Thursday, July 22, 2010

Hittin' the Streets

Gangster style! Well not really but heading out for the ABC group ride this evening. Hopefully I will get a good 35-40 mile workout in. I'm planning on riding the Sweet Corn Challenge this weekend with the MTB. Getting ready for Big Bear Lake in 2 weeks. :)

Happy Thursday!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

CGM, not again!

As I tried to piece my stomach to insert my continuous glucose monitor today it hit a tough spot in my stomach. The piece stopped half way in and half way out, the problem with that is you then have to manually push it in or say screw it and pull it out.

This is the lose, lose situation. Pushing it in is like trying to drive a spike through yourself, the needle is pretty big so it hurts both physically and mentally. Pulling it back out destroys the sensitive flexible sensor that is supposed to stay in your skin. Now you've just wasted $30. I choose option 1 so we'll see how this goes.

The good problem I have is that I've lost a considerable amount of weight eating healthy and cycling. Not that I was that big to begin with but dropping 15lbs. from 160 is enough to lose pretty much all of the extra fat on your body. I've had to buy new shorts this year because my old size 32 and 33 waists were so big I didn't have to unbutton to slide them off and now my pants are following suit. I can slide my full, clinched fist in between my stomach and belly facing out and still have room. I need to replace all of my jeans now that hang off of me. :(

Life is has it's complications whether you are tall, short, heavy or petite. :)

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Thank you fellow riders!

Thank you to all the folks who offered me a tube or to help me fix my flat tire on my trip back to my place! For everyone who passed and didn't say anything or laughed...well...I would have still offered you help if you were broken down.

My tire went flat about 2.5 miles into my ride. My stupid ass old MTB rims SUCK!!!! I'm throwing that shit away. I'll just swap tires on my new kick-ass Mavic rims if I want to ride the MTB slicks on the road. However, the WTB Graffiti tire was strong enough to hold on the rim and let me keep a 7mph pace back home instead of hoofing it. Obviously I didn't care for the rim at that moment.

Bottom line, swapped wheels, back out by 6:30pm and got 27 miles in! Can't hold me down! :)

Friday, July 9, 2010

Group Ride Fun and Pissing People Off!!!

So, I showed up at the regular Thursday night Akron Bike Club group ride sporting my 26 pound Trek Fuel EX 8. I got plenty of funny looks from all of the shaved legged roadies on there carbon fiber rigs waiting to eat me alive! I loved every minute of it and on top of that I wore my Red Riders jersey so everyone new I was a diabetic. It was pretty warm yesterday making me nervous as to whether or not I could keep the road pace, even though I have switched out my tires to use my dirt jump slicks.

We headed out and around in the valley, much to my surprise I was in the lead group of about 5 riders or so. They would try to speed up and I was right with them. People would try to pass me and nudge me out of line and I wouldn't let them, I even took my turns pulling at the front. Then came the first hill and up I went, this is where I felt the heat. My heart rate danced at about 192 bpm! Finally at the top I was the 4th person to finish out of 20!

From there we cruised around the top of the valley before dropping back in at Boston Mills road. We cruised on Riverview Road for a little while before heading back to the parking lot. A few guys peeled off to add some more hills to their day the rest were heading back. I kindly said goodbye at the 303 interaction so I didn't have to ride to the lot to ride back to go home.

The stunned crowd asked, "You rode here???". Heck yeah! Jaws were agape when I said maybe next week I'll bring my road bike! lol!

The final summary was 33 miles at a 17.08 mph pace. If I didn't chill out on the way home my pace for the fist 25 miles was 17.8mph. I was asked no less than 4 times to please stop making people look back. They can buy a MTB for group rides if they want to kick-ass as well! :)

Happy Friday!!!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

My July

July has been great so far! Had a crazy busy holiday weekend and now I'm settling in for some training during the dog days of summer! I have some races and whatnots coming up:

July 18: MTB Time Trial at The Thorn
July 25: OMBC Race at Alum Creek SP
Aug 7: Big Bear Lake MTB Ultra (50 miles)
Sept 18: 12 Hours of Mohican
Sept 25: West Branch SP

I'll keep myself busy in between! Tonight I'm taking my MTB with slicks on to the Akron bike club ride. I'll either show the roadies what's up or embarrass myself! :)