Well this Flip comes in handy so I don’t have to bore myself with writing as much. Now I can just bore you by talking, hahahah…
Here are some photos of the Moab Slickrock Trail ride. I will montage more later.
Edited: September 22nd, 2009
What an excellent morning for a ride. Low 80’s and clear skies. Didn’t wanna get out again after yesterdays pain locker but knew it was the best thing to do to get the legs stretched out. Besides I just feel better after a morning ride.
So I took it real easy and did 12 miles in 45 minutes heading down Alma School to Germann and back up Dobson. Nice and easy all the way.
Happy Tuesday!
Edited: September 8th, 2009
One constant addiction I have held onto since being a child has been riding my bike. I still remember the first time my dad let go of the handle bars and I was flying, no training wheels, just me, my bike, and after 10 or 20 feet the ditch. Since then I have the same experience anytime I hop on a bike and push off the ground and fly. The same stupid grin comes over my face and a giggle lops itself out of my chest. I generally start off too quickly because I am addicted to acceleration and speed.
Today I got the chance to get back to being a child again and went riding with about 60 other grown kids known as the Phoenix Metro Bike Club. They ride every saturday and on Memorial Day and Labor Day they also get together and take over the Phoenix streets. Today we did the Mummy Mountain Loop and since it was my first ride over 20 miles in a few months I totally got my butt kicked. This course is about 40 miles long and gets a nice sampling of Tempe, Phoenix, and Scottsdale with tons of scenery and climbs for burning both legs and lungs.
In the end I wound up covering 56 Miles in 3 hours of riding time. Got home and spent the rest of the day taking it very easy.
All in all it was a great ride and I am looking forward to the one next Saturday when we head over to South Mountain and see what that communist playground is all about. Till then remember that Training time is Chamois time…
Edited: September 7th, 2009
its been a while since I went out on a ride with the Phoenix Metro Bike Club. Tomorrow will be a fun ride starting from Kiwanis Park and making our way north into Phoenix, and Scottsdale around and through Mummy Mountain. I am looking forward to seeing the crew and enjoying some wind break in the middle of the pack.
If you ride 20 miles on your own enjoyably then you should come!
Edited: September 6th, 2009
Some might think it dumb to bike in a monsoon, some would go further to say that said biker with a video camera in hand is even stupider. Well I got the shot BABY!
Taken while riding home from the studio, thinking some remix will come soon.
Edited: August 31st, 2009
Trying something new with my cycling videos, last year it was all handheld so yesterday I tried mounting the camera. The results are above, let me know what you think. This was all shot with my Canon Powershot 550. Maybe someday I will get an actual video camera. I think a fisheye lense would be good for this type of thing.
This route goes south on Alma School to Ocotillo Rd and back up Dobson. Its just over 16 miles and takes me about an hour with a nice easy 15 min warmup and then a 10 minute cool down. Top speed today was 26MPH and I didn’t even go into the largest chain ring up front.
Its a good morning ride cause there isn’t a ton of traffic that early, the winds are generally blowing east to west, and the sun is mostly to the right or left. After the ride I am pretty much set on energy for the next two days, then I go on another ride and keep the cycle going.
Edited: August 18th, 2009
E2 is a great PBS series on where things are headed for humans and how we are trying to live in better harmony with the planet Earth. Brad Pitt narrates it so its cool factor is up there. Add to this that all the shots are at least half out of focus and you have modern hipster all tied up.
The latest one covered Paris’ bicycling revolution with the “public-private Vélib’ bike initiative”. Its a pretty cool system where you are encouraged to make short, 30 minute or less, trips with public bikes. Read more here to get the details.
I really enjoyed this episode and wanted to share it with many people. The problem is that the only way to see it is to either have a TV or buy the episodes from iTunes or on DVD. I think this is very lame because the show is publicly and privately funded and is great public service information, which is to say that no one is going to buy it.
Maybe they need to cut their budget a bit: I am pretty sure you can get someone for less than Mr. Pitt goes for, and all the artsy editing and photography could be cut out.
I wrote PBS a message, you should too.
Oh and please RT this and please leave a comment below. This is your tax dollars, you should get to see what you already paid for.
Edited: August 2nd, 2009
Had a nice wake up call this week with my cholesterol test results. They are a bit high which I partially attribute to the orgy of fat I are over the Thanksgiving weekend. Nonetheless it is a serious issue and one I am not taking lightly. So I am going to get back into the serious cycling I was doing last spring.
First thing is that I needed a new training program. I want something simple but tough and most critically FREE. Its crazy how many people are trying to sell training programs online. Guess what? I aint buying your program. If I am going to pay you it will be to coach me, and I aint hiring you as a coach till I see your training program. So I found Jesper Therkildsen who writes Training4Cyclists.com and he has this 12 hour a week Training program which is just what the doctor ordered (man I crack myself up).
Yes a 3 hour ride is a long ride, but the better way to look at it is that you will get to see lots of country side. Now leaving the house at 5pm Dec 4th might seem suicidal but I have the fortune of living in Phoenix AZ and its in the 60’s here now. So besides rush hour traffic and a little darkness it is perfect riding conditions.
Then the sunset happened:
Then I got to Ahwatukee and entered Never Never Land:
After Ahwatukee I was heading home on Ray but realized I wasn’t going to hit my 3 hour mark so I doubled back to Kyrene and up to Guadalupe to get home in 3 hours and 47 miles covered:
Here is the route.
Edited: December 5th, 2008
Had a nice adventure a few Saturdays ago. Naturally it involved riding my bicycle around Phoenix and seeing part that I hadn’t seen before. We started later than planned but in the end everything worked out very nicely.
Kathryn wanted to go and see what all of the hubub was about at the Phoenix Libraries’ Book Sale. Naturally they cannot do said booksale at their convienently located downtown location. No no no this needs to be done at their warehouse which is naturally not in so convienient, nor exactly pleasant, a location near 29th Ave and McDowell. So the adventure started pretty much right away as I have never actually biked anywhere west of 7th Ave.
So we started off down the canal to 12th St cause there is a nice bike lane on 12th that takes us to Maryland, which also has a nice bike lane:
The booksale was interesting but neither of us bought anything. Eager to get back on the road we headed down McDowell and up to Oak to make our way to the Papagos. We got a nice ride over the 51 on the very inviting 51 overpass:
The fun didnt stop there and at 27th St there was a dead body getting pulled from the bushes. Kathryn asked how I knew it was a dead body and I pointed out that the truck being used to drive off with the body was not an ambulance. No hurry to get him or her anywhere. Crazy stuff but we rolled on unscathed.
We got through some pretty dramatic road construction before climbing by the Papagos on our way to the Desert Botanical Gardens:
Had lunch at the Botanical Garden and hung out with some butterflys then made our way home:
Gmaps says it was 38 miles but I clocked 41. Here is the route we took.
Edited: November 6th, 2008
Got a great ride in on Saturday down here in Chandler but Sunday’s ride was a whole nother story. Headed out to meet with the ABC group ride from the Granada Park with Kathryn:
This was my first ride with ABC and I wasn’t terribly impressed with their ability to ride in formation or at a consistent pace. Still it was a gorgeous morning and I still had fun. We made our way through Dreamy Draw Park and over to Mummy mountain for a nice climb:
Then we headed out to Scottsdale and FLW Blvd for some breakfast which was very delicious. At that point we decided to leave the group and make our way to Old Town Scottsdale:
We spent a little too long there and let the heat of the day catch us by surprise. Luckily we are top trained athletes and were able to make it back:
48 miles total, here is the route map.
Edited: October 20th, 2008
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