Yeah, the stats definitely help keep me motivated. I have been extending my rides much more since I joined Strava and I have bought myself a Garmin Edge 1000 with HR monitor, cadence sensor and speed sensor.
I also have an appointment in February at the local bikeshop to take measurements and configure a new custom bike. It will take about 4-6 weeks to be build and delivered and I’m spending far too much money on it but I’m looking at it as a longtime investment.
It’s over 15 years old and was actually a birthday present from my grandma. I really like it. It has carried me to and through Switzerland (four week 1800km round trip), various tours through Germany, France, the Netherlands and of course commuting but it’s time for something newer, nicer and much faster
Now that you remind me, the Appalachian Trail is still on my bucket list. Maybe when my GF starts her sabbatical. Let’s hope that people from good ole Europe can still get a visa by then.
I have a trainer that I used with my triathlon bike…and hated it. I’d rather have a stand-alone exercise/stationary bike than set that trainer up each time. Where it can be particularly useful is if you are trying to nail some sort of form specific to your “competition” bike…but for general exercise, I find it is more trouble than it is worth.
I’m actually probably going to get rid of that Marcy bike because it is really a spinning type bike…and replace it with something different. There is a nice Livestrong LS6 0R on my local Craigslist I’m eyeing. I’ve noted the problems with it in the reviews (that mesh seat)…but I wouldn’t mind having something that was a little kinder on my back than a traditional bike.
Of course - I’d much rather be outside on the roads…and I usually will, but this will do for times when I want to watch TV while working out, night, and miserable conditions (and I’m less likely to get mowed down by someone texting…so there’s that…)
I have a Reebok Elliptical and really like it after years of either static bikes or rowers. It’s got the doohickey that shows a Google’s Map / Street view on an iPad as you jog on, so it has enough stuff to go wrong to make me interested (although apparently not interested enough recently)
So, I broke the ice today. I ran 3 miles with my wife. I didn’t time the run as I just wanted to get back in the saddle without worrying about my pace.
I had two stressful days and nights, which has two positive effects:
1: I forgot about eating for almost a day and didn’t even miss it. So I am still used to not having meals every eight hours, which is good.
2: I joined the Elite club of “Fathers with two kids” yesterday.
Everyone is healthy and happy and my daughter (21 months) can already say her baby brother’s name. Happy Dad moment.
Spend 15 minutes doing HIIT on the training bike to consequently go out for a run. Just didn’t feel it unfortunately, only did 3.8k at 5:50 average. Legs felt heavy, couldn’t get my heart up to speed and chug along, and the wind chill was a bit more then expected plus some light rain. It was just very meeeeeh. overall. I had a vague idea to go a 13k today but alas.
Awesome! Congrats…! We were one and done…we tried for more (heck…that’s the fun part)…but we were, cough, advanced in age…so it hasn’t worked out. I really think two is perfect though…for a lot of reasons…
Thanks, guys!
I always wanted to have kids (two is the target, we will decide whether we want another one) and even though I am happy with my daughter and wouldn’t be sad if the baby was another girl I am very happy that I have a son now as well.
Concerning fitness another cool thing for me is that I noticed my daughter encourages me to be more active. She wants to play with me more and more, and I think to myself: who wants a dad who gets tired before their two year old girl? So yeah, a little extra encouragement there.
After wearing out two Blackburns, the second one basically burning up, I invested in a Kurt Kinetic. Without maintenance, it is still as smooth as the day that I bought it ten years ago. Built like an Abrams, it delivers very smooth and usable resistance.
You should set your goal to something more achievable than keeping up with a two year old , I know mine never tires out, and she is almost 5 now, and it hasnt changed much
I’m staying with family this weekend but I forgot something at home yesterday so I took the opportunity to extend the ride a little bit. We don’t have many hills around here so you gotta take what you have. It’s just a 60m climb, average grade is 5% or so. Beautiful weather but pretty windy:
LOL where I live that ‘hill’ wouldn’t even be mentioned in the map. Lovely for some easy riding.
That’s really a problem here in the Black Forest. You are either a huge fan of mountain biking or not biking at all. Only riding through the valleys becomes boring pretty quickly, and if I want to get to a nice valley and back I have to do around 300m downhill and 300m back up in the end.
Really unpleasant for beginners.
We are basically in the exact same situation! My kids are a first girl and latter boy separated by a bit more than two years!