I received a request to share exercise information for cancer patients through this blog. I’m pleased to do so and hope that the information provided by the author is helpful and motivating to all those fighting cancer. Having lost both of my parents to differing forms of cancer, I know the day-to-day struggles that can be barriers to using exercise as a tool to beat the disease. Now, here is the article….
Showing posts with label Maintenance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maintenance. Show all posts
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
THOSE STORIES THAT HAPPEN TO OTHERS
You’ve read them, you’ve seen them, you’ve maybe even experienced them. The stories that deal with the dominoes affect when problems occur. Sometimes folks will say bad things happen in 3’s. Well, Sunday was my day in the fun barrel…
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
RAMPS, BROKEN CHAINS, AND OTHER NICETIES OF LIFE!
Aarrggh! It seems like forever since I’ve posted anything here. The days have been jammed full of other activities and, to be quite frank, I’ve not felt like writing when I finally made it home. I’ve managed to keep up somewhat with my reading on a daily basis and have enjoyed Kent “Mountain Turtle” Peterson’s month long “30 days of Biking.” I’ve also enjoyed watching my colleague and friend Jack, the VeloHobo, begin his partial commute to work each day. Jack and I work for the same company although the geographic area that separates us is a couple of hours away. I still recall the day that I discovered that this guy I worked with turned out to be the VeloHobo…
Sunday, June 13, 2010
HOT SULTRY SUNDAY WITH RACE RECAPS
Links to current races/tours I am following:
That crunching sound run to ground… maybe!
I guess better late than never applies to this inspection or lack of timely inspection. I now realize I’d better add to my normal scheduled inspection, check those cleats! On the left you can see the condition of my cleats after hitting the deep pothole last week and beginning to hear a crunching sound. On the right, is my shoes with newly replaced cleats. Hmm, there is a difference!
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| Note sharp point on shoe on right. | Newly replaced cleats. |
I now think that bottoming out the pothole broke off a remaining portion of the thin cleat on my left shoe (shown on right in left image above) and that resulted in the crunching sound that I was getting. I sure hope so because the next option is my knee! I hope to test my theory later today.
Artis arrives in Bar Harbor…
The final stages of preparation for tomorrow’s Tour of Discovery: Ride for the Republic are underway. Cycling Experiences Jim Artis arrived in Bar Harbor, ME after having driven straight through from Fayetteville, NC. If I am correctly interpreting his SPOT markers, Jim arrived in Bar Harbor around 9:30 p.m. last night (Saturday). According to email I received from him this morning, he spent the night in his van. He now appears to have ridden to the top of Cadillac Mountain and reconnoitered tomorrow's starting location. As of this writing, I do not know if his touring partner, Rafael Giraldo, has arrived in Bar Harbor. The tour begins tomorrow morning when the first rays of sun hit Cadillac Mountain.
“Mountain Turtle” continues “hastening slowly”…
Kent “Mountain Turtle” Peterson has reentered the good old USA approximately one hour ago, which would be around 2:00 p.m. EDT. A quick look at the Tour Divide Leader Board shows “Mountain Turtle” near a number of racers as they approach Eureka, Montana. Matthew Lee and Erik Lobeck appear to be in the over-all lead. Keep in mind that “Mountain Turtle” is racing a single speed bike!
Team Bent Up Cycles moves into 3rd place…
In the 4 man team category, Bent Up Cycles has captured 3rd place behind second place team Doc2doc and first place team Bandwidth.com, Inc. Teams in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place are only separated by seconds at this point. They have travelled 441 miles and are maintaining an average speed of 20.77 mph. You may find current standings for all categories at the RAAM Leader Board.
The Tour of Switzerland, Stage 2…
Heinrich Haussler took the stage victory and Fabrian Cancellara retained the yellow jersey following the sprint finish. In a tweet to his followers, Lance Armstrong indicated “I felt o.k. Not great, not terrible”. Armstrong is in 46th place after stage 2. Andreas Kloden and Levi Leipheimer, also of Team Radio Shack, are in 28th and 42nd positions respectively. Congratulations to Janez Brajkovic for his win in the Critérium du Dauphiné 2010.
The coming week…
Be sure to “tune in” tomorrow for the start of the Tour of Discovery: Ride for the Republic. Tomorrow will be our first chance to see the technological goodies planned by Jim Artis. Jim will have posts at Cycling Experiences and I’ll do my best to keep updates fresh here as well. Also, check out the interactive site for the Tour of Discovery setup by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
I hope to hear that Bro Dave got confirmation on the sale of his crankforward in Los Angeles yesterday. If so, there may be a Fargo Salsa in his near future! As in all things, time will tell…
Until later,
- Zeke
Monday, April 19, 2010
JUST THE THREE OF US…
Sunday, April 18th, was my first ride to Asheville of the year. Along with the Wood-Man, I enjoyed a fine afternoon in the saddle as we covered the 38 miles from our starting point to Tripps Restaurant in Asheville. It is Dogwood Winter here in the mountains of Western North Carolina, which means that the Dogwoods are in full bloom and the temps have dropped to cooler ranges. We’ve had frost warnings for the last couple of nights and even a freeze warning one time. Fortunately, the days warm up nicely and that was the case yesterday as we climbed and descended our way into the “big” city.
We took a route along Old Clyde Highway from Lake Junaluska to Canton. If you can picture 3 roads running pretty much parallel, Old Clyde Highway would be the middle road. Part of the time, you’re running along the Pigeon River and the rest of the route is agricultural-to-residential in nature.
After passing around and through Canton, we headed up Newfound Road. Newfound is the longest and steepest of the climbs on this route topping out at 9% grade. I was really feeling my Saturday “work day” of cutting firewood and mowing grass. My legs and lower back felt tight as rubber bands stretched to their limit and I struggled to maintain contact with the Wood-Mans’s rear wheel. I lost about an 1/8th of a mile to him as we crested Newfound Gap and dropped into Buncombe County.
As always, what goes up must come down and I caught back up with him on the descent side of the mountain. From there it was a run across the valley floor where we were occasionally accompanied by the dastardly Headwind Harry, who I suspect was hiding in amongst the pretty white clouds. He seemed to make his presence known mostly on climbs, which of course is his standard mode of operation.
At the 2 hour mark, we took a brief break at the intersection of Newfound Road and Leicester Highway (pronounced Lester Highway by us locals). The short break did my back good but my quads tightened up. We called our “better halves” and gave them the meeting time at Tripps. They were heavily involved in their favorite form of exercise – aerobic shopping!
(Suttles Quick Mart – site of much needed rest)
After a very short run on the dual lane Leicester Highway, we were running along a ridge that provided a wonderful panoramic view of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the north of Asheville. After dropping down into the Erwin Hills Community, we had a series of climbs that just about drained the rest of my leg power. Mercifully, the climbs ended and we crossed the French Broad River north of Asheville. From here, it was a 6 mile run along the river using some of Asheville’s bike lanes. Normally, I can hang on Wood-Man’s wheel here but that was not the case on Sunday. I struggled to keep him in sight as I started bonking. At this point, I had serious doubts that I would be able to make the final climb up from the river to Pack Square. I did persevere and make it.This brought us to Tripps where I re-discovered the term “rubber legs.”
I was very pleased that the ride was not an “out and back” exercise! I would have given my kingdom, if I had a kingdom, for a hot tub last night!
A point of interest:
I’ve written often about riding the Pigeon River Valley above Canton. Last week, our local paper featured an article about one of the most famous “residents” of the PRV – The Osborne Family Oak. I have a deep appreciation for this tree and the history of our county that time has seen fit to pass under its spreading limbs. I share this story as a further point of interest for those readers, who have noted my writing of the area.
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Osborne Boundary Oak to be evaluated for restorative care The Osborne Boundary Oak, a historic tree on the Department of Transportation right of way, will be evaluated for immediate restorative care and recommendations for continued care by Lloyd Anderson, an experienced knowledgeable tree specialist, Southern Tree Care, at 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 19, at the site of the tree on NC 110 at the junction of Wells (1869) and Jeffrey Lane with Pisgah (NC 110). Observers are welcome. “The Osborne Boundary Oak was in existence in the days before white man settled Bethel Community,” said Doris Hammett. According to documentation, an Indian council existed near this tree. When General Griffith Rutherford and his men pressed against the Native American villages in Western North Carolina in 1776, they marched by the tree and forded the Pigeon River. |
Positive Response from NC DOT:
(Fairly wide, relatively clean gutter - pre-cleaning.)
(Example of gutters closing down – sweeper machine just passes over it.)
(Gutter almost completely gone!)
A couple of week’s ago, I wrote an email to the local NC DOT Engineer regarding the condition of the shoulders/gutters along NC 110 and NC 209. I explained that I wanted to be proactive this spring and highlight a couple of areas that might need some additional attention as they did their routine “spring cleaning”. Today, I received back a very nice reply indicating that the local DOT Maintenance Engineer had been to the sites and made a preliminary review of the work needed. I was informed that the work is scheduled to start in 3 weeks. I very much appreciated the kind response that I received and look forward to the widened gutters as I ride these roads! THANKS DOT!
Until later,
- Zeke
Monday, February 15, 2010
THINGS TO DO ON A SNOWY SUNDAY
Yesterday was our umpteenth snowy grey day here in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It seemed like a good time to take stock of my cycling “to do” list. Here goes:
- Order extra wheel/cassette to use for trainer.
- Recheck recently mounted new tires to see that they are holding pressure.
- Clean bike:
- Read as many cycling related blogs as possible.
ITEM #1: In a prescient move, John (my LBS owner) contacted me via email and said that word had reached him that he was supposed to be ordering a part for me but he couldn’t remember what it was. So, he logged on, read this blog, and determined that I probably meant a wheel and cassette to use on my trainer. I had to write back and let John know that we had never actually spoken about this matter but that, yes, I had been by the shop to inquire about the possibilities. So, following John’s recommendations, he has or will be ordering for me a 700X20-25 REAR UCP SPOKE HG8/9 ALLOY SILVER ALEX RP15 36H RIM AND KT ALLOY QR HUB pairing.
This will give me an easy on/easy off option for using the trainer in inclement weather. I’ll probably simply use my old set of tires before ordering a special compound tire for the trainer. I’ll be mating a Shimano 9 speed HG 50 cassette to the wheel.
ITEM #2 & #3: This was easy enough. After returning from a painting interlude at my mother’s home, I turned on the heat, called over my work crew consisting of Mattie, Orla, and Zeke, and promptly went about cleaning the bike and checking my tire installation for the 200th time.
(Zeke, the dog, can be seen checking for any OSHA violations)
(Yep, chain needs a good cleaning…)
After Zeke’s exhaustive search turned up zero workplace violations, he and the rest of the crew retired to their individual beds in front of the fire. I guess they weren’t up to Sunday work. For me, I’m always amazed at how much grime and grit you can find on a bike (Fuji or Harley) when you seriously look for it. A solid hour of cleaning resulted in a much cleaner future ride.
ITEM #4: While no picture exists as proof that this item was accomplished, I can only report that it most of my regular authors must have taken to their own beds as there was very little new material out there. The exception being Jim Artis at Cycling Experiences, who continues on with his prep plans for the Tour of Discovery 2010: Ride for the Republic. I keep writing to the Stanley Tool Company suggesting to them that they become a corporate sponsor of the Tour as Jim is doing some interesting work adapting their products to his travelling needs.
Here’s hoping that we get bypassed for awhile with winter storms and can actually get outside and ride for a change.
Until later,
- Zeke
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