Trying to make it a habit. Five rides since the 2nd. I actually thought it was more. No bother. I'm trying to make healthier eating a habit as well. It's mostly going well. Down six lbs since Thanksgiving.

So maybe a bike trainer selfie will draw the attention of the Tumblr smut filters? I posted some rather risque works of art and that didn't do it. I'm feeling left out.

So let's see what Tumblr does with these!

Hey, what's up strangers? Well, maybe you aren't quite strangers, I've been lurking around; hearting and commenting on posts. I just haven't had much to say. Also, I am just about there. Just about to my highest weight. I never thought that would happen 😕. So there's that. The photos are my second trainer ride of the week. It's been awhile since I was on the saddle. Newsflash: it hurts. This too shall pass. What are the odds my pic gets flagged? 😁

Hey Tumblr, so it’s been a bit.  I’m still bouncing along through life, trying to do healthy things.  Sometimes succeeding, sometimes not.  I don’t know how but I can gain six pounds in two days but take a month to lose it.  

A more recent hobby  / interest of mine has become hiking.  I’ve been up in the mountains almost every weekend since the beginning of July.  Some overnight backpacking trips and a couple day trips.

Sunday was a day trip and it did not disappoint.  I climbed one of the 4,000 footers of the White Mountains, Mt. Tecumseh.  There is a ski resort on this mountain.  I took a few photos, had some lunch, and made myself a cup of coffee to enjoy at the summit.

I have a really hard time controlling my heart rate while climbing mountains.  I have to pause a lot to catch my breath so it takes a while to get to the top.  The views were worth it!

Tagged by #busylivinnow for a selfie... This is the most recent one on my phone, it's from a hike I did on Sunday up in the White Mountains of NH. Hiking has become my latest infatuation. I was getting rained in in this pic. 😁

I’m working it.  C25K week 2 day 2.  Is it possible that my running clothes shrunk while they rested in the closet?  It would be really nice if my body shrunk whilst I was resting.  

Trying to recommit to fitness.  I feel like a broken record sometimes.  When I first came to T it seemed easy.  There were a lot of people pulling their wagons, getting fit.  There has been a lot of coming and going over the years and it just shows how difficult a thing this is, to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  At least for some of us.  I know there are plenty of people that it is second nature, it just is life for them.  It’s not for me.

The food needs some work, but tonight I went for a ride.  I got home from work late.  I coulda just sat.  I should not have gone as far as I did.  Oops.  It was quite dark by the time I got home.  I had lights with me though.  It’s all good.

The weather for the weekend is looking good.  I’m hoping to do some miles this weekend as well.

Miles and coffee.  That is my plan.  I’m liking it.

Ugh.  Running, man.  It’s been a minute since I went for a run.  Well, September 9th was the last time.  So maybe more than a minute.  I used to be a runner.  I’m not saying one run is a comeback, but I’m going to try and make it a regular thing.  At least when it doesn’t interfere with biking.

I did a C25K week 2 day 1 run.  

It was pancake flat.  I’m not ready for hills.  At the moment I don’t feel like death, so it wasn’t so bad.

Maybe I’ll try it again sometime soon.

A year ago I bought a Touring Bike, I wanted to take it camping; to go on adventures.  I took one camping trip last year.  Life conspired against me.

This weekend I took a step toward rectifying that.  I took a bike ride to campout.  We rode about 25 miles, climbed a few hills, saw some Ocean sites.  Saw some woods and bogs.

The clouds were looking ominous as we approached the camp site.  We barely had time to get the tent up before the rain drops fell.  It was hot and humid.  Many rain drops fell from the sky.  We sat in the steaming tent watching.  Eventually it ended, maybe an hour or so.  We emerged and explored a bit.  Not everything went to plan, but we’re resilient :-D  

Another 25 mile ride home the next morning on a brilliant day.  The temps were perfect, there was not a cloud in the sky.  A day to savor time on the saddle.

The bike + gear was about 85 lbs.  There were a number of hills.  I think my legs are stronger today.

New Hobby

Its been a disappointing week around these parts.  Spring finally arrived.  I went for a 70 mile bike ride last Saturday and woke up Sunday feeling sick.  It got progressively worse all week until finally yesterday I had to go to urgent care.  Nothing serious, just a bad cold.  Very untimely.  So no bike rides this week.

A couple months ago I picked up a coffee roaster, I had decided to roast my own coffee.  I’ve never known the taste of truly freshly roasted, fresh ground coffee.  It is quite different than what I had been drinking, it’s a very fine cup of coffee! 

I never knew what coffee beans looked like before they were roasted, now I do:

After the roast:

I’ve now tried a few different roast profiles and different beans.  I’m a fan of Sumatran beans, I tried a few different profiles on those and liked each one.

Here’s the roaster:

It’s certainly not cheaper to home roast one’s own coffee but it sure tastes good!

I realize that three rides do not make one a cyclist.  It’s a start.  Occasionally I get Monday’s off.  Today was one and it was a rather nice day, at least in comparison to what we’ve had so far.

So I took my touring bike out for a ride.

I checked out a campground I’d like to try.  Most of the campgrounds around these parts aren’t open yet.  So maybe I’ll go do some stealth camping there.  Have the place to myself.

In any event, 38 miles Saturday, 42 miles yesterday, 28 miles today.  Getting back to it with my spring legs.

Knock, knock.

Hello?  Is this thing on?

It’s been a minute or two since I’ve posted.  I’ve been keeping up with my dash, hearting posts here and there.  Just not much to say.

My jeans are starting to feel like a sausage casing.  So I took a peak at the scale.  Ouch.

Since about the second week of February my exercise has fallen off a cliff.  I had plans.  I’ve lost a bit of cycling fitness.  I rode twice the first weekend of April.  Once last weekend.  This weekend I rode yesterday and today.  I jumped the miles up quite a bit and now I’m, oh shall we say tender?  

It’s all good.  I enjoyed the rides.  Almost spring like conditions today.  It was a tad cool.  We made due.  

March is not playing nice.  We are in the midst of our third major storm in less than two weeks.  I’m in the “jackpot” zone for this one. 

Jim Cantore is in town.  He’s about a mile away from me.  He’s back at the place he was in this GIF, his famous thundersnow vid.

At least no work today.  Hopefully the power stays on.  They still hadn’t finished getting everybody back on after the last one.  Ooomph.

It felt like spring today.  So I made myself go out for a ride.  I’m on overnights so I came home this morning and got about 5.5 hrs of sleep and got up and went out.  No coffee, no food.  Still a beautiful day to be out.  The temperature here was 64 at the start.  I over dressed. Not the worst offense.

I rode a route I’ve ridden dozens of times.  At least it feels like it.  I use the Strava website and one of the things Strava does is keep track of “segments”.  People create segments on sections of rides they want to compare to others.  Usually climbs but sometimes sprints.  There is one segment near my house that I’ve ridden 41 times.  Overall there are more than a 1,000 people that have ridden it.  I always try to ride it hard.  I hit a PR on that segment today.  It’s a fun little sprint.  According to Strava it is .43 of a mile.  I did it today in 53 seconds, two seconds faster than my previous at an average speed of 29.8mph.  Good enough for 33rd fastest out of 1039.

Near the end of the ride I rode around the waterfront.  There were a lot of people out walking around.  People have spring fever.  It is usually a desolate place down there this time of year. A lot of the restaurants and shops close for the season.  I’m hoping for no more winter.

No boats and all the floats taken out for the winter.

It’s been awhile.  Working the overnight shift really takes a toll on me.  I didn’t workout once over the last week.  I got a ride in today but now I”m about to head out for work, the good news is I only have to do four nights this week.  The bad news is they are ten hours.  It just seems like so long when it’s overnight.  Ok, enough whining.

I did a ride, it was good.  At least good enough.  Tuesday should be in the 60′s around these parts.  I may pass up on some sleep to get an outdoor ride in.  

I say that now, we’ll see how I feel in a few days.