The 2007 season ends....

The 2007 season is over for me, I was in really great shape with my weight down to 181 (14 pounds lighter than 2004, and much much more sustained power). I would have had a good ride at the Highlander but things happened and I'll blog about it later when I'm ready.

2008 is still up in the air. As of yet, no decisions have been made.

...."All change is not progress, as all movement is not forward."

Rain or no rain ?

Well the radar was all green with medium to heavy rains for this morning. So I did a spinerval. Now the sun is shining. :)

Gotta love Ohio weather!

Ride Updates

Thursday 7/12 - 36.4 miles @ 18.6 average (Secret Location #1)

Sunday - 7/15 - 28.3 miles @ 16.4 average (Secret Location #2)

Interesting huh? :)

Coach Troy Returns!

Wednesday morning was a repeat of Tuesday with rain just sideways and blowing like crazy. I hooked up the trainer and did 45 minutes of suffering with Coach Troy. Those workouts do perfect on mornings when I get off of work, I may change my routine a little to include more of those. I'm also looking at ordering a few more.

My Giant is still ticking and driving me nuts, I've got to get that back into the shop. I don't know what the heck is wrong with it!

Highlander Recon!

Well today's ride was canceled after mother nature decided it was going to rain at 9am rather than wait until noon like all the weather websites said.

I have a vacation coming up soon and I'm heading to NY for some good ole Highlander recon! I should get a good 8 days of riding in, so hopefully before I leave I'll have memorized all the climbs so I won't be in for any suprises this September!

7/9/07

Grabbed the new bike and headed out this morning before the heat set in.

2 hours, 28 miles, few hill repeats. Glad I got a triple!

The Loveland -> Lebanon -> Loveland time was 59 minutes.

1,947 calories in 2 hours (28 miles at 14 mph)

7/3/07

51 minutes - Loveland -> Lebanon -> Loveland. Blew up on the last climb, had 8 minutes with 2 miles to go to tie my record of 50 minutes and couldn't do it. Cardio just wasn't all there. It will be back soon.

Coming off of 10 days rest that isn't bad.

1,713 calories in 1 hr 37 min (26 miles at 16.1 mph)

Lots of rest...

Rode Thursday on my new bike. I have to get a shorter stem and a seat that matches my current road bike. I'll order that stuff this upcoming week, I'm not in a hurry. Hopefully I can ride it this coming weekend. I couldn't get the 4th off of work as I was wanting to do the Vandalia Freedom Tour ride. Oh well.

I took this whole weekend off, it's the first weekend I haven't been out pounding the pedals since April so it was time. The weight is coming down as I am down to 211. Pants that used to almost make me choke to wear, are now becoming baggy and I have to wear a belt. That's a good feeling there! I've gotten a few compliments from people @ work that they can tell I've lost some weight. They balk when I tell them how much. My large frame hides it rather well.

Super Sunday!

Met Kyle @ 8am at the secret location - he's training for a triathlon so we rode the bike course twice. Engine room faded with about 10 to go but we still had a good ride.

3423 calories burned (56.6 miles @ 18.1mph in 3 hr 7 min)

Rest day Monday!

Solo Saturday

With Tom being out of town this weekend, I set off around 7. It was cold, wet, and a lot of debris from the rain. The sun never poked through and at the 10.5 mile mark I turned around. I stayed on the flats and just kept a good tempo going. When I got back to my car I was kind of surprised to see a time of 1 hour and 6 minutes especially when I wasn't really pushing. I didn't want to push too much though there were leaves and it felt slippery.

Big ride Sunday at new secret location!!

1241 calories burned in 1 hour 6 minutes (21 miles @ 19.1 avg)

Lots of rest - followed by a great afternoon!

I was wore out after last Sunday's ride. I took Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday off and rode the Thursday afternoon with Kyle in Bellbrook. I had the engine room on all cylinder's today and I knew it after the first climb! I did manage to blow myself up while pulling on a flat stretch of road into a good crosswind around 28mph. It took a while for the lights to come back but they did.

Kyle didn't quite have the firepower today but you can't be good everyday. I pulled as fast as I could for as long as I could without dropping him and we made it back with our highest average yet. The wind was crazy but it's always like that in Bellbrook for some reason. I like it!

I'm not sure what I'm doing Friday, I may rest & go shopping, or I may ride. I'll know that when I wake up and see how I feel. I think I'm going to have my best year yet, the weight is dropping and the power output is really increasing.

2,469 calories in 2 hr 6 min (36.6 miles at 17.4 mph)

Sunday.................

Met Kyle @ 8am in Bellbrook - hit some hills today. Took a variation of the course which added about 6 miles and a few good rollers. I pretty much felt bad the whole ride, definitely felt yesterday. My bike has a tick in the bottom bracket area, long story short the mechanic doesn't know what is wrong with it and he has to call Shimano and he will call me tomorrow. More than likely they'll recommend a different seating compound for the threads or something. We'll see!

2,431 calories in 2 hr 7 min (36.6 miles at 17.3 mph)

Hilly Saturday

Met Tom @ 7:30am this morning for a long ride on his new bike. He bought a 2006 OCR2 full Ultegra. An epic day, he managed to get rocks in the rear brake about an hour in, and then again in the front brake an hour later. An hour after that, his seat came loose so it was scooting forward and backward like he was on a boat. Special thanks to the mystery rider who loaned us a alan wrench to tighten it up. It won't be coming loose anytime soon! Also at some point his water bottle came out and ended up in a ditch full of dense weeds. It's still there.

Today was climbs everywhere. We rode from Loveland up climbs #1 and #2 at the 4 and 6 mile marks. We then ventured to Lebanon and Tom beat his old record of 61 minutes by a full minute. We then rode back to the interconnect, and then north for some real hills. We rode past Morrow and hit the Strout hill which Tom almost made it all the way up. After a break he was able to finish it. Back down Strout and onto Ft. Ancient. I made it to the top, first time since 2004 for me, Tom didn't make it far at all. Not sure what happened there. Back to the path and north again for a hill we call MF. I forget the name of the road but hill just keeps going. Tom made this one without stopping! Awesome.

That was our turn-around point and we began heading south. Back to Morrow for a stop at the infamous ice cream shop for some lunch and legendary potato salad!

We got to the interconnect again and turned for Lebanon. Up all those climbs and then we turned for home. I elected to go up the climbs again at the 6 and 4 mile mark and even tried to talk some other rider into doing it but he didn't want anything to do with hills. Wimp!

All in all, a nice long ride. Our average was in the toilet but we did a lot of climbing. Hills again on Sunday, rest day Monday. My new shoes are awesome.

4,229 calories in 4 hr 34 min (66.2 miles at 14.5 mph)

The Big Ring

Rode Thursday in Bellbrook with Kyle. Hopefully this will be a weekly thing as the hills and open roads with lots of wind are good training. I felt okay on the hills but not great. I was finally able to sustain the big ring on the flats for quite a long time. Most of the ride I was over 20mph on the flats which is great progress from 6 weeks ago. In other milestone's my weight is back to 215.

2,040 calories in 1 hr 47 min (30.6 miles at 17.2 mph)

Variation of the route is on tap for Sunday.

Picked up my bike Thursday evening from the shop. New Ultegra crankset, rear cluster, cables, headset cleaned and greased and the hubs were cleaned and greased. Feels like a totally new bike with responsive shifting! I haven't done really any work on it since it was new in 2003 and everything was original. It was time.

Tom went out and bought a brand new bike! We'll ride Saturday morning. Can't wait. We plan on doing the River Route next week. Call it Tom's Revenge! I talked to him last night about doing some trips in August. We'll talk more about that in the upcoming weeks. Road trips are great!

Windy Tuesday!

Set out today for an attempt on my record, but that just didn't happen. I knew on the 2nd climb I didn't have all the cylinder's but I said the heck with it and went for it anyway. Once I turned west to Lebanon it seemed to be a headwind or a strong cross. I didn't have the power to go through it. I made it at the end in 54 minutes. I turned around and flew back to the hill and then turned around and rode it all again. Uphill and into the wind!

A good effort today, Tomorrow I get my bike basically overhauled.....lots of new stuff. Will it make me faster? No.

2,185 calories in 2 hr (33 miles at 16.5 mph)

The CCC

The Cincinnati Cycling Club put on a heck of a ride today with the River Rendezvous. Tom and I rode the 50 mile route (Which ended up being 55.4). The routes were painted great, and the rest stops were stocked with all kinds of stuff. Couldn't have asked for a better day today, it was warm but not too hot. The wind didn't pick up until later.

Northern Kentucky is great roads for training. Very rolling, a few long climbs. It seemed it was one roller after another and I really only remember a flat section of just a few miles. I think I'll be doing that route again sometime soon.

At the 35 mile mark or so Tom had one hill too many and really started to slow. I let him suffer for a few more miles and then I dropped back and pushed him along on the rises. It didn't help that his bike was jumping gears really bad and no matter which way we tried to adjust it, it just didn't work. I think he may need a new dérailleur, a new Shift indexer, a new cable, or all.

3,534 calories in 3 hr 54 min (55.4 miles at 14.2 mph)

50 Minutes

New personal best record today of 50 minutes from Loveland -> Lebanon -> Loveland. That beats the last record by a full 3 minutes.

Once I turned around the rain set in and I got drenched, I basically just soft pedaled back to the car for a total time of 1 hour 39 minutes.

Rest day Saturday - big ride on Sunday!!

1,723 calories in 1 hr 39 min (26 miles at 15.8 mph)

Return to Bellbrook!!

Talked to an old riding buddy via email today and it just so happened he was doing the Bellbrook route we used to do years ago. 4 decent size climbs and lots of rolling hills. It's also pretty open and today it was a high wind day.

I felt great on all the climbs until I put myself in the red zone and it seemed to take a while to recover. My friend has only ridden a handful of times this year and hasn't really rode any hills in about a month so he was suffering a little. Today was also hot. The hotter it is, the better I seem to ride providing I can take in enough water. I ran out of my water bottles about 2 miles from the finish so it wasn't a big deal.

The wind was great, I seemed to have good power in the winds so I'm really happy with how I rode. Funny though one of the hills that really used to put me into the red didn't seem as steep today. Maybe they leveled it out some. For those that read and know the Bellbrook area, I'm talking about Penewitt!

2,111 calories in 1 hr 55 min (31.6 miles at 16.5 mph)
It was more, this ride has hills and lots of wind. But for record keeping, we'll say 2,111 :)

Rock on!

Sunday

With the parking lot I use being closed Monday for repaving I rode Sunday and will take a rest day on Monday. Met Tom around 8 and we set off. I put in some hard efforts on the hills but I don't think Tom was recovered from yesterday. We were pretty slow on the flats. I know he was trying his hardest though and once your at that point of all you can do, well that's all you can do.

1,713 calories in 1 hr 48 min (26.4 miles at 14.7 mph)

Saturday

Hit some hills today. 2 times to Lebanon, up climbs #1 & #2 twice also. Climbed to the top of Strout and I attempted Ft. Ancient but I didn't make it. Felt okay. I could have rode harder but the guy I was riding with blew and we rode around while waiting on somewhere to open that had some real food. After that we rode another 35 miles :)

All in all, 3,796 calories in 4 hr 22 min (60.4 miles at 13.8 mph)

3 days rest, setback, and a new course record!

I was tired from the 192 miles of the week before, so I took a few days off to recover. In the past I've been guilty more than enough times of not giving myself enough time to recover, setting up disappointing results. Even Tuesday I still felt tired so I took another day off, and today I hit it again.

I felt heavy, then stop and remembered what I ate which amounted to everything. It seemed I was always hungry. I weighed myself when I woke up and I was at 220. :( Definitely did not pay attention to what I was eating, hungry or not. 5 fucking pounds!

So this morning after work I set out to do my 26 mile climbing loop. I felt fast on the flats, I was in the 39-13 around 85-90rpm. On all the climbs I could tell I was going faster than I had done in the past, and I made it up all of them without having to slow to a crawl to regain some cardio. I pressed on all the way to Lebanon turnaround point and got there 1 minute faster than my previous record! 53 minutes!

Yes that's a great result to break the record, but I couldn't help but imagine what the times would have been if I had only gained 1 pound back instead of 5. Or what about none?

My average for the ride was .1 mph slower than last Tuesday but overall I felt much faster. Tomorrow is another day.

1,740 calories in 1 hr 36 min (26 miles at 16.3 mph)

215 and counting!

Today is an awesome day as I got out of bed this morning I jumped on the scale. It read 215! That's 3lb less than last Sunday. Since April 22, I've dropped right at 20lbs.

Honestly, I would have liked to have lost more, but your body can only do so much. You just can't go ride 100 miles a day for hours on end after basically taking a 2 year break. You have to build up too it.

I took today off, and I'm taking Monday off as well. My legs feel tight, and I feel tired. I don't know that I'll reach 200 miles this upcoming week but we'll see. It all depends on feel.

A great week has past, and the start of a new is among us. Hopefully the drama of last week is over once and for all.

Quest for 200!

Well this week fell a tad short, I stop @ 192 miles for the week. I rode 30 today, and 15 miles into my ride I was dead. I stopped at the same ice cream shop and got some food and turned around. Once again the engine room came back to life and I made some decent time to get back. Yea, I probably had it in me to ride another 8 miles but what for? I have bigger fish to fry, and the Highlander is still a ways off. Luckily it's not next weekend!

Special thanks to Tom my riding buddy for having some cash on him. Owe ya man! Told ya that potato salad is the bomb! :)

All in all I had a great week on the bike, definitely need some rest though, I shouldn't be bonking riding at 16-17mph. I'm taking Sunday & Monday off to re-energize. I'll blog again tomorrow to see where my weight is. I have a feeling I'm going to be happy with the result.

2,041 calories in 2 hr (30.8 miles at 15.4 mph)
(That's 12,810 for the week)

Miranda's Ice Cream, Morrow OH

The plan today was to ride from Loveland -> Xenia -> Loveland (84 miles)

I did just that.

At 20 miles out, I got hungry which is never good if your riding, especially so early. I ate a sports bar and a few minutes later I was good to go. At 35 miles out I was hungry again. Uh oh. I ate a protein bar but I never recovered. I covered 41.5 miles in 2hr 42min at Xenia Station.

I filled up the water bottles and sat for a minute then took off. With still over 33 miles to go, I completely bonked. So I just rode my tempo. I had $4 in my cycling pouch and I was desperate to find somewhere to eat. If I ate another bite of a power bar or drank anymore water I was going to puke. I needed real food.

I rode the next 13 miles at about 10 miles an hour and made it to Morrow. I saw this place called Miranda's Ice Cream shop and they had a barbecue sign out front so in I went. I got a cheeseburger and a side of potato salad. Then of course I was so sick 2 bites and I felt full. I ate the whole burger and most of the potato salad and within 15 minutes I was off again. The burger was great but the potato salad was amazing!

I could tell immediately the engine room was re-energizing. With 15 miles to ride I was in my 39/13 and just soft pedaling. 45 minutes later and 10 miles to go the engine room was firing on most of it's cylinder's. I kicked up the cadence to around 90 in my 39/13 and held it all the way in.

Definitely happy with the ride. I would have gotten a lot less time if I wouldn't have blown so bad. Today was just what I needed. Long low-medium intensity rides to burn off this fat. I tell ya, I'm fatter than a farmer's pig! :)

5,557 calories in 5 hr 30 min (84 miles at 15.3 mph)

Thursday Reunion!

Rode tonight with some rider's I hadn't seen in a few years. Shawn, Erik, and Ezio. It was great riding with them. I hadn't seen Shawn & Ezio in about 2 years, and Erik closer to 3.

When I fell off the back they slowed and waited, and when the engine completely blew after going for a sprint sign Erik turned around and came and got me and paced me back to Shawn's house.

Thanks guys, I hope to do it again!

1,473 calories in 2 hr 2 min (25 miles at 12.3 mph)
(This is way wrong for this ride calorie wise, there were climbs, and several high speed pulls) In reality it's probably closer to 2000 but for sake of record keeping and lack of a HRM we'll say the 1473. Rock on!

Recovery Wednesday

I set the wheels on fire today! :) What's funny is I bonked after 18 miles. How do you bonk on a recovery ride when your only doing 16? I didn't care, like I said, I thought it was funny! I'll tell ya why I bonked - because I didn't eat enough the night before. I knew I should have got some chicken!

Leeeeeeeeeeerrrroooyyyyyyyyyy Jennnnnnnkkkkkkkkinnnnnnnnnssss!!! (least I got chicken)

(inside joke there, google Leeroy Jenkins if you want in on the joke)

1,979 calories in 2 hr 2 min (30 miles at 14.8 mph)

Hammer Tuesday!

Good ride this afternoon. Smashed my 2 week record of the Loveland -> Lebanon route by 4 whole minutes. Did the route today in 53 minutes!!! Felt great on climb #1 and #2. Climb #3 I struggled some, maybe it was from going harder on #1 and #2 but I must have done something right to beat my time by 4 minutes!

I think I could have got overall less time, I ran out of water with about 3 miles to ride and you fade quick when your out of water. Must have been dehydrated from the start, I usually only do one water bottle each hour.

All in all I felt great today, even better today than Saturday. The recovery drugs must be working!

1,760 calories in 1 hr 35 min (26 miles at 16.4 mph)

Rest Day Thoughts...

Had a chance to do some component research yesterday. I've decided on a set of Titanium Zero Gravity brakes which will reduce the weight of my bike by about 1/2 a pound. Leading up to Highlander I will get my bike back in for service for a tune up and have a Dura Ace bottom bracket installed.

As far as wheelsets go the Mavic SSC SL's seem to still be the best bang for the buck. Tires I haven't had a chance to look into yet but I'm going to assume the Michelin Pro Race2 tires are the best outside of clincher's. That combo was awesome when I rode it in 2005 to the Summit of Mt. Mitchell.

I can change the bike all I want, but the rider has to be in shape also. Taking Eggman's advice at least for the next few weeks I'll be doing 30-40 miles 3 times a week at medium intensity with some intervals, 1 hard ride all out followed by 1 recovery ride at low intensity. The days and miles will vary depending on feel.

This week I'll be ordering an HRM from someplace. I don't need anything fancy, you know keep track of your heart rate for xxxxx amount of time and tell you your average. I'll use the internet to figure out calories burned vs. what I should consume. I won't be riding with the receiver on my handlebar, it'll be in my back jersey pocket where I can't see it until after the ride.

This training I'm riding on feel - I have enough experience to know what I need to do.

I'll be ready.

Loving You Sunday Morning #2

Good milestone's for today, tipped the scale this morning @ 218.

Recovery ride: 1,437 calories in 1 hr 12 min (21 miles at 17.5 mph)

Rest day Monday, we'll see what Tuesday brings.

Finally, a good day...

Finally a good ride.

3,602 calories in 3 hr 33 min (54 miles at 15.2 mph)

Felt really good on climbs, power on the flats. All in all, a good day.

Recovery is key...

Stopped by GNC on Friday morning to get my fix of recovery aids. Muscle Milk has been the #1 recovery for a long while now. They were out of Endurox R4 so I'll be picking some up this coming week when they get there shipment in.

Endurox R4 within an hour after a ride, Muscle Milk before sleep, 1 vitamin every 12 hours. I feel good and recovered today. We'll see!

One bad ride deserves another...

Friday was one of those days with no power, no cardio, and no speed.

I turned around and went home for a whopping total of 17 miles in 64 minutes.

1,144 calories in 1 hr 4 min (17 miles at 15.9 mph)

New Parts...

Well it's been a while since I bought anything for my bike. Today I ordered a new compact crankset:

Also scheduled my bike in for some service, getting all new cables, brakepads, and the hubs on my wheelset repacked. The 34-50 should help me get up the climbs a lot better, and I can run my 12-23 on the back. If it's too much I can switch to a 11-21. How much difference is a 39/27 vs a 34/23? Enh, who cares. Pedal harder! :)

Registration Confirmed

Saw in my email box today my registration for Highlander is confirmed. The 100+ mile suffer fest is a go.

What wheelset to buy? With all the climbing and descending, I'll probably pick up another set of Mavic Kysrium SSC SL's. I need to make that decision by at least the end of June...

I have to get my bike in for service, all my cabling and brake pads are original except for the front shifter cable. May opt for a compact crank too, will have to see what options are available when I talk to the man on Wednesday.

Rest day...

What started off early April as a joke between me and a certain female singer became full reality end of April when the weather broke. We had a huge falling out and the next day it was like 75 so I went and rode. The intensity is there, along with the mental toughness I once had in 2003 and 2004. IF I can get the weight down and maintain that, I should be okay. Right now I got a long way to go.

I did sign up for the Highlander, I'm not sure if I'll be fit enough to ride with the Eggman & Crew, but I won't be last either!

Today was a rest day after 3 hard days for me on the bike.

The plan is to take Wednesday off as well and then ride 4 hard hours on Thursday and rest on Friday. Saturday is another 4+ hour day. My friend from Sidney should be joining me so I don't know how hard I'll be going just depends on how I feel.

I held off on the HRM for now, at this point I'm too out of shape for it to matter.

Monday...

Rode 40 miles of flats today.

2,726 calories in 2 hr 28 min (40 miles at 16.2 mph)

Getting better. I definitely can tell I am not recovered. Tomorrow is a sit on my arse day!

Loving You Sunday Morning

Ride this morning was cold...a chilly 47 degrees and windy.

26 miles, 1hr 50 minutes @1695 calories burned. Watch out I'll set the land on fire near you!

Felt good on climb 1 and 2 after yesterday's effort. I rode to Lebanon because it was on the other side of the river and it was sunny. Got to Lebanon in 61 minutes.

Bonked with 7 miles to go. No warning, one pedal stroke was fine, the next was nothing. Never had it come on so quick, usually you get a little warning anyway. I had a power bar in my jersey but I was going home anyways.

Tomorrow is another day.

What a ride...

49 miles in 3 hr 25 min. yea yea yea, I know, a whopping 14.3mph.

Today was the first ride on the 27. The loop I ride starts @ Loveland City Hall and goes North on the bike trail. At the 4 mile mark there is a 1/3 mile climb (climb #1) to the right. It starts off real steep, then levels off, and then is steep again and even has a couple of mini switchbacks which is kinda cool. It dead ends into a field, so unless your crossin' it you have to turn around. I rode this entire climb sitting down.

I descend back to the bike trail and 2 more miles north there is another climb that is at least 1/3 mile (climb #2) if not a little more. It's not real steep except for 1 section but that's only like 40ft. long. It goes up into a neighborhood and I think some of these houses must cost 700k+. They are super sweet. I rode this entire climb sitting down.

Back down to the trail and about a mile north more it branches off into Lebanon which is only 5.2 miles in length. This trail is not like your ordinary bike trail. It's flat for like 1.8 miles then there is one big climb which is 1/2 mile long (climb #3) and then it's up and down and rolling all the way to the finish. I was in and out of the saddle and all over the place on this climb. I was way into the red, I knew my time was close and I was going for it.

Today I got to Lebanon in 57 minutes. Prior to that, my best time was 1 hour flat. Took off a full 3 minutes. I was happy about that and on a good day, for me at least. Coming back it's more downhill but still rolling and you can big ring it and put the power down. I don't have a computer on my bike but I know I was going 25 or more judging by gear and cadence.

When I got back to the entrance I went North some more. My original plan was to ride to Morrow and then go back but I ran into a rider from Sidney who got all his stuff @ Tipp Cyclery also so we chatted. He was going to Fort Ancient and he started in the same spot I did so we rode together. He was a older gentleman so we kept it around 16 or 17 for the most part. At that point I didn't care about speed anymore, I just wanted the time.

We got to Fort Ancient and he wanted to try the climb, his bike was setup for a triple with a 27 on the back so I said wtf. I got about 1/2 way up and I hear him crash behind me. He fell over. I felt bad for the guy. I turned around and we chatted some. He said it was super hard...:) He got his bearings and we went down to the bike trail.

I was out of water and I think he was starting to bonk and I knew Morrow was about 3 miles from where we were. He was going like 12. I told him to grab his bars tight and I pushed him. He said I picked the speed up to 22 or so and held it for about a mile before I swung off. Once I recovered some I kept us at 19-20 all the way to Morrow. There we filled up our water and ate a power bar.

I told him he should try climb #2 as that will suit him better. He got to the steep part and then walked and then rode all the way up to neighborhood once it leveled off. I think he can make it if he's a little fresher. We agreed that he should work on climbing climb #2 and when he can do that on a consistent basis to try climb #1. The key is to set realistic goals. I should listen to myself. Me doing highlander in 4 months...Hell YES!

We exchanged #'s, I told him I'm doing a 40 mile recovery ride tomorrow and no hills.

Sorry for all the words but I haven't felt that good on a bike in quite a long time...on a more positive note, calorie calculator says I burned 3254! Rock ON!!!

Update...The Return Of The Hammer!

Weight is now down to 222. I had a lot of riding that week on vacation, I rode about 120 miles and did some hill repeats. Though I was weaving like a drunk I made it to the top every time. And that was in a 12-23.

This morning I changed to my 27 and will be doing more hill repeats and hopefully have enough power to stay seated a lot of the climb except for the steep section. Uphill is still hard at 222.

I took off my computer and threw it away. Sometime this weekend I will order a HRM and just use that data to determine calories burned etc. Once I get my weight to 200 I'll get a computer again, and then see what I got to work on speed wise.

Though according to the online calorie calculators, my last ride was 3 hours and 5 minutes, and burned 2954 calories. Felt like I burned 10,000. I was wiped. That was Thursday. I took Friday off and I'll be back at it again on Saturday.

Still kickin

It's been so long since my last post hell I had to basically re-register! Rock on!

All 2 reader's may have noticed I havn't updated in like 2 months...heh. Yeah...So.

I'm making my return to riding again. Life was better when I rode all the time, I was also much fitter. Currently I am around 235. Last year I was around 210 and didn't have near the problems I have going uphill as I do now.

I have signed up for the Highlander 100 mile route, hopefully I can get enough fitness between now and September to ride with Eggman.

I'm on vacation the last week of April so I plan to do a lot of riding.

Been a while....

It's been so long in between updates, hell I forgot I even had this site until I scrolled down on Craig's site and saw a link to me...hehe.

What have I been up too? Hmm. Not really much of anything. I got a new computer in early January along with a copy of Windows Vista that I got at a reduced price for beta testing the OS for them. I don't have much good to say about Windows Vista, so I won't say anything now. I'll save that for when I'm in a mood. If you search for news articles on Vista you'll find a whole slew of articles bashing the shit out of the OS.

My new computer is pretty cool. It's a Dell XPS 400 with a ATi x1950 512mb pro video card and a Soundblaster X-FI XTreme Audio sound card. Monitor is a 22" widescreen running at 1650x1080 resolution.

The sound is just amazing that this card produces. I've had quite a few soundcards over the years, this one is the clearest I've ever had. I've had the same amplifier and speaker's for quite some time now.

I started playing World of Warcraft this winter - I have a hunter up to lvl 50 on the Medivh server. The game makes you forget it's 20 degree's with 2 feet of snow outside....:)

Yesterday on Velonews.com I saw where Jan Ullrich retired. That is truly sad. At only 33 he still had a few good years in him I thought. The way he was beat down and drug through the press with basically no evidence is amazing. While Italian star Ivan Basso has signed with Discovery and is ramping up for the 2007 Giro. Germany will do to Ullrich what Italy did to Pantani. Personally I hope not. I would rather see Basso retired and Ullrich's name cleared. They didn't have any evidence on Basso either, so why is he cleared and Ullrich not? I don't get it, and obviously the UCI and ASO do not either. Pretty soon we'll have a Italian tour for only Italian's, a French tour for the French, and a Spanish tour for the Spanish. That way they can win and not have to pull the crap they've pulled.

For me cycling isn't the same as it was with Armstrong, Cipollini, and now Ullrich. I missed seeing Pantani in the Giro's. For those that forgot Pantani never tested postive for anything either. Him being ejected from the 1999 Giro was a precaution as stated in the rules for having too high of a hemocrit level. They were never able to prove he used EPO, or anything else. I keep hoping to see the article on Velonews, "Armstrong ends retirement, focus's on tour #8!" but so far it looks like more of a dream than a reality.

I'm ready for some warm weather - and to start riding again. My foot is too screwed up to repair so I'm going to order another set of shoes that are wider.

Until next time - Rock on!

Change your Battery!

In your car.

Today I got stranded by my car at Penn Station. The battery in my car is the original that came with the car when I bought it brand new in October of 2003. It had not given one sign of any trouble until today. No slow starts, no delayed starts, etc. I goto Penn Station, order, and then leave. Well attempt to leave.

I put the key in and turn it, all I hear is the clicking of the actuators. I couldn't unlock my door with the door lock. Nothing worked. It was all over. I called a buddy and he came and got me and we tried to jump it with his auto jump but it didn't have enough juice to start it, or my battery was discharging the amps as fast as they were going in. We went and got a new battery and now all is fine.

So I came home and did some research and most places I saw recommend you changing the battery about every 24-30 months.

So even though your car battery has never had a sign of trouble, if it's outside of that timeframe, change it before you get stranded. Today just so happened it was pissing down rain. :)

New Site

Well I was going to just use my old alias but someone actually took that name and it now forwards to some stupid internet search engine. LOL.