Tag: riding my bike

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.

Raining

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

Well I was so looking forward to riding my bike today but it’s pouring rain outside and I can’t afford to get sick.  I’d rather be safe and dry and not get sick and be able to ride tomorrow as opposed to going out, getting sick then incapacitated for a few days or longer.

I remember as a teenager riding my bike home from school and the cars passing me would just drench me.  No thank you.

It’s A Green Life

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Exercise, Green, HealthLeave a comment

A few weeks ago we came home from San Diego after only being gone for a few days and discovered that someone had taken our garbage can.  The city wants to charge us $60 for a new one.  It hit me below the belt because it made me think that I do take it for granted.  Trash that is.  We normally just save soda cans and soda bottles and give them to the dumpster divers but we decided to start recycling them for ourselves.

I took it a step further though and instead of just soda bottles and cans I’d look at the back of every container we buy and those cans that food come in are recyclable too and so are milk containers.  Paper can also be recycled.  I set up 2 paper bags with the cans (1 bag for each type of can) and I’m going to set up another bag for shredded paper which I am now going to start shredding the mail along with junk mail and even bad ideas that I’ve printed.  I have so much paper just sitting around in notebooks that have absolutely no purpose anymore so those will be shredded straight away.

I’ve also become green when I shower.  When you live in a trailer or if go camping and have one of those hanging bags of water for showers you have to use the least you can use so you have enough water for yourself and others so you get wet, turn off the hose, lather your hair and body then turn the hose back on to rinse off.  Well, I’ve started doing that at home.  I don’t know exactly how many gallons of water I am saving but I bet you it’s a lot.

I started riding my bike for exercise, not to get anywhere in particular but so I can lose weight and so that’s good that I’m doing that but it really serves no green purpose for me.  But it’s at least a statement.

And we do have to drive our car to the recycling center just to recycle all this stuff.  I can’t carry bags of cans, bottles and tied up newspaper and bags of shredded paper on a bike so we have no other choice.  I feel I’m at least helping.

Below are pictures of my cans bags and a trash bag of bottles which is a new bag so it only has a couple of bottles but you get the idea.

38 Minutes

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

I went bike riding this morning just as the sun was coming up.  I don’t recall the time, it was before 7am though.  Instead of stopping at California Ave and turning right and going back home, this time I decided to keep going to Truxton and turn left to go to Oak St. which is the way to get to Beach Park where the bike path is at.

I went to Oak but had to turn around and come back home because I’m so heavy that as I was riding my bike I could tell that my seat was going down because my legs were no longer straight when my pedal was all the way down.  They were bending still and when I left the house they were straight.  So I’m so heavy that I’m pushing my seat down which is not good.  Next time I go on a ride I have to raise the seat again.  I have a feeling that until I lose this website I’m gonna have to keep raising the seat every time.

That’s ok I guess.  I’m just happy that I rode a longer distance than before.  38 minutes is a lot longer than 14 minutes.  I also rode for 4.2 miles total.  I checked it out on Google Maps.  Go me!

By the way, I was so close to Beach Park, like 5 blocks from it.  I was so close I could have tasted it.  I had no idea that I was that close either.  If I knew I was that close I would’ve tried harder to get there.  At least they had water so I could have refilled my bottle lol.  I ran out just as I was getting closer to the house.  That only tells me I need to bring the bigger bottle next time lol.

Edit: I went to Spark People to add my cardio for today and 38 min at 10 mph (I don’t know what my speed is as I don’t have a bike odometer and 10 mph is the lowest they have so it’s my only option) and that is 342 calories burned.  The total for the whole week is 87 of 90 min that they require you to do and 783 of 780 calories burned.  They only want you to do exercise cause they are there to tell you what you need to do to get thin.  You aren’t “required” to do anything you don’t want to in which case you don’t have to sign up on their website.  But anyway, my point is that I exceeded the amount of calories for the whole week but I was still 3 minutes shy of the amount of time.  That’s fine though because next week will be double because I was so close to Beach Park that next time I will actually make it there and maybe even get to ride on the bike path for a little while.  I might end up doing the entire 90 min for the entire week in just 2 sessions.

Missed Appointment

On By Michel McDonaldIn DoctorLeave a comment

On September 30th I had a follow-up appointment with the neurologist for my carpel tunnel syndrome but since we were in San Diego I called the doctor’s office and rescheduled my appointment for today at 12:00pm.  Well, at 2:20pm I realized I had missed my appointment.  My main concern was that they charge you for missed appointments.

I called them to ask if there was a way that I could still make it and they said no, the doctor doesn’t take patients past 12.  So I then asked how much this was going to cost me.  I was put on hold for about 1 or 2 minutes.  She came back and said that I wasn’t even on the computer for today.  WHEW!!!

I don’t know how much that would’ve cost me but I do know that I couldn’t pay it right now.  She rescheduled me for November 20th so it’s going to be some time that I have to wait.  On the bright side my carpel tunnel syndrome isn’t that bad.  My hands still get numb when I’m playing with my PSP or riding my bike for a long period of time, then again they get numb after 10 min of riding my bike so it’s not that long.  Oh well, I got a month heh.

Dell DJ Tweak

On By Michel McDonaldIn MusicLeave a comment

As I’ve stated in my previous blogs, when I got my Dell DJ Battery it wouldn’t fit inside the case but it still plugs in and works fine.  The only thing is, I have to stick it to the back of the DJ with a rubber band and the bottom isn’t on so I must have it in a neoprene camera case.  I would’ve prefered if the DJ was in a case that has a clear plastic front like they make for iPods and iPhones that have elastic to put around your arm.  This way I’d be able to change the song.  I would just have to cut a hole for the scroll wheel that’s all.  But this is fine.

I have a remote so I can pause, play, go to the previous song and the next, raise and lower volume and turn the radio on.  If I want to change whats playing I have to take the DJ out of the camera case.  Which is no problem.  I have 5 cd’s queued up all the time and they are all newish and what I want to listen to while riding my bike.

Well, here are the pictures that I just took of the DJ with the battery on the outside laying next to its case.  To see the full size of these pictures just click them.

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.

OMG! Look At My Fortune Cookie!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok, we went to China Town Buffet for lunch and as we were leaving in the car I opened my fortune cookie and this is what is said:

Is that crazy or what?  In my previous blog I was so upset about my battery being 1mm too big, my bike case being too big and the pump gauge not working.  Then I get this.

I found a solution to the Dell DJ.  I strapped it to the back with a rubber band and have it plugged it, it’s charging now.  I can keep the bottom piece off as long as I keep it from getting dirty so Darrin bought me a neoprene case at Target today.  He also bought me a helmet.   I really have no excuses for riding my bike now to get exercise.  The helmet looks horrible though lol.  It’s not that particular helmet, it’s helmets in general because my face is so round and it basically shows off just how round my face is.  But, I have faith that in time my round face will turn a bit more oval and I won’t look as ridiculous.  I will have to get me a new pair of sports sunglasses so hopefully that will even my face out lol.

Kern Wheelmen Bicycle Club

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

This website might help me for a good bike route.  Bakersfield put in a bike path along the Kern river beginning at the Mouth of Kern Canyon, the Kern River Parkway includes over 6,000 acres of trails, parks and waterways extending over 30 miles westerly to Highway I-5.  There is a bike club that does trips which go out of the bike path which starts at Beach Park, goes for 42.5 miles in a circle and ends right back at Beach Park.  The bike ride to Beach Park from our house is only 2.7 miles.

Of course before I can do this ride I’m going to have to get used to riding my bike again.  Also all the people on the picture in this website are all athletes and they are all in shape so before I even think about joining their club I need to be as fit as they are.  I would lag too far behind these guys.

Well, this is the website address:  www.kernwheelmen.org

I hope some day I will be as skinny and fit as I used to be a long time ago.  I feel that I am wasting my life being fat.