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.

Trying to get back into my normal routine, my alarm went off promptly at 5:00 AM. I had prepared everything the night before so it was easy getting ready. I was excited to head out and ride again.

I opened the garage door and stepped out. Man it was humid. It’s supposed to be 96F today so I’m not surprised. I close the garage door, turn on the front and rear lights, clip in and set out on my first ride in a month and the first since my crash.

I get out of my neighborhood and out onto the main road. There’s very little traffic. I pulled into the turn lane to make a right turn and then, “BAM! WWWWWWSSSSSSHHHHHH!” Not a simple “WWSSHH.” This was a catastrophic “BAM!” and I was flat. I was barely a half-mile from home so I just turned around and walked back. I didn’t even think about trying to fix it.

Upon returning home I did a quick inspection and found a large (about half the size of my little finger fingernail) hole a few inches from the stem. How did that happen? I had just replaced the tube a couple of days ago so I could have pinched the tube between the tire and rim but I had inspected it after replacing it so I don’t feel that’s it. I did a quick inspection of the tire and couldn’t find anything obvious so I don’t know. I know my tires need replacement so that could be it. This evening I’ll perform a better inspection and see if I can find a solution. The problem could be my mediocre bicycle repair skills but I believe the culprit is the tires.

Why do I think it’s the tires? Well, if you look at them they look unsafe. The tread is ‘ok’ but the sidewalls are in bad shape. You want to know the bad part? This is embarrassing but, in my attempt to be totally honest with you, I have to admit that these are the original tires that came on my bike. For those of you not aware of my entire story, that puts these tires age at about 15 years. Yes, 15 years. How many miles? I don’t know. A lot. Was I riding on borrowed time? Absolutely. Should I have replaced these tires years ago? Yes. Should I have replaced them a couple of months ago when I was getting the Cannondale ready to ride? Yes. I have no excuses. Feel free to read me the riot act in your comments. I deserve it.

So, my return to riding following my crash didn’t go nearly as well as I had planned. Out of my last four rides I’ve had two flats, a crash, and one good ride. I’m getting the feeling that somebody is trying to tell me something. I will persevere though. Two new tires and a new tube will be purchased this week so I can try again.

For those expecting to visit the site today and read about another great ride I can assure you that I’m as disappointed as you are. I guess it’s times like this that will really show us how committed we are to something.

Well, I had to go by the bike shop today to pick up the last item I needed to replenish my seat bag – CO2 cartridges. As it turns out, my wife went with me. We went by a shop that we were closest to at the time (one I’d been in before) and looked around. I found the CO2 and they wanted $5 for one threadless cannister. That seemed a little high to me. I also checked on some tire prices (since mine are in need of serious replacement) and also thought they were high. The lowest priced tire they had (700×23) was $35. I was like no way. My wife convinced me to go to another shop that she was in a few days ago and bought me some new tubes at. How can I turn down my wife wanting to go to another bike shop? So, off we go. We show up and I find the CO2 right away. They are, get this, half the price at $2.50. Amazing. I ask about tires and he brings me two kinds. One recreational and one a little more bomb-proof. The recreational (a Bontager) was $18 and the other was, I think, $25. What a difference! I liked the shop much better too. The people are both shops were very nice but I just liked the second one better. It may be that I’m tight with my money but I just felt more comfortable. It was nice having my wife drag me around the shop showing me what I needed too. Then she started asking questions about the differences between my bike and some of the new ones. I was in heaven! She couldn’t believe how light some of the new bikes are. She concluded that at some point I would need to replace my 15-year old Cannondale. That’ll be a while though. All-in-all it was a good trip.

Now that I’ve replenished my seat bag, changed tubes, and healed, I should be ready to start riding again. I’m going to shoot for tomorrow.

This was a good week of riding. I managed to get all three of my weekday rides in as well as a longer Saturday ride. The shift to my Cannondale R-300 has dramatically helped me improve my speed.

Here are the totals for this week:

Monday: 11.52 miles, 52:26, 16.1 mph max, and 13.1 mph avg
Wednesday: 11.51 miles, 53:35, 18.2 mph max, and 12.8 mph avg (first ride on the Cannondale)
Friday: 12.17 miles, 47:05, 18.7 mph max, and 15.5 mph avg
Saturday: 25.14 miles, 1 hr 36 min, 20.8 mph max, 15.6 mph avg

Even though Wednesday way my first ride on The Crotch Rocket my average speed was still about the same due to taking it easy. I was riding with my brother-in-law who was riding a hybrid and if I hadn’t taken it slow I would have dropped him pretty quick. On Friday and Saturday though you can see a substantial increase in the average speed.

I also passed 200 miles this week since starting Biking To Live and this weeks mileage puts me at 241 miles total.

I can’t tell you how much better I feel since embarking on this journey. Not only is my biking improving but my health is too. My weight loss has been minimal (less than 5 pounds) but improvements in my blood pressure and heart rate has been dramatic. I had another doctor’s visit this week to follow up on some blood work and my resting heart rate had dropped 3 beats and my blood pressure is normal for the first time in a long time. The doc called my blood pressure perfect. I’m still taking meds for it but by the time I lose all this weight I hope to be able to come off of them. Time will tell.

As I said, my weight hasn’t changed much at all but I am seeing drastic changes in the fit of my clothes. I believe I’m burning the fat off but am replacing it with muscle with riding I’m doing. I talked with the doctor about this and he seemed to agree with me. He also said that losing 5 pounds in a month isn’t bad at all because you should be taking it off slowly (approx 1-1.5 pounds per week). If I follow the 1 pounds per week thumbrule then I’m right on track. He told me that as long as my clothes are getting bigger then I’m doing it right. He just cautioned me to watch my diet (which I am) and to start taking a multi-vitamin (which I will).

Pete over at Cycle Pig has started a new weekly series called The Weekly Oink where he summarizes some of the great content he’s found throughout the week. This week, one of the links he’s shared was a video documenting the construction of a bicycle helmet. Very fascinating. You should check it out.

I slept in a little this morning and took off at about 7:30 AM for my Saturday ride. It had rained yesterday and last night so the roads were wet but not bad. I had to dodge the occasional puddle but nothing major. I went out today just trying to ride a good distance while maintaining a good speed. I wanted to try and average around 15 mph. I also had a basic idea of where I wanted to ride too.

Throughout the ride I saw a lot of folks out for their Saturday morning exercise. Bikers, runners, walkers, dogs walking their owners and so on. At one point I saw a group of about 5 women who had been running. They were gathered around one of those orange igloo water coolers getting a drink on the side of the road. Several were in the same shirt. As I continued up the road I saw another group of about 6 women; again in the same shirt. It must have been some kind of organized runners club or something like that. I continued to see several other runners.

About two miles after my usual weekday turnaround point I hit a new section of road that is pristine for bike riding. The road has only been in existence for about a year and isn’t well-traveled. It has a bike lane and rides very well. I think I was passed by one car on this section of road.

After turning around and making it about halfway back home I hear, “on your left!” I look over my shoulder and it’s a guy passing me. I’m cruising along at about 17 mph and this guy is moving pretty good. He’s riding a Colnago with aerobars and he’s tucked in. He’s probably ten years older than I am but like I said, he’s bookin’ it. A few minutes later I get passed by another guy, about my age, riding a Trek. The two guys are together it seems and I’m able to stay with them pretty good. In fact, they were rabbits for me to chase. I didn’t want to catch all the way back up to them so they wouldn’t think I was some jerk. To stay with them I really had to push it and it felt great. The both stopped as one of the guys was apparently ready to turn into his neighborhood. I passed them then but the guy on the Colnago passed me again a few minutes later and turned down a side road about a quarter mile later.

This was another super ride. It was nice to see all the folks out getting exercise and even better to see a couple of fellow road riders. It was also great to be able to really push it.

Here are the numbers for today: 25.14 miles, 1 hr 36 min, 20.8 mph max, 15.6 mph average