Dobovedo's Journal of Journeys

While somebody I know if off galavanting about in what he now only refers to as, “The City” a couple times a month, and another somebody I know is off galavanting about in 90+ degree weather in someplace called Brasilito, Costa Rica, I’ve had my own share of adventures. And mine are much closer to home. About 50 feet away in fact.

Who woulda thought driveways could be the source of such entertainment? Read more on Adventure Is As Close As Your Driveway…

Wow, only one post in the past seven days? And… when did we run out of January?!? Last thing I remember, it was a new year, and all of a sudden one month of it is gone. For the past couple weeks, and this past week in particular, I have either been working, or working out, from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. There have been some ‘adventures’ mixed in there as well, but there’s been little time for anything else.

So, let’s catch up from where we last left the story. Or, if you’re smart, you’ll stop reading right about here. It doesn’t get any better.

Read more on Breathing Room…

I was trying to figure out if today’s ride was even worth writing about. Nothing odd, bad, weird, exciting, annoying, stupid, scary, funny or life-threatening happened. And it occurred to me that the lack of writing material is probably the best thing that can happen for a bike commute. It was cold, sure, but that’s par for the course now. Other than a slight bit of snow here and there, the roads were fine. There was an unusually light amount of wind, in both directions. And even the fixed gear – which is still the most incredibly stupid way to ride a bike unless you are riding one for my reasons – didn’t bother me as much today.

Read more on Perfect Commute…

On Saturday I managed a couple personal bests, and what may amount to a personal worst, all at the same time. 70 minutes running, on the treadmill, no less. 72 actually. In that amount of time, I managed to cover 7.5 miles. Both are the bests. The personal worst was those numbers combined make it the slowest run I’ve done so far.

At least I can say I did it on purpose.

Read more on 7.5 Miles: The Hard? Way…

Went skiing at Mad River Mountain today. This was after my longest and furthest run to date. That’s not what made it hard. I wasn’t dressed appropriately for the conditions. That’s not what made it hard, either. My ski bindings are set for a guy who weighs over 200 pounds. Nope… that’s not what made it hard. Out of curiosity, I used the Garmin for the afternoon.

See if you can maybe figure out why is was hard from the following image.

Read more on Skiing: The Hard Way…

Sure was warm Friday, wasn’t it? Sunny too. Great day for riding. If, that is… you were able to get out during the afternoon. I, unfortunately, was not. I was OK with that, but Mother Nature had a little bit of fun with me in the form of headwinds in both directions.

On a day I was looking for just an easy ride, I got anything but.

Read more on Mother Nature: Too Bad…

About two months after I first started coming out to our weekly group ride, Fred’s Ride, Fred, the leader of said Fred’s Ride, hence the name Fred’s Ride, came up with a weekend ride. He called the ride Fred’s Ride for the Animals, and it was intended to be a super fast metric century with minimal or even no stops. This is in contrast to the more casual tours that most organizations host. Fred was fond of saying “you guys are animals!” whenever he heard how hard or fast the strong guys had finished their weekly Wednesday ride, the Mad Cow Ramble. Hence the name. The gist of Fred’s Ride for the Animals was to try and finish the 62 mile route at an average speed of 19mph or higher. The ‘prize’ for doing so was a special event T-shirt, with “62 Mile Animal” printed on the back.

I wanted that shirt.

Read more on Perfecting Worthless Techniques For Futile Pursuits…

Today was the first commute to the new office. Wanna see how wonderful and exciting it is? Sure you do.

Read more on New Digs & New Plans…

So the other day I’m explaining how it’s not that difficult to ride in sub-zero temps, as long as you have the clothing layers right… right? Today was 20 degrees warmer, but that doesn’t mean squat if you can’t follow your own advice.

Or read a forecast.

Read more on It’s All In The Clothing… Stupid!…

It’s getting tough to manage workouts this week, and it’s only Monday. I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though, and assuming it’s not a freight train coming straight at me, things will ease up in another couple weeks. (That’s what I keep telling myself, and myself is starting to think I is a big fat liar). Between the 11 degree temp, fresh snow/ice, job going haywire and wanting to run today, I opted for the car… again. That’s four times already in January. Oh well. 2008 was about the commuting. Different set of goals this time around. I did get to the Y in time to do both a 30 minute treadmill run and about 30 minute swim. The advice I got was “only do the swim after the run if you want to find out why we do the events in the order we do them”. That’s twice now I’ve done exactly what it was suggested I don’t do.

Read more on Fittin’ It All In…

After Saturday’s Tough Love and 5 mile run, I was lookin’ for the “lofty result” of improved recovery time. Particularly from the runs, but from exercise in general. As it happens, the soreness I expected to find Sunday morning never materialized. I woke up feeling pretty darned groovy. I laid around reading and dozing all morning, but I eventually managed to get on the trainer and do a two hour Have Mercy session. Since I had no plans to run I did more or less the full video at the intended effort level. The only exception was fast forwarding through the ridiculously stupid 5 minutes of 4 seconds on/off sprinting in the 39/15. And I think I stumbled upon a brand new, decidedly unorthodox, but extremely effective recovery method on Saturday evening.

Read more on Have Mercy, No Twist…

A short time I go I wrote that the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything wasn’t 42. I said it was 27. I have since changed my mind about that. The answer to what temperature it is outside may be 27, but there’s new data to consider. I was looking at my ride statistics for last year and it would appear that I climbed about 222,000 feet. As it turns out, that’s more or less not quite exactly 42 miles. So the Answer to the Ultimate Question may indeed be 42. As long as you change the Question:

Read more on Deep Thought Was Right…