Greenway Spin With A New Saddle

I do not have a lot of 'seat-time' this year and my recent 200K MS-150 Tour left my seat in 'sore-shape'.


As luck would have it Evelyn just recently purchased a "Moon Saddle" so I borrowed it an put it on my bike to give it a spin.


I just did a 25K greenway ride and stopped to adjust it four times (I had no clue how to set this thing because it's geometry is so wildly different from a standard cycling saddle).


I think I have it adjusted correctly and I also think it will work grand.


Stay tuned for more exciting news as I give it (and the rest of my bicycle motor) a real workout next week.


Here is a picture of the saddle.

From Random Graphic Images

Here are the details of the 25k ride:

	TODAY	ITEM          (UNITS)
	1:28:52	time          (hh:mm:ss)
	25.41	distance      (km)
	17.1	average speed (kph)
	44.2	maximum speed (kph)

2011 MS150 Cycling Tour

National MS Society Eastern NC Chapter 2011 MS150 Cycling Tour

(My 14^th Year In A Row)

To My Dear Contributors;

With your help I am now only $20.00 away from going over the top in my fund raising goal for this year's  ride!!!  

THANK YOU!

Here are the details of the ride this year:

SATURDAY	SUNDAY	ITEM          (UNITS)
5:15:35	3:36:36	time          (hh:mm:ss)
119:46	79.19	distance      (km)
22.7	21.9	average speed (kph)
44.7	47.1	maximum speed (kph)

I wanted to go 240 km (150 miles) but only did a total of 200 km (the 75 mile on Saturday and the 50 mile on Sunday) in order to get back to Raleigh Sunday night to catch a flight out to a site for my work.  I got back last Friday night and am finally getting a chance to write this up.


Friday night and Saturday night I did camp, here is a post about Tenting in Union Point Park.  Because I forgot my air mattress I did have a bit of a 'hard-nights-sleep' but once on the road Saturday morning felt fine.  I got in with a few high speed pace lines (high speed for me) and enjoyed myself.  Also I saw my my old friend from when I first joined the computer industry, Gary Rohlke!  


When I got back on Saturday I also realized that "I did not know where my towel was!"  So it was off to Wall-Mart for a camping towel and one of those thin self inflating camping pads.  My night's sleep on Saturday night was much more restful (not only for the pad but also riding 75 miles that day in five hours).


Sunday was a beautiful day and I packed up the car before leaving on the tour and completed the 50 miles by around 1pm, a bit slower than Saturday but not much.  I was relaxing in the tent near the finish line and saw Blanch Dean the team captain of the MSFits and we had a good visit.


Then it was off to the car to collect my new camping towel and get a shower and head back over to the convention center for some lunch then back to Raleigh.  I got all my bike and gear stowed on and in the car and thought, "What the heck." I got in the car, went down the street and gassed up at the BP station got a big diet MtDew and a bottle of water and headed to Raleigh.


The weekend went very well, my 'seat' was not as tuff as it should be this year and I did pay for it this past week as I felt that my you know what was in a sling all week :o) 


I'll edit this post and add a link to some more pictures as I get them.

2011 Ms 150 (Tenting At Union Point)

Hear I am ... this is the first time in 14 years (all my years) that I have camped out at Union Point.  Back in the day when we biked from Clayton to Kinston then from Kinston to Emerald Island I did camp on the MS150 but never before in New Bern.

This is a grand camp ground.

Below is a picture of my tent and my number that I pinned to my backpack.  I've carted my bike to the 'bike-room' in the convention center so it is happy enjoying airconditioning.  But to be fair tonight is a beautiful, clear, cool night with an almost full moon.

After purchasing a pair of MS150 bike socks and an MS150 sweat shirt I found myself just sitting on a bench looking out over the Neuse and Trent rivers.  So I decide to try and find a place to eat.  The first place I just walked right by thinking it surely was full.  The second place was tiny and totally booked up.  So, I decided to cut through the block to check out the coffee shop that Evelyn and I have visited in the past.  The parking lot passed beside the back door of Morgans Restaurant (the one I skipped initially) so I decided to check out to see if they had patio seating.  Just as I was looking for someone to ask if they had an outside tabel ... I heard someone shout "Zach Cox!!!".  It was Nora's Sister and she was at at table with a one of her girlfriends waiting for another one to show up and invited me to hang out there.  Well three pints of Guinness later and a hamburger I'm doing fine, and I think I've done enough Carbo-Loading for tomorrow's ride.

By the way ... the "I'm riding for" banner has the names of my good friends Bruce and Brandt who both do have MS.  Not sure if you can 'zoom' enough to see them.

I'll post more tomorrow night.

Also ... by the way I'm posting form my super cool MacBook Pro with an AT&T 'air-card' attached :o) (how slick is that!!!!)

From 28_AUG_2011_Bike_Ride

Here is a slide show of all the pictures I've taken so far (the first few were included on purpose - Ginny and her Dad :)

28_AUG_2011_Bike_Ride

Labor Day Bike Ride

Being 'on-the-road' (in a car) the past few days and not being able to go to the gym or do any cycling was starting to concern me ... the MS150 is coming up next weekend.  


So I decided to do a Labor Day Ride and here are the details:


36.27 km .... distance
19.10 kph ... average speed
54.90 kph ... maximum speed (going down Scotland Street)
01:53 hh:mm . elapsed time


This was a 'greenway-ride' and I did cut it about a km short not wanting to descend the great hill to near the WakeMed end and then just have to climb right back up that hill.


This was also a 'muddy-ride' since there were rain showers and the bike path did have a lot of sand and dirt and the small puddles of rain were just enough to make it a messy ride.  I need to go out and hose off my bike and put some oil on the chain.


Here is a picture looking at the, now far away, rain clouds:

From Random Graphic Images

and here is another one looking just to the east of the one above.

From Random Graphic Images

These pictures are taken on the way back.  On the way out when heading the other way on the board walk you climb out of the swamp and cross Raleigh Blvd and continue on down the greenway beside Crabtree Creek.  I have not ridden this greenway since the tornado passed and there is a great swath cut in the forest there where all the trees are snapped off about 20-30 feet in the air, with the trees on the other side of the creek just flattened.  That was right where the path of the tornado went.

Labor Day 2011

When I was a young school kid I used to think that Labor Day was when everyone had to go back to work after having the whole summer off. Back to work for me in those days was back to school.


Now I think it is one day off after having the whole year of working ... Well perhaps not quite ... Since, I am just completing (as of today) an 11 Day Vacation that included: 

• A flight to Oakland CA and a super visit with my daughter Ginny and my son-in-law Joe. That included a bike ride with Ginny, helping with the purchase of a keg of Anchor Steam Beer with Joe (yum), some super pizza, and in general a great time. Evelyn was already out there having driven out earlier in August with Anna and then staying on and 'Cat-Sitting' for Ginny and Joe's neighbors. 

• A car trip back across the United States with Evelyn on which I got to ... Visit for the first time in my life Boulder Dam --- I did take and will post some pictures. 

• We spent a night at Lake Mead after leaving Berkeley early on Tuesday. 

• We spent Wednesday night in Albuquerque NM a day in which we drove through a thunderstorm as we crossed the continental divide (I wonder about those drops of rain that fell on a rock so they split one half to the Pacific and one half to the Atlantic. 

• We spent Thursday night with John Steve and Mary Nelson in Edmond OK and got to see my nephew Steve and eat some super barbecue chicken and have a grand visit. 

• We spent Friday night in Nashville TN, and got to eat in a very nice Italian restaurant.

• We spent Saturday night with my beautiful Daughter Anna and her fiancé and my future son-in-law, James. We had supper at a super restaurant and got lots of great talking and visiting done. And had a super pineapple up-side-down birthday cake for Sunday breakfast.

• Yesterday, Sunday was a final drive across NC via Chimney Rock NC, US74, I85, NC49 and US64 to Raleigh. 

• And today I'm about to head out for a bicycle ride.