February begins where January left off. Me with a head cold and a new bicycle.
I took a second testing the fit ride on the first day. Same course after a slight tweak to the seat position. I need to get my square out and do some real checking to get any closer, but this feels very good.
I figured out a place to mount my Spur Cycle bell.
I am able to reach it with my thumb from the drops or my little finger from the hoods. The new Lezyne front light, a 400XL with a GoPro mount, mounts under the Wahoo Element Bolt on the MOST forward mount.
Then the Lezyne Saddle bag with my old Lezyne tail light on the strap.
Last the bottle cage mounted Lezyne pump.
I didn’t plan on all this Lezyne kit, but it turned out to be the stuff I liked the most so ordered it. The pump was a gift from a good friend, the same friend who hooked me up to Velo Pasadena for the F7.
When I get my garage back after the construction on the driveway is done, I will do a full audit of my toolkit to match the bikes needs. I am set to do another slightly longer ride tomorrow, but I’ll still be taking it easy.
After a slightly longer short ride to end the week, I flipped the trigger around to the front for the Spurcycle bell. Feels like this will work better. Just about two hours to end the week were enough to tell me the saddle is awesome. I love this bike.
Only three hours for the month, but about four for the week. Not bad for a head cold, which is about gone now. That is nice. Catching up to some fastish guys who came around and not catching the actual fast guys up there ahead. Good ride to end the week.
I got out for a quick ride alone on Monday then Tuesday a ride with my neighbor where I tried to not let my legs be ripped off.
Wednesday was driveway opening day for walking. That meant a lot of work had to be done to get the garage back to a mostly functional, less treacherous space. Then I received the shipping label and invoices from 4iii for the power meter installation of their Precision 3+ Pro. The time that takes will be partially taken up on the Roubaix. All that will make for a low distance and time month. Oh and not to forget a week off the bicycle, but off on a non-cycling vacation.
Right now the weather is saying Friday will be another even wetter day. So, Thursday will be taken up with more clearing and cleaning in the garage. We have some grandson activities in the afternoon as well which I’m thinking with the rain is going to moved off to an indoor space somewhere.
Friday was wet so a slack week of riding. I set up my garage gym and began creating a routine. A run through the sets and reps used up almost an hour. And left me barely able to lift my hydration cup. The workout is all upper body. I plan to incorporate it into my daily routine. I want this to become a habit. As a cyclist and as an old guy. I will greatly benefit from upper body weight training. For the first month of lifting I’ll be focused on defining the routine, toning my body and getting used to lifting again as well as focusing while exercising on form. Form is very important when lifting to both get the most out of a specific exercise and not injury myself. Ultimately this will add strength, tone and control to my body. And that should help my efforts learning to surf as well as stabilizing me on the bicycle and keeping that activity comfortable.
For older folks doctors always want to have exercises to combat loss of muscle mass. Weight training is probably the only way to do that for the upper body. Doing that safely is a trick. The idea of lifting a large weight as a point of pride needs to be shed. The point of the exercise is the exercise, not how much or how fast or any other metric. At least that is my take on it. Tone versus machismo. With that in mind it is funny how the Hevy app displays a finished workout. The metrics are silly sums of all the weight times all the reps. Meaningless drivel, but looks fun. I figure with a reasonable rest period between exercises my total workout should end up at around 1.5 hours once I’m fully set up and used to it. Last time I was doing this I did laps of exercises, that is I’d start with crunches, then shrugs, then curls and so on. I force myself to rest 30 seconds between each exercise. I’d been doing a minute I think last time. Right now I have it set to 30 seconds, but didn’t have a timer running this first time. I was more focused on ordering the exercises and adding those I had forgotten. I’ve done more editing to the workout so I’ll know if I like it after the next time I lift. I’m thinking five days a week at this point. Leave the weekends freer. Or maybe do weekend mornings if I don’t ride? We’ll see how it goes.
Ended the first full week of the month with a two hour ride, followed by an hour and a half of lifting.
This routine I use as a circuit with thirty second rest between exercises. My sets of 50 crunches require a minute and a bit between the last exercise and getting at them. Three days in a row doesn’t feel too bad. The. last two sets of crunches are tough as is the last set of a few others. I’ve figure this next week before vacation to try for every day with possibly three days riding. I’ll be sending the crank off to have the 4iii Precision 3+ Pro power meter installed on Wednesday, or Thursday. That will depend on timing and other activities. Not a whole lot of miles this past week, but I’m happy to have easily added lifting into the mix.
Last ride for a bit was another short ride out to the park and back.
It was a bit chilly with the storms blowing in and windy as well. At the park I talked to a guy who wants to buy my old Roubiax. If he does come buy it, I’ll be without. a ride while the F7’s crank is off to 4iii for the powermeter install.
It is a little sad to see the F7. hanging up there without the crank. I’ll do a full clean and tidy in it before the crank gets back.
The old Roubaix is all cleaned up with the original saddle back on it and some flat pedals for a test ride. If that happens.
The Roubaix Expert has been quite a good bicycle for fifteen years. A lot of miles and memories under me on that bike.
So, for lifting, I’ve come up with a new routine I’m going to try. This will be another circuit type routine, but between each exercise I’ll do 25 crunches. That may get amended to every two exercises. I’ll know when I try it. I’m also adding “Superman” to the regimen. I’ve not done those since forever so I’ve no idea how many reps or sets I can manage. I’m going to add in lat pulls using bands because that is pretty easy to set up. Those exercises and arranging the routine as a circuit should push the workout to around two hours. My current routine is below. I figure to drop the crunch sets to 25 reps. I’ll start with ten superman arches and see how that works. The. goal is to hit 500 crunches per workout.
Third week of the month I was down with this head cold thing. I lifted a couple of times once I began feeling better and upped my routine to a total of 5,005 kg for just under two hours in the garage. I changed the crunches to 25 for 20 sets. Then do a lift between each crunch set until I hit twenty, then go through the exercises as each exercise rather than a circuit. Works pretty well. I happy with this. The lat pull using bands I set up, I don’t like the cheap bands. I. need to find something less sketchy.
By Thursday I felt good enough for a short spin on the old Roubaix. I’d mounted the original saddle, but forgot it is taller, so after setting off I decided to just do the harbor and back rather than turn around and change saddle or height. When I got home, my legs and bad ankle ached from the too tall saddle. Also the saddle is soft and just feels terrible compared to the Pinarello. In fact, the rim brakes on the Roubaix require a full hand of pressure where the F7 disc brakes only a finger. Both bikes shift well, but the F7 is much, much quicker and smoother. Both are running waxed chains. The ride on the Roubaix is not as responsive or sure footed feeling as the Pinarello, nor is handling as sharp. I swapped the saddles to the old Specialized Titanium saddle I had on the Roubaix and rode a longer ride Friday for just under three hours. Much better. Though my feeling about handling and ride feel were confirmed. I prefer the Pinarello F7. I’m curious how the F7 will ride with a nice set of GP 5000’s on with latex tubes.
Ordered a new helmet, torque wrench and bits, (Torx) and a spare chain for the Pinarello. I don’t expect to see all this stuff show up for a week.
Meanwhile I can go ride using my wife’s helmet.
The last week of the month will start Tuesday thanks to family duties. I am finally feeling less like I have a head cold and more normal. I managed to get a 100km ride in on Tuesday. Was not quick, but on the good side, I did manage to stay in zone 2 for 69% of the time. The weather went from chilled on the way out along the water to warm enough inland to cold back along with water, but under the marine layer.
Our weather is experiencing a warmer than normal week. The rain keeps shifting to the right on the calendar, so I’m riding until it’s wet and cold.
A start to a ride, cut short.
Sliced the tire, tube clear through to the rim tape.
This brought my spare tube count down to one I know is good and I can use on these wheels. I have one TPU that is specifically not to be used on rim brake wheels. And only has a 48mm stem so won’t fit the new bike without an extension. So, I found 30mm extensions, ordered those. Then ordered spare tubes for the new bike rims and new tires because I have no spares anymore. And the Lezyne floor pump battery died then the head began leaking. Ordered parts for that after replacing the. battery. It has been a day. At least the Park Tool inflator and my quiet compressor are still faultless.
I figure to pull the Pirelli P7 tires from the Pinarello and use those on the Roubaix. I’ll replace the tires on the Pinarello with Continental GP 5000 tube type. They are light enough and high thread count and I’ve been happy with them and their wet and dry weather performance. Another $300 day of parts. The good news is the new helmet and torque wrench showed up as I was getting ready to ride, before the tire drama began. I got a little ride with the slick new hat.
Our weather is crazy. We have heavy marine layer on the coast, but a few miles inland it’s 80°F.
I ended my month on Thursday with another 4:24 Gran Fondo ride. Very similar to Tuesdays ride. But, the ride began chilly to cold along the water and got quite warm inland to a high of 33°C, or 91°F. Full arm and leg warmers plus a base layer had me a bit overdressed, but not to where I got uncomfortably hot. When I got back to the coast at Dana Point it was warm where it had been very. cold for me on Tuesday.
Yes, same kit as Tuesday since I never even broke a sweat. The replacement parts for the Lezyne floor pump arrived on Friday. I used only the head and that fixed the problem. I need to mail them and ask after replacement O-rings for the head as that is the issue. Anyway, Thursday was cool in the shade and warm to hot in the sun and away from the breeze.
Back to visit the elephant where the wind was up, but sun shining and no marine layer to chill me.
For the last day of the month I did chores around the house while all my kit dried after laundering.
After having the floor pump issue I had decided to move my little compressor to a more handy place. I really like that Park Tool inflator. It is very accurate and seals well.
I organized my helmet cupboard a bit more. There is still plenty to clear away around the garage. Plenty of remaining motorcycle stuff to clear out.
This works a bit better now. After finishing messing around with the bench the pump parts arrived and I fixed that, then on to some garden work to use up my remaining energy. The old rubber tree bush mess is slowly being hacked into chunks and tossed into the green bin. That work ended when I scraped my left forearm on a sharp cut on the stump and tore a chunk of skin away. I now have. a half palm sized bandage on my arm. Boo.
So, ended the month not entirely where I wanted, but not too far back of my pace. I’m feeling fit and pretty strong. I’m still slow and have a stiff hand from sawing at stumps, but cycling is going well. Our weather is chilling back down to normal so next week we’re said to be looking at low 60’s for the highs and possibly some rain, though slight chance of that. Next week will also bring me into the second full week since the 4iii factory received my crank, so I may see it back nearer the end.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 617 km
Climbing: 4,229 m
Time: 37 hours
Along The Way 