Chicago

Last weekend my girlfriend and I went to Chicago to help her little sister find a place to live for her third year of college in the windy city. We had a great time; Chicago is beautiful. The elevated train system is the best I've ever traveled on; you can go anywhere... literally. Below are a few pictures from our trip.

The buildings in Chicago are beautiful. They're much more detailed than the ones here in Baltimore and far taller.

We stopped in the Hershey's Chocolate store and satisfied our taste buds.
Chicago is amazingly bike friendly. We rented a couple of beach cruisers and had a great time rolling around.

Somewhere in Chicago; a baby is whaling. You find the strangest thing in subway stops.

"The Bean" as everyone calls it. Is actually a polished stainless steel sculpture called "Cloud Gate" designed by Anish Kapoor. 

- Mike

Rats...

I've said it before and I'll say it again kids: Look both ways before crossing the street. You don't want to end up like Mr.Rat here do you?

Today's ride into work was pretty uneventful, which is good if you commute through the parts of town that I do. I stopped to take a few photos and still made it to work early.

Dinner tonight is at my girlfriend's folk's place in Takoma Park; lookin' forward to some good food and relaxing.

- Mike

Blah training ride.

Today's ride was pretty blah... with scattered patches of blah mixed with more blah.

• Distance: 25.95 miles
• Time: 1:25:10
• Avg Speed: 18.3 mph
• Max Speed: 39.1

- Mike

Tumbling tumbleweaves...

I see these all the time here in Baltimore. This is what you call a tumbleweave.

1. tumbleweave
n. A random grouping and usually tangled mass of fake hair, which is generally the result of someones weave being pulled out in a fight, that tumbles down the street similar to a tumbleweed.
"Man, you see that tumbleweave rollin' down the street?"

Limitations.

Sometimes I really hate not having my digital SLR camera with me when I'm on rides. I can never get the depth of field I want. Here are 4 photos, I took this morning, with my point & shoot digital camera that I wish I could have taken with my DSLR.

Patapsco Cross Ride Report.

Mike Hoffman, Chris Nystrom, Sean Pfaff and myself had a great ride at Patapsco this morning. Mike rolled down to my place and we pedaled out of midtown and over to Patapsco Park. There we met Chris & Sean and set out blazing some sweet, dusty-dry, singletrack. Honestly, the trails were perfect today. Not only did we ride all over Patapsco, but into Rockburn Park as well for a quick jaunt around Nystrom's cross practice loop (which is perfect).

Above: The trails were dry dry dry.

If I had to guess, I'd say we rode close to 13 or 14 miles of singletrack today. Not sure exactly. My dog's are barkin' though (read: I'm pretty beat).

Above: A shot of Sean swingin' down the trail.

I flatted 3 times today. Chis had one flat. Mike had a nasty, loud fart. Sean... lost his glasses, but then found them again. What else is noteworthy.... oh Chris cheated death with a spectacular dismount & run out. He crashed but was able to keep his legs moving and didn't end up in this pile of pointy rocks (or wrapped around the rusted iron trusses of a nearby bridge). That was amazing Chris!

Above: Chris fixing his flat.

Looking forward to another good ride. Less flats would be nice, but I won't bitch.

Here's a gallery of all of the snapshots I took today.

- Mike

Commute!

Just one warning though: City bus drivers can be real jackasses.

-Mike

Patapsco Park tomorrow...

Tomorrow I'll be swinging down some sweet sweet singletrack at Patapsco on my cross bike. Can't wait!

-Mike

I crushed the pedals today.

Did I ever. I rode at race pace the entire ride. I was passing rider after rider out there. I better check my testosterone levels...

Stats from today's pain ride:

• Distance: 25.62 miles
• Time: 1:21:11
• Avg speed: 19.0 mph!!!!!
• Max Speed: 43.2mph (Lake ave as usual)

- Mike

I believe Mayo brings out the best in me.

If you know me at all; you know I love my mayonnaise. Not just any mayo though, it has to be Hellman's. I was raised on this stuff.

Did you know that Hellman's mayo will be celebrating it's 250th birthday this year? Hey, it's a big deal to me. Get the full scoop (pun intended) here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5639903

- Mike

I'm about 80% ready for cross.

That's right. I said it. I'm at 80%. I am feeling GREAT about my condition for this coming Cyclocross season. I through in some seriously intense sprints on today's ride and added a few extra miles to my regular route. Steppin' it up so I can hold my own this season. I need a win in the Killer B's this season. I busted my ass riding up Lake Ave to keep my ride's avg speed up there.

Stats from today's ride (live, local & late-breaking) :

• Distance: 32.09miles
• Time: 1:44:32
• Avg Speed: 18.4mph!
• Max Speed: 46.3mph

- Mike

Awesome ride today!

I had another great ride today. Yes, again on the K2. I dunno; I guess I'll always love the K2. It's light, fast & fun.

Anyway, after making a nice training mix and putting it onto a minidisk, I headed out into the county. That's right; I said "minidisk"... I haven't made the leap to an MP3 player yet. Call me retro... more accurately; call me poor!

I logged 53 miles today at a decent pace. Felt great; weather was beautiful and the music was perfect for today's ride.

Here's the stats from today's ride:

• Distance: 53.14 miles
• Time: 3:12:37
• Avg Speed: 16.5mph
• Max Speed: 44.8mph

And incase you're wondering, here's the mix I made for today's ride:

1. Prolouge - Kraftwerk
2. Tour de France Etape 2 - Kraftwerk
3. Ride - Zion I
4. Beauty - Ladytron
5. Wild Wild West - The Escape Club
6. Ocean Beat - Tosca
7. I've Got My Mind Set On You - George Harrison
8. Fashion TV - Tosca
9. Koncrete Jungle - Zion I
10. Dolphins Were Monkeys - DJ Shadow
11. Fire - Ladytron
12. Busenfreud philippe Lussand - Tosca
13. I'm With The Pilots - Ladytron
14. Trippin' - Zion I
15. The Reason Why - Ladytron
16. Elektro Kardiogramm - Kraftwerk
17. Startup Chime - Ladytron
18. Organ Donor - DJ Shadow
19. I'm Your Boogie Man - White Zombie
20. F#$% Dub Part 1 & 2 - Tosca
21. More Human Than Human - White Zombie
22. Abercrombie - Ladytron
23. Just Be Good To Me - DJ Shadow
24. Aero Dynamik - Kraftwerk
25. He Took Her To A Movie - Ladytron
26. Moi Lolita - Alizee
27. Mu-tron - Ladytron
28. Kick Snare - Zion I
29. Commodore Rock - Ladytron
30. Thunder Kiss '65 - White Zombie
31. Mongrel Meets His Maker - DJ Shadow
32. The Way That I Found You - Ladytron
33. Jet Age - Ladytron
34. Uptown Bollywood Nights - DJ Shadow & Automator
35. Swan Lake - Blackalicious & DJ Shadow
36. Revolution - Zion I
37. Titanium - Kraftwerk
38. Lui ou toi - Alizee

- Mike

Patapsco on the cross bikes.

Today Mike H and I hit Patapsco Park on the CX bikes. Man what a rush! I haven't hit singletrack that good in over a year. I was in heaven!

Lookin' forward to hittin' it again next weekend. Here's a picture of Mike H from today's ride.

-Mike

Braodwaybike.com is up and running.

It's pretty simple, not to involved, but this site will grow over the next year I'm sure.

I give you:
BROADWAYBIKE.COM
designed by your's truly.

-Mike

Another hard ass ride.

Yeah I know it's ony25 miles but I worked really hard again today. I had a good time out there. Even on my old trusty K2.

I didn't blog about this yet, but my carbon fiber bike's frame has a big ol' crack in the frame that appeared mysteriously after yesterday's hard ride. I have no clue how this happened. Giant will swap out the frame under warranty though.

Anyway, I kicked my own ass out there today after work.

Here's today's ride stats:

• Distance: 25.51
• Time: 1:25:39
• Average Speed: 17.1
• Max Speed: 36.4mph (Lake Ave again)

My girlfriend cooked me some killer beef burgundy, risotto & grilled asparagus. Time to eat.

-Mike.

Awesome hard short ride.

Man... today I put in some hard efforts. I through in a lot of sustained hard efforts and climbed hills with some serious moxy. I worked hard to keep Trek jersey from catching me, from downtown all the way out to Hillside rd, but then, just when I thought I had him beat, and thought that he had given up.... BOOM! He came out of nowhere and shot past me. I popped and ducked in behind him and held on tight. We were carrying a steady 24mph all the way down Hillside rd. He knew I was behind him, but I don't think he knew I was hurting, trying to keep the pace. When we got to the end of Hillside, I followed him down another short road, got next to him and thanked him for making me hurt. It was great to chase someone down and hurt like I would in an upcoming race. Thanks Trek guy!

My stats from this evening's ride:

• Distance: 25.57miles (Hey don't forget my daily 10 I put in just commuting!)
• Time: 1:24:43
• Avg Speed: 18.1mph
• Max Speed: 39.8 (Lake Ave)

- Mike

When I get off of work...

... I'm grabbing the carbon bike and hitting the county for a few hours. I'll post ride stats when I get home. I really need to ride.

This has been your phattire.net blog entry for today.

-Mike

Finished my Photography class at MICA.

Last night was my final critique in the B&W Photography class I was taking at MICA. I was really happy with most of my work I had matted and hanging on the wall. A little more time in the dark room would have been nice, so that I could really put the finishing touches on a couple of prints, but overall, they looked good. My final project was a series of scenes from NYC.

I miss my girlfriend. She's been in New Brunswick for nearly 2 weeks now. It's been pretty quiet around the house. Doris misses her too.

She'll be home this Sunday morning.

-Mike

101°F ... nice.

Baltimore's hotter than a 3 peckered billy goat today.

-Mike