Winter Rides

It's been a few rides once again. The last post was a few rides to. The weather has been rough. Wet, wind, snow and just bone chilling cold. Even without snow, 38 degrees and wet, is hard. The roads are tough to. Dirty grimy, just sand paper on the equipment. I stripped the bike down to the bare frame the other day. Cleaned everything! I was amazed at how much road grime fell out everywhere. My rear shifter is still holding up, barely. The jocky wheels are looking bad from the sand. I will have to replace them soon. Also the main bearings on the new Campy crank system will need replaceing by early spring. The Mavic wheels are doing OK. Thank goodness the spokes have no rubbing spots. Still the grime is everywhere. After all the cleaning it was one ride and the bike was hammered again. I just do my best to keep the equipment in good shape. I was gifted 3 new 10 speed chains by Connie Fails and family for Christmas. All three will have seen better days by May of this year. Thanks Connie. So the work goes on. The miles go on.
Last ride was a photo op without a camera. Snow on both side of a soaking wet road. Just after it had been sanded of course. The bike and I were so dirty. I wished I could put the bike in the washing machine to. It was a fun, and COOL ride. Some runners from the Langey group stopped me on Lone Lake road just to let me know they were impressed. These guys are all Triathalets. They are strong and tough. They want me to ride with them on Satudays. 2 of their wifes have already asked me to ride that ride to. I guess the Univeres is trying to give me a message. Go ride with the folks in Langley. I do not complain to much, but their ride starts at 8:30 AM in Langley. I'm a afternoon rider. These nice people are all morning riders. I'm going to make the effort. Getting up extra early to eat and get ready. I'll ride the bike to the start point in Langley.
I got to start taking the little digital camera with me on the rides. There have been so many COOL winter shots to share. The wild turkeys are hanging around. Mary Anne and I were out in the car and there they were. Mary Anne missed them so we turned around. What a beautiful sight the wild turkeys are. There are other sites to. I'm going to start taking the camera!

2 back

As always I ride. 2 rides from the last post. Fast rides. Big gears. It seems like years that I have been riding in the smaller gears. Using spin over force. A coach once told me to go the slow way to get to speed. Spin your legs in smaller gears. Do this for a long time. All winter. Well, it's been 2 years and 3 months. A few outings I have pushed the big gears. It was always wrong. I payed some kind of price every time. It just was not the moment, not the right time. Even in the warm weather of summer the big gear was not right. Was I ever going to be able to push a big gear again. Had the long lay off from the bike (13 years) permanently changed my body. Did the trigeminal nerve, diabetes, high blood pressure, age, changed me for ever. Change, yes. Forever, yes. Could I get a little faster, yes. Do I want to get a little faster, yes. So I went out these last 2 rides and pushed in the big gears on the areas where I could. My legs could do it! After 2 years 3 months. 110 pounds of fat removal. 20+ pounds of muscle added to my frame. Discipline to the road and to the training. No lay off from the bike for more than a few extra days. Riding the bike every other day. I need the other day to let my body to recover. The long plan is working. The big gears are starting to work again. 104" and 96" gears for long periods of time. 45mile in under 3 hours easy. With lots of hills. My average speed up by 1 MPH on the computer for "all" my rides. Not just one ride. That's a lot! Doing 25 MPH on the flats no problem. Doing fast all the time. Till the hills hit. Those hills are always hard and I'm going up faster on them too. What happened? It has been like a switch. Wow, an old guy like me. Doing speed again. I'm going to ease these fast days into the work out. Not every ride. More often than in the past. It feels so good to have the legs push a big gear again. It's the racer in me. Once you race, it's always about the training and the speed. It's been a long come back. Much longer than I thought. I still have a long way to go. Also this hilly Island I now live on has made me a lot stronger. Hills are hard for every one. It that gravity thing. I am doing a lot of hills. The gears are bigger on them to! I am so excited to be able to push a big gear again. It's a dream come true. All those races in my head while training alone. I have so many prizes from races that never happened. Dreams of the long road from an X racer. Maybe I will do that time trial here on the Island this spring.

Post of news

Keeping up with the writing is sometimes, just the hardest. There is always recycling, doing the dishes, seeing a new doctor, a bit of driving, riding the bike every other day, getting involved with Clan Gordon, cleaning. More I'm sure if I could remember in a way that made a good story. The story is, I did not write for the last 14 days. Almost half a month!
It has been cold and wet. The days that feel 28 degrees. There really 38 or 40 something. Just hard days to go out for anything. The rides have been hard. There has been lots of wind to. I made all the rides. Never said no because of weather. Missed one for travel. Made up for it to. Just being true to the road, fitness, health, and mental straightness. It's all good. It all got done. Days of coming home with road grime up to my knees and more. Having to wash off the dirt, sand, and tree parts outside before coming into the garage. Washing the riding outfits every ride. Cleaning the bike every ride. Not cleaning the bike well enough to. Always cleaning the chain. There is so much sand on this Island home. The chain takes a beating every ride. I broke a rear wheel to. Just one spoke. That means there are lots of other spokes on there way to the garbage. I'm having David at "1/2 Link" respoke the whole wheel. Going down the hills around here at full speed and losing a wheel. I'll try to avoid that. I'm riding on my #1 rear wheel till the #2 wheel is respoked. Both wheels are the same. Just the #1 is for good weather only. The #2 for all this winter stuff. So the road goes on. The miles are good. No less than 40 miles. No more than 60. The climbing is good. Some days faster than others. Keep with the program. Spin the legs. Add in some big gears here and there. My average speed is going up. Just a little, here and there. It's from the few flat sections and the hill climbs. I'm always fast going down hills. It's been a hard few weeks. The dirt is like doing mountain bikes off road.
Yesterday was the first day in a log bit that the sun was out. There had been a big wind storm from the North last evening. Cold, at 34 degrees. It snowed as I drove home from the doctor. Down town Seattle was white in deep slush on the freeway. What a mess. Craziness from the drivers. Fast drivers, slow drivers. A dangerous combination. Once I got about 8 mile from that, it was dry and fast. Than it was time to load the ferry. Wind howling, ferry rocking, it was going to be a tough ride home. The ferry is a mid size for around here. It can take a big hit no problem. The ride was the most rocky I have ever had. The crew and Captain did a perfect job. They made it seem so easy. Thanks for that. Off the ferry on the way home. There were tree parts all over the road. Mary Anne had called several times on my drive with news of power outages. It was a rough day on the Island. I was thinking a ride maybe, well, hard. Next day I took off at noon. The roads were surprisingly clear! The wind had cleared a lot of the tree branches, The road crews had cleared a lot to. As my ride proved. Trees had gone down in several areas. All cleaned up for a nice fast 50 mile ride. Fastest since our move to Whidbey Island. 3 hours, 50 miles. Not bad for an old guy. I was getting a bit tired towards the end. The last 3 miles went slow. It was a great ride though. Wind at first, cold, dry, clean roads. I was clean for the first time in a long time after the ride. Next week is cold dry, not that much wind. It's a treat!

I love the birds

Not the 60s music group. I can still hear the songs and rhythm. No not those guys. It's the local bird population. We started to feed the little birds as the winter is tough on them. We have a feeding station near a back fence. Not to close to the house at all. We see the little friends real well from the family room and family dinning area. It's fun to watch as the little birds eat the sunflower seeds. Fun till you look down and see the RATS eating on the ground. Big rats! No poisons, no traps. Both will kill the birds and any dogs or cats in the area. We are not in for that. So for the first time in a bit I pulled the pellet rifle out from storage. I did a little cleaning and shot a few rounds off in the garage on a thick moving pad covered with a news paper. It works great. I'll sight the scope in tomorrow. Dead rats ASAP. Mary Anne is willing to take a shot or 2. We'll get the rats. Rats are a problem on this Island. You just have to deal with what has to be done. Kill the rats!
Oh that was fun. Now for the ride. It was wild turkey day. Yes the turkey's feel safe enough to come out. Twice today on a 40 mile ride I saw the same family group. One huge male and 2 smaller hens. Just striking animals. I'll try to get a photo up. My ride was a fast 40 miles. With all the hills it was under 3 hours. Push was the name of the day. 71" gear almost all the ride. Up hills to. That is not a huge gear but, I pushed the RPM so the speed was good. This was the first real hard push on some bigger gears in a bit. The heart rate was up to. 159 BPM is 85% to 90% rate for this old guy. On a few of the longer climbs the gears was 61" and 57" to just push over the steep grades. Normal in a more moderate gear is 44" and at more of a moderate heart rate to. 65% heart rate is 125 BPM give or take. This lower work out heart rate builds up power and endurance. So to push in the 90% heart rate is only once and a while this time of year for me. It was a great work out. I loved seeing the turkey's twice.
Also David at the local bike shop, Half Link, is now moved into his new larger shop. The place looks great. He looks very happy. Mary Anne bought me 2 of the new stainless steel water bottles. Just throw them in the dish washer and they are super clean. David at 1/2 link ordered some new non metal bottle holders for the bike. These SS bottles are a big up grade from plastic. Oh they weigh the same as plastic to! Plastic that hold odor and micro bugs. So I am real thankful Mary Anne knew about them and David at 1/2 link had them. Can't wait to try them out. Next ride will be a bit longer, 50+ miles.