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Mar. 25th, 2011
Ow. I am so out of shape
Mar. 25th, 2011 08:39 pmGot my bike back after the tuneup today. *Much* better.
All 21 gears work and so do the brakes.
Since it was way too close to rush hour, I wasn't going to fight the buses. So I took it for a spin and headed for a nearby cache (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fayanora, it's a fake rock sort of like the one I showed you)
And then I went for another cache that was a replacement for one that'd disappeared a couple years back (a victim of landscaping). It's on a set of stairs up the side of the "ridge" I live on the top of. There are at least half a dozen of these stairways, btw. In fact I found a new one while trying to figure out how to get to the first cache. (Need to go back one of these days and record them on the GPS and submit them to the Northwest Trails site to add to the maps).
Anyway, I was at the *bottom* of the stairs. Not sure how high they were but it was over 150 *horizontally* to the cache, and the stairs were about as steep as your average house stairs. Carrying the bike up was no fun, even if it *is* ridiculously light (aluminum frame).
I found the cache. And decided to try for one more on the way home. The GPS brought up a list of the nearest caches and I think I had to go to number 10 to find one that wasn't in the wrong direction.
That one was actually somewhat past my place (on Killingsworth). Wasn't too hard to get to, and I kept up a pretty good clip (for me) on the way.
Got there and I didn't have the cheat sheet pulled (I'd gotten the name confused and actually flipped past it). So I took a look around. Saw a couple of likely looking places and parked the bike to check them out. Once I was a few feet away, I could see that they weren't that likely I turned around to go back to the bike and then I saw it. It was hanging from a screw hook on the inside of a wide crack in the tree I'd walked past.
So that was 3 for 3 today.
The ride home from there was a bit harder as it was uphill most of the way. A slight slope, but still a slope. Even with the grand-daddy low gears available, my legs aren't used to that anymore. But I managed to ride all the way and not walk. But my thighs were complaining on the last bit of the last uphill bit.
Oh well, if I keep riding when the weather is good, I'll be back in some sort of shape soon.
I do need to wear the heart rate thingie, because I know my heart was really going on those stairs. Fortunately, they had landings every so oftem so I could rest. (Yeesh, I saw two people *jog* up the stairs while I was on them!!)
I've already planned by next expedition. A puzzle cache that relies on recognizing where some photos were taken (I recognized all of the photos) looks like a good starting places, and there are 5 more caches that'll make an okay loop. If I'm lucky, I'll get all of them. If not, I should get a few, and at the very least, I'll get more exercise. And there aren't any horrible slopes either.
All 21 gears work and so do the brakes.
Since it was way too close to rush hour, I wasn't going to fight the buses. So I took it for a spin and headed for a nearby cache (
fayanora, it's a fake rock sort of like the one I showed you)And then I went for another cache that was a replacement for one that'd disappeared a couple years back (a victim of landscaping). It's on a set of stairs up the side of the "ridge" I live on the top of. There are at least half a dozen of these stairways, btw. In fact I found a new one while trying to figure out how to get to the first cache. (Need to go back one of these days and record them on the GPS and submit them to the Northwest Trails site to add to the maps).
Anyway, I was at the *bottom* of the stairs. Not sure how high they were but it was over 150 *horizontally* to the cache, and the stairs were about as steep as your average house stairs. Carrying the bike up was no fun, even if it *is* ridiculously light (aluminum frame).
I found the cache. And decided to try for one more on the way home. The GPS brought up a list of the nearest caches and I think I had to go to number 10 to find one that wasn't in the wrong direction.
That one was actually somewhat past my place (on Killingsworth). Wasn't too hard to get to, and I kept up a pretty good clip (for me) on the way.
Got there and I didn't have the cheat sheet pulled (I'd gotten the name confused and actually flipped past it). So I took a look around. Saw a couple of likely looking places and parked the bike to check them out. Once I was a few feet away, I could see that they weren't that likely I turned around to go back to the bike and then I saw it. It was hanging from a screw hook on the inside of a wide crack in the tree I'd walked past.
So that was 3 for 3 today.
The ride home from there was a bit harder as it was uphill most of the way. A slight slope, but still a slope. Even with the grand-daddy low gears available, my legs aren't used to that anymore. But I managed to ride all the way and not walk. But my thighs were complaining on the last bit of the last uphill bit.
Oh well, if I keep riding when the weather is good, I'll be back in some sort of shape soon.
I do need to wear the heart rate thingie, because I know my heart was really going on those stairs. Fortunately, they had landings every so oftem so I could rest. (Yeesh, I saw two people *jog* up the stairs while I was on them!!)
I've already planned by next expedition. A puzzle cache that relies on recognizing where some photos were taken (I recognized all of the photos) looks like a good starting places, and there are 5 more caches that'll make an okay loop. If I'm lucky, I'll get all of them. If not, I should get a few, and at the very least, I'll get more exercise. And there aren't any horrible slopes either.