Monthly Archives: April 2012

Ups and Downs

Plans never quite follow through. Cold, windy weather. 15+ inches of snow in one day. Certainly puts a damper on riding.

My Surly is here and complete, I just need to find shoes for it and then get properly fitted. So virtually all my gear is ready to go. Now that work is over, I will be able to plot my route out using an online website designed for such things (bikeroutetoaster) to figure out how long it will take. Then, all I have to do, is find summer work so I can then book my ticket to the UK.

On good news, I have now gone Soda free for…13 days. Tomorrow will be day 14. Starting to eat Cheerios and Shredded Wheat for breakfast (instead of bagels) so starting to improve on that front. I think this weekend I will do an ‘official’ weigh in to see where I am at weight wise, and periodically weigh in to see if I am losing any weight as I start to train.

A Few Days Off

So I took a break and chilled out on my days off. They were either windy or overcast, so I didn’t particularly feel like riding. Instead, I sealed the seams on my tent – and hope that it dried all the way before I rolled it up. A quick test (finger to the sealant) suggested it was dry. We’ll see when I set it up again this Thursday/Friday. I also skipped out on riding to work on Saturday. I DID ride to work today and decided on wearing my long fingered gloves and cycling cap since it was a bit chilly out. The day certainly warmed up and my ride home was quite enjoyable. I still get winded going up short rises, but I imagine thats me still trying to adjust to exercise at altitude after years of sitting stagnant at Sea Level. The bad news is that its supposed to snow tonight/tomorrow/tuesday. That would put a hamper on things but then it warms right back up. Hopefully, while the company needs to the snow, it doesn’t snow as I’d much rather be able to ride my bike more and more.

 

I’ve also come to the conclusion that I need to literally sit down and hammer out my route for the trip, in order to figure out how many days it will take me overall, whether doing 5 hikes up the tallest peaks in the UK and Ireland is worth it (I think it is) and when the best time for me to go is. I also think I should start sorting through all the gear I have now collected and box it smartly away so I know where everything is. I also need to stop reading blogs etc about similar trips or parts of what I’ve done – its making me itching to get over there and do it! Not to mention my Surly Disc Trucker should arrive any day this week – maybe, if I am lucky, my days off can be spent riding it. Which means I need to get shoes…so another trip to the LBS.

 

-Matt