CNC Spring 2010 Saturday

No problems today at all unless you count the people who arrived and setup their camp at the indoor camping at about 12:34 AM, they really did not make much noise, or the lady who inflated her air matters with a noisy electric pump at 4:33 AM. I slept pretty well maybe it had something to do with being up since 4AM in the morning or the nice 64 miles ride I did. I got up around 7 AM so I could get ready and meet the group for the Boy Scouts pancake breakfast. It was pretty good and included sausage so I got some protein. The pancakes were good also. Jeff and I were planning to do the 50 mile route and everyone else was doing the century. Jeff and I were ready and since the routes are the same for a while we departed with the group. It was a fun group and Chris had us really moving. I got to the first rest stop with an average of 16.8 mph. I was drafting a good bit of the way. Jeff was feeling better when we got to the rest stop he asked if I would mind if he rode the century with the the group. I was pleased he was feeling better and riding well and told him to please go ahead a do it - it was nice of him to ask. I found out at dinner that they had picked up Tim at the rest stop and he rode with the them, I did not even know Tim. I rode solo the rest of the day which was fine. I got to have a nice breakfast and a good 17 mile ride with the group and enjoy my solo run also. I was really pushing it. Everytime I would see a rider somewhere ahead of me I would find myself trying to bridge to them and pass them. They of course were just riding but I did enjoy passing them. I do not pass many cyclist most of the time. I must have passed four dozen cyclist it was fun. The first rest stop was at 17 miles and the second and last was at about 35 miles. I knew this battery would give out at about 29 to 30 miles and it did tank at about 29.5 miles. I was ridding pretty well so I just kept on riding without it. I dropped in speed a little and it took me longer to accelerate back up to pace but otherwise I did just fine until I hit the WIND. When I left the rest stop I lost about one mph on my average speed by the time I got through town. I had been trying to get it back up since I left the town. I had it up to 16.4 when the battery went out and I was about 6 miles from the rest stop. Without the Bionx and due to the head wind I lost .5 mph on my average speed by the time I got to the rest stop. And I was tired but they had PB&J - so wonderful - I ate one and a half. I put on the second battery and took off - surprise surprise no head wind and a tail wind to boot. I rolled into Edenton at 16.4 mph and was down to 16.0 mph at the end of the ride. I finished the ride with half a battery of power left - I was tempted to kick it up to level two but did not. I have ridden the whole trip so far on level one. I have been ridden at level one most of the time since I put the Bionx back on the trike. I guess I can think I am improving because I use to run it on level two or somethings three last year. If I am thinking about this correctly I only need to improve my power to mass ratio by increasing it 25% - mmm still sounds like a lot. One thing today I left the transmitter of my heart rate monitor at camp so I could not monitor it. I just tried to keep myself just below the panting breathing. It was a very pretty ride but a lot of it was the same as the 60mile route however since it was so much better weather today it was sort of like seeing it for the first time. After the ride I came back to the camp and rested then showered and went down for dinner. Saw Perry, Rick, Jeff and Wayne. Never saw Lear or Tim. Had a lot of questions and comments about Turtle. Several people sat on her and a couple took a short ride. Then back here to get ready for bed and write this. I had a really good day. Looking forward to Sunday. Well they have turned out the lights and I am ready sleep so until later.

My GPS data is HERE

Sorry no pictures that are worth publishing.

CNC Spring 2010 Thursday - Friday

One thing is for sure my first Spring CNC ride will not be hard to forget. I had decided to camp. I found a site with access to electricity and once allowed setup my REI Hobbart 6,. I really liked this tent and it was not too hard setting it up for the first time. I had taken it down once but it was setup when I got to the MS Tour for Cure in 2009 Tim and the crew had it setup already. The wind made it a challenge but I did OK and set it up solo. I then had a nice dinner with Leah , Jeff and Wayne. Went to bed about 10:30PM. The wind was really blowing but the tent was handling it well. With all the noise and movement of the tent I took me a while to fall asleep. At 1:37 AM I was awakened when it started raining. It seemed to be raining pretty hard sometimes but again the tent did well. At 4:07AM I was awakened again by a BIG noise, the back and both walls to sides were pushed into touching me then suddenly the tent collapsed on top of me. I do not know what the wind was but is seemed to be ten time bigger then the wind that had been blowing and that was a good wind before. I sat there for a few minutes trying to understand what had happened. There were several people walking around looking at the damage and asking everyone if they were OK. I got my keys and my iPhone and headed to the van. I was raining but not to hard at the time. It rained heavy and lightly until about 4:30 AM then it slaked off and almost stopped. I went back to my campsite to see if the tent had just collapsed and if so could I get ti back up so I could start cleaning up and getting things to start drying. There must have been two dozens tents down and a Pine tree that just barely missed landing on a camper in their tent. I quickly discovered that several of the tie down points and several other attachment points were tore off and there was a split across the top above one of the doors. The tent was destroyed. I still set it back up as best as I could so I could unpack it and pack everything back into the van and just go home. Several of my friends came by and asked if I was OK and if there was anything they could do. I stated I was just doing home since I had nowhere to stay and someone suggested I just go up and camp indoors. I have no idea why I did not think of this but I did not shock maybe. I also stated at how upset I was that I had lost my tent and that I did not know how I was going to do the MS Tour because I could not get another tent. Well several people told me that since I had an REI tent I could just take it back and they would exchange it. I find this hard to believe but several people have told me this so I am hopeful.

I got everything packed back into the van and went to find the indoor camping place. Once there I unpacked what I would need to Indoor camp and everything that I wanted to or need to get dried out. This was no small task. Once setup and with everything spread out to dry I assumed it was way past the 10AM departure time we had set the night before but checking my iPhone I discovered it was just 9:03 AM so I got dressed for cycling in some pretty wet gear and rode Turtle back down to the meeting point for 9:45 AM. Turtle had spent the night safe and dry in the van - sometimes I think she is smarter than I am. Jeff got there a little before 10AM and we found Leah and Wayne leaving the coffee shop and we were shortly on our way. By running the Bionx on level one the whole ride I was able to conserve enough power to have battery power for all but about 4 miles. I did well, when we got back to town before we had to slow for driving through town I was averaging 15.8 mph, pretty good for me. It was a good ride but it was a bit cold and it did rain on us three times once hard enough to get us a little wet. I did clear off for about the last 17 miles or so. I rode with Leah, Jeff, Wayne and Chris.

After the ride I came back to the indoor camping place and cleaned up, got a shower, took my drugs, straightened up some of my stuff and then rode Turtle down to meet Leah, Jeff and Chris for dinner It was a good meal and a nice time.

So what do you think, A Day to Remember???

My GPS data is HERE

My pictures are HERE

You will notice that the last of my picture are fuzzy or out of focus - as near as I can guess my trusty little HP Photosmart R967 is one more victim of the weather event of this trip. It just stop focusing. Everything else seems to work but it is a auto focus only camera so if it will not focus it is not much use. I also lost. these just disappeared, the power supply for my iPhone, tooth brush, empty insulin bottle, and maybe a cellphone. My S-Cam DVR was water logged and I am pretty sure it is ruined. The GPSs seem to be fine.

Team CBC ride from the Bass Lake Draft House

From my forum post-

Truly a great ride - really enjoyed it. I lead the 26 miles group meet some really nice people and we had fun. Started out with six of use and we picked up Bob during the ride.

My GPS data is HERE

My pictures are HERE

W

MisFits MS Spring Fling 04-03-10

I had a great ride. One of the best I have had in a while. This was a great ride for me. It was bit short but I was not able to do the 50 so the 25 had to do. The event was well organized, well staffed, the route was great - some of the best roads I have ridden on and blasting through intersections because they seem to law officers at every intersection was really cool. The rest stops were great and the people friendly. The food at the end was good and there was lots of it. I enjoyed this ride.

Knowing this was a pretty short ride I decided to really push it after the beginning when there was a big crowd I got in the biggest gear I could turn and really pushed it. I had my cadence up above 70 a lot of the time and was pedaling about 95% of the time. I even pedaled though some to the wide corners. it was great and felt good. I only stopped at the first rest stop for a nature break and only at the second long enough to eat two pieces of banana and three pieces of orange. I passed a lot of people. I never compare myself to other cyclist because of the Bionx but it was fun. Most of the time I am at or off the tail end of the rides I do but not today. I love going fast or at least what is fast for me. I feel I got a pretty good workout inspite of the short milage my caffs and quads are achy and a bit tired - which is what I wanted.

My GPS data is HERE

My pictures are HERE

My video is HERE and HERE

Turtle is back together for now.

Terratrike came through - they sent me a new Boom 2nd air. I got it Wednesday so I spent Wednesday evening reassembling Turtle. They sent me the standard Boom and because they had not gotten the boom I sent them with my Schlumpf they could not have removed it. I am getting another boom from the but it is the one they get for their tandem. It is 2 to 3 inches longer and I hope will help with my seat position problem. It does not have the extra arm on it for the front derailleur because the tandem has the front derailleur on the stokers pedals. But with the Schlumpf drive I do not need it so it will work for me. THey will prepare it to receive the Schlumpf High Speed drive and install it the ship it to me I do have to pay for it but it is less than I could get one made for and it will have the Terratrike logo on it and should be a close color match I hope.

I put the original bottom bracket in the new boom and installed the original triple crank on it, installed the original front derailleur and the front Grip-Shift. I had to add just one chain link to get everything the right setup, some adjusting and everything seems to be working. I then put the Fairing back on and she is ready to ride, I could not test it - it was dark and I was real tired so I will take her to the Thursday night ride and hope for the best.

I changes my goal weight today, not because I did not want to get to 250 pounds - I really want to get to 200 pounds but when working on setting up the Zone diet I needed to know my lean body mass. I weight 355 now with 31.5% body fat. So my lean body mass is 335 minus 335 times 31.5% or about 230 pounds meaning to get below that I have to lose muscle or bone or something else which I prefer not to do. Ideal body fat for a male is 15% I dought if I can do that I have heard as one ages it get very hard to get to 15% so I amd going to target 18% and doing the math that makes my new goal weight about 270 pounds. 18% of 230 pounds is 41.4 pounds which is 230 plus 41.4 equals 271.4 pounds and I like 270 as my goal, it still seems like a lot to be a proper weight. So I changed my goal. Feels like I am cheating but I really am not but it feels that way. I hope I have not done anything worng with this.