Late February

I had the good fortune to be accepted into a study abroad program in college. It was more than twenty years ago, and through some miracle I found myself in Ireland, England, Scotland and then turned loose upon the European continent for six weeks. Having had the opportunity to see Germany and Ireland, Scotland and France, I now wonder more at the capacity to diminish travel accessories than the panacea of architecture, art and culinary experiences I missed out on.

I brought a portable CD player that only worked on level ground, needed two AA batteries for three hours of music and a carrying case with 40 compact discs, and if traveling with a few books was not enough, I bought more books from a Parisian bookstore called Gibert Jeune and carried them home to gather dust on a bookshelf for twenty years. Last summer I finally got around to reading one of them, and let me tell you Leo Tolstoy had it right, "We can know only that we know nothing..." but you can skip everything but the last fifty pages and it still makes sense.

I don't do a lot of fishing in the winter, and while I initially made efforts to ride my bicycle as frequently as possible, my winter cycling is woefully thin compared to many, many regular cyclists commuting throughout the winter in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. What I have noticed from previous mileage is the tendency for roadways to become narrower as the snow accumulates along the peripheries. Bicycle trails are well maintained however, so negotiating debris fields along certain stretches of roadway between moving traffic and parked cars seems unnecessary by comparison.

Last year's total mileage was about a third of where I was four years ago, I appreciate the fancy Velo Viewer infograph telling me I climbed Mount Everest once, but it is not as comforting as not having foot pain. As such I spend more time riding Metro Transit buses and trains, watching the consistent diaspora of bicycle styles between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. On the same day a casual observer will see skinny-tired steel frame single speed fixies with leather strapped pedals being ridden through the same snow, slush and ice as a person on a carbon fat bike with monolithic tires set to 9 psi. The benefit of there being ample snow means the cross country ski trails are more usable, where it is more likely to see a fat biker negotiating single track mountain bike trails than a rebuilt single speed.

Speaking of ample snow, it just snowed again and it sounds like it will snow some more before March. By April it might still be around, but hopefully the transition between road tires and studded tires will not include too many instances of the former on ice or the latter on asphalt. 

Early season skiing on man-made snow, Minneapolis . Photo by Michael McKinney

Finding the bike lane, Minneapolis. Photo by Michael McKinney

Art Shanty Projects on Lake Harriet, Minneapolis. Photo by Michael McKinney

2017 Velo Viewer Infograph, Michael McKinney

December Sunset, Saint Paul. Photo by Michael McKinney

Skiers racing along Nicollet Mall, February 2018. Photo by Michael McKinney

After finishing War and Peace around Mid-Summer, the remainder of my Goodreads Reading Challenge was mostly non-fiction books, with a couple of Tom Clancy and John Grisham books in there too.

 

Michael's 2017-reading-challenge book montage

Michael's favorite books »

Tight lines.

Dig in and growl.

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

Photo by Michael McKinney

"...and every time you drive that ski forward in the track, you launch yourself out onto it, gliding until you compress your weight down on that kick zone, push that ski flat and kick out onto the next ski, driving that one parallel and gliding until you compress and kick that ski...like tiger claws, gripping into the snow and pulling you down the track...just think of tigers claws...gripping...kicking..."
- Jake Moody

Imagine a math teacher, standing in front of a ski team, raking his fingers through the air, climbing an invisible ladder to describe the physical act of compressing a Petex ski on snow and ice, utilizing a special soft wax for grip, and creating forward propulsion out of that glide, compression and kick - if you do it wrong, you slip, fall down and no matter how many times you re-wax those plastic bases, your ski will always be too slippery to gain any traction. 

I think about that speech every year when the snow and ice become omnipresent - a person can not get through their day without at least once slowing their gait, gingerly weighting their steps and re-balancing their progression on a sidewalk, a driveway or a parking lot.  On a bicycle, it is dangerous to whisk over those patches on road tires.  I've used cyclocross tires the past couple of years, riding occasionally through the winter, but always dreading the next patch of hard packed snow and ice, or just glare ice, waiting for my knobby tires.

Suomi Tyres are made in Finland, and I bought a pair with my Felt F75X, back in January of this year.  They work.  They work so well I'd like to gush about them.  Done...they're just that effective.

I completed another pottery course, and held my first official showing, with fantastic sales to friends and family - for Thanksgiving, I made some bread and tried making Belgian brownies, which had a lot of flour and were too long in the oven...they wound up closer to a bitter truffle than a scrumptious brownie,  Oh well. 

I am currently reading A Civil Action, about a TCE water contamination case in Woburn, MA, made into a movie starring John Travolta.  Lots of legal proceedings, broke lawyers driving Porsches with multiple credit card debts, bankruptcies and Leukemia. 

I did capture a few decent pictures the past week, and posted them on a couple social media feeds.  I hope not having them "daisy chained" is less frustrating for anybody interested in reading this blog and seeing the photos as dealing with another hacked account would be for me. 

Tight lines, Rubber side down, Ciao, Take care, Peace love and happiness, happy holidays.

(Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you.)

Kinetic Linkage

I bought a Garmin Forerunner 210 in July, and have been making a consistent effort to record and track my rides on Garmin's website, Strava and MapMyRide for the past three or four months.  I selected Friday's ride into Minneapolis, a Thirty-Three mile ride along the Greenway, Cedar Trail and River Road then back to St. Paul.  There was a decent southern wind and rollerskiers were out in abundance. 
The GarminConnect, Strava and MapMyRide blog widgets allow me to post a coded link with a map and some information about the ride, as I have done here, but I'd rather be out riding.  The blog widgets will indubitably be garbled and messy, impossible to discern from somebody else's information and basically a waste of time. 
When I purchased my Felt F75X, I also bought a pair of studded winter tires from Finland.  Bring on the cold.

                    Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide
               

Footnote - this is a fantastic read.

It's All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels by Robert Penn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What can you say about a guy from Wales who rode around the world because an Irish woman inspired him?  foolish?  Naive?  Soft hearted sentimentalist? I am sure somebody has already had their say about Robert Penn's private devices, his proclamatory penchant for his own garage, his mountainous ascents, the people he hob knobs with, his own rough scrapes flying down nepalese gravel roads...it all sounds so free spirited and liberalizing a reader might be sidled with grief for their own lack of experience. 
As a journalist approaches a story though, Penn forgoes his own (admittedly infrequent, compared to an average Strava user's twitter feed) philandering, and adopts a humble, awed perspective, as if he were holding the museum curators hand after wandering into the lecture hall after closing time.  As a cyclist and as a journalist, he wants to know the long history of each component: the chain, the seat, the handlebars, the derailleur, the frame and does each piece of engineering the justice it deserves.  As a cyclist himself, Penn comes across as an individualist and nearly peerless - his attitude seems appropriate for the characters he encounters while building himself what amounts to a white elephant.
The vast majority of people who ride a bicycle would never have recourse to something like Penn's investment, but any of them could take it out for a spin. Perhaps that's what Penn would want to know he had expressed in his memoir - dream bike or not, if it's got two wheels, a drivetrain, a seat, handlebars and a sturdy frame, it'll roll.



View all my reviews

2103 American Birkebeiner

American Birkebeiner, 2-23-2013

This past week-end I raced in my tenth American Birkebeiner.  That's ten times over the power line hills, ten times past the snowmobilers corner, ten times into the heart of the Chequamegon woods with thousands of other skiers.  I've been kicking around some ideas about how to write this post, because it seems redundant and a bit aggrandizing.

I'd like to just say thank you to my big sister and her friend for granting me the opportunity to participate again.

Here's a photo of me after the race, with a beer and a brät from Angler's Bar in Hayward.  Not really a tradition for me, (I absolutely gorged on fried chicken from Marketplace in 2005, the first time I broke three hours), but you get the idea, if you need one, of what it felt like to have accomplished another full Birkie.

Maybe I'll add some more thoughts on it later on...

Swing State, part 2

Riding to Wirth, Feb. 3 2013.  Photo property of Steve Kovtis.

Last week I rode out to my hometown of Stillwater and back, about a fifty mile ride, using my single speed mountain bike.  I had the wind at my back heading NorthEast, and cycled into a pretty direct, cold headwind on my return.  Half of the ride was recorded on Strava, using my iphone app, and I took a picture about two thirds of the way out - there was a solid half hour difference in having a tailwind versus a headwind.




This past weekend, I spent some time riding into Minneapolis to volunteer for the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation, as well as again racing in their annual cornerstone event, the City of Lakes Loppet.  I see other cyclists every time I am riding, be it on a solo shot to Stillwater and back or along the Greenway corridor in Minneapolis - not all on modified mountain bikes or single speed fixies.

Here are a couple of photos from the Loppet weekend, as well as a link to my Flickr set.  Enjoy.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlmck/sets/72157632685148733/

Hoigaards Classic, Feb 3, 2013.  Photo courtesy of skinnyski.com

Gateway Trail, 1-25-2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Ski Orienteering, Feb 2, 2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney

Snow Sculpting, Feb. 2, 2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Skijoring race, Feb. 2, 2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

Ice Bike races, Feb. 2, 2013.  Photo by Michael McKinney.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlmck/sets/72157632685148733/

Finally, I sold my Schwinn steel frame Worldsport yesterday, that had caused me trouble in the past, (4-23-2012).  A really good piece of advice, about selling one's own property; "Don't sell your bike, your books or your tools."  As I've had trouble learning the trade of salesmanship, both on the floor of a retail shop and on the interent with E-Bay, it makes a lot of sense to me.  Hopefully the time that went into the maintenance of the bike will have its own rewards, as I have to wait a month for the bike's identity to be verified with the police before receiving any profits from the sale.

Climb for a Cure and City of Lakes Loppet

At the City of Lakes Loppet, 2012, Photo Credit Michael McKinney

IDS Stair Climb, 2008

Photo Credit skinnyski.com

IDS Stair Climb, 2012

Photo Credit Matt McKinney

This past week-end I participated in the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's Climb for the Cure stair climb at the IDS Building in Minneapolis - there are three divisions for the event, a competitive, timed, stair climb; a public service and fitness club challenge and the non-timed recreational stair climb...but you can time yourself if that's your cup of tea.  The group I climb with has now raised money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012, and we have a good time doing it.  This year we achieved our fundraising goals, and I contributed with donations from friends and family.  The Climb for A Cure has been the day before the City of Lakes Loppet Nordic Ski Race, a 35 Kilometer Freestyle race, (there's a bunch of other events too), through the heart of Minneapolis, starting in Theodore Wirth Park - the race is also a part of the Hoigaards Challenge Series, which includes a Triathalon and a Half Marathon. 
I included some photos from this year's events and past years as well - my Descente ski suit has not been out of the closet since 1992.  It's a 1988 vintage US National Team racing suit, back when corporate sponsors were allowed for amateur athletes...that's why the word "seagrams" is written across the right bicep, in scrolling italic font.  Don't get me wrong here, nobody is coming out of the closet, nobody is endorsing seagrams and I certainly was never a part of any US National Team.  It's a lot more complicated than that.  My neighbor was an Olympian.  In 1988, I mowed his lawn.  He paid me with a Descente US National Ski Team Racing Suit, circa 1988.  I have a friend with a very strong Italian heritage...he one upped me by getting an Italian National Team Suit, circa 1992.  Still makes me laugh. 
I timed myself, for fun, on the IDS Stair Climb this year...without breaking much of a sweat, at 9:53...I talked to another participant who was aiming to break the 10 barrier...that's 10 x 1280 steps, more than 500 floors, over a vertical mile.  Whoa.  At the Loppet 17 Kilometer Freestyle race, my time was 50 minutes and change.  Conditions were not optimal.  There is a lot more that could be said about why the Loppet was only 17 Kilometers this year, but if you're anywhere near Minnesota and reading this, I'd be preaching to the choir.
It may have gone without saying, but just to be sure, I did ride my bicycle to Wirth park on Saturday and Sunday of the Loppet week-end - on Saturday to pick up my race materials and on Sunday to race...here's the Sunday map.  I think the Stupor Bowl was on Saturday, but I didn't notice.
 



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