New Addition

And without further delay I would like to introduce everyone to spike. Yeah it sounds like a guys name but she just has a cool nickname ok. Maybe one day I will tell you her real name.



This is a picture of her in the dealership and will keep everyone going till I can take pictures of her at home. Jen and I headed out and did a little bit of riding to get me used to her and it was fun. I hit 55mph on 101st and it was like I was hardly even moving. Very comfortable bike and if you look at the handlebars you will understand her nickname (more on other locations of the bike *LOL*). The bike is a Kawasaki Vulcan 1600 Meanstreak and it makes me happy *LOL*

S

Apologies

Ok I have to apologise to Jen and to Lola. I will openly say that Lola is a kewl as hell motorbike and that it is perfect for Jen. It does not sound like a prius, with the choke out it it a growl and with choke in the bike literally purrs. This is a complement BTW Jen *LOL*. If there is any motorbike I would gladly follow it is Lola. (that plus it has the COOLEST design on any bikes I have looked at. The colors make it shine and complete the look of this bike. (stock photo below courtesy of Triumph) .

First of multiple updates.

Last week was just a crazy week for me. I had my mountain bike in getting some work done to it (it only has 2 rides on it) and they tweaked the gears a bit, had to straighten a tooth on the front crank that had bent I think when the chain seized and also had to totally replace the chain. I had to take it for a quick test and I think it is better now. While it was there Jen had them work onhers and increase the spacers on the handlebars to raise them. I am hoping that they will be happy bikes now.

Also had some sad news in that my direct boss passed away. He had blockage issues and had to have heart surgery and never really recovered. Its still a bit of a shock as I was still expecting him to come back. Most of the end of last week was taken up dealing with stuff around that.

Thats it for this post. I have two more to do for today so talk to you in a minute

Steve

Licensed to Ride

Well One weekend later and I am almost licensed to ride. I did the Motorcycle safety course this weekend and passed. It was a little cold but no rain the whole weekend and it was fun, fun, fun. I am going to go to the DMV tomorrow am and get my license changed to add it on and make me official. Till I can get a bike of my own I am going to have to talk nicely to that sweet, wonderful, intelligent, generous woman that I love so much (HI Jen - have I told you how wonderful you are *LOL* *hugggs*) to get some time with her super cool bike.

On the bike this weekend

Just not a person powered one *grin*. While Jen is in D.C visiting one of her history colleagues I will be taking the Motorcycle safety course in Nashville. I am hoping that I do well and get the certificate, either way I will let everyone know the results Sunday night.

It does however mean that I will not be getting any road or mountain biking in which does suck. Perhaps the weather will improve for next weekend and I can get out then. If only it was not getting dark earlier and earlier. In the meantime expect to see results next week from the bike trainer.

Talk to you soon.

Steve

More new clothes

So we headed to Kohls last night to see if we could pick up a couple of T-shirts I really liked and wanted more of. Unfortunately it looks like I have missed them and they have changed to winter clothes in the store. BUUUUUT and this is a big but, I did pick up a couple of jackets (buy one get one free) and I had to suffer with getting a medium sized jacket..... OH the burden of it people, I am having to buy large and medium clothes (yeah I know its probably just a big medium but I don't care its a MEDIUM!!!!)

Well that's all I wanted to tell you *grin*. Its the little things or in my case the littler things *LOL* that make your day. Ok I got to get back to work.

Laters S.

Weekend updates

Well weigh in for the week is 244lbs a loss of 2lbs which after some of the eating I am happy with. Coupled with this I have officially broke one of my goals which was to get out of the 40's for pant size. This message is brought to you today by a Steve in a pair of size 38 Jeans (courtesy of Old Navy who parted with them for a whopping 4 dollars after tax *LOL*) so this is officially a Red, Green and Blue letter week.

This weekend Jen and I headed off with the new tent and bikes to Montgomery Bell State Park. The goal was to see how well the new tent would cope with both of us in it and to take in some trails we had been told were really good for biking.

I was really surprised when it comes to the new tent Jen picked up. It looks small, it is small but it did fit both of us in it. The fact that we both slept about 8 hours ok wise is a testament to either us being tired or it being comfortable *LOL*. The major issue we think was using my CPAP in the tent as it created condensation in the tent and everything started getting damp. Also by the time 6am hit I was getting sore and could not stay in the tent any longer. I crawled out got dressed and dozed in the jeep till the sun came up and I could start a fire.

The funnest part of this weekend does have to go to the mountain biking. We had a blast (the whole weekend, camping, cooking out and biking was brilliant - Monty Bell campground is perfectly situated). On the Saturday after we set up we did the red route of the trails (see image below).

Image copied from Montgomery Bell trail pdf. All copyright the State of TN

Sunday we decided to do a longer route before heading home. Knowing that there was a downed tree towards the end of the trails we decided to do a route in reverse. We headed off down the blue route (intermediate trail) and rode that till we hit "4 Points Junction" on the map. From there we rode a little of the red trail till it hit marker 6 of the white trail and headed down that. This consisted of what is classed as the white pine trail and the storm track and of the 3 trails we had been on I think this was the coolest. We were unsure how long the rabbit run (white) was towards the end so we omitted it and returned back to the trail head and civilization. Totals for the weekend are a guess, but I think it is about 2 miles on Saturday and about 8 or 9 on the Sunday.

One good point is that we met a guy as we were packing the bikes up who we gave a copy of the map to and who told us about another trail near Columbia so we may be heading there to try it. Its a loop of 8 miles and starts at easy and builds up.

Steve in action

Its the same barn as Jens pic but from a different side and we have just returned to it from our route. It is me trying not to show my cheesy grin and look suave... I failed *LOL*

Jen in action

This is Jen next to an old barn in the middle of Rotary Park. We are about halfway into our ride and she is shiny, can you tell *grin*

Weight Update & Images of our bikes

Ok first off, it has been a rough 2-3 weeks for me in the weight department. I gained from 242 up to 245, then I gained from 245 up to 252 lbs. Last week I gained some of my focus (mojo) back and I weighed in Monday morning at 246 lbs. I am trying to get myself back to 242lbs this week and push to the 230's. Wish me luck.

On an update to our new mountain bikes. I have pulled images from the cannondale website for our 2 bikes. Please note that these images are the copyright of Cannondale and should not be used without proper credit (which I am doing for them right here). I will be posting more images that we have take but I need better lighting for the shots so will probably wait till the weekend.

Now That I have more details on the bikes I now present to you *drum roll*

Jens 2010 Cannondale F5


My 2009 F7 with CO2 Frame Technology

Mountain Biking

After Competing in the Dirt, Guts and Donuts race last month Jen and I where somewhat bitten by the mountain biking bug. I'm not saying that we are giving up road biking, rather that we are adding mountain biking to our repertoire. We had been looking for newer mountain bikes that were not walmart specials (read Heavy assed POS's) and after much looking, much test riding, we settled on Cannondales from the Bicycle Center in Clarksville TN.

Until I can get all the photos I want to post of our new acquisitions I am giving you a teaser in the form of the jigsaw print, this is the front of the top tube from Jens bike and as you will note they may be a little artsy (I decided to do something more than just straight forward photos of them, but that will come also.

As you might note from the print Jen got the Cannondale F5 and just so you know I got the little brother the Cannondale F7. When we finally picked my bike up Saturday we headed down to rotary park and ended up having about an hours fun on the new bikes. Its amazing what a decent mountain bike will do to you. For the full hour on this bike I had the cheesiest grin on my face and NOTHING could remove it, not even when I wiped out on a soft dried up stream bed (just dirt no damage, pedal sunk in about half of an inch). I got up dusted myself a bit laughed when Jen asked if I was ok and got back on the bike to catch up. This is a definite change from the race where I wanted to throw the POS target bike in the lake (might have been why I was going slow when I found Lisa in the water *LOL*).

All I can say is roll on the weekend, I have printed out the bike trails for Montgomery Bell park and if we can I hope to get out on the trails for a good amount of time. We are also hoping to try arrange a time to meet up with Scott et al. from work along with Lisa and get us all involved in some decent trail riding. Lisa if you see this I will make sure Scott pick trails away from water !!!

ERK just noticed its midnight. Time to hit the sack.

Night all

S

Short Ride

I had a short ride last night and although I did 5.02 miles I did not go anywhere *LOL*. Yes, I have finally set up the trainer and got myself on it to test. I have to say that it is weird weird weird, but I can see me doing it. I bought the Travel Trac Century Fluid trainer from Performance bike and I am happy enough with it. Once I have a couple of hundred miles on it I will post a more detailed report. Noise levels are minimal and I can hear the TV ok over it (my scenery)

Stats are : 5.02miles Distance, 21mins approx, 14.5mpg ave speed approx.

ok back to work for me

S