Tag: bike trail

Muscles Used To Riding

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Since I started riding the bike in the early morning before the sun comes up to escape the heat, I’ve noticed that my muscles are already used to riding the bike so I don’t have to ride every other day to rest my muscles.  I can ride everyday if I want to.  In fact, I rode for 3 days in a row.  Well, mainly that was to burn off some burgers and fries I ate lol.

But, I have no problem riding the bike anymore at all.  It’s like my muscles are back to the way they were when I was a kid, that’s how used to riding I am now.

I seem to recall last year when I started riding my bike again, when I first found out about the bike trail after summer was over from one of those city park summer guides, in the back it has a map of the bike trail.  So I got the bike out of moth balls, filled the tires, actually I had to buy a new tube for the front tire because it had a hole in it that I couldn’t repair with the new tire repair kit I had bought lol.  Anyway, I started riding and my legs were so not used to it and I would get down to H and 3rd and my legs were already tired and it was just 1 block away from my house lol.

So I would ride all the way to California and H and I was like screw this, I’m going back home and that whole trip was 1 mile lol.  Then when I got home my legs were so stiff from riding that 1 mile that I could barely even walk in the back door.  I had to sit and rest and I had to massage my thighs because they were just in so much pain from that pitiful ride lol.

I think I was riding like that for a week before I was finally able to go maybe 3 miles then went up to 4 then 5 which altogether took about a month before I was even able to get on the bike trail.

By the time I was finally riding the bike trail I could only go so far before I had to turn around and go back but eventually I was able to do 11 miles per day which was a little over an hour.

Now, I can do that 11 miles in just 55 minutes so I have to step up my ride and go further and go 16 miles just to make up my time which is about 1 hour and 16 minutes.  But that 16 miles to me now is no biggy.

Early Morning Bike Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Well, I did it.  I set the alarm clock for 4am and of course had to push the snooze and when it went off again in 10 minutes I decided ok, I need to do this, I need to wake up and get ready.  So I got up, went and got a bowl of raisin bran cereal.  I read my emails which weren’t that many since the last time I read them last night lol.

I like to eat then wait 30 minutes to go, so 4:45am came and I left the house and it was pitch black outside.  Thank goodness for bike lights.  Although I didn’t realize until I got there that the back light wasn’t working at all.  It wasn’t until the sun came out that I realized that it was because the wire snapped off.  UGH!  It’s easily repairable.

What I especially liked about riding that early is that there are absolutely no cars.  0 cars.  Well, there were a couple but none that I had to worry about.  Of course being that early I had to stop and push the walk button because certain lights just won’t turn green unless the sensors detect a car sitting there and they don’t detect bicycles.

While I was on the bike trail that early in the morning before the sun came up there were no other riders which isn’t odd for me not to see anyone because in the daytime there are barely any other riders.  So it really didn’t make much of a difference.  But when the sun did start coming up I did start to see a couple of riders.

Even coming home with the sun up at 6am there still weren’t any cars.  I finally got home at 6:22am so I was gone about an hour and half but my total time was 1 hour 5 min.  Hey, I have to take a break during my ride lol.

Now that my muscles are getting used to riding I’m gonna experiment with going out again tomorrow and then the day after that.  I want to go out every day, not just every other day.  I want to get as much exercise in as I can because the weight is coming off.  So, we will see tomorrow if I go out or not hehe.

Gruber Assist Electric Bike

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

Ok, this is new.  This easily adds the ability to turn your bicycle into an electric bicycle and nobody will ever know.  Here is the link to the dvice article:

Gruber Assist electric bike:  Only your cycle mechanic will know for sure

The kit will cost you an arm and a leg or if you have money it will cost a mere $2,473.  But if you are trying to cheat in a race then it will pay off.  Nobody will ever even know.  That is until they hear your bicycle because it does have some noise.  Watch the video in the Dvice website.

You have the option of turning it on and off so you aren’t always using it.  So perhaps when there are no other riders around you can turn it on, speed up to get ahead then when someone shows up turn it off so they won’t suspect anything hehe.  Personally this would help me get to the bike trail faster then I can go much further and get more exercise done.  Then when I go home I can just coast along.  The battery lasts like an hour to an hour and half so that wouldn’t be too difficult.

But… no money hehe.

New Wheel

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I finally got my new wheel today although there is a problem with it lol.  I put the tube and the tire on it and screwed it to the bike and then started putting air into it.  As I was putting air in it I saw that the tire at the bottom was bulging out and so I stopped putting air in and started taking it out again.

I don’t know what happened but apparently it’s the wrong size.  The tag said 26″ so I thought it was the right thing but the tire says 26″ x 1.95″ so I can only assume that the wheel is not right some how.

I’m not going to return it yet though.  The guy said I had like 2 weeks or 1 month or something, I didn’t hear him but he said I had time to return it if something was wrong with it.  I’m going to ride it tomorrow to see if it does good or not.  If not then I’m going to have no choice but to return it.

Just to be sure I’m going to go out to the patio and take the air out of it and adjust the tube and wheel a little then put air in it again just to be sure.

I really hope it works out because I need to get back on the bike trail because my weight is out of control.

P.S. Ok so I went out there and put the tire back onto the wheel and pumped it up right on the table instead of on the bike which I think is the right way but I did it on the table and it was fine.  I put it pumped up on the bike and it seemed pretty sealed up with no problems.  I rode it for a minute and it was perfectly fine.

If I have issues tomorrow on the bike trail or even on the way to the bike trail then I guess I’ll have to walk home and then return the wheel for a new one.  Although, I’m going to have a long walk depending on where I’m at.  That is unless I can just deflate the tire then pump it up again but not fully just to get me home faster.

24 Hour Fitness

On By Michel McDonaldIn Exercise, HealthLeave a comment

I’ve always wanted to go to 24 Hour Fitness but they always charge you so much money up front.  You can’t even get a membership unless you have $200 in your pocket (or debit card) so I’ve just given up hope.  Also I’d have to take 2 buses to get there and wait about 45 min for the bus.

The bike trail is near where the 24 hour fitness is so I could get to the bike trail from home then when I get to Rosedale Hwy I can just start riding on the sidewalk (because it’s on the wrong side of the street) until I get there.  They have a special right now that is $19 down, $19 a month.  Now I can afford it and I can be exercising on the way there then get a couple of hours of exercise in before leaving where I will be exercising some more to get home.  Good plan.  We’ll see if I do it when I get my used bike.

Green Wheel

On By Michel McDonaldIn GreenLeave a comment

greenwheelOk I found this on dvice.com

Green Wheel gives any bike an electric push

I want one of these because when I go on my bike ride on the bike trail I usually go 11-18 miles and sometimes the bike trail has these hills (that they put in intentionally to give you a workout) but I’m so tired that I just can’t make it up.  This will help.

Also I think it would help me get to the bike trail with no effort on my part then get me back home from the bike trail in 1 piece.  Usually by the time I get home from my bike ride 2 hours later I can barely walk, especially if I haven’t been riding in a while so while I’m letting it take me home my legs are resting so I can actually walk to the bathroom instead of using a walker.

10 Speed

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I decided last night that instead of getting my bike fixed right away or when I get money I want to go to the thrift store where we saw that 10 speed road bike for $20 and see if they still have it.  I’ve wanted to have 2 bikes at the house so if Darrin ever decides he wants to go bike riding for weight loss then we can go together.

I also wanted a 10 speed road bike because that’s what the majority of the people are riding on the bike trail.  I think that a 10 speed is a lot faster because it’s lighter and it will give me less pain in my legs, I think.

I still want to fix the handlebars on my mountain bike but just when I get the money that’s all.  I don’t want to fix it myself because I really don’t know what I’m doing.  You gotta take the rubber grips off of the handlebars first and I just don’t want to do that because they have the roadmaster logo on them.  I also would like to just bring it in to the bike store so they can look at it to make sure everything is in good condition.

My mountain bike can keep the lock on it and the lights with the generator because I might want to ride that to the store (when it’s fixed) at night and I’ll need the lights and the lock.  But I will transfer the computer over to the 10 speed and the frame bag.  The frame bag really doesn’t work in the mountain bike because the frame is too small for a frame bag.  I was barely able to keep my water bottle on it because with the bag there the water bottle was sticking out and I’ve been terrified that it would eventually pop out into traffic.

I’m actually looking forward to getting a 10 speed road bike because I think it would be easier to ride and I think I would go a lot faster which would mean that I would burn much more calories.  If I went faster I could probably ride the 18 miles in a lot shorter period of time and burn a ton of calories in the process.  And rest less.  Yes, I’m very excited about this.

Reorganizing Music Again

On By Michel McDonaldIn MusicLeave a comment

It wasn’t that long ago, like a week or 2 ago, that I had to download all the cd’s from my Dell DJ mp3 player to my computer then fix all the tags then put them back on my DJ but when I did that I didn’t count on the fact that their file names had something to do with anything.  For example.  If a song says 01 Politik instead of Coldplay – A Rush of Blood To The Head – 01 – Politik then when I go to make a playlist I’m not going to know who the artist is or even which CD that song is from.

Yes, I am really anal about things like that lol.  I don’t know why, I just am.  But it’s not for no reason.  When I ride my bike sometimes there are songs that are way too loud or they don’t have any sound at all then I have to pull over in the dirt on the bike trail, pull the remote control out of the bike frame bag and push the next button.  I don’t want to have to do that because it slows me down and brings my average speed time down too.  It’s also annoying to be riding happily then all of a sudden a song blares into your ears and then they start to bleed lol.  Or you don’t hear anything for a minute before realizing you aren’t going to but the song is playing.  I don’t really understand how that song got put in there.  Also there is 1 song that is in there twice from Uncle Kracker.  I don’t know how that happened.

So, I’m downloading the music to my computer and I will reorganize the names and write down what is going into the playlist and look at each song with a microscope to make sure my ride is full of good music and not annoying music.

Actually, I’d also like to just add the popular songs from certain CD’s, the ones that made it to the radio, this way I can cut down on the amount of songs in my playlist which is typically between 550 and 600.  It’s not going to be easy to weed through them all though, it will take hours, possibly days.  Well, at least I have something to do lol.

9 Miles

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

These are what the cyclo-computer says.  9.014 miles, maximum speed reached (mxs) 27.0, average speed (avs) 10.7, time 50:35, calories 436.6, fat calories 43.5.

Boy are my legs swollen lol.  9 miles is the longest I’ve gone so far and I plan on breaking that record too.  What I did was I rode to Beach Park which took about 16 or 17 minutes (not including the times I stopped at the lights and had to stop to drink water) then once I was there I sat on a picnic table and rested my legs for about 10 minutes.  Then I got up and went on the bike trail and rode for about 9 minutes.  I was going to do 10 minutes but my legs were just killing me.  So what I did was I stopped and stood there for a few minutes and watched the 2 people on the 2 horses and waved then watched them pass me.  Then I got back on it and went back to Beach park where I sat on the bench at the trail entrance before going back home.

I just can’t believe that I finally started riding my bike again.  I think this is so cool.  When I was a kid all I had was the bike, I didn’t have the helmet or water cage with bottle or the frame bag with the tools or the computer.  It was just me on the bike.  Not even any protective gear.  And I also didn’t have the extra baggage that I do now with all this weight.  That’s one reason why I don’t recall having any pain and swelling in my thighs.

Well, I just have to wait until I can do this all over again tomorrow and just hope that I go further.

Todays Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

I decided that since I got a new cyclo-computer that I would go out today even though I went out yesterday.  I like to give my legs a day’s rest normally but I was too excited not to go out.  I wanted to see the exact amount of time I would ride along with the exact miles per hour and the exact amount of miles that I rode.  Before I would have to go to google to map out my ride so I can get an exact number of miles that it takes to go from the house to there and then back but this tells me all that information.  Also google maps doesn’t let me map out the ride on the bike trail so when I start riding on the bike trail I won’t know how many miles I went.

Well, today when I got to Beach Park the ride was only 16 minutes.  Normally with my other stop watch the ride is like 22 minutes but that’s because whenever I pull over to get a drink of water or to rest my legs for a minute I don’t stop the timer.  This new computer turns the timer off when you stop riding so I’m getting an exact reading of how long it takes me to get there.

I’ve been putting in the SparkPeople website that I’ve been doing 14-15mph and I was riding 12-15 mph today but it showed my average speed at 10mph so where it shows my calories that is reflective of me going 10mph.  So, when I added todays bike ride to SparkPeople I had to tell them I went 10mph.  I want to be as accurate as possible.

Instead of riding every other day I’m going to try everyday.  I figured maybe I could do 2 days on, 1 day off but I think that my legs are getting used to it enough that I can start going everyday.  This is my 4th week of riding the bike.  My first week I only rode to California ave and back which was 4 days in that week.  My 2nd week I only rode to Oak and Truxton and back and that was 3 days.  My 3rd week I made it to Beach Park and rested then came back and that was only 2 days.  Now my 4th week I’m getting to Beach Park and without resting going straight onto the bike trail but I only went a little distance before deciding to go back to the park and resting for 10 min before going home.

Now that I’m getting better I would like to spend 20 or more minutes on the bike trail (maybe 10 min out then 10 min back) then resting before heading home.  I’m actually really excited that my legs are getting better and getting more used to riding because as I’ve said before, I’d eventually love to ride for 2 hours a day.  The weight will definitely melt off when I’m riding for 2 hours a day.  Also I’d like to get to the point where that is 2 hours straight.

I’m actually excited about losing weight for the first time in a long time because I know that if I ride the bike on a daily basis I will definitely lose the weight a lot faster.  Now I just need to start eating better to make this weight loss go faster.  I’m trying my best.

Edit: Yes, I realize I was rambling lol.  I edited out some of the redundancy lol.