Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

Day 5 and one more down. Hard Body Challenge is another one that uses that goofy ‘agility ladder’. If I didn’t describe it already, it’s a nylon ‘rope’ ladder with 8 sections. Ya lay it on the floor in front of you and do any number of exercises that involve lunges, with weights, or twisting steps in and out of the ‘rungs’. It’s kinda aerobic, and with weights, kinda strength, and all agility given that you’re supposed to be doing various things without falling on your face.

It’s also 100% silly. Which is why I like it.

Read more on Core Secrets: Day 5 of 5.5…

Shove February right up your @$$!

I’ll probably regret that later, but I don’t care. Craig’s been taunting Winter all this time, so blame him as much as me. But, quite simply, February is gone. And good riddance.

We started out the month with temps in the 50s and then it plunged. The temp was not only above freezing today, it was all the way up to 43! Seems like a heat wave until you remember that’s what it’s supposed to be.

Read more on Hey Old Man Winter!…

Day 4 is the Day 1 of my big cop out and only doing a single DVD. This time it was “A Leg Up On The Competition”. This one features squats in a variety of different types, and about a bazillion hammer swings, where you swing a dumbell from an over the shoulder position down to the floor on the opposite side. The whole point of this is to get as low as possible, bending at the knees on the downswing.

For a guy who rides a bike and doesn’t do much upper body, you’d think a DVD with exercises like that, and the title it has, would be right up my alley.

Read more on Core Secrets: Day 4 of 5.5…

Some days you do get garbage miles. My ride today wasn’t garbage itself, but the fact that I rode at all was garbage. Bullshit more like.

It’s a work thing. I found myself with yet another post-migration mess, and stayed up until 5 am cleaning up. By the time I went to bed I was plenty pissed off, but mostly finished, and informed the appropriate people that I was staying home on Thursday to finish off the job.

Read more on Garbage Miles…

Well, it’s just going from bad to worse. Found out today that Cindy finally got hold of her friend Melissa (assilem aka assylum backwards) in Canton, and we are headed towards New York on Saturday instead of Sunday. Yay for the vacation plans. Boo for the Core Secrets pace.

Basically this is just becoming silly. Today I did Give Me 20 before heading for work. I then took Cindy’s Trek out for another spin through the snow. Today was a lot colder again and by the time I battled the wind home this evening, I was questioning my decision to go carless until February. I wouldn’t mind so much on the road bikes because I can tuck down out of the wind. Riding the hybrid adds just a few more minutes, but it’s enough. Can’t get the Masi soon enough. By the time I do, winter will be over. Oh well.

Read more on Core Secrets: Day 3 of 5!.5…

Me and my stupid schemes. Not only is this going to rank as one of the more idiotic things I’ve ever decided to do, but I made it as bad as possible. I again got a very late start, mostly due to working late, but also due to being sore as hell and the willpower being low. If I had just come in the house and got to it right after my ride home I would have been looser and it would have hurt less. Better late than never though and I did complete 2 more CS DVDs. Hit the Full Body Challenge and Bun Battle for another 60+ minutes. I used the 8lb. weights and they were actually a bit light. The sore areas in particular after Day 1 were the glutes, calves and, of course, the abs. Head to Toe: Extended has tons of crunches of various types, and so does Full Body.

Wednesday gets even tougher because I’m gonna do three of ‘em. Cardio Strength before work and another 2 afterwards. Bring it! Read more on Core Secrets: Day 2 of 6.5…

Once again the predictions of coming Great White Death were grossly overstated. Sure there was some snow, some ice, and some freezing rain. But it all amounted to just about zero on the roads. There was snow coming down this morning but I hopped on the Trek and rode to work anyway. It’s time to test my resolve about riding on snowy roads if I’m going to justify buying my SS.

The ride to work proved to be wet only, except for the ride up the driveway. I’m noticing that the test of my route ridability is right there out the front windows. I managed to get the Trek up the crusty, rutted snow and ice, over the potholes and broken asphalt and uneven gravel, all without clipping out or falling on my head. And that’s without winter tires. The 35Cs are more or less slicks.
The ride home was mostly wet in town, but there was a dusting to 1/2 inch of snow on the roads inbetween, and I purposefully chose some sidewalk/path on the way through Troy to find some 2″ snow to go through. Again… the hardest part of the ride was back down the driveway. Again… no problems that better tires wouldn’t take care of.

Read more on 1K The Hard Way…

Monday was Cindy’s 40th birthday and she celebrated by going tire shopping for the Element all afternoon. She had wanted to go back to Mad River for a 2nd day of skiing, but I told her with another storm on the way, it is time to get the job done and stop screwing around.

Does this make me an asshole, to send her on errands on her birthday? Hardly. We nearly had a serious accident on our way to Cincinnati way back in December and I’ve been nagging her ever since to get new tires. So it was her own fault. I even offered to get it done for her if she’d simply decide what she wanted and from where.

Read more on 40 Is The New 21…

Better late than never, right? Got a late start, but finished the first 2 of my 13 Core Secrets DVDs. Except that there are 15. Cindy had one out and another has 2 workouts on it. So now I gotta do an extra one on 2 of the days.

They vary in length so I picked a shorter one and a longer one to give me a total of 67 minutes. Read more on Core Secrets: Day 1 of 6.5…

Was watchin’ the new season of Top Gear on BBC. If you haven’t watched it… do so. Think Motor Trend meets Mythbusters meets Monty Python and you’ll be close.

Anyway… this weeks episode featured the boys off in the Alps lookin’ for the best driver’s road in the world. They had a Porsche 911 GT3 RS, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, and an Aston Martin something-or-other- I-couldn’t-give-a-crap-about- because-British-cars-are-stupid. In other words, super light supercars.

Read more on Passo dello Stelvio…

So I finished up my first attempt at Fantasy Cycling leagues, and my results were mixed. The point of getting in on the Fcycle.com website was to help test out the functionality and work out the kinks of scoring for the new site. I wasn’t all that interested in winning except… yeah right. Of course I was.

I spent a whole lot of time analyzing the way the game works and applied the 2007 ToC results to the current scoring system to see who would have been high up in the rankings and riding again this year so I could pick them.

Read more on Fantasy Cycling…

Over the past month or so, since I was sick, traveling, etc., I have watched my weight go up. Ever so slightly. Only about 1.5-2 pounds in 4 weeks. Not a big deal.

Unless the trend continues. I wasn’t worried about losing more weight until we got started with the (hopefully) regular riding in March… only a week or so away. I was perfectly fine with maintaining right around 160.

Read more on Bore Secrets…