On The Road Again

I’ve been waiting a long time (nearly six months) to reuse that title in reference to bike riding. This past Saturday I finally rode a bike on the road again. I won’t lie, it felt great and nervous emotionally (my first attempt at riding in a new clipless system didn’t help this), but not as great physically. I joined ITP-Readers Jill and Harold for a 33-mile ride around the Lake Hartwell area. I couldn’t quite keep up with them and at a fork in the road 16 miles out I lost sight of them, and subsequently chose the wrong fork. Not knowing the area well I turned around and made the trip back to the cabin solo, stopping at a local convenience store and spending my only dollar on a can of Cheerwine while refilling my water bottle [In six months I’ve lost my ability to smartly pack my bike pouch, that’s why I only had $1]. When I arrived back at the cabin I looked at my iPhone and heard that Jill and Harold figured I’d taken the wrong turn, had been waiting for me, and Jill actually rode back and saw me riding away and yelled toward me to no avail. Knowing how tired I was becoming and not knowing the area I figured turning around was the “best” course of action; I assumed that Jill and Harold would eventually pass me at some point, but instead I finished about about five minutes before they returned.

Around thirty miles into the ride my hip began to bother me, not to the point of requiring me to stop however, as I started to tire. During the last few miles I started to cramp.

I’d yet to install a speedometer/odometer on BlackJack, so I used my Garmin 305 to record my ride.

Yesterday my legs, while tired, were fairly okay however my right knee was a little bothered all day. I think the brief time I spent in the lake after the ride helped my legs immensely.

ITP Flickr Pic #1
It was brought to my attention that I’ve never shown a photo of BlackJack. Here it is, atop of the Jackmobile.
BlackJack
Not a great photo I admit, but it’s the only one I have and the wear and tear of the decals capture the beatings I’ve the Jackmobile over time.

ITP Flickr Pic #2
This past Saturday’s night’s meal was produced in this. Have you ever seen one of these?
Burg'r Tend'r
If you want to find out more about it click on today’s Website Of The Day.

Mapping Out My Remaining Vacation Time
As August will be gone in no time, and the thought of taking a “BIG” vacation this year has vanished, it’s time for me to start planning my remaining vacation time for 2011. Sadly I’ve already burned a lot of time this year not doing a whole heck of a lot. There’s the Inter Americas Hash in October, which if I go, will consume a couple of days. I know that I’ll take at least one day heading back to Black Mountain, NC to experience another fantastic weekend with ITP-Readers Lisa and Randy, and kids, at LEAF. And I’m going to start looking for an extended weekend on which I can fly up to New York to visit my brother and sister-in-law.

But now I need to catch up on the job which grants me the paid vacation time…

Stats & Goals
Daily
Current Mood – okay, not great, all is still not right in my word but I’m either working on, or thinking about working on, the things I need to do to make it better
Current Music – listening to a KEXP “Music That Matters” podcast
Website Of The Day – This weekend ITP-Reader Harold introduced many of us to steamed hamburgers using his Burg’r Tend’r. Damn, they were good.
Mode Of Transportation To Work – my car
Exercise (b)Log – Saturday: bike riding, 33 miles
Morning Weigh-In – not yet

Monthly
Foot Mileage – 0.0 miles
Wheel Mileage33.0 miles
Pushups – 0
Situps – 0
Stairs – 42 flights

Consecutive Days Of Bed-Making (Longest Streak) – 0 (0)

Vegetarian Days – 0
Carnivorous Days – 14

Marta Rides To Work – 0
Bike Rides To Work – 0

August Goals
– “Completely” recover from the bike crash
– Ride my bike no fewer than 150 miles
– Not to get sick for the entire month
– Not get fired from my job
– Run at least once
– Eat vegetarian no fewer than five days
– Lose two pounds

2011 Goals [will be a little more fluid than in past years]
– Reduce my weight by 25 pounds based on the my weight as measured on February 1st
Completely read the book Daily Negations which I received as a Christmas gift.
– Run Sharpened Stone as a real business — one which does not get penalized.
– Save $500 for the sole purpose of donating to charitable organizations of my choice
– Attend at least one professional photography workshop
– Enter no fewer than three photographic competitions / gallery showings
Ride in no fewer than five 50 mile or 50K bike rides
– Run in no fewer than two one half-marathon
– Submit at least one application under the name “Sharpened Stone” to Apple’s iOS store

The Unmeasurable
– Continue backing up all data, including the off-site storage
– Become a proficient programmer in Objective-C
– Do not create a solution for something which is not a problem
– Eat smaller portions

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

This entry was posted in My Daily Life. Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to On The Road Again

  1. Steve says:

    Congrats on the ride. I managed almost 30 yesterday and my legs feel it today.. I though I was going a lot faster than I actually was, which is somewhat disappointing, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

    So this Burg’r Tend’r machine… it actually cooks the burger or just keeps it warm, and is it just the patty, or bun and all?

    I hope the rest of the campout was fun.

    -FP

  2. Thanks.

    You actually cook (steam) the burger (and cheese) inside of the Burg’r Tend’r. There is a tray of water at the bottom which gets heated by the stovetop and steams the contents which sit inside of plastic cups on metal shelves. Amazingly you can still buy these things new. Even more amazingly, the “small” version shown above costs $279.

    Thankfully there wasn’t much “camping” as Mother Nature dropped copious amounts of rain on the area each night. The rain was almost louder than some of the snoring being reported in the house.

  3. Stacy Fox says:

    Just when you thought there could be no new way to cook a burger…. shaking my head… unreal….

  4. Hahaha. I want to believe that White Castle steams their burgers, but I don’t know if I am right about that.

    [UPDATE: Nope, apparently they do not. However I found out that White Castle may not believe in photographic copyrights either as their website has photos (with links) of White Castle photos on Flickr. I clicked on one shot and the copyright said “All Rights Reserved,” though the photographer may have given White Castle permission to use the photo.]

    I failed to mention that the burgers cooked were venison meat ground with beef fat, served with a quality white cheddar; they were seriously delicious. I think I ate and drank so much on Saturday that I could have gone out for another 33-mile ride and still put on weight.

  5. Barb says:

    Sounds like the Burg’r Tend’r is the gift for the guy that has everything……..

    I managed to ride the mountain bike Saturday (not very many miles, I’ve got no climb in my legs these days) and the road bike 27 miles with Michelle on Sunday. No blistering pace for us, but that was to be expected after not riding for a couple months. And – my butt hurt, that was the first time that had happened in a long time, no taking months off again we decided!

    and – side note – Jason got his bike back Friday night. Let me know when he rides it & if it is all working right, so I can tell Allan.

  6. My butt wasn’t as tender as I feared it would be. Hell, the same could be said for my legs. Now if only my hip would stop popping and the rest of my body would heal itself…

    I hope Jason bought decent-enough wine as compensation. He’s not an alcohol drinker so I tried to help him out as best I could.

  7. Barb says:

    well – the wines Jason dropped off looked very interesting & I’d never heard of any of them – I’d suspect that he went into some wine store and asked for help.

    I’m guessing my butt was sore from riding 2 days in a row – something I hadn’t done in way too long. Hopefully I can get around to riding during the week again.

  8. Paulie [eatl/ga] says:

    That’s exactly the advice I gave him, Barb. 🙂

    Whew, I just walked my six flights of stairs for the day and it was rather difficult today.

  9. bob says:

    I guess I was out of town with every body else this weekend. Went up to my mothers place in South Carolina so drove right over lake Hartwell. Than while having dinner there was a table of 12 GUTS people. Apparently there was a GUTS event at Table Rock state park right down the street. I wanted to go check out what was going on but the schedule just didn’t allow that.

Comments are closed.