Added a subscribe to comments plugin
When I post a comment to a blog I like to know if there were any comments following mine. Especially if I asked a question. Besides going back to check the blog post once in a while (assuming I remember I made a comment somewhere), the easiest way to know if there were comments is to be able to subscribe to the post and receive email notifications that a comment has been added. So, I took the time to add that feature to Biking To Live tonight. I’d appreciate it if somebody could leave a comment on this post, subscribe to comments, and let me know if you receive an email notification of follow-on comments when they are added.
Thanks and hope you guys and gals like the new addition.
Read MoreBike Ride 30 – Neighborhood Criterium
I didn’t get up this morning at 5:00 due to not getting to bed early enough last night. I did manage to squeeze in a ride before taking my wife out of town for a pre-surgery doctor’s visit. Because of the time of day, and increased traffic, I opted to ride around my neighborhood instead. So, I got the bike ready and headed out.
After my first loop I discovered that one lap was equal to .65 miles. Almost exactly 1 K. Cool. The route reminded me of a little criterium course hence the title. I took it pretty easy for the first five or six laps. There was almost no traffic so I was able to really hammer it in the turns and work on my cornering skills. With the route I was riding, see below, there are only two significant 90 degree turns and the rest is either straightaway or sweeping turns. A couple of the laps I opened it up a little bit by shifting to the big chain ring and pushing a little harder. When recovering, instead of shifting back to the small chain ring, I just shifted to a bigger cog. I felt that I should start riding in the big chain ring more so I left it there.
I did have one moment of excitement. One one of the laps I pushed it, I shifted in front of my house, dropped into the drops and cranked it. By the end of the street I was going 21+ (I know…ludicrous speed) and setup for the right-hand turn. I carried the turn wide and noticed a minivan coming down the street. I had plenty of room and moved back over onto my side. That’s when I saw it. Crossing the street in front of me was a 3 foot long black snake. He was crossing from the lake on the right side of the road to a wooded area on the left. I moved further right to clear the snake. As I approach the snake the minivan spooks it and it performs a u-turn right at me. It then notices me and starts to freak out. I went by it pretty fast but I swear it raised up and tried to strike at me. I could be mistaken. Anyway, I made it by with no problems. Wheew!
Here’s the map of the Neighborhood Criterium.
I did notice a problem that I’m starting to have that I experienced today and last Saturday. I sweat a lot and am starting to experience some problems with sweat dripping into my eyes and causing some burning. Do any of you guys/gals have any solutions to this?
Today’s ride was just over 11 miles.
Bike Ride 29 – Week 2 of the Bicycle Fitness Plan
Well, today starts week two of my fitness plan that will take me until the end of the year. You can read about the plan here. I’m still in the base fitness phase and will be for another five weeks when I accumulate 500 miles of easy cycling. I should reach that 500 mile milestone the week of 6-Oct.
Last week I got in 57.8 miles which is about 12 less than I had planned. I was short because I needed to take a break after riding for two straight days and didn’t want to ride for four straight days. It was a good decision so I’m not too upset about it.
I was up at 5:00 AM again this morning and was riding by about 5:15. It had apparently rained during the night, and probably not long before I came outside, so the roads were wet with an occasional puddle. Overall they weren’t bad. It was dark outside though. We’re in new moon so there was no help from Artemis.
I wondered how I would feel after riding 31 miles on Saturday and I was surprised that I actually felt pretty good. I intentionally took Monday off (due to it being a holiday and to take two days of rest after Saturday) and it looks like it paid off. I actually felt that I had to hold myself back from pushing too hard but I didn’t do too good a job of it.
Whenever I ride I always have problems with my hands becoming numb and/or tingly. I read an article in Bicycling Magazine this weekend that talked about bike how riding can cause prolonged pressure on the ulnar nerve and can cause the “pins and needles” feeling that I’m experiencing. The article said to try and change your hand position often (which I do) and to try and build up some strength in the wrists. A couple of exercises were provided that I’m going to have to try out.
I saw several runners this morning..even a couple that were obviously out before I was just based on where they were. More power to them. In the coming weeks, I may have to start earlier too. My wife is going in for surgery next week and I’ll be playing Mr. Mom for a while. That means I’ll take over getting the kids ready for school in the mornings and stuff like that. That means I need to be back home from my morning ride no later than around 5:50 so that I can get their breakfast cooked. It’ll be a challenge but I’m not worried.
Anyway, that’s about it for today. I road my 13 miles in 55 minutes today.
Read MoreBike Ride 28 – Friends, Flats, and Follies
Today was the first Saturday ride of my new bicycling fitness program so I was due to ride 30 miles. I set the alarm for 8, woke up at about 7:30, and headed out.
About 2 miles into my ride I saw a guy walking his bike down the sidewalk towards me. I asked if he needed help and he said yes. I pulled off the road to offer what assistance I could. Turns out his name is Kevin and started cycling about three weeks ago. Both he and his wife ride and they’ve already been on a group ride here in town and ridden the Jacksonville-Baldwin trail. I rode that trail back on Ride 8. He’s riding for the same reasons I am. His problem was a flat. I had a spare tube that I put in for him and put a little CO2 in it to make sure everything was ok. That’s when we noticed that CO2 was escaping from my inflator. My inflator uses non-threaded CO2 cartridges so it’s held in place with a plastic cover that, when you screw it on, pushes the cartridge into the valve and pierces the cartridge top. CO2 was leaking around the seam of the plastic piece holding the cartridge. I went to tighten it and the plastic broke allowing the CO2 to rapidly escape. It sure gave Kevin and I a start. How embarrassing. I tried to make it work somehow but couldn’t. It was broken beyond repair. I had to leave Kevin in the same condition I had met him in, with a flat, and go on about my ride. That just stinks. I did get his phone number and gave him the website address so we could perhaps get together for some rides in the future. Kevin, if you read this, I’m sorry it didn’t work out this morning.
(On a side note, I’m looking out the window of my study and am glad I rode early because it’s pouring right now.)
Well, I hopped back on my bike and continued riding. I knew about where I wanted to ride. I was planning on riding my 13-mile morning ride and inserting a 20-mile leg in the middle. Here’s what it looks like:
This route is pretty good and only has a couple spots where traffic can get bad and that’s along the St Johns Towncenter. Early in the morning, though, it wasn’t too bad. The loop around the University of North Florida is nice and there is virtually no traffic on AC Skinner Parkway. It made for a good ride.
Now that I’ve posted my route, let me explain what happened when I got home. I ride up to the driveway and my wife is in her car with the kids ready to back out. They see me and get out. I can tell she’s upset. I ask what’s wrong and she asks if I realize that I’ve been gone for over 3 hours (2:20 riding time, the time helping Kevin, and a short rest break). I told her I had a 30-mile ride scheduled this morning but that didn’t help. It turns out that after 1.5 hours or so she tried calling me (my phone was in the seat bag and I didn’t hear it), had been out twice along my weekday route looking for me, and was getting ready to head out again. She was worried sick that I was laying in a ditch somewhere hurt. I understand her feelings and apologized. Truth is, about half-way through my ride a I realized that I hadn’t left her a map of my route and/or hadn’t told her how far/long I was riding. Critical mistakes. With tools like Map My Ride, there’s no excuse for me to not print out my route and leave it for her in the event she needs to find me. I should also check my phone more often. So, let this be a lesson for those of you out there with significant others who are waiting for you at home.
Besides Kevin, I saw five or six other “serious” cyclists and four or five folks just out for a cruise on their comfort bikes. I also saw several runners out for their Saturday morning exercise.
All told, I managed to ride 31.88 miles with a riding time of 2 hours and 19 minutes. After having ridden Wednesday and Thursday, I had to take Friday off to let my rear recover a little due to lack of time in the saddle. That day off, coupled with a better set of bibs, worked wonders for my sit bones and I didn’t have any trouble the entire ride. The highlight of the day though was meeting Kevin and at least trying to help him out.
Read MoreHow to Treat Road Rash
As cyclists, who hasn’t gotten their fair share of road rash? I know I have. I ran across this cool article today on wikihow about How to Treat Road Rash. There’s a video too. Check it out.
Read MoreBike Ride 27 – Cycling through the pain
It’s 5:00 AM again and the alarm is blaring. I probably should have went to bed earlier last night. Whatever. I resist the temptation to hit the snooze button (actually, I accidentally hit the off button instead of snooze) and crawled out of bed. I was out the door quick this morning.
Once outside I immediately noticed the humidity. There was a little fog as well. The streets were wet in spots from a thunderstorm last night. The moon was low in the east (barely above the treeline) and looked like a fingernail. Pretty cool. See the kind of stuff you miss when you sleep in? I reset my bike computer, crawled on the Cannondale, and rolled out of the driveway.
To say that I was uncomfortable would be an understatement. I could tell I had had way too much time off the bike because I was really feeling yesterday’s ride. Especially in my rear. That could be because of one of two reasons. First, it was unaccustomed to this abuse after the layoff, and second, it could be because of the shorts I was wearing. I had on a cheap pair of Nashbar shorts that don’t have very good padding. I really need to throw them out. I’m not saying all of Nashbar’s stuff is bad because my favorite set of bibs are Nashbar brand and they’re great. You just have to be careful with the chamois insert. The shorts I wore today are nothing more than some padding sewn into the crotch of the shorts. My bibs use the Trico Sports gel chamois which is much better. I know there’s better stuff out there but I can’t afford dropping a ton of cash on bibs. I’m making due with what I have.
Anyway, as I rode I was able to work out some of the kinks but the thing that really started to bother me was my triceps. They were pretty sore about half-way through.
As I pulled up to the intersection near my house, it was nice to see the school bus on my right (in the lane going straight), and the truck behind me (in the left turn lane with me), stay several feet behind me to give me room. I appreciated that. I’m always uncomfortable at this intersection and they made it easier for me today.
That’s about it. A nice simple ride of 13 miles in 58:30. Again, nothing hard while I’m re-acclimatizing to riding.
I saw no other cyclists today and only a couple of runners.
2008 Bicycle Riding Goal
As a followup to my post last week on Setting Goals, I thought it was time that I established my 2008 goal. I know, it’s already August but I failed to set proper goals back when I started and I thought I should go ahead and do it now. I started in April and rode between April and June. During that time period I managed to ride 300 miles. I felt better physically and my clothes were fitting better every week. Once July rolled around my riding came to an abrupt stop due to a couple of injuries that have kept me off the bike for more than a month. The progress I had made from April to June was good considering I was just basically out riding with no set purpose but with the time off the bike recently I have basically destroyed the fitness and gains that I had made. Because of that, I’m going to start my 2008 over again here in August and use the rest of the year to get myself ready for 2009.
When I attended Officer Candidate School back in 1996, the Drill Instructors had us on a rigorous training plan that was very well planned out. By doing that, they knew what days were long distance running days, which ones were sprint days, and so on. At the end of the 13-week school I had lost over 30 pounds and reduced my 1.5 mile run time by over 3 minutes. If it worked for me running (which I can’t do anymore due to ankle problems) why won’t it work for cycling? Because of that, I believe that I would benefit from following a regimented bicycle training program to help me build my fitness and lose weight. So, for the past week I’ve been developing a schedule to improve my cycling fitness. I knew several things going in:
- I knew what I was capable of riding per week based on my bike riding earlier in the year.
- I knew what my normal weekday mileage was for my morning bicycle ride.
- I knew I was basically starting over again and needed to build my fitness base back up.
Armed with this information, I designed a small spreadsheet that displays some mileage totals based on the number of weekdays I ride and how far I ride on Saturday. Sunday will always be a rest day. The result is this table.
The number of weekdays I ride (3, 4 or 5) are in the first column, the second column is the distance of my morning ride (13 miles), and the remaining four columns are what my weekly mileage would be if I did a 30, 40, 50, or 60 mile Saturday ride. For example, if I ride my bike 3 weekdays, plus 40 miles on Saturday, my mileage for that week would be 79 miles. The color coding will make sense in a minute.
The next thing I did was determine how many weeks were left in the year (18 full weeks) and determine on what days I would ride my bike and how far. I again went to Excel and developed the table below:
The weeks until the end of the year are listed in the first column with the total mileage for that week in the third column. The next seven columns are the days of the week and how far I will ride on each day for the given week. The days I ride are easily adjusted due to inclement weather, lack of sleep, etc. The key, for me, is getting the required mileage in each week. You’ll see in the weekly mileage column (column 3), that I started at 69 miles for my starting mileage for the week of 25-Aug. I knew going in that I’m capable of doing that so it’s a good starting point. You’ll notice that the 69 cell is shaded a light blue. That corresponds to the light blue shaded 69 in the top table. This means I’m supposed to ride my bicycle on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (three weekdays) at 13 miles in the morning and ride 30 miles on Saturday for a weekly total of 69 miles.
When determining how much I would ride each week, I tried to follow the rule of not increasing my mileage more than 10%-12% each week. In my plan I decided to do that for each three-week period and for the most part I did. The only thing that bothers me is the Saturday miles. I’m not going to have a problem riding 30 or 40 miles but getting up to 50 and 60 miles on Saturday, with only short 13 mile rides on the weekdays has me a little concerned. I’m hoping my plan to be in each “phase” for three weeks will help with that.
Finally, you’ll see that there’s a red line after the week of 6-Oct. That line splits my base fitness and interval training phases as seen in the last column. Cycling Performance Tips says that you should have a solid aerobic base of 500 miles of steady pedaling before adding intervals to a cycling training plan so as to prevent injury. Even though I have already ridden 300 miles earlier in the year I decided to follow this rule in my new program. Why? Because, let’s face it, I’m overweight and not ready for intervals yet. After finishing the week of 6-Oct I will have accumulated 526 miles of base fitness. As I get closer to the interval phase I’ll make another post on my plan for the intervals.
If I follow my plan as it’s set, I’ll ride 1,608 miles between today and 26-Dec. This should get me in good shape, help me lose some weight, help me get into some of my smaller clothes, and prepare me for some hard training in early 2009 so I can do some local rides or charity events.
Well, that’s it. I started the plan this morning with my 13-mile ride on Bike Ride 26. I’m in no way a trainer, or accomplished cyclist, so I’d like to hear your opinions and/or recommendations.
Read MoreCONNECT WITH BTL
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