While I was recovering from my latest cold, I was looking at components I need to service and found cables, housing and bar tape all on sale on different sites. I ordered noting I’d last replaced the cable and housings in March of 2020. At that time, I’d used some white tape, I quickly got dirty and wore to the point of replacement after removing the bike from indoor use and towel-covered bars to outdoor use it took about a month of use. I’ve settled on PRO comfort competition tape in black. Around $25 on sale. I’d put this tape on the bike Thanksgiving weekend 2021. So a year’s relatively light usage isn’t bad. I’d expect about half that lifespan with more regular use than I’ve managed this year. With that in mind, I ordered two sets. Positive thinking there. Motivation to wear the stuff out. I prefer the look of white, but I have yet to find any that isn’t looking grubby in under two weeks of clear weather use. Almost one year ago the bike was clean and ready for riding.
My plan for the month and really for the rest of the year as well as into next year is to ride my usual shortened route out to the park and back for a week or so, then if I’m feeling up to it add the long hill up Antonio after the park stop. I figure I can ride the rollers along Antonio and slowly work up to where I get all the way to Santa Margarita Parkway. Once I’ve got that for a week or so, I can finally make the attempt to fill the Fondo by riding out to Olympic and around and back to get my 100 kilometers in. The goal is to establish that 100km route as my usual, daily route. Once I get to that level, I can begin exploring adding more and more distance. Winter is the perfect time to manage this with cooler temps, some less water intake requirement. I sort of have an idea for a route for my 100 mile loop. And that is the next big goal in this plan. After that, I want to get to where I can back to back 100 mile days.
So, my latest cold is definitely on the mend. I figure tomorrow, 11/09/2022 is a good day to begin. We’ll see how that goes.
Well, two hours for the first time back on the bike in a very long time. Still blowing my nose and slight cough of junk, but good ride.
New cables and housing arrived in the post along with new bar tape. I’m going to let the tape go until it is ugly. I ordered two sets. The cables can wait another year, they are showing no wear or stickiness. I need to get a rear cluster, but I’m waiting for a sale. At around $120 I can afford to wait.
Diet
I finally decided to get serious about my diet about a week before Halloween. I began by cutting off all alcohol, then using my old trick of after our evening meal, cleaning my teeth and putting my retainers in. That act is my way of shutting the cupboard doors on food for the day. I only consume water until breakfast. So far, three weeks in, it is working very slowly, but working. I also began weighing myself on ride days. The smart-ish bathroom scale tracks this and all the activity data along with my increase or decrease in mass are collected in my Health app. Since I do most of the cooking, I can steer the household diet a bit more than otherwise. I’m working on upping my fruits and vegetables game. Salads are a goal for our lunch time meal.
One other element in this effort is getting to bed earlier than where we had been slipping to. I begin getting ready for bed around 8pm, first the aforementioned teeth routine, then by about 8:30 or 9, I leave the TV for a book or magazine for a half hour to an hour. My phone chimes a prelude to bedtime at 9:30. By then I am wound down enough to turn in and sleep. Cool nights of fall into winter are great for sleeping. This early to bed gets me waking at 6 to 6:30 or so. So my day is slowly shifting back to an earlier start. For cycling that means an earlier ride start, though I still like to avoid rush hour along the routes I use, I can get going by around 8:45 and be fine.
Goals
I am working toward dropping weight of course. another 9 kilograms or so would be great. A cheaters way to better W/kg ratios. Hahaha I don’t expect to get near that for several months. I figure slow and steady changes my routine better than trying to hit some metric quickly. The idea here is the long haul, lifetime habit change rather than quickly meeting a goal only to bounce back into the old bad habits.
11/20/2022
Finally a good week of riding. I managed to get five rides in. My last ride of the week on Sunday was a Gran Fondo. Unplanned of course.
The weeks totals: 342.7km, over fourteen hours, forty-six minutes and 2,284 meters total climbing.
The last full week of November I managed two rides. I didn’t manage to sneak in another gran fondo, but two good rides for a total mileage of 164.9km, over 7:11. Some climbing was done with the addition of heading up to Santa Margarita and back for a more regular loop. Warm weather that would begin and end each ride with a chill.
I began the last week of November with a sore throat and a cough, likely yet another serial-toddler-pre-school cold bug.
I can report the new GCN Castelli arm and leg warmers are warm, but not anatomically cut so there is a bit of binding behind the knee. Annoying, but even after four hours doesn’t produce any damage.
Totals for the month are not great, but better than nothing. I’m ending the month with yet another slight cold thanks to the above toddler-preschool exposure.
Distance:598.3km
Climbing: 4,001m
Total time: 25:57
One gran fondo.
We’ll have some travel of course in December, but I should clear this cold out and get a bit more riding in than in November.
Along The Way 