Monday June 16

Good weekend, biked the Old 61 Loop on fathers day. The miles are starting to add up.

Failed to lose any weight over the weekend but I also didn't bother to watch what I ate and got piggish.

Put the knobbies back on, wow I know the slick n' skinnies made for a fast ride but I forgot how rough pushing the big rubber was.

Today I flopped the stem and shimmed it at the max I think 16 degrees? I don't know how to read the thing. It seemed to allow me to ride more relaxed and a little less bent over.

Friday Part Deux

Commute home in decent time given the wind, felt squirrelly so I decided to tackle the Hovland ride.
Made it to the turn around point in exactly an hour pushing into heavy wind 12.5 to 13 miles. Dani showed up earlier than the rescue time I set up so I took the opportunity for a ride home in the car. I was going to tell her to turn around andgo home that I was on time with the ride and all was well but when I unclipped my left foot something shot off my pedal.

It was the end cap thingy that seals off the outter bearing.
Then noticed the pedal rocking a little.
Looked at the right side pedal.... same issue.


They are not "destroyed" yet but I cant rely on them for any more longer rides since the ottuer bearing on both seems to be blown out. At least they are the cheapos that came with the bike.
It also explains the creaky grind noise that pops up and had me fearing the bottom bracket was roached.
Yay new pedals for me.

Friday June 13th

Not a lot to note.

Wednesday was a basic commute day.
Thursday sucked, rain, rain ..... no rides.

Today rode in after lunch. This morning it looked like another rained out day, fog, wind, drizzle. Absolutely beautiful out now at 2pm.

Trying to crack down on my one food weakness: carbs in the form of breads.

Whipping up another batch of my semolina italian bread was probably not a good idea.... oh so tasty.

Tomorrow is the Kids Day at the community center and afterwards I believe we will be heading into Grand Marais for some grocery shopping etc.. not sure what kind of riding I will get in.

Sunday is Fathers Day, once again not sure what time I will have to ride around. Fathers day ... I should be able to work some alone time in just because.

I had planned to ride to Hovland this weekend so not sure if that plan will come through. Maybe after work today if I dont feel drained.

AA is going well, over 1/3 complete now.. weeee ...

I'm starting to find myself stressed out when I can't ride or walk. Yesterday was hard during the day but I had afternoon/evening things to keep my attention. Wednesday was harsh because I couldn't morning commute then when I went to do extra activities after work they got rained out.

Lots of built up energy now, or maybe I am just getting used to not being a lazy blob?

Tuesday May 10th

Not much to note.
Went for a short walk after dinner last night and took a quick ride to red rock.
No going home for lunch so no bike riding in the AM, maybe take a ride after work depending on the weather.

Monday June 9th

Sunday:
Boom.
I had smaller tubes in my tires than I should have so the initial ride closed with a bang at .9 miles, seriously a bang. Walked the bike home pretty bummed out since I had no spare tubes. When I removed the tube it had a hole about 1/2 inch in diameter.
We drove in to Grand Marais to the bike shop and I picked up 3 new properly sized tubes. and scurried home to install them.

Ride #2: Much nicer with out the exploding tires, I was a little skittish and took it easy and kept pace behind the boy on our ride to red rock and back.
The ease of movement on the new rubber was amazing I think I kept it in the largest front ring the whole ride and alternated the 3 smallest rear cogs.

So after the test ride I decided to roll the 10 mile test again 38:56 vs. 44:12 on the knobbies :).
Took the boy and the dog out for a two mile walk before dinner.

Monday:
Commute to work on the new tires @ 11:35 vs. the usual 15-20. sweeeeeet.

Weighed in at 252.3 this morning

Saturday June 7 - New Tire Day

We drove to Duluth today to do a little shopping and returned home a little late to bother with a ride of any distance.
I stopped in at a few of the bike shops down there to eye up the tires and settled on a pretty damned slick Michelin Dynamic 700x32c Touring "road" tires. I had hoped to land a set of 28-30 instead but after mounting them the 32 seem plenty skinny. Took them out for a quick run 1/4 mile or so and back before it was completely dark and holy shit the beast is fast now. Of course I'm not rolling huge 29x2.0 knobby tires but still whizzz zoooom. I did not have the computer set up for the tires yet so no real numbers to back me up.
Yesterday after work I felt guilty about not commuting even though it had been raining so in preparation for New Tire Day I rode out 5 miles and back to get a nice even time off of 10 miles - 44 minutes and change. Hopefully the weather holds out and sunday I can test run the new tires and compare times.
Also in Duluth I snagged a new CamelBack for a good price at the sport shop, new toys galore!

Friday June 6

Ride home yesterday almost broke my personal record again at 13:20 mere seconds away from the record.

Rained like hell lest night and into the morning so I couldn't commute to work on the bike, doubtful I will at lunch so I "should hit the treadmill at work for a mile or two. Maybe..

Going to town tomorrow and I will be bringing in the bike to look at cx or road tires.

The way I see it I spend the vast majority of my time on the road up here so why not ditch the knobs for some skinny slicks, maybe I can find some in blue to match my socks ^^. When I get some more road capable tires I think I'll be itching to pull off some longer rides maybe do Hovland (15 miles one way) this weekend and Grand Marais (31 one way) later in the summer. Longer road rides hopefully will turn into improved stamina on the pedals for me.

If I go with more of a cx wider tire I should still be able to ride everything I do now, going more roadish will eliminate dirt options and cut out the hollow rock route. Either way I go I still have the slight cushy "locked" out front fork and semi comfy seat to make up for the lack of a buoyant tire.

Thursday June 5th

Nothing to note from yesterday, too busy + rain = no riding.

Rode into work this morning, made good time. I am noticing most every trip seems to require a little less effort than the one before.
On the way home tuesday I clocked a new record at 13:06 getting in 2 minutes faster than ever before.
yay
Also took jacob and the dog for a walk tuesday afternoon just over two miles round trip. We were beat but the dog bounced off the walls when we got home.

Trying to make more of an effort to watch what I eat in both quality and quantity, no more eating right all day to top it off with a bagel smothered in cream cheese and half a bag of chips at 11pm ........ Time to start a food diary maybe it will make it easier to choose my foods.

Tuesday June 3

Took my first real walk of the year last night 3 mile round trip to Red Rock Beach took 1:05ish. The walk was a combo of three things, get out of the house, go for a walk and time how long it took to get in three miles incase I decide to start walking to work every once in a while.
I need new shoes if I'm going to start doing the walking thing.


Today I rode to work in the AM and rode home at lunch, wimped out and took the HWY both ways. I did make a new personal record for the ride home at a touch over 13 minutes, my usual is 16+.

I should go for another walk tonight or talk the boy into a ride to red rock to get in a few extra miles.

Monday June 2nd

Decided to ride to work in the AM, usually Dani drives me to work in the morning then we go home for lunch and I pedal back to work and go home on the bike.
I want to start riding to work in the morning, riding home at lunch then we drive back after lunch.
Saves me the hassle of lugging the laptop home. I don't mind riding in with it via the hwy but I don't want it on me during the down hill run on hollow rock road.


Morning commute I took the HWY route in and at lunch took the Mineral Center route. New personal record on that ride at 31 minutes, felt like I flew up the hill compared to other rides.
Its racks up around 600 of elevation on the first half of the trip.


I'm still finding it hard to drink all the water I'm supposed to, at least I'm not substituting crap instead of water. Prior to the get healthy kick I'm on I don't think I had drank an honest glass of water in years. Yes YEARS. So going from 0 to 100+ ounces a day really seems like work. I do cheat with some Crystal Light every so often but as good as they seem I want those limited to a max of two per day.


This morning I weighed in at 253.8 the lowest in a long long time. Considering how I slacked on my diet etc.. since we had company for the weekend I'm very happy, also a bit regretful since I could have lost more had I behaved.

Worked on getting in all my data onto MyCyclingLog.com I should only be missing a few days worth of data.

First Long Ride of the Year

Hell in the grand scheme of things it wasn't even long compared to my regular rides years ago.

I decided for some unknown reason to ride up Hollow Rock Rd. and turn left instead right.
Going up Hollow Rock is fun, 2 miles of unmaintained "gravel" road climbing 650 feet or so. Well sort of gravel it ranges from gravel to golf ball sized with a healthy dose of clay spattered with babys head sized rocks poking out. Usual ride time is 25 minutes.

Turn right onto mineral center and you get a lazy decent for a little over a mile then a one mile drop 600 feet of paved speed racer goodness.

Turn left into the unknown.
My estimated ride for the Old 61 loop was 10-12 miles at the worst. My estimate was based on a single trip down it like 10 years ago. My memory sucks.
It ended up being 17.65 miles. Beautiful ride tho.
After hitting the pavement its a pretty smooth ride for another 2.5 miles, after that the road splits into Old 61 unmaintained and last paved in the 60's by my guess. 6.25 miles of the old hwy till you hit the current hwy 61.
The old hwy is a fun ride, pot holes and lumps galore keeps you on your toes at speed but the existing or remaining pavement is actually quite smooth.
The last stretch home is on the hwy is nice, nothing up here being flat its still a wavy ride but no large hills.

I really need to haul the camera next run, the scenery is amazing.

Old HWY 61 Loop

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Introduction

Howdy,
Coming off of 13 years or so of sitting on my ass doing nothing and progressively getting lazier it was about time I did something about my health.
I quit smoking (2+ Packs a day) mid nov 2007, a far easier feat than I imagined, I quit soda (12 pack+ of coke per day sometimes well over 24 cans) to focus on the elimination items using high fructose corn syrup from my diet.
I begged a new bicycle off my "accountant" and vowed to start on the path to better health.

So far so good.

Hopefully the blog will inspire me to stick with it and watch my daily progress.