tuesday night yoga ride

meeting at 6 pm on the bike trail at hwy 2. we'll ride for awhile then do some yoga. maybe on a bridge. maybe not.

automatic update

i should probably update my profile because my catfish died, i finished my proposal, and i successfully ran the marathon.

i replaced the fish with two small carp and a bullhead. i'm not sad because i like them better. the channel cat spent all its time hiding under rocks and my new fish are much more entertaining.

the proposal is finished, but now i have to rewrite it because my graduate committee decided to change my research design and they also didn't think it was very thorough or very good, which was hard for me to hear because i usually write that sort of thing fairly well. i knew i had too many distractions while i was putting it together and wasn't doing a good job, but i was hoping no one would notice.

marathon training is over, but i am about to begin training for the bohemian alps half marathon held in september. if anyone is interested, the half is run in conjunction with a small but well reputed fifty kilometer ultra marathon! i won't be attempting that one this year. or probably ever. i think the hilly half will be enough of a challenge.

also, i've discovered that cycling may be the best cross training ever. my speed has increased and i can tackle hills so much better after riding a bike all over nebraska for a week. i'm excited for the half marathon this fall!

kroje and accordians

last night there was a summer arts festival in omaha, roller derby at the pershing, and the annual nebraska czech queen pageant in clarkson. i ditched the music, the art, and the skates to see mari compete for the title.
the outgoing queen was so weird! she gave a very uncomfortable farewell speech in which everything she said seemed to be a little bit naughty. it had something to do with her inflection, her strange whimpery giggle, and how she said pieces of her speech in an undertone. for instance 'i was just backstage with willy and we were hugging and i just want to thank him so much for everything he did for me this past year' became an eyebrow raising statement. the highlight of her speech was the part where she was describing the perks of being the nebraska czech queen, one of which was the opportunity to ride in a 2007 silver mustang convertible. she emphasized this perk with a very loud 'whu whoop' that i can't figure out how to translate into text.

the man in the white jacket is backstage willy and he mc'd the event. i thought he was awesome and completely irritating. as a recording of 'god bless america' played at the opening of the pageant, willy boomed out key phrases in spoken word, in time with the music. willy was very loud and animated and probably spent alot of time watching the price is right. mari seems a little wary of his approach in this photo!

as part of the judging, the queens are expected to design and model a version of the traditional czech costume, the kroje. (pronounced like the sparkling water la croix, but without the la). mari's was my favorite, maybe because i know how many hours went into embroidering and crocheting her vest, apron and tissue puffed sleeves. also, because i thought mari looked really nice in her kroje where the other girls just looked puffy.

another part of the pageant was the talent. mari chose to play the accordian and she did some intricate work on the keys. the reigning missouri czech queen had tears in her eyes.

also judged was the oratorial, which i think was a statement of goals and interests. we missed this portion of the pageant because we were in the bar trying to warm up after a cold front blew through. both cara and i came unprepared for cooler weather. we did hear mari introduce her parents and her introduction was by far the best. where the other girls mostly said very emotional thank you's, mari thanked her mom for all her help on the costume and said 'i owe you a kroje' then thanked her dad with 'if it wasn't for you i wouldn't be czech at all'.

mari lost the title to a girl who has competed three years in a row and whose father is also the accordian instructor for all czech youth with a desire to play. so, bah! mari may not have won the crown, but without the advantage of years of experience and grooming she still had the best costume and the most wit (something the outgoing queen was sorely missing. whup whoop.)

bran photos from long haul trucker

the end of bran: shelby to yutan

bran: petersburg to shelby

these cowboys understood how to use a rotating griddle!

this is marvin. i think he's the coolest guy i met on the road last week. we first started talking to him about running marathons, and when cara explained that her bike was new and she was still getting used to it, he told us about his schwinn and how he made minor adjustments to it for years until it was perfect. i'm pretty sure he's been riding that bike for about as long as i've been around! we loved that marvin didn't go for all the 'proper' cycling gear. no clip in shoes or padded shorts. he just got on his bike and rode. cara particularly appreciated this after getting hundreds of comments about riding in flip flops all week. mostly these comments came from middle aged men wearing loud jerseys with fancy shoes clipped into their expensive bikes, men that she passed with ease in her flip flops. anyway, marvin from butte, in his worn out track shoes, stole our hearts.

phil and zoe on the tandem. phil operated one of the aid stations and occasionally got a break to ride with his 7 year old daughter - she put in 40 miles on this day! phil is attempting to run a marathon in every state and he was telling us that sometimes he won't even train before he runs. his wife barb was in our ymca marathon class this year and was also on this ride but left a day early to participate in an adventure race. looks like zoe has a bright future in outdoor sports!

i jumped onto a paceline with the bikemasters guys and rode with them for about 17 miles before i stopped at an aid station to meet up with alex and cara. they were really fast. i don't think i could have kept up that pace much longer. i was glad for the chance to stop!
it's hard to see in the photos, but our camp was set up right next to the cemetary!

i liked this old bianchi with the orange bar wrap parked next to our tent.
the methodist church in shelby had a homemade ice cream and pie social. that was our first stop after showering and setting up our tents. i wanted to try every one of them, but stuck with rhubarb.
the landscape was much more familiar at this stage of the ride. row crops and center pivot irrigation. still beautiful though.

bran: creighton to petersburg

dinner in creighton was unremarkable. at least the food we encountered was. creighton is a relatively larger community and had numerous food options. we picked the wrong one. i was impressed though with the diorama above the bar at jerry's lanes.

the girls softball team spaghetti dinner may have been disappointing, but the french toast breakfast at the country club made up for it. i thought this clock was funny because it said 1987 until cara pointed out that it said that because it's the current legal age to drink. i had no idea i was that old. i think cara and alex look appalled in this picture because we'd just rode over the bumpiest road ever on the way to the country club. our hands went numb in a mere half mile.

we rode about 70 miles on thursday. the actual route was a few miles shorter but we took an accidental detour in royal after visiting the defunct zoo. it was depressing. we walked around the perimeter and a woman who seemed to have the zookeeper role joined us and offered many apologies and excuses for the state of the grounds. we couldn't figure out who in royal can afford to feed all of these leftover animals but we didn't feel it was necessary to ask uncomfortable questions. despite the zoo, royal was a sweet town and of course there was a variety of baked goods for sale at the schoolhouse for us to sample and the coolest old dog to greet us at the door.

we often met the same people over and over at the aid stations. long haul trucker and his son were some of the people we looked forward to seeing. cara and long haul trucker had a connection because of their bikes, and long haul trucker and i had a connection because we both had water bottles from a bike shop in denver where he lives. aron, the son, is a grad student in northern california. he studies mathematic ecology and wants to work in fisheries (another connection). he's also a pretty fast rider and we raced through the ash falls hills. i can't help being a little smug because i was faster. i loved long haul trucker because he stopped frequently to photograph vegetation.

cara got faster every day as she learned to use her bike. i had a good time riding with her on the way out of creighton before the wind picked up. this 67 mile day ended up feeling like a hundred! by the time we arrived at petersburg i was spent. mostly because the last 10 miles of the ride was on a hilly highway with no shoulder and heavy truck traffic. the wind kept pushing us into the road and it was a little terrifying. petersburg was a relief when we finally made it into town and off the road. the encouraging signs along the highway helped lift my spirits and the whole town was decorated with bikes, even the top of the grain elevator!

bran: butte to creighton

after a demoralizing battle with headwinds on tuesday, we decided to get an early start on the 75 mile ride to creighton. early birds get to see larry on the road i guess! this was the only time i ran into him during the whole trip. and he still made it into town before us because we decided to jump off route and hit up verdigre for some poppy seed kolaches. verdigre, the kolache capitol of the world, is a lovely town tucked into the niobrara river valley.


i was mentally preparing myself for another long and tedious ride when we started out with headwinds leaving butte. then amazingly these black and ominous clouds rolled in from the west, the wind turned in one huge gust that pushed me and every other rider i was with all the way across the road and suddenly the wind was at our backs and we were flying! it was so much fun. and we stayed ahead of the storm all day. we made it to creighton four hours earlier than our arrival in butte the day before!
the tailwind tended to bunch the riders up somehow. at the aid stations instead of the typical ten or so people standing around there were closer to fifty. all the bran old-timers kept commenting that they'd never seen it like that. everyone was in high spirits though.