I'm famous

I'm not sure how long the Valley News will leave this up on their site, but they published an article on me today! I have several paper copies and will scan one in on Monday for good measure. In any case, here's the article, typos and all!

Valley News Story

Serotta click

Not that anyone out there cares, but I have just won an epic battle. At 10:06 PM EST, I fixed the click in the Serotta.

After the following, I finally found the click:
-Removed rear wheel, greased dropouts, reinstalled.
-Removed front wheel, greased dropouts, reinstalled.
-Removed chainrings, greased chainring bolts, reinstalled.
-Removed pedals, greased, reinstalled.
-Removed seatpost, seatpost collar, greased reinstalled.
-Put quick releases from cyclocross bike on.
-Installed road tire on cyclocross wheel, installed, removed.
-Removed cranks, greased spindles, reinstalled.
-Removed front derailleur, greased clamp, reinstalled, readjusted.
-Removed cranks, removed bottom bracket, cleaned, teflon tape, anti-seize, reinstalled.
-Removed stem hardware, greased, greased all stem spacers, reinstalled.

Drum roll please............One of the downtube cable guides was slightly loose. With one turn of a 3mm bolt, this 4 hour marathon could have been over in two seconds. No wonder the sounds seemed to be coming from the drivetrain...no wait...stem...no wait...dropouts...related to torque...not related to torque...related to lean angle....WTF!?!?!? It was coming from the freaking center of the downtube.

Phew.

More riding...

Not much to report. Been riding a lot, despite rain almost everyday. Friday saw a loop up to Enfield and the Shaker village. Of course after the Serotta's first brief romp in the rain, she has developed a mind-numbing click that has proved very difficult to find. As we find ourselves more deeply immersed in summer, I'm feeling moments of deep satisfaction with life. The Upper Valley is just gorgeous this time of year. I love riding everyday. I love having no homework. This is proving to be similar to my summer at Williams, exactly as I had hoped. Maybe I'll be firmly in love with life here by the time that I return to med school...




This past weekend I went down to Kolene's house in Keene to spend the day with her, her mom, and Darcy, their dog. We took a run, relaxed, and shared good conversation. I was also able to modify the desk that I bought to fit perfectly into the nook in Anna's room. I forgot to include the baseboard heater in my original measurements! Now I can say that it is custom, though.





After my return on Sunday, I headed out for long ride. Despite sunny skies at Sachem, I encountered soaked roads as soon as White River Junction. Though it seems that nobody around here heads south for rides, I thought that I would do some exploring down that way. I headed down rt 5, crossed "the world's longest covered bridge", and took a rural 120 back up into Lebanon. About 45 miles. I apologize for the bad photo of the covered bridge. Though the day was very hot and humid, it was ultimately marked by off and on rain showers, which were actually a welcomed refuge from the heat.



After many, many hours of hard riding in the previous week, my legs felt tired by Monday. I was also having some mysterious wrist pain, so I figured that a rest day was in order. Tuesday saw wrist pain bad enough to warrant another rest day, though. Still, I did see a cool wilderness medicine seminar on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday was a day for a long ride with as much climbing as possible. Old Quechee Rd down to Quechee. I stopped at Shepherd's Pie for a blueberry muffin and a bite on the hand from a dog. Climbed out of Quechee and descended down into West Hartford. Tigertown, my favorite dirt road, up to West Norwich. Up more dirt on Beaver Meadow into Sharon. 132 to Norwich hills and back home. A long, tough one for sure. I was racing some impending rain for the first part of the ride. Around 50 miles total.



Yesterday, I met up with Alice Nelson, Jack Nelson's sister for a ride. We joined Michael, Trevor, and Will, other very fast med students/MPH student to do an incredibly beautiful loop through Pomfret. Soul-cleansing conversation, unbelievable views, and fun little sprints made it a ride to remember. After 6 hours hours of riding in the past two days, I'm ready for a bit of rest. And I'm going to find that click in the Serotta...

What's going on here!?! Looks exciting...

Rippin' trail...

With an impending 5 days of straight rain, Sachem-local Sal and I met up with Mike, a lecturer at the med school for a good old-fashioned MTB ride. I've pretty much ridden every inch of trail near Sachem now, so I can lead others on some pretty awesome routes. As is typically the case, the 29er and the SS didn't fail to impress, despite my logy legs from trail running with Kolene. Stay tuned for a "refreshing" entry on the 29er soon.

In other news, the 1st years at DMS finished their last final yesterday. Hard to believe. Hard to see them move on. Hard to feel like I'm stuck behind.

Visiting Andy!

Well, I just finished the Sunday cleaning operation here at Drake Lane. This morning was busier and crazier than the typical Sunday morning. I woke up pretty early to hit the road from the Eklunds house, where I spent most of the weekend. More on this later. First, I'd like to offer a general review.

Life was proceeding along pretty well upto my last update with interspersed periods of quiet and loneliness. All of my friends are deeply immersed in finals, and all of my 2nd year friends are deeply immersed in studying for the boards. All of which are prospects that I dread. Certain events on Monday, however, rewound the healing process a bit and sent the loneliness scale a little higher. The week was generally cloudy and rainy, so I can't say that that helped either. Still, I was able to ride almost everyday, with the exception of Friday when I drove down to Boston. Strangely, I felt incredibly fast on Wednesday. I was big ringing it up moderate hills at well over 20 mph. On Thursday, though, likely due to lack of sleep, I felt like I was getting sick again. That also drove me towards the bluer side of my emotions. I figured it was the right time to get out of town.

In other news, I've selected a roommate for the fall. Karl is the son of two docs over at the hospital, one of whom works in my group. Karl got into DMS, so I contacted him as I was beginning the roommate search. Though I don't think that he is quite as OCD clean as me, his personal skills are top notch. He might be one of the best listeners I've met in a long time. Word got around that I was considering him as a roommate, and V. Lyons, my anatomy prof and pseudo-DMS mom, immediately emailed me to say that she had interviewed him and that she thought it was a perfect match. Karl is a local and a cyclist. I'm excited. I sure hope it works out like we both think that it will. I felt bad turning away the other guy, who was also great and, as it turns out, a childhood friend of Laura Wagner.

Work is starting to ramp up as we enter the beginning stages of our giant practice-based research study. Its nice to feel like I'm able to keep the group moving in the correct direction. I was beginning to get a little bit bored of the slower pace at the beginning.

And a couple of last news-related notes before I review the weekend's activities. First, keep an eye out for all of these health policy NYTimes articles that involve research up here at Dartmouth. The school of public health, The Dartmouth Institute, is doing leading research on healthcare costs. And DHMC is leading the charge towards the medical home. All of this is all swell and good, but somebody needs to alert Obama that no medical students are going into primary care anymore. Don't get me started. Second, in reading all of these articles on the election in Iran, did anyone get a little flavor of the 2000 election here in the US? I love how it is the crazy, fundamentalist conservatives making Iran an international pariah and rigging elections over there too. Perhaps Iran and the US have far, far more in common than we realize. Just keep all of this in mind when judging a country like Iran. There's an entire population of perfectly normal, perfectly moral, perfectly sane people that are unwillingly represented and controlled by a regime of crazy egomaniacs.

So, to the most recent activities. I took off early from work on Friday to head down and visit the Eklunds! This time, though, Andy was home for the summer! I haven't seen him in forever. In addition to seeing Andy, another highlight was clearly my introduction to Heidi, their 12-week-old dachshund puppy. I had a great time and was, of course, fed well. We had a wonderful dinner together on Friday night and played the typical games. On Saturday, Andy and I enjoyed perfect weather as we completed the perfect New England tour of suburban Boston. Of course, our route was meticulously laid out by Marion. Beaker visited many attractions, such as: Walden's pond, the Old North Bridge, and Dairy Joy. In the afternoon, Andy, David, and I visited the Boston aquarium. I was too pooped to drive home last night, so I had an early departure this morning in the pouring rain. We're enjoying perfect blue skies now, so I'm trying to wrap up all of my weekend chores in time for a nice big ride.

Thank you again to the Eklunds, my family away from family.

Big, big Mousilauke ride

Well, my knee felt well enough on Thursday to hit the trails. So, I went riding with an undergrad, Dak. The kid is crazy. He has am F29 and a 29 inch wheel mated up to a poor little Specialized epic. The thing is RAKED. Anyway, we had a great ride on more of the secret trails except that Dak managed to: 1) Rip his brake caliper out of the post mount on his beautiful new fork because he used too short of a bolt. 2) Break a chain. 3) Break a front derailleur. The best part is that he managed to continue riding crazy stuff with only a rear brake. An IMBA puppy died at every dirt-spraying turn. The kid needs a new bike like whoa. I suffered no ill effects of riding on the bad knee.

On Friday, I went out for a post dinner singlespeed pain fest. After riding a bit more conservatively the day before, I was jamming the tunes and ripping the trails. We're talking dirt sprayin', ain't no jokin' fun.

Those two wonderful rides somehow added up to the obvious conclusion: Saturday was meant for big ride. And I mean big. So, after pounding the food in the morning and packing even more into my jersey pockets, the Serotta and I headed off for the famous Mt. Mousilauke Ravine Lodge in the white mtns. I managed to keep my pace under control at the beginning and keep my eating up. After I had already gone ~35 miles and still wasn't to Warren, I started to realize that this was basically going to be a century ride and that it was certainly going to be epic. Much of the ride to Warren was actually on dirt too. I have to say that I've never seen so much beauty in New England in a single day. Between the beautiful blue skies, the amazing wildflowers, the mountain lakes, and the scenic vistas, I nearly shed a tear. My state of perpetual suffering might have contributed to that as well. Yesterday firmly planted in my mind that I just might be able to be happy here in New England.

By the time I made it to Warren, I'd drank two liters of Nuun electrolyte solution and eaten two peanut butter sandwiches, two pita/hummus sandwiches, and some pineapple. I stopped off to fill up on water, grab a giant snickers bar and some wheat thins, take a couple of electrolyte pills, and start the climb. The climb up the pass wasn't too too bad. At one point my medial quads started cramping, but ultimately worked themselves out. The top of the pass was a welcome site, though I knew I had almost another 50 miles and more climbing to get home. I stopped in Warren again to hit the head, get a turkey sub, and get a little rest. I spoke with another rider there too. By that point, my fatigue could even be felt on my eyelids.

And so I headed off, wondering if I would indeed make it home. Slow and steady, slow and steady. My medial quads cramped again on the climb back towards Orford, but again were able to come back. Around mile 75, despite crushing headwinds, my hunger and fatigue magically disappeared. I attribute a switch to fatty acid metabolism when my body said, "enough!" After calling Begem and Kolene from Orford to tell them that I wasn't dead, I began the last 20 home. Not that they were easy, but I still had a little kick left in the legs. I was able to sprint up rollers on River Road in the big ring, not an expected result.

After all was said and done...6.5 hours of actual ride time, 96 miles, almost 5000 ft of climbing, 4700 calories burned, and clear reassurance that the Prouty will be no problem. This was a solo ride, with lots of dirt, lots of climbing, and lots of food/gear carried. The Prouty is the exact opposite in almost every way. I project that yesterday's ride would be the equivalent of at least 120 flat, pavement, drafting, Prouty miles.

So there you have it, talk about a catharsis. It was all I could do to stand to make dinner.

What a week in review...

Well, the sickness lingered on in various uncomfortable forms through last week. Aside from the discomfort, it wasn't too big of a deal because it rained pretty much nonstop on Wed, Thurs, and Fri, so I wouldn't have been riding anyway. Midweek, I had a some time to myself and was feeling sort of down. So, I did some grilling for one.

Thursday was my last Kaplan class for a while. It was sad to see my class go. They've been truly wonderful, and I'll miss them very much. If saying goodbye to them was the worst thing to happen in the past week, then I'd have been lucky.

Our clotted cream went bad!!! So, we had none for the scones...



After a wonderful tea party on Friday afternoon with T, Begem, Kolene, and Shahid, T and I had a rough night. In the past few weeks, our relationship has been undergoing some major restructuring. And to be honest, we've been fighting a lot. Well, I guess that it all came to a head on Friday night. And ultimately, we've decided to split up. No matter how much we have gone through together (which is, undoubtely, a shitload), it makes no sense for us to be together if we're always at each others' throats. I feel that deep, empty ache in my chest. Embracing the reality of it is so hard. By far the hardest part, though, is worrying about her and thinking that I did this to her and caused her so much pain. Teresa has done more for me, more for herself, and just given more in general than I ever could have asked. Who knows what the future will bring, but for now we have to say goodbye.

As if saying goodbye to T wasn't bad enough, I found out that Shahid won't be living with me in the fall, nor will my friend Annie, who chose Columbia over Dartmouth. So, here we go again. Another roommate search. Another unknown. Whatever. At least I'm in control this time. If I get a bad roommate, I'll simply boot 'em out, and I've written the lease to reflect that.

If it wasn't for the major emotional blows, the weekend wouldn't have been too bad. Begem, Kolene, and Shahid have really rallied around me to make sure that I'm ok. On Saturday morning I borrowed a chainsaw from Auden and Paul (docs at the hospital). Though it wasn't running well, I got it running like a top. Unfortunately, on the first good start, the pull cord broke. Luckily, I just happened to have some alpine cord of the perfect size and in perfectly matching Stihl orange. I cleared the giant downage on my commute and left some beautiful potential tables on the trail for pickup later. I also cleared a huge downage on the powerline trail out of Sachem from a microburst a few weeks ago. And I even managed to help a few guys cut a log table of their own. After a long day of hiking and sawing and getting some angst out, Begem and Kolene had Kendal (another med student) and I over for dinner. It was definitely good that I didn't spend the time alone. Yesterday, I managed to tune up Auden's bike, return it and the chainsaw, buy a twin bed, boxspring, and frame for 50 bucks, fit all of it into my hatchback, grocery shop, go for a huge mtn bike ride on the secret trails, return to muffins freshly baked by Begem, and cook dinner for Begem, Shahid, and me. Wow. And yet the whole time I was thinking about T...

I've included many pics of the secret trails. Be jealous. Be very jealous.

This is a "rolldown"? Whoever made these trails wasn't messin'...




Plenty of granite state granite.



This is more of a ladder than a log bridge. Whoever put it there was clearly intending to do more flying down this 6 ft drop than riding. Lord knows you couldn't ride up it.



I popped out of the woods just in time for the famous DART to take off from the hospital and to receive warm cinnamon struesel muffins.