Really Interesting Tandem

I really liked this tandem, which puts the stroker (is that the right word?) up in front, and has the controls in the back seat. From Velorution, where I’m sure I’d spend tons of cash if I lived in London.

From the review:

The most distinctive feature of the Ronald Tandem is the fact that person steering the tandem sits on the back seat and the ‘passenger’ is in the front seat. … Although I have not tested it I assume that when one substitutes the front seat with a carrier box, one would have a very manoeuvrable and convenient shopping bicycle.

UPDATE (From Fixedgear)

Terminology: On a conventional tandem the person who sits in front and steers/shifts/brakes is called the captain the the rear seat is occupied by the stoker. This bike has the captain i the rear and the stoker up front. So does the Bilenky Viewpoint, where the stoker is in front and recumbent and the captain is in the rear and upright. Oh yeah, if you have a triple (three seat bike) the person who occupies the middle seat is called the midshipman. Seriously.

Winter? What winter?

50 degrees and sunny today. Wasn’t there something white and cold last weekend?

Dunno why, but I was going stir crazy this afternoon at the office. So, I split a little early (I’ll be in early tomorrow).

MAN, what a day! Thought about stopping on Jamestown to run out to the lighthouse, but, being somewhat on a schedule, I hit the Kingstown Rail-Trail again. I’m really digging that path. Still not sure quite why. But I’m not going to fight it, since I’m really, really getting back into running. So whatever keeps me turning over the feet I’m going to keep doing.

Parked, put the Forerunner on top of the car to sync with the satellites, and fiddled around getting dressed, etc. Grabed the Nano, fired up the stopwatch, and started jogging. 52 seconds to Mile 0.

The trail was pretty much snow-free today. Blew by the Mile 1 marker and forgot to mark the lap. About a quarter mile past, a couple of boys were getting on bikes and riding the way I was heading. So, of course, I chased.

Man, the legs were good today. One of those days where you can run faster and faster, and not hurt, not run short of breath. Where it’s possible to just keep running. Hit the mile 2 marker in 16:32 – not so bad; 8:15’s… Since I had a little time, I decided to go 6 miles instead of four or five. The kids were still riding away; I kicked it up and kept running. 7:45 for mile 3. Fired up U2’s “Vertigo.” Kept hitting the back button as the song finished – when there’s a groove, there’s a groove.

Holy Crap! I said. I can’t remember the last time I did a mile under 8 minutes. WoW!

Turned around, kind of determined to just cruise back to the car. I’d just busted out the quickest 3 miles I’ve done in months, and was happy. At the 4 mile marker, lap time was 8:18. Nice and relaxing somehow. Even though I was going faster than I thought I could sustain prior to starting the run.

Mile 5: 8:04, even though I was making a concerted effort to hold back a bit. Last mile, I said “OK, why not?” Last mile, I went ahead and blew it out. 7:52.

Pshew. What a run.

Did a little pilates themed stretching, and headed home. 6.2 miles, 50 minutes. Not bad at all…

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Down in Kingstown Town

As promised, pics from today:

View of the station.

Kingston Station 2

Someone was here before me. And they were wearing what I assume are Yaktrax.

yaktrax

And the obligatory sunset. Later and later every day. Does wonders for my soul…

Sunset over the tracks

If you’re interested, there’s new pictures of my unusually large orange cat, and my unusually small lazy dog up, too. Just feel free to browse.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Pimpin’ ain’t easy

Sorry. This is a blatant advertisement to get free stuff off of the web. I grabbed some free space at PB Wiki (Tagline “PBwiki makes creating a wiki as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich”). Why? Dunno. I haven’t used it for anything, really.

But it don’t cost nothin’. And they offered to double my space if I blogged about it.

Surely I can think up a use for a free Wiki… (think, think)

You could, too.

Technorati Tags:

The Blizzard of Aught Six 2.0

Proving yet again that life is out to get me (actually, I’ve got it good. Very good. Better, indeed, than my friend the Giant Head. Who I love like a brother, despite the dark cloud that follows him around. But I digress), I stopped at the Kingstown Rail Trail tonight on my way home. Took some pictures, but haven’t downloaded them or posted to Flickr.

Anyhow, there was a goodly amount of snow still on the rail trail. Enough to let me know that if I’d taken the easy thing yesterday, the sure thing, that I’d have gotten the XC bug out of my system for another winter. But no, I had to go tilting at windmills, and try to get in some hard-core backcountry posing. After a day with a high around 40, there was not, however, enough snow for me to ski tonight. Almost, but right out of the station, there was a stretch of about 300 yards without snow.

between you, me, and the fencepost, I should have skied anyway

So, I stripped down to my skivvies in my car yet again, pulled on much fleece, fired up the iPod to catch the end of the BBC’s “The World” Technology podcast, and headed on down the trail. The run was pretty good. Running on the combination snow, asphalt, and somewhat crusty ice was good for form, overall. If I was striking my heels on the soft snow, I felt like I was going to have my feet slip out from under me and I’d fall on my tuchus. If I was pushing off too hard, my feet were slipping out from under me, much like the Road Runner between the “Beep-Beep” and the “bz-twang”.

But when things were just right, well, they were just right. 4.2 miles total, 37:51 total. Miles were 9:01, 9:26, 9:19, and 9:16.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

New Theme

For the time being, I’m using this one. ‘S got the layout I want, and other minor details, like coming up with an image for the header, etc, can come later.

Things I really like?

  • It’s clean. Not a whole lot of flash
  • Not so many colors for me to worry about clashing
  • “Blogroll”/links list shows up much sooner
  • The person who wrote it seems to be an all-right person.

Haven’t hacked into it, so I dunno if there’s much I don’t like. Great big Internet thanks to the author, whoever it is over at GFXEDIT.com.

Powerball is $300 million tomorrow night. Must be meant for me, since I didn’t buy a ticket on Saturday.

The “Blizzard” of Aught Six

First, a bit of cross-promotion – I’m trying to collect jokes about the Veep shooting the lawyer over here. For the record, I wouldn’t be collecting funnies if it were a larger load than quail shot, or if the other guy had been critically hurt.

Second, The Boy (as opposed to The Baby, who isn’t long for being a baby) and I have been digging on the Olympics. Skiing seems to be his favorite – we may be dragging out Massachusetts or Vermont way weekend after next to get him a half day lesson, and see if I can’t break a bone or two.

Friday – well, I didn’t run. Or swim. Or bike. I thought about it, but didn’t want to press things. Glad I didn’t. Part of this fitness thing is knowing when to say “eh”, and get on with life.

Saturday – worked most of the day to get the house ready to have some friends over. About an hour before they were supposed to be here, we wrapped stuff up, and I said “Hey, I’m going out for a run.” Mostly as a trial balloon – there was probably not enough time. But the wife said “Go ahead.” Not waiting for her to think about it, I was gone. Through the woods, past the closed school, over the hill, past the burnt out house. Down to River Road, back through Old Mystic, up the hill, and home. 5.5 miles, 50 minutes or so. Yippie.

Sunday – the blizzard wasn’t by the time it got to us. Bleh. Maybe 7″ of snow. Pilates that night.

Today, I dragged the skis to work and checked Arcadia on the way home, but they didn’t get much more than we did.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

More things to make me happy

snow
So, I know that a lot of you RBF types have been having a great chance to revel in the white stuff.

Us, down here by the coast, haven’t. It’s been long, not-so-cold, and absent any chance to go sliding around. I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see this:

Call me crazy. I’m waxing the skis (well, not waxing them per-say, they’re nowax, but conditioning the base…)

UPDATE
Going 3 instead of 5 last night was a good idea. I woke up feeling not sore but tight. Did some stretches, and everything is loosey goosey right now. My fear is that I’ll get the PF (the ailment of the lower leg ligaments who cannot be named) again. So, we’ll keep running as it makes me happy and see where that gets us.

UPDATE #2
Revised the image code to resize. After Deene’s comment, I checked it out both on IE and Firefox for PC, and with Firefox, Opera, and Camino for OS X 10.3.9 without issues.