Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Eve: Ten Cool (Freezing) Miles

Today's Accurate Tracking

I've missed the last couple days getting in my aerobic riding.  I really notice a slowdown in my energy level when I don't ride, even though I'm normally occupied bending and lifting (i.e., CUTTING FIREWOOD) when I fail to ride.
We got most of our running around done by noonish today and I determined to take at least a short ride before we went into ABQ to stuff ourselves at our son's Christmas Eve sociable gathering at his home.
As our road is still a bit muddy in spots, I racked the recumbent 2-wheeler on the SUV's bike rack and drove it down to the pavement to ride.  We got a little over an inch of new snow Sunday night but this time instead of just letting it melt, I cranked up the Ford tractor and plowed the slight snow off the dirt goat-path as best I could.  I find when I do that, even though it doesn't completely clear the road of snow, what little is left melts more rapidly and leaves much less mud and muck in its wake.
The sun was shining brightly this afternoon and still by the time I got rolling on the bike, but it went down rapidly and left me a bit breathless with the nippy temperatures.
I tend to think I'm going to get out and ride with plenty of sun, but this time of year the days are so short that if I take off after 2:30 or 3:00 PM, the sun slithers quickly over the Sandias and off somewhere to the west and it gets fairly dark by 4:00 and downright dark, requiring lights, by 5:00 PM.  Plus, the disappearance of the sun also means a disappearance of what little warmth there may have been when I foolishly started riding.
One of the things we spent precious time on today in "town" was finding a sporty-goods store with a decent selection of winter mittens and gloves.  Mine were several years old and getting perforated with wear, allowing too much cold breeze inside my mittens and around my freezing fingers.  We finally found a good but pricey pair of combination mittens, with a fold-back pocket to expose the fingers for working shift levers, radio knobs, and other important things, at  Sportsman's Warehouse .
They came in very handy for this afternoon's ride, since it was fairly cold, and my hands stayed quite toasty with these new mittens in spite of the rest of me being a bit overly cool.
My chain and shifters seemed very squirrelly today, and I wondered if it was because of the cold making the grease and chain oil not lube correctly.  Who knows.....
The riding was quite nice except for the occasional patch of snow and ice extending across the bike lane and into the roadway.  Naturally enough, most of the times I encountered these patches, cars were roaring up behind me at the same time.  Since I don't trust my life to car drivers behavior that much on totally dry roads, I'm a bit gun-shy about doing so with complications of ice that would force me out in the roadway to avoid them. If I had been on one of our trikes I would have just bounced over the ice, but on 2 wheels it's just too dicey for me.

I got back home just before dark and with barely enough time to change clothes and head for the Christmas Eve feast......

Ride Started: 3:16 PM    Ride Ended:  4:43 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest: 13.0
Lowest Temp  27 F      Highest Temp:  39 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.13
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
 6.9 MPH                                  8.9 MPH                     28.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 27 mins                     1 hour 8 mins             20 minutes

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Ten Miles, Different Route

Today's Different Tracking

We've gotten a couple inches of snow the last day-and-a-half, but it's been so warm it's melted almost as soon as it hits the ground. 
I knew our goat-path road would be muddy and sloppy, so I decided to rack the bike and take it down to the pavement and ride from there.
I hadn't counted on just HOW sloppy and nasty our road was, and I was unpleasantly surprised to find gobs of mud plastered on the recumbent's rear wheel when I stopped at the Post Office.  I decided to ride from there and take a different route up North-14, but first I had to take a wet-wipe and wipe the muck off the rear wheel so it wouldn't jam up the brake caliper.
I thought I'd just take a ride north past the Hi-Price Paa-Ko subdivision and when I got to 5 miles on the GPS odometer, I'd turn around and thus make a basic 10-mile ride.
I've ridden this route many times before, but it's been a while.  The highway between Cedar Crest and Paa-Ko is nice and wide, but the shoulder comes and goes.  Plus this road is a high-speed thoroughfare and I'm not sure how many cyclists ride it, since most autos passing seemed impatient and surprised.
What is even more aggravating about New Mexico roadways is the way the road narrows when bridges and overpasses are encountered.  Not only does the roadway usually shrink in width, but the overpasses and bridges have guard rails that force cyclists to ride farther into  the traffic lanes than I like.
This route is not terribly hilly.  The hills are long but slight until you get farther north toward Golden and Madrid, and I didn't ride that far.
Even though I was getting irritated at how close most cars were passing me, I was pleasantly surprised when I stopped for a snack break on the way back:
A well dressed, smartly groomed fellow who looked like a lawyer or politician, driving a Saab, slowed down and stopped to ask if everything was OK and did I need anything.  I told him I had no problems and thanked him profusely and he turned into the exclusive Paa-Ko community and drove on.
Even though the route was easy, the traffic wasn't.  I recalled as I rode along what happened almost a year ago when I previously rode here:  A truck coming up behind me pulled into the oncoming lane to give me clearance, which was nice.  Unfortunately, a car was coming at him head-on and laid on his horn, and they almost collided.  Of course the correct thing to do in such a situation is to SLOW DOWN, stay BEHIND the offending cyclist, and pass when the oncoming lane is clear.  Of course 99.97% of motorists never think of such a thing or are much too important to allow some clown on a slow moving cycle to impede their progress, even for a few seconds.
Another mis-step was leaving so late for the ride.  It was almost totally dark when I got back to the gas-burner vehicle, and while I have good lights front and back, it's dangerous enough riding in the daylight....
I've gotten a bit spoiled with the wide shoulders and wide, marked bike lanes available elsewhere in these East Mountains.  Even if it gets repetitive and boring, I'm not eager to try this route again.

Ride Started: 3:41 PM    Ride Ended:  5:13 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest: 13.0
Lowest Temp  31 F      Highest Temp:  39 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.31
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
 6.7 MPH                                 9.0 MPH                     27.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 32 mins                     1 hour 8 mins             23 minutes

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Thank God for Hand Warmers

Same Old Same Old Track Today

The sun failed to burn away the murky clouds today so it stayed pretty cold, although yesterday's high winds were thankfully absent.
So, in fear of snow coming in tonight and coating the roads with ice and snow tomorrow, I decided to ride again today, just in case.
Yesterday was so cold I tried to be better prepared today.  I dug out the ski mittens, which are great for keeping the pinkies warm but terrible for shifting and making it impossible to work any radio/GPS knobs.  Dug out the polar fleece skull cap Jacque made for me several years ago, and opened up a package of hand warmers and popped one into each mitten.  I also wore an extra layer: a thermal vest.  Ah, yes, and I cannot fail to mention the fleece lined cargo pants Jacque bought for me a few weeks ago.  My legs normally don't worry much about the cold;  they are pumping along and have the normal big veins which keep the warm blood flowing in the lower extremities.  None of which explains why it's so hard to keep the feet warm.
The basic laws of bike physics, especially on a recumbent, are that the feet are out front facing the wind ahead of everything else.  While the pumping legs stay warm, the feet can get numb even in warm weather during long rides - and they can get really cold riding in cooler weather.  I'm wearing leather boots during these cold months, which keeps the wind from penetrating inside the feet, but I'll start wearing double wool socks soon.  AND dig out the muk-luk insulated boots.
As I rode along I stayed pretty well zipped up and comfy until I started up the first long hill going east.  I got so warm I had to stop and remove the windbreaker outer layer, and left it off the rest of the ride, or about 2/3 of the entire distance. 
People always ask how cyclists stay warm enough riding in cold weather, and the answer is simple:  CYCLING provides the heat, and even in the coldest weather it's all too easy to get TOO hot, for me especially around the arms, torso, and head.  Sweat begins to build up, which then REALLY gets cold, even with wicking fabric layers close to the skin, and then riding is a weird sensation of too cold in some spots and too hot in others.  I find it easier dealing with being slightly too cold for comfort, because then I stay relatively warmer because I'm not sweating.  It's not too easy to balance all this, depending on temperature, humidity, wind, hills, etc.
Riding has its rewards, though, so it's usually worth it to brave the elements and ride ANYWAY.
When I stopped at my halfway take-a-break spot, I tried to take a blood glucose reading with my meter and it popped up a "LOW T" message instead of allowing me to apply a blood droplet to the test strip.  I tried warming the little meter in my armpit twice, but it still refused to allow the test and again repeated the "LOW T" thing so I just ate my snack-cookies without permission from the blood tester.
The haze and  cloudiness also prevented my latest toy from working to any benefit:  the front mounted solar panel. Too bad they haven't invented a device that converts COLD to electricity.....

Ride Started: 3:04 PM    Ride Ended:  4:49 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.6   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest: 13.0
Lowest Temp  31 F      Highest Temp:  35 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.52
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.9 MPH                               7.7 MPH                     26.8 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 46 mins                     1 hour 22 mins           24 minutes

Monday, December 15, 2014

Cool (BRRR!) Running

Today's Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio

It snowed over the weekend so I had a good excuse not to ride the bike Sunday, in  addition to the fact I rarely ride on Sunday anyway.
The snow today, Monday, is mostly gone:
Smiled This Time

But the breeze blowing across the slowly melting snow is, to put it mildly, rather cold.  I think it was the coldest day I've ridden in so far this year.  Thank goodness the roads were mostly dry.  To ride in even colder weather, coming soon, I will have to add another layer..... And wear my Polar Fleece skullcap under my helmet.  Today I only started to perspire while climbing the longest hill, just past Vallecitos Road turnoff, eastbound on Frost Road.  I peeled off the outer windbreaker to climb that hill and then put it back on when I topped out.  The wind had gotten stronger and colder and I did not peel anything off for the rest of the ride.
It was not only cold.  The winds got really nasty as I rounded the 4-mile loop at the other end of this particular favorite route, and when I stopped for a snack and water break at the Entranosa junction I had to lean against the bike while parked to keep it from blowing over.  I just spent almost 30 bucks on a new Mirrycycle rear view mirror to replace the latest one to  suffer a breakage from the bike blowing over.  The drinking water in the bottle was sooper cold, my snack cookies were cold and hard, and it was not that enjoyable of a break.
When I arrived back at the house I used up a ton of hot water standing in the shower cooking the chill out of my bones.  I've often ridden in much worse weather, but I gotta start riding while the sun is highest, not only for the better warmth from the sun but the better insolation (sunlight exposure on my front mount solar panel).

Ride Started: 2:48 PM    Ride Ended:  4:34 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest: 13.0
Lowest Temp  35 F      Highest Temp:  46 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.54
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.0 MPH                               8.0 MPH                     28.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 46 mins                     1 hour 19 mins           26 minutes

Friday, December 12, 2014

Just Another Ten Miles

Today's Impressive Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio

Son John is still here but still having trouble acclimatizing hisself to the higher altitude here after living in Washington State the last couple of years.  So my invitation to ride with me was demurred, and I took off by myself, as usual.
I didn't ride yesterday but I did spend some time finally getting around to installing a small solar panel on the 2-wheel recumbent in hopes of it being able to keep my electronics running longer by keeping the charge level at least a bit higher on the battery pack.
The current system, where I remove the pannier containing the battery and charge it after every ride, allows several hours of operation without external power.  I'd like to set it up so it could run all day - at least on sunny days.
View from the Front
The panel is a 8 watt unit, glass surface mounted on a chrome metal plate.  I mounted it with a foam pad between it and the bike rack underneath, and it still rattles a bit when bouncing along our goat path mile of road between the pavement and the house.  I'll probably figure out a better shock-mount for it.  For now, so far so good.
View from the Driver's Seat

 The bike sat outside in the sun most of the day, parked but with all the electronics plugged into the solar panel and operating.  The voltage was maintained at a steady 13.1 volts all day.  Of course it started sagging a bit when I was riding it because (1) it was late with less sunshine available and (2) I was transmitting occasionally with the voice ham radio (Kenwood TH-F6A).  I'll have to ride earlier in the day with total sunshine to see how it does then.....
Dang, I forgot to smile.  I LIKE biking..
I again took off about an hour before dark, meaning it was almost totally dark by the time I got back home.  As winter wears on, it will get darker earlier and this behavior of mine will have to be modified.  I don't ride after dark unless necessary for whatever reason, even though I have decent lighting on board.
On the way around the loop, on the return leg, there is  a downhill run almost a mile long, and a very nice family with lots of kids lives there.  Almost every day one or more of the family is outside when I cruise by at the highest speeds of the entire ride (downhill with a tailwind!), and today was no exception.  I always wave and holler at them when I pass, and I always get a big wave back.  FunStuff.

Ride Started: 3:19 PM    Ride Ended:  4:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2   Ending Voltage: 13.0  Lowest: 12.7
Lowest Temp  46 F      Highest Temp:  57 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.28
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.0 MPH                               8.8 MPH                     27.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 28 mins                      1 hour 10 mins           17 minutes

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Afternoon Riding with Son John

TST (Today's Spotty Tracking)

Today's APRS tracking was "spotty" since the only reliable Igate here in the East Mountains (Mine) was locked up - evidently from a power blinkage - this afternoon and recorded no positions from the radio input.  Thus only  a few positions and less than half our ride was relayed to the other Igates in the area via Sandia Crest.
Our oldest son John has been visiting and staying with us for the last couple of days, and he actually brought his own bike with him on the back of his car.    We've been TALKING about doing a joint ride and today we finally did it.
It's always great to have a cycling buddy, even if we weren't perfectly matched.  He, being 20 years younger, would gain on me while climbing hills and most of the time I would fly by him going downhill and on most of the straight-'n-level runs.  Just coasting, my recumbent bike is faster than his DF (Diamond Frame), and I suspect it is mainly because I'm lying back more horizontally and pushing less wind than he does sitting upright on his upright bike.
We received many friendly honks and waves from motorized passers-by.  We left well after 3 PM and in this area that means more passing cars due to so many worker bees getting off early who work at Sandia National Laboratory.
As we made the last turn at about the halfway point, turning back toward home, the sun was falling fast and the temperature was doing likewise.  I was wearing my summer open-finger cycling gloves and had left my windbreaker at home so I had no additional layer to put on as the cold advanced, so I was pretty chilly by the time we got to our goat-path mile of road from the pavement to the house.
This is really great weather for riding, what with the lack of high winds and cool temperatures keeping us mostly comfy while riding.

Ride Started: 3:30 PM    Ride Ended:  4:55 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  42 F      Highest Temp:  60 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.51
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.3 MPH                               8.4 MPH                     30.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 26 mins                      1 hour 15 mins           10 minutes

Monday, December 8, 2014

Sunny Funny Runny

Today's Boring Tracking

I started to run out of daylight today, as usual, even though it was a beautiful sunny day all day.  What with the Government messing around with Daylight Time and Mountain Standard Time, I really miss the later afternoon sun we used to get before we were forced to switch back to Mountain Standard.  It gets dark now about 4:30 or so and a few minutes earlier every day, it seems, so it doesn't pay for me to put off bike riding until "later in the day".
I'm working on a hinged mount for a Solar Panel to hang on the back of my cargo basket in the rear but so far have just gathered up the panel itself and a couple of aluminum brackets with which to make the mounts.  I'd hoped to get that all mounted today and do a test run to see how the battery charged but I was running low on "emergency peanut butter chocolate chip cookies" and spent a couple hours in the middle of the day pounding out another 3 dozen of those guys.  They are "Emergency Cookies" since I use them, 3 per pack, in sandwich ziplok baggies, to carry with me on bike rides.  I occasionally use them for other emergencies (get hungry for a snack a few times a day!) as well.
So Jacque had a birthday card going out, which she forgot to take to the Post Office, so I used that for my excuse to "do something with the bike" and "go somewhere".  Much easier to thus be motivated instead of just "going for a ride", which also is a great excuse as well.
I 'planned' at first to continue the ride for a few extra miles but we have company at home, plus the daylight shortage thing, so I just went to the P.O. and back.  The muddy goat-path road to our house has dried up mostly now, so I was able to ride the bike all the way without benefit of burning any dead dinosaur fuel.  Which shows markedly in my much lower overall and moving average speeds.
Riding the bike uphill in grandma gear and walking it up the steepest 3/8 or so of hills really knocks a hole in the blazing speeds recorded by the GPS....

Ride Started: 2:57 PM    Ride Ended:  4:08 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.1       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  53 F      Highest Temp:  54 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.68
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  3.6 MPH                               7.0 MPH                     25.8 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 34 mins                     48 minutes                 43 minutes

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Fun Run Sans Sun

Today's Pretty Good Tracking

I stole a bit more time to ride around today and got a few more miles under my  belt.  The weather was cool and cloudy but it was decent riding weather.  (It started sprinkling later after the sun went down and I was already safely home.)
The hardest part of the ride was the long slow climb west to the Post Office where I picked up the mail, of all things.  I then rode back east past our turnoff down to the 4-mile loop around Entranosa and Mountain Valley Road.  I had to be home no later than 4 PM so we could attend our church Christmas Party and I hoped to make it by 3:30 or so to allow a bit more time to clean up and change clothes.
I was watching my handlebar-mounted clock so I could turn around wherever I had arrived by 3 PM and get back.
Again I drove the recumbent 2-wheeler down to the pavement, as the goat-path drive is still a tad muddy.
The sun never really showed itself today but it wasn't freezing, just cool enough to keep the 3 layers on for the first half of the ride.
When I got to the Post Office I was fairly well warmed up and took off my windbreaker outer layer while I went inside.  I was still warm when I remounted the bike but I knew the mostly downhill mile or more going back east would produce my highest speeds of the day's ride as well as the highest wind chill, so I put the windbreaker back on for those next couple of miles.  After leveling out I began to get warmed again, even a bit over heated.  I stopped and removed the windbreaker for the rest of the ride.  I got a little too cool for several minutes during the ride around but the absorbent wicking-fabric inner layer kept me dry and mostly comfortable.  I was passed by a couple other cyclists so I wasn't the only crazy rider out today.

Man, did it feel GREAT to be out getting the old blood circulating again.  Every time I go through one of these gaps in regular riding, and start riding again, I am reminded why it's so wonderful to ride a bike.  Even though I get tired and winded, after the first few miles I just feel so ALIVE and energized.  Supposedly internal endorphins are released into the blood stream during aerobic exercise, leading to mild euphoria or just plain feeling good, in my case.
I arrived at the halfway point of my desired loop with a few minutes to spare, so I was able to continue the full loop without having to shorten the ride by turning around early.

Ride Started: 1:47 PM    Ride Ended:  3:28 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.4       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  46 F      Highest Temp:  49 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  12.93
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.4 MPH                               9.5 MPH                     28.9 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
 1 hour 44 mins                     1 hour 21 mins            23 minutes

Short Short SHORT Ride

Today's REALLY Short Tracking

Much too long since riding, again.  Helped a friend with some carpentry work on his house for several days, which is one excuse.
Yesterday, Friday, we had an all-afternoon  commitment but I was determined to ride at least a few miles.  We had an all day rain Thursday so our goat-path road was soggy and boggy so I didn't want to ride the bike through that sludge.  Mounted the bike rack on the Ford Exploder and drove the recumbent 2-wheeler down to the pavement and rode from there a few precious miles.  I was very short on time and was stoking along when the cell phone rang.  It was a good friend I needed to talk to so I couldn't just cut it short and hang up and ride.  I sat stopped on the side of the road for a few minutes yakking and then took off riding one-handed for a mile or so, still on the phone.  Not too safe but somehow I avoided any problems and turned around after only a mile and a half, as I needed to get back and get dressed for our afternoon LDS temple work.  I was again shocked at how quickly I "lose my legs" when I don't ride regularly.

Ride Started: 10:36 AM    Ride Ended:  11:04 AM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.4       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  42 F      Highest Temp:  52 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.05
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.4 MPH                               8.6 MPH                     25.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
28 minutes                             21 minutes                 7 minutes

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Trike-ing Through the Snow....

TTT (Today's Trike Tracking)

Well, there wasn't a WHOLE lot of snow we pedaled through, but even a little is not too enjoyable, especially frozen into a hard crust.
I was waffling this afternoon about whether to sneak in at least a short bike ride when Jacque, out  of the blue, said: "It's 3:30 and beautiful out.  Why don't we ride the trike to the Post Office and pick up the mail?"  Which sounded like a great idea to me, even though I knew the hour was late.  Ignoring my recent late afternoon experiences, we saddled up the trike for the ride.  By the time we actually got rolling it was after 4 PM, and it gets pretty dark by 5 PM nowadays, and nastily colder starting around 3 PM.
Man, did it ever seem COLD this afternoon.  And SLOW.  The cold seemed to sap our strength and it was a struggle to keep moving.  We made several rest stops along the short but difficult climb to the P.O. and still struggled.  About halfway up the road Jacque noticed something rubbing and making noise in the back as we downshifted to Granny Gear, the lowest of the low gears of our theoretical 27 combinations.  We stopped and found the derailleur was rubbing the tire when in the largest rear  gear, meaning the derailleur was extended the most, normally barely clearing the ground in this gear.  Now it was rubbing the rear tire and leaving a mark on the sidewall.  The tire looked a bit low in pressure, making it sag outward on the bottom,  so I dug the CO2 cartridge inflator gun out of the tool pouch on the pannier and used the last few PSI, inflating the tire noticably.  It still seemed to touch the derailleur but not as badly or noisily.  By the time I got everything packed back up in the pannier, it was almost dark.  Did I mention it was cold?  Neither of us seemed to have much energy and we wondered aloud at our sanity at riding this late in a cold day.  I felt like I was getting a bit low on blood glucose but didn't want to stop and check it until we got to the Post Office, where I could check all that out whilst Jacque went inside to retrieve the mail.  During our tire-inflation stop we had noticed the girls,  Tink and Jazzy, were shivering.  Jacque took Tink out of her harness in the rear basket and tucked her inside the front of her jacket, warming them both a bit more.  No complaint from either of them (Jacque OR Tink).  I took my layers off.  Jazzy was in her belly pack on the outside of my layers so I re-layered everything with HER on the INSIDE, where she could be zipped up underneath the windbreaker.  Both doggies seemed to appreciate the gestures since they stopped shivering.... almost completely.
It was a strain and a struggle but we finally made it to the P.O., and we agreed unanimously that we were definitely NOT going to go on up to the Shell Station for a snack.   We were cold and tired and interested solely in the mostly downhill run back toward the vehicle that burned gasoline and had a working HEATER inside.  When Jacque came back outside, with the usual couple of admiring passers-by clucking at the doggies, I showed her my blood glucose reading, not sure I was seeing straight:  TWENTY (20), way below the level of consciousness for most diabetics.  No wonder I had been so low on energy coming up the hill.  I quickly ate my stash of chocolate chip cookie emergency snacks (3 cookies), feeling bad because we were just sitting in the PO parking lot getting colder and no closer to home.... and the sun was fast going away completely.  We finally got underway again and - with only 2 mild hills obstructing a good downhill ride - were soon back at the Ford SUV and loading up.  The warmth of the inside of that Ford was truly wonderful this evening.  We were fairly chilled and it took over an hour of basking in the wood heat at home to get our insides warmed up again.
We agree we will definitely ride in the cold again.... but never again after 3 PM and more hopefully no later than 1 or 2 PM, at least in the colder months.

Ride Started: 4:08 PM    Ride Ended:  5:27 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.3       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  35 F      Highest Temp:  57 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  3.56
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  2.9 MPH                               5.3 MPH                     23.6 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 14 mins                       40 minutes                 33 minutes

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Ode to the Wintry Day

Today's Boring Tracking

Well, it's been over a week (8 days) since I got off my butt and rode the bike anywhere.  The very cold weather has reduced my enthusiasm, and I've been frantically hauling and splitting and stacking firewood these last few weeks.  All of which might be good excuses but excuses aren't good enough when I'm trying to stay healthy.  When I was still gainfully employed I rode almost every day in much colder weather, but then, before the US economy took a free-fall, I had the motivation of having to go to work anyway and riding the last 7 or more miles each day was easily obtainable.
Anyway.  Back to the "El Rancho No Tengo", as I saw painted on the door of a beat-up truck years ago.
I fired up the wonderful old Ford tractor this morning and used it to haul firewood, grade the goat-path road, clear a bit of the neighbor's yard, and dig and haul gravel and dirt "Borrowed" from various areas along the road to fill potholes and depressions in the aforesaid road.
The "Powerful Steering" on the tractor is faint, and I have to really strain with both arms to steer the dern thing, and I had to continually get on and off the tractor and man-handle huge log chunks and stumps out of the neighbor's chipwood-pile and into the tractor front bucket.  Which is exercise, and leaves me puffing, but I doubt it's efficacy in acting as aerobic exercise, i.e., getting the pulse rate up and maintaining it for a while.  Shortly after noon I decided I was done and it was time to dig the bike out of the small snowbank next to the  shed and go for a ride, even if short.
Tink and Jazzy, the world's cutest and most wonderful lap-dogs, were all excited to go.   By the time I snarfed a bacon-cheese-jalapeno lunch sandwich and got everything ready to go it was past 2:00 PM, which I thought left us plenty of time.
We did the standard-but-tiring ride up to the Post Office.  It was a bit cool outside but I had to stop 2 times in less than 3 miles to peel off layers to avoid getting hot and sweaty, which of course leads to getting really cold in the sweaty spots.  The cyclist's dilemma, trying to regulate body heat.
We arrived at the P.O. fine and dandy.  I was doing OK and my blood glucose checked fine at 147 (a bit high for a diabetic on insulin but it drops quickly when exercising).  I planned to get the junk mail and hit the road for several more miles on my favorite eastbound loop out to Mountain Valley Road and back on Entranosa and Tumbleweed.
When I came out of the P.O., however, I found Tinkerbell visibly shivering.  She has a nice thick coat, but evidently the breeze was penetrating it and she was COLD.
I thought better of riding a longer ride and decided to take the girls home instead.  Jazzy was in her belly papoose-style snuggle harness and staying warmer than Tink, but neither of them had Jacque's cute and effective doggie vests on.
As we bounced off the pavement of Frost Road and up the hill on our dirt, rock, and gravel mile of goat path, I stopped.  The girls normally get antsy and need to "do their business" while riding around, and I used this for an excuse to take a short break myself.  We no sooner dismounted than Jacque drove up, at which point the dogs rejoiced at the idea of getting in the warm car and riding the rest of the way home with "Mom".
Ride Started: 2:42 PM    Ride Ended:  4:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  39 F      Highest Temp:  53 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.50
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  4.8 MPH                               7.1 MPH                     25.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 9 mins                        46 minutes                 22 minutes

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Balancing Biking and Busting Firewood

Today's oh-so-very-short Tracking

I haven't ridden the bike since Saturday, when I only rode it several hundred feet around the parking lot at Intel for the ham radio swapfest ongoing that day.
I've been getting serious about firewood, cutting about an eighth or more  of a cord per day.  I have the distinct suspicion we may have a cold and snowy winter this season, and of course we've already been burning wood in the living room stove for the last 2 weeks in the mornings and for about the last week also in the evenings.  It's not horribly cold yet but the house has been getting chilly enough to warrant wood fires - at least for an hour or two.  It won't be much longer before the stove is going almost full time.  My procrastination proclivity normally finds me cutting firewood, after dark, with headlamp, often with snow falling gently (or in gale-force winds). 
Every year I "decide" to get started on woodcutting early enough to build up a good stock of it BEFORE snow flies and begins to complicate the process.  Then I normally put it off so long it's cut-wood-for-a-few-more-days all winter.  BAH
I'm ahead of the game - so far - for once - and it's mostly due to the lack of snow thus far.  Usually we get our first snow around Halloween.  We've been experiencing hard frosts and freezing temps (it was 25 F this morning at 7:00 AM) but so far no snow. 
Anyways, my burning desire to cut firewood has been crowding out my available time for cycling. 
Cutting firewood is good exercise, mind you, or at least it's EXERCISE.  I get winded and tired, my back and arms and legs get tired, my blood glucose gets burned down to danger zone levels, indicating I'm burning carbs.  I don't think such body abuse constitutes AEROBIC exercise.  I still feel I should continue to shoot for at least a few miles a day on the bike.
Today I started to run out of daylight after a day of busting firewood, but I wanted to ride at least a short while - so I  used the old "Go Get the Mail" excuse.  Not a long ride, but a long several-percent climb of over a mile going TO the Post Office.  Coming back I get to coast for a mile or more, meaning little exercise, but climbing our mile of goat-path up the little valley to our house results in some good huffing and puffing.
Tonight wasn't even extra cold.  I wore only my violently green/yellow tee shirt on the way to the P.O. and put on my light windbreaker for the ride back.  Once back to the huff-n-puff of our mile of goat-path climb to the house, the windbreaker came off and was packed back in the pannier.

Ride Started: 4:32 PM    Ride Ended:  5:16 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.1       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  53 F      Highest Temp:  60 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.51
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.9 MPH                               7.3 MPH                     26.4 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
56 minutes                             45 minutes                 11 minutes

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Rode the Bike to Vote.... But

Today's Accurate and Short Tracking

I wanted to vote earlier this morning but time got away from me, as usual.  I left the doggies home since I knew the election officials would not allow me to bring them inside, and since the voting place is normally a school in session, I didn't want them left outside to attract attention.
Trouble is, when I got there, no voting apparatus was in sight.  Evidently since this is an "Off" non-Presidential election year, the voting will take place at the Village Offices in downtown Tijeras.
I considered riding the 7 miles or so down into Tijeras, but I have commitments this evening and cannot afford to risk getting home too late.  PLUS, I need to check online and find out exactly where the voting IS taking place.
It was pretty cold this morning but I layered up, with a wicking thermal long sleeve shirt, flaming yellow biking tee shirt on top of that, and the windbreaker on top of that.  I also donned the polar fleece skull cap and the mid-winter mittens.  (When it gets down to freezing and below, I wear muk-luk style gloves with chemical hand warmers inside.  I can barely work the shift levers, but it keeps the fingers from freezing.)
I did not get overheated until I started back home, climbing the slow hill toward the intersection of Frost Road and North-14.  I stopped at the Post Office for mail and then screamed downhill eastward toward home, unzipping a couple layers when I got to the turnoff onto our goat-path uphill mile of private road to the house.

Ride Started: 10:49 AM    Ride Ended:  12:00 Noon
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.9       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  42 F      Highest Temp:  50 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  7.27
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.1 MPH                               7.7 MPH                     25.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 12 mins                      56 minutes                 15 minutes

Monday, November 3, 2014

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Today's Unusually Effective Tracking

The weather has finally been turning cooler over the past few weeks.
For the last week or so we have been starting a fire in the wood stove in the mornings to chase the chill out of the house, and yesterday (Sunday) it rained much of the day and got even colder, so we lit up the stove early in the afternoon and kept it going  almost until bedtime.
This morning we awoke to frost and ice on the windshields, even though we're not sure what the actual low temperature was last night.
We've been burning firewood left over from last season, but with all this cold settling in for several days and winter staring us in the face I decided it was time to get serious and dedicate some effort toward cutting firewood for THIS winter.
Of course it is  a bit late for this "grasshopper" to start laying in stores for the winter, but I have many dead junipers I cut down last year and are cured and dry enough to burn efficiently.... all I have to do is cut 'em up into stove lengths and pile them conveniently close to the house.
My easiest way to do this is to fire up the Ford  tractor and use the front bucket for throwing freshly cut wood into.  Most places in my trees I can just drive the tractor right up close to the desired already-felled tree and cut it up with the chainsaw and throw it right in the maw of the tractor's front bucket.
The trees I cut last year were all junipers, but the rampant bark beetle infestation that is raging throughout the SouthWest has killed many of our pinons and pines as well.  Three of them were right in front of the tractor's parking spot and I just had to start it up and move it maybe 20 feet to be as close as possible to minimize the distance I have to throw the cut wood. 
I got all 3 trees cut down and cut to stove lengths, with the tractor bucket a little over half full.  Suddenly my chainsaw's safety chain-brake lever stuck and would not pull into running position.
I was pretty winded and the old back was talking to me by now anyway, so I hauled the chainsaw and wood over to the house and offloaded the wood onto our deck and began the tedious process of disassembling the saw.  Ours is an old and very reliable Stihl that has run and run, eating several chains over the years and a couple of bars.
I got it apart and found the broken piece blocking the action of the safety handle-bar.  Upon reassembly I was carefully replacing the snap-ring that holds the chain-gear in place and the universally dreaded KA-PINGGGG occurred and the blasted critical piece ricocheted around the deck and out of sight, making several smaller "pings" as it disappeared totally from access or view.  I searched the deck for it - knowing the odds were microscopic I would ever find it - and finally asked the little fuzz-ball Jazzy if she wanted to "Go For a Ride?" and upon getting the affirmative answer of jumping joyfully all over creation, I loaded her up in the Ford Exploder and drove to the nearby  Davis True Value Hardware Store, where I found a good selection of snap-rings.
Got the saw reassembled completely but the afternoon sun was fading fast (Don't we all love the fall time change where we suddenly lose that hour of evening daylight?).  I decided if I was going to get in a bike ride I'd better do it whilst there was ANY daylight left.
It had warmed up today while the sun was highest so I wasn't much worried about wearing any extra layers when I rode off.  It only took a quarter mile or so before I pulled my windbreaker out of the pannier and zipped it up.  The breeze was a bit nippier than I'd thought, and I expected to peel off the windbreaker when I got a few more miles down the road and heated up a bit more. 
Didn't happen.  I unzipped the jacket front climbing my longest hill but had to zip it back up within another quarter mile or so.  By the time I got to the halfway mark the sun was actually setting; another misjudgment on my part.  Thank goodness I have headlights, tail lights, helmet and side lights.
The ride back home was definitely cold, with  me wishing I had more cold weather gear to put on, like my polar fleece skull cap, mittens for the hands, etc.  Even when I huffed and puffed up the final steep mile of our goat-path dirt road to the house, I was still cold.  Of course a large coyote crossed the road about 50 yards in front of me and I grumbled for the lack of my 12-guage shotgun.  You can only carry so much on  the bike - and I normally don't spot coyotes while riding - if I ride this close to dark-thirty in the future maybe I'll carry some firepower with me.
As soon as I got home I dug out the bag of winter gear and stuffed it in my pannier.  If THAT doesn't make the weather warm up for another week or more, I'll be surprised.

Ride Started: 4:08 PM    Ride Ended:  5:33 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8       Ending Voltage: 13.0
Lowest Temp  39 F      Highest Temp:  57 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  10.52
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.5 MPH                               8.6 MPH                     29.3 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 24 mins                      1 hour 13 mins           10 mins  

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Man Cannot Live by Cookies Alone

Today's Lengthy Tracking via APRS and Ham Radio

I had a doctor's appointment today at 10:50 AM.  I had previously planned to use this for an excuse to do a long ride, estimated at 25 miles each way.  I realized this, early this morning, but only at about 10 minutes to 8 AM.  Since my average speed is normally about 7 or 8 MPH, this means I should have already left in order to arrive in time. 
I jumped to, loading up the 2-wheel recumbent bike for the ride, but had not had breakfast yet and feared I didn't have time to EAT a real breakfast, so I snarfed 3 homemade choc-chip cookies and took off.
I was chagrined to find my pannier's LiFePO4 expensive long-life battery had not been plugged into the charger after yesterday's ride.  I was in a hurry so I took off anyway, hoping the battery had sufficient capacity to carry me through the day anyway.
My waking blood glucose had only been 67, so this obviously was not the best of programs for ride preparation.  I dialed my pump's basal rate back to 20% of normal and rode onward and westward.
It's been cold in the mornings recently and today was no exception.  I donned a windbreaker for the first several miles, taking it off to climb the long hills on southbound NM-14 and putting it back on when I topped the hill for the long mostly-coast into Tijeras and Old Route 66.  It was still cold when I got to Tijeras so I left the windbreaker on clear into the city limits of Albuquerque, and not taking it off until halfway THROUGH Albuquerque.
I haven't ridden this route in a while and today I was struck by the number of homeless camps and homeless folks I encountered.  They tend to congregate along the bike trails since many places are not easily reached or monitored by the "Authorities".  A couple of guys were set up in tents close together, and several others were just lying in piles of clothing and bedding in the open, including a male & female couple with a DOG lying right next to Old Route 66 just outside the city limits.  They were lounging around in a huge pile of clothing, pillows, and bedding, evidently trying to thus keep warm overnight against the cold.
Can you read the sign "Dark Tunnel Ahead"?
Translation:  "Homeless May be Sleeping or Camping Inside"
 When I got to the doctor's office the GPS said I had traveled 27.34 miles.  It had taken right at 2 1/2 hours.
When the physician's assistant took my blood glucose inside the office, it was 120.... a little on the high end but not bad considering all I had for breakfast was 3 cookies.  My blood pressure was 114 over 60 and my pulse was 80, surprising me.  Having just ridden 27 miles and still panting slightly, I assumed it would be pumping hard.
The doc gave me an atta-boy since my A1C had dropped a full point since we last met, and said I was doing good. 
I've known several people who died within days of receiving such "sound-as-a-dollar" reports, so remember me in your prayers.
He asked what I was going to eat for lunch, having skipped a decent breakfast, and I told him I was thinking of a nice juicy cheeseburger.  He said "Sounds good to me!"
Thus I was  watching for a LotaBurger or most any burger joint as I rode homeward.  Albuquerque's bike paths are like most, meaning they rarely come close to established businesses such as restaurants or grocery stores.  I remembered there were fast-food joints close to the bike crossing at San Mateo, but I could find none when I stopped and looked up and down the street.  My eye fell upon the "Subway" sign less than 50 yards south, requiring NO heavy-traffic  street crossing or dodging.  Thus my meal of a FULL foot-long Pizza Sub sandwich, with chips and a NON-diet Barq's Root Beer.  I've never eaten a foot-long before, always settling for the halfway 6-incher version, so I wondered if I could eat it all.  I knew I had a long pull going through Tijeras Canyon and the mountains to home, so I wanted to stock up on carbs.  I was able to stuff it all down, and it lasted me clear to Tijeras (about 10 miles), where I had to dig into my second baggie of 3 choc-chip cookies.  I stopped at the Subway in Tijeras solely to refill all 3 of my now-empty water bottles but, after checking the blood again, realized I had to "force" myself to eat the cookies.
When I got out of the doctor's office and started home, almost immediately my radio, GPS, and electronics died, indicating a dead battery.  I carry a smaller spare backup battery but it produced the same dead results when I plugged it into the bike's wiring so I gave up and rode home with no electronics at all save my cell phone, which was still charged and worked nicely, thankfully.
The ride east through Albuquerque is more uphill than downhill so it took me quite a while to make the return trip.  It was much warmer also, leading to more frequent water and rest breaks while slowly climbing the hills. 
About halfway to Tijeras I had to pull over to remove some thistles from my socks that were aggravating me.  How do you get thistles in your socks while riding a bike, you might ask?  Well, it must have been the walk in the woods looking for a private place to pee alongside the road.
Instead of returning the exact way I came, I rode farther  east from Tijeras to Guiterrez Canyon Road and rode north from there to Frost Road.  By now I had gone 40+ miles so when I neared a friend's home alongside the route I couldn't help myself.  I stopped in to say hello and stayed almost an hour cooling my heels.
After finally arriving home and plugging in the supposedly-dead battery, I was horrified to find a broken wire on the power connector for the electronics.  Had I realized this earlier I could have "hay-wired" it to get me home with radio & electronics blaring all the way.

Ride Started: 8:18 AM    Ride Ended:  5:36 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.9       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  37 F      Highest Temp:  74 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  54.68
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  7.9 MPH                               11.7 MPH                   35.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
9 hours 20 mins                     7 hours 4 mins           2 hours 16 mins        

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Hauling Firewood on the Bike

Today's VeryShort Tracking

Today I was again left home alone with the dogs, since Jacque has signed up for poll watching or supervising or something during the ongoing election process.  She left fairly early and promised to be gone most of the day.
The dogs and I got a few odds and ends done today.
Yesterday I installed new LED tail lights on our little beat-up trash trailer/bike/trike hauler.  The old lenses and lamps were so dim I always feared someone would rear-end us after dark.  These new units are pricey but very bright, even quite visible in the daytime.
I got done with that installation right about sundown and left tools and materials outside, which was semi-forgiveable since there was no trace of wind, moisture, dust, or rain overnight.  Today I cleaned all that up and put the tools away.  Then I emptied Jacque's kitchen slop pail out in the compost pile.  The pile is a 3 foot high pile of horse poop that has been rotting for a couple years, and when we have kitchen slop and scraps I dig a hole in the middle of it and pour in the contents.  We should never have to buy potting soil again, if I can talk Jacque into trying this stuff instead.  Today I found a huge hole in the side of the pile where a fair-size critter of some kind (think COYOTE) had dug in for the smelly stuff inside.  I buried the newest contributions to the stinky stuff and added a couple inches of wood stove ash, since we have accumulated a bucketful of that in the past week from burning wood in the mornings to take the chill off the house.  When I mentioned the violation of the sacred poop pile to Jacque, she suggested  trying our largest varmint live-trap out there in hopes of capturing at least one of the intruders.  If it's a coyote, it will have to be one of the newer young pups since a full sized varmint would have trouble getting caught or even getting fully inside.  I baited it with a fresh slice of Spam and we'll see.  Nothing bothered it all day and the sun is currently setting.  We hear coyotes yipping close by most nights so it might even get some results.  If I do indeed trap one, it will NOT be a catch-and-release.  More details will be none-of-your-business.
Anyway.  I planned early this morning to saddle up for a bike ride and as usual with all my puttering around it was late afternoon when I finally got to it. 
The girls, as usual, were all enthusiasm for a ride.  When we rolled down to the pavement of Frost Road we found the wind to be unusually strong and cooler than we're used to. Blowing briskly from the West, it slowed us down enough to have to pedal furiously using most of my lower gears even on the few level areas of the road.
As we neared the Post Office, I noticed a piece of firewood lying on the right side of the road, and a few hundred feet farther, another piece was smack in the middle of the road.  I almost stopped to throw it out of the roadway but thought I'd just keep pedaling and throw it out of the road on the way back.  On the way back a couple MORE firewood pieces were spotted in the other lane of the road.  I picked them out of the roadway, carefully dodging oncoming traffic, but decided I had room on my front cargo rack to bungee them down and take them home with  me. 

Not really enough to be worth the trouble, but I couldn't resist a few extra BTU's for the stove.
Everybody we see comments on the carrying of TWO dogs on the bike with me.  What am I supposed to do, leave one of them home alone and heartbroken?
Quoth the Raven..... Nevermore.....

Ride Started: 3:52 PM    Ride Ended:  4:56 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.9       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp:  75 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.59
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.0 MPH                               6.8 MPH                    29.2 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 7 mins                        49 mins                      18 minutes

Monday, October 27, 2014

Monday Misfits

Today's Short Track Tracking

Jacque hasn't ridden trike or bike since we returned from our recent RV trip.  Her wobbly knee has been giving trouble for a few days, so we decided to do a trike ride today.  The circular, steady exercise she gets from pedaling seems to really help her inflammation and pain recede.
We need to ride the trike a lot more often, obviously.  I ride my 2-wheel recumbent more often, but it is lighter and easier to huff up hill and down dale than the trike.
We rode up the long killer hill to our Post Office in Sandia Park again today, which is frustrating but of course great exercise.  We had to stop for 3 or 4 rest breaks even though the trip is only slightly over 2 miles...... but, of course, mostly uphill.  Not a steep hill but a persistently long climb that just sucks the energy out of us.
Fortunately, the return trip is mostly downhill, and requires no rest breaks at all.
When we finally chugged up to the Post Office, all breathless and shot, we debated whether to do our usual last-quarter-mile from the Post Office to the Shell Station where we usually counteract our exercise by consuming carbs abundantly. 
Just as we were saddling up to leave our parking spot, a small station-wagon sized SUV pulled up in front of us and the passengers commented on the undeniable cuteness of our doggies.  We actually had to postpone leaving for several more minutes as the ladies pulled into an adjacent parking spot and the frail Granny from the passenger seat climbed slowly out and walked up to peer at the dogs more closely.   She seemed genuinely thrilled to see such an unusual thing:  Two very cute dogs taking their owners for a trike ride.  We had to finally pedal away, but felt guilty at not having time to "hang around" longer to entertain our elderly admirer.
I turned the trike left, coming out of the post office, on up the hill toward the Shell Station, and Jacque did not object, even though it meant some more noticeably tiring exertion.  Once there, as usual, the dogs caused the typical mild sensation amongst the patrons coming and going from the convenience store/station.  The proprietors even allow us to bring the dogs inside the snack area, which was nice today because the mild breezes turned into some stiff gusts that blew dust and interfered with Jacque's newspaper reading.  This resulted in even more puppy-admirers and lots of ooh's and aah's and "Oh How CUTE!" comments.  Which of course is hard to take for our two publicity-hounds.
On our mostly-downhill smoking return trip to our vehicular parking space along Frost Road, there were only 1 or 2 cars overtaking us in  the same direction, so we were able to stay in the actual vehicle lane (instead of the rock-strewn shoulder) for over a mile.  Which can result in some speeds unobtainable under normal circumstances.

Ride Started: 12:27 PM    Ride Ended:  2:32 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2       Ending Voltage: 12.9
Lowest Temp  34 F      Highest Temp:  78 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  4.31
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  2.2 MPH                               5.7 MPH                    31.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 56 mins                       45 mins                     1 hour 10 minutes

Friday, October 24, 2014

The Dogs are Worn Out.... and Me Too

Today's Partial Tracking due to Hills, Valleys, Etc.

Jacque disappeared to Albuquerque for a sewing class for her new multi-kilobuck machine, and had no idear how long she was going to be gone, so me and the doggie-girls went for another bike ride. 
Why they enjoy the idea of riding the bike is beyond me, since they are tethered into small enclosures:  Jazzy in the papoose-looking belly harness and Tink in the basket behind my seat.  But they get SO excited when I ask them "Who wants to go for a BIKE RIDE?"
You'd think I invited them to chase squirrels or something.   They jump around, all excited, and follow me closely out to the bike to make sure I don't escape without them, and eagerly leap up for the harnessing-in-place.
Riding Old 66 with I-40 in Close Background

We all decided to do a longer route today.  We rode out east on Frost Road to Mountain Valley, south to Crestview Lane, east to County Line Road (This small detour avoids a very steep hill on Mountain Valley farther south), south to Dinkle Road, then back west again to Mountain Valley with a short dog-leg over the I-40 overpass to Route 66, then west to Zuzax, crossing I-40 again over to the frontage road, and then north on Gutierrez Canyon Road back to Frost and then a short jog  back to the goat-path up to the house. 
It was beautiful weather today, what little winds we encountered were appreciated since it was warmer than expected, but the dogs and I MUST be outa shape, because by the time we started the last few miles up Gutierrez Canyon and almost home, we were SHOT.  Well, **I** was shot.  The girls get excessively tired from riding since, it seems, even though they are doing nothing but watching the scenery go by, they refuse to nod off and take their usual doggie-naps.  When at home or traveling in the RV they will sleep most of the day and waken every hour or so to romp around for maybe 15 or 20 minutes and then collapse again into deep slumber.  They sleep most of the day and then sleep all night.  Sometimes we wish WE could do that.
Anyway.  It didn't help that I forgot, again, to set my insulin pump basal rate downward BEFORE starting the ride.  I remembered a bit late, again, when I realized how bushed I was after only 15 miles or so.  But I kept track of the blood glucose and snarfed snacks so I wasn't in danger of going blotto and falling off or anything, which so far has never happened to me.  Thankfully.
We received several appreciative honks from passersby (seeing 2 lap-doggies on my bike softens most hearts) and no "negative incidents".  Even though there are several miles along this route with no shoulder and about 3 times vehicles had to slow down behind me and wait to pass or make their turnoff.  Nice folks.
Ride Started: 2:16 PM    Ride Ended:  5:40 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.8       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp:  84 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  22.43
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.7 MPH                               8.5 MPH                    32.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
3 hours 22 mins                     2 hours 38 mins         44 minutes

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Just Me and My Shadow(s)

Tracking via Ham Radio, GPS, and APRS

I asked Jacque if she wanted to do a trike ride today and she mentioned, pointedly, that she hadn't been able to play with her sewing produuction facility for too long, AND she was in the midst of making me a couple more of her famous fabulous shirts.  So I let her stay home and saddled up  for a solo ride. 
Jazzy came to life immediately from her early-morning nap and dashed back and forth between my legs, begging to be taken  along.  The doggies are much too smart and observant, of course, and notice such things as bike clothing, suitcases packing, Dad with his hat on, and any other sign of GOING OUTSIDE.  I told Jacque I was taking the "Junior Princess" (Jazzy) with me and this woke TINK up, who now began frantically following me across the house, wanting to "go" too.  I got to the door and told Tink "Bye, Tink!" and she SMOKED right past me and out on the deck, obviously not accepting the idea SHE was to be left behind.  So, laughing, I went back and told Jacque I was going to take both of them with me, even though it means more weight and a rearrangement of my pannier on the rear.  Instead of carrying it IN the rear basket, I have to mount it to the SIDE of the basket and carry the Tinkerbell inside.  Jazzy almost always rides in the belly-pack papoose-looking harness on my front, adding to the double-takes of passersby and motorists.
We finally got all arranged and took off, first riding up the long slow killer hill to the Post Office and then back east to get in a few miles  before returning home. 
This fall weather is really great;  nice and sunny and mild and just cool enough to be pleasant.  If I rode earlier in the morning I'd likely have to start out wearing a windbreaker to hold in a little more body heat.  As it was, today, I left my irritatingly-yellow biking shirt velcroed up to the top instead of opening it up all the way for the additional cooling.
I started to "run out of gas" fairly early, and when I checked my blood glucose at the Post Office it was 62 (it was over 100 when we left the house 2.75 miles earlier).  I snarfed my energy cookies and resumed riding, noticing again only a few miles further that I was running low on energy again but toughed it out for a few more miles before stopping for a break and testing again:  This time the BG was 47, uncomfortably low.  I realized I had forgotten to set my pump's basal rate to 25% for the duration of the ride in ADVANCE of the ride, which my doc always warns me to remember to do before riding.
Thankfully I've not yet experienced any fainting spells in my 30 years of diabetes and insulin, and I don't want to start now.
Another snack, this time a store boughten choc-chip oatmeal bar, and a few hundred more cranks of the pedals found us home safe and sound.
Ride Started: 11:31 AM    Ride Ended:  2:13 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.6       Ending Voltage: 13.1
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp:  78 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  14.44
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  6.0 MPH                               8.8 MPH                    33.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
2 hours 24 mins                     1 hour 38 mins           45 minutes

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Old Geezer on the Loose

Today's Excellent Tracking via Ham Radio and APRS
Jacque went to Albuquerque today whilst I determined to get on the bike and eat up some miles no matter what.... as long as it didn't rain all day like it did yesterday.
It didn't.  Today started out a bit gloomy and cloudy but the sun was providing large blue-sky gaps so it looked good.  Since my front shifter on the 2-wheel was not working sufficiently to access my highest gear, I had to work on that first.  After a couple adjustments in the control cable length, it started shifting between all 3 rings on the front crank.  I started to saddle it up with all my riding junk, water bottles, pannier with battery and supplies, etc, and was almost ready to embark on today's wonderful adventure.  The cell phone rang  and it was my sweetie Jacque sweetly suggesting I load up the tandem Terratrike instead and meet her in town for  a joint ride on our favorite avenue.... The Bosque Trail.  This did not require much arm twisting, so I parked the 2-wheel recumbent and hitched up the trike trailer and loaded the Terratrike aboard and headed for town.  I had to stop twice:  The first time I noticed a black strap on the trike flapping dangerously in the breeze.  Turned out to be a loose foam wrapping on Jacque's rear seat stoker handlebar.  About 10 minutes later as I was roaring down I-40 at about 65 MPH, I saw a faint flutter of yellow in the rear mirror and then was horrified to see Jacque's overhead shade assembly sail completely off the trailer - out from underneath the trike - and flutter like a wounded kite off to the side of the freeway.  Thankfully this meant it was not going to be run over and shredded, though I was a couple hundred yards beyond it and dared not to back up on the shoulder with all the oncoming traffic to retrieve it.  I had to hot-foot it back on foot to get it picked up and back in the trailer, where I secured it with a weight to keep it held down in the trailer, which I had neglected at first.
We just hauled this same rigging and trailer about 1500 miles behind the RV on our recent trip, so it was a bit puzzling to suddenly encounter such difficulties.
Jazzy and I finally arrived in Albuquerque, picked up Jacque and Tink, and whizzed down to Tingley Beach to begin our ride.
Jacque in the Shaded Stoker Seat

This fall weather is just downright enjoyable.  It was a bit cloudy at times but the temperature was just cool enough to be wonderful and likewise with the fitful breezes we encountered.
We rode the southern leg of the Bosque Trail today.  Normally we encounter a scraggly coyote about 2 miles south of the Hispano Cultural Center along the trail and have been within a few dozen feet of him a couple times, which of course worries us about his intentions though he's never acted aggressive towards us or our doggies.  Today we saw him not at all, either coming or going.  Which is a wonderful thing, after all.
We did encounter -of course- the usual dogs inside their fenced properties which fiercely chase us along the perimeter of the fence barking ferociously.  Our pups were controlled enough today that they barely growled back at them.  Another walker with an unrestrained largish brown dog was encountered but he failed to threaten us too.  Great riding.  We encountered only a few other cyclists, including one who stopped alongside us during a break and asked bunches of questions about the trike since he and his wife have been considering buying one for themselves.
Jacque does not enjoy this southern loop of the trail, as it goes through part of the South Valley with lots of graffiti in some places and I-25 and South Broadway traffic coming close in others.  The return loop on the southern end is surrounded by junkyards and heavy-industrial buildings with less than enjoyable views.  I guess I enjoy it more since it reminds me so much of Grants NM in the days when I was living there as a young pup.
Stopping at the Tingley Beach park area is always a treat both for the relatively clean bathrooms, ducks swimming and quacking all over the waterway, and the ever present little toddler kiddos who ooh and ahhh over the doggies and the trike, in that order.  And, of course, the occasional ice cream snack.
Ride Started: 1:38 PM    Ride Ended:  4:44 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.2       Ending Voltage: 12.8
Lowest Temp  67 F      Highest Temp:  78 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  16.04
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  5.3 MPH                               7.4 MPH                    24.1 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
3 hours 2 mins                       2 hours 9 mins           52 minutes

Friday, October 17, 2014

Why Do So Many Stare? Is it the Dogs?

Today's Tracking, Briefly

Or is it just because I'm such a ridiculous sight on my weird looking bike, dressed oddly so as to attract maximum attention from inattentive drivers?  The doggie in my belly pack and the doggie behind me in the basket may add to the oddness, but whatever.
Jacque went to a sewing party in Albuquerque today and left me to my own devices.  Since I didn't burn the house down or electrocute myself or anything else interesting I decided I needed to go for at least a short bike ride, considering our recent RV trip caused such things to be intermittent and short term to say the least.
Since I was NOT home alone, but had both dogs and a cat to attend to my every whim (HAH!), I figured I had to take at least the dogs with me.  The cat does well unattended (so long as no food is left on any table tops anywhere in the house) so I left HER to her own devices.
With the weather coming up cold mornings and evenings as the fall season commences, riding later in the day is no big deal now.  It still gets warm on fair days but nothing close to the 90's or 100's as was the case only a few weeks ago.  Still sunny, however, so I did the usual slather-on-the-sunscreen thing, loaded food, water, pannier, radios, and dogs, and took off.
The roads seemed a bit steeper than I remembered.  Can it be I've already lost my bike-legs and have to re-condition them?  Perish the thought....
My bike also would not shift into the highest gear, leaving my average speed lower than normal due to not being able to crank it up while going on level pavement, or better yet, downhill.
The bike had blown over on its side while we were away RV'ing so maybe the bracket has been whacked.  We'll see if it can be readjusted or if it needs to be REPLACED.

Ride Started: 2:31 PM    Ride Ended:  4:04 PM
Beginning Battery Voltage:  13.0       Ending Voltage: 12.5
Lowest Temp  64 F      Highest Temp:  78 F 
Stats from the GPS:    Total Miles:  5.52
Overall average speed            Moving Avg               Max Speed
  3.5 MPH                               7.1 MPH                    22.5 MPH
Total Trip time                       Moving Time             Stopped Time
1 hour 33 mins                      46 minutes                  45 minutes