Sunday, August 31, 2008

Fox River Ride II - Aug 31, 2008

Today Neighbor Jim and I took off in the heat of the afternoon on a 15 mile trek along the McHenry County Prairie Trail system and down to the Fox River. I also stopped at the Crystal Lake Ski & Bike shop as I needed two small screws for my water bottle cage. To my surprise, the screws were given to me free of charge, no questions asked. I didn't buy my bike from them -- but that bit of friendly service might lead me to have the Trek serviced there in the future.

The sun was hot, but after 3 miles we were on the prairie trail system and once we got past the gravel pits, we were under the cover of trees and following the creek down towards the Fox River valley. We saw lots of people biking on the trail today, which was different from my last trip when it was mostly walkers instead of bikers. However, one thing that Neighbor Jim and I both noticed was that most of these people were either very into their ride or just plain unfriendly. We said hello to everyone who biked past, but only a handful of people actually smiled or said hello back.

When we got to the stop light to cross busy Rakow Road, there was a a group of about 6 bikers (kids and their parents). They asked us if we saw the turtle... and we were like, "What turtle?" Apparently about a quarter of a mile back, there was a large turtle on the side of the trail. We'd ridden right past there so perhaps the turtle had moved into the weeds by then.

Just a week to go before the Harmon Hundred... so this might be my last "long" ride before the Harmon! Hopefully I'll get in a few more 5+ mile rides this coming week after work.

Total distance: 15.03 miles, ride time: 1hr 23 min, avg speed 10.86 mph

Friday, August 29, 2008

Biking August 29, 2008

Today I pulled the kiddo in the trailer behind the Giant. We rode to Crystal Lake South HS and saw the cheerleaders practicing and the football players getting ready to head over to the football field for tonight's varsity game. The fresh/soph team was already on the field and they were winning 34-6 when we biked past the grandstands. (sidenote: I'm excited about the start of College football season!) Lots of people were out and about on the streets and sidewalks leading towards CLS and you could hear the marching band playing several blocks away. Of course when we return home tonight we'll be able to see the bright lights of the football field shining in the distance, as we're pretty close to CLS, as the crow flies. Streets here, however, don't go straight. Its like they say... all roads lead home, but none of them are straight. Or something like that.

Today was also Intern John's last day at Motorola. We think. In any event, we'll continue to train for the Harmon Hundred. He says he won't ride if it rains, but I'm thinking I already plopped down $15 for this ride and $10 for the shirt, so I'm gonna have to ride rain or shine... just for the principle of it. Let's hope for good weather. Also of note is the fact that today I talked to HR and it turns out that Intern John is not an intern. In fact, he never has been. He's a contractor. Strange but true. I think we have the OTHER John to thank for that. YOu know, the OTHER John who doesn't own a bike.

Plans are in the works for a Labor Day Cookout. Lets see if Intern John can bicycle the 60+ miles to my house or if he shows up in a car. :)

Total distance: 5.83 mi, ride time 45 mins, avg speed: 7.77 mph

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Biking August 26, 2008

Today I rode with Neighbor Jim, my new-found cycling partner. We rode mostly MUP (bike paths) in Crystal Lake and Lake in the Hills. It is possible to stick to the trail from my back yard all the way south nearly to Lowes/Costco... in a roundabout way. The trail is nice and wide and paved for all but one stretch where its gravel. No idea why this one section of about 20 yards is gravel... and today was the first time I braved it on the Trek with its very narrow 700x25c tires!

Neighbor Jim and I talked most of the time so our speed was way down as its hard to carry on a conversation when you're going 15 mph down the road with the wind in your face. I told him about the 15 mile ride to the Fox River and he seemed interested in it -- but I think it would take nearly twice as long as my last time due to our leisurely pace when we ride together.

Total Distance: 5.86 mi, ride time: 41 mins, avg speed: 8.57 mph

Monday, August 25, 2008

Biking August 25, 2008

I spent the weekend camping and paddling the Rock River, so I did not get any riding in. After this brief break from biking, the kiddo and I hit the road this evening to get some miles under the bike tires. With the trailer attached to the Giant, I loaded her up and hit the road. We took a leisurely pace around the neighborhood and some of the parks. We saw several groups of kids in football practice and even some really young kids practicing flag football at one of the parks we rode past. I don't think she's the football type as she showed no interest.

Along the creek by Fetzner Park, we saw a squirrel. That was the highlight of the ride... which isn't saying much. Now its back to Wow Wow Wubbzy, I guess. That or Wonder Pets. :)




Total Distance: 5.16 mi, ride time: 35 mins, avg speed: 8.84 mph

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Biking August 20, 2008

Today was another in a long line of uneventful bike rides around town. I could hear lots of loud-speaker noise coming from the high school, so I included a pass of the athletic fields in the ride. It seems the school marching band was out on the field practicing for the first high school football game. As exciting as that was (Sorry, Nick) I keep on going and continued on my ride around the neighborhood.

Total distance: 5.28 miles, ride time: 27 mins, avg speed: 11.73 mph

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Biking August 19, 2008

Today was a bike ride at work. Intern John and I rode some of the local roads and also the paths through the Libertyville Youth Soccer Association fields near the office. It was pretty light intensity, but neither of us could remember how far down the road we had to go to pick up the Libertyville bike path system, and we figured we would look it up and ride those next time.


The Libertyville Bike Paths ... Now we know. :)

The ride was uneventful for the most part. The only strange part was John's borrowed trunk rack was very confusing and I'm still not sure he has it hooked up right, but I couldn't figure it out either. It just has too many parts. :)

Total distance: 6.40 miles, ride time: 35 mins, avg speed: 10.97 mph

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Ride That Didn't Happen

Today I was supposed to bring my bike to work and ride during lunch with Intern John. This ride did not happen due to a flat tire! After I mounted the bike rack on the trunk of my car, I noticed that the rear tire of the Trek was flat. And I mean dead flat... not an ounce of air in it. I hooked up the pump and tried to pump some life into that tire but nothing happened. Since I couldn't stay and mess around with the tire, I called John and luckily he hadn't left for work yet, so I was able to tell him to abort the mission and he left his bike at home.

Tonight after dinner, I decided to investigate the tire problem. I removed the rear tire from the bike, removed the tire from the rim, and then I saw the problem: blowout!



The tube had a rip in it about 7 inches long. I wasn't going to be able to patch this one! I pulled out one of my new Forte puncture-resistant tubes and proceeded to mount the new tube on the rim. I re-mounted the wheel on the bike and put the chain back on. I then inflated the tube to 115 psi and topped off the front tire as well as it was down to about 90 psi.



After inflating the tires, I rode the bike across the street and back just to cycle through the gears and make sure everything was working properly. All was good, and now i'm ready to try for the bike ride again tomorrow during lunch. The only question is ... when did this blowout happen? I rode 15 miles yesterday but when I got home, there was still some air in the tire as I certainly would have noticed a dead-flat tire. The mystery remains...

Total distance: 0.01 miles, ride time: 20 seconds. :)

Update: I found a thread on the BikeForums website where others have experienced the same thing with their tube blowing out well after riding...

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Bike Ride to the Fox River - 8/17/2008

This morning I decided to step up my training for the Harmon Hundred ride and try to get in a good 10-15 miles. I finally got to ride on the McHenry County Prairie Trail through Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, and Algonquin, down to the Fox River. It was a great ride! It was just over 3 miles to meet up with the Prairie Trail (Which, BTW does connect to the Illinois Prairie Path farther south). From there, I had a nice ride of about 4.5 miles down to the river. The path went past the gravel pits and then followed a stream (crossing it several times) through some densely wooded areas, on a bridge over busy Algonquin Road, and then through some more park-like areas until coming to IL-31. After crossing IL-31, it was just a minute's ride until the foot/bike bridge crossing the Fox River. I spent a few minutes stopped on the middle of the bridge (there were not too many people in this stretch of the path so I wasn't creating a traffic jam or anything) and then turned around and headed for home.

What I hadn't realized at the time was that the 4.5 mile ride on the Prairie Trail to the Fox River was mostly downhill. That meant I had to retake that elevation I gave up on the way down. It wasn't bad though, the grade was gentle, rising slowly over 4.5 miles. I could have down-shifted to make it a little easier, but then I would have given up some speed and I wanted to give my legs a good workout. I couldn't maintain the same speed on the way up as I did on the way down, and pedaled about 3-4 mph slower on the return trip.

The stretch of the trail from Rakow Rd south to the parking lot just north of Algonquin Rd had many walkers -- and the path is limited access... in fact, I don't think there is any access between these two points except just north of the parking lot the trail splits off to somewhere. So I was surprised to see 10-15 walkers spread out on this stretch of the path. There were many more walkers than bikers for sure. I'm not sure why -- the path is paved, has a center stripe and goes through some nice senic areas. I also saw the grading work that they're doing for the new Pyott Rd. A portion of the road is being shifted a few hundred feet to the east to make room for runway expansion at the Lake in the Hills airport. I'm not sure if they're going to move the bike path to the east as well... if they don't, the path will cross Pyott Rd twice, which is inconvenient.

I also test-drove my new High Sierra water backpack. I got this at Costco a month or so ago (maybe longer) and hadn't put it to use yet. I ordered a Klean Kanteen water bottle and bottle cage for the bike because right now, I have no water bottle cage on the Trek at all. That's why I had to use the water backpack. I was able to keep ice in the bladder of the pack and the water stayed cold the whole time. The pack did make my back sweat more, so i'm looking forward to getting the Klean Kanteen on the Trek soon... this coming week hopefully.


Total distance: 15.08 miles, ride time: 1hr 6 mins, avg speed: 13.71 mph

Friday, August 15, 2008

Biking August 15, 2008

After taking care of some post-work yard work, I decided to get a quick bike ride in before it got too dark out. I took a direct route to the lake, past the private beaches. Then I went west to the Crystal Lake West Beach, and hung out a little while to watch the activity on the lake. The beach was nearly empty with the last few swimmers packing up to go home. For the ride back home, I took one of the main side roads, with traffic exceeding 35 mph. I managed to keep an 18-20 mph pace on this stretch of road -- just to have enough momentum going forward in case i got rear-ended by a car. :)

Because of the longer stretch of straight road -- it wasn't flat, it went up and then down -- i was able to keep up a pretty good clip of 18-20 mph. I can't really do this on the side streets because cars are always rolling around corners and not stopping, or people are opening car doors without looking. I'm not sure what pace I will need to keep on the Harmon Hundred -- it probably depends on how fact John rides on his Gary Fisher hybrid bike. He's got 700c tires, so its not like he's riding a mountain bike... I suspect he'll be able to keep up and maybe even keep a brisker pace than I can since he bikes in the city, dodging cabs and other road hazards regularly!


Total distance: 5.55 miles, 24min 59 secs, avg speed: 13.33 mph

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Biking August 13, 2008

The kiddo decided she wanted to go for a bike ride today after dinner and I'm never one to turn down a bike ride. Well, I was doing the work and she was along for the ride in the trailer. We rode to the lake and back...

At the lake, we saw two ducks on the lake near the shore and then we saw a boat go by with a guy trailing behind water skiing. She had never seen anyone water ski before, so that was something new to her. When we started back towards home, we took a different route through Lakewood and at one point we saw a dog come out of the bushes up ahead and start walking on the road. Then I realized it wasn't a dog, it must be a cat as it had a big bushy tail. Then I realized it was much too large to be a cat.... this was a fox! I stopped on the side of the road and the fox just trotted down the other side like nothing was wrong. Strange, but true. If I had my phone with me I would have taken a picture, but it was nearing dusk and it probably would not have turned out very good anyway under all of the tree cover.

We proceeded home and to make our trip around wild kingdom complete, we saw a bunny rabbit cross the road just in front of our house. Ducks, a fox, and a rabbit. Nothing like a bike ride in suburbia.

Total distance: 5.49 miles, ride time about 35 mins, avg speed about 9.41 mph

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Biking August 12, 2008

During lunch today I took a quick ride (35 min) on the Trek around the neighborhood. In fact, I rode into two neighboring towns and past our old house we used to live in. It was a nice ride and I got some good speed on the downside of the hills in the Turnbury Country Club area, but then had to pedal up the other side, which really wasn't that bad with the triple crank-equipped Trek. I did hit a busy road for about a mile (or less) but there was a nice wide shoulder for me to ride on without getting run over by the speeding cars.

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Total Distance: 8.40 miles, Ride time: 35 min, Avg speed: 14.4 mph

Sidenote: Intern John, you really should get on FB so you can join the Harmon Hundred 2008 Team and log your training rides. :)

Monday, August 11, 2008

Biking August 11, 2008

I didn't get any rides in over the weekend as I was under the weather. Today, I took the day off from work to recover and by late afternoon I figured I was in good enough shape to hit the road for a few miles. If nothing else, it was to keep some sort of physical activity on my plate for the day. I actually got my new Topeak Road Morph G frame pump today so I mounted it to Trek and hit the road with a few extra grams of weight on the bike. I couldn't tell the difference. However, I also moved the VDO C08 bike computer from the Giant to the Trek today, so today I actually got to see my speed on the Trek in real-time. I rode to the lake, watched a group of girls attempt to back a boat out of the dock and into the lake (it seemed to take them several attempts to figure it out), and then I took the long way home, hitting the Sterling Meadows bike path out west near Huntley Rd.


Topeak Road Morph G


Total distance: 6.22 miles, Ride time: 28 mins, avg speed: 13.33 mph

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Harmon Hundred Planning

Since I'll be riding the Harmon Hundred with John (who will no longer be called Intern John by that time), I figured I'd better get my registration form filled out. John registered online and I went to go do the same. However, it turns out that the commemorative t-shirt costs $15 instead of $10 when you register online and John mentioned that there is an extra $3 electronic registration fee. To save $8 I printed out the form from the Wheeling Wheelmen page, wrote out a check, and mailed it in today. Now I'm official. Well, I will be when they receive the form on Monday or Tuesday.

Now for the real planning... that is, training. It was raining about an hour ago, but its not right now. I hope to get a nice bike ride in today on the road bike, but first I need to get air in that rear tire. If I can do that and get 10-15 miles logged, it will be a good step up from my normal 4-6 mile rides. I've done the 10 mile ride around town only once this summer, so maybe I should make 10 miles my goal for today and shoot for another 10 or so miles tomorrow. We'll see how the weather cooperates, and of course if I can get a presta adapter to inflate that rear tire today!

Friday, August 8, 2008

Biking August 8, 2008

Today was just a quick trip down to CVS to pick up more allergy meds for Jake the Dog. I went to grab the Trek and saw that the rear tire was very low, so it needed some pumping. Problem. The pump I have now only works on Schrader valves, not Presta valves, so I can't pump it up. Oops! I'll need to remedy that soon. So I grabbed the Giant (without the trailer for this ride) and make the quick trip down to CVS and back.

Total distance: 2.61 miles, 12.5 minutes ride time, 12.52 mph avg speed.

I talked to John (the intern) at work yesterday about possibly doing the Harmon Hundred bike ride. They offer 25/50/75/100 mile routes through southern Wisconsin, starting from Wilmot Mountain. He said it sounded like it would be fun, but we didn't decide on anything for certain. Today when I saw him he told me that he signed up and that I couldn't back out now. :) So now I'll be riding the Harmon Hundred (25 mile route, I think) on Sunday Sept 7th. My training will need to ramp up a little bit in the next couple of weeks.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Biking August 7, 2008

Went for an after-dinner ride with the kiddo tonight. We made it to the lake, rode past the beach, and then came back home, taking a slightly different route than normal. At the lake, we saw some ducks and of course lots of boats. Nothing else along the way was very interesting today... lots of people watering their lawns.

Total distance: 6.19 miles, 39 mins ride time, 9.52 mph avg

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Biking August 5, 2008

It was a little hot and humid today (91 F) but that didn't stop us from going on the almighty bike ride. With the Giant pulling the trailer and the kiddo, we hit the bike path south of the house and stayed on it for about 3 miles before we took the side streets to go back west and then caught another bike path back north towards home. There are actually some good paths for riding around here -- but after 3-4 miles they just stop and you need to ride streets until you can catch the next bike path, and there are few signs (none at all in some cases) indicating the bike path access from the streets. So with the sun beaming down on us, we tallyed almost 6 miles round trip. Good Ride.

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Total distance: 5.97 miles, 38 mins, 9.42 mph avg

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Biking August 3, 2008

It turns out my neighbor (who is retired) is into biking and he has a Fuji road bike and a Cannondale comfort/mountain bike. He came over today and said he'd like to go riding with me so he doesn't need to ride alone. I was more than willing. He wanted to see the route that I take to get to the lake, so today I disconnected the trailer from the Giant and we took to the streets (and paths) and went cruising to the lake to check out the boats and people at the beach. On a nice warm, sunny day like today it was pretty busy, even for a private beach, which is what I ride past. On the way back we took to the crushed gravel path through a neighborhood and then cut over on a paved path through the woods leading into a golf course community. It was a good ride, but a little slow for me. I brought the Giant because I knew we wouldn't be breaking any land-speed records today, so I was not going to complain about the speed -- I had a riding partner!

View Interactive Map on MapMyFitness.com

Total distance: 5.28 miles, Ride time: 34.0 minutes, Avg speed: 9.31 mph

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Biking August 2, 2008

Today I got my new Forte Campus pedals in the mail. These are platform pedals on one side and SPD/clipless on the flip side. I'm just using the platform side for now, but in the future, who knows! The pedals came off the Trek with minimal amount of sweat, and I wore a pair of thin/disposable latex gloves to do the work so I didn't get tons of grease all over my hands. For the new pedals, I used some white lithium grease (the spray type that turns into grease when exposed to air) on the threads and attached them with the 15mm wrench. Of course I only had SAE wrenches, so I had to make a quick run to Lowes to pick up a 15mm wrench. Better than stripping the pedal or using a monkey wrench due to the tight working area. I also picked up a wedge bag (small bag that attaches under the saddle) and some mini bungee cords that I can use to attach small items to the rear rack if necessary. This turned out to be a good idea, and useful sooner than I thought!

With the new pedals installed, I hit the road. I took off in the direction of the lake. When I was nearly to the lake, I got a call on the cell phone asking me to run to CVS and pick up some children's benadryl as my daughter was stung by a bee. I turned around and headed back towards CVS. I quickly picked up the goods and put those mini bungee cords to use strapping the package to the rear rack for the trip home. The rest of the trip home was uneventful.

View Interactive Map on MapMyRide.com

Total distance: 7.4 miles