Wednesday, June 8, 2011

End of 1st week

June 5th-Forest Park loop. Clockwise. Tower Grove to park, Clayton-Chouteau-39th home. 13.7mi.

June 6th-UT Pl laps x15. 12.3mi.

June 7th- UT Pl, Flora, TGP with Em. 11.4mi.

Ride Notes. Weather, as predicted, taking a toll on the effort. Em did better on her 2nd ride and was enthusiastic about riding. If I added correctly that's just a hair under 100mi for the week, so 400 for the month is more realistic. By comparison, my commutes to work were 56mi per 7 days, so I'm very much OK with the adjusted numbers.

A few notes about my more restrained effort on the bike compared to pre 2010. I'm not pushing anything. With a tailwind or downhill, I'm taking it easy. No more balls-to-the-wall stuff, staying as far out of the red zone as possible. Really didn't serve me well in the long run. Climbing in an easy gear and spinning. I've decided time is on my side.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Days 1-4

June 1st-Utah to Broadway to the Arch. Wharf St. flooded, up stairs to Arch grounds. Thru the landing to NR trail. Across McKinley to Venice and back. Return thru grounds, up Market thru City Garden to 18th. Up Lafayette into park where this inspiration(?) struck. Continue on Lafayette to Compton to Utah. Home. 20.8mi.

June 2nd-Spring - Arsenal - Mackland - Oakland. Into park, 1 lap. Exit park, Euclid thru BJH and StLCoP. Thru the Grove, Chouteau - 39th - Magnolia- Grand. Home. 15.4mi

June 3rd-with Em. Circle UT Pl, Spring to park, 1 lap. 39th - Flora - Klemm -Magnolia back into park. (Em rests) 1 lap. Spring to home. 12.2mi

June 4th-Spring - Arsenal - McCausland/Ellendale/Wellington/Wabash -Lansdowne. Onto RDPG - CPG to Delore. Delore - Morganford - Utah. Home. 13.7mi

Ride notes thus far. First, the weather. I assumed when I started the weather would be a factor in some manner. My initial thoughts were about being rained out. I figured I had a couple weeks until the heat became oppressive. Wrong. Mid/High 90's with Heat Index in the 100's right outta the box. No relief in sight. Definitely gonna play a part in this, probably in the total mile count.

Second thing. By keeping the rules simple (e.g. 10mi) every few days Em can ride with me on a low mile, close to home day. We went Friday and she bonked. I was so pissed at myself. We went out about 10:30 and I didn't think to make sure she ate something, so all she had on her stomach was an ice coffee. She has some athletic ability that she's never pursued. If I want her to enjoy riding and get some road/traffic skills before she leaves home later this summer I have to do better. At this point I don't believe she'd even think about wanting to take her bike with her to school. Maybe too little too late on my part.

Friday, June 3, 2011

30 rides/30 days

To anyone who rides I realize this has pretty much of a "so what" quality to it. I got the idea two days ago on a ride which happened to be on June 1st. Could I get a ride in on every day in June? For me it becomes a bit more of a challenge considering last year from Apr '10 thru Mar '11 I can only recall riding once and that was late in the summer. It didn't go well. Early spring was crappy, cold and wet, so I didn't get out more than a handful of times. Lastly of course, I'm almost 6 months out from the second ablation (mid-December). Everything has been great to this point. Time to put it to the test. Modestly obviously. The rules are simple, in order to qualify, a ride has to be at least 10 miles. I figure most will be in 15-20 mile range, but I set it low thinking that on days when the weather is shit I could still get out and do a ride that counts. Not to get too caught up in numbers, but 500 mile for the month would be good. Also this last year added 7-8 pounds to my frame. I'm starting around 186#. Any change there would be a bonus.

My other goal was to get back to the blog and catch it up a bit. Work (or lack thereof), the aforementioned 2nd ablation, and some other stuff that nobody cares about but me.