40 acres and a mule
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Triathlon
Today I got in a 41 mile ride along the beach. Its pretty flat until the last 5 miles where it’s almost all uphill. I felt great during the ride, like I was going faster at a lower heart rate than before. I averaged a heart rate of 156 bpm and the max was 177 beats; that was undoubtedly that final uphill run. It was about 3 beats lower the first 20 miles then I caught a vicious headwind on the way back. If I didn’t have to deal with that last uphill stretch I felt like I could have ridden 70 miles easily.
Well, I won some and I lost some…
Posted by Steve | Filed under Books, TV & Film, General, Triathlon
but I pretty much achieved what I wanted to. I did far more reading than I expected, over 1100 pages. I did far less cycling than I expected, about 200 miles and I probably watched about 15 hours of tv in total.
I think I will continue to read one book per month while I try to hit my weekly goal of cycling 100 miles per week. The really good news is the days are now long enough for me to ride after work. That probably means less running which I don’t really care for anyway. We shall see.
Mid-month report – 3 days late
Posted by Steve | Filed under Books, TV & Film, General, Triathlon
I have probably watched 6-7 hours of television total, which is about where I expected to be at this point. I have finished two books – Every Second Counts by Lance Armstrong and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. That makes 720 pages in total so I’ve already exceeded my goal there. I started The Green Mile by Stephen King yesterday, which is about 400 pages. I’m not getting as much cycling in as I hoped. I rode an hour after work yesterday and today. Now that I have enough daylight after work I’m gonna try hittin it three weekdays plus weekends.
edit – splurged on a cheeseburger and fries for lunch, but I did have a diet coke.
Rain or Shine, the Mail Must Make it Through!
Posted by Steve | Filed under Amore & Vita, General, Sports, Triathlon
This weekend I ventured north, escaping the confines of sunny So Cal for a weekend in Solvang, an old Danish mining town with lots of cool shops and what not. The second week of March every year there’s a huge bike ride with over 5,000 people in it. The population of Solvang is only 5,000 so bikers basically take the place over. Every hotel in town was booked solid so I stayed about 20 miles away in Lompoc. The ride headquarters is the Royal Scandinavian Inn and that place books up a full year in advance.
Not a whole lot in Lompoc other than an Air Force base and prison. I dragged the roommate and dog with me. He seemed to have as much as fun as I did and he didn’t crap or bark in the hotel room once.
Well, I don’t think I’ll be riding the Tour de France this year.
Posted by Steve | Filed under General, Triathlon
I wanted to go out and ride with a group this weekend for a couple of reasons – 1) to meet some people from the club I want to join and 2) to get a feel for my fitness level against other guys. Riding by yourself all the time gives you a false sense of security about how you’re going. I knew I didn’t have great condition but I thought I was doing okay. Well I got a big dose of both, and not all good.
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Flat Broke!
Posted by swingate | Filed under General, Sports, Triathlon
I was all psyched to put in some big mileage in my new shoes and pedals this weekend and what happens? I flat 25 miles into a planned 40 mile ride. I couldn’t find the leak so I used my CO2 cartridge to top off the tire, hoping that would get me home or close to it. I got another 5 miles til it was dangerously low again. I walked about a mile then decided to hail a cab. I was looking at another 2 hours of walking if I hadn’t. Cycling shoes are not meant to be walked very far in. I got blisters on my feet because I took my shoes off. Thankfully they don’t hurt as bad as I thought they would now.
On another note I have registered for the Solvang Half Century ride…50 miles of dropdead gorgeous scenery. Solvang is an old Dutch town with horse drawn carriages and all. I had to get a hotel room in Lompoc 20 miles away because the ride hotel was fully booked. I hear the day of the ride they get fully booked for the next year’s ride. It seems if you stay at the hotel for the ride one year, on checkout you fill out a form to reserve a room for the following year. With 5,000 people staying in a town with only 2-3 hotels I bet Super Bowl tickets are easier to come by than a room in this burg. This ride is pretty well known nationwide. I was familiar with it when I was still living in Atlanta. It’s a really pretty area where a lot of pro teams train so I’m looking forward to taking some pictures.
edit – setting my yearly mileage goal at 4,000 miles.
Out with the old…in with the new
Posted by swingate | Filed under General, Triathlon
Nothing to say that I want people to read lately so I’ll talk about bike stuff. I bought a new pair of shoes and pedal system for my bike. I’ve been using Carnac Quartz shoes and old ass Shimano SPD pedals for about 5 years now and it was time for a change. Now it’s Specialized Pro Carbon Road shoes and SHIMANO SPD R600 SPD-SL pedals. I’ve been pretty hard up to switch back to Look style pedals for a while. The small SPD platform just wasn’t meant to be. My next purchase (after the 32″ television anyway) will hopefully be a Merlin Extralight or Felt F2C frameset; that’ll run me about $1,900.
