Starting is the hardest part

Finally got my butt back on the bike today and 3 things were immediately obvious to me:

1.  Not riding a bike for 8 months greatly reduces one's capacity to participate in this activity.

2.  There are no flat roads in my neighborhood.

3.  Riding my bike is fun and I need to do more of it.

Now the first point was actually something I knew intellectually.  It was the wheezing, lung burning, struggle to move that brought the true reality of this statement home.  I survived the ride but it was more work than it should have been.

The second point I sort of knew from driving through the area, but when experienced from the seat of a bike it is much more readily apparent.  Now Strava and Garmin say I only experienced 71 and 72 feet of elevation gain respectively over the ride, but it certainly felt like a whole lot more!

The last point is one I know and one I am reminded of every time I swing my leg over the bike and propel myself along.  I've said it before and I will certainly say it again - I would rather bike 5 times a distance than walk any day.

One other thing I noted on the ride, as I was huffing and puffing my way uphill on Gowan, was that there are other cyclists in the area.  I call them cyclists because they were decked out in matching jersey and riding not inexpensive bikes.  2 of the 3 riders, however were just.  Not a 'hello' or 'on you left' as they rode by me.  Sure I was on my hybrid, in jersey shorts and a t-shirt and I even went heltmetless, but I said hi to them between gasps as they passed.

Anyway this was my first ride of many to come and I enjoyed it.

The wonders of technology

Technology is a wonderful thing. We have so many devices around us that work, essentially, flawlessly that we take them for granted.  Case in point. I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 that I purchased when I was training for my first ever triathlon back in 2010.  It is almost 5 years old at this point. Except for the one or two times I've screwed up hitting buttons incorrectly, it has performed essentially flawlessly for me.

It dutifully records my time, distance and actual track that I take when I do my rides.  I can then, through the wonders of that same technology we take for granted, upload and share that information with the world through sites like Daily Mile, Map My Ride and Strava.  I can also participate in a monumental group ride of sorts like the National Bike Challenge.

Now, like I said, this is something that we take for granted.  I put my Garmin in the cradle, plug it into my computer and magically it uploads the data for me.

This morning it has let me down.  I uploaded the data from my ride and while it does show the time and distance of my ride, that real wonder, the actual track of the ride is blank. No matter what I do it appears that the track file on the device has been corrupted and therefore is unusable for any of the applications that I link it with.

Now, I never believe that something isn't going to work the first time it doesn't.  I've tried deleting and re-importing the data from the device but to no avail.  I've tried loading it directly to various sites, including Garmin Connect, but again no luck.

This leaves me with what feels like an emptiness, a hole in my training.  Up to this point I had this nice, what I felt was essentially complete record of my rides and now it feels like its ruined.

OK, its not that bad.  When put in perspective it means nothing that I don't have the actual track I rode for a training ride around essentially the same course that I've ridden hundreds of time previously.

I do hope that this is but a singular glitch and will reset and clear out the Garmin in preparation for my next ride.

Get on your bike and ride!!!!

User Error

Got up at 4:00 am again this morning to go for my ride.  I had checked out my rear tire again last night and it needs replacing.  There is a pronounced wiggle to it.  It appears to be "throwing a belt" in one spot where it is off center about 1/8".  Not a huge amount but very noticeable and I believe indicative off an impending total failure if I put too much stress on it, like cornering at speed.

I didn't want to not ride this morning as I wait for a new tire to arrive, so I decided to do some easy laps around the block.  I grabbed my Garmin, headed out and got ready to ride.  Once the Garmin had acquired the satellite signal, I hit the start button and heard a peculiar beep.  It was a combination of the high and the low beep the Garmin makes when it starts and stops recording the ride.

I headed out and started making some gentle laps around the block.  About 6 laps in, I decided to check my time as I was curious what my pace was taking it easy.  I was dismayed to see 00:00:00 on it.  It seems the peculiar beep was because I had double tapped the button when I started it, thereby immediately turning it off.  I hit the button to start it and verified it was, in fact, running.

I completed another 6 laps and called it a morning.  Looking at my Strava, it shows that I started the ride at 4:10 but only had moving time of 14:28 and a distance of 2.84 miles. The elapsed time, however, was 29:35. It was obviously user error.

Oh well.  I know I went the distance and my health will benefit from it, even if there is no record of the true distance. :)

As for the tire, while the tread is not overly worn, you have to figure I have stressed the tire much more than a normal rider would due to my weight.  Looking at the rides I've done since I put those tires on the bike in 2013, I've got over 1200 miles on the tires and I figure that's worth about twice that for an average rider. The other thing I noticed on close inspection of the tire, is that the ride half is noticeable worn more than the left half. The reason for this is that the vast majority of the turns I make on the bike, especially at speed, are right turns so it makes sense.

I hope you can get on your bike and ride!

Riding weather is here

Saturday was a sunny day, with highs around 82 degrees and almost no wind.  Not a bad day at all to get out on the bike.  So as I was sitting in the house thinking about riding, I got up, changed and headed out on my bike.  I thoroughly enjoyed my ride.  It wasn't far, only 8.3 miles, nor was it fast, but I got out there and I enjoyed it!

This morning I got out again before work.  The weather was again wonderful - temperature around 70 degrees, almost no wind.  I had my alarm set for 4:00 am as usual when I get out before work.  It went off and I didn't even hesitate, I got right up and started getting ready.  Shorts, jersey, socks and headed downstairs and grabbed my Garmin.  I have a Forerunner 305 which I've had for 3 1/2 years now.  I love it, but the last couple of times I've used it, I had to wait almost 5 minutes for it to acquire the satellites and be ready to go. I'm wondering if it might be time to start looking at a new device.

After getting a stick of gum, I headed out to the garage and put on my shoes.  I then topped off my tires.  It amazes me how the low volume of air, losses pressure so fast.  They were up to 84 psi on Saturday.  This morning I had to pump them up from about 72 psi.  Once I had them up to pressure, I grabbed my helmet and gloves, hit the opener and headed out to get ready to ride.  I started my Garmin, put on my gear, turned on my lights and waited for the Garmin to be ready.

And waited. And waited.  It was almost 6 minutes before the Garmin finally showed that it was ready to go.  I had debated just using my phone and Strava, DailyMile or MapMyRide to record the details of this morning's efforts, but decided to wait it out since i wanted to update all 3 sites with the data.

Yes, I am on all 3 sites, plus a fourth called Plus 3 where logging my rides earns money for charities.

Fortunately once it found the satellites, it performed flawlessly and recorded my ride.

The ride itself was uneventful.  I was feeling it a bit after 5 laps and had to push through to make the 8 I completed.  The interesting part was that it wasn't my legs so much that felt it, but my arms and hands.  I guess I'm just not used to riding as much as I should be.  That will change as I am riding the next 3 mornings as well as at least one day over the weekend.  I plan to repeat the morning rides next week in preparation for the Tour De Cure on May 3rd.

I hope the weather is improving in your area and that you were able to get out and ride as well.

Remember, eat better and get on your bike and ride!

No issues

What a difference a day makes.  Also, how dependent can we be on technology?

As I detailed at the end of yesterday's post, I had some issues yesterday morning with gadgets that I usually depend on.  It got me to thinking about how dependent we can become on gadgets and on measuring ourselves.

The one gadget that stopped me from riding yesterday was my headlight.  Its not that I need it to see as I'm riding because admittedly it sheds very little usable light for that purpose.  No, the real use of my headlight is safety.  Namely to greatly increase my visibility to the bleary eyed motorists in the wee hours of the pre-dawn.  Could I have ridden yesterday without my headlight?  Sure I could have, but I feel that it would have decreased my safety to an unreasonable level.  Now if I didn't have to share the streets with 2 ton vehicles, then I would have ridden without my headlight, no problem.

The other piece of equipment that failed me yesterday was my Garmin.  I suspect the grand kids may have been playing with it and that is why the battery was dead.  Regardless, the question becomes, if there is no Garmin data, and thus no Strava record, did the ride occur?  I say yes, but it occurs differently.  Now I don't obsess over my pace and split times, ma speed, etc. while I am riding.  I normally just do what feels right at the moment with a thought to the distance I am riding, but I do depend on the Garmin record for "housekeeping" in terms of recording month to date and year to date progress, etc.

I sort of prided myself on having a complete record of my rides for the past 3+ years and now it is incomplete as I rode without my Garmin yesterday.  Have I ridden before without it?  Sure, but I wasn't under a self-imposed challenge to meet a mileage goal at the time. Did I worry about trying to record those non-Garmin recorded rides?  Usually, no, but sometimes yes.  What I'm getting at is that sometimes we can become too wrapped up in the details and the minutiae of a task and forget the important points - we are having fun and riding our bikes.

With that said - have fun and get on your bike and ride!!!!

August Challenge ride 13

Before I talk about this morning's ride I want to wish my eldest grandson Jacob a Happy Birthday!!!  Today he turns 11.

Only 3 things to mention about this morning's ride - some wind,a rabbit and some creaking.

This morning there was a southwest wind blowing 12 to 15 mph which meant I was cycling into the wind on the slower parts of my route.  It was definitely a bit more work.

On my 4th lap as I was heading north on Quarterhorse, a rabbit almost committed suicide by running across in front of me.  He timed it poorly, though and successfully made it across with a couple of feet to spare.  I guess he misjudged how fast I was in fact riding.

At about the 9 mile mark this morning, I started to notice a creaking coming from the left pedal and/or bottom bracket area.  It seemed to only do it when I was pushing the left pedal so I need to look at it this evening.  To avoid possibly damaging anything I took it really easy on the last mile this morning.

Today's stats:

10.4 miles
47:09 elapsed time

Month to date

98.1 miles
7:50:29 elapsed time

A side note, as of yesterday both my mom and dad were still in the challenge having walked and ridden everyday so far in August respectively. I believe my dad was even slightly ahead mileage-wise for the month.  I am so proud of them!!!!

Keep those pedals turning.

it's 4:00 AM...

and I just got out of bed.  My alarm went off to let me know my time for sleeping was done and now I had to make good on my commitment to get back to doing what I need to do.  In the dark I find my cycling clothes and get dressed by feel.  I head downstairs and grab my Garmin Forerunner, take a long drink of water and get my last stick of gum from the pack.  You might wonder why I would get a stick of gum.  Well its pretty dry here in the desert southwest and a friend of mine (thanks Mary!) told me how chewing a stick of gum can keep your mouth from going as dry as the desert while you are working out.

I head into the garage and pump up my tires to the recommended max of 83 PSI, grab my helmet and gloves, switch on my Garmin and open the garage door.  I roll out to the end of the driveway where I turn on my head and taillight, put on my helmet, slip my hands into my gloves and get ready to go.  I notice that while its not exactly cool, its not baking hot either  A check of the temp shows its 79 degrees.

I mount my bike, hit start on my Garmin and off I go.  My goal for the morning is just to put in some relatively easy miles to ease back into the regular riding routine.  The first lap around my 1 mile loop is uneventful aside from the number of cars driving on the street.  Normally I'll see 2 or 3 cars in an entire morning ride.  This morning, everyone seems to be up trying to beat the heat as there were 5 cars in my first lap.  Not a lot by any means, but each is its own cause for concern as I know they aren't expecting anyone riding at this time of day.

I get into a pretty good rhythm for the first 3 or 4 laps, but I notice that my left knee is starting to hurt.  Not sure what that's about but I keep on going.  At lap 5 I realize that only riding 10 miles in the last 6 weeks has taken a toll on my endurance and my legs are starting to feel it.  I keep pushing, knowing that I'm not breaking any speed records but also knowing that all of the effort will make me stronger.

On lap 6 my hands are tingling on the bars.  This is where I really start to understand how regular riding does condition your body.  Laps 7 and 8 were my slowest and were work, but not insurmountable  I decided a nice 8 mile ride was a good place to start on rolled into the driveway at the end of the 8th lap.  Looking at my Garmin, I had travelled 8.28 miles in 37 minutes for a 13.3 mph pace. Not Bad.

This is the restart of getting myself into a better place physically.

Keep on riding!

100 Miles Of Nowhere...

Ok, here's the story for this:

(Fat Cyclist 100 MON)

I was competing in the 100 Miles of Nowhere Las Vegas Block edition. As I posted here, I signed up for this for the first time this year back in mid-April.  I figured I would have lots of time to train, get my stamina up and be ready to go.  While i had the time, things didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped in that regard.  My longest ride leading up to this event was only 20 miles.

My swag showed up 2 weeks ago.  Great swag from all of the sponsors.  Here is my race plate.

As I planned my event I decided to use laps around my block as my course for the event.  From training and testing ride I determined that it was approximately .47 miles around the block.  Doing the math that meant I would need to do 213 laps to hit 100 miles.

One concern I had was with the forecasted temperatures for June 1st.  !0 days out the forecasted high was 101 degrees Fahrenheit.  Way too hot to ride in all day.  Since a lot of my training is done before work when it is nice and cool, I decided to start my ride nice and early in order to try and beat the heat. So my plan was to get up and be on the bike by 4:00 AM.

As I posted yesterday here, I had just changed my seat and did a quick shakedown ride to check the position.  Friday night I washed my cycling attire, laid out all my supplies for before and during the ride, set my alarm for 3:30 AM and went to bed early for my at 9:00 PM.

The alarm went off, what seemed like way too soon and it was time to get up and get going.  I got dressed, headed downstairs and had a banana and some Oreo vanilla cookies washed down with a bottle of Starbucks Vanilla Frappacino.  I then aired up the tires and opened the garage.  I was relieved to feel the cool air come in as it was only about 65 degrees.  I turned on my Garmin and my lights and off I went.

The first lap wasn't too bad except for the 10 to 15 mph wind from the west.  This meant that I was pushing into the wind on the uphill prat of the lap.  Not bad, but I started thinking that it might prove to be a problem later on.  One lap down and a whole bunch more to go.

Very few people were out so early so i basically had the streets to myself  It was relatively peaceful and quiet.

I got into a pretty good rhythm and the laps started going by.  I kept a count of laps in my head and the goal was to complete at least 45 or 50 laps before I took my first rest.  As I rode along I noticed that the sky to the east was getting lighter and eventually at 40 laps I noticed the sun on the mountains o the west.  A few more laps and I actually saw the sun over the houses to the east.

As the laps were adding up, my saddle area was getting a little tender.  Let's face it, I just didn't have enough saddle time leading up to this ride.

I hit 53 laps, which was 25 miles and decided it was time for a rest.  I checked my Garmin when I went in and noticed that I had completed the 25 miles in 1:55 which equated o an average speed of 13.0 mph.  I was right on the pace that I had envisioned before the ride.  I knew I needed to get hydrated and eat some calories or I would be in trouble.

So, some powerade, more Oreos, a couple of fig newtons and I was back on my way.  As I rode the next laps, the neighborhood started waking up.  People were walking their dogs, backing out of their driveways and starting to do some work round their houses.

As the laps progressed I was thankful for the Garmin as I lost count and had no idea how any laps I completed.  fortunately I had my distance traveled on the Garmin. 

One thing to note is that during this stage I actually had a dog chase.  On the opposite of our block a woman was putting her 3 dogs into the car as I rode by.  I was almost by when the largest of the 3 dogs spotted me and all 3 took off after me barking.  The woman called after them and within a house or two they decided to listen and turned around.  

At approximately 12 miles I passed the house and my wife was there cheering me on!  Thank you dear! I completed the next lap to make 12 1/2 miles in just under an hour and it was time for my next break.   I had just under 3 hours seat time and a total of 37 1/2 miles so far.  My saddle area was also quite sore.

A banana, a powerade, some pringles and a couple of fig newtons and I was back on my way.

My wife took a picture of me during the ride:

Not much to remark on for this segment of the ride.  I did a bunch of laps, the sun was out and warming things up and surprisingly my legs didn't feel much worse for wear.  My saddle season was another matter, though.  I was getting quite sore.

Just after the 50 mile mark it was time for another break.  Still maintaining about the same pace as these miles took just under an hour as well.  Here I was at 50 miles and 4 hours into my ride.

More powerade, a Honey Stinger Blueberry Buzz bar, a few more pringles and some oreos and I was on my way again.

I noticed that I was slightly slower and this was due to shifting my position on the saddle looking for some relief.  It wasn't to be found, though.  I toughed it out to 62.5 miles and decided that was it for this event.  I had completed the 100 Miles Of Nowhere Las Vegas Metric Century around the block edition.  I was pleased to have made it that far since this was 3 times the farthest ride I had taken in the last 3 years.

Now for a nap, some sushi and Cold Stone Creamery.

May ride #13

Today is the last day of May.  I had hoped to get in 23 rides this month, but sadly my number is only 13.  Of course if I compare where I am this year versus last year it looks a bit better or not. :)  Last May I got in 20 rides for a grand total of 176 miles.  This may my 13 rides total only 104 miles.  What has improved is my total mileage for the year which is at 347 miles this year and only 286 miles through May of last year.

Today's ride was a short one as a check and adjustment of seat position in preparation for the 100 Miles of Nowhere I am riding tomorrow.  As such it was a successful ride as I believe I have the new seat dialed in and the bike is ready to go.  Now let's hope that I am ready for it.

If all goes according to plan, and let's face it when it comes to these things that is a rare occurrence, I should start about 4:00 AM and finish up between 2:00 and 3:00 pm.  I am being very conservative with my speed estimates and generous with rest stops - about 10 minutes every hour.

Look for an update either tomorrow afternoon or on Sunday.

A Saturday Ride, With Wind!

I had been planning on getting a few miles in this weekend.  I had obligations yesterday which precluded a morning ride, so I figured this morning would be a great time for a ride.  I had thought of surpassing last weekends 20 miles.  Last night I checked the weather and the forecast for the morning was for light winds in the 5 to 10 mile an hour range, temps in the low 70's and sun.

So I got ready to head out this morning a little after 8:00 and imagine my surprise when I heard some strong wind gusts.  I didn't think much of it.  I checked my spokes, put air in my tires, put on my helmet and set out.  The gusts weren't bad heading up my street.  I made the turn out onto Blue Diamond and the true nature of the wind hit me.  It seems stating about 8:00 the winds kicked up to 20 mph sustained and gusts up intot he 30's from the SSW and I was pedaling West.  Right into the wind.

I decided to just keep the cranks turning for a bit and see what happened.  After 30 minutes I took a break, checked my Garmin and saw that I had only gone about 4 miles.  I rested for a minute then got back to it.  I made it to the junction with HWY 159 almost 15 minutes later.  I was done.  I was tired of fighting the wind and it was time for the pay off - downhill with the wind.  I made the turn and didn't really have to pedal most of the way back.

Looking at the Garmin record of the ride, I made it back in under 10 minutes and hit 31.4 mph - all without pedaling!  It sure helped the average speed for the ride. :)