mwz: Day 144

Today, I took my bike out for a ride. Arial wanted me to stop by a post office and buy some stamps, so I arranged a route that would accommodate that task. I was going to go 9.6 miles but instead I got a little over a half mile from home before I realized that I had forgotten the cell phone. That added ~1.2 miles on the trip. So the total was 10.8 miles in around 50 minutes.

There was a lot of slowing down for traffic and I had to stop at a post office (time off the bike was not counted in the trip time). My bike computer told me that I averaged 13.6 mph. I think that's pretty good.

The www.gmap-pedometer.com trip distance and my odometer matched up pretty well (taking into consideration that I had to go out of my way to get to the post office and I took a different route home than I was expecting because of road construction). I'm pleased that they agreed.

Early in the ride, my new bottle holder fell off. I had attached it using zip ties (as was suggested somewhere on the internet) and it slipped off. The top of my water bottle fell off leaving me with very little water. I have been carrying extra zip ties in my bag, so I re-attached the holder and continued. It was fine since the bottle was now much lighter. The only problem was that I was really thirsty by the end of the ride.

The one last thing I should mention is that I've noticed that the less traffic there is on a road, the more pot holes there are. The ride today was pretty rough since I was trying to avoid the main roads. That is part of why my bottle fell off.

mwz

mwz: Day 141

(posted late)

Monday the 17th, I went to a 1 hour spin class. It was pretty good but I could feel how much I'd lost by not exercising for that 2 weeks.

I also lifted:

Thigh Adductor: 60 lbs 20x3
Thigh Abductor: 70 lbs 20x3

Links from BodyBuilding.com.

mwz

mwz: Day 139

(posted late)

Saturday the 15th, I went for a quick 2.6 mile ride. I wanted to test out my bike. I had made a bunch of improvements to it right before the baby was born and I didn't have a chance to try them out. The bike worked fine.

mwz

mwz: Day 138

(posted late)

Due to some circumstances in my life, I haven't been training as often as I would like for the last few weeks. That is slowly getting better though.

Friday the 14th, I went to the gym to do spin class only to find out that Friday spin classes have been canceled. It makes it seem that when I didn't come for a couple weeks, the class size dropped below some threshold.

So instead, I lifted. On the whole I felt pretty good. My arm exercises were a little harder than they had been (I think because of the lack of exercise) but my legs seemed stronger. My guess is that they were a little better rested than they normally are at the end of the week.

Here is what I lifted:

Lying Dumbbell Tricep Extension: 15 lbs each hand (EH). 10x3
Dumbbell Flyers: 15 lbs EH 10x3
Side Lateral Raise: 15 lbs EH 10x3

Straight Arm Pulldown (lat machine): 37.5 lbs 20x3
Wide-Grip Pulldowns Behind the Neck (lat machine): 75 lbs 10x3
Wide-Grip Lat Pulldowns (lat machine): 75 lbs 10x3

Dumbbell Bicept Curl (but sitting): 20 lbs EH 10x3
Seated Dumbbell Palms-up Wrist curl: 20 lbs EH 10x3

Leg Extensions: 90 lbs 20x3
Seated Leg Curl: 80 lbs 20x3

Thigh Adductor: 60 lbs 20x3
Thigh Abductor: 70 lbs 20x3

Leg Press: 200 lbs 10x3
Calf Press On The Leg Press Machine: 200 lbs 10x3

Links from BodyBuilding.com.

mwz

mwz: Day 124

(posted late)

Friday, I went for a bike ride. I mapped out a route that was 18 miles long but it had turnaround points at pretty much every mile. So, I could limit my ride to about any even number of miles that I wanted.

Like an idiot, I just kept going and did the full 18 miles. It took me 1:25.

I probably wouldn't have gone so far but the second road that I take fooled me. It is really hilly but I'm pretty sure that in total it drops in elevation until my turnaround. So I felt pretty good until I turned around to go back. Then, I really felt like a long way from home. But at least I didn't have a flat.

Once I got back onto the first road, I started feeling much better. I think that road is flat.

On the whole I still felt good when I got home. My bottom was a bit sore and my wrists kinda hurt but I didn't have the severe muscle fatigue that I had after I ran. Even today, I'm not really sore at all.

I learned some things during the trip.

I need to bring our cell phone along in case I get a flat really far away from home.

Spin class is slightly different from real biking. For one, you don't have to keep your balance nearly as much. On the real bike, I can't really stand up very well.

I need to get a water bottle holder and toe clips.

My bike may be a touch small for me.

mwz