Journal of a Sysadmin

Reservoir, Marda Loop, Home

Home, across North Glenmore then up to Marda Loop to 26th Ave. and followed that to 45th St. then home again. It was cool tonight (2C) and a bit of a wind but it was a fast ride.

Total Time 0:43:34
Total Distance 15.74 km
Average Cadence 81 rpm
Average Speed 21.6 km/h

Bike and dog walk

Went from home to Elbow River Pathway, through downtown to Edworthy park, up that big f’ing hill (and jhb did it too! YAY Jaime!) then home. This pathway is a great ride.

Total Time 2:01:02
Total Distance 31.12 km
Average Cadence 68 rpm
Average Speed 15.4 km/h

Weather was beautiful. It was 22C for a high here today. Along the Elbow river the trees are starting to leaf out and you can already smell the sap in the air, it’s one of my favourite smells on earth!

Tonight, a 45 minute puppy walk with jhb and Miss Puppy Fantastico (aka, Missy Monster).

Bike

Total Time 1:19:36
Total Distance 20.03km
Average Cadence 64
Average Speed 15.1km/h

Around the reservoir and home past the college. Weather was beautiful, it was just starting to get dark when we returned home and passing the reservoir the evening clouds were reflecting off the water. Before we left we were actually debating on biking or not, I’ve been out with a cold for a few days but we decided to go anyway. Within 15 minutes of starting you couldn’t get me to stop.

Note to self, go anyway.

Bike: North Glenmore Park/26th ave./45th st./home

Went from home to north glenmore park, up 14th-ish to 26th ave. over to 45th st then home again.

Total Time 1:06:59
Total Distance 18.05 km
Average Cadence 65 rpm
Average Speed 16.1 km/h

Weather was overcast but ok. It’s warm out and green things are starting! =)

Bike: Elbow River/Bow River/Edworthy Park

Went for a bike ride from home over to River Park, along the Elbow River to the Bow River to Edworthy Park then home.

Total Time 1:36:06
Total Distance 31.43 km
Average Cadence 72 rpm
Average Speed 19.6 km/h

Also, carried the bike and my pack up the stairs at Edworthy park after biking to almost the bottom of the stairs. Ouch!

Fit Day

So, I’m using fitday.com to track my food/activity daily and it has a link into it for the public… Don’t know how much anyone cares but here it is.

Bragg Creek and Glenmore Park

Riding a little bit at West Bragg. It’s still really wet and the trails are ice/snow covered in places. Loaded the bike back up and went over to highway 66 where we rode for a bit. The hills there are long and we ended up stopping and coming back to the city. Rode for about 12 minutes and had a flat tire…

So, this tells me that it was NOT a good day to ride.

Total Distance 9.87 km bike, 2.04 km walking to the parking lot with a flat tire
Total Time 1:01:02 including 2.04 km at an average 5 km/hr
Average Cadence 65 rpm
Average Speed 11.7 km/h

Better luck next time. Tomorrow I think I have to hit MEC to pick up a tire and a tube

Happy Birthday to me!

So, today was my birthday. I turned the ripe age of 37.

To celebrate jhb and I went for a bike ride from our house, down to edworthy park then over to 14th St. W. then back again. It was a great ride and even at our pace was less then an hour and a half long.

For the trip and for my birthday we bought bike computers. These things are cool (jhb has an Echowell F7 and mine is an Echowell F2) and measure speed and distance as well as keeping track of riding time, average speed and maximum speed (the F2 also does cadence as well). Installation is really nice but their tye wraps (otherwise known as zip straps) blow goats. I broke 4 of mine just doing them up with my fingers so now I’m forced to carry extras with me just in case…

At any rate this also means that for my own docs I’m going to start logging on the date, stats, and weather of all or our bike trips (not counting rides to work and back of course). Thought this would be a good thing to keep around and see if I’m improving at all!

Dropped off the kids with their mom (as happens every second weekend) and we went for All-You-Can-Eat Sushi at the Sumo Lounge. Mmmmm, good stuff. One thing I love about living here is all the great food, which of course in other ways is a bad thing.

I’ve started a kind of diet. Just watching what I eat and how much (no, the sushi didn’t help but wasn’t all that bad) and how much exercise I’m getting. I’m hoping to lose about 20 lbs. by December, as all the weight/height charts tell me I’m at least that much over weight for my frame size. This kind of makes sense because I was 190 lbs from the time I was seventeen until I was thirtyfour when I first stopped smoking. I then proceeded to gain 40 lbs and topped out at 230 lbs. At some point after that (I think just after I bought the house) I started biking to work and biked all that fall and winter. I ended up in a lot better shape and had dropped 30 of the 40 lbs I gained but also started smoking again and then lost the biking (just stopped for some stupid reason).

Now with the recent additions to my bike I’ve determined that I have to use it more. jhb and I are going to be biking more this summer anyway and I’ve decided the bike to work is a must again! So, my birthday present to myself is fairly simple. I want to be healthy, fit, and strong.

I’ll report back next year on if it worked or not =)

Home to 14th St. W via Edworthy Park.

Went from home to edworthy, to crowchild crossed river to14th st. W, crossed the river, back to edworthy park then home again.

Stats:
Average Cadence 65
Average Speed 16km/hr
Distance Travelled 23.18km
Total Time 1:26:36
Weather Overcast, 12C, rained on the way back.

More boarding and…

So we took the kids to Nakiska today. The local CO-OP has this deal on that for $99.00 you get 4 lift tickets and rentals which makes it cheap enough to go.

So we go, get the youngest a lesson because he’s never been to the hill before and spend the entire day going up and coming down (I think we did 5 lifts and runs today).

At any rate we came home, the kids fell asleep on the way home and we got home and went for a 15 or 20 minutes bike ride just because we felt like it! I think the working out, the snow boarding, the eating new foods, the stopping smoking, everything really has really started to pay off. I like it =)