My Nephew has a bike!

Watch out here comes my nephew Jordan! He may not be quite walking yet but he has a bike!

Dirty roads but at least it's outside!

I got to ride outside today! It was great to be outdoors even though it was very windy and there was still some slush around and fallen branches. The picture above is the guardrail that is now repaired from when the buses almost crashed through above the freeway.

The streets were full of grit from all the sanding. It was good to be on a fixed gear bike because you don't have to use the brakes as much. Braking in this weather is horrible for your rims. When I hung up my bike after the commute I could hear the dirt falling off of it on to the floor. I guess I should have hosed it down. I call my commuter bike the road monster because it's great for this kind of stuff. I also rode over quite a bit of glass where the buses crashed that wasn't swept up yet and I didn't get a flat.

Vittoria Randonneur tires

I did get a flat on Sunday when I was riding the trainer! I use a special tire just for riding the trainer so I don't wear my good tires. So there was no glass but I guess I just wore out the tube. I worked at the computrainer booth at the bike expo a few years ago when Allen Larsen (Race Across America Winner) rode the computrainer for the entire day. He got a flat while I was there and I happened to have my bike bag with a spare tube and a pump so I got to fix his tire!

I rode Saturday and Sunday inside, hopefully for the last weekend for awhile!

Trainer Tire

More time in the garage

I've been spending a lot of time in our garage lately. Today it was 45 minutes of trainer and 1/2 hour of weights. I have some free weights that I use with a Swiss ball and bosu ball. I also have some cords and a medicine ball. I try to do as many exercises that involve lifting while challenging my balance. So I stand on one leg on the bosu while I do bent over rows. Or I balance on my knees on the Swiss ball while I do curls. I also do exercises that combine different motions and use the whole body. It's a good workout but I will be happy when I can ride outside again. When I was a swimmer we called this "dry-land training".

This is a picture from Monday. Today the snow is melting and the streets are finally starting to clear.

It just keeps snowing

It looks like I might be riding trainer for a while. It just keeps snowing. Today I did another long trainer ride and then went outside and made a snowman. I am so tired now! I can't remember getting this tired when I played outside as a kid. Later on I saw some kids making a snow-woman friend for my snowman. I thought that was pretty funny. I think I'm done with making snowmen for at least a week.

Tons of Snow!

We are getting tons of snow and it is still snowing! I was shocked to see one of the First Rate Mortgage guys in full kit at the local coffee shop this morning. He said he was going mountain biking but still - it is so cold out. The streets are all iced up again too.

I stayed inside and watched movies while I rode trainer for 4 hours. I watched 2-1/2 movies. One of the movies Le Magnifique was a French Comedy. It was hilarious! I watched it in French and then tried to understand the language while reading the subtitles. It helps with recognizing spoken French and it keeps my mind busy.

Cardio Workout

I built a snowman today at lunch! It was a great workout.

Later on I did intervals. I did the 2-minutes at increasing power, 200, 210, 220, 230, 240 watts but blew up on the last one. I think making the snowman was more fun.

Trainer and Rollers - Icy Roads

I rode rollers and then trainer on Sunday for about 2hrs total. I watched a movie called WALL-E that was really good. Great movie for the trainer. Did some weights and more rollers on Tuesday and then trainer again today. I have to ride indoors to make up for my lost commute. This weather stinks. I did 10 minutes above 200 watts and got really sweaty. It was harder than it should have been so I decided to check my blog to see what I was doing this time last year. No Blog! I didn't start blogging until Dec 27th! It's almost my blogiversary!

I thought I made that word up but a google search reveals that someone beat me to it.

Not rideable today - Greenlake Snow

It's beautiful out today! Time for a rest week! I've neglected taking a rest week but now is a good time since the road is frozen over with a slick sheet of icy snow/slush. It's 30 degrees out so it will partially melt and then refreeze again. Looks like I'll be riding inside for a few days. I'll be getting on the trainer later for a short ride. Yesterday I didn't ride at all - except for getting groceries.

Marymoor-Carnation-Sammamish Plateau Beaver Lake

Today we carpooled from Speedy Reedy to start our ride at Marymoor. Speed Reedy is moving into a new building that they are sharing with Blue Rooster and Five Zero Nine. All who are sponsoring our team!

This is Annette describing the route to the guys. Just a few hills. A couple of the riders from HB went with us because they didn't have enough for a group ride. It was nice to have company.

We went on a road that had a small herd of goats wandering across it. It was pretty funny but I didn't get a picture. They we headed around the corner and one of the HB riders got a flat. I was wishing he had his flat by the goats so I could get a picture! This road had been recently closed due to flooding but it was not a problem for bikes. Later on we saw some Llamas. I love to see the llamas. They are such cute looking animals.

We went through Carnation and headed up a long hill to the Sammamish Plateau. It was a good climb and my legs were burning by the top. We got nice and warm which was good because a few minutes later the rain started really coming down hard. We were drenched. I was happy to reach the parking lot and ride in the warm car with heated seats back home.

Marymoor Carnation Beaver Lake Loop

http://www.bikely.com/

Woodinville + Tuscany

I started out today's ride with a 20 minute time trial. I met up with Sara to ride north to meet the others but Sara was having some mechanical difficulties. We tried to fix her bike but we weren't successful. It was still good enough to get her home but not for a group ride. After giving up on the bike I went on alone to meet the others. I was late so I really pushed the pace. I passed some of the Wines team going the other way. They must have thought I was crazy to be riding out of the saddle in December. I made it from Greenlake to Logboom in 20 minutes! It's not a smart way to start out a 4-hour ride though. I was careful to eat and to take it easy for awhile so I didn't run out of energy before the ride ended.

We had a really nice ride through Woodinville and up through the Tuscany neighborhood. Tuscany is a neighborhood of what they call McMansions. I'm not a fan of big houses but the streets through that area are really nice to ride on.

We dropped down to some of the horse pasture areas and Teresa got a flat. One of the horses came up to the fence of his corral and let us pet him while we got the tire fixed. I don't mind flats so much when it's nice out because we get to chat more and take a break.

The others went for an extra loop but I headed back home. I am going to ride again tomorrow so I don't need to train more than 4 hours. I still felt pretty good at the end of the ride.

I captured part of the route on my GPS. I forgot to turn it on at the beginning of the ride.

Woodinville plus Tuscany

http://www.bikely.com/

Energy Bars!

Mark made energy bars! Yummy! I put the official recipes below (this one is #2) but he improvises a bit. This one has pecans in it. And he uses brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup. You can also substitute soynut butter instead of peanut butter.

These are good too but you can use brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup.