Big Ride Training

This weekend was my first weekend of long riding in prep for the Big Ride. My two and half hour ride on Friday afternoon was thwarted by kitten birthing in my back bedroom, but the rest of the weekend went according to plan:

Saturday, April 10: 40 miles in 3 hrs. 10 min.
Sunday, April 11: 51.3 miles in 3 hrs. 30 min.

Today, I'll ride another 40 miles with Nick, probably around the top of Lake Washington, across I-90 and back up through Bellevue. So far I've ridden about 475 miles. I'm a little down on where I'd like to be because of our trip to Europe, but I think I'll be fine. I've noticed that my hiking strength isn't what it used to be. Hiking and biking muscles just aren't the same! I'll have to incorporate more hiking into my plan if I think I'm going to do things like Eldorado as a day trip in June.

Flying Scotsman

I finished Graeme Obree's autobiography - Flying Scotsman - this morning over breakfast. It's a fairly interesting account of a Scottish cyclist who is primarily known for breaking Francisco Moser's world hour record and holding several world championship titles on the track. He invented two new riding styles that were outlawed by the UCI shortly after proving enormously fast. And he did it all, largely without big-name sponsorship. While I'm always interested in what drives top athletes, I thought this account was particularly interesting because Obree not only talks about his cycling but also his battle with manic depression and alcoholism. He also talks about how he measured himself by what he was about to achieve - the next race, the next business venture, the next whatever. He never raced simply for the passion of the sport alone.

Final verdict: Honest, heartbreaking, and at times pretty funny - I'd recommend Flying Scotsman for anyone tired of reading about Lance Armstrong.

P.S. Nick picked this book up on our vacation in England. Unfortunately, I can't find it anywhere on this side of the Atlantic. It's not listed on Amazon or on the publisher's web site. If you find it somewhere, drop me a line and let me know. Otherwise, talk to Nick about borrowing the book!

Jet’s new kittens

Jet cleaning her kittens | Olympus Stylus 300 Here they are - the new kitten family. I know it's not the best picture, but it's as good as it gets when they're all in the back of large box.

We have bunchkin’s

Jet finally gave birth last evening around five o'clock! We got two little kittens - a silver one with a spotty belly and a black one with a white belly, white socks on all four feet and a white stripe on its nose. A third one was born still. Jet seems to be settling in to her new roll as food machine and cuddler. She spends most of her time laying with her newborns who like to snuggle together between her front paws.

Atmosphere

Atmosphere | Nikon C5000 Here's a submission from Dad. He entered this one in the Photo Friday contest. In case you're wondering, it's a negative of a color picture taken at night of the South Bank area of Melbourne.