Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post but I did get the job in Dallas and will be moving out there later this month to start work. It looks like I’ll be living in Plano which is on the North side of Dallas and I’ll only be about 3 miles from Plano Cycling & Fitness which came highly recommended as a good local bike shop.

Lastly, I received the most recent issue of bicycling magazine just have only made it through the first ten pages or so but wanted to share a video with you. The video is about a lady named Staci Merriott and how she lost 184 pounds by riding her bike. The transformation is absolutely amazing and something that I hope to accomplish someday. Staci epitomizes the Biking To Live mantra. Here’s the video.

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.

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.

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 to give away. Alex will give away one a month for the next six months. Entering your name into the giveaway is simple. All you do is enter your email address here and click on the verification link that gets sent to the email address you entered. If you already receive email updates from Alex’s tutorial feed then your name is already entered. At the end of each month he’ll choose a winner at random.

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.

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

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.

That said, she’ll be in the hospital for 2 or 3 days. Because we’ll be in Gainesville during this time, she’s insisted I take my bicycle so I can ride down there. I’ve done some looking on Map My Ride and there looks to be a couple of good routes that start near the hotel I’m staying at that are low-traffic, well-constructed, and scenic. I’m going to continue posting while we’re down there so there shouldn’t be too much of a disruption in my blogging. Things do happen, though, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see too many posts from me this week. I do have a couple of informational articles I’ve been working on that may get posted as well or in lieu of my bicycle ride posts. Just wanted to keep you informed.

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.

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.