But a lot has happened to me over the past decade, and since I’m feeling a bit put out by other things in life right now, I figured it would be worth a trip back through time to see where I’ve been and what I’ve done, just as a reminder.

• Settled into DC (2003)
• Settled into Georgetown U. (2003)
• Helped two presidential campaigns (2003-04)
• Run for political office – and won (2004)
• Traveled to England and Wales (2005)
• Traveled to Austria and Germany with my mom (2007)
• Rode up Mount Shasta (2008)
• Ski trips to Colorado (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011)
• Cut off my long hair (2008)
• Traveled to France (2008)
• Rode from Boston to Windsor for a beer (2009)
• Testified in front of City Council (2009, 2011)
• Traveled to Iceland (2011)
• Chaired my favorite bike club, Potomac Pedalers (2011)
• Traveled to Louisiana (2012)
• Groomsman in two weddings (2005, 2013)
• Many concerts: Simon & Garfunkel, U2, Thomas Dolby, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Brian Wilson, Eric Clapton, Roger Waters, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Paul Simon (solo), Pink Martini, The Beach Boys, Retro Stefson, Erin McKeown, Nellie McKay, Sloan, The Pipettes, Polyphonic Spree, Elvis Costello, and many, many more
• Seeing awesome plays written by my friend, Michael
• Excellent beers, including the rebirth of brewing in DC
• Birthdays, holidays, picnics, and other random occasions hanging out with friends

So a lot of things – a lot of great things – have happened over the past decade. Yes, there have been setbacks and sadness, but the good has outweighed the bad, all in all.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

my 30s: a look back

Firstly, this trip has been the pits. Lots of arguments with my mom, a lot of bruised egos. Yes, there have been positive moments, but for the remainder of the trip I’m biting my tongue so I don’t fan the flames that ignite when we argue. Our personalities are similar, and right now, she has a hard time separating the adult I am from the child she raised.

Work I’ve wanted (and needed) to do? Only partially done. Nerves? Frayed. Patience? Gone, just gone.

Otherwise…

I rode last weekend, but it wasn’t great. On Saturday, I crashed 2.5 miles into my afternoon training ride, which caused a great deal of road rash on my left side, some deep contusions in my pectoral and iliac crest regions, and gave my weak shoulder a really painful whack.

It also broke my saddle and tore up my brake lever hoods, which are things that can be repaired (and I was due for a new saddle, in all fairness), but are a drag, all the same.

My friends rode a flat-to-rolling metric century with me the next day (I’m stubborn – what can I say?), and that was good riding, if not good training for the upcoming Mountains of Misery event. I was sore, but the ride was good for allowing me to keep moving – and luckily my backup bike (the Jamis) was ready to go.

Wednesday evening had me ride the “Downtown Breakaway,” and I was definitely slower than normal, with less punch up the short, steep hills we ride. I stopped to help a rider who broke a spoke, which had me riding a bit behind the group with Mark. It was great riding, from a social sense, but wasn’t the best training for me.

And now I’m in Utah. I took off Tuesday (redeye flight back to DC tonight), hoping to get in a ride on Skyline Drive in the afternoon. The only problem? It’s going to rain all day, and Skyline Drive isn’t fun (or, frankly, that safe) in the rain. So I’m resigned to some bike maintenance and… well, some kind of workout to keep me moving (and no, I don’t ride an indoor trainer – a task I find somewhat pointless and non-motivating).

So I will ride this coming weekend, weather permitting (and possibly in spite of the weather if there are scattered showers). None of the official Pedalers rides sound that inviting, so I’ll need to figure out what to do.

Do I sound crabby? I am crabby. I can’t help it, as this trip has made me very, very frustrated with almost every aspect of my life.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

foiled and frustrated

I didn’t ride much in March, thanks to the Utah trip taking up the lion’s share of the month. Not counting last year’s ski injury, this was one of the lowest March mileage totals I’ve ever managed: 114.8 miles. The first weekend in March was spent up north, where I skied – and that was a blast. On March 9th, I rode a very hilly route in northern Maryland, not realizing that I was coming down with a nasty sinus infection at the time:

I rode once while there, which was a treat: from downtown Salt Lake City, up Emigration Canyon, and partway (at least until the snow blocked the road) up East Canyon. This was a typical training ride for me in my teenage, ski racing years, and it was fun to revisit it, even on a (well-fitted) rental bike (thanks to Salt Lake City Bicycle Company for the rental):

Otherwise, I did a lot of manual labor, endured a lot of stress, and had a bout of food poisoning (ick), the combination of which helped me shed 8.5 pounds. My cycling got a bit rusty, as I found out on my first long rides after my return to DC.

Luckily, the first of these rides was with friends who took it fairly easy on me. We headed out to Antietam Battlefield, then north to explore some dirt roads in the Catoctins:

I’m glad I went on a gentle recovery spin in Rock Creek Park the next day, just to flush the lactate out of my legs.

The hills on this ride had me in fits, but I got the hang of things, by the by, especially on the flatter terrain. And that’s good, because the next weekend had me co-leading a Potomac Pedalers ride over three classic Virginia climbs: Naked Mountain, Mt. Weather, and Blue Mountain:

In all of these climbing rides, I was “climbing my own climb,” so to speak: riding a pace that was self-dictated, not chasing any of the “rabbits” in the group, and trying to keep good form. I rode well below my maximum output, which kept me fresh through the end. The next day’s flatter recovery ride, out of Riley’s Lock and around the flank of Sugarloaf Mountain, found my legs relatively fresh and my form fairly decent:

That all leads to this past weekend’s chilly-yet-beautiful ride from Thurmont into Pennsylvania, through a forest and amongst the fruit farms of Carroll Valley:

This was a really fun ride: scenic, with great friends, and one that found my climbing legs really coming into form.

And lest I forget, April brought back the “Downtown Breakaway” rides, a Wednesday night Pedalers affair that takes in side roads and less-well-known routes out to the near Maryland ‘burbs and back. We’ve had four of them, thus far (1, 2, 3, 4), and while they have all been great (we have a lot more riders this year than in past years), I always love riding through the cherry blossoms of Kenwood, Maryland:

I’ve just changed out my cassette on my main bike with a wider-range unit, as there are some big climbs coming up in the next few weeks (and a weekend trip to Utah to visit my mom).

Thus far, in April, I’ve logged 542 miles on my bikes, bringing me to 1458.6 miles to date in 2013. I’m well ahead of my usual pace, and I still have a lot more strength to find – can’t complain about that.

So I guess you can say I still love the bike (even if the bike industry doesn’t always seem to feel the same way at the same time). These wheels do, indeed, keep spinning around…

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

these wheels keep spinning around…

It was numbing. It made me angry. That any person or people would have such disregard for humanity, for joy, for happiness – it’s simply impossible to comprehend. Whatever message was trying to be sent, it was lost on me and on countless others.

The people of Boston are a tough crowd. In many respects, I see them as tougher than New Yorkers: slightly more resilient, less bombastic and more “dig in, we’re movin’ on.”

I leave it to songs to express the feelings of hope, healing, and promise I wish for the people of Boston, the friends and families of the Boston Marathon runners, staff, and volunteers, and the innocent people who were simply trying to enjoy Patriots’ Day, the race, and their lives.

“Bridge Over Troubled Water”

“The Boxer”

“Here Comes The Sun”

We share precious little space on this insignificant rock that tumbles through dark space. Peace and understanding – that’s the ticket.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

peace, love & understanding

Yes, my recent rides have shown decent performance, with strong climbing. But things feel a bit off, not crisp. The endurance is there, but the smooth pedal stroke and climbing spin isn’t what I feel it should be.

I’ll miss one of the build-up weekends into my first big event ride (the weekend being May 4-6, the event being Mountains of Misery over Memorial Day weekend) to check up on my mom’s healing progress. That’s part of life, and it must happen – family comes first, after all.

But I feel that I’m missing prep time.

Am I being a bit critical? Perhaps.

Is this petty whinging? Maybe.

I have set goals that may not be met – at least not in the timeframe I had originally plotted. I’m reworking my training plan accordingly. Will everything turn out as hoped? It’s hard to say. I’ve had to deal with worse, that’s for sure. My training plan is fairly aggressive, and it could work brilliantly – or prove to be too much to chew.

This weekend will feature some good training rides. I need to make sure I ride my own pace on these. Some of my riding friends are far stronger these days and will push the pace. I shouldn’t take the bait. We’ll see what transpires, as I always like the challenge of the “rabbits.” But I have a training plan that works for me, so…

We’ll see. Right now, I’m simply building back up to speed. And if there’s any consolation, the riding is good for my mental health – a positive side-effect.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

building it back up

Life is full of challenges. Some of them are planned, others not so much. When the two sides collide, it takes a lot of energy to keep up, stay sane, and be the least bit functional. My recent trip west was one of these “collision course” kinds of trips. I was going non-stop for weeks, trying to take care of multiple things while maintaining focus.

Needless to say, it took a lot out of me – as dealing with family matters always does. I’m no master of these things, especially when the challenges are ones that pop up without warning. There is no owner’s manual for dealing with family matters, no matter how big or small.

I feel like I aged ten years in the span of three weeks. At least, in getting a haircut, I’ve been able to knock some of the visual age from my appearance. But the emotional aging is very much intact.

But I soldier on, perhaps a bit weary, but otherwise unscathed.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

recovery

Last weekend, I rode the earliest century I’ve ever done, from Georgetown to Sugarloaf Mountain and back. I rode with a group of local cycling friends, and we took it easy due to the fact that it was February and we didn’t want to do any harm to our training. Furthermore, a strong, steady wind from the WNW also made the outbound stretch a bit of a slog. I tried to route the group out of the wind as much as possible, but it’s winter, the trees lack foliage, and, well, wind is wind.

The wind was a nice perk on the return leg, when fitness truly came into play. My route backloaded some steep hills toward the end of the ride, which was tough, but everybody made it back safely.

March will have fewer miles than February (which had 373, for the record), as I’ll be in Utah for at least two weeks attending to family affairs. I’ll get some rides in out there, but they will be less frequent and likely a bit shorter, though not devoid of hills (bless the Wasatch).

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

cycling update: february wrap-up

I’m thankful for that, because this work week has been dreadful.

All I can say is that I’m glad my new headphones (some extremely brightly colored Urban Beats that I bought last week at TJ Maxx) have excellent sound isolation, because the din of my office has been loud, negative in tone, and (for my co-workers, at least) quite counterproductive. Yes, there were some dramatic developments at my office, but that happens in all offices at some point – I’ve seen it before. I have my job to do, and the noise doesn’t help, so the headphones are a godsend.

That said, I’m looking forward to the weekend. There are plenty of things to do around the house (including trying to find room for another much-needed chest of drawers), and tomorrow’s predicted rainy weather will be conducive to that. On Sunday, I’ll ride the bike, and hopefully will be able to catch three great bands from Iceland down at Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. I may watch some (or all) of the Oscars (I’ve seen all five of the “Best Animated Feature” nominees, and four of the nine “Best Picture” nominees).

Above all, I’ll recharge. Recharging is good.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

frying the day

-=-=-=-=-=-

En route to my “Coffee” control in the 2013 Errandonnée, I had a less-than-excellent interaction with another motorist. He had been boxed out of his lane on Massachusetts Avenue NW, impeded by a taxi that had decided to idle along the curb.

The motorist – a construction worker driving a white van with Maryland tags – tried to pull out in front of me im my lane, not signaling his lane change, simply barging into my lane. I let out a little toot of my horn to let him know that, without a signal, I had no idea of his intent, and wanted him to know that any additional movement of his van would result in a collision.

The horn set this guy off. He rolled down his window and started to unleash a series of F-bombs my way. I tried to wave him off with a small smile, but he was full of steam. I then rolled down my window, and mentioned that a turn signal would have diffused this entire situation.

The result? More F-bombs.

He unleashed a total of 19 – I counted – and I once again, without unleashing a single expletive, mentioned that the turn signal was a courteous thing to do when changing lanes (as well as the legal thing to do). He got out of his van and stood in the path of my car – not a huge deal, as the traffic was heavy and the signals were slow to change, but still not a reassuring position. I asked him to let it go, as we both had places to be.

Then he let forth words that I remember verbatim: “I’m going to fucking murder all you cyclists.”

Charming. And scary. I tweeted out a preemptive apology to other cyclists (my bike was on the roof of the car, as I was headed to Bowie to meet a friend for my “Coffee” ride). Simply having my bike with me (atop the car) made me “the enemy,” which is frightening. This man’s vocabulary was very limited, and I understand that he was not in a great mood (nor was I after my interaction with him). But his reaction shows me that cyclists are still personae non grata to quite a few people on the road.

-=-=-=-=-=-

A cyclist crashed into me on the way home the other night. It was dark, and I had my full complement of lights, rode legally in my lane, signaling all turns and stops, stopping at intersections, engaging positively with other road users (mostly drivers).

The other guy was riding on and off the sidewalk, earbuds planted firmly in his ears, darting around cars by switching lanes, and running all stop signs, all without any lights or reflectors on his vintage 1970-something road bike. The rider was in his mid to late 20s, by my estimate. We had made brief eye contact a few minutes earlier, at 32nd Street and R Streets NW.

As I turned left onto Q Street NW from 28th Street, having stopped at the intersection, waiting for other cars to take their turns. As I rounded the turn, this other cyclist passed to my left, blowing through the stop sign, and clipping my rear wheel. He ran headlong into a parked car.

I stopped to see that he was OK. He’d been bruised, and was angry at me for not noticing him. I proceded to tell him that he was in the wrong in many ways (running stop signs, wearing earbuds, riding in the wrong lane, no lights at night), and the he really should be more careful if he wants to live to see his 30th birthday (OK, I wasn’t that harsh, but I did get him a stern reprimand for being a dumb ass).

Note I haven’t mentioned the fact that, landing head first, he wasn’t wearing a helmet. It took him a minute or two to get his bearings.

The plus: a pedestrian commended me for riding by the letter of the law. I mentioned that it works well in building cyclist relations in a part of town where folks treasure their precious, expensive cars.

-=-=-=-=-=-

OK, this has been a downer, thus far, so let’s look at a positive.

sprite decided to test all of the “fairy lights” (i.e. Christmas lights) we had in The Burrow, and she found that a very long strand that we had written off were, in fact, quite intact. I strung them up around the perimeter of our living room, and the glow is a nice, warm, pink blanket over the room. Hooray!

Sure, there were other things that went on this week, but these were the most notable, and the ones that I felt like writing about.

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

moving right along

Fortunately, I found the perfect solution: do a lunch run to Whole Foods, book in hand, and pick up some post-work provisions at the same time. It is an elegant – and efficient – solution to this particular problem.

Riding up 37th Street NW toward Glover Park:

Welcome to Glover Park:

A favorite bit of street art on Hall Place NW:

Parked at the bike rack at Whole Foods in Glover Park, next to the rain barrel display:

My haul for the Personal Care & Health category: three beers (yes, Mary G. says they count!) and one skyr!

My lunch, my second Coffee control, and my Library/Reading control, a fun book on artisan cheesemaking in the U.S. From this book, I learned that most cheeses, prior to the rise of industrial dairies in the 1930s and 1940s, was done by women at small farms – and that most of the new, artisan cheesemakers are women who are reclaiming the practice.

So, that wraps up the 2013 Errandonnée. Here are the totals:

Total errandonee mileage to date: 137.5
Total controls: 9 categories, 13 controls (Work Commute [x2], Breakfast/Lunch [x2], Dinner, Grocery Store [x2], Bike Shop, Wild Card, Coffee [x2], Library/Reading, Personal Care & Health)

This is a post from randomduck.com. Copyright © 2013 R.D. Riet. Covered under Creative Commons.

the errandonnee: wrapping it all up