Garmin's first ride

So, this is kind of cool. I (finally, thanks to some disgustingly filthy pollution hanging out, literally, in the Salt Lake Valley last week) took the new Garmin out for a spin last Saturday. Here's the resulting graph (with Speed and elevation graphed, because I was playing around)

And the map of the route.



This could be fun, once I figure out how to use it better. Oh, and apparently, I burned about 1630 calories, too. Cool.

The end of an error

Congratulations to President Barack Hussein Obama.

That feels good.






And George - goodbye, good ridance and well, ...go away.

See, this is how it works.

I got very excited to get the new Garmin on Friday, and couldn't wait to get out on my bike again to try it out. So, what happens?

Saturday was a bad air day. No riding.

Sunday was a bad air day. No riding.

Today...you guessed it, bad air day. The particulate count as of five PM tonight? 153. That's into the red range, "unhealthy." What does that mean? From the AIRNow website: "People with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion."

I love living in the mountains, don't get me wrong. But this inversion crap really sucks.

Days off rock

Today's miles: 31.94
total for the month: 118.6

So, I took the day off of work today, which means that I've got a four day weekend! The only problem with that is that I didn't take Tuesday off, as well, for the inauguration. Oh well.

I rode out part way to the Salt Lake Marina today, I didn't go all of the way because it's about 40 miles round trip from my house and I was trying to do a thirty mile ride today - which I did. I don't want to overdo it, right? Besides, we have family in town and the day off was supposed to be to hang with them. Though, no one's here right now.

On a good note, the fact that I cut the ride short meant that I was here to sign when the postman delivered my Garmin! It's charging now. I can't wait to play!

2nd xmas

Robyn's family is in town for the post holiday holiday that I am starting to call 2nd Christmas. We had a lovely diner last night after which we sat around the house opening an insanely large number of gifts.

It was during this second activity that I found out I'm getting one of these:

It hasn't arrived yet, should get here today. I'm thrilled, now I can geek out even more and keep better track of my rides! And...I no longer have to worry about stopping for receipts from places if I do a personal long ride to submit to the UMCA! It's the standard 205, none of the extra frills of the 305, 605 or 705...but I don't think I need those things anyway. It's a huge step up from the Cateye that I've been using. Awesome!

And (almost better), I found out that come mid-January, I'm getting one of these:

That's right, the limited edition, wool long-sleeves Fat Cyclist jersey from Twin Six!!!

(I hope you notice those three exclamation points there. You know I'm excited because I hate when people use multiple punctuation marks to make a point.)

This is the best 2nd X-mas ever!

Sunday ride

It was about 28 degrees and lightly snowing when I left for my ride this morning. Snow stopped rather quickly and I warmed up pretty well. However, I only made it 18.39 miles. My left calf cramped up pretty badly and I couldn't get it to stop. Frustrating. I'm more out of shape than I thought I was. It's going to be a long road back.

Today's miles: 18.39
Monthly total: 52.8

Slush, part II

More snow and slush on the way home. And to the idiot in the SUV who was in such a hurry that you passed me on 1700 S & State in the intersection with about 1 1/2 feet to spare. Fuck you, too.

today's miles: 8.54

monthly total: 16.97

Slush

today's miles: 4.2
monthly total: 12.63

It was a little under 20 degrees when I left to ride to work today. And it started drizzly snowing not long after I left. Roads were slush, with an underlayer of chunky ice. In other words, it was fun. Slower than it should have been because I've been off the bike so long, but fun.

Except, my new "winter" gloves suck. Granted, I didn't flip over the neoprene cover that covers the fingers, effectively turning them into mittens, so maybe I'm judging them too soon, but my fingers were COLD when I got to work today. COLD.

I suppose it could be that I've been forced to jump right in to winter this year, without the gradual acclimatizing that riding all year provides.

Whatever. It's been snowing on and off all day. The roads, from the one little window with the view of the train station across the street (the one where I can catch a bus that takes me to within 1/2 block of my house), look slushy still. And according to the trusted Weather.com site, it's now 30 degrees out there, and may be 32 or so for my commute home. Fun.

Seriously, fun. :-)

Cold

It's currently 18 degrees and snowing. Again.

I'd like to get out and ride but I'm not sure it's going to happen.

So far this year, I've commuted to work one day, Friday, Jan 2. Total miles 8.43. I called out today so I could get some things done around the house (insulating windows, for reasons mentioned above.) I spent the weekend helping a friend install cork flooring in two rooms of his house. It looks good, better, probably, than the cork I installed here at my house even. (with experience comes perfection...)

I'm printing the labels for my Scottish Ale, which should be drinkable some time in June. They recommend six months in the bottle, I'm going to wait this time. I know from my last Scottish Ale that they do indeed get better with age. I bottled on January 1st. Four days down...



On the beer front, the Edward Abbey Ale is delicious. I'm very happy with it, and I've had good comments from friends so far as well. It's nice to have one turn out after the coffee stout disaster.

Well, I'm rambling and it's getting close to time for the first pass with the ol' snow shovel. But first, I think I'll cut labels. What a fun life I lead.