Hey there! The last time I posted was before my first born who’s now 2 1/2 years old, can count to 60, and recites his ABCs like no other. He’s an incredible kid. Beyond the trying & rewarding experiences of being a father, I not only got back normal sleep cycles, but I finally got around to building my dream commuter bicycle. This is a LONG time in the making as my friends would attest. Did I mention my son already rides a tricycle on his own? And he loves his balance bike. I’ll soon be the one chasing after him.

Why another one?

I had three motivations for building my 7th bike. (That my wife enthusiastically bought into, thankfully.) First is safety. I wanted dual disc brakes instead of a single front cantilever as I have on my fixie. Not just for my own safety, but I wanted to feel totally confident and in control when towing my son in the trailer. Second: hills. The surrounding area is full of 300-500 ft hills. I have 3 of these hills each way on my weekday commute. As much as I’m a climber at heart, going up these hills on a daily basis is getting old in the same 42×18 gear. And I’m not getting any younger. Finally, I’ve been longing a fine steel machine I could enjoy year-round. Modern, yet classic. Sporty, yet comfortable. I had a vision of exactly what I wanted. No hold backs that I’d regret months or even years later. This meant I put the stake in the ground early for the list of high-priority features: disc brakes (great all weather braking), belt drive (clean, silent, no lubes, near zero maintenance), and an internal gear hub (for pulling that big kiddo up hills as well as my own lazy butt after a long workday).

My Stable

Each of my bikes serve a purpose. My mountain bike is rarely ridden, but when it is it’s for serious off-roading like single-track at Rainier or adventure races. My Bike Friday Pocket Rocket is a folding speedster primarily for traveling and an occasional fun bike to toss around town. My Cervelo Soloist, the last bicycle I fully built up back in 2008, is my road race bike. The Cervelo P2C is for triathlons and Ironman. The Bianchi San Jose is my fits-like-a-glove fixed gear that serves as my primary year-round beater & commuter. And finally my (well, passed down to me from my cycle-crazy grandfather) Hetchins Magnum Opus is a priceless gem, recently stripped down and kept safe for the day I get the itch (and time!) to do a strip-down, paint & rebuild as my grandfather originally had it in the 70s. My last bike was given away – a full size adult Schwinn tricycle that I trained on (I think I got 5 rides in) to ride 206 miles from Seattle to Portland to hand over to charity. I’m holding back the two-wheeling tilt stories for another time. I suppose that leaves me with only 6 bikes. There’s a clear gap in my lineup, no?

Planning for a 7th…

The hardest part in building up a bike is designing its feel. How it’ll ride, how it’ll handle turns, how it feels like a natural extension of the body as it magically disappears from under you. I knew exactly what I wanted. I envisioned the experience. There’s a short stretch of road with multiple bumpy sewer covers — each cover has its own bump characteristics — near my house that I use as a basis for how a bike rides against pavement. I’m acutely aware of how every one of my bikes feel on this stretch. I had a precise expectation of how I wanted the new bike to feel. The biggest problem? I had no way to test a new bike without just building it & riding it…at which point I’m fully committed! I started by looking at frames, hubs, and wheels and putting together how I think they’d feel together in my mind. An impossibly hard task. So I started by looking at frames that had the right material & geometry as well as a classy but clean aesthetic. All the while, I had to find a frameset that also met my functional requirements like supporting a belt drive & disc brakes – specific features that you’ll find on a small but growing number of framesets.

Finding Speedhound

I took my sweet time looking for the right one. One night, while scouring the web for frames, I stumbled upon Speedhound Bikes. They make only one frameset called, fittingly, the OnlyOne. It’s one of the most versatile frames that I came across, allowing for flexibility in how it’s built up. At first I frowned upon this – a jack of everything is a jack of nothing. So I moved on. But I eventually circled back and reconsidered after deeper reading. Several aspects of this frameset resonated with me. First was the True Temper Platinum OX steel tubing and the classic full size frame geometry. Next was it fulfilled all of my functional requirements like belt support & discs. Last, but not least, was the inspiration Chris Cleveland — the man behind Speedhound — drew from classic British bicycles, including Hetchins. This excerpt from one of Chris’s posts struck the final chord for me.

Perhaps our best muse is Hetchins, with its heroic cast metal headbadge and seat tube shield wreathed in laurel.  The photos show details of a bike in Speedhound’s collection, a 1956 Hetchins Experto Crede Vibrant in original, unrestored condition.  This old steed still rides wonderfully, a testament to the enduring quality of steel.  For more vintage eye candy, go to www.hetchins.org.

http://blog.speedhoundbikes.com/2010/11/23/speedhounds-graphic-inspiration

Bingo!

So I began my dialogue with Speedhound, based in Minneapolis, which turned out to be directly with Chris. This guy not only knows his stuff, but he was consistently super responsive and guided me through customizing my frame to not only meet my requirements, but make it uniquely mine. It’s rare to receive this level of service anywhere these days unless you really know the folks behind the curtain. I didn’t know Chris, but I felt a sense of trust early on. He helped me through the arduous decision making as I was between sizes – helping me understand ride tradeoffs and how a few of his friends (of various sizes) fit & felt on those sizes. All-in-all, I was very pleased with Chris and team Speedhound. They’re a great set of folks that consistently delight & deliver. I highly recommend anyone looking for a solid, beautifully lugged steel frameset talk to the fine folks at Speedhound. I hope I get another opportunity to partner with them again in the future.

The Art & Science of Planning

Building up a machine with as many complex parts as a bicycle is part art and science. After building the mental vision, I used a spreadsheet to start making it real. I started by making a list of every part on the bike & initial thoughts on what I think I needed. Then I did a deep dive into each part and whether it aligned with my vision, would technically work with my build (e.g., disc brake rotor size) or my body (handlebar drop & width). You can find a full inventory of the parts I used for the build, below. I have ZERO regrets on all of the parts I’ve used. Here’s a quick breakdown of the big pieces and how they turned out.

Wheelset

I am thrilled with the Velocity A23 wheelset. It’s very light, strong, and creates a tire profile that mimics the feel of tubulars more so than any other wheelset I’ve ridden. The front Hope hub is silky smooth and with J-spokes in 28 holes, it’s super strong. The rear wheel, with the off-center spoke holes to better balance drive and non-drive side lace tension, does a wonderful job transferring power and road feel despite the heavy 11 speed internal gear hub.

Steering

The steering is like a hot knife through butter. Road feel is surprisingly very high, despite the raked steel fork. Anyone used to a Cadillac-like feel of a classic steel bike floating over bumps and road imperfections (i.e., my Bianchi San Jose) will be shocked by the connectedness of this Speedhound. It’s nearly at the point of questioning whether there’s an aluminum or carbon steerer, but as you ride along, you notice the jittery harshness of aluminum or carbon is absent. Result? You find you are more attentive to the terrain and your steering, but your grip is more relaxed because you’re more confident. If you decide to grip the bars or hoods you need not worry about your teeth chattering.

Brakes

It’s been a decade since I’ve seriously worked on disc brakes. I was concerned about getting them installed right without annoying chatter. Luckily Avid & their brakes have come a long way: installation was a cinch. At first the BB7 Road brakes weren’t grippy. It felt like they were slicked with oil as the pads struggled to find friction against the rotors. This was simply pad break-in over the first days of riding. After that, the performance was as you’d expect from discs.

The most common critique when I talk to folks about the bike is why i didn’t go with hydraulic brakes. On a mountain bike, sure. But that weight isn’t desired on a road bike. Nor do you actually need that kind of stopping power behind a single finger. The leverage behind my hand on road bars is plenty for quickly slowing to a stop. Even with a trailer and kid in tow down a 15-20% grade hill… I was blown away as the brakes handled the additional 50lbs behind me to no fanfare. Totally unexpected and amazing.

Gearing & Shifting

Not many people ask about gearing, but it must be on their minds. The Alfine 11 has a very wide range of gears, with a relatively close set of gears in the mid-range. Shimano recommends a hair higher than a 2:1 gear ratio which I stuck to (46/22) not just to comply with recommendations, but it also gave me what I needed. I’m most often in gears 5-6-7 on the flats. Lower gives you easier gears to spin up hills – in particular the lowest gear feels like a granny gear which is wonderful for pulling the heavy trailer up the hill home. The higher gears give me plenty of speed, spinning around 80-90 rpm at 40mph in 11th gear shows this hub’s range. Shimano says it’s 409%. Sure feels like it. If To be nitpicky, I would trade the super high range of 11th for another gear between 7th & 8th – but by no means is it a deal breaker for day-to-day riding.

Shifting is a little different story. On the bright side, shifting is super quick and eerily silent. On the dark side, shifting has been hit or miss for me. 6th to 7th gear occasionally stops my crank from rotating in the middle of the shift. I believe that was attributed to poor alignment of the shifting cable which I’ve since fixed, but the possibility of that happening again is somewhat harrowing. Worse is the “super spin” that happens in or around 9th gear. Rarely, I’ll suddenly lose the back-pressure and suddenly the crank spins quickly under my feet as I’m pushing. This is scary and is potential for an accident. Again, I think I fixed this with calibration, but still super concerning. And the most concerning problem? The hub skips with a loud and scary “clunk” when standing and applying a large amount of power. This problem happens when getting going from a stop, but can also happen while already moving. I’ve noticed I can’t reproduce it most of the time once I’m moving, but it’s not consistent. To mitigate the problem, I just don’t stand and mash the pedals. Instead, I simply shift to an easier gear and spin. Since I can shift while not moving it makes the solution more tractable. Yet I’m gravely concerned the hub has fundamental engineering design flaws. At this point, I’m not done dialing in the shifter cable position and there’s likely some break-in that still needs to happen. The verdict is still out. I love the hub 95% of the time, but I have low confidence & safety concerns. If things don’t get better over the next few hundred miles, I’ll be starting a serious conversation with Shimano.

 

Fit

Friends and colleagues getting into cycling or buying a bike frequently look to me for advice. I love the opportunity to talk about the human elements of cycling and how to match man with machine.

What’s funny is how “off” our culture is when it comes to what matters most. I’m not sure why folks are so obsessed with frame material, components, or brand name. I usually respond with my “favorite” (well, not anymore!) bike cost $600 (my Bianchi San Jose fixie) that I put over 40,000 miles on. It fits like a glove, it’s comfortable, and most importantly – simply put – it’s a fun bike.

My goal with the Speedhound build was to make it fit BETTER than my fixie. How? The fixie was a bit too upright and the seat tube angle too relaxed. The Cervelo Soloist was too aggressive. The Pocket Rocket fit is right on, but with its small 21″ wheels and fairly twisty (but comfy steel) frame, it’s not the lively ride I desired for my daily driver.

So how did the Speedhound fit turn out? PERFECT! I can’t count how many times I measured various aspects of each of my existing bikes. As and after riding each of them, I considered what worked and what didn’t – taking notes and more measurements! In the end, I had a really good feeling what I’d be getting. The variable was the stem & bars. I bought three stems (each 10mm apart) but I took a risk and bet on a single compact bar that had just the right shape, reach, and drop that I knew I’d love.

It’s really all about fit. This bike wouldn’t be as magical as it turned out if it wasn’t for the fit I dialed in. It’s better than any of my other bikes. So good, in fact, I’m considering a new stem size for my fixie!

Aesthetics

Making it functional & fitting great is half the battle. The other half is making it look cool. My vision included an orange & black theme and ultra-clean cable management. Chris suggested several options to help achieve this clean & slick look. One excellent aesthetic option was top tube internal cable routing, thus no cabling runs outside of the top tube. Another option was cable guides along the down tube & chain stay that allowed for zip-ties to run through them. This feature was key, because I did not want zip-ties (despite having orange zip-ties to match the frame color) going around any part of the frame.

When the Rubber Meets Road

The maiden voyage on my Speedhound was a warm summer night in mid-July. July 15th @ 9pm before wrapping the bars I made sure I got the bar & hood fit dialed in. After wrapping the bars and attempting to get a reasonable night of sleep, I rode it 10 miles into work the next day. The brakes were weak and the rear hub sapped too much of my pedaling — par for the course with new, yet-to-be-broken in components. (But, sure enough, the headset was like butter from the first second!) The biggest surprise for me is how the bike rides over pavement. I’ve put on a couple hundred miles and have done a ton of thinking about how to explain it. The best analogy my engineering mind has conjured is that of a high & low-pass filter. The low pass filter is dialed up such that I know I’m on broken or uneven pavement, but I don’t really “feel” it unless I really pay attention. But those little things don’t matter – they distract from the ride because they’re almost always present unless you’re riding on a perfectly smooth surface. On the contrary, the high pass filter is weak but present at the “high end” such that it cuts out the sharp jolts that would otherwise rattle your bones. My fixie rides like a Cadillac over that section of sewer covers.  The Speedhound, in contrast, actually feels more like my aluminum or carbon bikes in terms of being connected to the pavement – I think I could draw the profile shape of the sewer covers if I rode over them with my eyes closed. This is saying a lot, because I couldn’t do the same with my other bikes. The fixie is numb – I know I’m gliding over something but I couldn’t tell you exactly what. My Cervelos give a sharp jolt on the lips of the cement before meeting the sewer cover, and then again coming off the cover back to the pavement. This jolt makes it impossible to feel comfortable because the bike is jittery. You anticipate the sharpness so you automatically lift your body up and prepare such as a bull rider anticipates the bull’s next move. On the Speedhound, the oneness with the bike is unparalleled. It’s super responsive and hugs the road, but doesn’t punish. Not even close. In fact, the front fork rake would suggest it’s mushy. Far from it. Turn-in is precise and crisp. In fact, I’m surprised how much of a connection I really have with the road, yet it’s not harsh. Conti Gatorback 700/25 rubber, Velocity rims, super smooth rolling Hope hubs, 28 hole J-spokes, and the steel raked fork all play into that feel. It’s a near magical combination that sends the riding experience to new level of ‘being one’ with the bike.

The rear is still responsive, but not nearly as the front. I blame the Alfine 11 due to its heft and perhaps a little blame goes to using 60% of the drop-out slider capacity to tension the belt. But that blame shouldn’t go mistaken. Soaking up a bit more on the back side is desirable to keep the body fresh over the miles. Case in point: I did two 40-milers back-to-back at a spirited pace last week. I got home feeling as if I had rode half those miles on my Cervelo. This bike has not ceased to disappoint!

November 2015 Update:  when the rain came I played a bit with tire pressure. Running 100 psi with 25c tires on roads that hadn’t seen rain in months is not the best idea. I was pleasantly surprised how tame the front felt with 80-85 psi. The responsiveness is still there, but the almost “too active” front really calmed down. It’s amazing how different this bike can feel. It really shows the awesomeness of this wheelset + fork setup. To have the control to dial up or down the front feel with tire pressure alone is nothing short of amazing.

Special things about my bike:

1. The Velocity A23 wheels have a wider seat for the tire, resulting in a lower profile that yields a tubular-like ride. I can attest to the difference. It’s pretty distinct in that road feel is more pronounced and connected, yet not jarring.
2. The rear Velocity A23 rim has offset spoke holes for more even distribution of tension across the left and right sides of the hub. This is more important than you’d imagine. http://www.velocityusa.com/product/rims/a23-oc-622
3. The belt drive is silent and buttery smooth. It requires nothing more than a hose down with water on occasion. No lube, no greasy hands or legs. And I found a red belt which closely matches my theme color. And the belt is actually more efficient than a chain at high power output. Cha-ching!
4. I never need to look down to see what gear I’m in as I frequently do with my derailleur bikes. The integrated rear hub houses 11 gears. Shift when you need to – it’s simple. It’s nearly the same range as my 20 speed road bike, but it’s practically more usable. I never nee the “biggest” gear on my road bike rubs the front derailleur.
5. You can shift without moving. Yeah, the hub actually doesn’t need to rotate to do the shift. I haven’t found this feature super useful yet because I’m so used to shifting while pedaling, but I’m sure I’ll miss it if I ever go back to a derailleur bike!
6. The Versa 11 shifters create a true drop-bar road bike experience with an internal geared hub. Over time, I suspect this will be the future of road bikes. Weight will come down, technology will drive innovation in this space, and we’ll see less and less of the 100 year old derailleur technology.
7. Have I mentioned the Chris King NoThreadSet headset is buttery smooth. It’s worth its weight in gold!

Here are the mistakes I made during planning & the build up:

1. Wrong belt size. I measured up the chainstay and the 115t belt looked as if it would just fit on paper. Sure enough it didn’t in practice. So 118t, the next size up, it was. I was a little bummed because I was hoping I didn’t need to extend the dropout sliders too much. Unfortunately the 118t puts me at about 60-70% of slider capacity. It’s fine in practice, but wasn’t what I would have wanted if I had a choice.
2. Wrong belt color. I thought they just made blue until I stumbled upon the limited edition red; luckily I made the belt size & color mistake at the same time.
3. Wrong sprocket for the rear hub. The interface was wrong but falsely advertised – I should have done a closer visual on it online before buying.
4. Wrong front disc brake size. I got 140mm rotors which worked fine in the rear, but I needed 165mm in the front. I didn’t have a ton of experience in discs. I’ve learned.
5. I bought a cheapo (about $50) headset that was orange to match my frame. Given all the costs adding up, I couldn’t bring myself to spend 3x on a real headset. Well, I can’t tell you how happy I am that I changed my mind. The Chris King headset is beautiful and silky smooth. This would have been a serious regret!
6. I failed to thoroughly inspect the front rim before handing off to my LBS for building. After initial lace up, the shop noticed a flattened section near the valve stem. They couldn’t promise wheel integrity. They mentioned the flattening couldn’t be seen without the wheel getting built, but I looked later and there is some evidence of fishiness.
7. With disc brakes you don’t need machined side walls on the rims. My front is clean with an all black look. The rear wheel has machined side walls. I found a really good deal on the rear wheel with machined side walls and bit. The non-machined version had to be ordered from Velocity directly and cost nearly 50% more. Maybe I’ll regret this later, but I don’t notice it day-to-day unless I think about it which is usually when I’m away from the bike.

Things I learned later:

1. Belt alignment between the front & rear sprockets is critical. I can’t stress this enough. It’s gotta be perfect. Chris includes a doc in the frameset shipment calling this out, too. It can’t be more than 1mm offset between the front chain ring and rear cog. I was hoping the default Alfine bottom bracket, Alfine crank, and Alfine rear hub would “just” line up with the OnlyOne. They didn’t. I needed a 2.5 mm bottom bracket spacer.
2. I’m not a fan of the “shoelace protector” plate on the Alfine crank that covers the chain ring. I wanted the belt showing in all its glory. So I got chain ring spacers to properly tension the chain ring bolts without the protector.
3. I stressed more about belt tension than was warranted. Even Chris says in his doc that belt tension is mostly irrelevant. As long as the tension is even across the belt is fine. Perhaps tension is less important with Gates CenterTrack (center-guide, newer technology) than with CDX (gated on alternate sides across front & rear rings, older technology)
4. The Alfine 11 is a little finicky at times. I’ve got the shifter & cable indexing the hub as instructed by Shimano, yet there’s a little bit of skipping around gears 7 & 8. I really hope it’s break-in related and will go away. Otherwise I will experiment with offsetting the shifting. Shimano tells you to line up the yellow dots in 6th gear. Mine are perfectly aligned. Yet something is still off. Shifting to a lower/harder then higher/easier gear fixes the skipping when it happens. I need to spend more time understanding what’s going on before experimenting to a permanent fix.
5. The rear fender stays (the metal ‘V’ that connects the fender to the eyelet) were too short. I ordered longer, I should say LONGEST, stays from Planet Bike and they BARELY fit (by 5mm on the disc side!). This is because of the sliding rear dropouts that I had to take advantage of due to the longer belt size. It all works beautifully now!

November 2015 Update: after several months of riding I wanted to give an update on the Alfine 11. Per Shimano, the hub needs an oil change after the first 500 miles. I changed it early assuming I ride it a little harder than Shimano’s average Alfine customer. I went with a Roholoff kit because it’s cheaper than Shimano’s and it includes a washing fluid that helps extract existing dirty oil. (Which, from everything I’ve read online, shouldn’t harm the Alfine.) I added the 25 mL of cleaning fluid to the hub, expecting to extract 50 mL of fluid (25 mL old oil + 25 mL of cleaning fluid). After extracting as much as I could, I only got 37 mL out of the hub. I couldn’t help but be sad that all this time, I was blaming the hub for its poor performance. Specifically the frequent skipping I was experiencing immediately after shifting. At first I thought it was break-in, but then I thought it needed to be aligned. But it never really was up to par. Now with this finding, I knew the problem. And I felt bad that the last few hundred miles probably shortened the life of the hub by a couple years. I added 27 mL of oil to the hub and wrapped up the oil change. Now, about 1000 miles later, the hub is GOLDEN. It lives up to what you’d expect. Quick shifts, holding gears without skipping, and superb power transmission in all gears. The only gotcha is the 6-7 upshift where a coupler kicks in during that shift (which is unique to that specific gear change). I’m a satisfied customer again.

As promised, here’s the gear list. I welcome feedback or questions in the comments at the end of the page.

Category	Name	Product Name	Size
Wheels	Front hub	Hope Pro2 Evo Front Disc Hub 28H QR Black
Wheels	Rear hub	Shimano Alfine SG-S700 S700 Internal Gear Hub For Disc 11 Speed 32H Black
Wheels	Front rim	Velocity A23 700c 28h All Black Rim Non-Machined Sidewall
Wheels	Rear rim	Velocity A23 O/C Clincher 700c Rim – 32H, Offset Spoke Bed, Black
Wheels	Spokes	J-bend, $1.50 x 60
Wheels	Nipples	Brass locktite black color
Wheels	Build up	Recycled Cycles hand-built wheels
Wheels	Tires	2015 Continential Duraskin Gatorskin 700×25 folding clincher	700×25
Wheels	Tubes	(already have)
Brakes	Disc calipers	BB7 Road™ Mechanical Disc Brake	165mm rotor 140mm rotor
Drivetrain	Drive belt	Gates carbon drive belt
Drivetrain	Front chain ring	Alfine	46t
Drivetrain	Crank set + BB	Alfine	170
Drivetrain	Bottom bracket	Alfine
Drivetrain	Rear sprocket	Gates rear sprocket	22t
Steering	Headset	King NoTrdSet 1-1/8″ Bold Graphics Bk
Steering	Stem	Easton
Steering	Bars	FSA Omega Compact Road Handlebar (40cm, Black)
Drivetrain	Shifter and brake handles	11 Speed Versa VRS11 V4 STI Levers for Internal Gear Hubs
Steering	Bar tape	Easton Pinline Logo Bar Tape, Orange
Drivetrain	Brake housing	Jagwire Hyper Brake DIY Kit, Black
Drivetrain	Shifter housing for Alfine 11	Shimano PTFE Road Shift Cable and Housing Set (Black)
Seat	Seatpost	Thomson Elite Bicycle Seatpost	27.2 width 250mm length
Seat	Saddle	Specialized Toupe Bike Saddle Ti Rails	130mm width
Rack	Rack
Rack	Trunk bag
Fenders	Fenders	Planet Bike 7058-5 Cascadia Fender Set Road
Fenders	Mud flaps	n/a
Power	USB charging system	n/a
Wheels	Rear hub parts	Shimano Small Parts Set for SG-S700 Alfine (Alfine S700)	n/a
Frameset	Speedhound	OnlyOne	54cm
Steering	Headset spacers	CARBON FIBER BIKJRFOTO Bicycle HEADSET SPACERS 1 1/8″ SET STEM Set 5-10-15-20mm 4 pcs
Wheels	Rim tape	Stans No Tubes 10yd x 21mm Rim Tape
Brakes	Disc rotor adapter	Shimano SM-RTAD05 Centerlock-to-6-Bolt Disc Adapter
Drivetrain	Bottom bracket spacer		4mm
Drivetrain	Crank bolt spacers		2.5mm
Drivetrain	Cable zip ties	Orange	Small

It happens every day, multiple times a day. Nothing more than the usual visit to the restroom. But something else happens on every visit, and I can’t shake the thought. The person in front of me will wash their hands (no matter how thorough), and then proceed to consume paper towel after paper towel. As I walk out of the bathroom, I glance into the trash can. I’m disgusted to see a vast majority of unused, dry paper towels. I never used to notice. But after watching Joe Smith’s TEDx talk about paper towels, it opened my eyes to this epidemic of wastefulness.

Check it out: over 13 billion — yes, that’s billion with a ‘b’ — pounds of paper towels are used by Americans per year. If you could look at each of those paper towels, I’m sure you’d find they weren’t as effectively used as they could have been. But many times, you can’t do much to improve the effectiveness. Some examples include wiping off an oil dip stick, or cleaning up a quick mess off the floor. But the majority of paper towel usage for urban dwellers is in a restroom.

It’s all too easy to grab more than you can use. Those paper towels are begging to be used. Many dispensers used to be manual pull systems, but now most are automated — making it even easier to use more paper towels. It’s hard to do the same with less. Or, dare I say, to be as effective as you are today with much less. I’ve been making a conscious difference for the last several months. And I have faith you can too. What’s the secret? It’s quite simple… first, consider the problem: how do I remove water from my hands? There are many simple ways to solve this problem.

The most effective way to dry your hands is to shake them! Shake them while you count to 5 seconds. Are your hands dry? I bet you they’re close! What next? I grab the smallest paper towel I possibly can. Why even use one? I don’t like to touch the door. (That’s another opportunity! Please let me open the door to leave the bathroom without touching anything.) There’s a sanitary aspect to using a paper towel, but it doesn’t require more than a small one to manage.

If we can all pitch in to make a little difference, not only will you feel better about your level of wasteful consumption, but you’ll also help America save hundreds of millions of pounds of paper towels a year. That’s more than a few trees, fuel, and other energy necessary to create and get those paper towels to their destination. Even though paper towels DO grow on trees, we know that even trees must be conserved. It’s the right thing to do.

Promise to me you’ll try it. Just once. Know you can make a difference. Just a little one, but it will add up. And tell a friend. Help change our culture to be more conscious when it comes to our blind and wasteful consumption habits.

A few seconds slower than last year, but not too shabby. Especially with that blazing 4:50 min/mi first mile. Phew! I’ll be completely honest, I did not train for this race. In fact, I’ve run no more than 5 times since August. Either all that cycling is paying off, or I’m really lucky inheriting those strong running genes from my maternal grandfather. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter. Along with a little dose of strategy and a dash of luck!

http://atltiming.racemine.com/Across-The-Line-Timing/events/2012/Microsoft-5K-Run-Walk–After-Party/results

Well… hello there!

I came across an opt-ed piece in the New York Times that was oddly inspirational. First off, I’m not a regular “Opinion” reader. I love a “discussion”, but am not a big fan of consuming the “take-it-or-leave-it” articles. (Am *I* on your guilty list?) Well, one of them caught my eye with a taunting title: “Got Milk? You Don’t Need It”. As someone who has makes a concerted effort to steer clear of dairy, I was obviously interested in the “opinion” of why we no longer need it. First off, it’s well-written and chock full of numbers to back the author’s arguments. So I recommend you read it for yourself. The author turned out to be lactose-intolerant, but relied on band-aids like Prevacid to help ease the chronic indigestion. While the anti-dairy argument was an interesting read in itself (in particular the vast numbers of people whose bodies don’t handle dairy “gracefully”), the author touched briefly on a point that I strongly believe is the real problem with our nation: our healthcare system. I’m not opening a can of worms here… stay with me… I’m talking about the desire of the “system” to make money. Big pharma in particular, but also doctors, nurses, pharmacies, and others in the chain of drugs who may have been misinformed. Unfortunately, much of the system is driven at one end by shareholder demands for even higher profits. R&D and new drugs can help and many are beneficial. However there are way too many “fix-it” drugs that claim to fix problems that are in direct result of our lifestyle choices. The author touches on one of them which has an astonishingly simple fix: stop consuming dairy. The financial impact is zero to the patient. But the American way is to patch the problem by taking a pill (although the doctor and patient call it a “fix”). Rarely is it considered that something so trivial in the patient’s lifestyle could be the root cause. That’s too easy. A patient would scoff at the thought of cutting out milk, ice cream, cheese, and yogurt. Get rid of that doctor! I’ve had milk all my life and never had a problem. Yep.

We’re all after the magic blue pill (no, not this one, but maybe this one!). Well, maybe not all of us. While we continue to seek the holy grail cure-all antidote, I believe there needs to be a shift to prevention – which mostly relies on things we have had for thousands of years! We’re here today because our ancestors were gifted & lucky enough to survive and have offspring through natural selection. Why would we fuel our bodies with pills & ingredients that none of our ancestors ate? Again, some may be beneficial and modern medicine in general has continued to feed into a ever-growing life-expectancy. But we’re at a critical point where our technology is beginning to fire against us. (Examples here and here. Now this is a great read.) Human adaptation to sustain explosions in world population has not been tested over time. I believe we are starting to see signs in the latest few generations: obesity is on a rapid climb, the rate of diabetes is staggering, and the omnipresent exposure to toxins wears down on our immune systems. We simply can’t nurture healthy lives. If you look around the world, there are some groups of people that have statistically significant rates of cancer than is lower than industrialized countries on the whole. A great example is the Amish. (Good article on cancer & the Amish here.) The answers here are simple. It just takes a few moments of thinking before eating to make a more informed decision.

1. Minimize refined sugars. We are a nation of sugar addiction! Just look at soda consumption.

2. Minimize toxins. What you eat & drink, what you put on your body (hairspray, deodorant, sunscreen, etc.), what air you breathe (as much as you can help it). It’s everywhere and all around us.

3. If you couldn’t grow it or make it with primitive tools, don’t consume it.

4. Raw is best.

5. Water is essential.

Yes, there are other “good things” like eating wild low-mercury fish, exercise, etc. But if we could at least get folks to try focusing on the above points first and foremost, I believe we would be in a very different place. Corporate interests would turn to solving a different set of problems which I pray would be “better” than those they’re spending too much time trying to solve today. The diagnosis would start with a set of questions and conversations like tell me about what you eat during your day? Besides my naturopathic/holistic doctor (a post for another time), no doctor has EVER asked me that question. How can they help me when they don’t understand me?

We desperately need humanity to help humanity. The way it’s working today is broken. It’s based on greed and misinformation. Today’s system is not sustainable, but we haven’t hit the critical breaking point yet. So life goes on. But like all life, including those lives of our ancestors, may survival-of-the-fittest continue to take its course.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/got-milk-you-dont-need-it

Victory is sweet.

Guess who’s still around? It sure has been a while! It’s easy to ignore writing longer pieces when there’s so many other outlets such as Twitter to express short but immediate thoughts or information. Add spring, summer, and a crazy period of work, and the blog is too easy to let go. I miss it, so I’m back to entertain, educate, and just do something I really enjoy.

Let’s get work out of the way. I got involved in an experimental project in a small team. We were very much like a startup – moving fast, changing direction when necessary, selling our ideas to others, and staying on a true course until the end. Even when others fell off, I still believed. I kept it going and stood up for what was right, but eventually it gave way. It didn’t work out for the company, for the product, or for my career. But it will come back. When it we ship it one day I’ll let you know and you’ll understand.

Now that’s over, I’ve had a chance to really enjoy what the last several weeks of 80+ degree weather has to offer. All the while I have also been executing on a plan for a major goal this year – the Chicago Marathon. Running marathons is nothing new to me – I’ve done Boston, Portland, Seattle, CdA ironman, several halfs (Wildflower back in April this year), and countless other races. While I’ve had good success with my running career, I never felt like I left everything on a single course. I never gave my best performance. On top of that, my grandfather has been a tremendous inspiration to my athletic aspirations. My goal for Chicago: to leave it all out there and walk away with a time I can be proud to challenge my children and grandchildren with someday. While I keep (somehow) getting faster with age, the time is looming where age will win over my motivation to eek out seconds, save minutes, from my race times. So Chicago – a relatively flat and fast course – is my way to solidify a Green family record in the books.

I’ve been sticking to a fairly rigorous training schedule. I won’t bore you with the details here, but my approach is quite different from other marathons I’ve trained for. The major objectives of my regimen include high mileage, fast intervals mid/later in the mileage, and practicing race-day nutrition on every run over 10 miles. This time around, I’ve found another gear – as I like to say. I’m running casually at 7 min/mile pace. My fastest mile intervals hover just below 4:30 min/mile. Needless to say, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m cautiously optimistic I will be well prepared for race day without overtraining. A trick that’s worked for me in the past is dramatic reduction in mileage the week before the race while keeping a few short, but fast, key workouts in place.

No matter how hard I train for Chicago, it’ll be a fruitless effort if I start behind 45,000 people. It would be very difficult, not to mention unsafe, to pass thousands of runners. In fact, I believe it takes over 30 minutes for the last runner to cross the start line! My goal is to run Chicago in 2:40 or faster. If I plan on succeeding I’ll need to be towards the front. Chicago, as most marathon majors, accept qualifying times for seeding in corrals. There’s an Elite corral that requires a 2:30 full or 1:10 half marathon time. Wowzers. Corral A is next in line, with times of 1:25 and 3:10. I tried to get into Corral A with my run time from the Wildflower half ironman in April. I didn’t train much for Wildflower, but my run time was respectable for a half ironman with an off road hilly course at 1:31. Here’s my letter to the Chicago marathon organizers pleading for a Corral A but without a Corral A time.

Hi there,

I’m looking to seed myself in Corral A or B for Men’s. Unfortunately I do not have a pure marathon or half-marathon to hand you right now, but my most recent race result was the Wildflower Triathlon – a half Ironman distance – from April 2011. (The Wildflower is an early season race and known for its brutal bike and run courses.) My run time at Wildflower for the half marathon was 1:31 – the result page link is below. I’d like to ask if this can be accepted for me to be seeded in Corral A if possible. I am targeting a sub 2:40 finish time for this year in Chicago. I am going to try to fit a race in before the August 19^th cutoff, but I’m concerned I may not be able to find an appropriate race in time.

If you need additional evidence, I did the Boston back in 2007 with a finish time of 2:47: http://www.athlinks.com/time.aspx?eventid=136784&courseid=185964&term=hagen green.

http://raceresults.eternaltiming.com/index.cfm/20110430_AVIA_Wildflower_Triathlons.htm?Fuseaction=Results&Bib=&Firstname=hagen&Lastname=green&=Search

Please let me know if these results are enough evidence for consideration for Corral A.

Thank you, and looking forward to a great race.

Yes, it was a plea and I knew it likely wouldn’t fly. I had a race up my sleeve – the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon – but really didn’t want to pay $100 for a 13.1 mile race on public roads. Call me a cheapo, but running has become a prohibitively expensive sport! (Alright, that’s about $7.63 per mile or around 0.15 cents per foot.) My Wildflower results landed me in Corral B. That means I could be behind 4500 people. No thank you. So I followed through with my plan and ran the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon. It’s a moderately rolling course with a  very scenic bridge crossing around mile 3, and a fast downhill for the last couple miles. It’s also sponsored by Michelob Ultra – and since I want to be like Lance it was a no brainer. Much to my dismay there was no beer at any of the rest stops.

I dropped Jaime off at the airport on Friday late afternoon and then made my way down to the Tacoma Narrows airport which serves as the starting line for the race. I kept things simple and just slept in the car near the start line. It was nice to wake up early and just jog over to the race. The start line was adjacent to a hangar which was used for registration and bib handouts. There were small prop planes all around which I’m sure metaphorically helped everyone out there run faster that day.

A couple minutes before the race started, I got in the chute towards the front. I was amongst a couple Kenyans and other serious looking collegiate runners. I felt a little bit out of place. I knew they weren’t messing around. Just to be sure I was in the right place, I chatted a few of them up and even asked what pace they were expecting to hold. When the gun went off so did the Kenyans. But I was right in their wake. They were in sight until around mile 4. The collegiate guys were right in front of me. We were doing a 5:50 pace for several miles. Near mile 3, I reminded myself why I was running this race and what my goals were. I was there to get into Corral A – meaning a 1:20 or faster. If I kept up a 5:50 min/mile pace, I may cramp or slow down towards the end and end up missing the 1:20 cutoff! I felt pretty good, so I kept the 5:50 pace and was very careful on the nutrition front. I also kept a positive attitude and remembered to just have fun. I set my GPS watch to tick the lap counter every mile. I think I surprised myself with consistent sub-6’s mile after mile. I felt great for the last 3 miles as I hit a consistent 5:30 min/mile pace. I negative split more than expected and felt like I could keep going strong as I made my way into the finish line.

As I came into the finish area there was nobody anywhere in front of me and nobody behind me. If you look at the finishing times, I was 2 minutes behind the previous finisher and 3+ minutes in front of the person to finish after me. I must admit I’ve never felt like a celebrity runner, but I’d like to think this was carved out to be my moment.

I came in 6th place out of 826 runners; 2nd in my age group. My best race to date.

I must say the event was very well run and there were some great people I met and talked to. I can see doing the race again next year because it was such a great scene. Props to the race organizers for making this a memorable, safe, and well executed event.

Onward to Chicago! Less than one month to go!

I’ll never forget the first time I saw a bald eagle. It was after I made the move to the great Northwest. I was on a run along the eastside of Lake Sammamish when I heard this high pitch repetitive crying noise. I noticed some other people nearby looking up, and heard the words muttered. There are several lucky spots to find baldies, in particular around north, northeast, and south Lake Sammamish as well as various locations on Lake Washington. I didn’t know it at the time, but I picked a lucky home in Kirkland. There are several families of bald eagles and ospreys in the immediate vicinity. I can hear the reminiscent bald eagle cry on a weekly basis during the spring and through the fall. In fact, they just started making their presence known a few short weeks ago.

You may know what a bald eagle looks like. It’s on the POTUS seal, established by our country’s founders back in the 18th century. It’s also minted on several denominations USA currency. While identifying a baldy is one thing, seeing it in action is another. The bird is amazingly majestic in flight: riding thermals and currents without a flap of its wings. With nearly an 8 ft wingspan for the females, I’ve nearly mistaken this bird for an airplane! The face, always serious, etches into your mind with its stark yellow eyes and beak. And watching this animal pull a fish out of the water and carry it up high to its nest is another sight altogether – one I’ve had the honor to witness only once.

I was listening to a gentleman on NPR who started a bald eagle cam web site in Norfolk, VA. The cam itself is hidden in a tree next to a bald eagle nest. There are a handful of baby eagles roosting with their mother. It is quite the sight. I must admit the babies are ugly compared to a mature eagle. But they’re cute to watch as they flip over and fall over each other. Go take a look for yourself!

http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html

Several years ago, it was all about shredding those credit card applications that came in the mail. Thieves would physically dig through your trash cans outside your home to find personally identifiable information. They’d use that information to impersonate your identity, which could lead to all sorts of bad things, including racking up a boat-load of credit & charges against your name. Of course physically stealing an identity required a high level of engagement and, therefore, risk.

Nowadays, identity theft is all too easy. With nearly everything online, a thief need not dig through your trash can. That’s too much work. All they need to know are basics such as your pet name, where you went to school, your birthday, and your maiden name (as applicable). Funny that I could get this information for nearly any one of my friends by glancing at a social networking site such as Facebook. Even if we’re not friends, I can get your full name, where you generally live, and then dig into public records to get things like your employer, home address, and phone number. Not to mention using search engines like Bing to learn even more about you. It’s all online! Yes, if it’s online, it’s essentially in the public domain.

If you go online and give out personal information, you are presumed to be disseminating that data to a trusted party. While you may think that’s true, consider the possibilities on where your personal data could end up. One scenario is your information is sold to a 3rd party. Banks or credit card issuers may give you an “out out” option, but many do not. You may be opted in by default, and be required to call a phone number to get out. Another scenario is that the institution cannot be trusted. They either have insecure practices or a repeated history of breaches. You can assume that any company with a new online presence may be suspect – when you’re getting a company up on its feet, best security practices may not be the primary focus. Yet another scenario is that your data is so-called “lost” – that is, the company isn’t sure what happened to it. Case in point: the recent leak of confidential records by California-based insurer Health Net. I should be careful. IBM allegedly informed Health Net that several hard drives could not be found – IBM manages Health Net’s information technology systems. From the reports, it appears addresses, social security numbers, and financial info, among other data, was lost. Authorities are obviously hot on the investigation. But the question remains: what happened? Could such a disaster have been prevented?

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-0316-health-net-records-20110316,0,1660184.story

In the end, none of us have control of our online destiny. Even if you never type your name into a computer connected to the internet, someone else will. Your bank, your employer, a family member, or a friend. Unless you truly live off the grid and in seclusion, it’s inevitable your private information will be in the public domain. From there, it’s a game of statistical risk whether or not your information will get into the wrong hands and be used fraudulently. It’s the same numbers game we all play when we get in the car to drive somewhere. We can try to keep ourselves safe by practicing defensive driving and buying a car top-rated in crash tests. But there’s only so much we can do to protect ourselves.

Welcome to the information age. Over time, we can expect perceptions of security practices to improve. But like anything else, the thieves will always try to get a step ahead. The best preparation is to know what you’re going to do once you catch fraud in its wake.

I happened upon an article by PC World published today that claims blogs are dead. I respectfully disagree with the opinion, and wonder if the author has ever written a blog over a relatively long period of time. Microblogs like Twitter are great for one-liners, but any deeper insight is nearly impossible to achieve in a coherent approach. To that I say,

Long live the blog!

On a separate but related note: PC World has managed to lose my respect over the last year. They’ve shifted to take not just a more provocative approach to their writing, but from reckless and poorly considered angles. I just can’t take them seriously anymore. I encourage the reader to decide for themselves, of course. Glad I finally got that one off my chest!

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

I came across an op-ed piece today by a Toledo (OH) Blade writer, republished by the Seattle Times. It’s a fresh reminder to us all that the simple things in life can make all the difference. Perhaps we too often think selfishly of ourselves, push our own agendas, and tell people what we think. When’s the last time you asked someone: “how are you doing?” and actually cared how they responded? I’ve noticed its a cultural norm in our society to ask the question in passing without pausing to fully soak up their answer. I’m just as guilty.

How about when talking with someone face to face. Are thoughts running through your head as they speak? Are you *actively* listening to what they have to say? Or do you mentally cut them short and start formulating a response while they’re still talking? Without fully absorbing what they’re saying, you’re missing out on the in-the-moment communication not to mention the potentially more powerful non-verbal queues.

Today’s generations have unlearned the skill of listening. We’ve de-evolved to a multi-tasking ADD/ADHD society. How did we get here? It must be technology and the speed of life in today’s here-and-right-now day and age. Look how far we’ve fallen compared to our ancestors. Talking to our grandparents is a lesson in something we’ve all long forgotten. Notice how they listen will all ears, are attentive, and have heartfelt responses that show they’re well grounded in your thoughts. They make it look easy. What happened to us?

We all strive to be better people in the game of life. Americans pay X number of millions of dollars a year on self-improvement seminars and books, trying to unlock the secrets of productivity and how to land that promotion at work. Does it really take hours on end and hundreds of pages to tell us what we already know? Do we disregard it because it’s too easy to believe? What if the big secret was as simple as being present and just listening? Let’s try it out, and circle back to see how it’s changed us for the better. Sometimes taking a small step back can propel us farther forward than we ever could have imagined.

And the best parts: no internet connection required, no charging batteries, and it’s 100% free. I’ll be sure to send you the bill shortly.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2014270273_listen22.html