Hit the trails.
January 3rd, 2010
I was itching to get out… feeling my heart get fat, and me getting slow, so today I went out and walked on the trails. It was fun. Very fun. Didn’t ride the bike, but I did have some new trail running shoes to try out. Salomon Speed Cross 2. They handle the trail very nicely. I think they will be great trail running shoes, too. If I ever make the change from trail walking (hiking?) to trail running.
So, no biking still, but I did hit the trails, and that was very rewarding. Once I get over this head cold I hope to go through the “Couch to 5k” plan. I have the “Cto5k” app for my phone. I look forward to giving running a chance, again. I hope it will make my knees get some strength back too…
We shall see. I am open to tips. (running, shoes, and or Couch to 5k).
Also I find that my hands often need just a little bit of cover, and was thinking about these: http://www.rei.com/product/766531 Manzella Silkweight Windproof gloves. Anyone recommend?
Filed under: mountain biking | 1 Comment »
TR3 Music download (legal, out of print albums).
December 10th, 2009
Dear regular readers: This post is a departure, and is just me taking care of business that needs taken care of. But feel free to peruse.
Here are two of TR3 (Tim Reynolds 3) out of print albums for download. Since these can’t be bought, Tim Reynolds has given the ok to let them be obtained this way. Now go out and purchase Tim Reynolds and TR3’s available albums!
TR3’s newest, Radiance, available on amazon.com. And the Tim Reynolds store on amazon.com.
Directory view: http://www.thejaydub.com/TR3/
Light Up Ahead (1995)
Download flac version.
Download mp3 version.
- Going To
- Comin’ After You
- On The Beam
- Don’t Know What
- Hide
- Signs
- Lower Voice
- Bad Side
- Light Up Ahead
- Bonus Track
Shifting Currents (1993)
Download flac version.
Download mp3 version.
- Non-violent Approach
- Kabbalah
- Morning Mist
- Cool Day In May
- Shifting Currents
- Glimpses
- In The Eleventh Hour
- Idedication
- Blue Scooter
TR3 (album) (1988)
Download flac version.
Download mp3 version.
- From This World
- Roman Alert
- Dreaming
- Uncover The Reason
- Spirits Journey
- Speakers
- Higher Plane
- Much More Than Old Friends
- Mind Over Matter
- On The Edge
Please post your comments in the… comments section. I welcome them.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
OTB (Off The Bike).
December 1st, 2009
Confession. I have not biked in just under two months.
I miss it, but not as much as I should.
Back in early October, I hiked a little over in North Georgia. It was very near the Appalachian Trail, but I didn’t actually make it to the AT itself. Here are some pictures from the trip.
I ended up hiking about 12 miles the first day, and my knees completely gave out. The next day, after having camped by a forest service road, I bailed, and called a “hiker shuttle” and got out of there. It was not the way I wanted to go, but it’s what it is.
In any case, whatever the problem was (believed to be problems with the iliotibial bands) needs time to get rid of the inflammation. I have given it time (minimum one month completely off the bike, since IBS is a typical bike injury) and now keep thinking I’d like to bike again. I just never pull the trigger. I have walked some, and intend to “get back in shape” by walking more.
I welcome ideas on how to get back to biking, and also (more importantly) how to not have this problem any more.
Sidenote about the two dogs in the photos above. The black one is my hiking buddy Seth’s. The white one was a random campsite dog that took to me, at least through the night when it was raining. She got under my rainfly when it was raining, and then stayed right outside my tent for the remainder of the night. I would love to have picked her up and kept her, but for various reason (none of which are compelling, in retrospect) I didn’t.
Filed under: Photography, appalachian trail, commuting, mountain biking, road biking | 2 Comments »
Review: H1N1 (Swine Flu)
September 20th, 2009
Disclaimer: I got this flu for free from an unknown source somewhere in Mississippi, or possibly Virginia. I have tried to not let this affect my honesty in reviewing it.
Compared to other influenzas (“flus” from here on out), this one is … well I have never had any other flus. That alone allows me some specific comparison, which is to say, that since I never got any other flus, but I got this flu, then H1N1 is harder to not get than flus in the past.
Early onset was nonspecific and might have been last Tuesday, or might have been any of the few days before. Midday Tuesday, H1N1 told me it was time to leave work. H1N1 did this by making me hurt all over and tired. The next morning I was administered a very unenjoyable ((that stick, at that angle, should not go that far into one’s nose)) flu test after some wait at Urgent Care, to find that I was “negative.” Only “negative” doesn’t really mean that…. All negative means is that the treatment becomes less sure. The flu test tells a patient two things. One: You have the flu. Or, Two: You probably have the flu. They call the second option “negative” because if you “probably” have the flu, then you only sort of think you will not have to get immunized, and only sort of get sympathy from your friends and family….
As you might imagine, I fell into this latter category. Having officially gone to the doctor, H1N1 officially said, “You, sir, are sick.” It was very professional about the matter, setting in to work immediately using such methods as crippling headache; pain in the eye socket that almost prevented eye movement; rattle in the upper chest that sounded like a rock in an old beater’s hubcap; congestion, body aches, chills. Oh. and fever. The fever had some pleasant effects you can imagine the inability to control one’s internal temperature would.
Due to my having had H1N1 for some time (a day) before it was diagnosed (improperly?), there is no real treatment. Rest, fluids, Advil for fever, rinse, repeat. I did.
Days of the same.
And after days of the same, a day with something new. A new symptom. Due to polite company I won’t get into the details of that symptom, but let’s just say I wasn’t having trouble keeping food down….
With a fever below 100.5 the day before, one is “allowed” to go to work. I doubt you’ll have the energy.
Pros:
Weight Loss.
Time off work.
You get plenty of privacy.
Cons:
You are sick.
Congestion.
Diarrhea.
Fever.
Muscle Aches.
Tiredness.
Headaches.
Chills.
Dry cough.
No one wants to be around you (more than usual).
You can’t get comfortable anywhere.
Conclusion:
I don’t recommend this flu. I tried liking it. I was receiving excellent care from Loving Wife, but try as I might, I just could not get “into” H1N1. In fact, I recommend active avoidance of H1N1 by getting immunized asap. Or, just get the flu (free, plenty of sources, I might even know some current ones if you’re interested). Get it now while it’s not so bad (yes, 4.5 days out of work is “not so bad” by flu standards from what I hear), get over it, and then when it IS nasty, we’ll all be safe.
Filed under: Reviews | No Comments »
Garmin Edge 705 Firmware Update
June 23rd, 2009
I was at 2.5 already, so changes from before that aren’t listed. I hope this will fix a lot of the problems…er…not problems… but … let’s call them niggles that I’ve had with the 705 (even with the 705 vs the 305).
Changes from version 2.70 to version 2.80:
- Restructured activity logging to reduce the number of invalid TCX files.
- Corrected issues from 2.70 that could possibly corrupt the ‘History’ directory.
- Removed potential spikes in the power data after periods of coasting.
- Increased the allowable digits in the ‘vertical to point’ field to 4.
- Increased the allowable digits in the ‘calories’ field to 5.
- Updated translations.
Changes from version 2.60 to version 2.70:
- Improved data recording in once per second mode
- Added ability to set averaging method for power and cadence
- Removed cadence filtering for power meters
- Made improvements to try to prevent spurious Auto Pauses
- Fixed distance and bearing display to work on Saved Rides list
- Fixed issue with trying to read files that start with ‘.’ that caused problems with Mac communication
- Fixed issue where random characters were displayed in list before course names loaded
- Fixed issue with speed targets not working properly in Advanced Workouts
- Fixed occasional issue where a corrupted history file could be created
- Added Venezuela and Australia-Lord Howe Island time zones
- Updated automatic Daylight Saving Time for Auckland, New Zealand, time zone
Changes from version 2.50 to version 2.60:
- Fixed occasional issue with Edge shutting down when scrolling through Saved Rides.
- Fixed occasional issue with Edge shutting down when Mode button was pressed while following a Course.
- Fixed issue where user could not change vertical zoom scale for a Course profile.
- Fixed a problem where indoor rides in History could slow down access to Where To? menu.
- Fixed issue with Advanced Workouts not showing up under Today when the workout is scheduled for the current day.
- Fixed issue where sometimes the most recent History would not be written out to XML until disconnecting and reconnecting USB.
- Corrected the Average Power value shown for Entire Ride in History.
- Removed filtering from power data stored in History files.
- Made some corrections to the Polish and Portuguese languages.
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100 Miles of Nowhere (completed!)
May 25th, 2009
Extremely early on the morning of 5/23 (8:43), I began an arduous journey. At 8:43am, I also arrived at my destination. The journey, however, was only beginning. I required four hours, forty four minutes and forty one seconds to reach my goal of 100 miles, and tacked on an extra two tenths (and a ride to the mailbox, if you want to be technical about it) for good measure. To call it “good measure” in fact is a little ambiguous and disingenuous… I rode the Mississippi division of 100 Miles of Nowhere on a 1up USA Trainer, and … lets just say if the resistance levels offered by the 1up were one to 10, I had mine set at about… zero. So that serves as my disclaimer. Let’s call it a “downhill event” and leave it at that. Nevertheless, I did actually spin on my trainer for 4:44:41 hours, to the tune of “100.2 miles.” That gives an average speed of 21.12 miles per hour. The proof that I should be on the pro tour comes when one knows I did that feat of winningness at an average heart rate of 102 beats per minute while spinning my big ring at an average of 66 revolutions per minute (that’s around 20,000 revolutions). I thusly utterly destroyed the competition. As yet, I have no proof there was any competition even finishing in the same state as I finished, much less anywhere near me. What follows is some graphical data related to my ride.
First, satellite from my Garmin Edge 705:
Then a very unrealistic elevation data graph:
Truth is something much more like the following picture:
in that after almost 43 miles, I had gained approximately 2 feet in elevation, give or take 2 feet. According to the “on-Garmin” data, this 2 feet of elevation would be about 30% of my total elevation gained for the day. Obviously with more than 70% of the climbing remaining within the last 58 miles of the race, it was setting up to be a brutal mountain finish…
Another irrelevant graph based on the aforementioned lack of resistance I chose to use for the event. A downhill event, as I said. Don’t judge me… Also since apparently the Garmin Edge 705 will not PICK which to use between GPS and cadence sensor, the “speed” is based on the (motionless) gps. Which means speed is basically always zero, or very nearly so. Relatedly, this is something I’d like to discuss with Garmin, to tell them to record both sets of data, speed from gps and speed from cadence sensor.
“Grade” over distance. I have no idea what this graph represents, and I checked numerous times to make sure it wasn’t pulling data from some other ride.
Cadence versus Time (also, HR vs Time), which among these graphs probably is actually an interesting one, if there is one.
I can report that my arms are very tired. I won’t say “sore” because it just seems that they’d rather hang there than do anything, but aren’t particularly sore. My sit area also had had enough, and by, let’s say, the 2 hour mark, I was tired of sitting on the bike. By 3 hours, I was very tired of sitting on the bike. By 4 hours, sitting on the bike seemed like downright wrong. And after 4 hours… well…
I did a fair amount of carb loading the night before, at a local Hibachi. That worked out nicely for both me and my lovely wife (namely because it’s her favorite place to eat).
I had no specific plan of how to occupy my mind for the time required to finish this event. Here is how it worked out: The first 3 episodes of Season 1 of The Office. Then Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, then another The Office (maybe, memory gets fuzzy here), and then we switched to Dr. Who (the 2005 edition), season 1, episode 1 – 3 or 4. Yes that is much more than 4:44:41 worth of television: I took a fair amount of long breaks toward the end.
My lovely wife kindly prepared sag stops for me.
This was the “breakfast” stop. Lovely Wife started cooking when I started riding, so this worked out nicely.
This was the “somewhere in the middle” stop (the muffins were started immediately after the breakfast stop, and the smell of their cooking and ultimate doneness dictated my second (and third and fourth) rest stop.
And this was the lunch stop. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Garmin tells me I burned 7437 cal, which if resistance on the 1up had been set to “real-world” then I could potentially believe. As it were I only ate like I had burned that many calories, both during the race and after. Actually, probably much more after. I ate for the rest of the day Saturday, and most of the day Sunday my appetite was insatiable.
There was one (official) feed station during the race. I chose not to get food but just got a hand-up from my Lovely Wife. As you can see, much skillful deliberation led to a perfect exchange of loving looks (from me) and water bottle (from her). Notice and appreciate the intensity with which the exchange was facilitated with her attentiveness.
And now on with a few race shots:
Due to the hot day, I had shed my jersey to the team car earlier in the race. Then I heard the shifting of gears behind me (phantom? I might never know…) and so there was but one thing to do: ATTACK!
And finally, photos of the victory itself.
A final disclaimer: If the Lord wills my participation in this event on it’s next occasion, then I already have a small loop in mind, that is probably less than a mile, and I look quite forward to defeating it thusly.
Filed under: Reviews, road biking | 3 Comments »
In Which I Don’t Miss the Point…
May 22nd, 2009
Race bib credit to http://www.noncyclist.com/
Let’s start by quoting Fatty regarding the 100 Mile of Nowhere:
You pay $75.00, get $76.28 worth of stuff.
Easy enough to end there and be happy with paying less than what you get. I thought that in the last post. I got all this neat stuff (and as my wife will attest, the shirt alone is worth quite a chunk of that $75) ((it’s the color… the Twin Six tan color, when washed becomes the softest and most comfortable t-shirt you will ever wear)) and the rest was gravy.
Well let me point out another part of the picture:
$75.00 entry fee. $25 of that will cover shipping costs and labor, and the other $50 goes to Fatty’s LiveStrong Challenge.
FatCyclist has raised something like one hundred million dollars* for Livestrong, and I want to be sure to throw that out there. I am happy to have 2/3 of my entry fee going toward that number. Also I thank the sponsors for donating their goods:
- An event t-shirt, designed and produced by Twin Six . Value: $22.00
- A tube of DZ-Nuts. Value: $22.00
- A Banjo Brothers Seat Bag: Value: $10.99
- A Garmin / Slipstream Camelbak Podium Bottle: Value: $10.00
- CarboRocket Single-Serve packs: Value: $6.00
- Clif Shot Bloks: Value: $2.00
- ProBar : Value: $3.29
(I pulled that part directly from FatCyclist.)
So thanks to all the sponsors! Thanks to (basically) donating so much for cancer and research!
TheJayDub
* denotes “preacher count” of amount raised
Filed under: road biking | No Comments »
100 Miles of Nowhere.
May 21st, 2009
Elden over at Fat Cyclist is hosting the second annual “100 Miles of Nowhere” this Saturday.
“Hosting” is potentially an inadequate term, since we fortunately don’t have to make the trip to Fatty’s cave to ride 100 miles (though any ride in that neck of the woods would be a great one, no doubt), or ride 100 miles with Fatty, or even ever see the F.C., or any of the other 400-some-odd riders participating. I say “some-odd” not as an indication that it is some number over 400 riders (it is) but that every one of us is in fact very odd.
We’re odd because we agreed (nay: paid good money) to participate and ride in this event. We’re even more odd because the 100 miles goes (as, er, the name implies) officially nowhere. It stays right where it starts. On a trainer. Let me repeat that: on a trainer.
Back to Fatty “hosting” the event. He is the host, since he lined up a spectacular goodie bag for participants. It includes
An event t-shirt, designed and produced by Twin Six.
A tube of DZ-Nuts.
A Banjo Brothers Seat Bag.
TWO Garmin / Slipstream Camelbak Podium Bottles.
CarboRocket Single-Serve packs.
Clif Shot Bloks.
ProBar.
Truly this is a nice package, for all told $84, to your door (not to imply that you can still register, because you can’t, you missed your chance). So.. $84 to my door. Which in fact happened today.
I have ridden 100 miles at once before. The next year I tried the same ride again and failed, after about 60 miles. I’ve decided it had something to do with the new shoes I was wearing (not “brand-spankin’ new,” but new enough). Anyway. Couple that with having not ridden nearly as much this year… Should be an interesting time.
So I’m looking at a solid 5 or 6 hour effort on the trainer on Saturday. Also I’ve only used my trainer about 5 times total. For maybe 5 hours total. Yeah, it’s a 1up. I like it. Seems to work nicely, based on my limited experience on trainers (having never used any other…). It will be my instrument of torture this weekend. Thankfully Monday is a holiday and I will get to recover.
I’ll try to get my lovely wife to take some pictures of my suffering. She has already agreed / planned on doing lots of fun stuff to support me. She’s going to have sag stops. And cook muffins. And plan breaks. And hopefully change the dvds, whatever it is I decide to watch in the suffer-fest. Also, I fully intend to run the cooling at or near full blast for the entirety of the event. Fortunately my house is small.
I’m open to suggestions for what movies to fill the 5-6 hours with. I have netflix and can stream so a “Watch Now” would be ideal. No bike movies please (I’ve seen them), and not “Lord of the Rings” because I did that one New Year’s Day, and it actually takes 9 hours… which I hope not to require to finish my ride.
Filed under: road biking | No Comments »
Google Reader Subscriptions.
March 16th, 2009
I doubt anyone reading this will not know what rss is. If you don’t, I forgive you, and here’s the wiki entry. Basically, it’s a way you can subscribe to things (blogs, news sites, comics, etc) and instead of going to the site to see if there’s new info, you go to one place (for me that’s Google Reader), and all the sites you’re subscribed to (via rss) will have the update, if any, in that one place for your perusal.
So here is a list of my google reader subscriptions pertaining to cycling. I’ve stripped out all the “other stuff” (there’s a lot), and left the .xml file with the cycling feeds. You will be able to save this file, and upload it to your reader of choice, and then you’ll be subscribed to all these great feeds!
google-reader-cycling-subscriptions.xml
Below is the list of cycling blogs. It’s about 95 items. Almost in alphabetical order. 
A.E. Bike Daily Deal
Alex Wetmore is always busy with something…
Bad Idea Racing
BaileyWorks Messenger Bags
Bedrock and Paradox
Beth’s Blog
Bicycle Design
Bicycle Frenzy
Bike Commuters
Bike Hugger
Bike Skirt
Bike Snob NYC
bike29.com
BikeHacks
Bikes For The Rest Of Us
bikesandbeer
BikeSmut.com
Carbon Fork
Charge Bikes – Juliet
Charge News
Coconino Cycles Custom Bicycles
Coffee, bits and bikes
CRC COFFEE BAR/CYKEL GARAGE
Cyclelicious
Cycling Spokane
Da’ Snot Rocket
dustylabarrblog
Fat Cyclist
Guitar Ted Productions
How to Avoid the Bummer Life
I Heart Singlespeed
IBIKEMPLS.com
Ironclad Performance Wear Cycling Team
JasonHilimire.com
JesseParker.com
KanyonKris
Kent’s Bike Blog
Lance Armstrong Doped
Large Fella on a Bike
Life on a Bike
Life through a Lens
Lost Coast Bike Expedition
Lunatic Biker
Masini’s Breaking Away Blog
Moscaline
Mountain Bike Mary’s Musings
Mountain Bike Riders
Mountain Biking by 198
Ms Spivy
Nine Mile Skid
NoPoGirl
Official Website of Jeff Kerkove
one less car news
Oxford Cycling
Redcoat in The Bubble
Ride-Strong.com
ride29er
River City Cycling Society
S24O
sean salach
Siren Mary’s Musings
Slip Angle
solo goat blog
sologoat garage
Sonya Looney
Spokin’ Sportsman
Stronger, Fitter, Faster
teaching cancer to cry
Terry Davidson
The Adventures of Carney
The Bicycle Tutor
The Confessions of Captain Swallowtail
The Dan Gerous Official Blogspot
The Everyday Athlete
The Life and Times of Biking Brady
the Practical Pedal Blog
The Prairie Peddler
The Wander Girl
Tinker’s Cycling and News Blog
Fastish
Tour Divide blogs
trackosaurus rex
Under The Weather – Messenger Bags and Cycling Clothing for Moving People
Up in Alaska
UpaDowna
Upside Out
Urban Velo
Viva Salo
Waltworks Bicycles
Watching the World Wake Up
WNC Mountain Biking
Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery
Filed under: gadgets | 3 Comments »
I’ve been tracking calories.
March 4th, 2009
Yes, this is actually bike related.
My lovely wife has been tracking her calories for a couple of weeks, and since I have to do everything she does, I started as well. Probably the fair truth of it is that I wanted to show her how much easier the Livestrong app (itunes link) is than the one she’d used, called Lose It (itunes link). Devious of me but I still maintain that the Livestrong one is better. Mainly because it can be interacted with on their website, which can make all the data entering vastly easier. I will say that the interface for Lose It is easy enough to make the previous point about Livestrong app moot. But whatever.
In any case I have been tracking my calories for a whole three days. I haven’t found out too much, aside from that I eat a lot. I haven’t been just terribly hungry all the time, and I’m pretty much hitting the target (that, according to Livestrong and my profile, would have me lose a pound or 2 per week). Throw some exercise in the mix, and I should be good to go. Exercise is something that Lose It couldn’t handle, so it’s nice to use the Livestrong app for that reason alone.
Going on. I have glanced over the clearly representative set of data from my eating pattern. And come to this conclusion. I eat. a. lot. of. salt. I hit 149% of my goal today. That is 3 and a half grams of salt. I’m not sure if you know how much salt that is. I do. It’s a lot. And my first day was 122%. Yesterday was much less, but then I didn’t enter all the foods I ate, and incidentally they were some of the saltier ones (canned beans x 2). I will have to go add that data.
Now. The part that relates to cycling. I have shed a few pounds lately, and that’s very needed. I hope to hit 175 by the time I do any serious group rides. And by that I mean races. But will include any ride where I don’t want to feel like a tool at the back of the pack, sweating his winter weight. Fortunately the lovely wife is on my side this time! It’s nice for her to be counting calories too. Nice for me, I mean; she’s beautiful any way, of course.
Now I wonder if Rold Gold make slow salt pretzles. If they don’t, they should. (duh).
Update: Yesterday’s properly updated salt (yes I mean sodium salt) was 134%. Also not good.
Filed under: Reviews, gadgets, mountain biking, road biking | 1 Comment »