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bikety bike
Jun. 20th, 2004 04:17 pmI've been skipping bike rides the last few days, mainly due to the Irish summer (that'd be 30 seconds of sunshine followed by an hour of torrential rain) and the fact that I've been feeling a bit crappy. Just generically so; no specific ailment. Anyway, I decided that sitting around tooling with kernel drivers for obsolete hardware wasn't going to assist my health any, so I ignored the frequent showers and went out looking for a new cycling route. The current route's fine, modulo having to negotiate people on the seafront, but it's pretty much all on the flat, and the only real challenge is trying to crank up a good speed on the road coming back in. Since I've figured that I top out at about 37kph on the flat with no other interference and without throwing a lung, I've pretty much exhausted (ha!) the fun in that. I had a look at Maporama and figured I'd explore a new route and see how it measured up.
It wasn't a complete success; I got distracted by a path down to Killiney Beach which dumped me into some uncyclable sand, so I walked about 1km of the eventual 10.7km route until I found myself back on useful roads. In the meantime, I'd accidentally stumbled upon the path that goes up by Bono's house, the walls of which are coated in graffiti dating back decades. Apparently quite a lot of people feel they "can't live without [Bono]". Alas, before I got to this point, the camera had eaten its batteries so I'll have to go back down there at some other point and take a bunch of pictures.
Anyway, the final stats on the ride: 10.7km, 12.3kph average, 47.7kph max (!) and 52 minutes for the run. My lungs were asking some pointed questions when I climbed about 30 meters over the first 1.5km, but they shut up when I was freewheeling from about 60m down to sea-level. I've added a few pix to my bike_pr0n collection, but they're not yet uploaded.
It wasn't a complete success; I got distracted by a path down to Killiney Beach which dumped me into some uncyclable sand, so I walked about 1km of the eventual 10.7km route until I found myself back on useful roads. In the meantime, I'd accidentally stumbled upon the path that goes up by Bono's house, the walls of which are coated in graffiti dating back decades. Apparently quite a lot of people feel they "can't live without [Bono]". Alas, before I got to this point, the camera had eaten its batteries so I'll have to go back down there at some other point and take a bunch of pictures.
Anyway, the final stats on the ride: 10.7km, 12.3kph average, 47.7kph max (!) and 52 minutes for the run. My lungs were asking some pointed questions when I climbed about 30 meters over the first 1.5km, but they shut up when I was freewheeling from about 60m down to sea-level. I've added a few pix to my bike_pr0n collection, but they're not yet uploaded.
since I forgot
Jun. 17th, 2004 10:16 amYesterday's bike ride: 33 minutes, 10.2k, 36.7kph top speed. I actually got stuck in traffic from Dun Laoghaire to Joyce's Martello (it's on Sandycove Point, it's about 1km from my house, and it's where Ulysses opens), plus there was the aforementioned stop at the end of Brighton Vale to take bad pictures of Dublin Bay.
more byk prawn
Jun. 17th, 2004 07:53 amthat url again. Note to self: switch off macro mode when taking pictures of Dublin Bay. Particularly when you're taking 2kph off your average speed by doing so.
biking record
Jun. 15th, 2004 09:00 pmBang on 10k at 20.8kph average, max 36.8. No crowded beaches to contend with today!
Addendum: I tweaked the gears before I went out. I've basically neglected the bike for about two to three years, and the front shifter in particular was well out of whack. There's still a little rattle from the rear that suggests it's not entirely bang on, but I don't care enough to fix it - at this point it's probably sufficiently worn that it can't be perfectly tweaked; in fact, I've a vague notion that the last time I had the bike in a shop for a tune-up, they told me that the rear sprockets were pretty worn - and that was about four years ago.
Addendum: I tweaked the gears before I went out. I've basically neglected the bike for about two to three years, and the front shifter in particular was well out of whack. There's still a little rattle from the rear that suggests it's not entirely bang on, but I don't care enough to fix it - at this point it's probably sufficiently worn that it can't be perfectly tweaked; in fact, I've a vague notion that the last time I had the bike in a shop for a tune-up, they told me that the rear sprockets were pretty worn - and that was about four years ago.
My 10k run is now mysteriously 9.88. Anyway. I tried a few sprints on this run, so I have 9.88km, pretty much bang on 36 minutes, top speed 36.8kph, average 16.5kph. Not bad for a run that includes two public beaches, several road crossings, and today, a flight of steps.
Scooted over the same 10k route. The GPS toy ran out of power about 1.5k in so I don't have a complete track, but that doesn't matter because (a) it's the same route I did last time and (b) I've not done anything with the other tracks other than hack at GPS::Garmin until it stops whining and breaking. Go me!
my life as a TV show
May. 24th, 2004 11:51 pmJust watched the final episode of Friends and although I've never been more than a fair-weather follower of the programme, I did feel a few twinges of sadness - mostly thinking about my own friends over the last ten years, and how we've drifted apart both physically and in terms of relationships - I think it's pretty safe to say that I was a lot closer to most of those I'd consider friends ten years ago. Also noting that it took Ross ten years to get to the point that J.D. in Scrubs reached in the middle of season three vis-a-vis relationships and speaking your mind and whatnot. My personal jury is still out on the advisibility of such actions, but I guess someone's got to live by the "nothing ventured, nothing gained" maxim. It just ain't me.
In other news, tonight's bike run was almost bang on 10km - I discovered a 10km route that doesn't involve either Dalkey Hill or stopping at some arbitrary point and turning around. I stopped at Teddy's for a 99 on the way back, which is most likely utterly meaningless to anyone who hasn't spent some summer time in Dun Laoghaire.
In other news, tonight's bike run was almost bang on 10km - I discovered a 10km route that doesn't involve either Dalkey Hill or stopping at some arbitrary point and turning around. I stopped at Teddy's for a 99 on the way back, which is most likely utterly meaningless to anyone who hasn't spent some summer time in Dun Laoghaire.
Yesterday's bike run took me around Dalkey Hill in a completely different direction, and I clocked somewhere over 10k since I needed to run down past the post office. Which was closed, d'oh. I'm tooling around with various and sundry GPS toys to see if anything will do a good 3d plot of the data I've collected, or if I just have to go and write something myself.
bikey bikey
May. 17th, 2004 11:22 pmDid an almost 10k bike run today. First of the year. In order that I felt sufficiently abused, I cycled up Dalkey Hill, although not the whole way. I need to consult mister GPS to get an exact reading on what sort of climb that was, but I think it's in the order of 100m.
neglected to mention
Sep. 3rd, 2003 08:24 pmlast night's 10k cycle took me past not only Chez Bono, down in Killiney, but also the Canadian Embassy. The latter is discreetly tucked away in a quiet Dublin suburb; the American Embassy, on the other hand, is a huge gaudy building on the city end of one of the main routes into the city centre.
Use of this as a metaphor, analogy, or other wotsit wholeheartedly encouraged.
Use of this as a metaphor, analogy, or other wotsit wholeheartedly encouraged.
Progression
Jul. 3rd, 2002 10:18 amBottom of Newtown Park Avenue: "Well, this doesn't look so bad."
Middle of Newtown Park Avenue: "Well, it's less likely to kill me than the hill beside Foxrock Church."
Threequarters of the way up Newtown Park Avenue: "I'm still going to be dead before I reach the top, though."
Middle of Newtown Park Avenue: "Well, it's less likely to kill me than the hill beside Foxrock Church."
Threequarters of the way up Newtown Park Avenue: "I'm still going to be dead before I reach the top, though."
