Tag: north hollywood

High Seat

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

When I came back from my ride the day before yesterday I raised my seat up a lot but I guess not enough because today I rode my bike and I was still in pain when I got home and I noticed that my leg was still bending as I was riding.  Your leg is supposed to extend fully when it gets all the way down.  If your seat is too low it can cause an injury to your back and/or legs.

Well, when I lowered my seat I lowered it all the way then I realized how to raise the handlebars but I never raised the seat again.  Big mistake.

So anyway, this morning I thought it was high enough but it wasn’t and I came home from my ride in a little bit of pain in my legs.  Not as much as before but I raised it even higher and got on it and it was perfect.  My legs straighten completely.  Hopefully tomorrow I can keep going past California Ave instead of turning right.

My goal is to get my muscles strong enough to where I can ride the bike for long periods of time but having my seat so low was counter productive to my progress.  The longer I am able to ride the more calories I will burn and then I can just go back on with my life.  When I was a kid, teen and young adult (in my 20’s) I was very active.  Either running from bullies (junior high) or riding my bike to and from school, to and from work, to and from Hollywood via North Hollywood, to and from Simi valley via Canoga Park.  Point is I was active and active means skinny.  I never gained an ounce.  I could eat and eat and eat and believe me, I was a hungry guy and I never gained any weight.  So, hopefully, I can keep my eating habits but exercise it all off with the bike.

I also wanted to add that I am so excited to have my Dell DJ back.  I went too long without it and I’m so excited that I got that battery for $10 + $7 shipping.  I nearly bought the same battery from another retailer for $25 and another was selling the same thing for $50.  I almost gave up until I went on eBay.

Longer, Harder and Uncut

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok.

I thought the ride would get harder because when you push yourself to go that extra block you use more energy to get there.  Well, when I got to Eye st. I decided to just keep going to Chester and I made it so then I was able to turn right and go back to 3rd.  It was actually easier coming home on Chester than it was going to California on H.  Maybe because I knew I was coming home.

Hmmmm, let’s see, what is uncut…  Well, this blog is, there are no commercials.  So there 😛

By the way, going from Eye to H to California to Chester to 3rd then back to Eye was only 1.6 miles and I’ve been going 1.5 miles turning on Eye instead of going to Chester while on California.  I know, 0.1 mile is not a lot and 2 min extra is not a lot but I started out with 15 min for 2 days then got to 17 min.  Who knows, tomorrow I might do 17 min again or I might do 20 min and 1.7 miles.  The point is that I’m getting my legs used to the work.  The first day my legs were in agony, I could barely move.  Of course today when I came home I could barely walk, I looked like i was an old man using a walker again lol.  But that’s what it takes to get the muscles back into shape.  A little pain at the beginning so I can go the distance with no pain at all.  That’s why they say “no pain, no gain”.

I remember as a teenager riding my bike to school in the morning and not being the least bit tired from the bike ride, then riding home, putting my McDonald’s uniform on and going back out the door on my bike to work.  When I got there I had no pain in my legs because I was so used to riding a bike that my legs were never in any pain from it.  I think because I was so thin back then helped my case because I have 100lbs more than I did 22 years ago.

Also when I was 22-23 years old and I rode my bike from North Hollywood all the way to Hollywood and I did that several times a week too and it would take maybe an hour but it didn’t matter, I was never in any pain.  And I never had a water bottle with me because it wasn’t that hard that I needed water.  Although now that I think about it I probably could have used a water bottle lol.  But that trip was uphill and downhill and curvy.

Oh and when I was 19 and I lived in Canoga Park I used to ride my bike once in a while on the Santa Susanna Pass going to Simi Valley to visit my Aunt Betty at Ralph’s.  That never even phased me.  Although I was a bit winded, I needed water lol.  But I got through it no problem and the ride home was a breeze because it was uphill the entire way there so it was downhill the entire way home.