After a busy week last week due to my wife’s surgery, it was about time I got back on the bike and re-started my fitness program. I should have re-started yesterday morning but with only about an hour of sleep Sunday night I was in no condition to ride a bicycle. That would have been suicide.

Because I basically had to trash my cycling plans last week I’m performing week three of my fitness program this week. That means I’ll be riding 3 workdays at 13 miles each and a 30 mile ride on Saturday. I Shouldn’t have any problems with that at all. Especially after having a week off the bike.

As usual for my weekday bike rides, the alarm was going off at 5 AM, and I was rolling out of the garage by about 5:10. The weather outside was near perfect. There was a little humidity in the air but there were no clouds, no wind, and the Harvest Moon was shedding quite a bit of natural light. I hoped the pristine conditions were foreshadowing a pristine ride.

Leaving my neighborhood it was quiet out. There was much less traffic than there was back on Ride 32 but I did see a couple more cement trucks heading out to the new high school. Overall though the roads were virtually empty for me and it was nice. I always feel a little anxious when cars approach me from behind and today there was very little of that.

After a couple of miles I really began to fall into a rhythm and I noticed my speed was a little higher than normal. I was pushing the 52T like I said I would but I think the week off may have had something to do with it. Since my last ride, I had also moved my saddle forward a little bit to try and take some weight off my hands. It seemed to help my hands but I wonder if it also helped with my pedal stroke. I guess I’ll see how tomorrow’s ride goes. I really need to take my bike down to the local bike shop and have the fit checked.

Nearing the half-way point I started to notice several runners I hadn’t seen before. I do see a few over near my house but I’m usually the only person out-and-about near my turnaround point. All told I saw about six runners today and one other cyclist. I saw the bike rider on my home stretch and I’m not sure if he saw me wave. If you’re reading my blog, “Hey!”

Today’s ride was great. I felt refreshed the entire time and had no after-effects from taking a week off. I road my 13 miles in 51 minutes today.

So, why were there dreams of the movie ‘The Rookie’? If you don’t remember the movie, it’s the one where Dennis Quaid plays a high school baseball coach who makes a bet with his team. The bet was that if the team wins the district championship he would try out for a major league team. Well, the team wins and he has to try out. Before he does, though, he’s driving down the road at night and comes upon one of those portable speed display systems that let you know how fast you’re driving. Police usually put these in places as a deterrent to get people to slow down. Anyway, he decided to throw his fastball by it to see how fast it is and if he’s fixing to make a fool out of himself at the tryout. He throws a ball and it registers 68 mph on the digital readout. He’s obviously disappointed and goes to pick up the ball. What he doesn’t see is the display tick up to 98 mph after he walks by.

Well, they had one of these gadgets placed on the long straightaway leading away from my neighborhood. I see it and wonder if it’ll pick me up on the bike. I hunker down (that means getting about as aerodynamic as a brick) and press on. I get within a couple hundred feet and it registers 16 mph. As I get close it flickers to 17..15..16..15..17..16. I go by the radar wondering if it was having a hard time tracking me and it was actually trying to read out 26 mph. I look down at my computer and it says 16.2 mph. I guess I’m not as fortunate as The Rookie and won’t go home and find a message from Garmin-Chipotle on my voice mail. Oh well. You gotta have dreams right?

Our stay down in Gainesville was much shorter than anticipated. My wife’s surgery went great and she’s back at home recovering. To be fully recovered takes 6-9 months and she’s limited to soft food right now with scrambled eggs being about the limit. I didn’t get to ride down in Gainesville but did prefer the route I was going to ride and am sorry I didn’t get to. It looked to be a nice route. I’m glad to be back home though.

The bicycle seat bag. It’s that small package of assurance that we keep tucked under our saddle. It sits under our rears, ignored and neglected until we need it. When we do need it we wonder if we restocked it the last time we used it. You’ll find quite a few articles around the Internet about the bike seat bag and what bicycle accessories need to be in it. These articles are always popular and get a lot of feedback because everyone has their own preference of what should be stowed in their seat bag. Just like everyone else, I have my preferences too. I think this article will be a benefit to anyone just starting in bicycling, or returning to the sport after a long layoff (just like me), or the enthusiast who has been riding everyday. Regardless of your experience, I think you’ll find the info below useful.

So, what needs to be in that seat bag? There’s quite a few things you can carry in your saddle bag but I think there’s a core list of essential items every cyclist needs. They are:

Have you noticed a trend up to this point? All five items above are directly related to fixing a flat while out on the road. The flat is probably the most common problem you can/will experience while bicycling so you need to be prepared for it. The list continues:

If putting together or going out to buy this long list of stuff has you worried don’t be. You can save some time and money by looking into some of the seat bag tire repair kits that are available. They contain everything you need to fix a flat in a seat bag, wallet, or cannister. All you need to do is add other items like money, identification, and a tool (maybe).

There you have it. The items above are what I feel are essential items you need to have in your seat bag. If you have them you’ll be prepared for your next ride and be able to make it home. I’m sure many of you will have your own opinions on what should be in your seat bag so I welcome your comments.

The word for this mornings ride is “traffic.” I could not believe how much traffic there was. During my normal ride time from 5:15 to 6:15 AM there is usually very little traffic at the start with it gradually building towards the end. This morning it was shear chaos from the start. I began to wonder if I had missed something in the news of if I had accidentally overslept and didn’t realize it. There were cars making turns into and out of places there were way out of the ordinary. A new high school is being built a few miles down the road and they must have had a big concrete pour going on because I must have seen at least 8 concrete trucks. Needless to say, my head was on a swivel this morning. It just didn’t feel right.

I started off as usual by rolling out of the garage at about 5:15. The sky was partly cloudy and dark. I believe I actually felt a couple of sprinkles. On my way down the driveway I had to stop and admire my lawn. I mowed it yesterday after I got home from work and I always love the look of a freshly mowed yard. After patting myself on the back I rolled out the driveway.

Just like Saturday’s ride, I started in the big chain ring and stayed there the entire ride. I feel like I’m already accustomed to riding in it so there’s no going back now. Maybe it’s a manly thing. Anyway, I was still working on my 500 mile base fitness so I wanted to take it somewhat easy today and not push it too hard. I felt really good though after warming up. I was able to maintain a good 13-14 mph average speed with no problems at all. A couple of times I found myself riding a little faster than that and had to reign myself back in. With the humidity that was already building I worked up a good sweat though which felt great.

I saw a few runners this morning (mainly on my return trip) and one other bicyclist. The bike rider I saw about 5 minutes into my ride and he looked like he might be a commuter. He was going the opposite direction of me and I barely saw him. He was on a hybrid wearing dark shorts, a dark shirt, no helmet, and no lights. Talk about suicidal.

Anyway, that’s about it. Today’s ride was 13 miles in 56 minutes. With me heading out of town tomorrow morning I’m not sure I’m going to be able to ride tomorrow or not. I plan on taking my bike with me on my trip to Gainesville so I can still get my rides in. We’ll just have to see how things go with my wife and her surgery.

I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get a ride in this morning. Tropical Storm Hannah prevented me from riding yesterday as it went by Florida heading for the Carolinas. The weather report called for a good day so I went to bed early expecting to ride. The alarm went off at 7:00 and I took a quick look outside. The sky was clear and there was no wind. Awesome. I was out the door by 7:20.

My fitness plan had me riding my bicycle for 30 miles today so I set out to ride the same route as last week. Unlike last Saturday, I made sure to let my wife know where I was riding and when I expected to be back. The route is below.

Overall the ride was very uneventful which was kind of nice. The sun had yet to crawl above the trees so most of the first half of the ride was in some cool shadows. It was awesome. As I neared the 10-mile point while crossing in front of the St Johns Towncenter (a big shopping area), I hear somebody yell my name. I look across the road and it’s Kevin from Ride 28. I yelled back and pulled over to see if he wanted to talk. I looked back and he kept going. Oh well. From there I did the loop around around UNF. Jaxgtr, I saw the turn you were talking about that can add some mileage on the campus. It’s the light at the campus police station. I’ll have to try that out sometime.

After finishing that loop I headed back through the Town Center and took a turn West that would take me down to my rest stop at Southpoint Community Church. While riding a long stretch on the way to the Church, I saw Kevin again heading in the opposite direction. I yelled and waived but he must not have heard me. It looked like he was concentrating on his ride and listening to his ipod. I should have called him yesterday and asked if he wanted to ride since it looks like he was riding the same route as me. Kevin, sorry about not calling. I’ll give you a call this week to see if we can meet up next Saturday.

I stopped at the Church for a quick break and took the opportunity to adjust my pedals (two of the adjustment screws had worked loose) and eat a little snack. I realized this morning that I didn’t have anymore Jelly Belly® Sport Beans or gels so I threw a little cheese and cracker snack in my bag on the way out the door. It was actually pretty tasty. I also took the opportunity to refill my water bottles. There’s a water hose on the backside of the Church but I discovered last week that you need a wrench to operate it. Luckily, I remembered to throw a miniature crescent wrench into my seat bag before leaving the house.

After getting my rest I set out again and road the ten miles back home. There were a couple of times during the ride that I felt good and decided to pick up the speed for a short interval. One was right before my rest break on a nice long flat stretch where I was able to get my speed up to 20.5 mph. The other was about halfway home on another flat piece of road where I was able to get my speed up to 20.7 mph. It felt good. Another thing I did today was ride the entire route in my big chain ring. I rarely ride using it but have decided to try and use it more often. No pain no gain.

That’s about it. It was a really great ride that left me feeling good. I saw a lot of folks this morning either running, walking, or riding. It’s always nice to see others while I’m out riding. All told, I rode 30.7 miles in 2 hours 8 minutes.