Still inactive

SO i bought a house and it is being renovated. Have not been doing any traditional exercise (run, bike, swim, etc) but have been lifting and moving a lot of stuff. I have been doing lots of work on the house and there seems to be no time for anything else. If you would like to see a blog about the house and the progress you can go to thehorseshoehomestead.blogsot.com at some point i will get back to riding and running in my new neighborhood. Maybe I will even join the Y again and swim???!!! July 2016

Inactive

Lately I have been inactive. Working on a project or two that, in years past, have been pushed back due to triathlon or cycling training taking priority. No events at all in sight. A year of no triathlons at all will be a change. No worries. I have to go almost cold turkey to get back to the projects. I should do a basic 30 minute run 2 or 3 times a week and a 20 mile bike ride now and then and I will get that going as soon as I make progress on the key project. Also in late July my lower back began giving me severe pain; barely got thru my job. Saw chiropractor and MD finally after about 10 days of it. 2-3 weeks and it has subsided. X-rays show I may have some "osteo" conditions that have developed. Need to build up my core. Always inconsistent on doing strength training there. Also flexibility is bad so stretching and yoga needed also. Think maybe a short run I did helped to relieve the back pain. That and the muscle relaxants. Before the back pain and the projects, was progressing well in my running and thought that a marathon this year would be good. Of course would want to get a Personal Record or even qualify for Boston marathon. Put those thoughts on ice. Did my nearly annual Miracle Hill Cycling Challenge century June 6th. Went slow due to light training and waited up for even slower riders that day and finished near the rear. Was really hurting in the end, but I never stopped pedaling and made it! Blessed as always to do this event. Going into Brevard this year was very cool! Met old friends and made new ones.

N+1, Surly LHT

So I went and bought a bike frame to create yet another bicycle. What am I thinking? It is a frame meant for fully loaded touring (FLT). My current touring bike is set up for that, so why another? The differences in frame geometry and the features of the Surly are better suited. Also, I got a great deal on the frame. Surly LHT LHT = Long Haul Trucker For 26 inch wheels 52 cm frame size designation. Color: smog-geriffic silver (light silver or light grey) My current FLT bike has a Trek 710 frame made circa 1982 and was my only bike for about a decade. I got this frame and built it up while in high school. It is a "sport" touring frame made from Reynolds 531 double butted tubes. Silver soldered lugs. Great frame for its day. It still is, but it is too big for me. Seat tube length of nearly 56cm when a 52 cm best suits me. I can't stand over the top tube without basically hitting my pubic bone. The Surly is made of cro-moly steel and I think has a great track record. My friend Doug had one for a few years and no known problems. I took a 3 week tour back in 1981 or so. I had a dream of a cross country trip that I still cling to. So I went on a 3 day tour a few years back up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Would like to do that this year too but maybe stay away from the steep and long climbs of the mountains. Use the Trek again as it will take some time to build up the Surly. The gearing on the Trek is pretty low, but as I am older and weaker now I want even lower gearing like on a mountain bike. On the 3 day tour going up route 215 to the blue ridge parkway with like 45 lbs of stuff was rough with the 28 x 32 gear on the Trek. Something like a 22 x 34 would be sweet. Hope there are some good rims and tires to choose from in 26 inch size. Due to the massive amount of mountain bikes that use this size it should not be a problem. The Trek has only one eyelet front and rear and that allowed me to creatively attach both fenders and racks. The Surly has two eyelets F & R. The Trek has only clearance for smaller width 700 c tires. I used 28 c wide for a long time but a few years ago worked to cut out the fenders and find just the right tires that are bigger (Michelin 32c city tires). They still rub the fenders when I brake. The Trek is made for side-pull brakes that mount to a center hole on the fork on the front and brake bridge on the rear like most road bikes. The Surly has bosses or mounts for cantilever or direct pull (V-brakes) which will allow for both greater braking/better stopping and greater clearance for wider tires. "Fatties fit fine" is even declared (decals) on the frame. Disc brakes would have been the best but this will be a step up. I could in the future convert the front end to a disc brake by buying a replacement fork made by Surly and for a disc brake. I have long called my Trek my "truck" bike or my Silverado. It is silver painted with much shiny metallic parts. It is heavy and with my panniers I can haul a lot. The new bike may be called the Silverado 2 or Silverado HD. I can scale back the Trek to just a rain bike or light touring. More Technical Stuff I will need to buy a headset for the Surly first of all. A nice very durable sealed headset from Cane Creek or Chris King maybe. The headset on the Trek is ruined and needs replaced or repaired. The individual ball bearings have set divots into the races. The Trek has a 6 speed freewheel and not sure you can even get them anymore. I'm having trouble enough getting a 7 speed cassette for my Specialized Allez. The frames compared In millimeters Trek. Surly ST ct. 558. 520 TT cc. 565. 535 HT a. 73.5 71* ST a. 73.5 73.5 ChSt. 441. 460 WB. 1032. 1053 ST=Seat Tube. Center to top TT = Top Tube. Center to center HT a = Head tube angle * the 71 degree ht angle will be more stable for loaded touring ChSt=Chain stay length WB = Wheelbase Serial numbers. LHT26-52. M13123485. Complete bike $1,3000 at REI. 26 x 1.5 tires seem a popular size for loaded touring; a 26-36-48 crank seems popular. Also a 11-34 (9 speed) rear cassette is popular. 26 x 34 gives about a 20 gear inch. 11-36 (even better) with a 24 up front would give a 17.3 gear inch.

Bridge Run

Cooper River bridge run March 28, 2015 Charleston, SC So I got up about 5 am with help from many alarm clocks. I ate a English muffin and had a juice packet. I got dressed and ran almost a mile down Meeting Street to the porta potties at Marion square. Had a great prerace system flush. It was a chilly morning and I wanted to dress as little as possible but just could not leave my thick stocking cap behind.   Wait in line for bus in Calhoun street. Lot of police directing buses and people. It was like 6:40 am. Sat next to lady from Baltimore. With a group of 4 others.   It was her first race ever and the culmination of training that was of course difficult during winter. We rode over the bridge in the dark into Mount Pleasant. Could here official radio transmission and heard an official say "the bridge is now closed". Kind of a big deal. About 7:15 now and we finally get out of the bus. Walked a half mile or so and waited a long time for toilet. Walked past many corrals to get to mine. The seas of people was a visual experience. I've been to the Indianapolis 500 so I have seen and been in big crowds but not at a race I was in.  I read about huge events ( Boston, Chicago and NYC marathons) so I was not too shocked by all the weirdness and humanity I saw.   My corral C was one of the more forward corrals for the 45 to 60 minute groupings I think. I walked up as far to the front as I could within that corral. So crowded it was hard to work through. I ran in place to try and warm up my body. I remember the popular song Uptown Funk playing. I danced to it too. Just trying to warm up. Ate one of three gels with me about 7:50 am. At 8 am the elite group was counted down and released. A few minutes later the next level was released and so on. At about 8:09 am our group was started on the race. I felt like a football player trying not to be tackled as I ran around slower runners. My heart rate went too high too soon (upper 150's). I tried to get it down a little by backing off a little. Went past a band playing. As you stopped hearing them another band came into earshot. Up the ramp to the bridge and it was crowded and slowing down. I let my heart go up to 160 for the climb. After 10 minutes or so the wide open summit was reached. A good feeling. Headed down I kept passing people. We hit Meeting street and turned left or south. I took a cup of water and took a gulp. Paper cups were all over the street. I let my heart get back to about 160 as there was maybe 3 miles to go. Ran past the Churches Chicken restaurant on Line street where my daughter Jessica lived (with kristen there too). I wondered if they were still in bed or on the street as a spectator. Soon we turned and heard west to King Street and back south on it. The street was narrow so it was harder to pass but I managed. Lots of spectators now and a band playing along the way. My heart was up to 165 as I pushed harder with 1-1/2  or so miles to go. I was zoned in - very focused on pushing my pace upward to the end. As we turned onto a street headed east I felt there were only 3 minutes to go and the HR was at 168 to 175 now. Turning onto Meeting street and northbound I saw a very young person (12 years old?) go past me and I went all out to catch them. Heart climbed to 183 or so as I crossed the finish line. The highest I have seen it in a long time. We were told to keep moving down the street, no stopping, to allow runners to finish. So basically I continued to jog or walk fast. Spectators and runners clogged the entire area.  Made my way up to Marion Square where I walked around and got a muffin, a banana, a swag bag and continued to get more food  a few things. The sun was shining but I was getting cold. I called J and K and met them half way where upon I put on a jacket. The finishing time of 47:37 far exceeded my goal of 53 minutes. I guess that everything (my nutrition, training and the cool weather ) was ideal for the day.  Out of the over 27,000 doing the run I was 1227th. If I were to do the event again I might like to try for the 40 to 45 minutes group. So I would need to run a different 10k in under 45 minutes and prior to registering for next year. Not sure if is a goal I want to commit to yet.

Early March 2015

Months go by Been a while since last blog. I had the flu in January which really knocked me out My MTB has been disappointing after initial trips in the new bike. I got a slow leak flat and fixed it. Then it came back and the other tire went flat too. I need to fix them and get back on the trails. I've had some road biking, but no rides over 25 miles. Some Cold weather biking. Have a 10k running race at the end of March I have been training for. Need to complete it in under an hour. Been running that distance in under 9:30 pace so I should be ok. Main thing is to stay healthy and injury free. Swimming continues with no big distances like I might have thought. Usually a mile or less. My speed has been increasing with my swim last night (3/4/15) being perhaps my fastest 1000 yd swim of 9.3 minutes.

B2B video

Below is a video of B2B http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IYv_IOZgyI&sns=em

Late December 2014

Late December 2014 So I thought of doing a year in review writeup, but decided against it.  Just read the previous blogs. I haven't and maybe I should! Know I had some great training and events this year. Injuries came and went. The training waxed and wained. Ultra distance triathlon? No.  Ultra distance bikeathon? Yes.  Ending this month and year pretty strong. Lots of weak or slow weeks in September, October and November, but I never stopped altogether. An 8 mile run on Wednesday. On Thursday  (Xmas) a 47 mile ride and Friday- a 2 mile swim. All relatively long distances for me. Realized an event I'd like to do and I am off work. So likely to sign up for it.  Details after that registration occurs.  As stated before it is always a challenge to pick an event/adventure in advance and then train for it. Nice to do new ones and some repeats of old ones. Won't be doing Winter Challenge (trail run - kayak - mountain bike) this year due to work. I liked it and maybe 2016 will work out.  Main thing is to train and be injury free, even if it means being mediocre. 2015 what do you have in store for me? Destiny or free will?