Parade Season

It's that time of year again - Christmas parades. One of the neat things that come out for them is all the old cars and tractors. Saturday was Liberty's turn, among others, as the owner of this car told me. He had already been in Pleasant Garden's in the morning and was going to be in Ramseur's today (Sunday). He was trying to find out when Staley was having theirs so he could be in that one too. I rode through about an hour and a half before the start, so the participants were just starting to arrive. Watchers, however, were already lining the road, so I had spectators when I rode through. No one cheered, oh. well.

It was a pretty nice day too. It was 39 degrees when I started and about 43 when I finished, not a lot of sun and very little wind. I got in 40.32 miles and averaged 16.8. I am not really trying for speed so much right now, so I go at a somewhat more sedate (old mannish?) speed. Although I do remind myself that a year ago 16.8 would have been fast.

Today is bright and sunny, but it's supposed to be a little colder with 10 to 20 mph winds (have i mentioned I don't like wind?). I have about 138 miles left for my 4000 mile goal, and while meeting it isn't really a priority anymore, getting this close with 3 more weeks of riding makes it look like it'll happen.

I think I'll wait at least until it gets above freezing to go ride.

Spinning

The weather never let up, so I set the trainer up in front of the TV so I could watch the Panthers play while spinning away. I lasted 53 minutes for 15 miles. It just isn't the same as riding outside, it's hard to stay motivated enough to keep going. Still, though, it's riding, sort of. And the Panthers are winning, at the moment.

Five days away from work. Can't say I'm really looking forward to going back. It was so nice to be home.

Rain

It looks unlikely for an outside ride today unless the rain stops. It's only 38 degrees, and that's just a bit too cold for the clothes I have if I'm going to get soaked too.

I was playing around on mapmyride.com this morning, just sort of checking it out and I put one of my longer rides here. It's a little confusing because some of the loop gets ridden more than once. Anyway, it was kind of neat to see the elevation changes.

Beat the rain

I got out around 10:30 this morning, figuring I'd try to beat the rain. It wasn't a problem; it's 5:00 now, and it still hasn't rained. It only got up to 46 today, and there wasn't any sun, so it felt kind of cold. Tomorrows temp is supposed to be the same, so if it does end up raining I may ride the trainer. I really don't have the right stuff to ride in cold rain and be comfortable. We'll see, though.

I ran into Dave, another Liberty cyclist. He was out walking his dog. He told me he had been bitten by a dog last week out on Starmount. He's been riding in Liberty for 30 years and this was the first time he'd been bitten. I rode up Starmount yesterday and had noticed several dogs sleeping in the front yard of one of the houses. Turns out those were the dogs. I am glad they didn't wake up, but I doubt I'll change that route to avoid them.

It was also the first day of firearm deer hunting season. Some people in this house complained about not getting to sleep in late because the gun fire woke them. I was fine, I was up before it started. There is a tiny bit of concern riding through the countryside this time of year, but I think the chances of getting hit by a stray bullet is less than being run over by some teenager texting.

33 and a half mile, 16.3 mph. My 4000 mile goal isn't out of reach, yet.

Day After..

We had a nice Thanksgiving - hope all of you did too. Yesterday's feast supplied a lot of calories that had to be used up, and today's weather made the choices pretty easy. I started out with a couple of hours of leaf removal. Since I couldn't find the rake I was reduced to using the leaf blower. Who invented these things, anyway? They are useless for anything more than a few leaves, for an acre of 3 inch deep leaves, all they are is too much work. On top of that you come away covered with a thin film of foul smelling two stroke oil. Eventually the rake was uncovered (it was propped up against a tree and had fallen over, I had nothing to do with that - honest). I moved more leaves with the rake and a plastic tarp in 15 minutes than I had in the previous hour and a half with the blower.

Once I got bored with the yard work I took off on a bike ride. It's the end of November and the temp was in the mid 60's, so I had to. I got in 36 miles and averaged 16.7. Maybe my fitness can come back. Tomorrow and Sunday are suppose to have highs of 48 with rain, but I am planning on riding, anyway. And there are still plenty of leaves, so I have something else to do, too.

Oh, I washed the bike today. That makes two times in 2,955 miles It needed it.

Vacation Day

Finally took my first vacation day of 2008. This will make for a nice long weekend. Five days away from, well, stuff. It's another one of those typical North Carolina fall days - bright sunshine, and the temp right now at 3:00 is 52. Not bad. I went for my ride at 11:00, it's an early release day from school, and I wanted to be finished before the High School kids hit the roads. Narrow two lane county roads with no shoulder, 16 and 17 year old drivers and bicycles may not be a good traffic mix. I know, because I've been out on early release days before, and it can be scary. I got in 33 miles and got home right at 1:00, right when the schools were letting out, so it worked out perfectly.

Last night I rode the trainer for 10 miles, too. I did a mixture of things I remember from the Spinerval DVD, some one leg workouts and some high intensity intervals (not very many). If I could figure out how to put the DVD on my Mp3 player I wouldn't have to rely on my memory, but then, listening to music is nice too.

Deer

The only excitement on today's ride was supplied by a pair of deer that decided to cross the road just as I arrived where they were, which happened to be at the spot I almost always hit my maximum speed on every ride. Today that was 33.4. I had to brake pretty hard but it wasn't that hard to avoid them. It was a little bit of a surprise to see them out moving around in the middle of the day.

Temperature was 45 at the start and 49 when I finished my 36.31 miles. I'm a little slow, only averaging 16.3. I think I lost a lot of fitness by not riding in September, plus I'm being careful not to push too hard until I'm sure the breathing problems are under control.

The hottest part of the day

That's when I went for my ride. That would have been when the mercury hit 43. Since that was about 2:30, and the sun was already starting it's descent, the temperature sort of went the same way while I was riding. Still, I managed to stay mostly warm, maybe borderline too warm, since my two inner jerseys were somewhat damp when I finished. I even went for the ear warmers today. The only things that got cold were my toes. Kinda numb by the end of my ride. Managed 27.66 miles @16.4. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the lower 50's with no wind. Should be good.

To the guy who pulled out of Quik Chek as I passed, went 25 feet to the next cross street and turned right while I was still along side, be thankful I switched asthma meds yesterday from the one with "aggression" as a side effect (that's the reason for the change, 'cause, it works. Hope this other one does). You only got a yell as I braked to save myself, and not chased down. I'm glad I was taking it easy and only going about 16, usually I'm about 21 or 22 through there. I'd not have missed the car at that speed.

F1 driver Mark Webber hit by car while riding...

Here

To The Dark Side

Ok, I wanted to ride. What was I supposed to do? It's too dark by the time I get out of work, so I really don't have a choice. I pulled out the torture - I mean TRAINER machine. I didn't go see coach Troy for Spinervals, because the TV is gone from my bedroom, it's someplace else, and will never be mentioned again because, well, I'll get in trouble if I say anything about it. The ride wasn't that bad, but if I didn't have the ceiling fan right over me, it might have been. I spent about 45 minutes on it, went about 12 miles, and felt pretty good. Compared to riding on the road, though, it sucked. I dialed up The Killers "Sam's Town" on my mp3 player and spun away.

As far as work goes, who knows. I've managed to avoid going to High Point for over a month now and I don't seem to be missed. Saves on gas, anyway. I have a reason for not going.

Take It Easy

Today's theme. Take it easy. See how it goes. So, alternating The Eagle's version with Jackson Browne's in my head to remind me, I did just that. Starting out was a little rough, but it got better. I even went so far as to force myself to use the small chain ring (gasp) in places that I NEVER use it, but it made a difference. I managed to keep my average heart rate to 146 - low, for me. My intent was to just go for a short ride, but I ended up going 33.5 miles and averaged 16.1. I was pleasantly surprised, after last week's short ride.

The picture shows what kind of day it was. About 47 degrees with a 10 to 20 mph wind. I got out the full finger gloves for the first time.

Industrial Disease (Money for Nuthin')

Not riding much gives me time to think about other things. Too much time. Like most people I am a little concerned with the economy and what our transforming government is doing about it. I was thinking, though, about the auto industry and their claimed "dire straits". They want 25 BILLION dollars. WELL, at an average of $25,000 each, that's one million cars. Why not just buy those cars and keep the auto workers working? Give the cars away, or raffle them off, whatever. Might be a better plan than just handing over the taxpayers money to failed CEO's and bean counters. Whatever people may say about the U.S. auto industry, they do have some pretty decent cars - not great, but good.

Just a thought...

I hope I get to ride tomorrow so I don't have so much to think about. Weather is supposed to be nice. Cool, but nice. My bike looks unhappy hanging in the shed.

Fathead

I saw an ad on TV about these gigantic sports posters you can stick on your wall. They said to check it out - they had one for YOUR sport. I listened. I checked. They lied. Not a bicycle to be found. Not that I'd buy one if they did, although, I looked, so, who knows.

It was fathead.com if ya wanna look.

Don't Know

Well, I did get out today. It was a pretty nice day, around 70 with a 10 to 15 mph wind, partly cloudy. Great, except my body didn't cooperate. I actually ended up calling CJ to come get me after about 8 miles. Pathetic. My breathing wouldn't cooperate, I started my ride on a different route that has a long climb right at the start (it ALSO has a short steep descent on which I hit 40 mph - cool). I got out of breath on the climb and never recovered. It just hurt so much to breathe. I seem to do better with about an hour of moderate riding before tackling anything hard. When I stopped at 8 miles and used my Albuterol inhaler, it was too late. Sucks.

I have a Dr. appointment on Monday - maybe we can figure this out.

I WILL TRY AGAIN TOMORROW! I WANNA RIDE!!

Another Perfect Day

About 80, sunny, no wind, a perfect day, and I was stuck at work. No ride. I should have taken the afternoon off. Tomorrow.....

Perfect Days

November 1 and 2. I don't think days come any nicer than these two, this year. Saturday was perfect, about 70 degrees, no humidity to speak of, no wind, not a cloud in the sky. I rode 40 miles at 17.2, and, really, didn't want to stop, but with the loss of fitness since taking the month of September off, it was about all my legs wanted. Sunday was exactly the same, weather wise, except for a little bit of wind. 30 miles at 16.8, and I felt pretty good. With the time change now, there isn't any hope of riding after work anymore, not that I'd been doing it, but I'd been thinking about it. I've been looking at the trainer and thinking I need to maybe set it up. But it's no fun....

Saturday I noticed the long line of early voters at the Liberty Twon Hall. With all this early voting going on I an hoping that there won't be any lines come Tuesday, when I vote. I doubt if I'll be that lucky, though.

Saturday's Ride, Brought To You By

Saturday was a day fit more for ducks than bikes. I had never seen these ducks on my ride before, so they must have thought the same thing. All Friday night and Saturday morning, it rained, but the forecast for Saturday afternoon was "partly cloudy", and , sure enough, around noon it stopped raining and the sky brightened. I changed and got ready for my ride, and as I was about to leave, CJ pointed out that it looked like it was raining, again. She was right, of course it was. Every one's advice was to wait a while and go for a ride later. Since this was good advice from people smarter than me, I did what I always do - I ignored it (that explains a lot about where I am, now). I think it was the most rain and wettest roads I had ever ridden in (on). At least it was about 70 degrees and almost no wind. Aside from getting really wet, it was a nice ride. About an hour in. it stopped raining and the r0ad dried out a bit, and a tiny patch of blue sky appeared for a moment, so partly cloudy, it was. I got in 36 miles @ 17.2, so it was a good ride.

Today was a perfect day. About 65 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and light winds. My shoes were still soaked from yesterday, but still, they were comfortable. I got in 30 miles @ 16.7. I still have about 550 miles to reach my goal of 4000 for the year. Not impossible.

Before I left for my ride I did a little maintenance on my bike, lubed the chain, adjusted the headset, which came from the factory much too tight, bit I have been to lazy to do anything about it, and adjusted the shifting. The headset actually made a big difference. It improved the handling tremendously and made it more relaxing to ride. Shifting was improved too. Maybe I should check this stuff more often? My bike is filthy from the ride in the rain, so i suppose I'll have to wash it. That'll make twice. That's two more times this year than my motorcycle, and once more than the cars. I'll get to it.

Endorphinated

It seems that I am a much happier person when I get to ride. Even though I still have some annoying breathing problems when I ride, My mood after is so much better. Must be that endorphin thing.

Both Saturday and Sunday were long sleeve jersey and tights days. It turned cool in a hurry. Thursday was 85. Saturday was 57, and today it was only 52 when I left for my ride. On top of that, the wind was bout 20 mph. You have to work so hard to go so slow battling headwinds like that. I almost stopped after the first 45 minutes on Saturday because I didn't seem to be breathing very well, and it sort of hurt to breathe, but I kept going, and it got better. Not great, but better. I ended up with 33 miles at 16.5. Today was better than yesterday, and I went 30 miles at 16.4.

Maybe I can get a couple of after work rides in this week. The days are getting shorter, so there won't be many more chances.

Saturday

Saturday turned out to be a nice day for a ride, although the wind was 15 to 20 mph. I got in 33 miles. About halfway through I heard an airplane that didn't really sound like anything I'd ever heard before. I finally looked up, and saw it was a B1 bomber - I'd never seen one, either. I was surprised how HUGE it was. I stopped and got out my camera, and even managed to take a couple of pictures, but it was too far away to show anything but a little black smudge. I suspect it was headed to Lowe's Motor Speedway for a flyover before the race.

The leaves are beginning to change, but so far most of them seem to be just varying hues of brown, except for the pretty reddish leaves of whatever this tree is. I think it stood out for me because of the rusted roof on the shed behind it.

Still Here

Ok, so, I haven't been posting much - well, anything, for awhile. Truth is, I haven't been riding, either. I rode once in September, and now, tonight, once so far in October. Been struggling with some sort of breathing problems and experimenting with asthma medicines so I haven't really felt like riding. Tonight wasn't too bad - 20 miles at 16.8, and I felt pretty good. Maybe I'll try again on Thursday.