Well…darn, up and down all night last night and finally got out of bed at 6:40 and have about 55 minutes until I need to get on the bike to get two rides in before Man U plays at 11:30…don’t hurt nearly as much as I should after doing two 45’s in a row so I think the voltaren and biofreeze worked well last night…my lower back is still stiff today and doing two rides won’t help that…I wonder if I should put the heating pad on right now to help that? Really don’t want to do anything except sit here and wait for the coffee to work…it’s 43 out there right now so it will be warm enough to go out as soon as it gets light but I still feel cold from yesterday and that is going to be a problem until the end of the year…at least there is no snow in the forecast and that will leave us only two months until March when it will start to warm up again….still have ham to use today but I did take the last ham soup out of the freezer to make room for the next batch I’ll make this week…not much to do today…just getting the rides in will be enough…did laundry yesterday but I should put clean bedding on today…it’s weird having more than one set of sheets like I’ve lived with for 20+ years….more later….

Well… the past two days have been nuts on the bike with this idiot doing 45 miles two days in a row…still don’t hurt too much so I’ll take it…but there won’t be a third day of that…just feel pretty worn out after these two days and the 30 miles a day for the rest of the week…it does look like I’m going to get to 5,000 miles for the year even with having 12 weeks off the bike…only have 180 more miles to go to get there and I have 14 days to do it…there is enough time to even get there just riding 16 per day downstairs…that would be 224 miles so I could even have a day off in the next two weeks…if I wouldn’t have had the medical/travel time off the bike, it would have been a record year with probably 6,500 miles or so…pretty damn close to the 7,000 mile goal for next year…so, we’ll see what happens…

Well…up and moving  a little after 6 today and I’m not nearly as sore as I should be after riding 45 miles yesterday…I wonder if it was the liberal application of voltaren last night? It’s raining out here right now so the first ride will have to wait a bit after sunrise…only going to do 30 miles today to take it a little easier than yesterday…not going to get to 5,000 miles this year but it’s going to be close and that’s not bad for a year where I had 12 weeks off…..didn’t get much done yesterday and I’m not sure what I’ll do today…still working on leftovers so no cooking and I just took the last container of ham soup out of the freezer to make room for the new ones I’m going to make in a couple of weeks…I wonder if I should get another ham since they are 99 cents a pound?  Not sure if I can tolerate the salt…would like some pasta or anything different…finished off “The Robots of Dawn” by Asimov yesterday and started a Lawrence Sanders novel and it feels good to have a book going all the time after not reading much for years…not much to do today…it’s already 42 outside so when the rain stops I can get on the bike and get the day started…put the Eagles on for music yesterday and it hit the spot…I think this morning will be “Dark Side of the Moon” since I haven’t played that in a while…more later…

Well…I know I was bitching about the 70 dollar cost to rebuild the driveline of the bike but damn it’s worth it…took it out today and it rides like a new bike again…so well that I did 45 miles on it today…and I like the weird new pedals I bought for it…they look so thin they should be flexing when I pedal but even when mounting the bike with all my weight on one pedal it stays flat…and forged aluminum with ball bearings for 9 bucks is kind of cool…so now I have to spend another 100 bucks to put the black bike back together since it needs the front crankset, chain, rear cassette, and rear shifter…will probably get that ordered next week so I can store those parts on the bike for when I wear out the ones I just put on the grey bike…

Well…up and out of bed a little after 6 today and that’s pretty normal for me right now…it is a little different with the outside pattern of pain from the rides yesterday including the upper body stuff that doesn’t happen when I ride indoors…but, I’m used to being sore so no big deal…I did get the amazon package last night that wasn’t supposed to come until Sat so that was cool…the new pedals for the bike are a little different and of a unique design and I’ll install them after the first ride…did enough work on the bike yesterday that I really just want to ride it this morning….have new heads for my sonicare toothbrush, eyeglass cases, and a digital tire pressure gauge, stuff that I needed and I would like to buy something just that I want for a change….the coffee tastes good this morning and I hope it starts to work soon so I can get on the bike as soon as it gets light but I do need to let the temp come up a few degrees first with it still in the thirties…will probably have to do some adjusting on the bike with all of the new parts on it and I hope it’s back to normal…not much to do today…only had one meal yesterday and will probably keep that pattern up today since I am losing weight…slowly…and need to get back into the 160’s….more later…

Well…I was really hoping that I had the outdoor bike figured out but when I took it out for a ride, I still had the vibration in it so after the second ride, I noticed the the 7th gear on the rear cassette was completely worn out and that was the gear it was vibrating in…and the chain and front crankset were both worn out, too, so I swapped them all out with the new ones from the black bike and fixed a broken spoke in the back wheel with another donor from the black bike so now it’s sitting downstairs in pieces…the sand out here is really hard on the driveline and I only got about 17,000 miles on this one but the last one was even worse at about 13,000 miles…but the good thing is I know how to do this now and have the specialized tools for the chain and the front crankset puller…so now I need to find a bike shop that has a spoke maker like Village does in GR…or I’ll have to drive to GR and buy a few to make it worth the trip…now I need to read the news to try to find another topic…

Well…up at 3:14 and then out of bed a little after 6 and I don’t think that’s interesting anymore so I don’t think I’ll talk about that anymore…not too sore today and the rising temps for the next few days will put me outside on the bike as soon as it gets light…but I may wait til 10 or so when it will be in the 40’s…so that gives me 3 hours or so just to sit here and gain some energy…can’t wait to see if the cleaning/repairs to the bike worked and to see if there is anything new on the trail…there was last time I went out after being indoors for a couple of weeks…they are building two new houses on lots across the street from the trail on the uphill going to the beach and I can’t figure out why anyone would buy one since they are crammed in next to each other on a lot smaller than mine…probably more rentals that will go for 2,000 a month….it’s going to be hard being out in the cold since I’ve been so cold indoors lately…probably spent 20 bucks this month just on running the heating pad…not much to do today..still working on leftovers so no cooking for the next few days…it will probably be another one meal day today to continue dropping the weight I gained since the surgery…then I’ll need to plan something or eat out of the freezer for a while…more later…

Well…contemplating skipping the second meal today since I had a big one for lunch and still feel full even with eating at 11:30…I did get the grocery runs done this morning and then straight on the indoor bike when I got home…so I was done with the rides by 11:15 or so and then straight into lunch…after that, I got after cleaning the bathroom that really needed it so it looks squeaky clean for a day and that took about an hour…so I’ve been done working since about 3 or so…it looks like I’ll get outdoor rides in tomorrow with the temps getting up to the upper 40’s for the next 4 days so I’ll get the chance to see if I fixed the vibration and clicking in the bike…have started to tally up how many miles I’ve ridden since my 20’s and what I posted yesterday was wrong since I have two totals for the schwinn and I forgot to add in the miles from the indoor bike…and that’s 3,600 miles since I moved out here…still getting really close to 100,000 miles

Well…up early today with waking up for the first time at around 3 and then out of bed at 5:44…and the slow process of getting moving starts again….need to do the grocery run this morning but don’t have a lot to get…no protein to buy today but I may get another ham next week….I still like the Cooks ham better than the Meijer brand and I wonder why they don’t carry them anymore? I did do two meals yesterday and I feel pretty guilty about that with taking the afternoon off and not getting any work done…but I’m still losing weight so one day of overeating doesn’t hurt too much….not sure what I’m going to do today after the grocery run and the bike rides when I get back here…there is some soccer on so maybe a match or two? Should be able to get outside on the bike tomorrow and I sure hope I’ve figured out the vibration that has plagued me for a few days….not much to do today…I do need to clean today and probably will especially after taking yesterday afternoon off….I feel out of synch today but I just need to plow forward and sleepwalk my way through the day and I’m tired of that….more later…

Well…today I had the easy day I have been looking for a long time now and it felt good to just noodle around here this afternoon…I did get two rides in inside sine it never got above 34 and with high winds so there was no way I was going outdoors…I am a little curious if I fixed the bike or not but the pedal I took off had around 30,000 miles on it and I can hear a bearing rattling around in it…the new pedals are coming a day early on Friday so I’ll only use the used ones for one day and I’ll buy another set of pedals for the black bike if I like them and a new rear shifter so I can put that bike back together…so another 40 bucks to make that one road worthy again…getting close to the mileage record for bikes I’ve owned that is still the Motobecane at 33,345 but I’ve got almost 32,000 on the grey bike so I’ll get there soon after I get riding back outdoors in the spring…the black bike only has about 16,000 miles on it but my Schwinn has around 18,000 and that makes 99,345 miles since I started riding in my 20’s…yow! That’s a milestone I didn’t even think about this year with being off the bike for 3 months…should hit that in the spring…