Journal of a Sysadmin

50km ride and….

1000 km since april has been passed! At the intersection of hwy 8, glenmore trail and sarcee trail I looked down and the tripometer said 47.0 km. I had 47 km (approximately) left as of this morning before I left. I rode from home, down richmond road to sarcee trail, down to hwy 8 then followed that to hwy 22 (against a nasty 15km/h headwind). Turned around at that point, drank and returned. The return trip was way way easier due to the wind and the fact that bragg creek is about 500ft higher than calgary.

Next thing to accomplish? Not sure yet…. I’ll let you know later.

Total Time 1:49:19
Total Distance 50.38 km
Average Cadence 90 rpm
Average Speed 27.6 km/h
Odo 785 km (from 734)
Max Cadence 114 rpm
Max Speed 53 km/h

20k round the resevoir

From home through the weasel head, around the resevoir and home past the college. Good 20k ride, and being evening it was really nice out though still just a little warm.

One of these days I’ll remember my camera for when I’m on the far side of the resevoir at dusk.

Total Time 0:49:41
Total Distance 21.12 km
Average Cadence 88 rpm
Average Speed 25.5 km/h
Odo 734 km (from 713)
Max Cadence 120 rpm
Max Speed 50 km/h

only 47k left until I reach my 1000km goal on sunday!

Easier ride today

Rode with one of the kids down to the gym (almost) and back around the east side of the resevoir. It was an easier ride and my legs are really burned out by all the riding I’ve been doing.

Tomorrow is going to be a rest kind of day for me and if I ride it won’t be a long one (10k or less).

Total Time 1:10:37
Total Distance 24.92 km
Average Cadence 77 rpm
Average Speed 21.1 km/h
Odo 713 km (from 688)
Max Cadence 118 rpm
Max Speed 48 km/h

Why I ride

So, something that I’ve need to do for a while is to put down why I ride, for myself mainly and if anyone reading this finds it entertaining then it’s for you too.

There are a lot of reasons really but I guess it all started about 2 years ago at OLS. OLS is this Linux geek grass roots conference in Ottawa that is held annually. One of the people that attended (who is in our particular geek crowd) and also a photographer for the event was rgb and I was really amazed that he and his wife didn’t even own a car. They used bikes or public transportation for everything at that point though their new little one may require the purchase of a car it was still impressive. They had even gone across Canada at one point by bike.

Another reason is purely selfish. I’m afraid of pain. Call me a wimp or whatever but I am. Now given that, a heart attack (not the minor ones, the big major ones I mean) cause a lot of pain and I don’t want that. I’ve lost two uncles to heart problems (one did have diabetes but still it could have been prevented) and my mothers father also died of a heart attack. I think I have reason to believe that I could also and since this causes pain and I’m afraid of pain simple extrapolation explains the selfish part. This also ties into the next reason.

From the time I was 18ish until I was 32 (5 years ago) my weight was 190 to 193 and I wore a 32 waist 34 leg pant. At 32 I stopped smoking for the first time (not the last) and I almost immediately gained 40 pounds. I think I actually topped out at about 235 or 240 though I never did weigh myself then (didn’t even own a scale) but on a trip into the doctor once with one of the kids (doctors generally equal pain, therefore I’m afraid of doctors and anything medical or dental too) I stood on the scale in the hall of the doctors office and was not impressed…

Middle aged men, with a history of heart problems in their family, who are 40+ lbs overweight, have smoked (and continued to on and off) and live a high stress sedentary lifestyle are generally the ones who have massive coronary events… which are painful… and I’m afraid of that. PAIN == BAD full stop.

I guess also I don’t want to die either, I’m not yet ready to.

I had bought a bike in 2002 and hadn’t really rode it a lot until I got back from OLS. At that point I had been riding to work and back, sometimes, but not on a regular basis. When I returned from OLS two things happened. I bought a house and I started riding to work almost every day because I was impressed by what rgb was doing.

The changes were not really fast but they were noticeable. I started smoking again in Oct. of 2003 but managed to keep riding. My weight came down to about 210 I guess and I continued riding through the winter to work and back every day. I met jhb in person for the first time in Feb. of 2004 and still was riding to work and back (which helped with the skiing and eventually the boarding too).

I took the entire month of July 2004 off of work because I had the time, and started riding more seriously that month. I did more and more longer rides and jhb and I both stopped smoking again in April of 2005. I’ve been riding a lot (I will be over 1000km this year already before the end of July I hope currently I’m at 907km if I count rides before I started keeping odometer readings) .

So I just keep riding, pushing farther and farther and I hope faster and faster (looking at my April times yes, much faster).

And that is why I ride.

bigger better ride

From home around the resevoir, down the elbow pathway to 4th St., through downtown, past O’Clair to Edworthy park then sprint up 45th to home. Good ride, time could have been a little bit better but it was still a decent time.

(previous run same ride in brackets)
Total Time 1:26:54 (1:31:48)
Total Distance 37.11 km (37.48 km)
Average Cadence 87 rpm (88 rpm)
Average Speed 25.6km/h (24.4 km/h)
Odo 688km (from 651)
Max Cadence 123 rpm (127)
Max Speed 48km/h (51 km/h)

My next long ride I hope will be down Hwy 8 towards Hwy 22 and if I have the ability maybe all the way to Bragg Creek (about 35k one way from the house).

Bike though north glenmore then home

From home through north glenmore park, past the college then home again. Good ride, pushed it fairly hard through the entire ride.

Total Time 0:29:10
Total Distance 12.74 km
Average Cadence 89 rpm
Average Speed 26.2 km/h
Odo 651 km (from 638)
Max Cadence 120 rpm
Max Speed 43 km/h

Sunday Night Sprint

Another short ride like the one I did last Sunday evening. Right at the start I blew the chain off the front sprocket (this is something that happens when I don’t shift it all the way down on the rear and try to shift from the middle to inner sprocket on the front, then apply pressure to the crank.

Total Time 0:14:40
Total Distance 7.02 km
Average Cadence 88 rpm
Average Speed 28.7 km/h
Odo 638 km (from 597)
Max Cadence 123 rpm
Max Speed 42 km/h

Party but no biking. Just tomatos, avocados, and grapes.

No biking today though I hope tomorrow I’ll be able to get out for a ride.

Today we had birthday parties for 2 kids and presents and cake and swimming and rock climbing and computer games and movies… And Tomatos Avocados and Grapes OH MY!

This was actually kind of funny. We bought one of them a bike, of course you can’t talk about that in the open so instead we agreed (jhb and I) to call it a tomato.

Another thing we picked up was the computer I mentioned yesterday which was the avocado. Next we picked up some climbing gear and shoes for the middle kid. Those were grapes…

Last night of course I setup the avocado. What a pain. Avocado OS is such a pain in the ass. I think it’s a real lemon.

So this morning I convinced middle kid to come with me to pick up tomato parts for youngest kid, secretly planning the grape purchase so that all the grapes fit in the right places. Of course there was no avocado time, I had to wake him up to do it.

We get to MEC to pick up tomato parts and while walking through the grapes I tell him to pick out one of these grapes and one of those grapes and a few of these other grapes because we’re buying him grapes for his birthday and not here to get tomato parts, as the tomato is just fine by itself…

Safe to say he was happy with grapes, youngest was happy with a tomato and they are both quite pleased with the avocado. This afternoon we went to our gym and climbed while youngest and his friend swam then came home to smokies, fries, and ice cream cake!

Now I remember…

So, every once in a while I have to remind myself why it is.

I have to grab a computer (something I’m very familiar with), and subject myself to punishment after painful punishment.

Every once in a long long while…

I have to install windows,

This time I was setting up a system for my kids to use for homework and of course, games. Install, reboot, install some more reboot, finish installing, reboot, second hard drive, new video card, windows update.

Reboot, reboot, REBOOT!!

I don’t know how people that live in this world do it. And slow, painfully slow. So slow that at times I can swear I see M$ writing subliminal messages on the monitor telling me to sign up for M$N messenger and .net Pa$$port and other very $ kind of things. And each time when it’s done. I have to reboot.

Now I have to admit that with windows XP there is definately less rebooting to do. But let’s face it how many times is enough? IMHO, once is. Maybe a second time for a kernel upgrade. XP still manages to cause enough reboots to make a normal PC dizzy.

Anyway, tomorrow kids birthday parties. oh and did I mention I’m on holidays for another week? =)

Short fast ride.

This was my SECOND ride today!

Home, north on 45th St. to 26th Ave to 29th St. to 46th Ave. to 45th St. One big square (like me!). It was to be a short fast ride and it was. I’m going to start doing these rides more often as a way to gauge my fitness and short ride endurance (maybe, seems good in theory).

Total Time 0:14:56
Total Distance 7.00 km
Average Cadence 93 rpm
Average Speed 28.1 km/h
Odo 597 km (from 590)
Max Cadence 122 rpm
Max Speed 41 km/h