thought he would only eat, sleep and poo for the first few months but he is really alert and is showing some signs of interaction.  He also likes to cry.

Mommy is doing well.  Lena is almost fully recovered after her 30 hour labor marathon.  I am so proud of her.  We are both learning how to be parents.  Every day is something new and things to calm him down that worked in the past don't always work in the present.  Today I had to run like a dinosaur for 20 minutes to calm him down, which was good because I have always wanted to switch from heel strike to mid strike.  

Check out his blog.  Harrison's Tumblr

Most Recent Ride

I finally got back on my bike and have had a couple rides in the past week.  It made me realize how much I miss cycling but hopefully I can get out there more often once we are completely moved to Hayward.

The Route

The route starts at my apartment goes down through campus and up spruce, I took a little short jaunt down towards Wildcat to loosen my cramp but turned around hand headed up Grizzly Peak and back down Claremont and home.

I do this ride quite a bit so I have pretty good familiarity with the route.  It's a good ride for after work, as I can do it in under an hour and 15 minutes most of the time.

My Bike

I used my BMC Racemachine, which is my primary riding bike.  I also have a Manitou Mountain Bike and will be replacing my old Roubaix with a commuter road bike.

For the most part it's pretty much stock.  I interchange between the Easton EA90 Rims (as shown) and a pair of Mavic R-Sys rims that I just picked up.  The Easton's tend to be slighly more Aero so I use them for flatter rides.  They are flexible so they are great for longer rides because they are more comfortable.  My Mavic's are climbing machines.  Very light and very stiff.  I definitely feel more confident taking these in the mountains and descending steep windy roads.  However, since they are like blocks, you have to pedal constantly in order to maintain speed.

The Ride

It was just nice to get out there again.  However, if performed like the way I did last year, I would have been grouchy all night and pissed that I sucked so bad.  I used the Mavic's so I should be climbing better, however, I was two MPH slower than where I believe I should be.  Some douche even passed me on the uphill.  That just pisses me off.  He probably wasn't a douche but I was just pissed I got passed by someone I know I should be better than.  Here is a list of my past performances on the hill leading up to Grizzly Peak.  It's a 500 ft climb at 6% grade.

I'm not sure I will ever get back to the shape I was in last October when I weighed 135 but I think 8.5 mph should be expected from me.

On the descent, I really took off.  I am typically not a good descender but with the Mavic wheels I was able to crush my personal record.  But don't get me wrong, I am still a pretty bad descender, and will always be but it's not something I care too much about.  Here are my past performances on the Claremont Descent.  It's around a 3 mile descent averaging an 8% decline but there are a couple hairpins that have to be around a 10-12% decline.

Beating my personal record by 30 seconds is phenomenal for me.  I still rank 907 our of 1,500 so not phenomenal for others.  I attribute most of this to feeling more comfortable with this bike (it was new last year) and feeling more confident because my wheels are much stiffer than the Easton EA 90's.  I hope to keep my speed around 27.5 average on this descent but if I can't, I am fine with it.  I will soon have a little one to look after and I can't be risking my life flying down a hill at "warp" speed.

Summary

It was just nice to be out there again.  The view from the top is awesome and even though I am not up to where I should be, it's a start....  I just gotta keep getting out there and pushing myself.

A Soon To Be Dad...

So this is my maiden  post.  In about 6 weeks (give or take 2 weeks), I will be a father of a baby boy.  Both my wife Lena and I are very excited.  Personally, I cannot wait for our baby to arrive.  It's all we think about and all we talk about.  I am sure our friends are already tired of us but that's fine.

I personally don't tend to worry much but one concern I do have is how I (we) will be able to maintain an active lifestyle.  I love cycling, running and hiking but with the little one, I worry I won't have the energy for these types of activities and my hope is that by maintaining a blog will encourage us to maintain an active lifestyle.

I plan to blog about my runs/rides, my athletic events, and some product research/reviews (a blog dedicated to all things baby will be coming).  I am probably not going to the the fastest runner or the best hill climber out there, but I believe that I will represent the average active mid thirties male.  And for that my goal is to represent the average guy who is also holding down a full time job, raising a kid, and taking care of his husband duties, which would be primarily cooking (my wife hasn't cooked since 2010).