379

That was my number in the flying wheels summer century when I completed my first 100+ mile bike ride. I say 100+ mile because I also cycled 7.5 miles to the start line. The route starts heading south past lake Sammamish, before cutting across the hills into, erm whatever the next valley is called. You can see the 2007 route, which is not much different at Bikely http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Flying-Wheels-Summer-Century.

Next month its the STP, which is 200 miles. The big question is should i try to do it in 1 day or 2 days???

 

Ouch

Yesterday’s theme was ouch.

1st I cycled 60 miles with Jonny (although he only did 40). First I cycled the 10 miles to his house. Then we cycled up to Snoqualmie Falls. Then Jonny showed me how wrong I was to think we were at the top of a hill, and proceeded to find another 300ft of steep climbing so we could see what a rough cobble forest road looked like before coming back down. We then cycled to Remlinger farm for ice cream (only to discover they don’t have ice cream). Back to Jonny’s then I cycled home. The elevation I rode is below:

See www.bikely.com for the cool site that plots your route and gives you the elevation. Not a bad training ride, but my legs do hurt today.

The next ouch was Rachel and her bike. Just as we were about to leave for a party (also at Jonny’s house) she fell off her bike. Her wrist was in pain on the inside, so we took her to casualty, where they x-rayed her arm and we discovered she has a buckle fracture, which is the mildest break you can have. So now she has a splint on her arm. She is not in pain, and she still looks super cute.

Hopefully today will be boring.

 

A long long long time ago

I wrote about some new years resolutions. One of them was to write stuff on this blog. As you can see I’ve not done a good job since Feb. Bummer.

I’m still riding, but not lost any weight. In 49 days I’ll be cycling to Portland, which is 200 miles. Most I’ve ridden is about 65 miles, which was an extended loop around lake Washington. 100 should not be too much trouble, but 100 on 2 consecutive days could be a pain in the ass, literally.

I’m back to my brooks saddle, having spent a few months off it. I love my brooks saddle, hopefully this time it will love me.

What else has happened, went to Australia in March – that was cool, was promoted into management too. This means I have a team again, but also means I now loose sleep over things other people are doing rather than just my own things. Mustn’t grumble as many folks at Microsoft lost their jobs in the last few months as part of the crappy economy.

Found a great site for cycle routes, www.bikely.com. It has a pretty large database of cycle routes submitted by folks. You can also join for free and submit your own route. The cool thing is it gives you the elevation of the routes as well so you know how far you have climbed!

Off to cycle in the morning, will probably ride to the start, rather than drive since I need the miles.

D

 

Lenovo S10

I’ve been looking for a small laptop for home user for some time now. I’ve got a desktop and a work laptop – but wanted something a little smaller to “surf” the web, do email, buy bike stuff etc.

Enter the netbook. A netbook is a small sub $400 laptop that has a screen around the 10” mark. They typically run XP or Unix, have small amounts of RAM and Disk – but are designed to be lightweight, and ideal for internet uses. There are many definitions of a netbook, and this is mine.

After researching just about everyone on the market, including the Samsung, Acer, Assus, Dell, WIND & Lenovo. I decided on the lenovo S10.

The one I got is white, and came with 512mb of Ram and an 80GB hard disk. This was $299 from http://newegg.com. I added to that a 2GB Ram module which cost $20, and a 8gb USB drive for installing Windows 7 for another $20.

I installed the RAM, then went through preparing and installing windows 7. It took about an hour in total, but i was left with a pretty nifty little device. It runs windows 7 great. The new OS is pretty responsive on the small machine.

RAM installation was easy, as the lenovo provides an access hatch to get at the memory. There is 512MB on the board, and a slot to add another 2GB. That gives 2.5GB, but the chipset can only see 2gb, which is actually enough.

The processor is a single core ATOM CPU. I don’t recall the specs, but so far the web, email and watching movies has been no problem. I’ve also installed Visual Studio Web Developer, and that runs great too! Not bad for something that cost $320, and is a little bigger than the side of my hand.

Keyboard is not bad. The keys are almost full size, and I’ve been able to touch type on it without too many problems. The symbol keys, HOME, END keys etc. will take some getting used to, but since ever laptop seems different anyway, its only a matter of time.

The Lenovo also has a built in web camera. It’s not outstanding, but good enough for the odd video call!

The only grumble I have so far is the life on battery. I seem to get a little over 2 hours. The battery is a 3 cell one. I’ve seen 6 cell batteries on ebay (and even 9 cell) which boast 4+ and 6+ hours respectively. I’ve also read lots of negative comments in the forums about the charger not being able to charge a 6 cell correctly. This is putting me off the 6 cell ebay battery. I’m never really too far away from a power source so I’ll wait a while to see if I would need one.

I think it would be cool to get a 3G USB network adapter, then I could go anywhere with it, but alas, T-mobile don’t have one yet (March maybe I’m told).

 

Chilly Hilly

The first ride of the season is over. It was Cascade Bicycle Club’s aptly named Chilly Hilly, a 32.7 mile rumpus around Bainbridge Island. It started with a early morning ferry ride (we were on the 8:45am one) from Seattle. 2 hours 30 minutes cycling (we don’t count stops), 32 miles, 2675ft of climbing, 2 punctures and a $5 bowl of Chili later we were back in line awaiting the ferry.

It was an amazing site to see so many cyclists on the ferry. On the way out, there must have been only 20 or so cars, with the rest of the ferry FULL of cycles.

Here is a Google Map of the course

And a video of someone driving it.

And here is the elevation gain:

The only bad thing (and this seems to be a common trait of cascade rides) was the lack of water stations. I carried 2 bottles this time, but if I hadn’t there was very few places to stop for water – this is not a good thing, especially from a bike club. Come on cascade, less of the “pay for food” and more “just water” please.

 

Why my cell phone sucks at home sometimes

I’m with T-Mobile, and have been since before we moved to the USA. Checking out the new T-Mobile coverage charts in the USA, I discovered this:

The darker the color, the better the signal – can you guess where I may live?

Anyway, this is the phone I’d like please magic pixies:

Yes that is an 8 megapixel camera on a phone, advanced features like CMOS Auto Focus, Xenon flash, 16x digital zoom, and five shooting modes. Its called the Samsung T929 Memoir and you can find out more at http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_t929_memoir-2663.php, of course I’d still settle for a Omnia.

 

Man Flu Strikes

First, I’d like to say thanks to the guy in New York who showed up to a meeting with a cold, and left with a pile of soft (but wet) tissues. Good job sharing…

So I’ve had man flu since Tuesday now. Monday I had pre-man flu symptoms. This has caused me to miss work, (but still make a meeting in SF) I also missed presenting at an internal conference – but I have caught up on email and other work.

So what is Man Flu. According to wikipedia (the source of all knowledge)

Man flu is a pejorative term that refers to the idea that when many men have a cold, they exaggerate and claim they have the flu — the implication being that women do not do so.

Of course, in this case they are wrong. Man Flu is in fact real. Its a mutated influenza virus that has been through an antigenic drift, but not with other flu strains, but monkeypox, Venezuelan equine encephalitis & most likely Ebola.

There are some that claim women can also contract Man Flu – but that is genetically impossible and a myth.

 

The slowest bike on the trail

Was my bike this morning. At least that is what it felt like. My my laptop, clothes, toiletries, lock etc. my bike was heavy. Really quick down the hills, but it was hard work getting to work. In fact it took over an hour, when it usually takes 40ish minutes. Coming home was a little easier – 55 minutes.

Given I’ve not done much riding over the last few months, I suspect it will take a week or 2 to get back into the swing of it.

Lights worked great. I don’t have the brightest light on the commute, but I could see well, and was confident I could be seen by other drivers. Seat is rock hard (its a brooks and it DOES need breaking in).

Hollywood hill is the new route, avoiding the busy 124th hill. There is no cycle lane, but only 3 cars passed me, and they pulled out and gave me at least 6ft of room, which was nice.

Total distance is about 19.4 miles, bringing the total on my new bike to a little over 33 miles. Average speed was 10.3 on the leg home. According to www.worldcommute.com my impact is:

Which is pretty neat. My goal is to cycle over 1000 miles commuting this year, which if you do the math is cycling to work 52 times (since you cannot cycle .5 times to work). If I manage to cycle 3 times per week, that is a little over 17 weeks.

 

Time to Ride

Taking 10 minutes out from life to blog. Very busy at work this week…

It’s going to rain tomorrow. Which means:

• It’ won’t be snowing
• It won’t be minus something (that is C not F)
• I will cycle to work

Weight is still 253lbs, eating better – but not right. The only thing that works is to cycle. So gear is out ready, bags are packed, no excuses.

Oh an I did get out last week for a ride one lunchtime when I worked from home. Did about 14 miles up and down the hill and part of the Sammamish River Trail. Bike is way cool. Will report on the commute tomorrow night.

 

T-Minus 4 days

Friday will be my first commute on my new cycle ever & the first commute this year. I’ve not ridden since November 24th when I got my final wet puncture on my trusty mountain bike and Kate had to rescue me from the end of the street. Friday is also move day at work, so that should be interesting…

Getting me & the bike ready.

The Bike

First, I’m not going anywhere without a good lock and chain for my bike. The old mountain bike had a simple accessory wire, which could be removed with a stern look. (In fact, they say that most of the time you just need a better lock that the next bike, well my bike WAS the next bike!)

The new lock is the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit U-Lock. This lock has the highest security rating, and $4,500 anti-theft protection.

I also have a Kryptonite Kryptoflex Cable, and a Combination Lock for the quick release parts. The plot is to make it the hardest to steal in the bike lot. (Let’s face it, if they really want it nothing will stop them, but at least they’ll have to bring a bunch of tools with them to get it).

 

Next was some clever gear for the tires. This time of year, the roads and trails are covered in fallen branches, pine needles etc. Nothing worse than a puncture in the cold and rain. As well as the better puncture resistant tires on the Trucker, I have also installed some Slime Liner Tube Protectors, which should stop most punctures.

Just in case, I have spare tubes, a Cranks Brothers Speed Lever and a Hurricane Air Scepter Mini Pump. (And if that doesn’t work I’ll be getting some slime tubes which are self-healing!)

Lights, my current light lets me be seen, but I cannot see a darn thing along the trail. After more research I found a handy chart from cateye that demonstrated the various beams of each light. I had trouble finding anything from other manufacturers, so I went for the Single Shot Plus, which has 2 x 1 watt LEDS, a fairly wide beam, 15000 Total Candlepower and 1510 at the center of the beam.

I also have tail lights & Wheel lights – more to be seen that anything else.

Clothes and Laptop will be carried by the Uptown Tour from Detours. This urban commuter bike bag is waterproof, with a removable padded laptop sleeve. It attaches to the rack on my bike (its a pannier).

 

 

 

Me

Keeping warm this time of year is key, even on a short 40 – 50 minute ride you can get in trouble if you are not dressed correctly. Also the ride along the river in the morning is quite often in freezing fog.

I typically wear, socks, mountain bike shoes, waterproof Booties, windproof cycle tights, commuter pants, long sleeve base layer, cycle shirt, wind/waterproof cycle jacket, skull cap (or balaclava), helmet (with a rear-view mirror) & weather proof gloves!

Now I have the pannier, I won’t have a rucksack on my back, which will make it a little easier to move.

 

 

 

My Route too work is partly on roads, but mostly on the Sammamish River Trail and the 520 Trail. There is 1 busy road for about 2 miles to get from our estate to the river trail, then another 1/2 mile at work end to get to our building. Getting to the new building should be a little easier. Total route is about 8.5 miles each way, making a daily total of about 17 miles. I found a great site that lets you record your daily ride activities, calculates the fuel you saved, money and carbon offset (which is terribly trendy) as well as health points. The site is called World Commute and its at http://www.worldcommute.com/.

Assuming the locks arrive in time for Friday – Friday will be day 1!

Fingers crossed.