Australian Secret Weapon.

An Australian has never been the overall winner of the Tour De France. This year they are going to launch a secret weapon with tremendous leg strength. As for me and the Tour, I will sit on the my couch, drink beer and cheer Lance on.

Did my usual after work thing, bike spin on indoor rollers using a heart rate monitor so I wouldn't dog it and kept a push on the pace. Lifted weights and ate and ate some more. Indoor biking I can endure so long, it is the outdoor rides that keeps me going. Last year after not getting out all winter I said to myself that I would get something I can ride in the winter. So I invested about 2500 bucks in a Trek XO2 with accessories, great bike for the dirt trails. Then when the ice came I purchased 90 dollars apiece studded Nokkian tires. Great for the ice but when the deeper snow came it was a no go. So not wanting to break the bank, I bought a used Schwinn Rocket full suspension mountain bike, bought used Nokkian 2.1 Studded snow tires so now I can ride on ice and snow. For those of us that do this, push ourselves physically, setting goals, accomplishing them, we so enjoy doing so. It is not primarily about maintaining a physical fitness level, it is how we feel good. George Sheehan once said, "its the discipline that I demand on myself. So as you can see by my rambling, I'm still enjoying the endorphins.

OUCH!!!!!

Drunken Driver goes wrong way on street killing one bicyclist and injuring 14 more.

Nothing P.O.s me more then drivers using their cars to bully bicyclists. Like acting like they are going to pull out in front of you from a stop sign, or coming close to side swiping you, or throwing something at you on the way by. I pretty much want to punch em when this happens.

I've been hit twice by cars in the last 35 years of bicycling, it doesn't feel very good and doesn't do well for the bike either.

Did 30 minutes on rollers and 30 minutes on weights good thing for rock and roll music I needed some kick butt rock to fuel my fatigue.

Sunny Sunday

Here is the "forbidden" zone, 30 miles of bike, ski, and hike trail blocked at this one point. Fortunately this will be given back to the public in the next 18 months

Nice day to get out and ride.

Getting out of town I was the first tracks here from last night's snow.

The "big ole girl" was really tired here and laid right down for a rest.

Notice the three sets of tracks. Mine, and someone else from last night. I ran into a couple that were cross country skiing out here and they said there was some guy named Lance here yesterday on a bicycle with these "HUGE" tires.

Left foot problems slowed me down a little bit. There were frozen ruts that wanted to throw me off the bike several times. Had to keep the front end 'lose' and let the front tire go where it wanted when I hit many of these ruts. My legs are good and toasted, two days of "snow plowing". All and all it was a beautiful day to get out in the country side.

Peace and happy rides. Dave.

WetWet and some Rain, great ride.

Took 'the big ole' girl out for a ride today, she needed a rest here.

I SEE DEAD PEOPLE

Rode in town for a bit, wanted to make sure my clothing matched the weather conditions before heading out to the trail.

Headed out to Heritage Trail almost turned around the first mile, snow was deep slush, had trouble getting any traction. Soon had better traction, the Nokkian studs bite great on ice.

Returning home, soaked to the bone, had to keep the pace up to keep warm. After being rained on for three hours my waterproof jacket and pants were soaked through. Thoroughly enjoyed todays ride, needed to get out.

Took night off from working out so used the extra time to exersise

Yeap, was going to skip riding rollers tonight trying to get left foot to heal a little better. So being I had some extra time then, I did 30 minute stationary bike. HUH???? However if I had known jumping on the treadmill and running 5 miles a couple of weeks ago was going to F$%^ up my foot like this I wish I had never done so. Might have to see a doc if this doesn't turn around soon. :-(

Not sure if I can ride trail this weekend. I can ride rollers sorta OK with foot, but the extra foot pivoting required to trail ride might not work out.

WOW. Watched Batman The Dark Night, tonight. What a amazing job Heath Ledger did. The character he portrayed captivated you the entire movie.

Hi Al and Susie

Here is my brother Albert. Saw him and his girl friend Susie at a Christmas gathering today. They met on Ragbrai 2007. Al made fun of my Blog so now I have him posted for all to see. :-)~

Oh lifted and rode the rollers for 40 minutes hard today. Spent the rest of the day eating, drinking beer, and burping.

It's getting to look a lot like Christmas

Riding my tracks back.

When went to bed last night and this wasn't in my backyard. I think my 20 year old son Caleb is bored being on school break and recovering from a cracked bone in the foot from motorbike dirt riding. So he starts an Igloo.

Trying to resolve a few nagging injuries so I changed a few things on my stationary bike on rollers. Put my road seat on, used my road shoes instead of biking sandals, matched adjustments exactly on seat position and height. The "ride" felt better was able to hold upperend H.R. for 40 minutes, enjoyed and didn't watch the clock. So I think I'll pump iron for a little bit and then chill with the family christmas things we do.

Peace and good rides

Honor the Sabbath

I want one!!!

Didn't do 'nutt'n' today in terms of exercise. I have a few nagging injuries that have been slowly bothering me more. I read this article. and decided at least today REST. Somehow I hurt the bones in my left foot I think from running and now pedaling hurts. The foot hurts every time I take a step. Tomorrow I bet I am not so conservative.

Trail Closed

Here is a picture on Heritage trail behind Sundown Ski, while they were making snow earlier this year.

Heritage Trail runs from the city of Dubuque all the way to Dyersville. About 30 miles of beautiful scenery. There is one place that it is blocked to go around this you have to ride highway shoulder. The local newspaper yesterday explained the situation. I am glad to see there are plans to complete this section of the trail .

Rode the rollers for 30 minutes and lifted for 30 minutes and hoping to ride the great outdoors later this week.

Dang!! It's cold out there.

It's so cold out my dog asked permission to use the indoor toilets!!!

Rode on the Rollers, 40 Minutes kept the Heart Beat up, lifted weights. There is only so much indoor pedaling a biker can do. I mean 40 minutes on the rollers and I am watching the clock all the way. I can ride 6 hours on a bike trail and don't want it to end. I hope I can ride outdoors this week. If the trail snow is to deep, maybe I'll ride the streets. It did not get above zero today, and was quite windy.

Going nowhere fast.

Tried to ride Heritage Trail today could not go anywhere. My 2.1 Knobbies would just spin out. Snow was deep with ice underneath. So headed back home and rode the roller and lifted weights.


Bought a used pair of Nokkian extremes studded snow tires from Lance A. of the Triple D Maybe I can try them out tomorrow. I will put them on the "sow" (Full suspension Schwinn Mountain Bike) to try to get outdoors tomorrow. I can only do so much indoor spinning to keep my legs. I need to get outdoors to get a good buzz.











Here is a pic of all of us at my daughter's wedding.

Hi Melissa :-) she checks up on me here to make sure I haven't cracked yet. She is a wonderful daughter, chemical engineer, married and has a little duckling in the oven. :-)











So to end the day I picked up some Bud and made some chili. Perfect recipe for pulling off some great "Dutch Oven" "A dutch oven is when you fart under the covers and then pull the covers over your mate's head" . YaHoo.

Spinning

This is my honey LQQKing at me telling me there is lots of snow that needs shoveling.






















This is me saying, "I'll get right on it as soon as I can dear"

Did a good hard spin today, lifted weights, and shoveled a lot of snow. About 12" of snow dumped down last night. I hope I can get my mountain bike, my fattie knobbies and my fattie arse and trail ride tomorrow. It'll be beautiful out there. Mean while there is cold beer in the fridge.

Here comes the SNOW!!!

Ran, or I should rather say "trudged" for a 1/2 hour on the treadmill and then lifted for a 1/2 hour. The bones in my left foot are sore now. When you get to be my age, you gotta watch out for injuries......:-) Well I think of all the previous injuries tore my ACL twice, broke my MCL, broke my leg, tore my medial cartilage, cracked vertebrae, both rotator cuff tears, fractured jaw,,,,,good gawd...Lots and Lots of snow coming, will be going out trail riding this weekend. It'll be a workout for sure with the deep snow. Sounds good to me. Check out this snow bike. And here is my son Caleb, he's the "pimp-daddy". OH and here is his racing machine, I wanted to get pictures of him jumping with it but he currently has a broken foot from his last jump.

Later

Ramblings

Rode on the indoor rollers for 45 minutes after work. Used a heart monitor to help hold a good pace. With out a point of reference indicating level of intensity I have to tendency to “drift” when I am indoor spinning. My resting pulse rate has always been low. It’s gradually growing the fatter and older I get. When I used to do a lot of long distance running, my pulse when I woke used to be as low as 38 BPM. I get yearly chest xrays from my employer. The company doctor phoned me and said I had an enlarged heart based on the x-ray and told me to see a heart specialist. So I wondered if this was “it” that my heart was failing. I put off for a year seeing a doctor. So I finally did, and he scheduled a echogram to exam the heart. Well it was determined that I had Athlete’s heart that my heart was larger, the chambers were larger, and the muscle wall was thicker then normal. Mainly from years of heavy competitive powerlifting. This is not a bad thing. I powerlifted in the 80s until I qualified for the drug free nationals, and cracked a vertebrae. (see picture) I ended up having a fusion of L5 and L4 to my tail bone. I had to lay in bed for 39 days. I don’t recommend anyone lifting 500lbs at a bodyweight of 148lbs sooner of later something is going to give out. . Bicycling is more fun and better for you.

In search of endorphins.

Lots of problems at work today, worked extra hours so I needed some endorphins. So ran a half hour on treadmill and lifted weights for half hour. No ride pictures so here's two pictures of my son Joshua, I call them before and after, or endorphins and ouch.

WET, ICEY, SLUSH, MUD, GRIT, MUCK AND FUN

I just wonder why. There is 30 miles of bike riding trail that is public owned. There is just this one spot that is blocked apparently by a home owner.

Started the day’s ride at Sageville with my Trek XO2 with the Nokkian studs, worked great on the glare ice. Then came the deeper slush, I couldn’t get anywhere, so I headed back, and decided to ride the back woods trail back to Dubuque, and back on the paved bike trail. So I thought about riding these studded tires on pavement but decided to head back to Sageville thought let’s try this again so I headed West on Heritage.
When I got to the slush I recalled a wise man once said. “Sometimes in winter biking you just have to get off and push and be happy about it, it’s part of the sport.” https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1054318156492768341&postID=941888954088626814
So I got out and pushed and after about ½ mile the ice came back and I could ride. Rode about 3 hours today, a couple of times about lost it front tire would slide out on me in the slush. The riding conditions varied greatly from soggy mud and grit, to glare ice, to slush and back to mud again. Got soaked and enjoyed it.

I couldn't help myself

Last night driving by Bicycle World http://bicycleworlddbq.com/ I noticed the lights on. So I stopped in to talk to Parrish about better traction in the snow. I ended up buying a used Schwinn Rocket. I had no room in my trunk so Parrish dropped it off at the house latter. I went out today on the snow trails with it, it worked ok. Not a bad bike for the price with 2.1 knobbies I can keep moving forward in deeper snow. I am thinking about upgrading the tires to a 2.5, or maybe a 26" Nokian Extreme 294 (see pic)

I biffed, when I tried to climb a slight hill on a snowmobile path and my rear tire started spinning out, I stopped forward motion and instead of getting my shoe out of the clip, I tried to power back up trying to get the front end pointed in a different direction, and boom. Tomorrow I will spend some time with it out on Heritage Trail having fun and getting a good work out.

So now I ride my Trek 1600 on the pavement, my Trek XO2 with Nokian studded tires for ice and hard packed snow, and knobbies for dirt. And this thing (see pic) on the deeper snow trails.

Tonight going to explore the new and improved Diamond Jo with my lady. http://www.diamondjo.com/home.cfm

Stud Power

Started todays ride at 12 degrees F. I always figure in winter riding if you don't start out feeling a little cold your overdressed. Also many layers allow for clothing adjustment along the way. Started out doing about 10 miles on snow covered trail. That wasn't working well with my Nokian 40C studded tires (240 carbide hardened studs per tire) http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/studdedtires.asp , just not enough rubber to meet the road. I was busting my butt and not making much milage. So I turned to ice packed pavement, street and bike paths. I was just simply amazed at how well these tires work on hard packed ice and snow. Places that were hard to walk because of the ice I could ride over. My camera bounced out of my back bag, I discovered that about 5 miles after it happened, so I backtracked and found it waiting for me. About 40 miles total. I would like to do more 100K dirt but just don't seem to be getting er done. Check out the Cup O Dirt http://cyclingupdate.blogspot.com/ Now for the rest of the evening, chill with my lady, drink some beer, call all my kiddies, Melissa 27, Joshua 21, and Caleb 20, and eat.

No work tomorrow yahooooooo

Did the indoor trainer spin thing tonight first time since last winter, used a heart monitor to help push the pace. Seems if I have no point of reference to gauge effort, I don't get on it enough. Had some new music to listen to, so lifted weights a bit afterwards with ACDC . Tomorrow want to get out and ride. Here is a picture of the bike I want to get. I need the bigger tires then the 40C my Trek XO2 has to ride snow trails. I'll see how it goes tomorrow but I suspect if I ride snow trails I'll use lot of energy spinning out.

The loneliness of a indoor trainer.

Went down in the basement and said hello to my indoor trainer. BUT!!!! take a pick what you'd rather do, the picture at the top or the one underneath. Point made :-)

I did lift weights and run the treadmill yesterday and today after work. Gotta do something

I am off Friday, so will plan a outdoor run, maybe Eagle Point Park, the River Park, the Arboretum, Heritage Trail etc. Riding my Trek XO2 with 40C studded snows works ok if the snow is packed a bit or handles street ice adequately.

Yesterday and Today

Worked 10 hours yesterday, ran a half hour on treadmill and lifted weights a half hour. Today it was 12 degrees F. Packed up the Trek XO2 and headed to heritage trail. Was quite a workout. My tires aren't wide enough the ride the trail adequately. Did a lot of slipping and sliding. Starting to think about a better "winter bike"