Thursday, May 11, 2006

Bicycle Tidbits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A Nerd, A Nude and a Bike

A nerd was walking on campus one day when his friend, another nerd, rode up on an incredible shiny new bicycle. The first nerd was stunned and asked, "Where did you get such a nice bike?" The second nerd replied, "Well, yesterday I was walking home minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up to me on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, 'Take what you want!'"

The second nerd nodded approvingly, "Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn't have fit."

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This week's workouts have been going well. I have felt guilty about my missed biking session on Monday due to the field of a yard we had going on at our house that we finally decided to take care of!

So Wednesday despite the threat of showers I loaded the bike up with me when I left for the gym before work. At work, I mapped out a course that I felt I could squeeze in during my lunch hour. (It was a little long but we will keep that on the down low!) Around noon I strolled out to my car and hopped on the bicyle. It was a rather humid and still sunny ride with more stopping than I am accustomed to on my typical rides out in the boonies. Before long I learned I had mapped out a course with some decent sized hills in it. And I thought this lunch time exercise session might feel easier than my normal lunch time runs....wrong! It was challenging, yet in a good way! After a quick shower, it was back to work.

At 5, I changed and rushed out the door for one of the bicycle training sessions put on by New Vision hosted by Pete Gladden. This session was held down in the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley. Each week they conduct different workouts including hill repeats, time trial or sprints. I was not real sure what I was getting into but I figured some new perspective could help on some bicycling techniques.

As I pulled into the parking lot I was happy to finally meet Qcmier . He introduced me to some other club members out there. There was a group of about 25 people who showed up even with the clouds rolling in. It was still humid. We started off with a warm-up loop and then proceeded up the road for one mile all out sprints with timed heart recovery periods. So we line up at a cone and every 10 seconds one person takes off to go as hard as they could to the 1 mile mark. I think we did this 6 times. My times were (missed the first one), 3:20, 3:22, 3:26, 3:17, 3:15. So definitely room for improvement but that at least gave me a point of reference to start from. It was a bit challenging to just take off, clip in right away, and get going strong fast. My legs got a good burn each time and I really enjoyed doing a workout in this group format. After the session I did a cool down loop with another rider who was also enjoying his first Wednesday workout. By this time it had started to rain rather steadily on us, but I must admit at that point it actually felt good. Definitely plan to attend more of these sessions!!

Another good workout day...followed up by pizza (good thing I worked so hard burning off calories)! I was so exhausted and hungry driving home I just wanted no part of cooking!

5 comments:

Eric said...

Awesome. Love the picture and the joke.

So glad you met qcmier.

Bubba Q's restaurant is in Avon on Route 83. Take 90 west to route 83 and turn right (north). Keep going toward Avon Lake. The restaurant is on the left, right before the railroad tracks.

Let me know if you come out this way. Maybe we can get a group to meet there. Maybe TriSaraTops will want to come out.

qcmier said...

Nerds rule!!!

Glad you had a good workout. Looking forward to seeing you out there again. By the way, think about throwing some running shoes in your car because sometimes some of us will do a short (10-15 minute) transition run after the ride.

Mojo said...

It's cool to ride with a bike group? I'm lucky to have a local group to ride with too.

Hey, your mile times are great! You decreased the time after each mile too. You didn't get tired! Sounds like a fun bike workout!

Janet Edwards said...

Qcmier...always keep running shoes with me!

Papa Louie said...

I think I also would have taken the bike too.
You train with that group you will get better/faster by this summer.
Nice workout!