Why I redesigned Biking To Live
I had high hopes for both myself and Biking To Live in 2008. Everything started out OK. I began to build up a good readership here on my blog and enjoyed communicating with them via comments, emails, and phone conversations. After a couple months of riding I even started to see improvement in my health. My clothes were fitting better and my blood pressure and cholesterol were much improved. By the end of the year though, things took a dramatic turn.
Dallas
As you can see, the last three months have not been good. With so much going on I didn’t get any riding in. I wanted to ride but circumstances just didn’t allow for it. Because of that, my health has taken a downturn. I’ve gained weight back and I can tell I’ve lost some of the healthy gains I had made. My weight is one of the things that bothers me the most. I’ve got to get it under control. I also neglected Biking To Live and it’s suffered.
Now 2009 is here. I’m moved into the place I’m renting here in northern Dallas and am ready to pick up where I left off in 2008.
Biking To Live – Cycling To A Healthy Lifestyle
The first order of business was to redesign Biking To Live. The last design was OK but it didn’t lend itself well to the plans I had for my blog. Biking To Live, in its old form, was too single-minded and self-centered, and didn’t help achieve the goal I wanted which was living a sustainable healthy lifestyle. I was too “bicycle ride” oriented and often wandered around by focusing on bicycle news and opinions. Make no mistake about it, Biking To Live will continue to be about bicycling but instead will broaden it’s scope to include subjects that directly compliment bicycling and it’s role in a healthy lifestyle. Topics like food, exercise, recipes, motivation, and health. It’s my hope to not only inspire my fellow riders but also be a source of information for people looking for a solution to their health problems. This new theme is going to help me achieve those goals. Vastly different than the old design, the new Biking To Live takes the focus away from the typical blog setup and enables users to quickly focus on topics they want which are more prominently displayed on the home page. You can quickly find topics on food, medical, news, or reviews. If you want to see it in the old blog style all you need to do is click on the blog link in the grey navigation bar. You’ll also notice a featured video section on the right. I’ll post bicycle and healthy lifestyle videos there for everyone to see. It’s my plan for you to be able to see me on there someday.
That, in a nutshell, is why I redesigned Biking To Live. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts, likes, dislikes, and opinions.
What can you do? There are a few things you can do for me:
1. If you haven’t subscribed to my feed please do so. Links to it are located at the top right of the site.
2. If you aren’t following me on twitter please do so. A link to my Twitter account is located up by the feeds.
3. Visit some of my site sponsors.
4. Leave comments. I love it when folks leave comments and I reply to every single one.
5. Want to see a particular topic? Let me know.
Ten Brisk Miles
Contrary to popular belief, I am still around and still live in Jax. For how long I’m not sure but I’ll talk about that later.
Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve ridden. I turned an ankle a few weeks ago (I have bad ankles to start with) and had to take a week off. That wasn’t bad. Then my life was turned upside down and I felt no desire to ride. Again, more on that later.
This is not me. I’m probably worse!
This morning I wanted to get back out and ride. I could tell I had taken time off as it felt my pants had shrunk. That wasn’t good. So, the alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I headed outside to ride.
Upon opening the garage door I was blasted by cold air. Similar to what you experience when you open one of the freezer doors at the grocery store as you reach for that half-gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I had anticipated the cold air and had put on a long sleeve shirt on under my short sleeve jersey. I don’t own a long sleeve cycling jersey and after this mornings ride I’m beginning to think I need to invest in one. Contrary to popular belief it does get quite chilly here in Northeast Florida. The temp this morning was 48F. That’s down right cold! As my dad would say, “It’s colder than a witches _ _ _ out there.” The weather dude on the radio said it could be even colder tomorrow with the potential to have to break out the ice scraper! Dude, this is Florida. That’s just so wrong.
Constellation Orion
I roll out of the driveway and everything feels ok from the lack of use. I didn’t even need WD-40 to lubricate the joints. It actually felt quite good except for the cold. It was dark and clear too. The constellation Orion was unmistakable in the Southern sky with the Sirius (The Dog Star) to the lower left. Later, while driving to work, I saw the moon just creeping above the eastern horizon. You see the entire outline of the moon but only a tiny sliver was shining. It was stunning.
Like I said earlier, it was cold. My little sausages (fingers) were starting to feel it after a couple of miles. My oldest daughter, who is taking an Anatomy class, would have said my phalanges were cold. That said, so were my toes. I’ve got a pair of long-fingered gloves somewhere. I should look for them tonight.
Wanting to get warmed up quickly, I took off at a good pace but was able to maintain it for my 10 mile ride. I maxed out at 17.5 mph but averaged 14.8 mph for the ride. That’s not bad considering I’ve taken a few weeks off.
I did see a couple of runners this morning and one other cyclist so I wasn’t the only idiot out in the cold.
Gantt Chart
Now, what’s been going on in my life? A lot. About three weeks ago, the company I work for laid off all their temporary and contract employees. That’s about 300 people. The reason for the layoffs was due to the frozen bond market that prevented the company from acquiring bonds for construction. So, what they did was basically freeze all construction and started cutting costs. First thing to get cut was temps and contractors. I fall into the contractor category.
Luckily for me my parent company is a great company and their looking out for me. Amazingly enough, I’m still working at my old job. The financial arrangements are different but I’m still here until they figure out what’s going on. In the meantime, I’ve been nominated as a potential candidate for a position in Dallas, TX. Hence my post last week about wanting to know if anybody lived in the Dallas area. The big negative about Dallas is that I’d have to leave my family here at least for the short term. There’s just no way I could sale my house right now without taking a huge loss.
What does all this mean? I’m not sure right now. At the moment I’m still in Jax. That could change next week but I just don’t know. Only time will tell. In the meantime, I’m just going to get back on the bike and try and reduce my waistline.
Read MoreBike Ride 36 – Stoplights Stink
Well, Saturday morning found me getting set to put in 30 miles. I was going to ride the now familiar University of North Florida loop. I slept in until 8 to get some sleep. I don’t think I moved all night. I got up and gave the bike a once over and put some air in the tires. I mentioned back on Ride 35 that I was hearing a ticking noise from the rear wheel. I discovered a loose spoke and tightened it up. We’ll see if that fixes it.
I rolled out of the driveway around 8:30 and the weather was fantastic. It was clear and about 67 degrees. I didn’t feel any wind but that would change before the ride was over. I made it about 150 feet and noticed the clicking sound again. I pulled over to give the wheel a once-over again. I couldn’t find anything but did meet a new neighbor whose house I had stopped in front of. I talked to him a few minutes and then headed on with no resolution to the ticking. Rats.
I was about five minutes into the ride when another cyclist pulled up next to me. We exchanged pleasantries as he went by on his Cannondale that was setup for triathlons. He was quickly gone though because he passed me like I was standing still. I was going about 16 mph. I saw him again about 15 miles later going the opposite direction. I saw a couple of other riders and walkers this morning too. The nice weather was bringing them out.
For most of the first-half of the ride I was kind of in a funk where I was really sure how well I felt. I would feel ok for a little bit and then feel exhausted five minutes later. The wind was picking up and at times gave me a pretty good headwind. I kept pounding the liquids and tried to replenish some with a power bar gel. I felt like this for about 3/4 of the ride.
At mile 20 I get to my rest stop for a much anticipated break. While sitting on the bench at the church I decided to give my rear wheel a look again since the noise seemed to get louder in the last five miles. It took me about ten seconds to find a spoke that was really, really loose. I tightened it, looked for others, and found a couple more that were loose. In order to make sure I kept the wheel true I used my brake pads as a makeshift truing stand. It worked pretty good and I didn’t have any other problems.
The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful but much better than the first 20 miles. On the way home I was actually able generate some good speeds above 20 mph. That felt great.
Now, why do stoplights stink? Because when they change to red I have to stop. I must have hit almost every single stoplight throughout my entire ride. It was unbelievable and ridiculous. There’s one stretch where there’s a lot of lights and I’d get stopped by a red light. It would turn green. I’d build my speed back up and get caught by the next one. I’m telling you, it was bad. I don’t think I’ve ever hit that many on this route.
All told I got 30.2 miles ridden in 2 hours and 2 minutes with an average of 14.8. Not bad for me.
Read MoreBicycle Contests & Giveaways
It’s that time of the week for my weekly update but things around here have been kind of slow. My wife continues to mend from her surgery (a six to nine month full recovery time frame) and I got in a couple of rides. The weather played some weird games this week which caused me only to get two rides in. I was all set for a long ride on Saturday but mother nature wouldn’t cooperate. I got up at 7:00 AM, looked outside, and it was iffy at best. I pulled up the weather map on my computer to have a look and I wondered if I could slip a ride in anyway. As I’m sitting there I look out the window at the tree tops and they’re moving some. Looks like it would be a windy ride. After about five minutes I look out again and it’s raining. It looks like a light rain and I decide to try and wait it out. After about 30 minutes it’s still raining but the wind is really gusting. It turned around to rain on and off all day and then it rained all night last night. Needless to say, no riding was accomplished.
That brings me to today’s subject on bicycle contests and giveaways. I came across three this week with two on one site. Here’s a quick rundown of what they are.
At The Bicycle Tutor
Alex over at The Bicycle Tutor has got one contest and one giveaway going on. The contest is a Logo Design Contest where the winner can take home $100 cash. The deadline for entries is September 26, 2008 and contest details can be found here.
The second item Alex has going on is a giveaway each month thanks to the fine folks over at Genuine Innovations. They sent Alex six SecondWind Road Carbon Minis
On a side-note, if you’re not visiting The Bicycle Tutor or reading his feed then you are missing out on some great stuff. I’ve used several of his video tutorials to do maintenance on my bike.
At Ride-Strong
This giveaway has been going on for a while but I just got a reminder for it today. If you don’t know about it, Ride-Strong is giving away a new 2008 Colnago Carbon CLX road bike that retails for $5,500. How cool is that? Entering your name for this giveaway is easy. Just visit this link, Ride-Strong.com Colnago Carbon Bike Contest, and follow the directions to subscribe to the Ride-Strong RSS feed and newsletter. A winner will be randomly chosen when Ride-Strong reaches 1,500 RSS subscribers. At the link above you can also find information on how to increase your chances of winning.
I’ve entered both the Colnago Bicycle and CO2 inflator giveaways. I just don’t think I have the talent to enter in the logo design contest. Anyway, I could sure use that Colnago bike just as I’m sure many of you could too. I will tell you that I would subscribe to both The Bicycle Tutor and Ride-Strong even if they were running some contests. They’re both have great content on their sites. Good luck to anyone who enters.
Remember, Bike To Live.
Bike Ride 34 – Drag Racing a Cement Truck
The weather the last couple of day has been spotty due to some strong thunderstorms that rolled through the area. It was a little windy yesterday afternoon too. The kicker, though, has that the temp has plummeted. Lows the last couple of nights have been in the low 70s with highs in the mid 80s. Awesome riding weather. This morning was no different. I rolled out of the garage at about 5:10 and was greeted with crystal clear skies, a bright half-moon overhead, and a slight chill in the area. Awesome.
Riding down the street I noticed a clicking sound coming from my rear wheel area. I stopped a couple of times to try and find what it was but couldn’t. It seemed to go away as I rode. I hope it isn’t anything serious.
Remember the roadside radar gun I told you about back on Ride 33? As I approached it this morning I wanted to to try and post a better speed than last time (16 mph). I shifted up a gear and began pushing a little harder. I went by it at 22 mph which is respectable for me. I’m pretty sure I can do better but I was technically still in my warm up phase and didn’t want to push it too much.
I road about another half-mile when a cement truck passed me. If you recall, I’ve been seeing these trucks every morning as they head out to the new high school that’s under construction. This truck was cruising pretty good but got caught at a stoplight just ahead of me. As I rolled up next to him I couldn’t resist the temptation to have a little drag race. Assuming he had a full load of concrete I had about a 66000 pound weight advantage and should be able to smoke this guy right? Yes and no. The light turned green and I rolled away from the stop line quickly. I immediately began forming a gap as he was fighting to get out of first gear. I still had a good 10 yard gap when I heard him shift. I pushed it a little harder because I knew he would start catching me as he worked his way through the low gears. I was at about 20 mph when I started to ease up (my legs were heavy and I was still warming up). He eventually got his momentum going and passed me pretty quickly after that. The result was as expected. It takes the cement truck a while to get going so I have the advantage off the line. Once he gets through the low gears and builds up the momentum I’m toast. Oh well.
That’s about the extent of the excitement for today’s ride. I saw a couple of runners (must have been some lazy folks sleeping in this morning) and got my 13 miles done in about 52 minutes. The weather made it a great ride.
BTL
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