Home Groan

Yesterday, rather than do a workout from Dave Ertl, I did a hard workout but a more informal one. This one is similar to the "stop sign" workout where I alternate sprinting between stop signs or intersections and resting between same. This, perhaps, mimics normal riding more than the timed intervals.

Having said that, it was probably a less intense workout than the Dave Ertl ones. :-)

Today, I rode an easy recovery ride with Mrs. MTBMan1. No hard ride tonight. I took a look at that wobbly rear wheel and sure enough, broken spoke! I thought that wheel was only a year old but I bought it after the 2008 Tour de Cure where I rode the 100K with 3 broken spokes! I released the rear brakes so they wouldn't rub. Then at the 42 mile mark, a volunteer wrench straightened the wheel out enough so I could finish by adjusting the tension on the remaining spokes.

Anyhow I don't feel TOO bad. The wheel is TWO years old and I am a little HEAVY and I do ride pretty HARD and it is very HILLY around here and BUMPY at times although they have resurfaced a lot of roads in the last couple of years.

I figured the quickest way to get back on the road was to buy a new wheel, which I did and I switched out my cassette (after taking the opportunity to clean it up pretty good) and put everything back together. Later I'll get some spare spokes and repair the other wheel so I'll have a good spare.

Also it seems my headset is binding (or the bearings are shot). Matt at Mad Dog Bicycle seems to think I should try loosening it up a bit first to see if that helps. A project for another day!

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Great Expectations .... minor Disappoinment

I told you that I am a pavement connoisseur and one of my pet peeves is bad pavement that doesn't get fixed when better roads nearby are repaved.

I was very happy a couple of weeks ago when I found that a bad stretch of Game Farm road had been recently paved and was interested in seeing how far it went and if the town also paved another road that I frequently ride that is really bad, Hurst Road.

On my weekday 1 hour rides, I don't have enough time to go further than the railroad tracks on Game Farm and Hurst is way beyond that besides and to check it out in the car would be, well ... how can I say ... uncool!

So that was my objective today. I had 2 hours for a ride before church, 6:30AM to 8:30 and I definitely wanted to check the last piece of Game Farm Road and Hurst Rd. Game Farm road from the tracks to where it ends on county route 308 is only 1/3 of a mile but it is very rough macadam with stones showing. It ends up at about a 6% grade so coming down it you can get going pretty good but it is a bone rattling ride.

Well, they didn't pave it. Boo-hoo. I was quite disappointed.

I continued on up Orchard Hill. They didn't repave that either (it could use it) but they did do some patches. Same thing on Hurst. No repave but a few patches on the worst spots. They could have done more.

Hurst Road ends on Clipp Rd which is actually pretty rough itself but it's more consistent and it's flat. Hurst has potholes and ruts in random spots which makes it hard to cut a decent line through at speed going down the hill which is up to a 7% grade in one spot.

On this ride I also had some trouble with a rubbing sound when I pedal hard out of the saddle on a hill. This was of some concern because there have been only 2 reasons for the rubbing sound in the past: 1. Rear wheel was loose in the dropouts or 2. Broken spokes! #2 is the one I was worried about and the rear wheel did look a little wobbly.

I stopped twice to make sure the wheel was centered in the dropouts and that the quick release was tight. I also did a spot check on the spokes and didn't find any broken ones although I did find some loose ones. That may account for the wobbliness. But it still made the rubbing noise. I finally figured out that it was the brake pads that were rubbing. All I needed to do was either push on the pads themselves or else flick the brake lever lightly to stop the noise. That was a relief. Although I should get those loose spokes tightened up.

It rained a little over half way through the ride. It wasn't supposed to. I guess God should have checked the report before he pulled the lever on today. Ha ha.

Terrific ride. A little over 2 hours and 29 miles. This was for endurance so it was a moderate pace. Average HR was 120bpm and max was 145. Burned about 1300 calories.

Here is the route:

endurance ride Sunday 6-27-2010


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Dread


There are two things I dread, income tax time and changing my bike computer.

You may recall I have been having trouble with my bike computer. It keeps counting time and miles even when I stop riding, raising havoc with my average speed numbers. It thinks the wheels are still turning when they're not.

For father's day, I got a new one, a Sigma BC1606 DTS. The good news is, it's a different make and model than my old one. The bad news is, it's a different make and model than my old one. Therein lies the dread. I have to figure out how to install and use another bike computer.

This wouldn't be quite so bad but for the skimpy documentation, another of my pet peeves. It's all done in pictures. What little text there is has been translated into all 42,806 languages there are in the world. I'll be half way into trying to read a sentence before I realize I'm not on the English page.

This model happens to be a wireless one for both speed and cadence so I thought this would make it neater and easier and it does to a point.

It took some prolonged looking, at the components and then at the pictures and then back again. Sigma uses rubber O-rings, essentially elastic bands on steroids, to fasten their components to the bike although, to their credit, they provide the option to use wire ties. And I'm glad they did.
The O-rings are much quicker and easier than the wire ties ... when they work. Plus, if you need to fiddle with the positioning of the magnets and sensors (and believe me you do!) it's also much easier to do.

I hooked everything up and then spun the cranks and the front wheel to test. The cadence worked right out of the gate. No problem there. The speed sensor took a little fiddling to get it to work ... and then it didn't work ... more fiddling. Finally got it and went back inside to read more of the documentation ... how to work the functions. I saw that I was supposed to have used the thicker, more sturdy O-ring for the speed sensor so ... back outside. I tried to get the thick O-ring to fit the groove in the speed transmitter but it didn't seem right so I decided to use the wire ties.

Now of course, it didn't work again. More fiddling. Finally got it. I hope it stays working!

Now I have to familiarize myself with the functions and buttons on the new computer.

More dread.

I hope this thing is worth it!

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Pacing

Today I did an anaerobic workout from David Ertl's Training for the Busy Cyclist.

I enjoyed it.

With these different types of workouts, aerobic, anaerobic and hill/leg strength, I am learning to pace myself differently depending on the workout.

Here is the program for this workout. It mimics standing and blasting out of a corner on a crit.

1) Warm up for 10 minutes
2) stand and accelerate out of the saddle. then sit and continue to accelerate for 30 sec.
3) back off for 30 sec.
4) repeat 10 of these intervals (10 minutes)
5) rest easy pedal for 5 minutes
6) repeat 2 more of the 10 minute interval segments
7) spin easy for 5 minutes

I found that I could ride hardest of all during these 30 sec intervals because of the more generous rest times.

This is pretty fun finding out the various pacing techniques for the different types of riding. Learning more about my own body directly, by experience. Different from intellectual learning.

I averaged 130 bpm heart rate and hit a max of 159, seems to be a frequent number.

Hope to get a longer, 2+ hour ride in on Sunday AM.

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How Hard is Too Hard?

The last 2 high intensity workouts on the bike, I felt pretty wiped for the rest of the day. Monday, in fact, I didn't feel well at all.

I was therefore wondering if I was pushing it too hard. You're supposed to go as hard as you can during the hard interval portions of the workout but I'm just wondering about the age factor (I'm 62) and the weight factor (ahem ... well, let's just say I'm not at my optimal weight). Dave Ertl who wrote the eBook "Training for the Busy Cyclist" is a "masters athlete" himself. Love that term "masters" instead of "senior". So it implies he's older but it doesn't say how old he is. Of course, every single person that writes on fitness says see your doctor first, i.e. don't sue me if you drop dead.

So, anyway, should I work so hard I throw up, keel over, hit a tree? Or less than that. There's working as hard as you can really, i.e. can't physically do no mo' and there's working until you decide you aren't willing to endure any more pain. 2 different levels really.

Even if I choose the latter of the 2, I guess if I feel sick afterwards, that's too much. Of if that's a consistent problem, check it out with the doc.

For today, I debated just riding for fun, no training objective or doing intervals but just not working so hard. I opted for the latter but I wound up training hard anyway. I guess I felt good enough. Not throw-up level but hard nevertheless. As a matter of fact, I rode harder in the second half than in the first. I guess I got warmed up. :-)

This was one of Ertl's 1 hour aerobic workouts and it went like this:
- warm up 10 minutes
- ride as hard as you can for 15 seconds
- "rest" by spinning easy for 15 seconds
- slam 15, chill 15 for 20 minutes!
- rest (spin easy) for 5 minutes
- slam 15 and chill 15 again for 20 minutes
- cooldown and home: 5 minutes

Needless to say, you don't recover completely in 15 seconds and your heart rate gradually works up to 85-90%MHR. But it's doable. It's a little tricky keeping track of the time. Those 15 second segments go by pretty fast. Especially the rest ones! ;-)

Also, on this route you have to deal with intersections, corners, stop signs, traffic, etc. so those don't always line up with 15 second intervals. Usually it means the "rest" portions are a few seconds longer (oh, darn!).

You know what? I really enjoy these training workouts. It makes the ride interesting otherwise I get pretty bored riding Dunkin' Donut every day. I felt pretty good today so I don't know what happened Monday. Maybe something I ate (or didn't eat).

And oh that sweet, sweet pavement on Game Farm Road! MMM-MMM-MMM! Zip right across that concrete bridge with nary a blip either direction.

Tomorrow: rest or easy ride and then for Friday, an anerobic or hill/leg strength training ride.

Here are my numbers for today:
cadence: 69RPM
average speed: 14.9mph
Distance: 14.7 mi
average HR: 137
max HR: 159
calories burned: 902

Also, I spent 40 minutes in Zone 3 (138-173bpm or 80 to 100%MHR). I'm quite pleased about that!

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Go Back, Jack, Do it Again!

Today was another intensity workout from David Ertl's eBook "Training for the Busy Cyclist" from roadbikerider.com.

This was a hill/leg strength workout for 45 minutes and it goes like this:

1. 10 min: warm up
2. Find a hill about 1/4 mile long and 6% grade. Choose a big gear that you can push no faster than 60 RPMs and slam it up the hill!
3. Chill for 3 minutes (i.e. recover with easy spinning, mostly back down the hill)
4. Do it again.
5. Do it as many times as you can for 30 minutes
6. Cool down for 5 minutes.

The problem with this around here is finding a hill that's 1/4 mile long, 6% grade and within 10 minutes ride of my house.

The best I could do, which I don't think was too bad, was a 1/4 mile of hill about 12 minutes from the house (I think I can cut this down by doing a different route). The grade, however, rather than 6% ranged from flat to 15%. Best I can do. If I have to drive somewhere, well that blows the 45 minutes to 1 hr that I have available after work out the window. Tricky.

My average HR was 124 bpm and my max was 158. Not as hard of a workout as the aerobic and anerobic hours that I did the last 2 times.

If I get to workout tomorrow, I will do some upper body strength training at home or at the gym.

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The search for righteous pavement!

How could I have forgotten about this?! They paved the rest of Game Farm Road! Halleluiah!

I am a connoisseur of pavement!

Last year, the town paved a lot of rural roads around here. One of them, Game Farm Road, which is on my regular "Dunkin' Donut" route was partially paved. The part that they didn't pave was just terrible. One of the roughest in the county. Not potholes but it was that old style macadam that was a good percentage stones. Every year more and more of the asphalt was leached out of the surface leaving more and more stones until it was like a cobblestone road. Bad for bikes, rollerbladers and skateboarders.

After this winter it was really bad. Then, one time when I was going back down the road, it's a pretty quick downhill, there is a bridge over a pond that is surfaced with concrete. The transition from the asphalt to the concrete is abrupt and I had found a spot on the lefthand side that was worn down enough to ride over at speed without much of a jolt.

This time over, when I hit that spot I nearly broke my wrists! I was sure my front wheel was going to be destroyed too. The asphalt had been gouged out right alongside the lip of the concrete so you almost had to stop to go over it. !#$!#$!# WHO DID THAT!!! WHY DON'T THEY FIX THAT PAVEMENT!!!

Everytime I hit that section afterwards I grumbled about it. Then I noticed a small dashed white line newly painted in the middle of the road. And then I noticed that the asphalt next to the railroad crossing was deliberately gouged out too. Hmmmm. Maybe they're going to pave the road? Almost too much to hope for!

On Tuesday's training ride, they patched the bumps on the bridge and the tracks. Better but ....

Then on yesterday's ride, hooray! That has made my year! I will now be happy for a long time. Weeks. Maybe months!

Now, if I find they've paved Hurst road, I will go into a euphoric trance forever. That must be the absolute bone-shakingest , bike breakingest worst road in the county. It's a fast downhill and so rough and inconsistent it's impossible to find a reasonable track through it. The last time I went on it I thought boy if there's anything loose on this bike this will be when it shakes loose and sure enough my computer transmitter came loose and slid down my fork.

There's this other road, Tygert, out in Voorheesville that is a rougher surface but at least it's consistent. I think it was just poured that way with a lot of stones of a particular size.

Anyhow, I love that stretch of Game farm road. Either way there is this "S" curve on a hill that is so much fun to do fast and now it'll be even funner!

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What is sore?

I started doing my training based on the eBook from Roadbikerider.com by David Ertl entitled "Training for the Busy Cyclist". Tuesday I did a hard ride, a one hour aerobic workout. Wednesday I was feeling it, Thursday I was feeling it, and today I was still feeling it!

You're supposed to rest after a hard workout until the soreness goes away completely. I'm not sure if I was really sore today. I mean, I was definitely feelin' it in the quads especially. If I actually wait until I'm not feeling the results of the hard workout, it'll be a week! I guess that's the old person effect. It takes us older folks longer to recover.

Anyhow, it was a real nice day. Too nice not to ride. I debated doing another training ride or just take it easy. I did the training ride.

This one is from the eBook and it's called an anerobic ride. It was for one hour. Here's how it goes: warm up-10 min, ride hard as you can-2min, ride not-so-hard-but-not-easy-1min, repeat 3 times, chill for 5 minutes, repeat the whole sequence 3 times.

I used my old faithful 1 hour training route, Dunkin' Donut. It's not perfect but it's familiar. I know what's coming. That's important because I'm working so hard physically that it's hard to think or make decisions.

I'm glad I did the training rather than the easy ride. I usually am. It's not only physically good but there's the sense of accomplishment and the fact that you're getting better.

I may not get an endurance ride in this weekend but the next training ride will probably be hill climbing/leg strength.

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getting with the program

I recently downloaded this eBook from roadbikerider.com by David Ertl titled, "Training for Busy Cyclists". This is right up my alley. While I don't particularly consider myself an overly "busy" person, I am frustrated by my limited amount of time that I have to ride.

The premise of this eBook is that especially with limited riding time you have make every ride count. Every ride must have a training objective. While this is no revelation for those of us who have been riding for awhile and are literate and aware of the cycling literature available both in traditional print media and on the web, it does help me to have a "coach" even if that coach communicates somewhat generically to the cycling masses through electronic text.

I also find it useful that David Ertl supplies examples of training regimens depending on how much time you have for each ride. The idea, again pretty standard, is that you workout really hard 2 or 3 times a week followed by days of rest and then, if you can, do an endurance ride of at least 2 hours on the weekend.

You can say I started this on Sunday with an almost exactly 2 hour ride amongst the hills and rollers of south Bethlehem (NY).

Yesterday, after work, I squeezed in a 1 hour hard ride after work and before dinner which pushed my limits.

The plan was this: 10 minute warm-up, 10 minutes of slamming it, 5 minutes rest, 10 min slam, 5 rest, 10 slam, 10 minute cool-down and end. Total, 1 hour.

I was able to ride harder for the 10 minute intervals than I expected. As you may remember, I have recently been riding the 2 miles of Meads Lane up around 85-87% of maximum heart rate and thinking that was pretty hard. I don't know how long that takes but it's not 10 minutes. Yesterday I was hitting around 155 to 166 bpm, 89 to 96% MHR over the 10 minute interval. Harder than I thought I could sustain. It wasn't easy. I was really panting hard and by the third interval almost whining with every breath. It's not at the level where you can't do anymore but you don't want the pain anymore. And I don't mean any bad pain like chest pain or joint pain but leg muscle burn!

I rode "Dunkin' Donut" for this training venture and it's not the best route for it. There are stops, intersections and traffic during each 10 minute segment but it's hard to find straight unbroken stretches of road outside of the state thruway where you can ride uninterrupted for 10 minutes.

Today I was somewhat sore. Not terribly so but enough. The next 1 hour workout in David Ertl's book (you don't have to do them in order) consists of 15 second intervals followed by 15 seconds of rest over a period of 20 minute segments! Sounds like that may be a hard one to do on the road because of the need to frequently check the time. I may do that one in the gym on the stationary.

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indicators

Indicators that I've gained a few pounds, that is!

I don't need to weigh myself. Or even look in the mirror.

1. pants fit too tight
2. geezer neck is gone
3. can't breath and clip toenails at the same time

Today I have a new one: when pedaling in the drops, my thighs are contacting my abdomen!

Sigh.

At least I'm riding.

Took a 2 hour ride today. I was going to go with Charles but he couldn't go until later. Too late for me. So I went on my own at about 3 o'clock.

It was an iffy day, weather-wise. When I started out it was just misting lightly. Soon it stopped altogether although it started misting again a couple of times but for the most part, it was a dry if gloomy ride. That's OK. I like it gloomy. :-)

Rode 28 miles on all country roads. As I've said elsewhere, Sunday morning is the best ride as far as quiet and minimal traffic and Sunday afternoon is 2nd best.

Here are my numbers for this ride:

Cycle - 2.1 hours - 06/13/2010

Workout:

  • Type: Cycle
  • Date: 06/13/2010
  • Time: 15:00:00
  • Total Time: 2:04:39.00
  • Average Heart rate: 126
  • Max Heart rate: 158
  • Calories: 1508
  • Distance: 28.5 miles
  • Average Speed: 13.72 mph
  • Max Speed: 33.7 mph
  • Ascent: 2,041 ft
  • Descent: 2,044 ft
  • Average Cadence: 71
And here is the route:

cycle June 13th 2010


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Rainy day!

I mean rain ALL day. It's still raining now at 10PM-ish.

I probably wouldn't have ridden anyway. Too much going on.

We painted the BR ceiling and one wall in the living room. That makes me feel old. All the bending and squatting and stretching into weird contortions (when cutting in).

Then we went to a goodbye party for a friend who is going to work overseas for a year.

But then we did get a good walk in. Almost an hour. Once again I forgot: 1. Heart rate monitor and 2. The GPS so I don't have any fun numbers. It was a great walk though. It did stop raining almost completely for the duration and I love walking on a rainy day. It was so lush and green. Mrs. MTBMan1 and I had fun talking about everything under the sun (er ... clouds) so it went fast. I could hardly believe it was almost an hour.

I hope I can at least get an hour ride in tomorrow. Supposed to rain tho.

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ride for fun

Finally got some nice weather today and took a one hour ride after work.
The temp was perfect. Just warm enough for it to feel good riding downhill in the shade.

This ride had no training goal. I just rode for the joy of it. Haven't even looked at my numbers yet.

I downloaded this ebook from roadbikerider.com called "Training for Busy Cyclists" by David Ertl, a USA Cycling coach.

It's for riders that don't have more than 5 hours a week to ride. It's right up my alley. His premise is, the less time you have to train the more intensely you have to train. No big revelation there but he does provide some guidance and workout ideas to help put this into practice. Intervals primarily. Like my "Stop Sign Game" I described in a previous post.

This will work out well for me as I have generally 3 days where I can do a 1 hour ride after work during the week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I can usually put in a 2 hour ride one day on the weekend or if not then 1 hour each of Saturday and Sunday. That leaves Tues and Thurs for rest days.

A 2 hour or more ride on the weekend would be good though, for endurance, as 1 hour rides don't give you that. They're for strength and speed.

Rides like today are considered "junk" miles as they have no training value but I consider fun to have some value of it's own. :-)

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Cold!

It's been unseasonably cool around here of late. I think that's great! I love the cool weather. I got a little sub-cerebral endorphin hit from it. It makes me think of skiing. :-)

You know how "they" say it takes 21 days to change a habit (addiction)? Well, I didn't count the days but after my last day of skiing I was kind of strung out for awhile, in mourning if you will, about the end of ski season. There was that loss. I really felt something was missing to not be able to look forward to my weekly day of skiing.

As time passed and I ramped up my bike riding, that strong sense of something missing began to fade into the background. Now I find myself really excited about riding again. This is becoming a cyclical (no pun intended) thing with me. You know how winter is traditionally a "death" of sorts and spring heralds new life. Well winter for me is the transition time between the end of skiing and the ramp up of cycling. Spring is when I've really kicked into the groove on the bike and I'm looking forward to my daily ride.

I remember last fall when we set the clocks back and I no longer had enough daylight for riding after work. It was kind of sad. That was my second "winter" period. Fortunately these winters are only a few weeks long.

I really need to hunker down and do the gym thing when that happens. Skiing one day a week is not enough for me to maintain a fitness level throughout the winter.

On another note, I had a dream the other night that I was in Texas down by the ocean and there were these huge mountainous swells of waves and suddenly it was cold and the waves were frozen and covered with snow. I no sooner thought "I should have brought my skis" than there were people all over the place skiing!

What's up with that!?

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Now I remember!

Now I remember what I wanted to talk about Sunday's ride. The wind.

There was a pretty hefty wind that night. In fact, we had some humungus rain earlier in the day. I guess the storm was worse than I thought. On the ride, I saw one big tree down inside somebody's roof!

So yeah, it was windy. A big front came through. Turning it from hot to cool. I was talking on the phone on Friday to some guy from Dallas and he asked me what the weather was like up here in upstate NY. I said hot, 83 degrees. He laughed and said that ain't hot!

Anyhow, it got real cool after the front came through. I didn't check but it felt like it was in the 60s.

I rode one of my usual routes, a loop. Because of the wind I rode reverse my usual direction which traverses Meads Lane which has a western exposure. When it's windy, the wind is usually from the west so if you ride Meads from south-east to north-west, as I usually do, you get the wind in the face. I hate that. One of the things I forgot to say about today's ride is that I had a headwind. Riding into the wind makes me angry for some reason. Especially if I'm trying to do a hard workout or make good speed or something. As I've said before, it's personal. It's as if the wind has a will and it's opposing you. Just when you're thinking it's bad ... it gets worse! GRRRR!!!

In any event, it was a successful strategy and I had a nice tailwind all the way down Meads. As usually happens when you have a tailwind you don't even notice it because you don't feel it. You're going along with it. I forgot all about the wind and only realized it in retrospect. My normal mode when I'm going east on Meads is to slam it and get my speed as high as I can for as long as I can. It's hard work. This time I daydreamed my way down Meads and couldn't even remember riding it except for the hairpin turn down Van Dyke at the end. I didn't even notice my speed and couldn't have cared less. It was too pleasant!

Now that's a good tailwind! You won't hear me complain about that.

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The Stop Sign Game!

Took a ride today. Beautiful day. Clear, dry, cool. After a good warm up, I decided to do "the Stop Sign Game".

The Stop Sign Game is where you sprint between stop signs and then rest between the next set of stop signs. A way to add interest, vary a ride on the same route, get a real workout and practice pacing yourself.

So, for example, if it's only 100 yards between one set of stop signs, I'm going to go all out as hard as I can go. But if it's a 2 mile segment, obviously I can't go that hard for the whole section. If I want to go a consistent pace, I'll have to moderate it quite a bit and learn how hard I can maintain for that long of a stretch.

I will alternate between sprinting and resting so if on another ride on the same route, I start the game at a different segment, the previous short sprints will now be short rests and the long rests will be long sprints. You get the picture.

It was fun and definitely a good workout.

On this particular ride I was wondering what my "anerobic threshold" was. I was wondering this because on the 2 mile Mead's Lane section I usually can maintain 152bpm heart rate or so and at this point I'm doing a pretty rhythmic "huffing". Not gasping or panting for breath but definitely not inclined to "chat" easily. Harder than this point is "real hard".

On another note, I took a ride yesterday, just under an hour. My first since Friday when I came down with some kind of stomach "bug". My stomach still hurt a little bit but I was well enough to ride. Anyway, I didn't write about it and do you know, I can't remember a thing about it although I know I had something I wanted to say at the time.

That would be one good use for a digital recorder. To take notes during the ride. It's not good enough quality to do a running monologue for a podcast because of the wind noise, but would work as far as helping me to remember what I wanted to say later. Still need an easy way to stop and start the recording. I don't know if voice activation would work because of the constant wind noise.

In lieu of that, I really should sit down right after the ride and write ... after my snack, that is! ;-)

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No Way!

... was I going to miss riding, that is. I rode yesterday after work even though I was coming down with some kind of intestinal virus that was giving me cramps and the runs all day.

I was glad I went 'cause today I definitely did not feel up to it. And it wouldn't have been wise anyway.

After I rode, I didn't even feel good enough to blog about it.

It was a pretty good ride. Because I wasn't feeling good, I intended to take an easy ride but typically I wound up pushing it a bit. I rode my Dunkin' Donut ride which starts out pretty flat but ends up in a series of rollers. It's just over 15 miles.

I was pleased with the ride and my numbers. Average HR was 135 and my average speed was 15.5mph.

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New Tire!

I bought a new tire last night at the Down Tube Bicycle Shop in Albany. They only had a $16.95 one which I thought was too cheap, I mean it looked cheap, and a $44.95 one. After much consideration, I went with the expensive one. It was more than I expected to pay but tires are literally "where the rubber meets the road." Tires, tubes and flat prevention and stable handling are probably the most important safety considerations in cycling. The new tire was a Bontrager "Race Lite" 27x1-1/4" and it has a Kevlar belt.



Here is the old tire. You can see the cord showing here:

If you look carefully, you can see daylight through this pinhole here:

I should have checked the tire out more carefully before this. That's one of the things "they" tell you to check before each ride.
I kept getting flats, including in my brand new, 1 week old tube. I wonder why?!

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No ride ... new tire

No ride today but I did get a new tire!

I told you how I kept getting flats in the rear tire. When I finally took a good look at it, I saw that it was down to cord and had a hole clear through. Not good!

Plan for tomorrow, if the weather cooperates: change tire after work. Ride after supper. Probably not a long one because I am getting together with a friend of mine at 7 but a ride nonetheless!

I should probably get new brake pads too. I would like to have more stopping power than I've been getting lately. Especially when it's wet.

But I'm psyched today. New tire! Woo-hoo!

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