Author: Rob

Up and Down – Hills for Training

And I use the word training loosely.  I ride because it brings me pleasure to be outside and get around under my own power.  The better physical shape I am in the more able I am to tackle hills and cover distance in the limited time I have to ride.  Some mornings I take it easy, some mornings it is fast out in the flat farm roads, and some days I take to the hills.  There are two ways: lots of time and I am able to mix distance and the hills.  When time is compressed I hit the hills right behind town, and run some loops as time permits.  There are three steep roads up the hill and you can mix up the ups and downs, heading up:

Now for my first shots at video raw from the camera without edit, the fun part is heading down.

Turn around and right back up.

Then down the first climb.

I have said it before, my inner racer never developed.  These hill intervals are all about having the legs to make the days with 6000 – 10000 feet of climbing, the only way I know of there is to ride every day.  This is not about being the fastest, just being able to do what you hope and dream on the bike.

Gear Repair – Green Beanie

The other day I was re-stitching a seam on a 15-year-old pair of fleece gloves that I love and will not give up on when it hit me.  While repairing gear in lieu of replacing it is in my nature, thanks Dad, many out there may be intimidated to jump over the hump and start fixing things on their own.  The reasons to fix instead of replace are many: Thrift, keep it out of the land fill, fun, satisfaction of knowing you had a hand in making something last, the list could go on and on.

This beanie ended up on the free table at my wife’s work, and she knows I have had a cold head since getting the hair cut, so the hat came home.  It likely ended up there due to the hole on the inside liner.   In this case the hat is fully lined with light fleece, the outer knit is stitched into shape and all the stitching is internal like a bag or teddy bear.  There are a few ways to repair this.  You have to decide if looks are really important of if this is going to be a “tractor repair”, what I call it when  you just want it to work without getting worse.  For the former, hand stitching would be the best path.  Since I will be riding with this, and it is like a pair of sweat pants for my head, I took the tractor repair approach. 

I have a sewing machine with a bunch of different stitches, but only end up using a few.  Sewing is easier than you think, and you probably know somebody with a machine who can help if you do not have one yourself.  A friend with a sewing machine can be as or more useful than a friend with a pickup truck.

For this repair I used the zig zag, first to bar tack the ends of the failing seam and then to throw a quick stitch over the seam.  I picked a polyester thread for its strength and the green sort of matched the hat in a complementary way, while showing up well enough for these pictures.

The bar tack will cross over the seam on both sides of the opening where the stitching still holds so that things will not unravel any further.  Set the machine to a medium wide zig zag with a very narrow stitch spacing.  Set the hat under the presser foot and stitch away.  The thickness and texture of the material in this case was a bit of a problem, the feed dogs were not grabbing onto the knit and I ended up feeding the material through by hand.  This resulted in a stitch with poor spacing, but it will serve its purpose.  The process is repeated at the bottom of the hole as well.  I could have stopped here and the hole would not get any bigger.  I decided to throw a wider zig zag along the length of the hole just because, well I could.  This will likely keep the hole closed up as long as the rest of the hat survives. 

The end result is not too bad and I have a “new” hat for my morning rides.  Off to the laundry pile in case there were other reasons it is sitting on the free table.

 

Ventura River Ramble

It was unseasonably warm again today with temps in the 55-60 degree range, not that I am complaining.  The wind also calmed down a bit and rolling out of the garage I decided to head up the Ventura River Trail and shoot some pics.  The light was fantastic this morning.

I made it out to Santa Anna Road in time to catch the sun rise hitting the mountains,

But played around too much with the cameras and gear to cover the distance I had hoped for.  I had picked up some new batteries for my wireless camera trigger the other day, and the improvement in range and performance is incredible.  More lonely-boy self portraits to follow soon.  Heading home:

In time to play a bit with the family before getting back to work.

Sleepy Main Street

This morning there was only a bit time for a quick toodle around down town and to close the loop along the beach for a quick surf check.  After yesterday’s comment about living in a smaller town I thought about expanding a bit.  Work brought me to the Ventura area four years ago.  When it was time to find an apartment, a garage for the tools and gear, and close to town and the beach were the key criteria in the search.  We ended up in a town house two blocks from My wife’s work, a few blocks from down town and the beach.  We are able to walk down town for dinner and shopping, there are at least four local bike shops within two miles of the house, the ocean is blocks away.  Most of our produce comes from the weekend farmer’s markets either up the street on Saturday or I use the Sunday market ten miles away as an excuse to put in some extra saddle time.  Things like Costco or the nicer food markets are a bit further, but still very accessible by bike when you need to stock up on supplies.  In the last few years my work was as close as a three mile pedal to the job site, and at worst 65 miles in the car down to Los Angeles. 

The only downside, well I am having a hard time coming up  with a downside.  I did not even ge to expand on the mountains to the north expanding into the Los Padres National Forest, or the fact that if we did want to venture into LA it is only an hour or so away.  This is not meant to be a sales pitch for Ventura.  Think about what you do to live and work and how to structure your life so that you can do the things you want.  For me that is getting out of the car, onto the bike, into the water and having maximum time to spend with my wife and daughter.  Every time I take work that puts me behind the windshield for hours on end I regret it, I am trying real hard this time to not lat that happen again.  It is possible to have things come together so that you can do it your way, though you have to do it and not wait for it to just show up.

If you find you current situation less ideal than you would hope, particularly from a transformational cycling situation, just get out and make the best of what you have.  Things are probably better than you think.  In my four years here in town I have discovered and been able to share more than many people who have lived here for decades.  The key is getting started, get outside, commit to using your legs to get around town.  When that gets boring, commit to not going the same way twice  to get to the same places for a whole week or more.  Most of all recapture your time and have fun.