This is it.

So, today begins the rest of the summer for me. Two days ago, we got the license plates for the trip van. Yesterday, I cut my hair shorter than I ever have before. Today is my last day at work, and my last day in Brooklyn for some time. Tomorrow, I will ride to Boston in one day, culminating three years of preparation. On Sunday evening, we'll begin to prepare for the arrival of the Bike & Build riders on Wednesday. Then, I'll spend ten weeks cycling west before spending another week driving east. After the summer, I'll resume studies at MIT, hopefully completing a Master's degree within a year.

I'm most concerned about doing that Intercity ride to Boston. I've been "tapering" this week, meaning I haven't done any riding since Sunday. The last ride I did, the aforementioned ice cream ride, saw me riding at an average speed of 15 MPH with an average heart rate of 89 BPM. I'm confident that my cardiovascular system can do this. I just don't know if I'll be comfortable on my bicycle for 18-20 hours of riding, or if Dave will last that long. I hope this works.

I'm concerned about this Bike & Build trip. I'm not worried about myself, as I know what to expect. I'm worried about everyone else. I already know of two riders who have sustained injuries, and the trip has yet to begin. I'm wary of people's abilities to ride their bicycles, as always. I'm also worried about finding places to stay in Barstow and Santa Paula, CA, about that unconfirmed Bloomington mail drop, and about making sure nothing else falls through. It seems some other trips on the road now are already up to their ears in issues. My hope is that strong, competent leadership will help avoid many issues, and lead to a safe and pleasant summer. I just hope that the leadership will indeed have strength and competence. I want the riders to help us help them, by taking responsibility, showing maturity and flexibility, and not complaining. Jane has done an excellent job of doing exactly this, better than me in fact, and I hope other riders follow her excellent example.

My goals for this summer are to make sure everyone completes the trip without injury, to get enough rest, and to stay in a good mood. Riding unbelievably fast is a given.

Bike & Build 2008 Jersey

More than a few of you expressed interest in seeing what the 2008 Bike & Build jerseys look like. Well, here it is! Many thanks to Jane for standing still and not blinking. Isn't she a cutie?

Time Juggling

So, how do I manage to be a Bike & Build trip leader, work a full-time job and then some on Wall Street, be an active racing bicyclist who trains hard daily, and make time to see my beautiful girlfriend at MIT, while de-stressing and relaxing? I'll let you in on a little secret: I don't.

I've been slipping lately, and it's horrible. Here are the ways:

Bike & Build - we still don't have a place to stay in Pittsburgh or Columbus. It's frustrating, and I've called about 6-8 places in each town. I haven't had any time during work to make these calls.
Work - I'm fairly certain that my managers and co-workers are disappointed at the number of hours or amount of effort I've put into project work. Almost everyone there gets their work done faster than I do.
Bicycling - I'm squeezing in one hour a day, where I should be riding for at least two. I'm also putting on weight: from a low of 170 lbs, I'm now at 182 lbs. Geez. I also haven't been doing well in races, and haven't been to any in a few weeks now.
Seeing Jane - She's as busy as I am. We're lucky now if we get to see each other once every three weeks.
De-stressing - I wish.

To everyone who is disappointed with me for not meeting deadlines: I'm trying, but not hard enough. Geez.

Bicycle Number Seven: Photos

First, I'd like to thank the kind parishioners and community of St. Brendan Church in Brooklyn, NY. These wonderful folks welcomed me into their community today, let me tell them about Bike & Build, and helped me raise over $1,000 for the cause. Thank you!

Well , as you already know, I finally have a TT bike! The bicycle itself is a 2007 model year Fuji Aloha CF2. It has two major upgrades: I changed the stock chainrings to an old set of FSA 42/55 rings that I got via Craigslist, and I changed the wheels to FlashPoint FP60s. I spent much of this afternoon tweaking it: getting the wheels on, getting the gearing settled, putting the computer on, and generally starting to do the million little things that make a bicycle mine. I'm still debating if I want to keep the 12-25 that the bike came with, or put the 11-25 on there. (I would gain the 11T at the expense of the 16T, which is a shame, since I really like the 16T. I'll run a gearing chart for a definitive answer.)

When I was searching the Internets for information about the Fuji prior to buying it, I found that there were shockingly few good photos of this excellent bicycle. At work, we have a saying: storage is cheap, so take twice as many pictures as you think you need.

All of the pictures are on my photos site, with useful captions: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsoltren/Bicycle7FujiAlohaCF2. Go take a look!

The Leader Retreat: After

Well, that was fun.

Firstly, I'd like to thank the Bannermans for hosting us, again, for the third year in a row. Ken and Judy truly go out of their way to make us feel welcome in their home. Thank you.

The leader retreat is an annual pre-trip gathering of all of the coming summer's trip leaders. It is very likely to be the only time, ever, that all of us will be in the same room. After the summers are over, people tend to go their separate ways, and without any mandatory impetus, rarely reunite as such. It's a shame, since I met so many spectacular people this weekend. People flew in from all over the country to make it to Montclair, NJ for the weekend's events.

It was fun to be both a leader and a leader-alum. I still had plenty to learn from everyone else present, and could offer my own knowledge and experiences to bolster other people's presentations.

The retreat itself consists of an entire day of marathon presentations, from 9am to about 8pm. We talk about gear, safety, team dymanics, the budget, food, day to day logistics, routing, fixing flat tires, and the like. We also stuff all of the office's envelopes, which I know is a huge help.

I gave my presentation on routing for the second year in a row. Rather than talking at people with a slide show presentation, I took a different approach. I prepared a concise but detailed handout on the essentials of routing, and made the session as interactive as possible. First, we discussed the ins and outs of routing. Then, I showed people a few things in Topo. After that, I guided people, step by step, through the process of making a route. Finally, I was able to demonstrate geographic features like the Tetons in 3D relief.

We had an outdoor session to cover bicycle repair. The weather turned from 40F rain to 65F sun, which made being outside pleasant. I jumped in at some point to show some tricks regarding seating tires and tubes, including a neat way of seating the tube to avoid pinching (run your fingers between tire and tube all the way around) and an easy way to seat a difficult bead (squeeze to the middle of the rim, and use the heels of your palms!). People got a good laugh at my expense when I completely un-did Kristian's tire reseating job. I scowled on the outside, but laughed on the inside (and the outside).

I had to leave early, as I was otherwise booked the following day. I wish I could have stayed longer, and I know I may never see many of these people again.

So, for the record, I had an excellent time, and am looking forward to next year's retreat.

It looks like I also came out of the weekend with a secret admirer. I'm sorry to say that, per Bike & Build policy, I'm not allowed to have secret admirers. Other leaders are, but I'm not. Being a secret admirer means a mandatory conference call with me and the trip comedian, which is a secret position determined by a unanimous agreement of the leadership team at check-in. It's right there in some revision of the rider guide. Sorry.

Preparedness Training

This article is primarily targeted at this year's Bike & Build participants. If you're not riding, have you considered donating? I need to raise $4,000 before the end of May. http://www.bikeandbuild.org/

It is now officially warm enough to be riding outside! Isn't it awesome! Of course, this means that it's high time for another year of Bike & Build riders to start learning how to use their bicycles.

Do you have clipless pedals? If not, get them now, using our excellent sponsorship deals. If so, it's high time to start using them. Having your feet locked into your bicycle gives you the very real advantage of being able to apply more power to the pedals, and the marked disadvantage of needing to know how to escape. (Twist your ankles *away* from the frame.)

If you've never owned a road bike before, this will likely be a very new experience. A road bike has very different handling than any other bike. It's lighter, faster, more responsive, and somewhat twitchy. Make sure to get plenty of time out there so that you know how everything works.

Here's your goal: ride every single day. It can be for as little as 10 minutes a day, just stick to that plan. Every little bit helps, and if you're new to this, you'll be amazed at how quickly your skills sharpen.