The heat is on

Well, today's ride was nothing like last week's - the humidity has returned with a vengence. Still a few more weeks till our riding season gets really nice. I got a new heart rate monitor this week, and it is amazing to look at the calories burned. We ended up doing about 5 miles further than the usual loop out at Boyette. Additionally, I ran out of water around the 10.5 mile mark. which sucks considering we still had about 4 more miles to go...

So the course I rode today: Main trail to Loch Ness to the fire road, fire road to Spider Berm to Randys Trail. At this point Jason headed out to go get Dona and Eric. Tony and I then went back down Randys trail to spider berm again, then to golf cart and back to Spider Berm to meet up with Jason, Dona, and Eric. Tony and I rode Spider Berm for the 3rd time. Then they all did Gator Pit while I found the outdoor urinal, then Golf Cart again, to Pandemonium, to Sidewinder. At this point Eric was feeling the heat and asked if I could take him around the back way to where west forest was. tony, dona, and jason did Swamp Thing and eric and I met them on the other side. At this point I ran out of water! My entire 3L camelbak emptied. Jason echoed the same. At this point we headed down the west forest, to west meadow, back down spider berm, randys trail and out the park. Whew....

Ride Stats and map:
Started: Sep 26, 2010 8:49:04 AM
Ride Time: 3:15:05
Distance: 15.33 miles
Average: 9.30 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 19.42 miles/h
Climb: 163 feet
Calories: 2531 (Based on my Heart Rate Monitor!!!)
Heartrate Average: 143bpm
Heartrate Max: 187 bpm


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Saturday wake up and ride

Since we are taking the pumpkin to get halloween pictures done, we decided to bike locally today (well I did, Ana ran on the treadmill). This also gave me the chance to try out my new heart rate monitor (Suunto t3c) which came with a bike pod for my bike that measures speed and distance in addtion to heart rate. While it certainly wasn't cool by any means, it wasn't scorching either (benifits of getting out early!!). The sad thing I saw today is that a huge stretch of trees which normally shade the path have all been removed to make way for a road expansion project. I hope that they were able to repurpose them elsewhere!

At any rate, ride stats:
Started: Sep 25, 2010 8:24:08 AM
Ride Time: 59:23
Distance: 13.70 miles
Average: 13.84 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 22.02 miles/h
Climb: 265 feet
Calories: 973
Official Route: No

Bike computer results:
Ride Time: 58:50:04
Distance: 13.96mi
Average: 14.2 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 23.7 miles/h
Calories: 837 kcal
Average Heart Rate: 153bpm
Max Heart Rate: 184 bpm

I tend to put more accuracy in the $150 heart rate monitor than the $4.99 iPhone app...

Week of 9/19 run review

This week I missed running on Monday due to being to exhausted from the concert the night before. On Wednesday I was able to pick back up and ran a 5K in 38 minutes at lunch, and on Friday ran a 5K again in 38 minutes. Not my fastest times but my motivation level just hasn't been there. I did pick up a new heart rate monitor this week, the bonus is that it also had an attachment for my bike so I can watch my heart rate and speed in realtime (I cant watch the iphone since it is in my backpack or big bag).

This time next week will be the breast cancer 5K...

Boyette Scrub Park - weather just getting better!

Today I met up with Jason and his friend Tony from work to put in some work at Boyette. On the way down to the park, the cars outside temp guage said it was 74F, and riding with the windows down confirmed this. Today's ride wasn't much different from our usual route out there - the two mile fire road out, to lock ness, lower spider berm, upper spider berm, golf cart, pandemonium, sidewinder, Swamp Thing, West Forest, West Meadow, Spur loop, back down upper spider berm and back down the two miler. All in all, nothing too out of the ordinary went on (no over the bar shennanigans for our little group, although I did see one poor guy do a complete endo and his bike hang upside down on pandemonium). The temperature drop was quite welcome - I could have easily rode for another hour. It was so nice to get back to the car and not feel like I had been riding in an oven for two hours. I can't wait for the winter!

Ride Statistics and Map:

Started: Sep 19, 2010 8:49:44 AM
Ride Time: 2:07:43
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 13.14 miles
Average: 6.17 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 49.30 miles/h
Climb: 81 feet
Calories: 571


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Finally under 90F ride

Well, finally! We headed out late and still had awesome weather for the whole ride. On top of that, Ana began using the 3rd cog on her bike which meant she was averaging over 10mph for the first time since we began riding.

It is quite amazing how much more enjoyable outdoors activies are when you don't feel like you are being baked alive!

At any rate, ride stats and map:

Started: Sep 18, 2010 11:07:59 AM
Ride Time: 1:19:33
Stopped Time: 1:29
Distance: 14.13 miles
Average: 10.66 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 19.06 miles/h
Climb: 176 feet
Calories: 721


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Edgewater Linear Park Ride / Clearwater Pass Bridge Climb

This weekend Ana and I parked over in Dunedin and headed south, this time skipping the Pinellas Trail and instead going down the sidewalk that is called the Edgewater Linear Park. The humidity has once again returned to us (as expected for summer in Florida), so it was quite hot. We road down Ft. Harrison to to downtown Clearwater, then over to the Clearwater pass bridge.

Passing roadies...

Quite humorously, I had a laughable moment when I passed a spandex clad road bike who was barely making it up the overpass. He heard me coming up behind me and looked at me in disbelief as I rocketed past him (while being on the 3rd cog too!).

At any rate, Ana rides quite a bit slower than I do, so I try to slow my pace so we are so seperated by distance. All in all a great ride.

Ride Stats and Map:

Started: Sep 11, 2010 10:22:14 AM
Ride Time: 1:20:47
Stopped Time: 2:00
Distance: 11.44 miles
Average: 8.49 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 25.11 miles/h
Climb: 267 feet
Calories: 639


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Lunchtime 5K - Friday 9/10

Well, I finally recieved my new running shoes Thursday, no better time than to break them in on Friday at lunch. I ended up running 3.1 miles in 36:25, about 8 minutes off my best effort, about 7 minutes from my average. It's been a long summer, the last race I ran was back in June, which was the Picnic Island adventure race (3.6 miles, 96F, 49 minutes). I never felt more like death than at that race. Since then I had taken two nasty spills on my bike, my left knee is still a little sore from the first fall, so 36:25 is better than not...

I also signed for 2 of the 4 fall runs I usually do. I added a new one to the mix. October 2nd, Ana and I will be doing the Komen Suncoast Breast Cancer 5K, on October 9th I'll be doing the Tampa police 5K, and then on November 5th I'll be doing Richard's run for life. After that I am still trying to decide what to do, but I am pretty sure doing the Santos 42mile "epic" ride will be a part of it.

Labor Day Weekend Ride #4

Baby asleep - Check. Ana asleep - Check. James putting the road wheels on the bike and going for a ride - Check.

Today I woke up and decided that since everyone was still asleep that I was going to go for a ride. Nothing too exciting, except that it was much cooler this morning because I was out an hour earlier than normal. It was nice not to have to ride with a camelbak for once.

I did forget how much incline Fishhawk Ranch Blvd has to it (well, at least as far as elevation change that I have access to).

At any rate, tomorrow is a rest day, having pedaled nearly 60 miles this weekend...

Todays ride stats:

Started: Sep 6, 2010 7:37:06 AM
Ride Time: 57:36
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 12.99 miles
Average: 13.53 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 22.95 miles/h
Climb: 266 feet
Calories: 747

Labor Day Weekend Ride #3

Initially today was supposed to be a last ride at Boyette before it was closed for a few weeks, but it turned out that several posts on the forums indicated that it was still really nasty out there. So Ryan, Alex, and myself decided to go back out to the Wilderness Trails. We took a similar route to what I rode on Friday, until we got to the trails on the inner loop - in which we went ahead and rode. I'm glad we decided to do this, because the trails were dry in all but one section. Additionally, having never ridden the trail "Panther" we decided to ride it. Typically I ride guide position, and there are pros and cons to this. I rode by a 6 foot gator laying next to the trail, but didn't want to yell back to the others for fear of spooking it. Naturally when the other two came past it they couldn't help but yell "Gator!"

We ended up doing almost 17 miles today, and had a terrific time at it. Today was also the first time I ever drank the entire contents of my 3L Camelbak, which I finished just about at the end of the trail loop...

Ride Stats and Map:
Started: Sep 5, 2010 8:40:58 AM
Ride Time: 2:23:47
Stopped Time: 3:49
Distance: 16.82 miles
Average: 7.02 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 17.95 miles/h
Climb: 227 feet
Calories: 930


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Labor Day Weekend Ride #2

As is our usual Saturday routine, we loaded up the bikes and the princess and headed out to Ana's parents to drop off the babe, and head up to the Pinellas Trail.

Today we decided to start at Curlew Road and The Pinellas Trail. Heading north from this location really cuts down on the number of side streets to navigate, and really has you riding through some pristine sections of the county.

The humidity came back with a vengence today, so much for the nice dry air we had the last few days. Is it mid October yet?!

At any rate we kept an easy pace and rode almost 15 miles. As always we had a great time and our inlaws got to spend some time with Alana.

Ride Stats and Map:
Started: Sep 4, 2010 10:43:50 AM
Ride Time: 1:30:12
Stopped Time: 0:00
Distance: 14.31 miles
Average: 9.52 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 22.15 miles/h
Climb: 3 feet
Calories: 801


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Labor Day Weekend Ride #1

So, I had already taken today off to make the most of this being a 3 day weekend, but to make todays ride even better, I haven't been able to get on my bike for a week and a half due to a bout of "Hand Mouth Foot Disease" (thanks day care!). Surprisingly this week has been a bit cooler and much drier than we ever get to see here in Florida (no less in late August/early September). Today was no exception. After waiting for the traffic to ease, I loaded up the car and headed out the road around 9am. I got to the trails and was riding by 9:30, with low humidty and a temperature of around 84F degrees. Considering the last few rides I have been on have been in 94F+ and highly humid weather, this was an absolute blessing.

Due to all the rain we have had the last few weeks, a fellow SWAMPer had posted a "dry ride" itenerary for the Wilderness Trails.

I parked out at the Trout Creek parking lot and headed for the first two trails, Bayshore and Coconut Grove. These are two of the nicest trails I have ever ridden on. Nice flowing trails with little climbs and drops, a few roots here and there to keep it technical. After finishing up these trails I continued down the access road and crossed Fletcher and dropped into Hole in The Fence. I felt like I would be pretty safe today, as it appears that several law enforcement agencies were out on a group ride. I hit the rollers and then down to Misery. I rode misery to the Main trail and then down to Palmetto. I ran into the peloton of Police officers on the main trail, and they all gave me a "hey!". From Palmetto I ran down Grandpa, to Techno Pig (Piglet was closed) and then caught the main trail. I rode the main trail up to Morris Bridge, hit the highway down to Flatwoods and into the main trail again. Since the inner loop trails were pretty damp, I stuck to the paved trail and rode it around to the top of the loop and stopped to get a drink and take some pictures.

A controlled burn was recently performed out here:



After drinking a bit of water and catching my breath (hadn't taken a break yet at this point) I continued down the trail toward the Bruce B. Downs parking area, rode over the bridge at the high water point (the paved trail was under what looked like 2-3 feet of water). I headed for the berm so I could ride down and catch the trails at the end of trout creek. I stopped and took a few pictures of the trails around markers 43-44:





Finally, I finished up my run and headed back to the car, happy to have gotten out and put some miles on the bike.

Ride Stats and Map:
Started: Sep 3, 2010 9:29:21 AM
Ride Time: 1:30:10
Stopped Time: 2:34
Distance: 14.39 miles
Average: 9.58 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 17.97 miles/h
Climb: 113 feet
Calories: 567


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