Ride a bike, share your experience and love. When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart. ~Diane Ackerman

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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Turnbull Canyon with Michael Y.

It's been a while since Michael and I have ridden together.  Michael is one of my favorite guys to ride with, not because our skill sets are equal (He'll smoke me up, down and all around the tarmac any day) but rather our station in life is similar.  He's married with kids, employed, and always pressed for time, just like me!!!

Because of that he makes a great ride buddy.  Michael is goal oriented and one who will brave the elements with me in the early morning.  Let's get out, ride and go home!  All business, mixed with great conversations about life the universe and anything.

Thursday morning we decided to get out and ride before the Thanksgiving festivities got underway.  We decided on Diamond Bar to Whittier to Turnbull Canyon and back.  I left the Garmin at home, but this ride is about 40 miles.  We didn't push the pace and it was a nice ride through a few different cities. 







Friday, November 28, 2014

Life is eating away at my ride and posting time, etc., etc., etc...



I guess it happens to the best of us.  Life's responsibilities take hold and chips away at our spare time.  For me it's been a gentle mix of family life; kids soccer, work, piano lessons, Jamie's Zumba classes, etc., the list goes on of responsibilities, that push my "ride" times deeper into the early mornings.

As you can see, my blog posts have dropped significantly because, although I love to blog, I'd rather spend my spare time riding.

Facebook, has also made the dissemination of information simpler and much more immediate than using Blogger.  You can always look me up on Facebook (Bicycle Friends) as it seems more and more content is located there.

It has been a great and quick year thus far. No new bike purchases since 2013 and I feel an urge to splurge on some new.   I can't decide on custom or not.  I've always been attracted to Specialized bikes and think I need a "gravel" bike (Thank you Marketeers!) or a even the BoB S-Works Roubaix.  The Roubaix is gravel light, correct?

A former co-worker came to my office the other day.  As we caught up on life he asked if I bought any new bikes.  I said no and that I was trying to trim down my collection.  He laughed and said last year when he came in I told him the same thing.  We joked about my aging car and how I can reconcile in my head the need for a new bike, however, my car is in need of much repair or replacement.  Funny how that happens.

Man on a bike


Fast Car


Thursday, November 27, 2014

Friday, November 21, 2014

Star Track


Danny Macaskill: The Ridge


Thursday, November 20, 2014

9 Things Drivers Need to Stop Saying in the Bike vs. Car Debate

9 Things Drivers Need to Stop Saying in the Bike vs. Car Debate
wired.com
Adam Mann
2014-11-12
Link: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/9-things-drivers-need-stop-saying-bikes-vs-cars-debate/

"There are certain things guaranteed to set off an internet firestorm. Talk about climate change, mention Monsanto, or bring up the treatment of women in video games. And you can, especially in recent years, piss off a whole bunch of people simply by writing about bikes and cars. Nothing seems to bring out the angry caps lock and personal attacks faster than transportation issues.

A recent report showing more cyclists are dying on US streets prompted a remarkable number of stories about cyclist safety. And in the comments section of each, people rehashed the same tired arguments over and over.

So, before the next big wave of internet arguing, I propose we retire a few overused and underwhelming opinions in the bikes vs. cars debate. Though I drive and bike, my allegiances skew toward cyclists (feel free to scroll straight the comments and yell at me). But beyond my personal judgments lie a great many studies and data showing most of the pro-motorist arguments just don’t hold up. I know it’s hard to be wrong, especially on the internet, but here are a few sentences I hope we see less of in the future."


Click to continue reading

Napoleon Bonaparte on a fixie


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Free Online Training Videos

I spend a lot of time on my rollers.  I have a number of printed workout training modules, however I also use a number of free online training videos.  For those of you that are interested check out my Information / Resources Page for great work out videos. 

http://www.bicyclefriends.com/p/info-resources.html

This on is my favorite and the music isn't bad!


Waldo falling down


Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Training Zones Explained



Heart rate training zones explained
Zone 1. Active recovery 65% of THR
Zone 2. Endurance Zone 70 - 83% of THR
Zone 3. Tempo / Sweetspot 84 - 95% of THR
Zone 4. Lactate Threshold 95 - 105% of THR
Zone 5. Vo2 Max 106 or more of THR
Zone 6. To difficult to go by however should be sustainable for only 30 seconds
Zone 7. No parameters, efforts should be at about 10 seconds

THR = Latate Threshold Heart Rate

How to determine THR
To determine THR I recommend using indoor rollers or a trainer.   You will also need a heart rate monitor and stop watch.

Perform a 30 minute time trail at race pace. Go hard for the entire 30 minutes.  10 minutes in, press the lap button, go hard and focused for the remaining 20 minutes.  After the final 20 press the lap button.  Your average HR is your THR.  It's important to be consistent and keep up the same lever over the entire 30 minutes.  If you slow down you will get inaccurate readings.

More on THR found here ....

Heart rate training zones explained
BikeRadar.com
2014-10-24
Link: http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/article/heart-rate-training-zones-explained-42818/

Robert Downey Jr


Monday, November 17, 2014

Thursday, November 13, 2014

It's KIM CALDWELL, "The Ordinary Cyclist"

Kim's just started producing some rad content on YouTube and Facebook.  This is episode 2 regarding tires, tubes and PSI.


Sunday, November 2, 2014

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