Fun, Fit and 60!

Post by:mtbman1

Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 9:00 am | No Comments »

Bike Ride - Old Army Depot Regular Loop

This is wonderful weather! Mid 30’s. No wind. A little sunshine here and there.

De-lightful!

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/28/2008
Time: 09:00:00
Total Time: 1:56:09.00
Average Heart rate: 125
Calories: 986
Distance: 25.08 miles
Average Speed: 12.95 mph
Max Speed: 44.3 mph
Ascent: 705 ft
Descent: 709 ft
Average Cadence: 69

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Post by:mtbman1

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 8:04 am | 2 Comments »

What I’m thankful for…

I'm thankful for a lot more important things than I'm going to list here. But since this is about cycling, skiing and fitness, that's what I'm going to tell you about. So, yeah, I know this is kind of a materialistic list. :-)

This Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2008, I'm thankful for:

The health and capability, at age 60, to ride a bike and ski
Mrs. MTBMan1, who got me to downhill ski and took up cycling to be with me and likes it
My vintage Raleigh Olympian road bike

My rigid Ross Mt.St.Helens "mountain" bike

My Trek 4100 mtn bike

My "buff" multifunction headgear

My $22 bargain Optic-Nerve glasses with switchable lenses

My Pearl-Izumi padded fingerless gloves

cold-weather tights (comfy!)
cycling socks

SmartWool socks (pricey but worth it)

Shimano cycling shoes and clipless pedals that I got for $20 on craig's list! (love a bargain!)

Pearl-Izumi Am-Fib shoe covers (nice quality - keep the tootsies toasty)

Matt and Mad Dog Bicycles, literally 1 block down the street from me. How cool is that?
All new drive train on the Raleigh (smooth!)

... and much more! but i've got to start getting ready for the day.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

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Post by:mtbman1

Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 7:58 am | No Comments »

Yesterday’s route

Happy Thanksgiving!
I probably won't be riding today 'cause we are going to visit Mrs. MTBMan1's rels for the day.
Since I forgot yesterday, here is the new route I rode when testing out my homebrew camera mount. By the way, my camera is not a video cam but just a regular Canon digital cam with video capability.
I can only get 30 seconds of 640x480 video at a clip but with a 2GB memory card I can hold quite a few 30 second clips!

Here's yesterday's route!

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Post by:mtbman1

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 10:54 pm | No Comments »

My Camera Mount

I made this camera mount for the bike handle bars from a relector mount I got from Matt at Mad Dog.
I tried it out today but it needs some work. It tends to loosen up very quickly and then the camera won't stay pointed straight.
Here are some clips from today's ride.

Starting up Orchard Hill

I'm not that interested in the house...my camera mount has loosened up and the camera keeps wanting to point to the right.

Still going up Orchard Hill

A little respite

Ah, finally, the other side!

I intended to do only 1 hour, about 15 miles or so but it was really nice. 32° and no wind. Then, when the sun came out ... wow ... it was like spring. So I kept going. No performance objectives. Just fun. I'm enjoying it.

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Post by:mtbman1

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 10:00 am | No Comments »

Bike Ride - new route

temp 32°, no wind, partly cloudy. rode out to the corner of Ostrander and Wormer. Cut through 208/school rd./depot rd. rather than going around Koonz and Hennesey.

Nice day when the sun was out.

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/26/2008
Time: 10:00:00
Total Time: 1:50:53.00
Average Heart rate: 117
Calories: 956
Distance: 22.8 miles
Average Speed: 12.34 mph
Max Speed: 41.1 mph
Ascent: 682 ft
Descent: 682 ft
Average Cadence: 71

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Post by:mtbman1

Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 11:06 am | No Comments »

Beat the train!

Today was a mere 27° and no wind so my 1hr 10min ride was pretty comfortable.
In fact, near the end, I felt like I was just getting warmed up and could keep going.
I was shooting for a 1 hour ride so I did pretty good. I suppose I could try pushing it a little faster and it would be 1 hour.
There were 3 train crossings on this ride. As I approached the 3rd crossing the lights started flashing and the bars started to come down but I was close enough to get through before they were completely down. Ha, ha!
Later this morning when I was riding in my car there was a news story on the radio that a man and his two young daughters were hit twice by a train (or 2 trains) on the same set of tracks not a mile from where I passed by! This happened yesterday and miraculously they were not seriously hurt!

I smelled people burning coal for the first time this year. Most people burn wood. It reminded me of when I lived in a cabin in Nederland, CO. I burned coal in an old rusted out stove. Not too safe what with carbon monoxide danger. I used to get the body of that stove glowing cherry red before I went to bed so it would be warm when I got up. Sometimes, in the morning, I would throw in fresh coal and then some kerosene on the dying embers. The kerosene would vaporize, I would flop the top lid shut and then drop a lit match into a hole in the top. BLANG! Ha, ha! Not too smart!

So, yeah, an hour ride is pretty good at this temp with no wind. I had a good time. I'm especially pleased that my drink is not freezing up in the Camelbak. It was a problem last year with plain water.

Today's route I call "Bullock Loop - Longer" and here it is:

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Post by:mtbman1

Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 8:00 am | No Comments »

Bullock Rd. Loop - the Longer

27°, no wind. and beat the trains to the crossings. sweet!

Workout:

Type: Cycle
Date: 11/24/2008
Time: 08:00:00
Total Time: 1:10:15.00
Average Heart rate: 133
Calories: 597
Distance: 15.35 miles
Average Speed: 13.11 mph
Max Speed: 30.6 mph
Ascent: 459 ft
Descent: 459 ft
Average Cadence: 75

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Post by:mtbman1

Saturday, November 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm | 4 Comments »

One thing I DON’T like about cycling ….

One thing I DON'T like about cycling ....
The hills I can handle. Dogs, cars, cold, heat, no problem.
But the WIND! The wind, I don't like.
There's nothing quite so demoralizing as grinding away in your lowest gear DOWNHILL with a relentless wind in your face.
Today I went out intending to do a 2 hour ride.
It was 24° but the wind was gusting to 35mph. I think the temp would have been OK if not for the wind. That really gets to me. So I cut it short by about 15 minutes and 4 miles.

Amazingly, the drink tube on my Camelbak didn't freeze up. Something is working as good anti-freeze in my lemon juice, sugar and salt blend. However, the feed on my bottle DID freeze up. The drink in the bottle was sort of slushy but drinkable. I just think a piece of slush clogged the top.

Maybe it's time to start working out at the gym and xc skiing. OK. Bring on the snow!

I've also been working on the famous "workbench". I found a bunch of discarded 2x4s last year and finally I'm getting around to doing this bench. I can see why they threw them away! Check these pix.
You can see the components go everywhich way but straight. Believe it or not all my dimensions are accurate and my joints are square but these 2x4s have some nasty bends in them.

From 2008_11_22

I bolted some of the pieces together to try to "force" them straight. Uh-uh. Nothing doing.

From 2008_11_22

This leg won't touch the ground when the other 3 are. (Yes I know it's not square. I didn't cut that one. That's how it came and I didn't have enough length to cut it square.)

From 2008_11_22

My solution .... shim the back. Works for me! :-)

From 2008_11_22

This one is my fault. I don't understand what's wrong with my head. Basically, I needed to cut 3" from the depth pieces to accomodate the thickness of the 2 cross pieces but only cut 1-1/2". Well, I'll just cut another 1-1/2" off it.

From 2008_11_22

Here's my first project waiting for the bench to be completed. I need to swap out the heel plates on these xc skis. Got these out of somebody's trash. Sweet!