People with Lots of Cash Don't Need to Drive to the Poconos.

File this under: I am the most observant bicycle rider you have ever met:

BT and I got out for a surprisingly warm winter ride on Sunday.  We were riding up Barren hill road away from River Road, toward Ridge avenue.  Less then 5 miles from Philadelphia city limits.

I noticed this big sign that said ‘No Sledding. Private Property.  No Trespassing.’ It was next to this weird little out building that looked like a cabin on stilts.  With a bunch of chopped wood stacked next to it.  

It was placed at the bottom of the hill less then 20 feet from the road.   There were these power lines going away from it up the hill.

And the thought bubbled into my head ‘that looks like a tiny little ski lodge’ the way that random stuff does when you are pushing up a hill. 

Then I looked closer at the power lines.  And realized that they weren’t power lines at all.  

They were a pulley system for this property’s private chair lift.

3.5 hours on the road.

Out to Westchester by way of Saw Mill Road and Goshen Road. Back by way of Street, Grady, creek and bishop hollow roads.

Lots of hills.  Lots of suffering.  I don’t think I will be right tomorrow.

Oh and I came home to a house full of baby puke.

This Past Week

Monday and Wednesday:  lifted at lunch 45 minutes again.

Friday:  45 minutes on a spin bike.

Helping out a friend w a computer problem blew my Tuesday and Thursday workouts.

Ursula.

Confucius and you are both dreams, and I who say you are dreams am a dream myself. This is a paradox. Tomorrow a wise man may explain it; that tomorrow will not be for ten thousand generations

-Chuang  Tse: II

My wife works at a library.  The swap rack has all this great sci-fi.  The above quote opens up Ursala K. LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven.  I pulled her Left Hand of Darkness out of there a few months ago.

Score.

Buuuurrrp.

Training: 40 minutes. 6 x 10 reps of lower body. 3 x 10 reps of upper body stuff. The problem is that I always run out of upper body stations. So I end up doing situps….alot of situps.

Washboard abs here I come. Right after I stop eating so much. 

Eating:

Coffee.  Soft pretzel. glass of juice.  Breakfast time.

lunch: PB sandwich.  4 sour dour pretzels.  glass of lemonade.  glass of milk.  Carrot cake cliff bar.

snack: handfull of M&Ms.

Dinner:  no lie like half a chicken pot pie.  v. water. PB candy cake and an orange.

buuuurrp.

Note:  Today was not the first time this happened:  I get shaky after lifting.  Drinking and eating usually makes this stop.  I guess this is what every training guide is talking about when they say ‘Do not pass go, do not collect 200, do not take a dump, make a phone call or anything else after a work out.  Eat.  Right away.’

Bah.

another hour on the trainer.  watching Attack of the Clones.

actual work out on Saturday.

55 minutes on the trainer.  medium pace.  boring even with Attack of the Clones on.

Getting Huge.

Lifted again today. 40 minutes at lunch. Must have done 100 situps between sets.

Kind of an awkward workout schedule this week. Lift monday and friday. ride tuesday,wednesday.

eh. whatever.

Better that then nothing.

1 hour.

On the trainer. watched the Clone Wars. Moderate pace.  stopped halfway thru and realized that I was breathing pretty hard.

Quieting Bicycle Trainers.

In an effort to find information online about quieting down my jet engine foundation of house shaking bicycle trainer. I googled ’siliencing bicycle trainers’ not much there. I tried ‘quieting bicycle trainers’.

I got this article from the times in 1909 about 2 Madison riders who got in a dispute over money and started beating the ever living piss out of one another.

Anyone has any suggestions for making my trainer quiet while I ride on it,  let me know.

thanks.