Yeah… more stuff

I thought I got everything out of my head in last night’s post, but there still some stuff lingering there.

Commuting:

Today’s ride was amazingly easy — a very good ride.  I need to get a bike computer so I can see just how fast I’m traveling.  It seemed I was traveling faster today than previous rides as I was bumping myself into the next higher gear.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I am SO grateful that we have the trail system that we have here in the Seattle area.  Last week, in the brief one mile or so that I must ride in the street amongst car traffic in order to make it to the office, I almost got ran over twice.  Both times were in the same area, just a light apart from one another.  I tell you, for anyone riding…  always look a driver in the eyes.  Make sure that they see you and even acknowledge if possible.  There is an alternative route I could take to remove this section of road from my ride, but it adds an additional 20 minutes to my ride.  If it continues, I’ll go ahead and make that change — 20 minutes is nothing compared to being dead or seriously hurt by a dumbass not paying attention.

While on the topic of my commute and riding, my rack arrived via FedEx today.  Of course, it’s already on the bike.  I had to manipulate the brackets a little to get it to fit, but my metal working skills from the Army came in handy.  I’ll likely post a picture to Flickr in the next few days.  But now, I don’t have to wear a backpack or fanny pack if I need to carry something with me to work.

Health and Fitness:

One thing that I’ve noticed since I’ve begun riding, I haven’t lost any weight.  I thought that I might, but I believe that I’m building muscle instead — which is totally fine with me.  I know my quads have hurt in places they haven’t hurt in years!

Today also makes a week + 1 day that I’ve cut my caffeine intake to zero.  I started to just cut out sodas, but decided to cut out coffee as well.  A while back I made a trip in to the emergency room for an irregular heartbeat.  The ER doctor checked me out and told me that what I was experiencing was PVCs — premature ventricular contractions.  I can’t explain what exactly a PVC is, but wikipedia does a decent job.  The Doctor told me that they were “some-what normal” (as in several people experience them) and likely caused by too much caffeine, but what is odd, I only began really experiencing them AFTER I had started working out — and doing mostly cardio work too.  So I’ve decided to give it a whirl and see how long I can go without caffeine.  Who needs the uncomfortable feeling of a weird heartbeat?  Water will do me just fine.