Tim finished our bikes with time to spare. Now it is up to us to tweak them to our satisfaction. Let me just say they are beautiful! Jake and I can't wait to get out there and ride them. This is the best Easter ever! We will get some pictures posted soon. A huge thanks to Tim for being such a great person to work with. The opportunity to sit down and talk to a frame builder prior to having a bike built is incomparable. Tim measured our other mountain bikes, asked what we like and dislike about them. He talked to us about our riding styles and what we want out of our bikes. We have had the opportunity to see the bike go from a sheet of measurements and ideas to a drawing on a CAD-like computer program. The bike slowly came to fruition right before our eyes, piece, by piece. Throughout the inception of our bikes Tim kept us up to date with pictures and continuously asked for input throughout the experience.
I had the opportunity to see the bike go from concept to a work of art. Tim took a lot oftime to make sure we were satisfied with our bikes and to say the least, we are! I highly recommend looking into a small custom frame builder. I have had other "custom" bikes but did not get the same attention to detail as Tim provided. I am looking forward to a great season. Again, THANK YOU TIM!
So! I'll spare you all the details of the 2.5 hour city hall meeting where it was agreed that Columbus needed to adopt a plan for pedestrian and cycling accommodations on streets. It turns out that the group that put together the proposal started in 2004, about a year and a half before i got to Columbus. Even though i wasn't here when the process started i heard quite a bit about it from people i knew that were on the committee. The part that was good for me to sit through was the public hearing part. I actually feel pretty proud to be a person from Columbus today because there was a lot of people there that had considerable issues with the details of the plan and how it would be applied to THEIR front yard. However, it seems to me that it took a very aware city council to determine that it wasn't the Plan that these people were opposing, it was the details and application, which are all subject to change based on timing, funding, location, etc. One of the City Hall members even went so far as to say that when he'd lived other places that had accommodations like these, their property values went up and it improved their quality of life. This i was pleased to hear, and if i'd have been a good enough orator i would have stood up, and explained that i live in the city of Columbus, and i work in an annexed portion of Columbus about 5 mile south of town and that it should be the goal of this plan to provide people like me the facilities to get everywhere i need on my bike, including the place i work. Also bringing up, and sprinkling in to my speech about all the improvements of lifestyle, and well being of all tax payers. Either way it passed and has another hearing in about a month on April 6th. Thanks, Jake
I think this bike is awesome. It speaks to me. The frame, fork, fenders, and frame pump are all matching paint scene. it looks to be a night time scene through rocks and forests. I think it represents something similar to what i find myself riding through so many times before. Night rides when you feel like your all by yourself. I remember one such ride about a year ago when i found myself hit by a bug in the face, the first time that had happened in at least 5 months after a long winter, and i look forward to a similar ride to that this year in a couple weeks. You can check it out for yourself at a NAHBS near you!!
The knee deep snow slowed our progress as we trudged toward the Great wall. The faint glimmer of lights reflected off the landscape as we thought of our imminent goal. All the hype was well worth the 2 miles of hiking. Well.... It is something to do in Columbus, when there is too much snow on the roads to ride. We have certainly met our hiking quota for the winter.
Amanda and i went up to the CIBA swap meet and stopped by Tim's on the way back. We were able to check out Amanda's completed (sans paint) frame AND he had ALL his bikes for the show there and pretty much built up. Leave it to my camera to run out of batteries. See below.
Check out this Stainless steel head set. No cartage bearings here. All Stainless, super low profile. In addition check out the polished lugs and homegrown stem to match. Very nice.
Here's Amanda with her in process frame. Just some finish work left and they will all get painted at the same time (john, amanda's and mine)
We went on a night hike at BCSP last night. it was pretty awesome, we hiked about 4-5 miles and i was especially glad to see Michelle (John's wife) as it seems like she is so busy nursing and lawing that i just don't think she has any recreating time. check out the pic below i took. it was very nice out. i only wish we would have all had a little more time to come back to the place for beers.
Tonight, my Uncle and Cousins came by the place on their way from the Agriculture equipment show down in Louisville. They say they go every year. But this is the first time they have called me to meet for dinner on the way through??? not sure what gives. Anyway, they said they saw it all Versatile, Johndeere, everything. Good to hear.
“The first time I got bugs from someone and it was a Good thing” -Amanda McKay
Jake’s Mom has lost a lot of weight and looks fabulous as a result of changing her diet and activity level. She uses 24 hour fitness and the body bugg ™ system to keep an accurate account of her caloric intake versus expenditure. In my opinion the best way to lose weight and keep it off, through incremental changes and dedication. J
She won an extra body bugg ™ and she gave it to me to use in order to keep track of my calorie/exercise ratio. This has inspired me to make changes of my own.
A brief history of my weight gain/loss experiences…
“I wish I was fat instead of skinny” I said out loud after a couple of guys taunted me because of my rail-thin body and “flat chest” to quote them. I was always a foot shorter than the rest of my class and weighed less than most birds. I always thought it must be easier to be heavier, especially since they were the ones that were always threatening to beat me up. I mean look at all the confidence it gave them, picking on the smallest girl in school.
My lean body mass and high activity level (Chasing horses around) led to amenorrhea, which prompted my doctors to put me on birth control. This led to the departure of my former boy-like physique and the arrival of a much curvier and heavier person. I gained twenty-five pounds overnight, most of the weight cleaving to my hips and chest.
I was also the girl that was deviating towards chunky. It took a good year to notice I had a bit of muffin top going on and my jeans were too tight for my new body. I was getting what I thought I wanted, to be the “heavy” girl. I was actively pursuing mountain biking but the extra weight was not helping me be a stronger climber.
I decided at once that I wanted to be a professional mountain biker and I was willing to work hard to achieve that goal. I got off birth control and started running, cycling and swimming most days. I was a sophomore in college at Northern Kentucky University, so I had a great pool to work out in and a fast boyfriend to chase around on the trails.
It took about eighteen months to get down to the sinewy person you all may know today.
This leads to something more serious…
I went to the doctor last summer and was infuriated at the fact that he suggested I look up the definition of “Female Athlete Triad”. I was so angry because I figured if I walked in there as a male claiming to be an elite bike racer he would not make such a suggestion.
I did my research stood tall and proceeded to lay out the frame-work for why I was not a candidate.
The female athlete triad is composed of disordered eating, menstrual irregularity and bone loss. This commonly affects gymnasts, ice skaters and some long distance runners.
It took me another couple of months thinking about it before I realized that the doctor may be right. In short, I don’t eat enough to compensate for my activity level. As many cyclists know, eating can be a chore at times of peak training hours.
The body bugg is helping me understand the severity of my calorie deficit. Thanks to Jake’s Mom I am finding out that I am living in a perpetual calorie deficit.
I am maintaining a weight between 98-103 pounds, as I have the past six years or so, but I am not sure how. I guess there is some truth to the “set-point theory”. It was originally developed in 1982 (like me) by Bennett and Gurin. It explains the natural tendency of a body to assimilate to a certain shape.
To be a stronger and better cyclists we have to train efficiently but also eat the correct amount of food. I have a feeling that preparing my body for training and racing by fueling correctly will pay dividends when the race season starts. That is the goal at least.
Jake and I decided to hike at Brown County because it is our off week and it was really cold!
Amanda gave a good update of our Superbowl weekend above, i thought I'd add some more. I was able to finish my taxes this weekend! Pretty awesome. It took me about 2 hours, a real pain, but now it's done. We played in the snow quite a bit with a bike ride yesterday with the team and a hike today. I'll probably try to get out tomorrow on the xc skis for a little bit. (I'm not very good) We walked around BCSP to look at the progress that Alex is making on the new trails there and took some tea and chocolate and ended up eating almost two candy bars of dark chocolate between the two of us, which tells me we probably needed the calories :). The trails look good and it looks like it could possibly add several miles which i think is really needed. (the more the better) We came home from the park and fixed up some steaks that we purchased from Don, a local farmer, and depending on the cut of the rest of the batch we purchased, might go back for a half or 1/4 more of beef. You can see how much of our day dealt with the Superbowl. OK, I'm out, probably go watch a movie or something.
So, we had our first official team Shamrock Cycles ride and "Mardi Gras Celebration." The trails were coated with a nice 4+ inches of snow adding to the difficulty level of the Pine Loop and North Tower Connector trail.
I forgot my food and water, so was feeling pretty famished 1.5 hours in. we rode about 2 hours and 15 minutes before we decided it was time to call it a day. The wives Janet and Michele trail-ran while we rode... slowly if you were me. I may be the slowest snow-rider in the world. It was great to get together despite the conditions and I was happy that the soups I made weren't too spicy for everyone. I can't wait until we can all get together again!
We had a hard time getting the camera to take our picture. I am not sure why Will is pointing at Tim's butt?
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