Commuting, a random squeak, and a broken screw.

Had a chat with my friend Erik today (who just finished his first half! Congrats!) and he reminded me of my much-neglected blog. Fear not though, I'm still out there - just not online so much these days. My stubborn attempt at spending less time on the computer has resulted in a tan and a host of new activities - go figure.

I've been commuting to work about 4 times a week this month - usually something comes up so that I'm unable to bike one day because of an after-work plan or something, but it's been working out well. I've stopped trying to be the fastest at the commute, and am enjoying the ride now - averaging between 19 and 20 km/hour on the way. I guess you could say the thrill of the cycling computer has worn off.

I've become a master of the clipless pedals, and don't know what I'd do without them. It's a little annoying when riding in traffic (like driving a standard car I imagine) - but that is a small price to pay for the efficiency gained.

My calves have returned to being solid muscle, and my quads are on their way, working from the outside in. I think my legs have gotten thinner overall, at least according to the capri's I've been living in all summer, but I have yet to find the miracle that melts away the inner thigh. Hope springs eternal.

This weekend is Cyclon --- a trip with the Toronto Bicycle Network to the Niagara area for 3 days of biking and socializing. I've been on a couple of the TBN local rides so far and everyone's been pretty friendly, so I'm looking forward to it --- it's always a little odd to go hang out with strangers for a few days. I've been spending some time fixing up my bike in preparation, have yet to find the cause of the newly developed squeak in the drive-train though -- I think I'm just going to end up lubing and cleaning EVERYTHING in the next few days.

That's about it. I learned my lesson with cheapo bike parts the other day when the plastic screws that were holding my portable pump in place (that came with it) broke off at the head. I'm off for a $6 screw extractor tonight in the hopes of digging them out. Definately annoying.

Cycling is Awesome!

So in the past week I've managed to get used to my new clipless pedals, and love my new saddle. It's totally awesome. I've also decided that I really don't care how dumb it looks, but I NEED a cup holder for my bike handlebars -- -- they have them at Urbane for $20.

Anyways, here are the developments of the week.

1. I'd like to give a shout out to my favourite cycling shops: Urbane Cycle, Mountain Equipment Coop, and Community Bicycle Network. Because they've been great at helping me out.

2. I cut my work commute time from 18 minutes to 15 minutes, with a best milage of 23.4km/hour.

3. Today I went on a ride with TBN - a 35km Easy Roller/Tourist ride. It was great! Such a friendly group. All in all I did 60k on the bike today at an average speed of about 18.5 km/hour (incl. walking the bike up Colbourne Lodge Road at the end of the day, and along the pedestrian bridges).


I signed up for Cyclon. It's in a few weeks, looking forward to it.

Cycling!

So I've become one of those cycling geeks. I give myself a small amount of credit because I resisted buying the stupid looking "Road Shoes" (instead opting for a much more subtle Touring Shoe) -- but I realized this over the weekend as I got out my pretty new bike and kitted it out with Shimano clipless pedals, a female-specific seat, and a cool little computer that leads to all sorts of geeky excitement.


This whole cycling thing game from a desire to get back in shape when I don't have the physical ability to run the same distances I once did. I started out on "the Beast" (an affectionate name for the old Raleigh Road bike I fixed up last year, and have been riding since --- and recently upgraded to a much lighter, 55cm Aquila racing bike.

The Aquila is also an older model, with index shifters on the downtube - but is exactly what I was looking for in a bike. It's lugged steel frame offers me a pretty solid base, while also being alot lighter than the Raleigh. The index shifters were actually something I was looking for, as self-sufficiency is important to me in my bike at the moment, I know how to fix them -- and don't know how to deal with fancy STI shifters. My only real complaint about it is that the racing drops force me to lean forward more than I had to in the Raleigh drops to brake effectively -- my plan is to ask the bike shop to raise them about 3/4 of an inch to help compensate for the pressure this puts on my shoulders.

Otherwise, I've been debating which wheelset should stay, and which should go, but that's pretty minor.

I've been riding to/from work alot lately --- averaging about 10-15 km a day on the bike minimum -- with a cruising speed of about 20km/hour. Not so bad!


Today's Ride Stats:
To work:
Maximum Speed: 42km/hour
Average Speed: 20.9km/hour
Time to Work: 18 minutes


P.S. -- Yes, my plan is to run again..... I'm just trying to get back in shape before dragging my heavy carcass out and putting all that pounding on the road.

So uh, you want me to do a pushup? (Bootcamp Day 1)

So last month, in a fit of enthusiasm, and craving the body I had back in October 2006, I went online and paid $225 to Best Body Bootcamp (+ another $20 for a resistence band) - for the privilage of waking up at 5:15 am 3 days a week for the next month to work out.

So after having it pushed back a week because of some problem with the park permits, I got confirmation last Friday that we were a go for Monday. Yikes!

I was incredibly ill all last week with a cold, in bed, feeling like death for days - coming to work and taking twice as long to do simple things. Nasty stuff --- I still have a gross congested, hacking cough, but I decided I'd just have to deal with it.

So this morning, I rolled out of bed at 5am. Got into some of my long-neglected running clothes, threw my yoga mat & sling bag over my shoulder and biked my ass down to High Park. I was instructed to meet the group "across from the playground" - but there's 2 playgrounds in the park.... lucky for me my group meets at the top section, thereby saving me the pain of an extra 10 minutes riding, and climbing Spring Hill after my workout.

The group is largely comprised of middle-aged mom's, my guess is about 33-45 in age. None of these ladies was any stranger to exercise. There are 2 men in the group as well, though they were both late, so I haven't learned that much about them yet.

At 5:45 am, I sat there, a little bit cold --- waiting to be weighed & have my body fat measured. The injustice! The bootcamp scale puts me a good 10lbs over what my home scale does... I'm wondering how that happens, but oh well - it's all in seeing the loss I guess. Then we went through the horrific process of pairing up and measuring each other's torsos and extremities. Summary: According to the scale I'm slightly obese, but with a perfect hour-glass figure. Go figure.

Anyways... so the workout. We started with the fitness tests:
Pushups: I can do 3, on my knees, with bad form
V-sit: I held it for about 30 sections
Plank Pose: I held it for about 40
Squat Hold: I did better here, holding the squat for close to a minute and a half.
Running: I faired better than I thought I would here, all things considered. Came in a respectable middle of the back, for what I'd guess was about a 150 metre sprint.
... I think there were others, but I forget them.

Bah! Then we did a warmup and some exercise -- lunges, running laps, crunches, leg & arm things... you know how it goes. By the end I was tired.

So it's about 5 hours later now and I'm at work. The bonus is that the 7am finish gets me home in time to shower AND eat breakfast before work, that was sort of awesome. My back muscles hurt, and my legs are a little stunned by the activity.

Apparently Wednesday will be all about chests and arms.

No running for me.

A badly sprained ankle before christmas consisting of torn ligaments and pulled tendons means that I can't even walk properly, let alone run. *sigh*

I'm frustrated and gaining weight rapidly. It's annoying, but not as bad as being dependent on crutches was when it was icy outside (I was in tears on my way to work because I couldn't cross huge patches of ice --- SALT YOUR SIDEWALKS PEOPLE!)

I did a schedule to get back in shape slowly starting mid-January to build to a 5k in April, but today as I began the rehab process it became blatently obvious that it will be a longer road than I imagined. I guess that I have abour 40% mobility in my ankle right now, with less stability than I need to keep going on uneven terrain. Boo to that.

So I continue to limp along, fighting swelling with ice packs and doing the alphabet with my foot.

I wish you all out there the best though -- dedicate a 5k chunk of your LSD to me.