Twin Cities Spoke of the IC3

of the International Christian Cycling Club

THE TWIN CITIES SPOKE

cycling. fellowship. fun.

Tim's Blog

Godincidence

Merriam Webster defines coincidence as:

"the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection"

Since I have a hard time wrapping my head around what an "accident" actually is, I prefer the term God-incidence -- which I define as:

"the occurrence of events that happen at the same time because God is orchestrating the situation and there IS a connection"

Yesterday was a pretty bad day. I hadn't slept at all Wednesday night due to too much mental activity -- I had some issue I needed to work through. Then, I spent the entire day working on a new issue at work that should have taken ten minutes, but consumed my whole day. I was pretty frustrated and was questioning a lot of things in my life -- one of which was "Do I really have the time, patience and passion to be on the Executive Board of the IC3, or was that just a bad idea?" As the end of the day rolled around, I decided to throw away all of the work I had done that day and start fresh tomorrow. I got my IC3 kit on and started walking out to my bike, when a voice behind me says:

"Hey, is that real? I mean, your jacket?"

I turned around and replied "Are you talking to me?"

"Yeah, your jacket says 'Christian Cycling', what is that about?"

I started telling him a little about the club. And the more I told, the more he got excited and the more I got excited and the more he got excited and so on. It turns out, the gentleman was Waihon Liew, Director of Cross Cultural Outreach for the Harbor Church. He has a group of foreign-exchange students on the U of M campus that he mentors in faith and he, and his fiance, were just leaving a group. After I told him about my ministry, he told me about his -- and we talked about how cool it would be to work together on a project or ride or something.

Suddenly, I felt full of purpose and my ride home was a joy and a blessing -- even though it rained on me [twice]. It was no accident that I happened to be wearing my IC3 kit. It was no accident that Waihon and I were both walking that street at the same time. It was no accident that Waihon noticed me. It was all part of God's plan -- and I can't wait to see what else God has in store for me, the club and the budding relationship with my new friend.

Ridin' the Rivet: Back in the [indoor] saddle

I think I rode once indoors in October. Maybe it was even September. Anyway, since I got my new Salsa Fargo I have not spent any time on my road bike -- outside on the road or indoors on trainer. None. Until today. After months of hauling around my nearly 30 pound winter rig [with studs], I audibly gasped in shock when I lifted the ROL bike onto the trainer. Seriously, there is nothing to a road bike after a few months on a fat tired monster. And the spin! Oh, man, it spun up so smooth and quick.

After a few minutes on the trainer I could tell my riding has changed -- and needs some work. For one thing, I was easily pushing a 16mph ave [~165W or 1.93w/k], which may be considered "untrained" on some websites, but I don't think is too bad since it was my first time "training" in a while. But it only lasted about 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I was not spent -- actually, I was really comfortable [even at the end]. The thing that ended my ride was that I didn't have a fan hooked up and was over-heating. After a few months of working to keep from freezing while riding outdoors, it was easy to forget that indoors you need to work to stay cool. The other thing that got me was the bordem. I had forgotten how bad the mental games are on a trainer and that is something I will need to work on if I am to have a decent season this year.

Let's see. All I need to do now is to reduce my weight by 10% [to 180] and increase my 20 minute average 25% [up to 20mph] and I will be at a Cat4 comfortable 3.21w/k. Ummm...easy [right?]

Anyway, lesson learned.

Ridin' the Rivet: The Prototype

One of the perks of dealing with sponsors all of the time is sniffing out some great offers. One presented itself to me about a month ago when Sean from ROL offered me one of his "prototype" ROL Racing road bike frames at a "can't pass it up" price. About three years ago, Sean was considering expanding from being a wheel maker into offering frames as well, so he had some prototypes made, and they were awesome. But, the risk and investment were too great to go ahead with his plan, so this prototype has been sitting in his garage ever since.

Well, today Jer finished swapping the components from my old aluminum frame to the new ROL carbon frame and it is utterly breath-taking. In addition to having the bike ready to ROL, I received my ROL Wheels jersey and bibs in the mail, so it now looks like I am a completely sponsored rider since the kit matches my bike which matches my wheels, etc. [Now if I only rode as PRO as I look . . .]

Ridin' the Rivet: Season done.

Well, at least my attempt at getting in a few races this year is done. I went to see the doc yesterday and it was confirmed that I have an infection that should keep me off of the bike for a couple of weeks [at least] to allow it to heal properly. That means I can not ride with Robbie for TnT next week [he has decided to wait until next year to start his assault on TnT], no more Wednesday night rides for a while, no more Saturday rides, no Tour de Tonka Aug 6, no Kermesse on Aug7, no State Championship Aug 14, and no time to train for the Flambeau Forty Labor Day weekend.

I hope to get out and do some late summer and fall riding in, but I will not be back in time to get into shape for any races. Thus, when I get back on the bike it will be looking to the 2012 race season.

See you all on the road [sometime].

Tim

Ridin' the Rivet: New opportunity

To go along with my new training plan, I now have a new place of employment and many new challenges at work. My new position will be Business Analyst / Programmer at Exlar [http://exlar.com/] in Chanhassen -- right by Dell and Hwy 5 -- so it is a perfect commute by bike distance all year around.

Start date is set for Aug 1.

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