Morning Catch Up

Instead of biking this morning - I have decided to drink some coffee, catch up on my internets/posts and milage updates then do my hair, finish laundry and have a wonderful Sunday afternoon.

Team Skinny has been slacking :(.  I didn't mean for it to happen, but the weather has been nothing but rainy the past week - both morning and afternoon and I dislike doing the trainer..so - the dislike took over the 'need' to do it....there it is.

We're considering the summer months our 'off season' anyways (per The Greek) since most of the time it's just too hot and too unbearable...

However, I have been riding most of the time, both days on the weekends..and taking some pretty neat photos while on my journeys...

Taking photos while on my rides really makes me apprciate the bike riding even more...and gives me a small mini break to nom and drink water moreso than I do while riding.

I think I'll be ready for Six Gap in 30 days..ACK!  Training and better eating habits start this week.  No more eating out constantly.  We're going to dinner tonight with a group of friends, but that is mainly for a person's bday and I'm going to attempt to just order something small.  

In other news - I <3 my new bike!  It's so light and fluffy ;)..ok it's not fluffy - but you can see it in most of the photos posted above.  It's comfy - I'm really really happy with it.  Best decision I ever made was to go Carbon :)

Conclusion of miles rode will be in the next post.

D had knee surgery a week and four days ago ..he's actually feeling a lot better and is actually looking forward to doing Six Gap as well.  he's been slowly getting on the bike and riding slow when he can to get  his knee in shape/physical therapy and  him and I have also started doing upper body working out.

I've learned what moleskin in for blisters and areas that rub your feet.  Why did I not hear of this stuff before??  Holy crap it is a godsend, especially with my freak feet.  The big toe constantly rubs the sides of my shoes which hurts like ungodly hell.  I thought that seamless socks would be the answer, but then realized it's also my cycle shoes and the stitching on them from the velcro.  Double wrapped the big toe in moleskin yesterday on my ride..and BAM no pain.  Amazing stuff.  And no, it's not REAL moleskin..maybe it was back in the day, but now it's just a tightly woven cotton fabric with padding. 

I think for the most part, I am ready for Six Gap ....I think.

Fingers crossed.

Goodbye Trek

Sold the Trek Alumunium frame (and fork and seatpost, which were carbon, and seatpost clamp) yesterday for 120.00 via Craig's List.

It actually went to a cycling buddy of D's who found it on there and is making the bike up for his girlfriend.

So it's getting a good home :).  

Tomorrow I ride the carbon frame for the first time ever.  Going to take it out tonight when I get home to make sure everything fits just right.

Back on Track for Team Skinny!

P.S. It's AUGUST now - and while I am shocked that the year is flying by - I am also glad as it makes it closer to cooler/better weather for us here in sweltering Florida.

Movin' on Up

Last night I became the proud owner of a PedalForce RS2 Carbon Frame...

Thanks to Ebay (and my wonderful boyfriend, who watches for these things like a hawk) I got it at a pretty sweet deal.

If you want to check out more info on the frame, click here...

I am moving up in the cycling world. The cool thing?! I already have wheels, and other parts from my trek that we will just move over to this frame that I am 100% happy with (the frame on the Trek was the only thing that was holding me back so to speak)

This new frame is also a 49er...my Trek is a 47. Which is, in all honesty, a little too small for me (WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT)..but it did put me in a more aggressive position for riding..and while that can be nice when you're racing, I have yet to get the urge to do any major races (Crit's for example) - I already dropped and busted my elbow/got stitches..but we'll see that could change as everything else seems to be changing as I ride the bike more day by day.

So the new dishwasher for my birthday lost to this...hell it's my birthday - who wants to buy RESPONSIBLE toys then?!

Great

I am now considering venturing into mountain biking....

Team Skinny Day #3

Yesterday was my 'off day' for the week.
Weather does not look to be very promising for the next couple of days (something about a cold front...or maybe a hurricane...whatever, it's Florida).
Humidity is terrible right now. If I just STOP on the bike to take a breather, it envelopes me and thus makes it where the sweat doesn't dry up.
Meh.
Luckily, Dimitrios bought us a trainer last year...




One of the best trainers on the market actually.
So he set that up for me last night - in front of the computer.
I can happily watch Hulu now in the mornings and catch up on my TV programs I like to watch while getting my hour in the morning.
And 30 minutes in the afternoons.

Apologies

My life has been a little hectic as of late:
- I finished school and will be graduating in two weeks
- I acquired a heart-rate monitor and can thus track my training a lot better. Got ready to make training goals and then:
- I was laid off from my job (which was only 5 miles from my home)
- I had to put off cycling for about 4-5 weeks while job searching (save for some small trips here and there to enjoy myself)
- I did a cycling adventure vacation up in Jacksonville with The Greek and had a great time
- I acquired work four weeks after being laid off over in Tampa
- Which makes for a 21 mile ride to work, ONE WAY
- AND I WILL BE DOING THIS 2x a week and commuting BACK over the Gandy Bridge every week (Weather permitting of course)

I already sucessfully did the commute one day this week. Dimitrios rode with me as he had mapped out the way for me through Tampa. The ride in? Kick ass - it was nice and cool super early in the morning (takes about an hour and a half to ride to work), and the water being on both sides was great. Hell, we were even passed by another cyclist who was booking it while we were going 23mph.
The ride home? HELL (LOL). We went from having the wind at our backs to fighting the wind, and being in the direct sunlight while going over the bridge. The wind was up to 20mph and we were going 11mph just fighting it.

It was still worth it though - and still awesome.
And so much worth riding and waking up 2 hours earlier than normal jsut to be on the bike and do soemthing that I love so much.

So I will be updating more here in the future. After my graduation ceremony in two weeks - expect weekly updates, status and comments on my trip over the Gandy and my commute as well as reports on my Project: Buff this year.

Ciao! for Niao!

2010 - New Year New Motivations

I have one more week of school - ONE.MORE.WEEK - - after that - training is going to be in full force with the biking, dancing, and every other thing that has been compromised while in school.

Got new shifters for the Trek - I have now moved up in the world to Shimano Tiagra's, which also meant a new cassette on the bike as well, so the Trek is now a 9 speed on the back. Woohoo - I got's more gears. That, I never really get to use since we live in FLATLAND (meh) but that will probably change here soon as I have requested that we make the trek out to San Antonio, FL to ride on hills so I can get acclimated to them for when/if we move out of state. If that does happen, it's going to start happening pretty fast.

The biking schedule has increased even though my mapmyride for the last two months hasn't shown it - just stopped logging it and I can't remember what I rode for certain - memory is being retained right now for school stuff and my finals this week. But I'm riding more to work and for errands and driving less and it feels pretty great!

In the market for a heart-rate monitor now. If I want to train and I want to train right, those are key to learning while training. Will update when I have one of those as well.

Need to get my schedule back on track - super cold weather didn't stop me from riding (yes I was riding to work in 35 degree weather - what of it?) but the dance schedule has. Along with my ballroom dancing I am now taking up belly-dance as well and those classes are on certain nights that mess up my early night for bed so I can do my before dawn/work bike ride. I've been waking up late and that's not good. So I think I need to change my schedule around to do the before dawn bike ride on Mondays, Fridays and every other Thursday. We'll see if that works.

This week's ride schedule will be M, W, TH, F - Ballroom is usually on Wednesdays, but I haven't heard anything from Joe/My Instructor...so I'm actually starting to get a little worried.

Welcome to 2010!

Discoveries

I'm not as young as I used to be. I need sleep - and a decent amount of it in order to function. The days of drinking and being retarded, crashing out and then getting only 4 hours of sleep to wake up the next morning and go to work are done/over. I'm 30 - it doesn't work that way anymore.

Also - setting any...WORKOUT goal on a Monday morning (or a biking goal for that matter) ain't gonna happen for a bit. I wanted to start riding in the mornings before I head to work - at least an hour before -- twice a week for starters. I THOUGHT Mondays would be perfect for that, but they're not, as I want to sleep in until I absolutely HAVE to get up and get my butt on that bike.

I went to bed at 10pm last night. It was kinda hard as I usually want to fight to stay up as late as possible (EFF THE MAN), I had to use two glasses of champagne in order to just make me sleepy - crashed...and amazingly - woke up on my own at 4:52am (alarm was set for 5:15). I laid there...kinda surprised by all the noise that goes on outside my window/in the parking lot of my complex (I had no idea that many people went to work at that time) until the alarm went off, then got up - started a load of laundry and got ready for the bike ride before work.

Headed out of the house @ 6am -- rode until 6:50 in the neighborhood behind my work, and then headed into work at 7am.
So I now know that:
a) I HAVE to go to bed by 10pm if I'm going to get up for this ride by 6am
b) I CANNOT DRINK the night before a ride day. Or..really ever again for that matter. I'm sure I will have certain weekends that I will drink but that whole hangover shit?! yea, not happening anymore.
c) The 6am ride is awesome. There's hardly anyone on the road and the people that are?? Leave you the hell alone. Plus seeing the sun come up in the morning and all the colors over the horizon - ah-MAZ-ing! I'm going to have to get my handheld back from Chris and take a photo one morning while I'm riding. :D
d) The awesome thing about being short is that you can take legwarmers that are supa-cheap at Target and use them as arm warmers as well and nobody is the wiser. My total warm gear on my bike (without my coat as I felt it would make me too hot)....about 5 dollars (the sets of legwarmers were 2.50 each last year). And they just look like sleeves...awesome.
e) Bike riding makes me feel better - so I need to not let it fall astray and continue it.

Those are my discoveries for the week - well - that and the Jesus/Gun Truck I mentioned earlier today

SHOOOOM!

Cold Weather
New Wheels
New WheelSet (thanks to Dimitrios - happy birthday to me! The Hubs finally came in and he made my wheelset all last week and this weekend) :D

Makes for a faster/happier ride into work
This weekend - starts the weekend rides again and the training. I'm excited!

Weekend Post and Plans

Biking this week has been wonderful. I will admit that I did not ride to work all four days (Crapped out yesterday), but that's ok, as that only means I will add those miles to tomorrow's ride, making for a nice 30 mile ride tomorrow morning. I WILL get up early and get those miles out of the way too :-).
Sunday will be a 10 mile ride.
Monday is off, as I have my ballroom dance lesson at lunch and will for the rest of the year.
Got to also try some new gear today. My sweet new all finger gloves and my windbreaker. Having a windbreaker OMG makes you so much warmer not having that wind cut into you. Awesome and great.
I've also been using the handlebar bag to store things and THAT is helpful as well. That is definitely a bag I don't think Dimitrios is going to get back at this rate.
Sticking to this schedule, with the weather, doesn't seem to be a problem thus far. And I like the fact that I'm keeping my current weight, if not loosing more.

20 miles = Beach Ride on Sunday

As I didn't ride on Saturday, I made up my 10 miles that day by going to the beach with Dimitrios and his friends from Portland. 10 miles each way = make up for Saturday and my 10 miles for Sunday achieved.

It was a 'commute' ride so I rode the Miyata. She looks quite sassy with her Christmas Gear on her might I add (rack, fenders, etc). I shall put a photo up soon enough.

The day was nice on Madiera Beach and we enjoyed throwing the football around and getting a little sun. Only down fall for the day was that we left a little later than we expected to and had no headlights, so half of our ride home we did on sidewalks so as not to inhibit drivers since they wouldn't be able to see us.

Total mileage = 20 miles.
Fatigue Ration = Not that bad. Me and the Wind are still enemies (it makes me fall behind a bit more at this point), but that will dissapate the more I ride in it and get acclamated to it. Keeping hydrated on the ride there was no problem and eating a sub when we got there helped with the hunger.

Merry Christmas To all and to me = BIKE SCHWAG!

Christmas was outstanding for me. I really do have the best boyfriend ever.
Bike Schwag for the holidays (from him) include the following:

- Clipless Pedals and Shoes for the Trek (score! as I've been wanting to remove the BMX pedals from that bike. That bike is my exercise/training bike and having those on with the mountain bike shoes just made the bike SO heavy).
- Biking Windbreaker Jacket - something I desperately needed. I have WARM gear, but WARM gear doesn't protect you from the wind going through your clothes. I can't wait for the 'Florida Winters' to get here so I can try/wear that puppy and try it out!
- Fenders for the commuter bike (so I no longer will have a dirt line up my back when/if I get caught in the rain...AWESOME).
- Biking Shorts (bought by his mom)
- U-Lock for the commuter. This will come in lots of handy. :-)

We rode at Ft. DeSoto on Christmas Day...after fanangaling the bike (Trek) around, I believe we FINALLY got both the seat and the handlebars in a acceptable position that's comfy for me to ride. Rode it again on Saturday to a friend's house and back and damn, it was comfy and no fatigue at all, except for the neck and shoulder muscles, but that's my bad for crunching up when I ride.

The riding has gone well. I didn't ride into work this week, but plan on beefing up the mileage on my days off to make up for it. I am quite excited to use all my gear as well.

Ok

Am I the only person that sees a 'skull' on this image?

End of October

The end of October had me not cycling as much.
Riding Stats for October are as follows:
Total Distance for the Month: 65.20 miles
Total Calories: 2,158
This does not show the rides we did in Portland however, add about 40 miles to this and we're set.
(note: All information is logged on the http://www.mapmyride.com page under the name Ritapita or bikingbettie@gmail.com

There was a vacation to the Portland, Oregon area planned, and it was a blast. We did lots of commuting there via bicycle and walking (thanks to the lovely Seth and Kaya for letting us borrow their bicycles on our days there). Bottom line: I loved it there. And am going to try as hard as I can to get up there to move. Starting at the beginning of the year, the wheels are going to be put in motion to get up there.

Had a 'equipment' failure right before we left for Portland. One of the rear bicycle lights broke and the clip for it is no longer attached to it. Bummer, but fixable.

And I have a new addition to my family. Her name right now is unknown (still can't think of one), but she's a 1988 Miyata Road Bike. Got her on Craig's List for 100 bucks:
She needs some work and some TLC. The wife hadn't ridden her in about 10 years. So the tires are dry-rotted. But I think I can put about 40 bucks of love into her and sha-zam! I will have a commuter bike for the work week. Complete with a rack and lock holder. I am pretty excited about this. The Trek I can then spruce up and do some cool stuff with to make it more of a 'race' bike and this one can be used for errands or going downtown, to work and/or the movies.

Today is the beginning of November. Ride schedule to and from work is every 5 days for now on, weather permitting of course. I will be riding this week from Monday-Wednesday. Driving in on Thursday with clothes change and then Friday-Wednesday the next week. Riding will probably happen a lot more as the weather is staying cooler and nicer.

Haven't posted in awhile...so let me sum up.

Training Summaries by Mileage/Calories Burned:
August: 82.80m/1,444c
September: 79.60m/2,331c
October: As of today, 65.36m/1,776c

Weather:
Weather has been ok. The signs of fall appeared the first week of October which made me think that the weather was going to get nice enough to ride daily, but it has now warmed up. I'm still riding 3 times a week to work and then somewhere on the weekends. It's been great.

Moments of Annoyance:
Two weeks ago, someone decided they thought it would be awesome to slam on their horn for about 60 seconds while driving behind me and The Greek on 66th. We were a) in a construction zone with no area to get out of their way, b) following all traffic rules of the road and c) really?! Do you think that does any good. The Greek and I just continued on our way as fast as we could. When they passed, they did NOT give us the 3 foot as required by law. If I didn't have clips in, I would have kicked the side of their car. Being rude like that is just...NOT COOL.
Other than that, no major annoyances from other drivers. Be it car, or bike.

Skills:
Learned how to change out a tube on a tire. I think I will actually have to use that skill tonight as currently, my tire was flat when I woke up this morning. Kind of bummed me out as I was hoping to ride into work everyday this week since my gas allowance is a little low (ran too many errands the weekend before). Hopefully just the tube is the problem. I filled it with air this morning to make sure it will be empty by the time I get home. I'll go to the gym this afternoon to make up for it.

Gear:
Used a pannier for the first time yesterday to get some objects I needed at work at work. It wasn't too bad. Feels a little awkward having stuff hang off the side and you do have to consider it when turning, etc...but it is a nice way to transport things and not have it on your back or bag causing you to sweat up a storm.

So that's that. Still riding, hopefully even more when I get back from Vacation (this weekend and next weekend) as the weather will be starting to cool off for the year. Really looking forward to this. Trying to get it where I only drive the car at the most, once during the week to work and once during the weekend (if necessary) for trips to Tampa, recycling, etc.

Gear Upgrades

Got a new blinky back light for the bike. Dimitrios was awesome and attached it to my frame on the right lower side. Makes it more visible to traffic on the road for me. That works out just fine.
Got a new seat. It's Dimitrios's old seat, but it works a lot better than the factory seat that came with the bike.
Also, got a new stem. This made the top tube, drop area (if I'm saying this correctly. I learned this lingo from this website: http://www.vimeo.com/848558
a bit longer for me. Which is good. My bike is a 47cm, but it actually would be more comfortable for me to be on a 49 or 50...so we just added the inches with a stem. It's helping. When I go into the drops, I don't feel as scrunched up on my legs and when I go to push with my legs, I actually have some leverage now to go faster. The stretch is making me work some muscles I didn't work before, but that's ok. Probably the ones I should have been working all along.
On the ride this morning, it felt good.
Man, I <3>

Fall go BOOM! Loose a light too (*Frown*)

Did the usual weekend ride to Lenny's. All was said and fine. Until we got on the trail we came across (the trail runs parallel to US HWY 19 so it's a lot nicer to take that than getting killed on 19.).
Got to a stop sign. I didn't clip out fast enough. Down I went.
Again, I think my ego was bruised more than anything.
I can't seem to get this clip situation resolved/figured out. I do so well...but I've had this clips since what...May? And still, I fall. Is this normal? Shouldn't I have figured this stuff out by now.

Anyways, get up, brush myself off. The rest of the ride is fine. However, my handlebars are now eff'd (well the tape is anyways). Finally broke it. Nothing electrical tape won't fix.
We get to a main intersection and I get ready to turn on my back light that's usually attached to my saddle bag.
Except it's not there.
Which sucks.
We keep going to Lenny's. Ride back. Can you believe in an hour's time, somebody had already found the light and taken it home with them (bastards). Sucky.
Those lights aren't cheap (LED awesome). And I got mine as a set for a really good deal via amazon.com. Now I'm going to have to go and buy one seperately, which means that one will probably cost the same amount as the two. Poop.

Ride In...Drive Out

Rode into work on Thursday. The Greek and I both have hair appointments this afternoon so it makes more sense for him to come pick me up in the afternoon instead of taking two cars.

Today I learned how to get resistance training in a relatively FLAT area. Ride AGAINST the wind. HA ha. Seriously. The ride in even took longer than usual because with how windy it was...it had slowed me down to about 12mph!! That's rough!

The Greek bought me a new battery for my cat-eye wireless. Awesome. I can now see how many MPH I'm doing - what's my average speed, track my mileage for trips, etc. Makes riding fun again to see your progress while you ride.

Speaking of -- when I first started riding in Feb, my average pace was 12mph. Now, my average speed has moved up to 17mph. I think that's pretty impressive. At one point on the ride in on Thursday, I was going as fast as 19mph and it didn't even wear me out like it used to. Hopefully with the weather cooling off, I can start the training rides again soon (right now I'm mainly just commuting to and from places).

Wednesdays Biking Lesson: Sunglasses

Five years ago, my best friend Brendan, bought me these sunglasses.

They are the most expensive pair of sunglasses that I have ever owned or have. Because of this, I hardly ever would wear them for fear of them breaking, getting lost or someone just getting eff'd up.

The cool thing about these glasses, is that they come with interchangeable lenses. And it came with two other sets (one set being yellow, the other being orange). I had no idea what each of the colors did, so I never really did anything with them and always have just worn the DARK glasses.

I needed eye protection while riding, so just out of curiousity today, I took the Dark lenses out and put the yellow lenses in.
WOW! Does it brighten morning up!! I had no problems seeing things while riding before the sun came up! It was awesome. so I look up what the color lenses do on the web-site:
"Vibrant lens that increases visual acuity in low light or flat conditions."
It was awesome. I might start even wearing them when I drive at night. LOL.

So I see that Brendan bought me these glasses (from his bike shop) for a purpose I guess.
Now I'm just going to be more paranoid about loosing them because the power of 'awesomeness' they hold. :)