Spoken

Posted by Daniel Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:01:00 GMT

Posted by Daniel Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:09:00 GMT

Father's day becomes more special every year that Noah is with us. He's just an incredible being.

But that's not my point (smile)

I was planning this...

Due to mechanical difficulty I only made to the top of that peak. Then I turned around and went home. I admit that some of that hill I walked, again, but I got futher than ever before, in harder gearing, and I'll try and ride it enough this summer to get all the way. through it.

Really good news: no knee pain. I finally was running out of cardio and muscle rather running into pain. I feel fitness in my future. So while the ride was shorter than I had planned, and missed out the lovely scenery by the lake and the wonderfully winding backside decent I did manage to get some more climbing in and that's what I'm really hoping to work on now that my knees seem to be allowing it. Onward!

Posted by Daniel Wed, 13 Jun 2007 16:56:00 GMT

So I’ve been working o my knee and getting stronger every week and all has been good with my riding. All this was leading up to a ride with Seth which I had planned for soonish.

I did the Alpine Approach last week, though I didn’t know I was going to because the folks I rode with called it something else. So while there was some pain, I rode more of 9W and the park than I had ever done before regardless of knee condition, which told me that I was doing good and should keep moving. Plus, I rode again Thursday and was pain free, so I figured things really were progressing.

Jenni planned some climbing for today and I figured what the heck. Oddly enough, the truly killer hill isn’t on the elevation chart she posted (see above) since it isn’t on Long Meadow but on the road we needed to ride to get to there. (The very first lie in cycling is “This is the last hill”.) It wasn’t that bad on the way in, but after all the climbing on Long Meadow it was something on the way back. Of course, I did enjoy the 47MPH downside on the way in… it’s not as fast coming back out.

Anyway, I’m really happy about my progress, and while I broke no speed records going up those climbs… they were mostly pain free and a definite improvement for me fitness-wise and knee-wise. Yay me.

No here’s the ugly part Seth. I’m going to be working full time starting next week until about September is looks like. We’ve waited for a long time to get together, I guess it is going to have to wait just a bit longer. Sorry.

My next task is figuring out how to continue to increase my fitness while working full time. It’ll be a new trick for me for sure. Wish me luck.

As an aside my meds have been cut to 50% in one case and 25% in another. Just another sign of increasing health. Little steps, little steps.

PS: For all those reading along, Seth wouldn’t harm a fly as far as I know, never mind actually do me harm. Just soes ya know, and don’t get the wrong idea about the title.

Posted by Daniel Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:38:00 GMT

So I finally managed to get out the woods for a ride. The bike handled well, but it needs some dialing. I managed to get stuck behind a someone totally new to the sport… I tried to help, but there’s nothing but experience that teaches you that controlled speed is your friend, I guess. Going slow causes one to get stuck by rocks that you’d otherwise roll over or around and er, um, fall. (Not that could happen to me, ahem :~)

My knees held up ( though they felt a bit grainy the next day). I’m going to call that a success however. And the “cross-training” nature of mountain biking (compared to road riding it’s far less mechanically repetitive, more upper body, and a more upright position) uses different muscles, so I felt it in my butt climbing, and arms and shoulders descending. I expect that this will all help my reach for fitness now that my knees seem to be finally settling down.

Posted by Daniel Wed, 30 May 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Despite my right knee still giving me minor fits, I felt it was time to up the ante.

At the end of last cycling season I did a few 50 milers, and then the weather turned and I was busy with work and I never caught a nice day in the winter. I was trying to make them routine.

Despite more of a layoff this winter than I’d hoped, I’ve kinda picked up where I left off more or less. I still have weight to lose that I gained in the early spring after valiant weight flogging through the winter. And, my knees are still not 100%. But they’re closer than they’ve been in a long time. So I’m not rushing, but I’m trying to bring them along and get them healed.

Today’s ride started in Piermont headed toward Ridgewood, NJ (about 15 miles) looping toward Suffern and back (about 20). After the second bit of hill climbing I’ve done this season (hills and bad knees are not a happy combo) I decided to hang with my friend Jenni while she added some miles to her “I’m going to RAGBRAI and I better ride account” on a pleasant path, rather than ride a few more hills back to Piermont. She gave me a lift when we were done.

We started out a little cold, but the day warmed up beautifully. Considering I’ve only had a couple of weeks to ride, I’ve been struggling to drop weight, and I’m down to one problem on one knee, and it’s not yet June and I just clocked my first 1/2C… I’d say the cycling season is promising to be a good one.

Soon I’ll be ready for Seth to ride circles around me. :~)

Posted by Daniel Fri, 25 May 2007 21:40:00 GMT

Posted by Daniel Thu, 03 May 2007 00:57:00 GMT

Posted by Daniel Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:19:16 GMT

I got together with an old friend, Jeff, with whom I worked at both ADI, where we met, and Yoyodyne. Both of those gigs were quite some time ago, but we’ve kept in touch.

In an odd touch, after not speaking for quite some time, I found out that Jeff has started to ride. Naturally, we spoke of plans to get together last September… which naturally never happened.

Because of a a fluke email, we were in touch again the other day and found that we had this Sunday free (in the morning), and promptly made plans to ride. We knocked out 30 miles along the North County trail riding from Eastview to Yorktown, caught up on all the personal and business news, and had a grand old time.

Things were going swimmingly well until I got home lugging my heavy bag up the stairs when I felt a painful twinge in my right knee. Oh No! Oh Yes! It’s time for the *other knee* to start acting up again. My knee stuff started with the left knee, about a year and half ago. I took it really easy, etc. and it healed… but even as it did the increased effort and the imbalance caused me to damage the right knee, and I’ve been working on getting that one healed ever since. Finally it seemed like I was making progress as I’ve been riding pain free, although there’s still some weakness. Now this.

I trying to keep a positive outlook since this tweak didn’t happen on the bike, and feels a bit different than previous, that it is a new and temporary thing. Walking around doesn’t hurt but stairs do. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. I’m rather fed up with this knee stuff I must say, and I hope it doesn’t wreck my season.

Now back to RICE’ing my knee.

Posted by Daniel Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:54:24 GMT

Posted by Daniel Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:12:00 GMT

Now at the top of their road groups (Red/Force/Rival), Red is lighter has a smattering more carbon, titanium, and some reach adjust for brake and shift levers.

In the rear, the parallelogram spring is Titanium, the pulleys have ceramic cartridge bearings, the B-Knuckleand outer links are forged aluminum while the inner link and inner cage are now carbon and listed weight is 158g (vs Force’s 176g)

Some other tidbits: “The left hand shifter offers a trim function for the front derailleur to allow the chain running smoothly in extreme positions.

Force and Rival shifters: Shift position 1 and 2 is for the small chainring. Shift position 3 is for the large chainring. Red shifter: Shift position 1 is for the small chainring. Shift position 2 and 3 is for the large chainring.”

There’s also the new OG 1090 cassette with a carbon spider, steel/titanium cogs in 26 or 23 - 11

Weight weenies rejoice. Check out the specs and whatnot for yourself.

(Ahem: For those of you that lack a sense of humor… this was posted on April 1st. On the other hand… you never know. It might have just been a slip.)

Posted by Daniel Tue, 13 Feb 2007 02:40:00 GMT

I carefully selected bits and pieces. I dreamed of putting this together one day. And then, through the wonder of EBay and the sale of stuff from my former life, I have a new bike. It’ll never be this clean again!

Glenn, Bill, Wendy and others at Piermont Bike Connection really did a great job on the build. Yeah, it took a long time because no one followed up on a missing bit or two, but other than torturing me, there’s no harm done. It’s a BMC FS01 (2006). Let me know if you want nitty gritty build details.

Posted by Daniel Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:54:00 GMT

Posted by Daniel Mon, 29 Jan 2007 01:30:00 GMT

In the spring of last year someone was shooting a movie at the Lake. I spun by the first few times and the last time there was a van parked right in the middle of the path. I drove around but pinch flatted getting back on the path. Naturally, this happened when I was playing with my then new saddle and had neglected to put the seat bag back on, because I kept making little adjustments. So no spare tube or anything. . To further compound my stupidity, I had said to myself "ahh you pumped up the tires just yesterday, they feel fine, you're just spinning around the lake to get the saddle set... why bother?" So naturally... I wound up clumping around the lake in my road shoes back to the car.

Anyway, shifting forward to today, where the weather was lovely even early this morning. I'm riding my now filthy (from the birthday ride) cross bike, except I, ahem, cleaned (and I use the term loosely) the basic drivetrain stuff so that I wouldn't be saddened by the crunching sound of grit in every link of chain. It was wet on the roads this morning, so I wasn't going to dirty a second bike. I had my seatbag, and I pumped up the tires (you didn't think I am *that* stupid, did you?) However the film crew was back, now with giant blocks of ice to help out the already frozen lake... and, of course, blocking the path, so just after I make it past the path block I feel the rear tire getting flat.

I considerd changing it right in their way, in a spiteful fit of annoyance (though in truth it's not at all their fault) but decided that the tire looked marginal at best... so I rode out of the saddle until it was entirely deflated, and then, somewhat deflated myself, decided to walk the darn thing back to the car rather than hastle with changing a rear tire in the cold. At least I had mountain bike shoes on this time.

I'm now the owner of two new tires... figuring the other one wasn't long for the world either, one new tube, and a strong interest in dismounting the next time I see someone shooting a film at the lake.

The only really good thing to come out of all this, was that for the second ride in a row (short though this was) my knee didn't hurt. I'm sure it's not healed yet... but it feels like progress to me. Allez!

Posted by Daniel Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:18:21 GMT

It’s very rare that my birthday falls during the week and I have off. This wouldn’t seem strange on the face of it, but my birthday happens to coincide with Martin Luther King day. So you’d think that I’d have off routinely, except this holiday has not been accepted into the pantheon of “important” holidays in many businesses. However the Oxygen Network is one of those places, and since I’m currently working on a project for them, I had the day off.

So I planned to ride quite a bit today, and did, but not as much as I wished because it was rainy and nasty. Sure, I did ~30 miles (I dunno exactly I had no comp on the bike – I’m being very conservative), but I was muddy and wet and the temps were dropping, and decided that it was getting unpleasant and not in the birthday spirit, plus my riding partner quit at 26 miles (having frozen her toes to cubes) taking her comp with her. Plus, she had the route we were supposed to take, but I was riding in front. So we wound up climbing a few hills that were not on the program. Not so bad. Worse, we set ourselves up for a very steep descent into town at the end. Short, trafficy, and steep. Wet roads, wet rims, etc. Not good. All was well however, and therefore all things considered, a great first birthday ride… even if the weather did not cooperate.

While I was riding I got a chance to consider the day and the importance of diversity in my life. Diversity is the answer to so many problems. Open the doors, your home, your mind. You’ll never be sorry.

Posted by Daniel Wed, 10 Jan 2007 19:21:00 GMT

Here it is. The first annual Birthday Ride. Inspired by Seth’s “Solo Century”. As you can see I found a link going back to 2005, so he’s been doing this a while… and his birthday is in September. Anyway, I’ll probably finish up the last 7 miles to complete a half century, but I liked the symmetry of riding one mile for each year.

I rode 27 miles last Sunday and only had very minor soreness in my calves. I’m not used to riding these distances in January. No matter. A nice flat spin with biking friends will be a great way to spend a chunk of the day.

If you’re in the area, c’mon! I’m riding in anything short of a blizzard. Everyone else is excused in the case of inclement weather.

Thanks to my riding buddy Jenni for getting this together for me. A lovely gift!