MistahSinclair - Less Fatter, Mo’ Faster!

Colder than the witch’s proverbial mammary gland though!

With a break in the weather, or maybe just a general improvement, I took the opportunity to get out on the bike.  I rode the same route that I did last week but managed to do it a little over a minute quicker.

I’m not sure why today was any quicker than last time.  Very similar conditions…maybe a little less wind.

It’s difficult to get out on the bike these days.  There’s less daylight, worse weather and I’m trying to get myself geared up to move!

It looks like we’ll be making the big move (3,000 miles) in early January…driving from WA to CT.

Road trip across the northern states in the middle of winter with 2 kids, 3 cats, a dog, a rat and the parrot.  Sounds like more fun than actually will be!

…more to follow on this later…

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 12/06/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:02:23.00
• Calories: 795
• Distance: 17.8 miles
• Average Speed: 17.12 mph
• Max Speed: 35 mph
• Ascent: 1,500 ft

I got out for a ride on a beautiful day today…sunny in the winter doesn’t mean warm though.  38F was what my computer was telling me en route and it felt it!

Toe warmers and 3/4 length shorts seemed like they would be good today.  Sadly I don’t own either so I got to be cold.

The average speed wasn’t what I had hoped for, but I’m sure it was caused by the cold.  On a warm day that would have been close to 18mph average I think…there were a couple of hills that I just couldn’t get going on.  It wasn’t until late in the ride that the hills seemed to be getting easy (hills I expected to be brutal were actually ok).

I might try to get out for a ride tomorrow to tip my total for the week over 50 miles.  That would be the first time in a few weeks that I got to that goal, but I’m not there yet…

If I can get a 45 mile ride in it’ll take my odometer through 600 miles!  Ok, so that’s not going to happen…the longest ride I’ve EVER done was 37 miles and that was years ago.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/29/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:03:30.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 176
• Distance: 17.8 miles
• Average Speed: 16.82 mph
• Max Speed: 38 mph
• Ascent: 1,500 ft

Got the new tires in the mail yesterday…Hutchinson Team Series (Team Discovery colors - silver and blue stripes ).

I also bought a pump the other day with a pressure gauge on it going up as high as I need for good road tires - 120psi.  That was certainly interesting.  I think I has been running with tires around 100psi before now, but beefed them up to 120 which really makes them brick hard.

Although the ride today was far from the fastest I’ve gone over similar distances the tires felt fast!  They look like they have a better profile when inflated than the IRC Redstorms I had been riding on….more oval in section, he Redstorms were pretty flat in section.

My speed isn’t helped by my increasing bike weight and drag.  New things I’m now carrying to combat gear failure…now a pump, tires levers, inner tube, repair patches…good grief.

It was also pretty darned cold today.  Right around 40F and little bit of rain.

Anyway, it was good to be back on 2 wheels again.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/27/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:21:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 145
• Max Heart rate: 179
• Distance: 21.75 miles
• Average Speed: 16.11 mph
• Max Speed: 37 mph
• Ascent: 1,950 ft

Well, 22.12 miles equates to my new longest ride in 10 years.  Tagging a whopping 1/4 mile onto the record I set 3 weeks ago!

I listed this as a commute today.  Since I’m working from home and went for a ride after work and ended up at home…must be a commute! 

Todays route was a good one.  I think I need to ride it quite a few more times.  Good length and balance of hills and flats.

I rode past a woman on a bike about 3 miles into my ride (on the flat)…got caught by her on a nasty hill, then rode along shooting the breeze with her for a few miles.  Seems there’s a local group that ride on Saturday mornings…might be worth looking into.

Cyclists are an interesting bunch.  Being that I don’t consider myself part of the cycling crowd this is an observation as an outsider.

Over the last year my experience of cyclists has been very black and white (not racial).  Either people on bikes are perfectly friendly or completely ignore me.  Perhaps I don’t look the part, I don’t know.

Since building my road bike and using it instead of the mountain bike the responses have been more favorable.

These are just my opinions

[ Went through 500 miles on my odometer today too... ]

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/14/2007
• Time: 15:00:00
• Total Time: 1:19:10.00
• Average Heart rate: 140
• Max Heart rate: 174
• Distance: 22.12 miles
• Average Speed: 16.76 mph
• Max Speed: 37.6 mph
• Ascent: 1,985 ft

Well, the ride in was ok.  Not very quick because I rode the brake most of the way waiting for cars to pass…lucky I think because there was acop at the bottom of the hill with a radar (where I’m usually doing 5mph over the limit).

On a different note, the shipyard that I work at announced this morning that they are closing the doors and today would be the last day.  Nice surprise on a Friday, huh?

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 11/02/2007
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 00:04:04.00
• Distance: 1.6 miles
• Average Speed: 23.61 mph
• Max Speed: 36 mph
• Descent: 283 ft

Hobbes - your comment reminded me of an occassion where I used the word succinct and only one out of ten people in the meeting knew what it meant…being that I work in a shipyard the running joke “You Succinct my Battleship” was born.

I set a personal best today, being that it didn’t feel quite as cold(!), on my 9.6  mile route.  I went at it quite hard and ran out of steam on the final climb ending up limping home over the last mile.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/31/2007
• Time: 17:22:12
• Total Time: 00:33:55.00
• Distance: 9.6 miles
• Average Speed: 16.98 mph
• Max Speed: 44 mph
• Ascent: 933 ft

I put on an extra layer this morning and, strangely, it didn’t feel as cold!

Amazing!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/31/2007
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 00:04:15.00
• Distance: 1.6 miles
• Average Speed: 22.59 mph
• Max Speed: 35 mph
• Descent: 283 ft

No, not the weather this time.

I just sat down to fill out my activity log and opened a browser window to www.last.fm and Sandstorm by DaRude was playing…one of my favorite workout tunes. It’s not everyones cup of tea, but it is mine! Made for an interesting blog title

On to the ride…a minute quicker than yesterday but still tough, cold and a bit windy. I tweaked my saddle a hair as soon as I got home. ISM suggests their saddle may work best for the individual with it turned just a little…not centered on the bike.

I had been paying a lot of attention to how it feels since I put it on. Today I tweaked it to the right a bit.

Handlebar tweak done this morning was near perfect.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/30/2007
• Time: 17:32:35
• Total Time: 00:35:55.00
• Calories: 420
• Distance: 9.6 miles
• Average Speed: 16.04 mph
• Max Speed: 44 mph
• Ascent: 933 ft

The freezy breeze is what I’m referring to.  That was cold this morning.  The frost on the grass suggests it was in the low 30s although my thermometer on my computer didn’t have enough time to drop all the way. 

It managed to go from 63F (temp in garage) to 43F when I got to the office, but it was falling all the way.

I tweaked my bars this morning before taking off.  I’d managed to adjust them too far yesterday, but they felt about perfect this morning.

GOALS

I need to come up with some.  For the moment I only have a weight loss goal (get to 189lbs) but that should be done within a couple of weeks and I clearly have more I can lose.

How low can I go?  I’m not sure how to figure that out without professional help.  I know at one point I had a body fat analysis done and that told me what my lean body mass was.  From there I could figure roughly where I want to be.

I’m not even sure that weight makes much of a difference to me.  At least not the number itself.  I guess I’m looking to get to the point where I’m happy with the shape I’m in…make sense?

Another goal is to trade in the 12-pack abs for the 6-pack version!

Beyond that there are some races/rides I’ve been looking at, but nothing I can commit to right now.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/30/2007
• Time: 07:30:00
• Total Time: 00:04:10.00
• Distance: 1.6 miles
• Average Speed: 23.04 mph
• Max Speed: 36 mph
• Descent: 283 ft

Gusty headwind today for the long stretch of my ride.

Steady wind isn’t much fun, but gusty just destroys any rhythm you might have.  This is normally an 18-22mph stretch but today was in the 14-17mph range.

In fact the first 6 miles were done on the 39 tooth chainring…I usually spend about half that on the 53.  That does tell you a whole lot since I was certainly using more of the cassette than normal.

The saddle adjustment I made seems to be good.  It’s now almost level and up about 1/4 inch from where I had it last week.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 10/29/2007
• Time: 16:30:00
• Total Time: 00:37:13.00
• Distance: 9.6 miles
• Average Speed: 15.48 mph
• Max Speed: 43 mph
• Ascent: 933 ft