July 12, 13, 15

Back in the saddle again. Still working the night shift. The townwide garage sale season has wound down a little bit, thus giving me an opportunity to get a few miles in. My work commute takes me near the I&M Canal Path so I have chosen to do a little riding in that area. I have ridden parts of this system between Channahon and Utica at different times including a 60+ mile ride from Morris to Utica and back.

Thursday morning I intended to start at the Hollywood Road access but the gate had not been opened by 5:30 AM so I found a spot to park in downtown Channahon. I used the Surly CC SS and rode from downtown Channahon to the Dresden Island Lock & Dam. The plan was to ride for 60 minutes. I managed about 13 miles. There's a short path from the main trail that leads over to the lock and dam. It's fenced off. There were 4 Turkey Vultures sitting up on the fence along the lock so I sat and watched them for a bit before heading back to the car.

Thursday morning went pretty well so I tried it again on Friday morning. This time I parked at the Bridge street access right along the tow path. My goal was to get 15 miles. I rode from Bridge street to Tabler road and back. Legs are starting to hurt a little bit. I decided to take a morning off and attempt a 20 miler on Sunday morning.

I definitely needed the rest and felt pretty good on Sunday morning. I have been seeing lots of wildlife on these early rides. I've seen several deer this week including an especially handsome trophy buck this morning. I estimated about 8 fuzzy points on a very nice symetrical rack. I have also spotted turtles, Blue Heron, Egrets, racoon, ducks, geese, rabbits, suirrels and even a river rat. Since the rides have been fairly short I've been trying to hydrate well before setting out each morning. This worked out fine. This morning's goal was 20 miles and I had no water to carry. I did not think it would be a problem to find water at one of the many picnic areas along the path. Early on I stopped at Mckinley Woods and pumped the squeaky handle for a good long time and came up dry. Once I hit the 10 mile projected turn around point, I decided to carry on a bit further west and search for a water source. Unsure of what the next town along the path might be, I started seeing houses along the path and eventually came out on a roadway in what appeared to be a residential area. As I was trying to figure out which direction might be the best option a couple of cyclist came around a blind turn in the roadway and directed me towards a gas station where I found a much needed Gatorade and a Snickers bar. I was in Morris Illinois. I found some shady steps in front of the Post Office and took a short break before heading back east. The search for water easily surpassed  my 20 mile goal and bumped me up to a 25 mile ride.

FRT Ride

I rode SWK on the Rockhound on Monday evening. I did'nt get started til after 6 pm but still managed a good 45 min. of ride time. I ran into a couple of riders from Ohio and shared a few micros with them while we chatted about bikes and such. Good people. There was a huge area of algae forming on the high side of the Colossus water crossing so I spent some time working that loose so the water could level out.

Today (Tuesday) I rode the FRT from Oswego to North Aurora and back. I rode the Surly SS into a slight headwind and took a break at the North Aurora bridge. On my way back I stopped at Pedal & Spoke and asked if they had any bike boxes available. They told me to stop back in in a few days. I enjoyed a nice tailwind all the way back to Oswego. Found several bike boxes at Mill Race Cyclery in Oswego after my ride. I probably had a good 90 min. of ride time.

I need to make provisions for a camera on my rides.

Rides of the Weak

I managed to get a couple of rides in this week. Both mountain bike rides at SWK Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm having a lot of ghost shifting issues with the Rockhound. I messed around with the adjustment quite a bit and I can get it close but never perfect. I have ordered 2 new 9 speed chains, one for the Rockhound and one for the GF. I'm also thinking that the springs are bad on the rear derailleur of the Rockhound so I'm probably gonna pull the trigger on a new Shimano LX RD sometime soon.

I did basically the same route both days. I started at the second parking lot and took CAMBr Freeway to Colossus, via JackRabbit, as Doppelganger is under construction. Did the Colossus loop and headed back to Vertical Velocity. VV to Boulder Dash to Anaconda and out. Wednesday I skipped Anaconda.

Thursday my legs were very sore.

There has been some discussion on the CAMBr Forums about doing an impromtu time trial on a short course at SWK. If it does'nt happened, I will do it on my own so that I can gauge my progress. Currently I cannot ride the entire park, nor can I ride very far without taking a break. My goals for this year will be to;

1) Ride entire park without stopping

2) Time improvements on a short TT course

3) Start a "Goals" page on this blog to track progress

There is a trail workday Saturday and my plan is to ride afterwards if the trails are dry enough.

SWK Hike

Hiked SWK today to scout out potential CAMBr trail work projects. I walked roughly 4-5 miles. Legs are sore today.

Spin

Did a spinning ride in the basement this morning. Ride time....30 minutes, crappy country music on the radio. Bad music on the spinner makes you think alot. While spinning today I'm thinking........if I can ride with some regularity (3 to 4 times a week) then I can bump it up to 45 minutes in mid March. By early April we should be able to do some outdoor rides and stretch the ride times to about an hour.

Spin

I've been trying to get myself back in the groove for quite some time unfortunately. It has been a struggle. I have ridden the spin bike maybe a dozen times since the first of the year and did a shakedown ride on the FRT in January as well. A shakedown ride is merely a ride taken to find any issues with a bike thats been worked on. In this case a 1983 Miyata 610 that has been designated as a daily rider. The axle was bent on the left pedal and the hubs needed repacking as this bike is nearly 30 years old. Those issues have since been addressed. I like the Miyata.

After about a 2 week layoff I finally got a 30 minute spin in this morning. Only 30 minutes due to poor fitness at this time. There is a 60 mile gravel ride at the end of May that I would like to do. I have a long ways to go so I would like to build on that 30 minutes.

Spinning rides take place in the basement. Sometimes listening to CD's, other times listening to the radio. Today it was WXRT. The plan in my mind ride now is to repeat this workout tomorrow morning.