What would Lance do?

Not what I've been up to, I'll bet. A whole lot of nothing. I hadn't been on a bike since January 19th, and that was riding to work in the afternoon or a total of 6 miles. Snow storms and exceptionally cold weather have made perfect excuses for not riding outside. Setting up the bike on the trainer, well, I'd have to go out to the shed and get the bike, and it's cold out there. There's snow on the ground, and that makes it slippery and I don't want to fall down and hurt myself, now, do I? Ok, maybe it's because I'm lazy, unmotivated and riding inside just isn't any fun.

Yesterday, though, I shamed myself into dragging the bike in and setting it up. Eighteen days without a ride is a long time. I managed a slow (15.5mph) 20 miles, and no, it wasn't any fun, and yes, I am out of shape. So today I decided I'd better do it again. I actually brought the bike in, but before I got a chance to set it up I looked at the thermometer. Forty five degrees, bright sunshine, and a little windy, and I'm setting up the bike to ride indoors? I don't think so. I took the bike back out, put my warm stuff on and set out on a 21 mile ride. My average for this one was 16.4, better than yesterday, but still rough.

I am getting ready to watch the Super Bowl and eat a lot of junk food. I'll need some long rides to burn the calories.

Maybe that is what Lance would do - today, anyway.

Wrap ups and updates

Seems like five days into the new year might be a good time to tally up last years numbers and see where I went. Thanks to the magic of Excel, I don't really have to know what I'm doing. As you can see from the yearly mileage over there, my total was 4877.63 with 213.95 on the trainer. Since my only goal this year was a vague "ride as much as last year" it was surpassed. I'm a little disappointed not to have made 5000, but given the way I've been feeling and the demotivating weather pattern, I suppose not making it is understandable. Either one of those excuses by themselves would not have stopped me. Both of them together ended up being insurmountable. Oh well, there's always next, errr, THIS year. A few other stats:
Number of rides: 164
Average speed for the 4877 miles: 16.48
Highest speed: 39.7 mph
Total time on the bike: 280 hours 13 minutes,
Average ride length: 1.707 hours.
Total calories burned:288805.

Oh, and one race win and gold medal.

I don't know what all that means other than I spent a lot of time on my bike, and I enjoyed every second of it. If I didn't, I'd not have done it.

As for the update, I am now at a whopping 47 miles for the year. Twenty seven on the road and 20 on the trainer. The heartbeat thing is still being evaluated and I get to wear a monitor until January 19. Amazing thing - it comes with a cell phone and is constantly sending my info someplace where someone is keeping an eye on it (or so I was told). I wonder what they think when they see the traces from those two bike rides and heart rates of 170 bpm. One thing is for sure; they'll have some full out exercise data to play with.

Goals for '10? None, really. Same as last year. Except maybe another race win. I'd like that.

Now, if this cold weather ever breaks....

Maybe.....

Well, maybe it won't be too bad. Sunday I rode the same route as Saturday in almost identical conditions and averaged 16.8 mph without ever feeling stressed or out of breath. That was a one mph improvement over Saturday and pretty standard for that route.

Off to the cardiologist today to see what he (she?) has to say.

Red Tape

Seems like no matter what project I get involved in there are always multiple layers of red tape to negotiate. Today's project, though was pure red tape. Finally got the no longer white, almost two year old tape off. Letting me have anything white is a mistake, from the moment it comes into my possession it starts a (rapid) journey to dirty gray. Black would probably be the best choice for me, but I wanted red, so red it is. I think it looks good. Well, at least better.

There were only two things on my Christmas list; red handlebar tape and a new water bottle. I got the bottle too.

Haven't been riding so much the past few weeks. Holiday busy-ness, early sunsets, and uncooperative weather put a limit on the available riding time. On top of that, I just haven't been feeling all that great. Someplace way back there in an earlier post I mentioned a minor heart problem that cycling seemed to alleviate, if not eliminate. Maybe it's age, maybe it's stress, who knows, but after being dormant for a couple of years the irregular heartbeat has returned. Finally saw a doctor about it last week and got put on a medication to slow my heart rate. So far it seems to be helping and today I went for a short 29 mile ride to see how the medication affected me. The ride went ok with heart rates ten to twelve bpm lower than what I usually see. I noticed that maybe I wasn't quite as "aerobic" as before -sort of getting out of breath at the upper rates, but that could just be my imagination. I hope I get to try again tomorrow. As of now I need 151.1 miles to get to 5000, and no, I ain't gonna make it in the next five days. Maybe next year.

Next week more doctors and tests. No fun. There had better not be any mention of not riding.

Resting

Annie had her kitten prevention operation Wednesday. She seems a little subdued now, bit recovering nicely, with short flashes of the little terror she tends to be. I just added up all her vet bills... shots, worming, de-fleaing meds, and the operation. Let me see, at $600 that would make this one expensive "free" stray kitten, and the most expensive pet we have ever had. Still, though, I'm glad she is here.

Toes Froze

Yesterday during my cycling shopping binge I spent a lot of time examining wind and water resistant booties. In the end I elected not to buy them. It is just hard for me to purchase winter type stuff given how short and mild the winters are here. Not very far into today's ride having booties would have been wonderful. Forty two degrees, windy and raining is a pretty good recipe for getting chilled, but even though I was soaked within minutes I was comfortable - except for my feet. The Pearl Izumi Softshell gloves kept my hands warm, but they are definitely water resistant, not water proof. They were soaked through too, but still warm. I rode a whopping 21.7 miles, stopping only because my toes were so cold. It's supposed to get down to 26 tonight, but tomorrow will be about 50 and sunny. Quite an improvement.



Given the dark gray dreariness and limited visibility of the day the addition of the Planet Bike Rack Blinky on the seat post made me feel a bit more secure - although it's probably a false sense, but having it on can't hurt. It is a pretty bright light, though and fits quite nicely under the seat bag.



Today's weather forced the Liberty Christmas Parade to be rescheduled to December 19. We were looking forward to going, hopefully we don't have anything that Saturday to prevent us from attending.

Plans

The thing with plans is that if the best laid ones often go awry, the casual "tomorrow I'm gonna..." type don't stand a chance. Seems to be a good reason not to plan ahead, so mostly I don't, much to the dismay of several people around here who would like to know what we are "gonna do tomorrow". My usual answer "We'll see".



With my flat shortened ride last Saturday (planned 65 miles, completed 34), a scant 20 miles on Sunday, then only managing to commute Monday morning for an additional 6 miles, today's vacation day looked like the perfect chane to do a little catching up. I planned a nice long midday ride. I got 2.5 miles. Then I heard the dreaded tell tale hiss, silence, hiss, silence, hiss of a deflating tire. The rear tire again. It didn't go unnoticed last Saturday when I repaired that puncture that the tire was getting a bit, umm, thin. Four thousand miles will do that, I suppose, but even though the cords were beginning to show through I figured I could get a few more miles out of it. Throw that on the bad decision pile, especially since I went to Performance Bike last Saturday after I got the flat and picking up a new tire would have made sense - which is my excuse for not doing it.



If I was going to do any more riding this weekend it meant I'd have to take a trip to Greensboro today and get another tire. Good thing I had the day off! Having driven the 25 miles to the big city, I couldn't just go one place, so first it was Performance, then REI, and I couldn't just get one tire, I got two, along with some other stuff:

Performance supplied me with the tires, citrus degreaser, and Velcro strap thingies to keep my pants from getting sucked into the chain when I commute. I had one, but I think Annie took it. She does things like that. I came away from REI with a pair of Pearl Izumi (I like their stuff best) water and wind resistant winter gloves and a Planet Bike tail light for the non commuter bike.

Today, then turned out to be a little like an early Christmas. The bike now has a new rear tire and is all set for tomorrow, which is supposed to be 40 degrees and raining. Not the best riding weather, but my hands will be warm. Not that I'm planning to ride....