How to enjoy a long weekend while job searching

Simple: have a two-year old and take him to a farm where he can run around and ride a tiny train. 

 Done.

And try to ignore the fact you're going back into the office on Tuesday.  Don't let it spoil what was a great weekend.  Sooner or later you'll find something else.  You hope.

Current beer-scale: 6.8

ya-fucking-hoo

Finally picked up the rebuilt trek this weekend and took it for a spin this morning. 

Looking good!

It was a decent ride but the gears were slipping a bit which took some of the fun out of it.  So did worrying about riding a Madone for a normal commute but I think I'll get over that eventually considering I saw a delivery guy riding the same thing yesterday.

Not a bad looking bike though, even with most of the old components still usable.  The chain, bottom bracket, brakes, and seat cap are all new, everything else was on the old bike.  Ultimately I took the bike in for a tuneup, and two months & $440 later I have a new ride. 

One more reason to look forward to riding home tonite. 

Current beer-scale: 5.8

woof

Hello dog days.

But when the calendar turned over to August, the wife and I officially had nothing to do with the rat trap we had to sublet for two months when we closed in June. Hurray!

Anyway, it's still hot as balls, work is insane, but the wife and I had awesome steaks at Ditkas the other night and we're two weeks away from the start of preseason football. Not too shabby these days.

Current beer-scale: 3.3

familiar growlers & high miles

Stopped by half acre last night before going to dinner and picked up a growler of their new saison brew. It reminded me of something I couldn't quite place, like a tweaked Longboard brew or something similar. Hopefully a drinking half a gallon of it over the weekend will help me place it.

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy a few days off after tomorrow. Riding has been crazy this month. Even with missing the first week of the month with the move I'll still hit 300 miles for June by the end of the day today. Absolutely insane. And the speed of the ride in this morning is making me slightly nauseous without any food, but the multi-vitamins I've stashed in my desk probably aren't helping with that. Buuuuurrrrp.

We'll see how triple digit temps treat bikers tomorrow, although I have the feeling it will only prep me all the better for some of that saison when I get home.

Current beer-scale: 5.5

Again, I need to ride more often

B/c good things happen while you're on a bike.

The last time I took a big ride south, I had wanted to try and ride whatever peninsula was to the east of the McCormick center jutting out into Lake Michigan. I must have missed something though b/c before I knew it I was passing Soldiers Field. No big deal.
A quick look on google maps showed that the area south of the planetarium was in fact where Meigs Field is, complete with some nice big loops to ride. Sounded good, but I quickly forgot about trying to go. Today, as I was moseying south, it sounded like a good idea to try again. And it was. What a fantastic ride. If anyone was reading this, I'd hesitate to share b/c it was just too awesome.

It took some exploring, but eventually some ways into the marina I was able to sneak under the Planetarium and head south by the Charter One Pavilion. I spotted a bike sign by some construction and headed east, which opened up to a gorgeous nature preserve and Northerly Island Park.

Walk your bikes! (seriously, does that ever get enforced?)

The Field itself was perfect; practically deserted and smooth pavement over a wide open area of tall grass and wild flowers. There were a few other bikers out, and one in particular seemed especially annoyed at having to avoid some park district campers at one point. I didn't care. It was so fun to open things up and really get a cadence going I went for a second loop. Just a great ride.
Eventually I headed home, and for the third time after a ride, got a call about an interview. Bike rides are good. Good for the heart, good for the soul. Good for working up a powerful thirst!

Current beer-scale: 8.1 & in the mood to celebrate...

burn, baby burn

I am a disgusting mess of peeling skin and heat rash. Good times.

I've been too sore to move, let alone go outside for a ride, since a 3 hour canoe trip up in Wisconsin for the fourth. So no rides. I was movement free until I had to go out for an interview I had scheduled before the holiday. After I got there early enough to straighten up in the restroom, I painfully removed my jacket to notice the blisters on my shoulders had popped and were leaking through my shirt. Fantastic.

Blisters meant that was probably the absolute worst burn I've ever had. Which also meant I was about as uncomfortable as you could imagine in that interview. Fortunately the popping meant everything receded slightly for the next day's interview. Hopefully by Monday I can lay down without crying.

Current beer-scale: 7.2

All this time on my hands

So I might as well ride. And for all the riding I've done, and running, I've never actually checked out the circle drive to Navy Pier. It's not my favorite spot in the city but with all the free time I've got I might as well have. It's not the most exciting, but there's good people and dog watching.
That's a 'new' saddle, new to me at least, from ebay earlier this week. The bike's getting its grit, even if I'm not. Slightly dingy but much more butt-appropriate than the gel-filled monster the mother-in-law had on.
I admit, the reason I wanted to ride was to test a possible commute, but I think that's getting way ahead of myself. Yet again there's a holiday coming up, so all thoughts of actually getting hired and working get put on the backburner to make room for booze and relaxation. Relaxation from what, I couldn't tell you. But it's there all the same.

Current beer-scale: 4.3

Post-ride

I should be riding everyday, if only b/c there's few feelings better than your phone ringing for an interview set-up just as you're carrying your bike up the stairs.

With the Pilot being a fancy enough bike, I was convinced by the mother-in-law to try clip-in shoes versus my usual toe clips. The in-laws have actually been working on me about this for a while, but I refused to clip into a single speed bike. Plus, I'm morally opposed to falling while I'm riding and never in the mood to go to a shop and deal with salespeople.Speaking of salespeople, the guy I talked to certainly perked up when the in-law mentioned she traded up to a Madone 4.7. That got the guy's attention in a hurry. After that, he seemed to listen a little more when I said I didn't want road-specific since eventually I'd be commuting and likely walking places after rides.

I ended up with some multi-purpose SPD compatible shoes with decent rubber soles. The cleats could actually be recessed a little more, since they clack on sidewalks more than I expected. But clipping in actually isn't all bad.
Today was the first real ride of any distance, and having nearly finished my conversion to the hermit lifestyle, decided to go north instead of south to avoid Taste of Chicago traffic. Up to the turn around at Hollywood and back down. The only time I nearly fell was after that picture, where I stopped and then couldn't start fast enough and had to yank out my left foot to stand. That experience, along with riding in traffic down Fullerton and back, convinced me I need to get my grit back. And by that I mean I'm completely uncomfortable riding in traffic now, something I used to do everyday without any thought to the consequences. I need to get that back.
But going north was nice and quiet, and it's hard to get tough when you're passing ice cream vendors.Still, I need to be riding more. The trainer helped keep my rhythm, but I miss the fearlessness that comes with riding with traffic. At least I had the leftovers to polish off when I came home. Gruesome, I know. Now to get some beer.
Current beer-scale: 6.7 (why the hell is Zambrano back in the rotation? Can someone help me out here?)

I must be out of my mind.

That was my exact thought coming up to the 5700th south block of the lakefront path today.

You know how it is. It's perfect out, and you want to take a short ride. Maybe 12-15 miles. 20 tops. And you weave your way south on the path, slowing down and taking it easy around the big crowds. Suddenly things start to thin out a little. You're already by the aquarium, passing Soldier Field. Before you know it, you're past McCormic place and see the 2500 south marker.

Well, this just feels great.

"25 already? Let's go to 35 and turn around."

"That was fast too. I guess 45 would be alright."

"Shoot, MSI is only 12 blocks away. Might as well make the whole trip."

How did we get this far south?

Things feel so good you can't help but downshift and go a little faster. If there's someone on the hill in front of you, you see how much ground you can make up. The sound of the wheels on the smooth pavement hypnotizes you. And you're 15 miles away from home, wondering how it happened. That ride back was a bit of a bitch but that's not necessarily a bad thing. By the time I was back at Castaways I was way too tired to give a shit about some spandex douchebag flying by despite all the foot traffic.

Please ignore my finger. That's a long way home & I was too lazy to fully stop and take a real picture.

That ride was so great I might actually have to start advocating for a move to the south side. The path is smooth and practically empty; it's gorgeous with all the beaches and parks. A fantastic afternoon. I feel like I might die now, but that's no big deal.

Current beer-scale: 6.8 mmmmmmmmmmm, lager

Here come the Hawks

Don't forget their crowds too. I should have known better than to try and go for a ride this afternoon but I just couldn't help myself.

I got a new hand-me-down earlier this month. The mother-in-law wanted to upgrade her ride, and the 2010 WSD Madones had caught her eye. She was already riding a Trek Pilot 5.2 but not the WSD, and not really fitted that well to her either. I actually started commuting on one of her old worldsports, but moving up to the Pilot is a whole 'nother deal.

I've gone over 800 miles on the trainer since the wife picked me up a computer, but none of that can prepare you for an actual bike ride. We took a quick one in the suburbs last week, an 8 mile jaunt around one of the trails out by Arrowhead in Wheaton. Today the itch to hop on the carbon and really take it for a ride was too much to resist, and off I went. Parade crowd or not.

The Pilot is kind of an odd design. It's almost like one of the Giant or Specialized compacts, where you're sitting pretty upright even with the seat way up. I didn't think I'd like it but for my first real road ride in months my butt, hands, and wrists barely complained at all. It's still got an old lady gel saddle on that I have to change, but that's about it. I'm definitely not going to whine about someone giving me a fully loaded carbon bike, used or whatever. The only thing I was worried about other than being patient with foot traffic was getting doored after getting a little urban-rusty. Traffic was tight at times but not bad.

The best part, I got a call for an interview just as I was walking up to my building at the end of the ride. Still looking, but it feels good to have some potential again.

Current beer-scale: 7.1; it's hot and I've got lagers.

Hit the road

How best to take your mind off a job search? Take an extra day off, and instead of stewing, hit the the road for a few hours. 20 miles minimum. 30 is better. Bad weather could be a positive too, at least for a while.

So that's what I did today. Hoping for the break in rain that Conrad was talking about this morning on wgn to come through, I hit the lakefront trail around noon and headed south for about as long as I could handle.

I wasn't in a huge rush, but I did have an end point in mind and I wanted to see how long it would take to get there. The rain wasn't quite breaking when I hoped it would, but it wasn't terrible out. It was down to sprinkles by the time I was winding around the Shedd.

Considering I was out there to get my mind off things, it didn't really help that nearly all I could think about was "I'm getting my mind off the job search" for nearly the entire ride. Even in the rain, into the wind. Oh well. Considering I was biking by some of the places I'd like to find work at, and ending up at my number two choice right now, telling myself I was getting my mind off things was probably good enough. Long rides= good, poorly planned or not.

The sun did start to come out as I got to the south side, and after about 45 minutes it turned pretty nice out. For a while at least. There was some blue in the sky around the mid-2000's.

Eventually I got as far south as MSI at 5700 south. Thank god for the occasional street marking painted on the path too, b/c around the 3000's the blocks started to blend a little. The cool thing about going that far south though is that when you're far enough out of the city, everyone out there has respect for everyone else out there with them. I got more smiles and nods from people running or biking in the other direction on this one ride than I've gotten all year just in the neighborhood. It put me in a better mood.
The south side beaches helped with that as well. After getting down there, I took a minute to sit down at the 57th St. beach house. This was a big change from taking the dog to Montrose earlier in the morning, where in between sprinkles we were walking through goose turds and running after seagulls. Or at least she was; she loves goose turds.

Of course, turning around gave me a clearer picture of just how far south I was. Holy crap the city seemed far away, even back up in the 4000's. A fat man could get awfully skinny doing this 5 times a week. I was worried w/o a zoom this picture wouldn't look good, but it's a decent depiction of just how far south I was.

Eventually, I got back into more frequently traversed territory and the rest of the ride wrapped itself up pretty quickly. I was turning off lincoln and zooming down webster before I knew what happened.

It was a good ride but it had its share of nostalgic moments too. One positive I'm taking from the job search is the chance to maybe work downtown again or better yet, even further south. I miss the long rides downtown but there are parts I don't miss, especially around Navy Pier. The squeeze over the river was never fun, and the rain pouring off of upper LSD/Wacker didn't help on the way out. At least it was empty on the way back.

Of course, when you've got a dog like mine, you never know what you're coming home to. Today, it was this. A minor hiccup--she barely bothered to raise her head off the couch in acknowledgement when I asked her about this. I can't say that I blame her. She had a hard morning what with all the goose turds.

Current beer-scale: a mellow 6.1

More of the same

Another butt-shot, as my mother in-law likes to say.

This time, I was the guilty party, drafting after the two ladies in the shot flew by. They were both on what looked like Fuji track bikes, and since I have a track-ish bike, I went to see if I could keep up. Evidently I could, well enough to dig out the phone for the second day in a row.

I feel slightly bad about it, seeing as how I try my damndest to drop anyone who comes even remotely close to drafting off me. In fact, I was practically tugging on this poor chick as the one in front started to pull away as my fat ass pulled the second one back. I thought about passing and trying to catch up, but I was already past my normal turn around. Plus since yesterday was a Tour rest day I didn't have any real racing jones either.

The phone came out again b/c as you can see, the closer one is fully spandexed. Enough to maybe raise an eyebrow, but hey, she pulled it off and what do I care. The whole incident was enough to make me laugh. Playing tag, seeing spandex, it's a good summer.

Current beer-scale: a middle of the road 5.7