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Mary was gracious enough to let me burn a day off work to get in a long ride. I knew Friday was going to be gorgeous and we needed to do other stuff for Tori's bday anyway, so it worked out pretty well all 'round.

This is one of my favorite long rides in the greater Seattle area, partly because it involves crossing the Sound. I modified the route from the Seattle Bike Tours folks as this one is easier to follow, was over fresh asphalt that was very conducive to cranking on the road bike and also kicked it to a full 50 miles.

Ascent says I did 53.3 miles with a total climb of 2483 feet and an average speed of 14.4 mph. Here's the summary data and the elevation chart for the ride:

The full Flickr set of snaps I took along the way is available for viewing, but be warned they are iPhone camera phone pix, so the quality is "meh".

I've posted the GPX and KML files for anyone's use (despite my pathetic pace & cadence stats). KML is really cool since Google Maps and Google Earth both import it well (though Ascent has a feature to do the import and put Google Earth into "fly-by" mode automagically).

Those who use cadence sensors have probably had their fair share of pedal magnets fall off. Between accidents and just minor wear, I go through 1-2 of my Garmin magnets per year, partly due to how poorly they are designed to attach to the pedal.

I was at Gregg's Cycle up near the Alderwood Mall (Lynnwood, WA) and noticed a cheap replacement Cat Eye cadence pedal magnet and decided to give it a try. The way it attaches is much more secure than the Garmin magnet and it works perfectly with the Garmin wheel sensor.

You can grab it directly from Cat Eye for less than $2.00 USD (hit that page and search for "169-9766") or from Gregg's for just a bit more (but, it's local if you happen to be in the greater Seattle area).

Finally, something to spark a personal blog post (been way busy, way tired or way sick lately)!

Today, I picked up a 2007 Scattante CFR Composite Carbon Road Bike from Performance Bike in the University District. Besides having a ridiculous sale on 2007 bikes in general, this was the last weekend for 20% back on purchases (Mary's getting a pair of really nice bike shoes and new pedals for free as a result!). With at least one charity ride (there will be more) coming up and the STP in July, I knew that a getting a better bike would really help with both training and endurance.

Since the sun decided to grace us with its presence today, I managed to get in 20-mile ride this afternoon after attaching all of my gear - new egg beater pedals, Edge 305 mount+cadence package, bottle cage, pump mount/pump, tail light & saddle bag - to the bike. The only way to describe the difference is "Wow!". The Scattante is far more responsive than my Giant OCR-2 (or Novara Safari, but that kinda figures) and I averaged a 3mph faster steady speed the entire ride. Hills were much less of a challenge than they have been as well, which is A Very Good Thing in Seattle.

The link above gives all the specifications and has more photos. When I put a new battery in my cadence sensor (it died 2 miles into the ride but has been going on the same CR-2032 for 2 years until now), I'll post a sampling from my Garmin Edge 305 & Ascent from what is becoming my typical northern-Burke-Gilman (Wikipedia link, apologies-lazy) to Sammamish River Trail ride.

I am riding in the Redmond "Tour de Cure" for Diabetes. The event is in May and there are more details on my sponsorship page. If you're a Seattleite and would like to ride with someone, I chose the 45-mile route. Since I'm doing the STP in July, I didn't want to risk a longer ride and potential injury that close to 200-mile ride.

If I had been working back @ my previous big company (J&J) they have a national team. I think that would have been kinda fun, but I'm going to see if my current big company (Safeco) is interested in having a team presence at any of the national cycling-charity events. Red, black & white would make for a sweet jersey!

Again, please consider sponsoring me or joining me for the ride (or both!).

Great weekend. Took the kids over to Kingston on the ferry then drove down to Bainbridge and headed for Fay Bainbridge State Park. Walked on the beach for quite a while (pics coming soon) and let the kids have at the plethora of sea shells. They found a whole scallop or oyster (haven't opened it yet) and an intact starfish; they were quite thrilled.

I managed to get a decent & speedy solo bike ride in Sat and a relaxed one in on Sunday (with Ian in tow). Made an *awesome* chicken & spinach curry which we'll be eating through Tuesday at this rate (I always make too much).

I also managed to get some EVE time in and need to update the corp web site (official charter and new home base).

We got to hear some of "On The Media" tonight (a rare treat these days) and I was very disappointed. Will there be any media channel that doesn't deliberately promote Obama in some way, shape for form? I expected more out of a media watchdog organization. Nader's announcement should make things interesting for a while. Lest we forget, there's still time for martial law to be declared...even after elections are held. Sagging economy. Protracted overseas engagement. Cold war ruminations in the former Soviet Union and China...Pakistan in turmoil. India rising. Lots of kindling for fear.

Now continuing to enjoy a Düvel over the course of the rest of the evening (which may include more EVE) and trying not to anticipate the busy week ahead.

Sheldon Brown, an amazing and energetic font of all cycling knowledge has died of a heart attack at age 63. His site (wait a while...lots of folks hitting it) has been a great resource for me as I have ventured into the world of extremely amateur cycling and his practical expertise will be missed.

More over at Wired.

I am officially entered into the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic and will be joining 8,999 other crazy people for the ~200 mile ride this July.

I'll make sure to post blog entries during this "training phase" (the Cascade Bicycle Club - of which I am now a member - provides training guides for the event and hosts training rides).

Many thanks to the Seattlest Blog for the timely reminder (as slots fill up rather quickly).

One or more (they conspire and confuse) of the little house urchins got into my stuff one day this week and managed to attack my cycling trainer and lose the battery cover. Grrrrrr...

The fine folks over @ Bike Nashbar managed to locate the old part number of the trainer and then the old part number of the battery cover and order/ship me a new one. *Gratis*.

They have great deals and great customer support - how can you go wrong? Plus, you can shop via the Nashbar Amazon Store. What are you waiting for!

I've said it before, Garmin Is Evil. Not evil in the bad, serial killer way, just evil in the enticing-folks-to-part-with-their-hard-earned-money-by-introducing-new-gadgets-with-killer-features way.

Their latest incarnations of evil are the Edge 605 and the Edge 705, two new cycling computers that have GPS capabilities. The first noticeable difference from the Edge 305 (which I own, along with the ForeRunner 305) is the gorgeous color screen reminiscent of their eTrex series. Both units are also bigger – 2" x 4.3" x 1" vs 1.75" x 3.7" x 0.9" – and have a higher resolution display – 176 x 220 vs 128 x 160. Battery life is also better – 15 hrs vs 12 hrs (and I've been very happy with the battery life of the 305), plus the new models sport a microSD card slot to hold map/route data (similar to the eTrex) – this would have been handy on some of my Seattle exploring rides this summer (I would up carrying both my ForeRunner 305 and eTrex.

However, you'll want to focus your investment on the 705 since that's where the major new mojo lies (the 605 doesn't even work with Garmin's heart rate and speed/cadence sensors).

The Edge 705 will interface with 3^rd-party power meters, which hardcore cyclists will appreciate since that's the best way to accurately measure training effort. The other killer feature is the ability to share courses, workouts and saved rideswirelessly with other 705 units in range (3 meters). It will make shop rides much more efficient since you won't need to ensure folks have cue sheets (just these expensive bike toys).

All units (even my old school 305) will work with Garmin's forthcoming Connect service (which will be a combination of their MotionBased site plus new features).

If I manage to sell enough old tech to get one of the new models (both available in time for Christmas for ~$430.75 USD and $541.65-$709.07 USD) I'll write up a review.

(You can review the full technical comparison here.)

My GPS is still dead (waiting for Garmin's support folks to tell me where to send it), but that didn't stop me from doing a 20-mile ride yesterday (too nice out to miss, even with an exhausting day of house hunting) and a 54+ (I missed a few turns, so it was more like 60-ish) mile ride around Lake Washington.

NOTE: When I become Czar of the Americas, I pledge to flatten all hills in the greater Seattle area. Lots of ups today, and the downs weren't as refreshing as they should have been.

It was very weird going parallel with various major thoroughfares, but the trip was well worth it. I saw many parks along the way that will make for great outings with the kids, went right past Fry's (the only redeeming quality of Renton, btw) and skirted around Boeing. All things that would have been very frustrating to do on a four-wheeled, gas-guzzling monster.

It was a great ride, but I managed to get a bit too much sun (yes, too much sun...in Seattle) over the past three days and this ride put the total Labor Day weekend mileage at between 110 and 130 miles - a distance I've never done before in three days. So, I get to start the week off exhausted, with one less day to get stuff done.

I broke down on the way back and snagged some Zeeks Pizza - a local chain. There's one 1/2 block from my apartment and I just didn't feel like making chili (which was the plan). The food wasn't worth the calories...the sauce was reminiscent of Pizza Hut (blech). I'm assuming this particular location exists primarily for the SPU kids to have a cheap means of providing an absorption base for alcoholic beverages.

What Seattle *really* needs is a local Nuts About Ice Cream...I could have downed a quart of their mango sorbet after that ride.

Not wanting to be stuck at the apartment all day this fine Labor Day weekend Saturday, I ventured out down to Pier 52 to hop on the Seattle<->Bainbridge Island ferry. The goal was to do this route which goes from where I temporarily live (in the Fremont district of Seattle) to the terminal, then from Bainbridge up through Kingston, then down from Edmonds to where it all started from. It's about 46-50 miles with a ton of hills.

My fitness GPS won't turn back on easily and kinda died at the Edmonds terminal, so no actual route from it will be posted (there is a great map at the first URL). I can tell you that I was pretty tired and the summary info on the unit (the one time I managed to get it to power up) said I burned well over 3600 calories. It sure feels like it.

Bainbridge is idyllic and picturesque. I see why so many folks move there. You can choose from wooded areas, coastal vistas or (ugh) developments - all at price ranges that we will never be able to afford.

I didn't stop to take too may pictures (mostly snapped some on the ferries), but you can see part of the Olympic mountains and some other shots here.

So, hiking just wasn't good enough for me this weekend. The weather was just too nice not to do a ride Sunday and I opted for something I called the "Tour de Alki", which just means I road around the perimeter of West Seattle.

It was about 30 miles with some (for me) grueling hills. It didn't help that my derailleur needs work, so shifting was an issue and made the hills that much more difficult. (Did I mention I did this after a 10-mile trip - on the bike - to the Apple Store earlier in the day?)

I posted a big picture [632K PNG] of the route along with some elevation information [72K PNG].

Overall it was a great ride. Awesome views and a good workout. I would recommend the route to anyone in the Greater Seattle Area.

I went for a 54.5-mile bike ride Saturday on the Burke-Gilman trail and part of one of the connecting river trails (Snohomish, I believe). [Click on the small map for a larger version.]

Started off in the residential setting, moved through a city-setting, then kept cruising between tree-covered, lake-side and river/forest setting.

Some of the downhill streets to get to the start of the trail were very scary for someone who is used to tiny hills back in Bethlehem. It kept feeling like I was going to cartwheel down them.

There were tons of cyclists ranging from group/shop rides to parents with children in tow. The weather was perfect and there are many places to stop and catch a view. The hard part is getting through the city of Seattle with all of the stops and starts. The second hardest part was smelling breakfast cooking at all of the restaurants and houses along the trail.

Now to do a full century.

Mary shipped my Giant OCR-2 road bike and it arrived yesterday!!! I managed to put it all back together and take it for a short test ride last night, but tonight I took it down to Green Lake for a decent spin. I'll post the route tomorrow, but it will be somewhat choppy since I kept adjusting the bike along the way and kinda forgot to turn the GPS on/off at various times. It also took a while to adjust to me being on the west coast (I forgot to pre-set it during the past two weeks - sigh). I'll be determining a route to work this weekend and trying my first bicycle commute on Monday or Tuesday (depending on weather). I still need to learn how to put the bike on the bus rack (in the event I need to do the bus instead) and also need to get a small cycling wallet that's waterproof and can hold my essential cards and cash along with the Belkin F8Z170-KG Sports Armband for iPhone and Shure MPA-3C Music Phone Adapter for iPhone.

If the hills here don't help me shed 30 more pounds, I don't know what will.

It's been an interesting 2.5 weeks. I really love this part of the northwest now and am looking forward to my first hike (hopefully with my family!!!!!). Work is plentiful and I am really liking the challenges I'm facing. The forthcoming office move will be somewhat sad, though, since I'm very fond of the University District. The new work digs are close to the Pike street market, so that will definitely be nice, and I'm interested to see what Seattle does during Christmas (there is so much potential).

I know where the troll is (more on that with pictures when I get there) now and will definitely be visiting there soon.

A week from tomorrow, Tori & Mary arrive and I am looking *so* forward to that. I think I'll be taking a break from house hunting this weekend until I see more momentum on our existing house. It's also kinda depressing seeing houses we like on a weekend, then see them sell four days later. We're now expanding our search up as far as Shoreline, putting our potential new residence just on the outer boundaries of cycling to work, but still well within the bus time range. Prices continue to fall, so the real challenge will be getting in when things are leveling off.

I'm seriously missing the old routines at various times and I'd be insane by now if it weren't for iChat video. I suspect things may get better once I'm in the new apartment, tho.

So, look for the GPS route tomorrow and drop me a note in the comments if you're interested in anything else about Seattle since I may have some time to explore this weekend.

Montebello Software has released an update to Ascent. 1.6.0 Improvements and Bug Fixes:

• New Feature: added speed, pace, gradient, and cadence zone support; ranges are settable in a new preference pane
• New Feature: paths in the Detailed Map View can now be color-coded by zone
• New Feature: laps can be highlighted in the Detailed Map View
• New Feature: new zone types can be displayed in the Activity View
• New Feature: zone type can be selected in the Activity View Statistics HUD
• Added preference to set "below zone" color for heart rate coloring
• Fixed problem with "last sync time" set incorrectly when tracks synced in an un-registered version of Ascent
• Added "Are you sure?" dialog to "Clear Map Cache..." menu choice
• Fixed bug that caused wrong max heart rate values to be shown in the browser for laps when units were set to metric
• Fixed bug that was causing errors in "Active Time" displays for laps and tracks in the browser
• Fixed problem where browser would show wrong values for certain fields if activity started at a non-zero distance
• Fixed problem where selected activity after sync was not displayed in browser map or stat mini-views