The most recognizable team in international cycling is the first to sign on for the inaugural Tour of Missouri.

The Discovery Channel cycling team, for which Lance Armstrong rode to seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France, will participate in the race, which begins Sept. 11 in Kansas City and ends Sept. 16 in St. Louis.

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This race starts shortly after our 2007 two-day MS-150 ride, so I’ll enjoy some spectating while they speed through the state over the next week; I’m already curious to hear where the specific course route will go, but at least I know I’ll be able to cheer from the finish line in St. Louis.

Tour of Missouri

A few interesting items recently noted:

• GeoPress/MT brings the MoveableType blog crowd into the maps, GeoRSS, KML, and Microformats space with a plugin to make marking up content easy. WordPress users have enjoyed similar for a while, though I’ve yet to take advantage of the plugin.
• Garmin announced their Developer Website containing resources and a library of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), toolkits and web services to explore. Among the web services include access to MotionBased, the “activity portal” I use to track my cycling routes and performance using data from my Edge 305.
• Google Streetside View provides a panoramic view from certain streets theyve photographed, and includes a unusually creepy costumed pointer in a video tutorial explaining the feature. Unfortunately, locations are currently limited to San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami, and New York, and the browsing remains a bit clunky, but it’s still fun to sight-see.
• Google Maplets combine their Gadgets API and Maps to create a means of simple user mashups on their own maps.
• And a few others to check out.
• plazes relaunched, but now my plazer is crashing on startup!

Maybe by next year I’ll get my act together and have something interesting to contribute to that space, or perhaps I’ll have simply procrastinated long enough for someone else to already accomplish what I’ve envisioned.

It started slowly as we took our time climbing out of bed, enabling each other to be late taking turns hitting snooze. Walking to the office behind schedule, we missed the group walk to Starbucks, but Kelly and I found our way over shortly after, passing those returning. I treated myself to a larger than normal iced chai that pleased taste-buds and chased some lingering sleep away.

At the office, Angela kindly delivered me delicious oatmeal-butterscotch cookies baked in trade for a “Fire Extinguisher” sign I earlier liberated from an abandoned space. Work today had me off a critical path, so stress was lighter, though I’m becoming harder to phase with work anyway.

I love my job, but I’m experiencing a life-perspective adjustment since spending a week with Kelly’s family surrounding her father’s recent death, and we’re also anxious about our parenting prospects as Kelly continues to grow with our first child. Those events have contributed to an awareness for the first time that I can remember: I feel older on my birthday.

Which likely encouraged the desire to break from the office around 3 with Hans today to ride the nearby Riverfront Trail. We pushed each other pretty hard, and the physical exertion was a welcome burn. I’ve got plenty of weight to lose before I truly feel healthy, but regularly exhausting myself on the bike does wonders for the brain. The physical benefits are of course a plus, and improvement just means I’ll get/have to go faster and farther.

After the ride comes the hunger. Kelly asked me to pick dinner, so I selected comfort food at North St. Louis’ Crown Candy Kitchen for a simple egg salad sandwich and an amazing butterscotch malt. I comfortably found my fill, which unfortunately required leaving some malt behind, but my happy belly thanked me for the food and for not overdoing it like last time. We grabbed up a couple dark chocolate covered Oreo for dessert later at Hans and Kristan’s during some TV and laptop browsing.

And now I sit in our apartment, in bed with the laptop writing this. Throughout the day I was wished a happy day from family and friends (Mom even sang Happy Birthday over voicemail while I was riding), and it looks like one came through.

Next year, everything will be different. I’m not talking about the “big three oh,” because that means nothing to me, but instead of the apartment we’ll have been in our downtown condo for about a year, and we’ll be parents to a 6 month old! I cannot even imagine what the next birthday holds.

found via The Wooster Collective

Bit.Fall has since moved on, but I’m marking my calendar for the Summer exhibitions (May 11 - July 16) to check out Ansel Adams: Reverence for Life. His photography alone is always amazing, but they also plan to screen two short films worth viewing.

Rant: Every web-site with a calendar of events should also serve a syndication feed with event markup so I stop missing the interesting things in my city.

Also, read up on your Easter origins.

I like my company.

We’ll first be joining Kelly’s family in town this year for a large meal before driving up to Chicago with Amy and Henry to join the rest of my family and pick at the day’s leftovers and gorge on desserts (typically more options than guests). We’ll then find another meal prepared tomorrow so we can all share the table again. This is all after participating in a rather large potluck lunch at the office yesterday in the same spirit, later enjoying some pre-Thanksgiving sushi with friends last night.

I will end this weekend 10 pounds heavier. I’m thankful I don’t have a gall bladder anymore, and that I can bike off the extra calories should I choose to brave the cold… I should definitely ride Sunday.

Enjoy your turkey!

(Currently wearing my Cardinals hat from game 3)

Relay is an overnight event that unites our community in a common effort to support the American Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. The Society works every day to prevent cancer and save lives by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies that protect us from cancer, and educating people on how to prevent or detect cancer early. The Society helps people in our community who have cancer through its many programs and services. Together, we can help the American Cancer Society accelerate the progress toward a cancer-free future.

Please join her efforts and support the American Cancer Society.

Thank you.

Overall, the MS 150 went very well, but it was not without hardships (long distance aside). Friday, we headed out for Columbia to complete registration and grab our hotel room for some sleep before Day 1. We stopped for dinner on the way, but spent more time than planned at an Italian restaurant stocking up on carbs. We ended up arriving at registration too late to complete it that night, so we just checked into the hotel to sleep as much as possible before taking care of event check-in and riding the next morning.

I’m not a morning person, and it really showed Saturday. I don’t know of a good way to wake up knowing you’ve committed to ride 100 miles that day, planning the better part of the day on the bike. Anyway, we got into the event grounds early enough to finish registration, meet up with our team, and cram more food. We walked out to the route start among the first couple hundred riders and hit the road around 7:30.

One of the things that help me spend so much time on the bike is that I have shoes that attach to my pedals (kind of like skis) so I can pedal 360 degrees of the crank instead of just pushing down. Unfortunately, among the mass of riders shoulder to shoulder starting this ride, I found I couldn’t clip in on the right. Not a good way to start at least 150 miles for the weekend. I was still able to hook my part of my right cleat into the pedal so I could push down for about a third of the stroke on that side, but was still largely relying on the working left leg. Around the time I was able to figure this out, a fast line of riders was coming from the back. I wanted to clear the surrounding crowd so I could more comfortably experiment with the pedal, so I joined the faster pace line.

Likely motivated by the same insanity that makes me think riding all weekend is fun, we stuck with that pace line, skipped the first rest stop at 10 miles, and didn’t stop to check out the pedal until the 20 mile rest stop. Between the awkward stroke and the 20 mph average, my legs felt unusually tired for only 20 miles, but they improved with some stretching and time spent fixing the pedal and cleat. I was finally able clip in on both sides, which provide ability for an even stroke. Unfortunately, I just spent 20 miles wearing out my right leg, so the rest of the ride was spent trying to compensate again.

Having ridden enough to learn how to ignore discomfort, I still wanted to at least complete the century the 1st day, especially since we had gotten off to such a fast start, so we still kept a decent pace. The route split for the 75 and 100 mile paths before lunch, which meant we had to complete our extra 25 miles *before* lunch since it was a shared location. I think we stopped every 10 miles or so at east rest stop for a quick stretch and some snacks and Gatorade, but only for about 5 minutes to not let the muscles get too cold. Around 65 miles we arrived at lunch (actually somewhat early) and spent about an hour for more food, stretching and rest.

The majority of the remaining 35 miles that day were spent riding into a head-wind in about 90 degree heat, which was anticipated, but still of course unpleasant. Riding into wind essentially subtracts speed in exchange for effort - our speed drops but we feel like were having to work twice as hard.

I spent most of Day 1 riding with one of my teammates, Hans. He and I rolled across the finish line for that day just before 4pm; much earlier than anticipated. Only one other century rider on the team (the “Hermit”) finished before us, which was a fun accomplishment. We checked in our bikes, roamed the event grounds for an early dinner and beverages, and waited at the finish to cheer on the finishing riders.

After so much activity, the body doesn’t really stop consuming energy, so after cleaning up by 6:30 we were hungry again, and went for our second dinner across the road from the hotel. I remember eating, but couldn’t tell you what it was; I’m sure it wasn’t on the plate for too long. We were back in bed by 8:45, exhaustion taking over any ability to stay awake.

I woke up to legs in pain (but still tried very hard to go back to sleep and pretend I didn’t have to ride), but downed some ibuprofen after I (finally) got out of bed. I spent an unusual amount of time Day 1 pulling on the pedals, straining leg muscles that rarely get worked that way. Consequently, there was little strength left there, on top of legs already tired from riding 100 miles the previous day. I sadly didn’t think trying for the century again wise, so I decided to only do the 75 in hopes of taking it easier so I didn’t do any serious damage.

To add insult to injury, Day 2’s first 10 miles were reasonably hilly, forcing my legs awake. As much as the first half-hour hurt, it was awfully fun to race down some hills at 40 mph! This day’s century route turn-off didn’t take place until after lunch, so part of me still wanted to hold judgment until checking time left in the day at that point, even though I was also wishing I just u-turned around the first 20 miles. Anyway, after arriving at the split that afternoon, I could not convince myself that an extra 25 miles was a good idea, and continued on the 75 path. I rode Day 2 with Kurt, who offered excellent support and motivation keeping me from calling it quits even when my legs felt that there was nothing left. Hans had sped ahead of us early on and expected to do the 100. Since all three of us were driving home together, I rationalized taking extra time at rest stops to rest. We probably had been napping at the last stop for about half an hour when I get a text-message by phone that Hans missed the turn off for the century and was waiting for us back at the finish, so there was some motivation to finally finish. It was around then that several others in our group arrived at the last stop, so we socialized a bit before riding again.

The last section of Day 2 followed the same way we started, so those fun hilly 10 miles we started with were no-so-fun hills for the end of the day. I took a break or two at some of the crests before continuing, and even had to walk the last quarter of the last hill, but we finally rolled back into the event grounds that afternoon - this time I think it was about 4:45.

Hans had been back long enough to get in line for a massage at one of the tents, and had already eaten. By the time Kurt and I showed up, we were just ready to get our bikes to the car and leave. We were still starving, so we stopped to get some food (and washed/changed), but finally began our trip back home. By car. In much softer seats than we spent most of the weekend.

I spent the majority of the weekend on a bike, but have not really shared any experiences about how beautiful scenery was, or interesting towns we rode through, or fun conversations we had. That’s largely because when you’re out there, hamming along on the pedals, pushing through exhaustion, I’m sorry to say you really don’t get much of that. My brain activity can pretty much be summarized with combinations of: road, pothole, gravel, faster, “passing on your left!”, ouch, bug, *&$#@, thirsty… and repeat. An odd excuse for fun maybe, but there it is. I didn’t make the 200 miles I hoped to, but certainly put in my time for 150+. The muscles right behind my knees are still suffering a bit, so that’s my punishment I guess.

Thank you to those that contributed to the National MS Society’s cause. 2,802 participants rode 150 miles over two days, raising more than $1.9 million to end the devastating effects of MS.

With your help, as of this I was able to raise $420 of my personal $500 goal. I still have until October to meet my personal fundraising goal. If you have not yet and would still like to make a donation,
you can do so with a secured online payment from my 2005 MS 150 Progress Page.

Here are some metrics for the weekend: