A Big Perk of Cycling

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Cycling has a ton of attracts for me. But, one perk that most riders don’t take into consideration is the endurance it gives us all in other areas of our lives. I guess I mean physical endurance, but I think the mental aspect transfers over too.

I just got done with 3, 15 hour days trying to finish up a project before the holidays. I worked until 2 or 3 am each day and woke up before 8 to start all over again. And I’m not destroyed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m tweaked some, but not like I would have thought. I did the same thing a few years ago when I roofed my building. I put in 16 hour days for nearly 2 months straight, with little sleep. I wasn’t great at 5 am, but after I got rolling, I was fine. It’s a nice thing to know you can do.

The same goes for other physical areas.. Back in the late 90’s, I was racing in Japan with Specialized at a Catus Cup. We were going to go back to Tokyo after the race to go to the bike show. I came up with the idea that we should hike up Mt. Fuju, even though it was October and it was pretty much shut down. The top was covered with snow and ice.

Anyway, we convinced the Specialized Japan guys to take us there to hike up it. They said yes, but they never said no, and they meant no. So, on the way to Mt. Fuju, Tech, the Specialized guy, took us to a super cool hotel that had an indoor water park. Plus, that night at dinner, he ordered tons of wine. We were all toast. This was in his grand plan to make it so we didn’t die “climbing” up Fuji.

Tech had to be back in Tokyo early afternoon, so he drove us up to the tourist area, a few thousand feet up the mountain, and left us. We were way late and Tech explained that there is no way we had enough time to get to the top. Plus, the weather. He’d asked around and no one went to the top at that time of the year. We grabbed some Powerbars, made a couple sandwiches and took off. It was Ned, Trudi, Kris Burchard (Marketing director of Specialized) and Ned’s brother. Kris and Ned’s brother were pretty fit for normal people. But, not fit enough to keep up with us on our schedule. Trudi, Ned and I had a little pow wow and decided we needed to jettison those guys. So, when they caught back up, we told them we couldn’t wait, gave them their share of our food, and took off.

It wasn’t easy. It was super cold, the wind was howling. Plus, it was icy and snowy the top 1/4. Normally, it is a walk up. I think in the summer, there are days when over 10,000 go to the top on a single day. We were the only ones that day, maybe that week, maybe the month.

We made it to the top. It was hard because the trail was up the shaded side, which was, like I said above, pretty treacherous. Once on the top, we got sunshine and warmth. Plus, there wasn’t much snow. We pulled out our Specialized banner and took a photo, then headed back down a different trail.

The downhill was our undoing. Well, not all of ours. Trudi was struggling up. I had her grab ahold of the waist of my jeans, while I short-roped her the last bit. I was worried about her slipping and sliding 1000 feet down the mountain. But once we started down, she was stellar. And Ned and I completely fell apart. Nearly at the bottom, both Ned and I couldn’t walk down anymore. We had to turn around and walk backwards. It was loose pumice and it wasn’t that easy.

We hooked back up with Ned’s brother and Kris and caught a bus back to Tokyo. The next week, walking around Tokyo, neither Ned or I could even step off a curb. Our thighs were prety destroyed. But, our cycling fitness got us up to the top when normally it wouldn’t be possible.

There aren’t too many sports that allow participates to exercise for as long as cycling does. Cross country skiing is one. Hiking I guess, if you count that as a sport (Nothing against hiking). It is one of the best fringe benefits of the sport. And it transfers to many other things, like marathon construction. It’s great.

Near the top of Mt. Fuji, flying the Specialized colors.

Near the top of Mt. Fuji, flying the Specialized colors.

Ned and me doing a Karate Kid imitation.

Ned and me doing a Karate Kid imitation.

Nice photo of Mt. Fuji.

Nice photo of Mt. Fuji.

Summer pilgrimage on Mt. Fuji.

Summer pilgrimge on Mt. Fuji.

People Watching

This entry was posted in Just Life on by .

We piled into the van and headed up to Chicago late yesterday afternoon. Trudi wanted to get going earlier, but I had done nothing to pack, so I held up the departure. We drove two cars to Kansas City and left the Insight at the Kansas City airport for Catherine, who flew in last night to be with her mom for Christmas.

I like driving at night. That being said, yesterday seemed long. It’s a 9 hour drive, going good, but the last couple hours were a struggle. We didn’t get here until nearly 2 am. I am way under slept and wasn’t on my A-game for driving. Trudi is still recovering from a bad case of the flu, so she slept most of the way. It was really frickin’ cold too. Sometimes approaching -10. When I’ve been hanging out in the 20’s, it seemed awful.

Today is the only day I go out into the fray and shop. I like the ritual. It is really more people watching than shopping. I really like people watching. I pretty much hate shopping. I’m not really a shopper. I know what I want or need, and then buy it. I do like shopping with other people that like to shop, but that is more of a people watching deal and not really a shopping deal.

I really only spend time in the Chicago suburbs at this time of the year. I’m up here a few times a year to race, but not usually for an extended time period. This people are very interesting. Many seem like clones of each other. It is sort of like Mayberry. Everything is in such perfect order, all the walks are shoveled, the Christmas lights perfectly placed, etc.

I’ve been sitting at a Starbucks across the street from Trudi’s mom’s, trying to get a coffee from the last 30 minutes. The waiting line has never been less than 10-15 people. I refuse to wait in line that long, just for a cup of coffee, so I’m just sitting, waiting patiently. Well, maybe no so patiently.

The jacket of choice here is a black North Face jacket. It seems like every other person has one on. My brother told me a few weeks ago that The North Face had something like 40%, maybe more, of the outdoor apparel market. I told him he was full of shit. But, up here, they have close to 80% of the jacket market.

You know, this was all starting to sound all too familiar, so I did a Google search of black North Face jacket and Steve Tilford and I got my last year’s post on the very same thing. Same things actually. That is one of the “problems” of doing this on a daily basis. It is hard trying to remember what I’ve posted before and what I haven’t. I’ve been doing this pretty much daily for a while. Thousands of posts, which seems crazy strange when I write it. I’m not really sure why I started this. I actually didn’t, my friend Vincent Davis made the website. But, I’m not sure why I bought in. I think it is sort of like Forest Gump, when he decided to run. I think I just started posting daily and do it, just because. And I’m sure that eventually, I won’t feel like running anymore and will just stop cold turkey.

Okay, enough of this rambling. I have some serious people watching to get to. Merry Christmas Eve!

The biggest bag I brought along was for shoes. Man, I'm starting to feel like a woman just looking at it.

The biggest bag I brought along was for shoes. Man, I’m starting to feel like a woman just looking at it.

We stopped at the biggest truck stop in the world in Iowa to get some diesel. The additive I put in for anti-geling broke. I put it in a water bottle and then put it up in the engine compartment so it didn't stink up the inside of the van.

We stopeed at the biggest truck stop in the world in Iowa to get some diesel. The additive I put in for anti-geling broke. I put it in a water bottle and then put it up in the engine compartment so it didn’t stink up the inside of the van.

Christmas Day looks a little chilly up in Cable Wisconsin.

Christmas Day looks a little chilly up in Cable Wisconsin.

The continuous line at the local Starbucks.

The continuous line at the local Starbucks.

On a more festive note, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47 assault (hunting to some) rifle died Monday. You can click on the photo to enlarge, but if you don't feel so inclined, it says it is the most "popular" firearm in the world. There are approx. 100,000,000 of them around. He also says he doesn't have any sleep issues because of his invention. Strange, it would bug the shit out of me.

On a more festive note, Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47 assault (hunting to some) rifle died Monday. You can click on the photo to enlarge, but if you don’t feel so inclined, it says it is the most “popular” firearm in the world. There are approx. 100,000,000 of them around. He also says he doesn’t have any sleep issues because of his invention. Strange, it would bug the shit out of me.