… and Sweet Connie.

Did a lot of bike riding this past holiday weekend.  Friday and Saturday did a few short rides to Shane’s loop in the Boise foothills.

Sunday’s ride was the big kahuna – Bogus Basin road to the ski area, Eastside to Sweet Connie, then back out to Bogus Basin road and home – about 35 miles in 4 hours.  I did this same ride (with a few different trails thrown in) last October and was completely wiped out compared to this year.  I think my improvement comes from bike commuting most days of the week.

The Sunday ride did NOT leave me completely bonked which is even more suprising since we did very little resting this year.  There was only three of us riding this time versus six riders of varying ability last year.  I think I was the slowest rider of the three this year.

Now that my kids are out of school and I no longer need to drop them off at the bus stop, I am biking to work.

Takes about 50 minutes to get there.  Take a shower, get a cup of hot water for the instant oatmeal and I feel great when I walk into my office at about 7AM.

Around 8:30, I usually feel a little tired, but that goes away quickly.

I figure I am saving about $5 USD a day by not driving the 26 mile round trip drive every day – and getting exercise on a regular basis.

By that, I mean back on the ergometer. It has been about five weeks since I sat myself down for a good row. And what a great night to do so. Classic fall weather – leaves blowing, rain falling and dark early. Sent myself over to the local YMCA for 10,000 meters of pure rowing pleasure.

At least that’s what I told myself when I was rowing to beat the band.

Without further ado, here are my results for 10k of rowing. 41:33.0, 2:04.6 minutes per 500 meters at 22 strokes per minute.

8:16.9 2:04.2 23 2000m
8:18.0 2:04.5 23 4000m
8:21.3 2:05.3 22 6000m
8:22.5 2:05.6 23 8000m
8:14.1 2:03.6 23 10000m

And just to prove that I am a weekend warrior, I did the longest mountain bike ride ever, 40 miles on the single speed Ibexx up Bogus Basin road, down Eastside trail and Sweet Connie on Sunday. And just for good measure, I did the single speed up Corral’s and over to Sidewinder on Saturday.

Who-ahh!

Going for a ride with the boyz in McCall.

A bunch of us are going to McCall Idaho for the next few days for mountain bike riding. We plan on doing Loon Lake (famous for the B-52 bomber crash), Brundage ski area, the little ski hill, Ponderosa State park, and maybe somewhere around Tamarack on Sunday.

My only concern with this little adventure is that the weather is going to turn fowl by tomorrow. Today in Boise, the high temperature was a darn near perfect 80F. By tomorrow night in McCall, the weather is expected to be windy with rain turning to snow! The end of September and we are expected to see snow!

Not sure what this will do for my weight loss effort given that I am certain the amount of exercise will be matched by an equal amount of alcohol comsuption …

That’s alright, this is a time to chill out and ride around, hang out with some friends and do not much else.

… and maybe losing some weight at the same time.

Last week I picked up my new single speed mountain bike.  Since then I have ridden five days on the SS and I have loved every ride in a sick sort of way.

Tonight’s ride was no exception.  It started off slow, my legs felt tired after yesterday’s 3+ hour ride through the Boise foothills:  Corrals – Hard Guy – Eighth St – Scotts – Corrals – Bobs.  Or as another rider put it, “2 hours of riding and 1 hour of waiting” since we had a few very slow riders in the group.  Anyhoo, like I was saying, tonight’s ride started off with me feeling sluggish.  After awhile of riding out of the saddle, I felt “rejuvinated” or at least I felt like I was getting my heart rate going.  I rode out to Camels Back park and up to Crestline then Sidewinder and back.  It was an out-and-back ride that took 40 minutes out and 20 minutes back.

The benefit of having a single speed is … I *think* I am back on the weight loss wagon.  My weight has been under 165 pounds for awhile now and I hit a new record low of 162.4 lbs. last Thursday.  Woo hoo!  Getting these intense type of workouts a few hours before I go to bed seems to be paying off.

Or wait, maybe it is the “going to bed early” goal for September that is doing the trick.  What do I know?  It just seems that I am starting to lose weight again after being stuck in a weight range for the summer months.

Have a rambled enough or should I stop now?

Bought an Ibex Trophy Single Speed … here’s what it looks like before its maiden voyage.

Ibex Trophy Single Speed – clean

And here is what it looks like after the first ride.

Ibex Trophy Single Speed – dirty

You might be wondering why in this day and age of mountain bikes with 27 plus gears would anyone spend good money on a single speed bike for mountain biking.

Let me explain by way of describing this morning’s mountain bike ride through the Boise foothills.

The ride started out innocently enough – just spinning and grinning on the way out to the Military Reserve. Then the first uphill occurred. It isn’t much of a hill, but on a single speed you obviously don’t have the luxury of downshifting to a more appropriate gear. Rather, you need to speed up as much as possible prior to the uphill. And that’s exactly what I did.

But – oh my goodness, I quickly lost my speed and needed to get out of the saddle and just start grinding. Which brings me to another point. With a single speed, there are three speeds – spinning, standing or walking (hehe).

By the time we made to the top of the first hill (about a mile into the ride), my legs were screaming. And on the way up, there were times when it felt like my bike was coming to a standstill and I would fall over. That’s just part of the joy of single speeding.

Suprisingly, I was able to do all of the ride without walking with the exception of one particularly steep section on Three Bears off of Rocky Canyon.

I guess what I liked the most was getting a killer workout in a short amount of time. Plus the pedaling was a nice smooth constant effort. It’s hard to get across how much I enjoyed this ride – especially if killer workouts don’t turn you on.

[tags]single speed, ibex[/tags]