Simplicate and Add Lightness

This morning was a bit warmer than it has been of late, somewhere in the mid-40s for the ride to the gym, but I still wore tights and a couple of long sleeved layers.  Overall I was warm without cooking…so that was good.

Nice ride in…not pushing too hard but not hanging around either.  There was even a glimmer of orange on the horizon to the east as I made the last turn towards the gym!  Sadly the clocks change this weekend and that glimmer will be an hour away again!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/08/2010
• Time: 05:20:00
• Total Time: 00:19:36.00
• Calories: 304
• Distance: 6.4 miles
• Average Speed: 19.59 mph

For the first time in more than a week I was back on the bike first thing in the morning.  Most of that time I’ve been out of town though, so not as bad as it sounds.

I should’ve charged my bike lights though…they were starting to fade towards the end!

It was cold again this morning but I managed to ride along at a good clip…it was certainly a good warmup for spin class!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 03/04/2010
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 00:19:38.00
• Average Heart rate: 141
• Calories: 305
• Distance: 6.4 miles
• Average Speed: 19.56 mph

With temperatures still right about freezing and my bed feeling nice a warm this morning I had some trouble mustering the enthusiasm to ride to the gym…but I did it.  I headed out about 10 mins later than I normally would due to my inability to get my sh!t together properly last night.

Once I got on the road I just cruised along…no need to race…and even if there was I just didn’t feel like it!

Beyond that there was nothing of particular note!  The ride just kinda happened!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/19/2010
• Time: 05:20:00
• Total Time: 00:21:00.00
• Calories: 326
• Distance: 6.5 miles
• Average Speed: 18.57 mph

Not so quick this time. In fact it was slower than yesterday. I reviewed the Garmin logs overlayed on top of each other and I lost all the time in the opening 1.5 miles…leaving the office and idling a bit through neighborhoods.

The open road section was the fastest I’ve gone, but I lost 35-40 seconds on my PB in the neighborhoods near work and a little more at a red light…oh well!

I need to modify my cog a little more to get the oval to an acceptable level…once I figure out the cog size I’m going to stick with I’ll buy a high end one and throw it on there!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/18/2010
• Time: 16:46:14
• Total Time: 00:19:08.46
• Average Heart rate: 150
• Max Heart rate: 169
• Calories: 461
• Distance: 6.41 miles
• Average Speed: 20.1 mph
• Max Speed: 25.57 mph
• Ascent: 130.49 ft
• Descent: 197.11 ft

Having had a pretty good ride home yesterday…good speed anyway…I decided to push it this morning a bit.  I had re-tweaked the tension on my chain again last night to try get a better balance for the egg…seemed to work fine.

This morning was cold though!  Not northern US cold but cold for the south.  The temperature was in the high 20s but very close to dew point…meaning there was a lot of cold moisture in the air!  Previous cold days have been very dry and not feeling as cold.

This morning when my alarm went off (at 4:30 for spin class) I decided that staying in bed was a better option…so stayed there until 5:30, blew off spin class and had a more relaxed morning.  The motivation to get extra early to cycle to spin class in freezing condition has been hard to come by!  Once things start to warm up a little it might prove easier to get myself going…

The ride proved to be fast…the fastest I’ve actually got to work.  I’m not sure it’s something to brag about - getting TO work really fast!  Going home from work tends to be much quicker…go figure!

Today was the first time I’ve made the ride in under 20 minutes.

*** ADDITIONAL NOTE ***

This morning was weigh-in day.  For the first time I made it to 170.  170.0 was the figure on the scale…and 11.3% BF by Omron reckoning.

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/18/2010
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 00:19:37.00
• Calories: 304
• Distance: 6.4 miles
• Average Speed: 19.58 mph

Today was the first ride home with the new rear cog and it proved to be pretty quick.  One disappointing note is that the cog isn’t…uhm…round!  It’s slightly egg shaped meaning there’s a tight spot and a loose spot for each pedal rotation.

I tweaked the tension so the it’s not overly tight and not overly loose as it goes through the cycle…we’ll see how it goes.  I’ll probably try to get it exchanged when I have a chance (not a particularly local bike store is the problem).

Whilst the ride wasn’t the fastest I’ve done it in, it was only off by 12 seconds…not shabby given I really had a slow start through the local neighborhoods.  Once I got onto the open road I was certainly pushing myself hard (as you can tell by the 176 HR at some point).

The last couple of miles were into the wind and not pleasant, but overall it was a good ride and I think I’ll set new PB times for the home ride in the not_so_distant future!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/17/2010
• Time: 16:50:53
• Total Time: 00:18:49.02
• Average Heart rate: 155
• Max Heart rate: 176
• Calories: 389
• Distance: 6.39 miles
• Average Speed: 20.37 mph
• Max Speed: 1,096.23 mph
• Ascent: 149.42 ft
• Descent: 140.74 ft

It’s all about the ratios…at least my last couple of posts will be!

Over the long weekend I fitted a new freewheel to my single speed commuter bike going from 18t to 17t.  That might not sound like much of a change but it felt pretty significant!

My aim of riding at 90rpm meant about 18.8mph on the 18t freewheel but bumps up past 20mph on a 17t one…

This morning was the first time out on the this setup…much tougher than the 18t.  This change is going to separate the men from the boys…and I feel like I’m still in the boy camp this morning!

I got it done…it was actually quite fast…it was a lot harder work than before!  All good I think!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/17/2010
• Time: 05:15:00
• Total Time: 00:20:08.00
• Calories: 312
• Distance: 6 miles
• Average Speed: 17.88 mph

The 4:30 alarm was not a happy thing this morning, but I did manage to drag myself out of bed and get moving.

Thursday morning is weigh-in day and I weighed in a little heavier than last week at 172.5, but nothing to get excited about. 

Out the door at 5am an on to spin class.  The ride was actually pretty fast for a cold morning, although I screwed up my timing once I got to the gym so I don’t have an exact time.

One piece of excitement did happen right as I was getting to the gym though…where the bike rack is outside I can either ride right up to it and lift my bike up the curb to it, or bunnyhop up onto the curb much further down the sidewalk (where it’s a straight shot).

I went for the bunnyhop option this morning but didn’t get my back wheel high enough…it bounced on the corner of the curb sending my back end about 3ft into the air…still going at about 15 mph!  I had the fun of riding on my front wheel looking straight at the ground for a second or two before the back end came back to earth.  It coulda been ugly!

Oddly enough I had a dream last night where I was riding a unicycle…

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/11/2010
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 00:21:00.00
• Calories: 326
• Distance: 6.5 miles
• Average Speed: 18.57 mph

After the morning trainer session…shower, breakfast…it was out the door into the frigid LA morning!  Frigid by my standards at about 28F…I’m going to complain in the summer too when it’s 90F in the morning!  There’s just no pleasing some people.

Even with the cold it was a decent easy ride in.  Not much in the way of traffic…the Saints Superbowl parade in the French Quarter last night obviously took its toll!

I might take the 11 mile route home this evening!  We’ll see if I’m keen when the end of the day rolls around!

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/10/2010
• Time: 06:30:00
• Total Time: 00:22:00.00
• Calories: 341
• Distance: 6.5 miles
• Average Speed: 17.73 mph

I had an appointment see the orthopedist this afternoon to have my knee looked at, so I rode from work to the doc to home.

This is basically the direct route home…3.5 miles versus the 6.5 I normally ride to and from work. Traffic and road conditions sucked all the way and it reminded me why I don’t ride this way, but given the location of the Dr it made the most sense.

The actual time in the doctors office may or may not have been useful…it’s too early to say. The diagnosis was a stress fracture, but I’m having a hard time believing it. The description he gave of the impact, etc, causing the stress fracture in the joint would have been plausible if it actually hurt on impact. It’s not until I start to bring the foot back up that the knee hurts.

The recommendation was to take a couple more weeks off running with 800mg ibuprofen 3x a day then try to run again, short distances and build up…still hurts, then come back and see him for an MRI.

I suppose it doesn’t make much difference what the injury is a couple more weeks of going easy on it will do it good! I find inactivity frustrating, but I guess I’ll just focus on other things (the bike).

Another point from the ride…it took me through 500 miles for the year

Workout:

• Type: Cycle
• Date: 02/08/2010
• Time: 13:30:00
• Total Time: 00:13:00.00
• Average Heart rate: 122
• Max Heart rate: 159
• Calories: 202
• Distance: 3.5 miles
• Average Speed: 16.15 mph