testI was informed of a new bike community lately, BikeCircle; tt looks very promising. They are using Joomla for the base content management system, which is what I will be working with on this new project. It is good to see more cycling communities, I need to get back into riding soon and with spring coming I hopefully can. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and check out BikeCircle.
When you buy a Camelbak nowadays you are getting an Omega bladder which has a special FDA and EPA approved layer (HydroGuard) to eliminate 99.99% of common bacteria and fungus from your tube and bladder. This doesn’t mean you don’t need to clean your reservoir.
I did a number of searches on the internet for the best method of cleaning. I came across users who used mouthwash, vodka, water, and some didn’t even clean them. The most common methods other than the tablets you can buy from Camelbak were baking soda, bleach, or denture tablets. Here is the information from the Camelbak website.
1. Fill reservoir with warm water and mild soap.
2. Clean with Reservoir Bursh and Delivery Tube Brush
3. Re-fill reservoir with 1L of water
4. Add 1 Cleaning Tablet
5. Shale reservoir until tablet is dissolved
6. Let stand for 5 minutes
7. Remove water from reservoir
8. Rinse reservoir thoroughly
9. Re-fill for drinking or dry completely before storage
It also says in an emergency you can add a tablespoon of bleach after Step 3 just make sure to rinse it thoroughly. They also say to clean the whole pack place it in a tub or bucket and wash with cold water and mild detergent. They go on to mention how you should not place it in a washing machine.
The method I used combined the CamelBak method with others I found on the internet.
WORKING METHOD
1. Fill reservoir with warm water and 2 teaspoons of bleach
2. Let stand for 8 hours
3. Remove water by removing bite valve and draining through tube 3 times
4. Rinse once with hot water and 2 teaspoons of baking soda
5. Fill with hot water and 1 tablespoon baking soda and let stand for 2 hours
6. Rinse thoroughly and then dry
As I am writing this it is sitting with the baking soda in it.
Update: This method worked perfectly. There is no plastic taste, no bleach taste just the refreshing taste of clean water. I hope this helps some of you out.
A few weeks ago I had an entry about my creation of a training log I was going to offer as an open source script. I was asking for suggestions for cyclists and never heard from anyone. I have decided I will create a site such as bikejournal, but increasing the features and the eye candy. I am also going to make mine geared to a larger audience, mine will be structured so triathletes and duathletes can track their data too. Which means if you only run you will still have a home for your data logging.
I have started to speak with some popular websites to try and create some strong corporate relationships and bring even more features. I think I will be able to launch in a few months, I have completed the layout for the most part and just need to work on the data display, adding of information, etc. I will do a few posts about it but not releasing too much information.
When I want to go for a ride I must load the bike in the car and drive down to the school, which is only a couple minutes away. You might ask why not ride from my home, well I have a gravel driveway that is roughly 0.3 miles and that would not treat my road tires too well. When I go to the school I start riding and being so out of shape it is hard and I get to a point where I get depressed and stop. All that translates to being a huge hassle to go for a ride so last night I ordered a set of rollers from Performance. Here is the set I ordered:
I should recieve them on Tuesday, maybe Monday. This way I can sit in my room and ride while watching a movie or when the weather is bad.
I am anal about so many things, and one of those things is starting a new workout routine on a certain type of day. What I mean is, the 1st of the month, or a Monday or Sunday, or Wednesday. Some marker point so it is easier for me to track all my data. This Sunday is October 1st, it is also 6 months from April 1st, which in my mind is always the start of spring. I was just looking at a calender and October 1st is exactly 26 weeks till April 1st. I just stepped on the scale and I came in at 256. They say losing 2 pounds a week is safe, I naturally lost more than that many time before, but if I lose an average of 2 pounds per week I will weigh 204 on April 1st. If I weighed 204 and did not gain muscle I would be 20% body fat. Higher than I would like, but I believe once I start riding and gaining muscle through that I may go back up in lean mass. If I was able to increase my lean mass to what it was a year ago, which was 175, I would be 14%. My ultimate goal is to be around 10%, but 14 would be pretty good. Wish me luck, I just hope I can stick with it this time.
My return to cycling has been an interesting one, I have realized just how out of shape I am since last year when I was in the gym every day. I recieved a set of Exustar SR930 road shoes from a friend on Bike Forums and wow, I paid $22 including shipping. These shoes were used about ~10 times and so comfortable. Riding clipless compared to toe-clips is a huge difference for me, with the solid base on the shoe and the cleat under the ball of my foot it gives me perfect application of power. When I purchased these pedals I was 14 so the release tension needed was much less then I need now. This causes a few problems, I have about 12 levels of tension on each pedal and at its tightest setting I found myself releasing by accident a couple of times. I wish I had the money to buy a new set and make myself a custom bike. I have greatly enjoyed the rides I have gone on despite how short they have been.
On a sad note it appears I lost my cyclecomputer. I placed it on the trunk of the car as I was putting my bike in the back seat and forgot about it. I drove two miles to my house before I remembered. I will be going up in the morning to try and find it, but my hopes are not very high. Since it has been 10 years buying a new one might be best, but I have bills and I also really liked that computer. The colors pattern matched the bike, it was compact, acurate, and still in perfect condition. I really hope I can find it.
Like I mentioned in my post last week I am working on a phpBikeLog replacement, it will be similar to Bikejournal.com. I would like you guys to tell me what features you want. I am putting in the basics of all journals along with some extra features that you will have to wait and see. There might be something you can think of that I havnt so please let me know and as a reward you will get to be a beta tester and it will be like with ICQ the lower the number the better haha.
My last few posts have been about my attept to get back in shape and this is going to fall into that category also. I just got home from another short ride and I believe one reason I only go on short rides is because it is so easy for me to get in the car and come back home. When I went to the gym in Lexington, which is 30 minutes from my house I left at 5:30 am and did not have to be at work until 8. This forced me to stay occupied until I needed to be there, but driving 5 miles away to go for a bike ride doesnt force me to do anything.
Tonight I went out to try to increase my cadence, and to my suprise it was easier than I thought. I am used to a big gear and low cadence to get me where I am going a little faster, but reading the recommendations on Bikeforums.net I was encouraged to increase my cadence making the ride less taxing on my muscles. My legs got kind of rubbery towards the end, but that is because I have not used those muscles for quite a while. Even if I was in the gym working my legs cycling is going to use muscles other activities dont. It is discouraging because I used to do 30-40 minute sessions on ellipticals which is one of the best calorie burning piece of equipment available and being so weak in the legs is depressing. I know that if I keep riding and increasing my rides every time I will eventually get back into good riding shape. I am looking into getting a trainer so I can ride every day while a watch a movie or something. This will allow me to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
This morning I drove up to the elementary school for another ride. This time I took a detour around a friend’s grandparents house, which loops back ground to the school. The hill I had to climb was not very big, and I was able to climb in a seated position, but my lungs just couldn’t handle it. I did complete the climb, but my recovery time was longer than it should have been. Last year when I was in the gym everyday I was able to complete 40 minute sessions on the eliptical machines. I feel so far away from where I was, at that time I was still overweight, but in much better health and I could keep up with the best of them in the gym. It is ashame there are so many hills here, which would accelerate my progress, but shorten my rides. If I could find a relatively flat place to ride I think 15 miles could be done without too much headache.
Right now I am using toe-clips because the shoes I used years ago do not fit. I need to get a set of shoes soon because I seem to ride with my feet on an angle which is going to effect my ankles.
I found a post on Bike Forums talking about phpBikeLog and how members wanted to revive this project. I considered joining the team, but in the end it will hinder my development speed. I recently looked into a number of sites that are providing logs for riders and all of these sites are lacking one thing or another. One has functionality, but the the design is horrible. Another has style, but lacks functionality. We will see in the next couple weeks just how much progress I can make with a functional beta.
In my last post I described how I brought my road bike home from storage and planned on starting to ride again. Of course when I try to do something a delay comes roaring through. I went on my first ride on the 29th, while short it was just to see where I was at and make sure everything was working properly. I have planned on riding every single day since and it has been raining. I can’t blame it all on the rain, I could have gone out tonight, but I didn’t.
I try to be structured, which is why everytime I begin a new workout schedule or training I start on significant days. This time I tried to start on September 1st, but with the rain I not have to wait until either tommorrow or Monday. The only reason is because I want to make it easier to stay on track. If I start on the 1st I know that on the 8th I need to weigh in again, but for me a Sunday or Monday works out better being the start of the week.
I really am very excited to start riding again, I have started reading through posts on Bike Forums and doing more research on even more recent ways to cut fat. Most of the research is just to refresh my memory, I learned an enormous amount of information on cutting and gaining last year, what suppliments to take and what foods to eat. I look forward to seeing how I progress this time around.
When I moved to California I was not able to go to the gym everyday like I was in Virginia. With my current situation with the bearing on my car and living so far away from everything the gym is not an option right now. When I was younger I used to ride a road bike with a neighbor, but in this area people did not seem to care too much about the safety or right of way of cyclists and being 13 or 14 it was not safe for me to ride alone with that driver mentality.
I recently picked my bike up from my storage unit to see about replacing the tires which we thought had become damaged from dryrot. Not the case. I purchased a new pump that will handle a tube with a presta valve and went on my first ride tonight. While I did well, it really let me know just how out of shape I have become.
Tommorrow night I plan on riding 10 miles, but considering riding to exhaustion so that when I ride in an area that is not a circuit I know I can get back. I’m really excited though. When I worked out I had a blast and when I would ride all the time I was excited so the two should put me in a better place not just physically but also mentally.
P.S. I have felt like crap today which hasn’t helped much
