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hardly a man is now alive...
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Apr. 21st, 2007 @ 08:00 pm
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Today, ~40 miles, on ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) zmook's now-yearly Paul Revere's ride. A surprisingly uncrowded bike path in the morning (I say "surprisingly" because spring has finally found us, and it was 70 and sunny); off at Lexington Center to take that lovely chunk of Mass Ave outbound, peel off to Concord. Bridge, reenactors, flooding (that is one high river). Back to Concord Center where we decided the appropriate place for ice cream was Kimball Farms, which added a few miles, but what the hey. That place sure gives you your money's worth; my brownie sundae must've had about a pint of strawberry ice cream, and by then I was famished (nursing? biking 40 miles? hells yeah was I hungry). So we all had ice cream for lunch. Back to Bedford, pick up the path.
ProTour jerseys: Disco (duh, but a recent one, with the yellow armbands), Lampre (!), and I think an FDJeux.
Cool sights: We ran into a crowd of (we presume) SCUL bikers, a dozen or two with all sorts of wacky bikes. One of them was on a pile of red tubing that was at least six feet tall; it wasn't clear how he got on or off or, indeed, rode, given that every time he stopped wouldn't he just keel over sideways? from six feet up? Perhaps there was a hand-operated kickstand I didn't see. And there was another bike almost as high, not red, but fitted out with speakers. And they seemed to have radios or walkie-talkies for in-mob communcation.
And we encountered a guy...an older guy...on a scooter (not like a motorized scooter, like the kind that were all the rage with kids a few years back). And there was a basket secured on the scooter. In the basket was a little white dog, looking quite cheerful. And on the guy's head was a beanie.
Well. What do you say to that.
Personally...I'm not in the cardio shape I was last year but, once I got warmed up, I wasn't any more tired than I would expect for a ride of this distance. However, between not having done this for a year and having had my abdomen sliced through a few months back, I got no power. I kept dying on hills (which used to be my conspicuous talent) and having a hell of a time keeping up with people who are normally at a pretty natural pace for me. But they were understanding even though I was displeased and embarrassed to make people indulge my weakness.
Commuting: I haven't been doing it nearly as much as I should -- it's longer than before and it's hard to move that fast early in the morning and muster the energy -- but when you have a 15 mile round-trip miles add up fast. I'm up to around 150 on the year now. |
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AWESOME
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Mar. 11th, 2007 @ 03:58 pm
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Got the bike out of the garage today, since it is beautiful out.
863.6 miles last year -- some of which aren't even mine as I lent the bike to a few people. I cannot help but feeling this is an impossibly lame total, even though I remind myself I was pregnant for most of the year and nearly all of the biking season, and thus that should count for at least 1600 (biking for two, right?). But that's still lame. Ah well, new year, new mileage.
I just did 2.6 miles to reacquaint myself, and to avoid being out long lest the baby get hungry, but they included the Tufts hill and the Powderhouse rotary, so they were gratifyingly serious. And 2.6 miles is pretty close to what all those rockin' pro bike riders did today in the Prologue to Paris-Nice, which gives me an illusion of being cool. ;) I accidentally took an easier route up the hill; oh well. My cardiovascular system is not where it was but it's not awful, my usually stalwart legs briefly complained near the top of the hill, but let's get back to the subject line here --
THAT WAS AWESOME.
It took about two feet out of the driveway to remember why I love biking and to apologize shamefully to my bike for having cast a lustful eye on others in the bike shop. The wind in my face, the sun, the sounds of the world, the power and motion of legs, the smooth feeling of gear and chain...
AWESOME.
I'm going to try to get out in the mornings for short rides, right after I feed her and before nonnihil has left for work, to get ready for bike commuting again in a couple weeks. But now at least I'm pretty sure I can handle the commute after so much time off (this ride was also a proof of concept). Next weekend, actually, I should ride out there and back to get used to the route -- if anyone wants to go for a ~17 mile ride on, er, pretty urban streets, say yo. Exact scheduling to wait on the forecast. |
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new commute
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Oct. 9th, 2006 @ 04:48 pm
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Tested out a bike route from the new house (moving next week) to work today. I'm moving farther away, so I was concerned, but it was awesome! ~7 miles, 50 minutes. Compare to right now which is ~6 miles, best case 35 minutes. Not bad :). I can definitely get it down to 45 minutes once I'm more familiar with the route (and figure out a better way to deal with Porter Square and its dread warren of one-way streets); to make it practical I'll have to get my act together and set out/pack clothes the night before, but my commute used to be 45-50 when I had the mountain bike and a longer route, so I know it's doable.
Of course, I got to work, went to the faculty lounge for water, and promptly crashed on the couch with no desire to move for a couple hours ;). I've been trying to keep commuting 3 days/week, managing 2-3, because even though the legs are fine and the cardio system is better than it used to be, it obviously costs me more energy than I really have. But I put 14-15 miles on the bike today, in ridiculously lovely, last-gasp New England October weather, and I'm feeling good about that. |
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Jul. 15th, 2006 @ 05:55 pm
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Why Floyd is the man, #190428091: he also is really funny.
As you might gather from this article, his roommate in Spain, Dave Zabriskie, is a weirdo, too. |
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Jul. 9th, 2006 @ 05:28 pm
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Gosh: Floyd Landis is more hardcore than you.
I've just gone from "I guess Floyd is my man this year" to raving looney Floydmania. (Thanks to chrysaphi for the link.) |
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Today, nonnihil and I hit the path with sweetmmeblue, all the way out and back. I was a bit concerned because I had no idea how it would turn out; was I right in my hypothesis yesterday that I can ride a long time on the flats and it's only the slopes that bother me? would I have legs left after yesterday? would I have any core endurance?
I felt yesterday a bit starting out. It took several miles to feel really adapted, and then very suddenly my legs kicked in and I went from 11-12mph to 15 mph with no obvious adjustment in mechanics. The flats were, in fact, easy.
On the way back, I had one of those periodic moments where I just need to feel free, and I wanted to prove to myself I could do it, so I flattened out a bit and did 20 until the next intersection. Still got it. That was fun.
sweetmmeblue was a bit startled, albeit happy for the challenge :). Eventually I ended up pulling something similar again -- on the slightly-downhill direction of the path, accelerating to pass, realized I might as well go into my top chainring -- the top chainring and I have abruptly become good friends and once I'm in the groove sustaining 17-18, on reasonable terrain, is no great problem. She was intrigued and nonnihil and I evangelized the virtues of the top chainring a bit, and then we were all going very rapidly :). It was high-quality wheeeee.
And I always feel good about myself when I can evangelize bikes and people try new things and feel powerful. I'm such a born-again biker -- the chubby slow uncoordinated unathletic kid who learned to bike at 22 and ended up doing a century and a mountain -- that I just have to spread the gospel to everybody! ;) So it's nice when people experience why I love this stuff. Especially when they're women, or people who don't fit the athlete stereotype or don't think of themselves that way.
And now I feel fine except I sure am hungry and I don't know for what.
Jul. 9th, 2006 @ 12:25 pm
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Gosh I'm tired.
Was out riding today with zmook et alia, one of our standard loops through familiar roads down to Dover and back, a 60 mile route. Being an evil bastard he stuck Arlington's water tower hill near the beginning of it.
I can say with immense pride that I made it to the top. OK, OK, four months ago that would have been no problem and I probably would've been the first in that group to the top, but a month ago I would have had to stop repeatedly and walk the bike. Apparently genitals and a pancreas are way, way easier to build than brains. It was still terrifically hard -- I lost the ability to talk partway up, was gasping for air, had to mind-over-matter it a fair bit of the way, and when I got to the top I pretty much fell off the bike and lay there -- but I made it all the way, and I didn't stop. BOO-YAH.
But wow, hills suck. Even gentle, relatively brief grades. I just can't do them at more than 7 or 8 mph, and they take so much out of me it's absurd. If I were in, say, Illinois I could probably bike 40 miles...maybe even 50...but these gently rolling hills...
I had a major "I can't" moment a mile past Wellesley center. We were on a very shallow grade but it just kept going and I didn't. I stood around, drank some, ate some, wondered if I'd feel better, but I just couldn't imagine the thought of more of them. Which is really a shame, as I'd been doing a great job on the flat sections -- realized I could mostly stay in my top chainring and keep it around 17-18mph, which is pretty fast for me -- but I just couldn't. So I abandoned and went back to Wellesley center. Ride length, 27 miles. Total...gosh, I forget. Somewhere around 530. Enh.
I'm a bit disappointed at the 27 miles, but I try to recognize that most people would find that an intimidating ride in itself, and most people aren't pregnant. And I do have way more cardio capacity than I did in May. I just...don't have what I'd like, and my endurance is slipping away like sand.
Today's Tour stage -- all kinds of weird. Serhiy Honchar or however you want to spell it? Wow, great ride. And *so* cute in yellow -- he kept grinning like an idiot, clearly couldn't believe he was in yellow, shook the jersey in disbelief, waved the lion around -- adorable. Crazy Jane, take note. And great ride by Landis despite yet another TT mechanical, this one freakier than the last. But an underwhelming ride by Hincapie? And an awful one by Leipheimer? And...poor Julich; they kept replaying the crash and it just looked more painful each time. Shakes things up for the Pyrenees, that's for sure.
Jul. 8th, 2006 @ 04:40 pm
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I don't even know what to say about Le Tour, other than incoherent and aghast shrieking. I don't know whom to cheer for any more (Landis? Leipheimer? this year's Voeckler/Rasmussen/darling?). I feel bad for Vino (never did anything wrong, betrayed by his team) and Cancellara (the shocking tenth man on CSC, by rights in the Tour when they're one man down, except the DSs have agreed not to replace barred riders). Like everyone else, I can't make any predictions about the Tour, but I do have one prediction for later:
If at all allowed by cycling contract regulations, Vino will find a new team and cleanse the Vuelta with fire and sword.
Jul. 1st, 2006 @ 09:28 am
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Yeeeargh! CSC left Fabian Cancellara off its Tour roster! Because this year's route has no team time trial!
I'm sure that, like, two of you can appreciate the horror of this situation. But trust me, it's awful! If only Crazy Jane were still writing her tour blog, because she would empathize. How to say...this guy could be winning time trials in le Tour, getting kisses from the podium girls, showing off his 6-foot-2, 25-year-old self, but he is not. Waaaah! And there's no team time trial. What, is it not cool any more now that Postal isn't Postal and doesn't have Lance? Did these people not see the CSC/T-Mobile nailbiter in the Giro? (Well, not before they set the course, definitionally. But spiritually!)
Waaaah.
Jun. 21st, 2006 @ 10:12 am
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Rawwwwwr!
Well, before we get to that, let's get some other stuff out of the queue: first off, mad props to my man Ivan Basso, for blowing everyone to pieces in the Giro d'Italia, then doing it again for good measure, all while smiling his charming (but increasingly intimidating) smile. And racking up the biggest victory margin in forty years. And, quite possibly, not breaking a sweat. He is totally the man. Props also go to his teammate (CSC rocks!) Jens Voigt, who could have won a stage, but didn't because it would have been a cheap shot at the other guy who'd been doing all the work the entire breakaway. Chapeau.
Also, mad props to Levi Leipheimer, who achieved a lifelong dream by winning the Dauphine Libere, becoming only the fourth American to do so (after Armstrong, Hamilton, and Lemond -- how's that for company?). He rode his usual style, nothing flashy, didn't even win a stage -- just very, very consistent. Nice pre-Tour gauntlet-throwing, and of course I'm happy to see that there is still some serious post-Lance American cycling going on, for all that most Americans will appreciate it.
So on to rawwwwwr!
My energy came back on Wednesday. It's not always there but it's so enormous a difference from, uh, the entire month of May that I barely remember, that I am totally excited about it. So I rode my bike! Bike!!! It's going to be really hot out today -- it was up to 80 when I got back, and I left relatively early -- but hey, I got shade for part of the ride, now I have water and A/C.
I rode 14.8 miles. A real ride! And I could have done more (but boy, A/C was starting to sound super-appealing...I totally need a Camelbak if I'm going to ride in weather like this). And I didn't have any problem hitting 15mph on the slight-uphill bits of the Minuteman! Or 19 on the downhills. *And* I rode the Tufts hill, which three weeks ago I would have been unable to do -- heck, I would've bailed by the halfway point -- whereas today I felt kinda like I did when I first added it to my commute, tired, in need of catching my breath, but it was totally doable. Actually it wasn't quite as hard as it was the *first* few times. So this is awesome. Apparently right about now my total blood volume should be increasing (not merely to help out the fetus but, as my book so charmingly points out, in preparation for expected massive blood loss in January -- why, yay!), so hopefully I can put that to good cardiovascular use.
So this was all awesome. Riding at all was awesome, riding competently was awesome. Also awesome: one of my favorite things about riding is breaking stereotypes. People don't expect anyone to commute, and they *really* don't expect anyone to commute in bad weather. You don't see a lot of women doing any kind of performance cycling, like long distances. And people definitely don't expect pregnant women to be doing 15-mile rides and passing the skinny road-bike Harvard-bike-jersey chick. Haha! Take that, people's stupid expectations!
...now, however, it is time to sit in the A/C with a lot of water, possibly all day.
Ride: 14.8
Total: 420.6, I think?
It's July 4; I'm about 25 miles out of Esch-sur-Alzette, headed for Valkenburg. Lookit that scenery.
Jun. 17th, 2006 @ 11:21 am
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Well, if you've been keeping up with my non-biking life at all, you've probably gathered that my summer of le Tour plan is no longer realistic.
New plan: bike half the distance of the Tour (after all, that will collectively be putting the total mileage on our legs). And not feel too guilty if it takes me until the end of the summer.
My last major ride was 40ish miles, about 2 weeks ago. This is now the limit of my endurance, I think; I could do it, but I got home and collapsed, though I did stand up again later. And my cardio capacity has dropped to nearly nothing; when I put extra load on the system, eg on hills, the response just isn't there. Heart rate skyrockets, I'm gasping for breath, I have to dismount and walk on hills of any size.
And I pretty much didn't commute for the last two weeks, because I felt like I was hit by a bus, and even getting out of bed has been kind of a challenge.
But I made myself get out and bike some places yesterday, as the bike really was the easiest way to get to them. And I felt better. So I biked to work today. And that was fine. We'll see what I -- we! -- can do :).
Total mileage: 389.5 mi/641 km
To go: 1185ish km
I've finally finished July 4. I've just started stage 4, Huy to Saint-Quentin; I'm about 5km out of Huy.
Jun. 5th, 2006 @ 06:04 pm
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I actually like biking in spring rain.
Spring hail, not so much.
298.5/1971.5/July 4/about 26 miles out of Esch-sur-Alzette.
May. 9th, 2006 @ 06:10 pm
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TRIP: 51.5
TOTAL: 277.2
REMAINING: 1983.8
zmook, fanw, and I did a loop up to Andover.
Indeed, without hills it was much better. I could have done more than that with no trouble and I wasn't totally wiped out, though I was kinda stupid at choir practice in the evening. I should have remembered to bring my ibuprofen but I didn't have major knee problems.
I definitely should have remembered to bring the sunblock as I now, to all appearances, have lobsters instead of arms.
Anyway. It was nice to do a route I hadn't done before. And it was nice to see Phillips Andover, which is a freakin' college; we send a lot of students there and I'd never seen it and, well, damn. They have a quad far bigger than Harvard's. They have a museum of archaeology. They have...1087 students.
And we saw something so startling I had to make an unsignaled rapid peel-off turn from the road and see what the deal was. The shingle hung out said "Baldwin Apple Memorial" and, indeed, there was a large square concrete pillar, and on top of it was a large square apple, and carved into the pillar was something like "Near this site in 1815 a gale blew over the first Baldwin apple tree. Originally called the Butters, Woodpecker, or Pecker apple [and deeply grateful for the name change -- ed.], it was renamed for COL. LOAMMI BALDWIN." And something about the Rumford historical society, not that I know what that is, since I'm pretty sure we were in Wilmington (on Butters Street!). So, yes, a monument to a fallen apple tree. This is less goofy than it seems, as apple sexual reproduction is a gamble passing all bounds of reason or even absurdity, so apples of the same type are and in fact have to be clones, so if not for that one tree there wouldn't be any Baldwin apples at all. But it's still pretty goofy.
But we did see many, many fewer cyclists, and I understand why. The metro-north roads are not nearly as good as the metro-west. It's more densely populated, so it isn't as scenic. It was nice for a change but I'd definitely rather spend more time in the Lincoln/Weston axis of things.
Except for that one hill out of Andover that didn't look like a huge hill, what with all the twists and turns, until we were halfway down it and I glanced back checking for cars because I wanted to take the middle of the lane so I could take the turns at speed and I glanced down at the speedometer to see if I would be annoying hypothetical cars by so doing and found out I was going 33.5. Sweet. Colin subsequently informed me the speed limit was 20. Even better. (Why no, as a cyclist I do not typically look out for speed limit signs...)
It's July 4; I'm 14 miles out of Esch-sur-Alzette. I think I'm in Luxembourg! ...oh man I'm so behind.
May. 8th, 2006 @ 05:39 pm
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Gahhh baby Basso so cute. Little kid + Alp! Seriously, what better.
Giro d'Italia starts this weekend...
May. 2nd, 2006 @ 07:50 pm
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| » bleah |
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I really needed to put on a lot more miles today, between being behind in general and my recent mechanicals. And that was the plan! But zmook had other things to do, and I was too lame to arrange a ride with other people, so I was by myself. And...wow. The motivation? So hard to come by. Even-more-increased respect for people who train for those grand tours (and I guess they have support cars and trainers eventually, but they must all go through a stage of long and lonely roads). I was just wiped out after ten or fifteen miles (which, admittedly, included the edge of the water tower hill, and Belmont hill, so it's not like they were lame miles, but that was a ridiculously brief distance to be cowed by). And my cardiovascular capacity still sucks, even though the hills are much less intimidating than they used to be.
So I cut the ride pretty short and now I feel all exhausted and on-the-couchy.
Only saw one ProTour jersey, though it was Fassa Bortolo, which gets points for weirdness.
Almost ran into a kid who didn't look both ways before entering the bike path from an access point, but on the other hand I saw him coming up to said access point and knew that the adults would stop so he wouldn't, so it wasn't really a problem when he biked straight in front of me. "Look both ways before crossing the street," I said icily on passing him. He looked at me like I was a Martian. Actually he might have looked through me, not noticing me even then. Ah well. There are good Darwinian reasons people don't get to propagate at the age of eight, I suppose. (Though you'd think millennia of warfare would have taken care of the overly unaware male parts of the population!)
Stopping at an intersection, heard a woman in a van with slightly ajar window go, "squeeee!" "What's the score?" I ask. "5-4 in the ninth -- we just hit two home runs -- we're catching up!" And that, you see, is why I love biking as a mode of transportation; ready interaction with people around you, 360 degree engagement with the world. (And it's also a fair bit of why I love Boston; shared culture.) Alas, the Sox lost -- never did get that fifth run.
But hey, now my shifters work.
Trip: 24.5
Total: 187.5
Remaining: 2073.5
It's still July 3 and I'm still on Stage 2, but I'm about halfway to Esch-sur-Alzette.
Apr. 30th, 2006 @ 04:26 pm
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So there I was on my commute, maybe a quarter of a mile from school, slight uphill, going to downshift and bam, I can't. The shifter just hits a wall and won't move and nothing happens. And I'm in my top gear (of the middle chainring, the one I'm always in except on long rides). I try to downshift the chainring, and the derailleur moves and the chain clatters, but it doesn't actually engage.
For those who weren't keeping track, that means my 27-speed bike had just converted itself into a fixie. In a nearly pessimal gear. I got to campus (mercifully I didn't have to stop anywhere as I've no idea how I would've started against that much resistance), but I had to dismount and walk over the little hill, because powering as hard as I could up it I was still going too slowly to balance (especially since, pushing as hard as I was against the pedals, I kept swaying the bike...)
Ugh. Darn you, mechanicals, darn you!
After work I found the bike mechanic who conveniently doubles as a dorm parent, and he kindly poked at it for almost an hour, but there was a limit to what he could do with an assortment of screwdrivers but without an actual bike shop. He took the shifter apart and couldn't find anything and was totally baffled. So the husband and the car rescued me, and we got to the bike shop ten minutes before closing.
This makes the third time I've been there in two weeks -- regular spring tuneup, yelling at them to replace the cassette they should've replaced during the tuneup, and this. One of the mechanics tested out the bike and looked at me and said something like, no offense, but your bike breaks in the weirdest ways. Apparently shifters normally fail in the opposite manner -- pushing all the way through and not engaging against anything. Nothing he could do but replace the sucker. Deore's a good part, he says, normally lasts ten, twelve years, but sometimes you just get unlucky. (I've had the bike two years; it's a somewhat older model as I got it in a closeout, but it only has two years of riding on it.)
I can get it back late Saturday -- thus axing half this weekend's potential ride time -- and I'm already behind schedule. Yikes. Anyone riding on Sunday?
Trips: commuting mostly; short trips to sing and eat and socialize
Total: about 160 mi
Remaining: about 2101 mi
It's still 3 July and I'm still in the Alsace, but this time about 36 miles out of Obernai.
Apr. 27th, 2006 @ 08:52 pm
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No vast exciting biking to report (trip to fanw's, today's commute). But I had an idea for an Exciting New Feature! In addition to trip/total/remaining, I will tell you where I am in the Tour de France.
So far I have done, I think, 126.2 miles (amazing how I forget that between the bike computer and the laptop computer). Therefore it is 3 July; I am 13 km out of Obernai, in the Alsace, on my way to Esch-sur-Alzette, in Luxembourg. It's the second stage (third, if you count the prologue).
I have 2134.8 miles remaining.
Apr. 24th, 2006 @ 03:38 pm
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TRIPS: WRF commuting; bike shop errand; ~45-mile loop today with nuclearpolymer, narya (my PMC companion last year!), and dzm. Bike path to Bedford, out through Carlisle to the Great Brook Farm (which had an ice cream stand, though it was too early for all of us, and an "interpretive office" which would lead you on tours with "fun-filled facts about Holsteins"! Those Holsteins, always a party), back to Concord Center (lunch at one of the innumerable picturesque stores), back to Bedford, path, home. Saw a Lotto-Domo jersey, a Lotto jersey (I know Lotto's merged and split a number of times but I have no idea when this one was from and was totally confused by the Berry Floor logo), PMC 1995, PMC whatever year had all the flowers (2002?). Not as many cyclists as I'd expect on a nice-ish day in April, but it was a little cool. The legs were fine despite the deplorably low amount of cycling I did this winter; it was a very leisurely ride (though that's nice for socializing and I caught up lots with everybody), but it was a meaningful distance. Noticed, alas, that my shoulders still hurt after 30 miles, and bike shorts really only exacerbate discomfort (let's just say I'm not supporting my weight on the optimal part of my anatomy); I've always assumed long-distance biking is just uncomfortable and it's not really *that* bad, but maybe I should shell out the money for a fitting after all, though I'm nervous they'll just tell me there's nothing I can do short of buying a new bike, and then I'd wish I hadn't spent the money at all, because I do rather like this bike.
TOTAL: 106.9, I think? Didn't memorize the cycle computer number on my way in. At any rate, I've gotten up to three digits...now I just need one more!
REMAINING: 2154.1 miles.
Apr. 22nd, 2006 @ 04:32 pm
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Trip: 12.4 miles; commute.
Total: 24.6 miles; 2236.4 to go.
My commute's 12.4 miles. I'd thought it was twelve. Sweet. Free two miles/week.
I won't post about my commute every day ;). I'll just tot it up.
Though having a speedometer again I see I'm faster than I'd thought. I wonder if I misremembered, or I've improved. Either's pretty sweet :).
Apr. 18th, 2006 @ 08:33 pm
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Trip: 3.3 miles, to [Bad username: desireearmbfeldt]'s and back
Total: 12.2
Remaining: 2248.8
Apr. 16th, 2006 @ 05:37 pm
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