My strategy for consumption during Halloween

Cathi set a goal to not eat ANY candy this Halloween. I don't think I can go quite that far, but my strategy is to chew every piece of candy in small pieces, also considering let the chocolate melt in my mouth rather than just down the candy in large amounts.

If you take it slow and take smaller bites, it will last longer and/or will result in less candy being eaten.

Plus I'll be swimming/biking like a madman on Saturday to burn most of the calories taken in on Friday.

Stopped at Bike Wagon's warehouse

Yesterday morning I emailed Dale Majors. He's my friend from my ward growing up that plays at the club on Fridays. He started a business many years ago called bikewagon.com. I emailed him asking about some winter shoes for riding in. He said I should try some windproof covers for the shoes I have. I stopped by his warehouse on the way home at 2100 N. Redwood Road in SLC and I was surprised how big his business really is. He gave me a good price on the shoe covers as well as some gloves.

The ride home the rest of the way was good:

Distance: 31.2 miles
Time: 1:38
Avg Speed: 19.1 mph

I tried the gloves and shoe covers this morning and the shoe covers were good, but the gloves were not. By the time I was 4 miles into the ride my hands were already freezing. I even put my thick leather biking gloves over the top and still froze. I ended up stopping at the Farmington station and taking Frontrunner the rest of the way. My hands were so cold. Guess I'll have to stick with my goretex winter gloves. They're thick and air proof.

So today's ride was much less than I wanted. Plus I can't remember exactly what I did, but I hit the inside of butt against the top of the frame and have a sore bum. I'm behind on hours this week cause of the riding in to work, so I'm going to have to take the FrontRunner home and bike from the Layton station. With Halloween tomorrow, I can't rely on Friday being a makeup day on hours. Need to get home at a decent time so the kids can have plenty of time trick or treating.

Stats:
Distance 13.7 miles
Time: 51:12
Avg Speed: 15.67 mph

Took frontrunner to Layton and then booked it home:

Distance: 6.1 Miles
Time: 16:55
Avg Speed: 21.64 mph

Riding in the dark

I've ridden in the dark before. It isn't fun, but usual the real pitch black darkness only lasts for an hour or so cause I don't leave too early. Well today I left at 5:30 and it was dark almost the entire time. It was terrible. I had to deal with the huge glare of oncoming cars headlights when I was on the east side of Legacy Highway in Bountiful. That made seeing the yellow stripes on the trail very difficult, so I had to slow way down so I could feel comfortable with where I was going. I didn't want to ride off the trail when it curves.

Why is it colder just before the sun comes up? The temperature was pleasant until I got to South Bountiful. There was a light blue hue right above the horizon of the mountains. In Farmington I replaced my winter gloves with my bike gloves because my hands were too warm. But when I got to South Bountiful I had to switch back to my winter gloves. My feet this time didn't get numb till I got to South Bountiful too.

Distance: 31.0 miles
Time: 1:53
Avg Speed: 16.46 mph

Terrible performance, but it was cold and dark so I'm not gonna get upset with that. Should have a much better ride home. Get to leave at 3:30 pm so it should be nice.

Still cold

I put duct tape over the hole in my shoe and in the main vents in the toe, which was better, but still had very cold feet this morning. Everything else was warm. Need to look into winter bike shoes cause Bikers edge didn't have any shoes without the holes and vents.

Distance:31.0 miles
Time: 1:43
Avg Speed: 18.06

Bike home was much better:

Distance: 31.0 miles
Time: 1:34
Avg Speed: 19.79 mph

It was warm this afternoon. Had to pull my sleeves up on my peppers. No wind to deal with and went hard.

New 5000 M Rowing PR - 19:51.5

Feeling the need to push it again on exercise and diet, at lunch today I did 5000 M rowing in 19:51.5.

That's a new PR. I watched this video a couple weeks back and figured the biggest "no-no" I'm guilty of is the recover/catch phase by coming too far to my feet and put a strain on my knees, so I tried to focus on only bending my knees to just less than 90 degrees, but I still had several moments where I forgot and over did my recovery so that my butt would hit my heels. Trying to do better on form and slow down and put more power into each stroke.

Then I did 5 minutes of abs then some arms:

Seated Preacher Curls: 4 x 12 @ 75 (After the sets, hold 90 degrees for 10 seconds, do another rep, then hold at 90 for 10 more seconds, one more rep, then done)

Skull Crushers: 4 x 12 @ 75
superset with
Close Grip Tricep Presses (fast): 4 x 12 @ 75

Good workout.

Riding out of guilt

Last night I went camping with the 12 yr old scouts. I ate so many s'mores!!!! I pigged out. So I figured I ought to go on a decent ride when I got back this afternoon. The weather was awesome so I rode out to Garr Ranch and back including the extra loop out to the Visitors Center. Great ride:

Distance: 50.1 miles
Time: 2:40
Avg Speed:18.79

That's better

The ride home was quite a bit warmer, but still requiring several layers. No freezing body parts.

Distance: 30.8 Miles
Time: 1:38
Avg Speed: 18.86 mph

Had to hurry home so I could make it in time for Jacob's pack meeting.

Freezing!

This morning I put on many layers of clothing as well as two pairs of socks. I wore my winter gloves instead of my bike gloves, I also wore my Survivor buff around my nose mouth and ears.

Everything was perfect except my feet were still freezing. I think it's cause they have holes in the bottom (for when you need water to drip out after getting out of the open water in a triathlon, even though my feet are totally dry by the time I start my bike) and air vents in the toe for allowing air.

I'm gonna stop at bikers edge and get a new pair of shoes for the winter so I can have no air flow going around my feet. That should do the trick! I had no wind at all until Centerville and then had to deal with a 5-10 mph headwind which really slowed me down. I had ice on my GPS and around the opening of my water bottle. Next time I should put some heavy cream, some fruit and sugar in my water bottle and have a tasty treat when I get in to the office.

Distance: 30.6 miles
Time: 1:50
Avg Speed: 16.7 mph

Miscommunication

My GPS was out of batteries at the start so I stopped at a Maverick a couple blocks from work to get some new batteries. A very nicely dressed Hispanic woman came up to me and here's how the conversation went:

Hispanic Woman: "Green house?"
Gords: "Green house? OK?"
HW: "Yes, Green house" (looking around)
Gords: "You're looking for a green house?"
HW: "Uh, Bath? Find Bath."
Gords(Confused): "Your looking for some plants, or a green house to take a shower?"
HW(Frustrated): "No, Bath! B - U - S
Gords: "Oh! Bus! Your looking for a bus?"
HW (Still annoyed): "Yes! Bath!"
Gords (thinking frantically what a Bus and a green house have in common, then a couple electons crashed into each other in my brain and sparked a possible connection): "You mean Grey Hound? Not Green House right?"
HW(new look of hope on her face): "Yes!"
Gords: "The Greenhouse (Greyhound) station is down four blocks (Holding up four fingers and pointing south), then West 4 blocks. The address is 200 S. and 650 W."

She then gets in her truck and drives off. I had to laugh how that conversation went. I'm a bit of a bonehead.

My bike stats:

Distance: 30.6 miles
Time: 1:40
Average Speed:18.36

Excellent!

This morning I rode in to work. I had a 15-20 mph tailwind going south which was fantastic. The wind wasn't that cold. My black peppers kept my temp just right. I talked with Dale Majors last Friday at the club and told him about the tiny pinhole of paint that had come off the bottom of my frame and he said to fill it with red fingernail polish. I did that this morning and it filled in nicely. Hopefully that prevents it from spreading. When I turned my bike over to do that the straw from my aerodrink came out and I forgot to put it back in so the ride in this morning I had to undo the bottle to get water which was inconvenient.

The breeze south was fantastic and really helped my speed:

Distance: 30.5 Miles
Time: 1:43
Avg Speed:22.05 mph

At lunch today, nobody showed up for table tennis so I took the opportunity to run outside to the bank: 1.2 miles in 11 minutes.

Last minute ride

Got really antsy to go ride this afternoon at work. So I left early so I could go out to Antelope Island for a decent ride. Rode out to the Marina, back to the entrance, then turned around back to the Marina then home. Was able to keep a nice cadence with the tempo of this song. Felt like I was out on the salt flats going faster than the speed of sound, even though I was only going around 21 mph.

Distance: 37.1 Miles
Time: 1:50
Avg Speed: 20.24 mph

Nice ride. My GPS and MP3 both died about 5 miles from home.

Tricep spasms

This morning I got up and put on my Black Chili undies for the cold ride in to work.

Distance: 31.6 miles
Time: 1:45
Avg Speed: 18.06 mph

What was weird as it got colder as I got closer to Salt Lake. Just before the sun came up was the worst. My toes were like ice cubes when I took off my socks. Not many more days I can do this.

I'm at my desk and my triceps are spasming big time! Its like their getting a workout when I use my aerobars. Although I don't know how. They aren't tired or under any strain when I ride that I'm aware of, but it sure seems like it the way they've been firing. They always seem to do that when I get some good miles in.

The ride home was just as cold or even colder. Had a vicious headwind going home so it was pretty slow. They finished paving the rest of Gentile so I took that instead of going all the way up to Gordon so that will cut about .75 miles off my ride each way now. Here was the stats going home:

Distance: 30.75
Time: 1:48
Average Speed: 17.1 mph

Joining the ranks of Brady, Duane and Bryan

Got off work early since I started really early. Was home at 4:30. Called Duane to see if he could ride but he wasn't there, plus it dawned on me that he is coaching a winning football team, so his season isn't over yet. So I went out to antelope island by myself and bought one of those year passes. Now I'm hardcore like Brady Allred, Duane Ralphs and Teri and Bryan Child.

So I biked out to Garr ranch and back. Here's the stats:

Distance: 46.8 miles
Time: 2:25
Avg Speed: 19.37 mph

Was cramping up every once in a while in my calf muscles. There were also several encounters with Buffalo really close to the road. I wonder if they've ever charged a biker before. A few that I encountered were a little spooked of me and ran away from the road as I got nearer, while others held their ground and I was worried they were going to go on the offensive on me, but I was fine.

I also worried about getting locked in. I was a good hour before sunset when I got out of there, but I thought of Brady's situation where the gate was locked. What do you do? You can't just throw your bike over the top and keep going. I need to ask Brady some details about the park.

It was a good ride. Looking forward to many more rides out there now that I've got a pass and have to use it up the best I can. Don't want the expense of $40 to not be well used.

Another 5000 M row

A little sore from yesterday's rowing as well as Monday's Bench exercises, I went ahead with another 5000 M rowing session at noon which I did under 20:00 (19:58) which is twice now under 20 minutes.

It's tough to meet that 20 minute goal. Really tough.

Did a good session of abs for about 15 minutes afterward.

New Rowing PR

Today I went down to the Garden Level of Tomax and rowed like an animal:

5000 M in 19:52. That broke my old record by 17 seconds. The key is to not take so many drinks. Last time I took three quick drink breaks. This time I only took one.

Afterwards I did some ab work for a few minutes and then lifted biceps:

Seated Preacher Curls: 2 x 12 @ 75
Standing Preacher Curls: 2 x 12 @ 75
Pullups: 8

Worked out for an hour total

Chest

Flat Bench: 15 @ 135, 8 @ 155, 2 x 8 @ 165, 15 @ 135
DB Flys: 4 x 12 @ 30

Put on my 50" Bench shirt just for kicks, and its as loose as an old T-shirt. Absolutely useless as a bench shirt for me now. Should sell it on e-bay.

Results of Pocatello to Syracuse Ride - 162 miles in 9:28

Cathi dropped me off at Grandma and Grandpa's house last night. We visited for a couple hours and I went to bed. The night's sleep was great, but it seemed like it went too fast. I got up had a bowl of cereal and left @ 6:15am. I was frustrated with how I couldn't really see the road too good even though I had a bright headlight. I missed one turn and had to backtrack a little. The temperature was warmer than I thought so about 30 minutes into the ride I stripped off all my long black pepper under clothes and wrapped them up nicely around my frame.

I was surprised how hilly it was. It was tough. I was able to build up my average speed to 17.2 mph at one point and it went back down at several points but I ended up at 17.1 mph.

When I arrived at Preston I stopped at several places to take pictures of Napolean Dynamite places. I included those in the video below. Had lunch at Logan's Heroes at the south end of Main Street. Had a very tasty sandwich. Had a stomach ache for about a half hour after that cause it was a big sandwich. Felt better though and started heading up the monster hill going to Brigham City. When I got to the top I was happy knowing that the rest of the ride was totally down hill. I got some serious speed the rest of the way and was able to take my average speed from 16.4 to 17.1 by the time I got home.

Cathi and the kids had set up a couple posters and were jumping up and down yelling "Yah Dad!" and stuff. It was nice to see them waiting for me in the front and happy to see me finish. I was able to really book it once I got to Roy. I had an accommodating tailwind from that point on. Was going over 23 mph down Gordon. Nice finish! Click the image below for a video.
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