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I'm moving this blog to a new platform and new services.
It's now found at http://clydesdalefitness.com and is geared for large=sized bike riders who love to ride and are using biking to get in shape.
Please come by there. In a few days, I'll just point this blog there.
Spread the word. Leave some comments. Click on over right now.
See you on the trail.
You know it's bike season when the forsythia starts to bloom.
In my part of Michigan, the temps are in the low 60's and the forecast is for plenty more over the next few days.
And in about two hours, I head to the bike shop to pick up a new Cannondale mountain bike.
The goal for me this year is the Michigander rails-to-trails ride July 14-20. I haven't done any training to speak of since last fall. So I'll be starting all over again.
But I'm ready.
How about you?
How many Macs are too many Macs? I ask that over on MacMikeNews.com, my new Mac blog.
Sweet.
That's what it's like after a week back in the saddle.
The spring air is warming daily. The buds on the trees are swelling and the sheer joy of riding is again soothing an overstressed world.
I started back a week ago.
This season, I'm down 30 pounds from where I left off last fall.
What a difference on the uphills. I can spin better. My butt is not as sore. And I don't look quite so much like a stuffed sausage in spandex.
It's a new year. The road ahead is even more inviting.
Once again, all I want to do is ride by bike.
It is sweet, isn't it?
So you get a little nervous riding in traffic? If you think it's tough where you live, check out this video of an insane bicycle race in New York City. Welcome to the Jungle indeed.
But it gets even crazier. Here's a full page of all sorts of other life-and-limb-risking bike rides taken by a helmet camera-wearing daredevil named Lucan Brunelle and his band of crazed bicycle messenger buddies.
Don't try this at home kids.
One thing that amazes me on my daily rides is how many other cyclists I encounter who don't wear helmets. I could understand if it were just occaisonal riders out for weekend recreation.
But these are pretty much regulars each morning, men and women who appear to be serious about their riding but who are bare-headed or wear only a baseball cap.
I've met people who insist they are alive today because of helmets.
Why would anyone take such a foolish chance?
I can't understand. For the life of them.
There's now a chill in the morning air, a mist in the fields that shows up at sunrise, a taste of fall that calls for long sleeves. During the day, it's still summer. But early mornings are cool, in the fifties up here in Michigan. Every late August it's almost like God turns a switch. The foilage on the shrubs that border the trail I most often ride get tired-looking and start to curl yellow, dropped acorns start crunching under the tires and the morning rides are suddenly brisker, cooler and - I swear - faster. The dog days have passed and a new season is fast approaching. I know, we have at least two more months of reliable outdoor riding left. But just as spring got us thinking about summer training, the end of August is a time to think about the end of the season and winter training.
TdF legend Lance Armstrong spent a couple hours yesterday mountain bike riding with the president. I note another indicator that Bush is seriously into this biking lifestyle by the HRM he wears on his wrist,
I've made a Web page/slide show for the 2005 Tour da U.P. ride.
I've just installed the B-17 Champion saddle from Brooks on my Bianchi Axis. I ordered one after reading tons of glowing reports on it from Bike Forums.
After the first 30 miles, I'm very surprised at the comfort level.
It's great.
First, it is indeed hard. And slippery.
I've had to adjust it three times, front and back and then tilt.
I think I have it about right, tilted ever so slightly up at the horn, which helps me stay seated in the proper alignment on the saddle.
I did 15 miles yesterday and 15 today and I think it can stay on for the longer rides I plan later this week.
It actually seems more comfortable than the standard saddle that came with my Axis.
If this indeed improves with use, I'm ordering B-17s for my other bikes.
George Bush is apparently the real deal on a mountain bike. Here's a great USA Today account of the day he took the press corps on two-hour ride around his Crawford, TX ranch and kicked their butts in what's been dubbed the Tour de Crawford.
From past experience, this is the danger time for me in keeping with this quest for fitness.
I spent all summer training for last week's Tour da UP and now that it's over and I have no serious challenges ahead, it's easy to cut back on the training.
So I headed ouit this morning, riding a local Rail-Trail.
Funny, but all last week as we biked across really remote stretches of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, none of us on the tour saw any wildlife at all. Not even a bunny rabbit. Guess that's because the counry is so big and so wild that there is more territory for the critters to range across.
What a great Tour da UP was this year's event. I logged over 250 miles in a loop route from St. Ignace to Detour, on the east to Paradise on the northwest. About 80 riders took part and the country was some of the molst desolate and beautiful I've ever riden through. I'm posting this from St. Ignace, where we spent a final night before heading back below the bridge. Here's a quick slide show of the ride.
This has been the most amazing summer and the start of the Tour da U.P. starts Sunday with more good weather forecast through mid-week, at least. Today, many of the riders took a ferry across the Straits of Mackinac to ride around Mackinac Island. Jennifer, who will follow me in the truck and meet me at the end of each stage of the tour, rode her bike with me on the island. The picture is of us about half way arounf the island. Stage 1 leaves tomorrow morning and takes us to Detour, at the far eastern end of the U.P., about 58 miles from the star in St. Ignace. This is likely to be my last Internet access until the tour finishes Thursday afternoon. There's just not much in terms of high tech civilization ahead for the next several days. But the route is beautiful and I promise lots of pics.
I'm up across the bridge to St. Ignace today for the Tour da U.P. Other than St. Ignace, there doesn't seem to be much Internet access along the route. I usually file lots of pictures and blog updates from these summer rides. That may have to wait until the return.
There's no digital cell service, either, just analog.
Thanks to everyone for all the kind words of support. I even had a family offer to put me up in their house near Whitefish Bay.
I'm looking forward to carbo loading on Mackinac Island fudge tomorrow.
It's time to taper. I've been doing 25 miles a day and it's time to back off for Sunday's start of my long distance ride up north. I'll cut back to about 12 Thursday, take Friday off and just do a easy 10-12 Saturday around Mackinac Island. Saturday is my wedding anniversary and my wife is coming with me on this ride. She'll follow along and visit the quaint towns and villages of Michigan's Upper Peninsula while I ride. We'll cpnnect every afternoon back at camp. For next year's annniversary, I'm promising something more romantic.
There''s a name for riders like me. It's not quite as insulting as "fat." But they call us Clydesdales. It refers to big riders, over 200 pounds. The stereotypical image of most bicylists is the lean 150-pound, flat-bellied lyra-wearing peddling skeleton. Allright, most aren't that thin. But most don't look like sausage stuffed in their tight jerseys, either.
I'm training these days out around a lake and a park not far from my house and am passed all morning long by other riders who look more like the sterotype. Most whiz past me witghout saying a word. I detect disdain as they fly past at 18 mph and 90 rpm while I'm pedaling as fast as I can at 75 and averaging 13 mph.
All I can say is, wait until I lose 60 pounds.
And how would they do if they were carrying a 60 pound weight on their rides?
I'm sure I'm overly sensitive. They're training hard and probably are so foccused they don't even see me.
Though, with us Clydesdales, that seems hard to understand.
A week from this morning, the Tour Da UP begins and I can't wait. My hope is the absolutely gorgeous summer weather that we've enjoyed for the past month will continue next week. I realize in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, there are no guarantees. 
But I'm really looking forward to this - rain or shine.
My wife will accompany me. She isn't riding but will follow in the truck.We booked hotel rooms for most of the nights but will camp on Sunday night as there are no motels available near the tiny eastern U.P. of Detour.
I have a small tent I've used on my previous solo tours when I stayed with the main group but with Jennifer, we found a Columbia dome tent on sale that we picked up. Frankly, I prefer camping and staying with the group. But as I introduce my wife to the fun of long bike tours, I figured the motels would be a good transition.
For my long slow training ride yesterday, I drove to Midland and rode the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail that runs from Midland to Clare in mid-Michigan. It's a wide ribbon of pretty much pancake flat asphalt. Out and back is about 50 miles with restrooms about every five miles or so.
The time of day I ride - early morning, shortly after sunup - and the place I ride - a sprawling metropark with lots of woods - almost guarantees that I'll see lots of wildlife. So I've taken to carrying my camera-equipped cellphone in a little bag on the handlebars. I've gotten somewhat adept at getting it out and shooting quick shots, like this one of a whitetail that suddenly bounded across the road not 20 feet in front of me the other day.
I've been looking around for ways to log my riding and have found lots of choices using Web-based tools.
Over on Bike Forums, someone suggested Active Body when I asked for suggestions. It's free and does a great job of keeping track of the ride info.
I also found a site called My Cycling Log. It'd also free and lets you compare your workouts with others who have registered.
Fitness Journal is the elite among the bunch, charging $49.95 for a year's use. One cool feature: It plots your mileage as you log it on a map of the US and shows you where you'd be if you really were biking cross-country.
I found a handy little online resource that calculates the number of calories burned in a workout, be it biking, running or a host of other activities. You enter your age, weight, height and the time you spent and it tells you how many calories you zapped.
It's been a blinger out there lately. Fortunately, last night the humidity broke around my part of Michigan and this morning was one of those perfect, cloudless, windless summer mornings. The ride started in the mid-sixties and reached 74 by the time I quit.
Saw another flock of wild turkeys, plus two deer, one that just stood there by the side of the road staring at me as I passed no further than 10 feet away.
I'm up to 25 miles a day now in my training rides and I was stunned to see how much better I was able to take the hills today, even standing out of the seat and powering over them. Then again, I ate breakfast this morning - a banana and a Quaker Oats breakfast bar. Maybe that helped, too.
With apologies to Steve Vaught, I couldn't help but think of myself that way as I strain and train and continue on this quest for fitness. I did about 110 miles last week and am finding my motivation at an all time high. Weight is not dropping as I'd like, but I know it will, Meantime, I spend a lot of time time researching nuitrition and exercise and gizmos like heart rate monitors. As I've surfed around looking for inspiration, I found Vaught's web site, called Fat Man Walking.
In an effort to lose weight and reclaim his life, he set off last spring from Oceanside, CA and plans to walk across the country. He is not having an easy time of it, as his online journal documents. But the point is, he's keeping on. He got a big boost of encouragement last week when NBC's Today Show caught up with him out there somewhere in the Arizona dessert. His story is captivating thousands and I'll be rooting with him.
i've also just finished a book called Younger Next Year by Chris Crowley and Harry Lodge that talks about exercise and the need to have wild, crazy, outrageous goals, like walking across the country. Indeed, in my case, I'm starting to dream of a three-month long cross-country bicycle trip trip someday. A friend got me a membership in an outfit called the Adventure Cycling Association and I've been pouring over their maps and organized tours. Maybe. Maybe indeed some day.
I don't know about you, but I need goals. Projects. Challenges. I need them because without them, I fall back into old habits. For me right now, it's the Tour da UP coming up soon. But what should I go for after that?
Check out these beauties. I had to actually swerve to avoid them, prompting the big wing flaring display by the Tom. I was riding the ring road at Stony Creek Metro Park about 8 a.m. this morning when, on a curve, these wild turkeys decided to cross. They trotted out right in front of me. I snapped the photo from the saddle on my Treo 650 cellphone.
I've moved my training from mostly trails to the roads as my plans have changed. I've had to bow out of the Michigander because of work commitments and instead have registered for the Tour da UP ride in early August. It's mostly on backroads in Michigan's remote upper peninsula.
But as I hit the roads around my house, I'm amazed at the highway carnage.
Raccoons seem to account for most of the roadkill. And they die in numbers. Usually a momma and two or three babies, crossing the road together. Opossums are other frequent casualties. And, at least once every other day or so, I peddle past a dead deer.
It's a daily slaughter and nothing takes the joy out of sailing down a country road under cloudless summer skies than passing next to the foul-smelling and maggot-filled carcass of some poor animal that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Makes me much more carfule when I'm, driving my car.
I found the place I want to live in my golden years: Grand Haven, MI.
I was there this week on assignment for the Detroit Free Press, where I work as the technology columnist, to assess the one-year-old city-wide wi-fi broadband Internet network that made the city the first so-called hot city in America.
You can read my column here. You would have read more of my biking experience from the area on this blog during the past several days but the wi-fi system was so unreliable it was just too much of a hassle to post.
But one of the sweetest bike rides I've taken this year has to be along the coastline from Grand Haven to Holland. It's a four-foot bike lane along that parallels Lake Michigan and is interspersed by parks and awesome views of the lake. The picture is from one of the county parks I stopped for a water break.
There's lots of other routes throughout the whole area and I could have stayed there longer - if only the much-touted broadband wi-fi system worked better.
My normal ride is the 9 mile long Paint Creek Trail near my house. It's a simple matter to head out the garage, catch a paved road for half-a-mile and then jump onto the trail. Ride the whole length of it, there's 18 miles. But 7.5 miles from my house, I can pick up the Clinton River Trail, which connects after just a couple of miles, to the newly paved Macomb Orchard Trail, which goes on for five more miles. Awesome. Now I can do 30, even 40 mile rides without leaving a trail system. Both the Clinton River and Macomb Orchard Trails are being improved and expanded, too. That's my bike in the photo, taken during my training ride today, which just had to be the most perferct bike riding day ever: 70 degrees and cloudless skies.
It was a little past 8 a.m. and Paint Creek Trail was pretty quiet as I turned off Adams Road and began peddling due west. But up ahead, there was a moving dark spot on the trail that, as I got closer, turned out to be a mama and papa turkey and five babies. I pulled up short and watched them for a while until they moved off into the high grass out of sight. When I got back on the bike and passed the spot, up they all flew. What a treat.
Later I met a guy riding a Gary Fisher and wearing a lime green T-shirt with "Trail Staff" emblazoned across the front. We chatted for a few minutes. His name was Dave and he is a teacher on summer break. He gets paid for riding the trail 20 hours a week, making sure all is well, raking off horse poop with a miniature rake he carries and reminding people to keep their dogs on a leash and clean up after them. Nice guy with what has to be the perfect summer job.
Back home and back on my Bianchi. It sounds very strange to say this but I really missed my bike while out west.
The weather here in Michigan is unbvelievably hot. It was 95 and humid under a hot sun on the ride. Emptied my Camelback and a water bottle.
But 20 miles felt very good.
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