I have finally gotten my recumbent back on the road in electric-assist mode. This turned out to be quite an odyssey. I pursued two parallel approaches. First I tried to fix the wheel with broken spokes It turns out you can get custom spoke lengths online so I got replacements in 228 mm. Then I … Continue reading Electric Recumbent Adventure Continues →

I got some good rides in early last week. I especially enjoyed our challenging group ride on Tuesday up in the hills East of Gilroy. This doesn't have any really long climbs, just lots of them. I was getting tied towards the end, with electric assist (on my upright). So I was impressed by those … Continue reading Muddling Through a Cold →

On Friday I was out for a long ride on my recumbent and I happened to look down at my front wheel and noticed a broken spoke. The wheel appeared in good enough shape, not too badly "out of true", and was still ride-able. So I headed home and switched bikes, completing the ride on … Continue reading Non-Electric Recumbent For a Few Days →

I am back to being able to do longer rides as long as long as I don't overdo the intensity. I think what went wrong that led to my recent sciatica flare-up was that I had combined long rides with hard riding, including sprints and intervals on the same day. Now I'm keeping the pace … Continue reading Back To Longer Rides →

http://www.amazon.com/books I just read the book Ultra-processed People, by Chris van Tulleken, about the large amount of highly processed food in our modern diets, which I recommend. I'd always known about obvious kinds of processing like turning wheat into white flour by removing the germ and bran and then grinding up the rest. But the … Continue reading Reducing Dietary Junk →

The inflammation that has flared up my sciatica seems to be clearing up. The discomfort is no longer interfering with sleep at night, and I am carefully ramping my training back up, so far with no ill-effects. On Wednesday I was able to ride for an hour and even threw in some shorter intervals and … Continue reading Fighting My Way Back →

I was feeling great last week doing some long brisk rides. But after a particularly hard ride last Wednesday, my sciatica flared up again badly, this time on the left side. For a couple of days it kept me awake act night because I could not find a sleeping position without severe pain radiating down … Continue reading Sciatica Again! →

I did a two-hour plus easy cruise yesterday, in pleasant weather. Out and back on Coyote Creek trail to where it is flooded out from the recent rains, then South towards Gilroy on the lightly traveled country roads on the east side of the valley. During my warm-up I had a mental lapse and almost … Continue reading Long Easy Ride →

Now that my antibiotics have done their job I'm back to riding full tilt. Yesterday was my hard day. But something I read recently made we realize I was doing something wrong. I was doing long (2 hour+) rides for my hard one, with the intervals and sprints tacked on at the end after hours … Continue reading Hard Biking Day →

I recently viewed an inspiring video series on Global Cycling Network about the journey of self-transformation of one of their presenters, Dan. He is a retired professional cyclist and at 43 he has been enjoying retirement a bit too much and has felt the first intimation of father time breathing down his neck, so wants … Continue reading Inspiring Series of Videos: Dan’s Journey →