Yes, I did buy a new bicycle today. Wanted a little more speed on the road but still do a lot of trail riding so I got a Cyclocross bike ... a Specialized Tri-Cross Sport. It's quite a bit of difference from my Giant cross bike but the gearing is much better for the road (50/11 instead of 43/13) and I expect to be able to do about 10 mph faster on downgrades. This is the bike I will need to have if I ever ride RAGBRAI (probably not this year, btw, but maybe in the next year or two). The other thing I need to do is finish upgrading the photos on my site to Fusion 10's flash format (which should be pretty neat when I get it done) and add some pic's to it (for instance, I need to put some motorcycle and bicycle pictures out there).
Looks like Larry Nelson (not the professional golfer, but somewhat taller) and I will be playing in a 2-person best shot on May 20 ... should be fun. Otherwise, just dancing and singing and taking life as it comes at me.
Smile ... and the whole world smiles with you ...
... later.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Aching Legs Today
Well, it has been quite awhile since I've written here. Anyway, I've started on my spring bicycle workout sessions (earlier this year than I have been for quite awhile) and I've logged just over 200 miles already. But I think I need to work on my pedal crank again (had it overhauled last July) as it seems to have excessive play.
But my legs are aching tonight because I've generally been riding my standard 14.25 mile route ... until today! It was about 75 degrees out and so nice that I decided it would be a good day to ride up to Center Point (round trip=27 miles). Unfortunately, the trail there was pretty muddy in several places (and chewed up by people riding horses on it as well ... what's with that?) and I don't think I carbo loaded quite enough as I was really getting worn out on the way back. Didn't quite hit the wall but I didn't really have any gas left in the tank with about 5 miles to go. Well, I'll stay on the hard surface for awhile longer and up my pace a little so that I'll be better prepared next time.
And I do plan to ride to Waterloo and back this summer (104 miles) ... so I've been reading a book called "Bicycling Fuel" by Richard Rafoth. It's got very good nutrition/training tips for bicyclists and I can tell that I need to get much more serious about water and carb consumption before working on any century type rides. And, although I'm not sure yet that I'd consider it "fun", I may yet take on RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) one of these years. A good friend of mine from the past tried to get me to do that several times ... I should've listened to her, I think. Anyway, I may want to say "I've done that" someday and it's something that needs to be a little sooner rather than later, I think (age keeps on coming, I'm told!) ... so we'll see.
Keep smilin' everyone!
But my legs are aching tonight because I've generally been riding my standard 14.25 mile route ... until today! It was about 75 degrees out and so nice that I decided it would be a good day to ride up to Center Point (round trip=27 miles). Unfortunately, the trail there was pretty muddy in several places (and chewed up by people riding horses on it as well ... what's with that?) and I don't think I carbo loaded quite enough as I was really getting worn out on the way back. Didn't quite hit the wall but I didn't really have any gas left in the tank with about 5 miles to go. Well, I'll stay on the hard surface for awhile longer and up my pace a little so that I'll be better prepared next time.
And I do plan to ride to Waterloo and back this summer (104 miles) ... so I've been reading a book called "Bicycling Fuel" by Richard Rafoth. It's got very good nutrition/training tips for bicyclists and I can tell that I need to get much more serious about water and carb consumption before working on any century type rides. And, although I'm not sure yet that I'd consider it "fun", I may yet take on RAGBRAI (the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa) one of these years. A good friend of mine from the past tried to get me to do that several times ... I should've listened to her, I think. Anyway, I may want to say "I've done that" someday and it's something that needs to be a little sooner rather than later, I think (age keeps on coming, I'm told!) ... so we'll see.
Keep smilin' everyone!
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
March Madness-We Have A Winner
Well, will miracles never cease! I have to share with everyone that I won the Pei's Restaurant NCAA bracket pool for 2007. This is a very rare feat for me. As I shared with my boys recently, the last pool I entered (in 2004) resulted in a $5 award for finishing dead last.
Kudos to Florida! On the down side, of course, is that my son Ryan chose Ohio State to win the finals ... but, as I said earlier, one of us was bound to win something since we had both teams covered. And this time it happens to be me.
On a historical note, several schools have won back-to-back NCAA basketball titles (led by UCLA with 7 in a row back in the 70's or so) but Florida is the first team where the same team (i.e. same lineup/players) won two years in a row. Also interesting is that Florida's football team shellacked Ohio State last fall to win the BCS (and national) championship. I think it's very unlikely that this combination will occur again ... ever. In fact, it's probably much more likely that I'll win an NCAA pool again next year (and so you know how rare this is!).
Well, I might run an online pool next year for Pei's (if they want me to) as I don't like the paper/pencil setup they use. Plus there's so much more data available to look at with the online stuff.
Gotta go ... smile everyone!
Ken
Kudos to Florida! On the down side, of course, is that my son Ryan chose Ohio State to win the finals ... but, as I said earlier, one of us was bound to win something since we had both teams covered. And this time it happens to be me.
On a historical note, several schools have won back-to-back NCAA basketball titles (led by UCLA with 7 in a row back in the 70's or so) but Florida is the first team where the same team (i.e. same lineup/players) won two years in a row. Also interesting is that Florida's football team shellacked Ohio State last fall to win the BCS (and national) championship. I think it's very unlikely that this combination will occur again ... ever. In fact, it's probably much more likely that I'll win an NCAA pool again next year (and so you know how rare this is!).
Well, I might run an online pool next year for Pei's (if they want me to) as I don't like the paper/pencil setup they use. Plus there's so much more data available to look at with the online stuff.
Gotta go ... smile everyone!
Ken
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