Apr 13 2010
You may remember I started using Cyclemeter (Abvio, $4.99) about a month ago. I’d used a few other tracking apps in the past, and when I decided that Fitnio had failed me for the last time, I plunked down the $4.99 for what looked like the best cycling app out there. Continue Reading »
Apr 07 2010
I wish I’d had my camera with me today. I rode SF2G’s Skyline route and it’s my new favorite ride. It was pretty brutal for a first-timer though, by the end of mile nine all I could think was “What have I gotten myself into?” Oh, and before I go on, I’d like to note that the link I posted is 100% accurate as far as I know. Cyclemeter performed admirably today.
Usually when I plan to ride I bring a change of clothes to work the day before, and leave my laptop there overnight. But I just decided yesterday afternoon to do this ride, so I had to bring everything with me on the bike today. It was a bad day to travel with an extra ten pounds. Very little of the route is flat, and I am not in climbing shape. At all.
The good thing about climbs is, they always pay off. I absolutely love a good descent. Nothing like grabbing the drops and getting some face time with the handlebars. Sawyer Camp Trail (approx. miles 15.6-21.8) is the perfect combination of twisty descents, awesomely fun sharp turns, and gorgeous scenery. It is COLD though. The kind of cold that numbs your face until you can’t make consonants. The kind of cold that forces you to ball up your fists to save your fingers. The kind of cold that turns your nose into a total snotfaucet. Worth it though. Imagine if the forest portion of the Arkansas River Trail were five miles long, mostly downhill, and next to much prettier water.
And now on to the griping portion of this post. I am having a knee problem. It feels like my right patella is seriously bruised. It’s not, obviously, or I would know why it hurts. It was fine for almost the whole ride, but about three miles from Google it started bothering me, and it’s gotten worse throughout the day to the point that when I got up for water a minute ago it was hard to straighten my leg. I can walk just fine, in fact I don’t even limp… but it feels like I kneed The Thing in the crotch.
I also need a new saddle. I thought I just needed to get used to the one I have, but it seems like it’s taking fewer and fewer miles each ride to develop some serious ABS (that’s Angry Balls Syndrome). I picked up a used Fizik Alliante for my CX bike (just completed, pics forthcoming!) so we’ll see how that works out. If it’s good I’ll have to find a white and black one to match my Orbea.
Mar 28 2010
Since I’ve been using my iPhone to track my rides (with varied success), and since I’ve been riding longer and more often, I took a major leap and blindly invested over $26 in an iPhone mount for my handlebars. I came across this post at iPhoneness, and after reading some Amazon reviews etc. I settled on the Pro.Fit holder & bike mount.
Opening the box, I was dazzled by the packaging. It was the first sign that I’d really made a solid investment that I couldn’t possibly come to regret.
Fortunately, once I had it out of the bag it was clear that the money they saved on packaging was well spent. The individual pieces feel extremely solid.
They even included a pair of Flexible High-Tensile Polymer Fasteners with Built-In Permanent Locking System. Fancy.
Installation was not easy. The mounting bracket and phone holder have zero clearance between them, so the zip ties have to be pulled extremely tight until they’re flush with the bracket. In addition to (or as a result of) having no clearance, the mount and holder are a very tight fit. It took me several minutes to snap them together, and I’m not what you’d call “dainty.”
I had no idea what the rubber strip was for, and honestly if something only comes in two pieces I am not likely to read the instructions. On my first ride I quickly realized that the rubber strip was important. I left it out, and for the entire ride the mount was flopping over to one side of the stem. Getting home, I checked the instructions and confirmed my suspicions: That little piece of rubber is what keeps the bracket in place.
I had to cut the zip ties, which meant a trip to the hardware store for replacements. The hardware store didn’t have any small enough, so I got the closest thing and performed minor surgery on the bracket to make them fit. All this added up to a seriously crappy installation process that I could have avoided had I just read the instructions. Lesson learned, I guess.
The good news is, when this thing is installed properly it works great! The fit and finish is top notch, and the iPhone fits snugly and securely in the holder. Nearly 100 miles of testing over some bumpy roads, and my iPhone was never in danger of falling out. It’s not meant to protect your iPhone in a crash, but honestly it seems like it provides enough protection that even in a serious wreck your iPhone would have a solid chance.
PROS:
CONS:
THE VERDICT:
A solid piece of equipment. If you’re tracking your rides with an iPhone, a handlebar mount is a very nice thing to have. This one does the job, is built to last, and won’t drop your iPhone if you hit a pothole. I might even get a second one for my other bike, but I’ll be careful to install it correctly on the first try.
Mar 21 2010
Had a pretty great ride today, but I only tracked half of it. Just totally forgot to restart Cyclemeter after my water break. Check it out! I really wished I had my camera, in fact I may get a second (or bigger) saddle bag so I can take it with me on rides. Fortunately Google Street View is a pretty good substitute. That picture’s from where I did my fastest mile.
I stopped at the 16 mile mark for a snack and some water, and noticed it’s time to replace my tires. If you don’t know how to tell when your tires are old, I’ve included this handy picture for your reference (click to embiggen):
Mar 14 2010
Just finished my first run with Cyclemeter. It seems to have been pretty accurate, or at least it’s as accurate as Fitnio ever was. That’s all I really have to go on. Looking at the map of my run, it looks like the GPS doesn’t “check in” as often as maybe it should—I promise I wasn’t zig-zagging down the middle of Polk Street. But all in all, I’d say it compares favorably to any other tracking app I’ve used.
The tweeting feature might be what seals the deal for me. Knowing that it’s sending a link to Facebook makes me feel like I’m really accountable for turning in a good run. It might even make me run more often, if I feel like people might start wondering why I haven’t run lately. Is that a little narcissistic and/or self-obsessed of me to say? Probably. I don’t care though (because I’m awesome).
My running has improved a little, in spite of me not really staying on top of my training. My outdoor runs are a mile longer now but averaging the same speed. That’s pretty encouraging, and in combination with the beautiful weather, Daylight Savings Time, and Cyclemeter, I might even start running more than once a week. Of course, we’ll see about that when the time comes to run on a weekday after work.
Mar 10 2010
In my last post I briefly touched upon a slight problem with Fitnio. Specifically, it wouldn’t upload my ride. Well, after that happened on three or four more rides, Fitnio decided it wouldn’t even open at all. It would just crash, every single time I tried to use it. I reinstalled it, restored my phone, and cursed it up and down, but nothing would fix it. Not even the most creative curses I could muster. So you know what, Fitnio? You’re out. You suck and I never liked you much anyway.
I hereby declare Cyclemeter to be The New Hotness. I used it for the first time today, and it… it just… you guys, it is a dream. I won’t devote space here to listing its features, suffice to say that it does everything they say, and it does it well. If you check my Twitter you’ll see that it can tweet when you start and finish your ride. HOW COOL IS THAT?! It even uses less battery power than Fitnio. You hear that, Fitnio? You suck so hard.
The one flaw I saw was that it clocked my first couple of miles at around 79 mph, which isn’t entirely accurate. 7.9 mph would be closer. I’ll give it a pass though, because when I started out it warned me that the GPS signal was weak. Fortunately it allows the user to change any stats it records, so I scrubbed my amazing but untrue top speed from the record.
Oh and by the way, riding’s going well… Missed a couple of weeks because of jury duty, equipment failure, and weather (I will NOT ride in the rain, I don’t care if that makes me a wuss). But today was great, the weather is steadily improving, and I won’t have jury duty again for at least a year. Expect to see some more frequent rides tweeted, thanks Cyclemeter!
Apr 22 2009
Running is getting easier! Or at least, its suckitude is on the wane. I’m quickly closing in on a sub-7 minute mile. Friday I did four miles in 38:30, with a best mile of 7:03 and an average of 9:50. The new shoes seemed to have been helping, although I never felt like I hit my stride. My feet were doing all sorts of crazy things trying to reconcile my natural gait and the structure of the shoe. I’m new to running, but this just seemed incredibly wrong to me. Then I saw this article: The Painful Truth About Trainers.
I’ve suspected this ever since I began selling running shoes. They’re just not made to complement the foot’s natural shape or motion. How, exactly, did we run away from bears and lions without $100 Nikes? Pretty well, apparently, judging by our survival as a species. Today I left the Sauconies at home and ran in my Mexico 66′s. These have been my go-to sneakers for some time. They’re thin-soled, lightweight, flexible, durable, and stylin’. And they ARE running shoes—They were first made in 1966, and worn in the ’68 Olympics in Mexico. Hence the name.
Since I was running on basically no cushion at all, I opted for an easy mile on the treadmill just to see how it went. 6.8 mph, no incline, easy-peasy. After a mile I was feeling pretty great, so I thought I’d just round it out to 10 minutes. The 10-minute mark came and went. Here’s a brief rundown of the next several decisions I made: “What the heck, let’s do a mile and a half. Still good… maybe 15 minutes. Ok, let’s just do two miles. Still good… I guess I can walk until I hit 20 minutes. Ok, 20 minutes down, let’s just make this a three-miler.” I didn’t get tired until around 2.8 miles, and managed to keep up my pace until I’d done three miles. 27:40… wait a minute, that’s faster than my average from Friday. Granted, it was a mile shorter, but I think I found my new running shoes.
Even using tendons and muscles that have supposedly been weakened through neglect, I felt almost no pain or discomfort during or afer the run. This, for me, was unheard of until today. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but for now I’ll be looking for the receipt for those Sauconies…
Mar 29 2009
Today was my first run on my new running shoes, and MAN does having the right shoes make a difference! I ran (ok, mostly walked) 4.8 miles in 56 minutes. My best mile, I think, was 9:36. I say I think because I used the iPhone app Fitnio to track my run, and I’m not sure exactly what that “9:36 mile” is referring to. Let’s just go with that being my best mile time. The weather is amazing right now, so I’m very glad to have shoes that don’t constrain me to the treadmill.
The shoes are the Saucony Progrid Guide 2. I was pretty set on getting Adidas, since they were my favorites when I sold them, but the Sauconys just fit better. I tried at least one shoe in every brand at Lombardi’s before I made up my mind. Hopefully it was worth the trouble and I’ll be able to run regularly again without fear of injury. Oh, and the best part? My former boss gave me the employee discount. So now I’m sitting on the exercise ball I got with the money I saved!
Feb 22 2009
Never having been a runner, I’m not all that familiar with the attendant injuries. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to learn to distinguish between all the different sorts of pain that come with this sport. Sure my legs are going to be sore, my calves feel like they’re on fire about 60% of the time now. My upper leg muscles weren’t used to anything more strenuous than walking up a hill or an occasional bike ride. So there’s a certain amount of just shutting up and getting over it that I have to do. But the past few runs have had me worrying. All the info I can find points to shin splints, but fortunately at this point it’s not bad enough to warrant real recovery time.
I’m pretty sure that it’s my shoes’ fault. I’m running on neutral trail shoes when I definitely need at least a stability shoe, more likely a motion control, in the road variety. Maybe this week I’ll hit a few specialty running stores and get gait analyses and shoe advice. Until I can afford new shoes though, I’ll just have to back off on the running and maybe substitute biking. If it would just stop freaking raining all the time I’d put some miles on the ol’ Cannondale, but until that happens I’ll be on the stationary at the gym (ugh). Now’s as good a time as any to start swimming, I suppose, but I want to swim even less than I want to run.
Feb 18 2009
Laura’s visit threw me off, and then it rained for a solid week, so in the past two weeks I’ve been running twice. Last week I talked about the 5k and my goals. Well, this week I made exactly no progress. 28:30, three seconds slower. I did, however, do my first 8 minute mile today. I’ll take another shot at it tomorrow and see if I can improve.
Today’s workout music was Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals. (Warning, MySpace link!) It is impossible to get bored with that album. Put a Radiohead riff behind Jay-Z, and you can hold my attention for as long as I can stand to be on a treadmill.
I broke down and bought some new workout clothes. I only have two sets of clothes suitable for running, and I got tired of washing them by hand in the sink after every workout. Next month, perhaps, I’ll finally get real running shoes. This is really just a roundabout way of saying, don’t be surprised if you see ads on the site soon.
Feb 09 2009
…my name might be Gimpy.
A day after completing this ridiculous 20-mile run, I’m still a bit stiff and sore. I’ve got some tightness in my left hip flexor, and my left ankle isn’t feeling too grand either. Interestingly, both knees are fine, as is the right ankle, which earlier had been giving me trouble.
So, 20 miles. We’re having this heat wave up here: 55 degrees on Saturday, 56 today, 63 tomorrow! But yesterday there was a bit of a break in the warmth–it was about 35 degrees with a stiff south wind. I set out at approximately 2:00 p.m., headed east to the lake, turned north for about three miles, then went back south. I did this because there’s only one water fountain along the lakefront path that stays on through the winter, and I wanted to hit it about midway through the run to refill my water bottles. Going south, I reached said fountain at about the eighth mile, and continued south to the Museum Campus, where I turned around and went home. This divided up the run into four somewhat equal phases. Map of the run here.
Phase One: Home to Foster Avenue
Mild stiffness in the left ankle to begin the run. A slight fear that I’m not wearing enough clothing. I wear UnderArmor tights, running shorts, a long-sleeved microfiber shirt, running gloves, and my new technical fleece hat. (This new hat is much, much warmer than the one I lost in Arkansas.) Also my long-run socks and the new pair of shoes. Running into the wind without an UnderArmor top, this ensemble is a little chilly. Some mud on the path at the lakefront, but heading north, the path is mostly clear. The south wind, at my back, makes this part of the run very easy. Belmont Harbor is still frozen over, which makes it a little like an air conditioner. Phases two through four after the jump. Continue Reading »
Feb 01 2009
Last weekend was abysmal. There were weather issues, there were health issues, there were injury issues, there was all kinds of work-related busy-ness issues. The long and short of it — short, really — is that I missed both my weekend runs, one of which was an 18-miler. Now, given that I’ve got two 20-milers scheduled for the rest of this cycle, I’m not too worried about it.
This week was a “step-back” week, meaning the long run is shorter, as are some of the mid-week runs. It’s meant to help the body catch up and recover in preparation for another push upward in mileage. Considering that I missed 26 of the miles I was supposed to run last week, I was already kind of stepped back. But nevertheless, I followed the plan–5 miles each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all on the Tropical Rainforest Treadmills in the University of Chicago Amazon Gymnasium. Well, not really, but they do keep it hot in there. And when you’ve gotten used to running in like 12 degree weather, 75 is really, really hot.
Yesterday I did an 8-mile pace run, actually beating my projected marathon pace (1:08:32, for an average pace of 8:36, 24 full seconds faster than I hope to run in the race). It was “warm” outside — 34 degrees — and I used the balmy weather as a chance to practice my pace out of doors and to start to break in my new pair of running shoes, the ones I’ll be racing in in March.
Today I did 13 miles. I was trying to keep it slow, because, you know, that’s what they tell you to do for the long runs. I ended up averaging 9:19/mile, which is probably 20 seconds faster than I should have taken it. But it felt like I was slogging along and would never get anywhere. I’m tired and all, but I really felt like I could have pushed it harder. Which is probably how I’m supposed to feel at the end of a relatively easy week. Today’s run totaled 2:01:02. Splits after the jump.
My first 20-miler of this cycle is in seven days. Let’s hope my ankles make it.
Jan 24 2009
I bought some new shoes today – New Balance, size 15 (!) with some sort of insole to help with my latter stage pronation (or something like that). To stay on schedule, I needed to complete 12 miles.
So, OK, it’s a nice day – chilly, breezy, and sunny. I forgot my headphones! grrrrrrrrr but otherwise was in good shape with my kit. Did the usual 10 minute walking warm-up. I then alternated running with walking on a 60% running, 40% walking mix. That worked out pretty well, mostly.
So the 12.14 miles took 2:54:32 – it appears that I maintain a pace of about 14:20.
No blisters, just some tender feet and one very black toe nail.
Too sleepy to write more…crash…
Wishing @colinmcalister the best first day of class ever! Can't wait for this weekend and Friday night shenanigans.
Just had the best spaghetti sauce of my life. Seriously going to dream about it later.
RT @sjbernhisel I ate one of the best meals of my life for free at the Grand Cafe. Thanks @schuylersm for being f... http://schmap.it/AzaQ6l
I ate one of the best meals of my life for free at the Grand Cafe. Thanks @schuylersm for being friendly to chefs so we could eat there! I get to go on a fancy-schmancy free date tonight since @schuylersm is a social butterfly who made friends with two chefs. #cantwaityouguys I may be broke after paying tuition, but not too broke to buy some sweet handmade Italian shoes for $23 http://yfrog.com/n2yh1moj "Alright now off to eat Indian food until we smell like a couple of burning diapers," @colinmcalister. "Did you just say 'burning diapers'?" The crowd of hipsters marching up Polk, waving signs and chanting "Take back Polk! Marina chodes go home!" made my night. Just saw Sergey Brin walking barefoot around No Name Cafe, like he owns the place or something| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
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