An Accommodation

I rode on my usual schedule of every other morning; due to minor distractions, today wasn't quite as far as Wednesday. Given I did get reasonable mileage in, and that my legs had trouble holding me up after I slid off the bicycle, I guess I did a decent amount of work.

As they say in Weight Watchers, "Progress, not Perfection".

I really detected that  my legs were wobbly when I crouched to swap my water bottle for a post-ride Cherry Coke Zero in my tiny office refrigerator (loaded only yesterday).

The new refrigerator is both a reward for my riding regularly, and an accommodation of my knees not wanting to do the stairs too often (and not wanting to bother Katherine, either). It also makes a refrigerated prescription that I take weekly more accessible.

My now riding regularly was highlighted in two small ways this morning:

• I asked Katherine to bring up breakfast so I could save my knees, and I noted to her, "We know I'm riding this morning".  I realized it just wasn't a question to me. It doesn't happen until it happens, but I had A Plan, and I meant to follow it (and did).
• Mid-ride, I realized that I could and wanted to ride harder, and I picked up the pace a bit.

I have long way to go, including fitness not related to the bike and making other accommodations as needed, but . . . progress.

New Refrigerator Between the Cat Tower and the Wastebasket 

Plan BT

I mentioned that I needed to adjust the music for my exercise bike now that it is in my office. This had multiple failed iterations:

• The main speakers in the office stereo are oriented for my desk, not the window that my bike is under.
• The secondary zone for the office stereo has a UX which was clearly an afterthought.  (I suspect drink was involved, too.)
• My spare set of cheap computer speakers weren't nearly up to the task of music.
• The computer (iMac) speakers were good in a pinch, but don't fill my ears from across the room. (On an absolute scale, they may be higher quality than what I'm actually using.)

But now, success!

The exercise bike console has a field expedient solution — a battery powered stereo BlueTooth speaker which my phone talks to. (I also used the phone as the music source is riding downstairs.) The speakers required no cash outlay; credit card reward points were my friend.

The field expedient part is the impromptu harness that keeps the speaker balanced on the console.  The strength part of the harness is a quartet of 12" gear ties; I am not sure they would be up to holding the unit on a road bike, but are fine here.  Two long rubber bands act as a secondary suspension to reduce wobble.

It occurs to me that the no longer mobile speaker will require recharging; I'll either dig out our longest USB cable or use one of the battery packs that live in our various briefcases.

Most importantly, I am now using the bike (and the speaker); I have had eight rides since it moved upstairs.

(Formerly) Portable BT Speaker Secured to My Exercise Bicycle.

Riding in the Rain

Well, THAT parade got rained on.

I don't think road bicycles are for me any more. In particular, while I might still have the power in my legs, I don't have the flexibility and balance for the mount/dismount.  

However a semi-recumbent tricycle may be good idea, say next season after I get better conditioned. Or one that seemed a good idea I found out that they run ~ $4500. Given how little used my current bikes have been used over the last 20 years, I can't see the ROI on that expensive a toy. 

Back to the semi-recumbent exercise bike.