Tag Archives: biking

02092019 – Bike and CrossFit

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A little before and after shots! It was -8 when I left the house, so I tried using the silk balaclava, but even the thin silk was too much to breathe through.  Plus it is hard to spit and blow snot rockets while wearing one! My sister said that I took it off just for the beard pic! 

The Back 40 was well groomed and packed down.  A snowshoer had been quite meticulous about stepping side by side and creating a wide trail to ride on.  It felt good, it is definitely not easy going as my 4 mph reflects, but I think that will improve over time too.  I just got a sweet deal at the Angry Catfish on some studded tires, but I haven’t put them on yet.  

About 3/4 of the way through the loop, my toes started getting really cold and eventually went numb! I’ve been wearing my nice Gortex La Sportiva’s but they don’t really have any insulation so they only can do so much. A nice pair of riding boots is pricey, so I might try my regular snow boots next time to see if they work ok. 

When I got back, I did a quick little jog around the block.  The sidewalks are still fairly icy, so it wasn’t at any speed! 

Saturday morning CrossFit was good, I was a little worried that it would be squats again and my poor quads were going to get beat up on! So I was glad that it was shoulder beat up time! We did a 8 minute EMOM of 5 kips and 3-5 toes to shoulder. I’ve done a toes to bar once or twice, but can’t do it consistently, so working on the toes 2 shoulder is a better idea. 

After that we did an 18 minute workout that included bench press and sled pull (hand over hand). The bench press was starting at a heavy weight do 4 reps, the decrease the weight while increasing reps with the sled pull in between.  I did 4 reps @ 115, 6 reps @ 105, 8 reps at 95, 10 reps at 85, 12 reps @ 75, 14 reps @ 65. I  was supposed to do a set of 16 @ 55, but we ran out of time.  We were in partners and 3 groups had to use 2 sleds so there was some waiting around time. I somehow got ahead of my partner at the end and could have done a set of 16 @ 65, but decided to wait, he didn’t seem in any rush and was actually putting on a band-aid as time was expiring.  I was a little frustrated by that.  I alternated pulling a sled with a 45# plate and one with 70# on it.  The 45 felt pretty easy and the 70 was a good challenge.  

It was a good workout and I was glad to be doing some upper body stuff as my legs were feeling it! 

01052019 – Bike

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A rare confluence of events meant that I had a few hours without any obligations during a warm spell in January!! Being that several days previous had also been warm I took the chance that the streets and paths would be mostly ice free and I was mostly correct!

It was a 40 degree day and I dropped the kids off at a birthday party and had 3 hours until I needed to return. I took the opportunity to ride to St. Paul and actually ended up doing some routes I had never been on.  Minnehaha Creek was the worst shape ice-wise that I rode on (though I skipped parts of the Lillydale trails).  And a little section in St. Paul was rough, but overall it was easy riding.  One thing I realized too late was that I was riding out with a tail wind which meant, yes a head wind on the way back when I was starting to feel my overall lack of riding! And feeling squats from the other day!

I saw a decent amount of riders out on a mixture of fat bikes, road bikes, and cyclo-cross bikes like me! In St. Paul I got to ride on the end of the Polar Dash race’s closed roads which was pretty nice.

All in all a great ride.  I stayed mostly warm, I wished I had my foot covers as one foot got a little wet and didn’t stay warm then!

Totals were 26 miles in 2:22.

05052018 – Bike

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Finally some of the Mountain Bike trails at Wirth are open. 3 of the 5 sections are dry and disable! The Brownie Lake section is pretty much an Expert loop so I didn’t bother with it. It’s hard to believe that I went over my handlebars on my first outing!

It kind of happened in slow motion right before the open space in the quaking bog area. It was a slight downhill flow section and I was using my brakes (both front and back) and I think I went over a little bump or something and I got some air. When I came down the front wheel caught and with the brake on I just went over. I got a scrape on my leg. And had to twist the handlebar back straight! I did break my camera post, but the camera wasn’t attached, so that’s good! No one saw it, so I straightened it all out and got back on to continue the ride! 

I finished the Quaking Bog or Southwest Wirth Loop without any other incidents! I’m not super confident in some of the faster flow sections, but this is the first ride. Then I hit the Glenwood Loop. This is a short and sweet loop with nothing too fancy only a little flow. I’ve easily ridden it on my cyclocross bike a few times. 

I made it home before the storm. Oh and I’ve been sick the last few days. Mostly sinus crap. I figured that biking would be easier than running on my body. Hopefully it will go away soon! 


04282018 – Bike

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Another gorgeous afternoon for biking.  It was a little windy and just a touch chilly, but it was great to get out for another longer ride.  After last week’s ride I did some investigation on ways to reduce the out and back part of the a ride.  So I mixed it up a little and rode to the Greenway before heading West.

I’m still not 100% sure which way the wind was coming from as it seemed to be strong at points no matter which way I was riding!  I took the Greenway continuing onto the River Bluff Trails until I hit Hwy 62. At that point I realized I had missed the turn I wanted and went back a little bit to Shady Oak Rd and headed North on the road until I got to the Minnetonka LRT trail.  At that point I headed East back into Hopkins onto Cedar Lake trail and back home.  On the Cedar Lake Trail, I tried to draft and stay with a guy for awhile, but we were definitely at my top end – we were hitting 20 miles per hour for a period of time.

My total mileage was 25.8 in 1:49:32.

When I got home the little guy wanted to go for a ride with me on his new bike.  He did really well, but definitely would have been easier for me to walk with him instead of riding my bike! But he loved it and it was some great guy time.  Here we are on a little break we took by the creek!

04222018 – Bike

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Our first really gorgeous day! As a family we went for a walk/kids biking in the early afternoon.  When we got back I went out for a ride.  I wore my Northwoods Racing Kit from Twin Six and enjoyed being able to wear shorts and a short sleeve jersey! I brought arm warmers just in case, but never needed them. It was around 60 with a little wind.  The paved trails were snow free, but still with water a lot of places.

I took the North Cedar Lake Trail and connected to the Minnetonka Regional Trail by taking the cut through in Hopkins on 2nd. The Minnetonka Trail is all “aggregate” and it had patches that were still super wet and muddy and others that appeared all dried out.  I only did like 2 miles out and then back on it as I didn’t have time for the longer rides that go out that way. Then I connected back onto the Cedar Lake LRT Trail/Midtown Greenway.  This had  a nice tail wind and I connected into 2 different riders who were pushing hard.  I wasn’t able to hang for long but it was nice to get some miles at a much harder pace. I hit 25 mph in this section without any real hill. Then I rode the Hiawatha LRT trail downtown and rode along West River Road and back home.  It was a nice route that has some great sections for hard riding.

Overall 28.8 miles in 2:00:00. I had 22 “achievements” on Strava so that’s pretty sweet!