Paul Crane’s Blog

Before I started riding I would have told you that Boise was indeed a bicycle friendly place. However, now that I’ve been training for Triathlons and riding on the streets and outskirts of Boise my opinion has changed.

I can still say that Boise has a large population that is into fitness but if you’re not in that community, not a lot of love exists.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been buzzed on my bike. Keep in mind I’ve only been riding on the roads for less than a year. One example is when we were training for the Spudman Triathlon in Boise. We started down at Spring Shores and road into Boise. Sure it’s a busy highway but there is plenty of shoulder so we figured that we were pretty safe, I mean there is a passing lane for crying out loud. Even on the up hill where there is plenty of room on the shoulder, and an extra lane for passing, we had trucks pulling trailers that would hug the white line. This didn’t happen like 1 or 2 times, more like 10 to 12 on a 10 mile stretch.

It seems odd to me. When I wasn’t riding I still had a fear of hitting a cyclist and always gave them plenty of room when I passed. I grew up learning that you were supposed to ride your bike on the roads and I even learned the turn signals, AS A CHILD. Where is it that people are learning that bikes are “not” supposed to be on the road and getting as close to them as possible in an auto will teach them a lesson.

I can see where drivers get irritated with some cyclists. You have some that ride on the sidewalks, some that ride in the roads and don’t follow traffic rules and some that frankly don’t give a shit and ride like idiots. However, I would think that the fear of actually hitting one of these people would override the urge to put yourself, as a driver, in a position where you could possible injure or kill this rider.

Cyclists, you are not innocent victims here. There are those riders that fall into one of the categories I listed above and there are others that have built their own. These are the riders that feel the same way about runners and pedestrians as drivers feel about the cyclists. Now this really seems odd. Riders on the greenbelt are buzzing joggers, walkers and even those out with their children on a weekend. WTF!!!

My friends and I talk about the solution and we believe that it starts with us. We have to show the drivers respect on the roads. Follow traffic laws, try and make sure we are polite to drivers, and respect the fact that pedestrians have the right of way when we are on bikes. Then again, you buzz me and I happen to pass your house when you’re outside, don’t be surprised if I stop to discuss it.

This weekend we got a lot finished. First of all we planted a few shrubs in the back yard in memory of my Father-in-law, Alan Skaar.

Saturday morning I went for a six mile run followed by a 22 mile bike ride. The run started off pretty good considering we had just run a marathon the weekend before. Trina, Mark, Kerry, Trevor and myself took off from Shoreline and headed towards Barber Park.

Our plan was to run 6 to 8 miles and at mile three it was unanimous, well except for Mark but he was feeling sorry for us so he turned around too. About 2.5 miles in we all started to feel the pain in the legs. We walked it off and mile three and started heading back. At mile 4 I got my second wind and picked up the page again. Oddly enough so did everyone else. As we were finishing off our last mile I picked up the pace again and low and behold there was Trevor kicking it into another gear. I decided to keep up with him and everyone else must have too. I finished a 7:22 mile the last mile and there was everyone else right with me. It was a great way to get the marathon cob webs out.

After the run I went over to Clocktower where Jason, Ryan, Shane and Brent were doing a 1.2 mile run. I had planned on a 30 mile ride after my run and there swim. Had I known the course they were going to ride I may have caught the next bus. They took me over the Zietgeist route and we ended at 22 miles, that of course was enough after the climbs they took me over.

Just a couple weeks of training left before the Ogden Marathon. I’ve been doing a little bit better lately and I hope that will continue through the marathon. I’ve done a couple of bricks with the bike followed by a run and I have to say that I’m really enjoying the bike riding more than I thought I would.

Ryan and I rode 20 miles and ran 4 miles in the brick that we did last night. The run was pretty good for me at around a 8 minute pace. Last Saturday we ran 10 miles and the paces on the last four miles were 8:13, 8:03, 7:45 and 7:00. I was really happy with those last two runs. I’d love to be able to keep up an 8:30 to 8:45 pace through the marathon.

Last Sunday we did a 60 mile bike ride. This was the longest ride I’d done by 25 miles. I had done 35 the Wednesday before.

16 mile run on Saturday, wish me luck.

Keep moving!

Saturday we had our last 20 mile run. This one was much better than the last. This is a good feeling to end on with the long runs. Just 3 more training Saturdays before the Ogden Marathon.

After Shane, Brent, Lorin and I finished running our 20 we went to watch the finish of The Race to Robie Creek. Everyone in the group that ran this year did well with Ryan leading the pack with a time of 1:43. Good thing I wasn’t doing Robie this year to beat him.

Sunday we Mountain Bike Riding on Trail #6, #5 and Shane’s Loop. Brent and Shane took us on a nice rat maze again. Most of trail 5 was torn up pretty good by motor bikes which made climbing the extremely steep hills even more difficult. I found out the cure for a hangover though, mountain biking 14 miles. Ryan, Shane, Brent and I road on Sunday.

Shane decided Monday night that we hadn’t put our legs through enough punishment so we road his favorite route on our road bikes again. We put in 25 miles which felt pretty decent considering the previous two days.

I’ve been meaning to track our training but haven’t done a very good job. Shane has been documenting things pretty well on his blog at http://shaneshalfironman.blogspot.com

My first ride home on my bike was a good one this Tuesday. I have a buddy at work that rides in and back and he showed me a nice route with very little car traffic. I hope to make this something that I’ll do quite often. It is actually a lot nicer than trying to navigate the rush time traffic. It’s about a 16 or 17 mile commute each way. I hope to be able to do a few rides in and back but this time I caught a ride in with a friend that has a bike rack and just made the ride back home.

Until next time, keep moving.

A little while back I wrote about my safer form of exercise.  I thought I’d give you a little update on the condition of my last ride.    This is what my collar bone looks like as of this morning.  Now the doctor shows this pic to me and then says to me exactly what I’m thinking, “I know you’re thinking this looks like shit.  That’s a technical term.”, and that is exactly what I was thinking. 

He told me the darker areas around the break are where the cartilage is developing and that it will turn to bone.  The dark splinter sticking up on the right side is exactly that.  It is where part of the bone just splintered off.  So I have to lay off any lifting for another 2 weeks.  I has already been 70 days.

I had two options, surgery that would line the bone back up or let it heal and I’d just have a bump in my collar bone.  Dr. Collins told me that letting it heal would be just fine the only side affect would be the bump.  I chose bump over surgery.

This picture looks pretty bad but not near as bad as it looked the night I broke it.  I’m going to call St. Lukes and see if I can get a copy of the x-ray from that night.  If I get it I’ll post it.  Until then, stay tuned for the sequel to Paul’s a friggin part-tarded clutz.

My wife and I bought mountain bikes at REI.  We were helped by this awesome girl Amber.  We both got hooked up with bikes, helmets, water bottles, camel bag, bike rack on the car, we’re all set to get into biking shape.  One small problem, I tend to like going over the handlebars.  On August 16th at 7:30pm, my cousin Dirk and I had made it to the top of Shane’s loop in Boise, ID.  We were on our way down and were about 300 yards from being on flat ground.  Dirk hit a jump in the middle of the trail and I followed.  I did an amazing one half front flip and landed on my left shoulder breaking my collar bone.

I’m going back to running.  This little investment for excercise has turned out costing more than expected.  All kidding aside, as soon as I’m able Ali and I will be riding again.  I may be a bit more cautious on the downhills.