December's First two weeks

12-1-2010
I took Jimmy to Miami for his Caribbean vacation at 9 and got back at 12. It was back to work from there. Good to be back to a normal schedule, but I definitely miss my wife and pups.

12-2-2010
I took a quick lap around Pinehurst at 5 and did a total of 8 miles. I was able to clear a section (about 5 or 6 trees in a row) that I had not been able to clear before. I was pleased with my ride. My time was 30:44. Not fast at all, but I wasnt pushing myself at all. Total miles 664. Don't see me making up all those Thanksgiving miles unfortunately.

12-3-2010 and 12-4-2010
No rides. It's actually been kind of cold for Florida lately.

12-5-2010
Slow lap around Pinehurst. I was just not feeling it today. Don't know what my problem was, but not a fun ride for me for some reason. 8 miles today. 672 total.

12-6-2010
It was soo much better today. 2 fast laps at Pinehurst. First lap 30:11 second lap 29:10. It was surprisingly chilly today. I left the trail at about 5:25. I was pretty cold till I got into the trail and worked up a little body heat. My feet got cold and stayed that way through both laps and the way back. I rode 12 miles today and 684 on the bike. I can't wait until it gets dark later. Only another few weeks till I get back home!

12-7-2010
I debated about riding today, but it was very cool this afternoon and eventually got into the 40s. That's not a lot of fun for me when I have just summer riding gear here in Florida.

12-8-2010
A great 2 laps at Pinehurst. 30:00 and 28:36. 2nd lap was my unofficial fastest lap. I say unofficial because I have finished a second quicker, but I ran up on a few people and had to slow down a bit at the beginning of the ride. I was very happy going through the trails today and the weather was great this afternoon. 12 miles today 696 on the bike so far.

12-9-2010
I got to enjoy Miami traffic twice when I picked up Jimmy from the Miami airport and on the drive back. No riding today after getting back at 3:30 pm. Enjoyed some good food from dinner with Everette, Jimmy, and Rene.

12-10-2010
Jimmy and I were invited to the Tri-City festival in Pahokee, FL. We were asked if we wanted to go on an airboat ride. It was a 4 HR ride that included fixing the overheating engine and me climbing in the back of the airboat with my head between the propellers and the cage so I could refill the radiator. It was a really fun time going out there though! It was beautiful and the airboat's owner, Boots, had tons to tell us about the area, see link. Here's some pics to enjoy.

12-11-2010
I did my fastest lap at Pinehurst today at 28:26! I only did 1 lap when I noticed my rear wheel was really out of true and at least one spoke was almost falling out. I headed straight back and only did 7 miles today, 703 miles total. I went to the bike shop and purchased a spoke tool, master link for my chain and a chain removal tool.

I cleaned my bike really well and did a basic truing of the rear wheel relatively easily. I also took off my chain. The instructions explicitly stated to not drive the pins out unless I was taking off a link (which I was). The plan was to replace the link that I took out with a master link that would allow me to remove the chain without tools. Unfortunately, I was sold a 1/2" x 1/8" master link and it was "way" too big. Way in this case means 1/32 too big. This meant it didn't fit correctly and I had to somehow drive the old pins back in to get the chain back together. This took about 45 minutes to get back together. All told, I spent about 3 hours cleaning, lubing, and fixing my bike tonight. I'm glad it's finally done and now understand how to true a wheel and take apart a chain.

12-12-2010
I went to the bike shop after they opened at noon and attempted to replace the wrong master link I had purchased yesterday. They didn't have it in stock, so I headed to Wheels of Wellington. Forest Hill was closed down for a holiday parade on the east side of the store, so I went around west. It was a bear to get around this area today. By the time I got back to the apartment and ate lunch, Jimmy had called me to come over to Heather and Trevor's, so no ride today, but I enjoy some great beef stew an rice with some awesome Trini hot sauce.

12-13-2010
No ride again. ;( I didn't ride because I was starting to get sick. I simply didn't want to go out into the cold and wind and make things worse. Hopefully I can fight this cold before it gets bad, unlike what happened with Jordan in the last few weeks.  I did end up spending 10 hours cloning and XP partition twice, installing XP twice, unlocking an account, and removing a forgotten password.  Thanks Trinity Rescue Kit.  This toolkit rocks!

Nov 15 to Nov 30th

11-15-2010

I didn't feel great today, but headed out for a ride and got to the trail around 4:30. I did two laps. 30:38 and 31:11. Not fast at all. I was a bit sore from yesterday and I could definitely feel it in my knees from standing up on my pedals yesterday. I did 12 miles today and now have 644 on my bike total.

11-16-2010

While cleaning up for my trip home, I decided to clean out my camelbak. I cleaned it last week, but I didn't clean out the hose too well. It turns out that the hose had a ton of black brown red stuff in it. Yay. I think this may be the reason I've been getting sick after riding.

No ride today mostly because I decided to eat 32 oz of salsa at about 3pm. Why did I eat so much? I don't know. I do know I didn't feel awesome afterward. Interestingly, I woke up and weighed myself in at 166.4 lbs this morning. My only "meal" today was the salsa. I weighed 174 lbs at 7 pm. No bueno. No bueno.

11-17-2010

2 early morning laps at Pinehurst this morning with times of 28:38 and 28:42. I was movin! That's 12 miles for the day and 656 miles on the bike so far.

I'm really excited to see my wife and family again today which probably explains my ability to be up at 6 AM. I am going to miss riding the Cog for a few weeks, so my Trek will get some use while I'm home. I hope it's ready to be ridden.

There are the new AIT scanners at PBI. A woman in front of me was picked to go through and opted out to get a pat down. I'm thinking that the American public may not be cool with the new scanners.

11-18-2010

No ride today, since it was my first day home and I drove all over seeing family and doing chores. I did see the bike stand I want now. Park tool PCS-10.

11-19-2010

I rode River Legacy on my brother's 2009 Trek 6500. Fun bike, but definitely felt tiny compared to the Monocog. I rode the path I did last time on the cog and finished in about the same time, 32 minutes. I began at about 4 pm and took a couple of wrong turns. The sun was setting, so not a lot of fun there, especially with sunglasses on. I will probably ride tomorrow without sunglasses. I lost my grip a bit on the north loop where the trail had a bit of mud on it around a corner. I am excited about tomorrow’s time trial. I know I am probably not going to rank high in it, but it's my first competition on a bike ever, so I'm pumped. I am going to take Jamie to work in the morning and then to look at computers with my dad after that. If I can, I will go to try to help out getting the course set up. I don't have a clue how the course will be routed. I need to fix Ryan’s bike computer and his front brake. I may swap in my Trek’s tires if I have time.

11-20-2010

Time Trial results. Lap 1 28:10, lap 2 27:37. Not good at all compared to most peeps who had times as low as 23 minutes. I did have some issues with Ryan’s rear derailleur. It kept skipping as soon as I would be spinning fast. This was annoying and made it difficult to get going very fast. The culprit appears to be the SRAM chain link. I'm going to take it to Bicycles Inc on Sunday to get an idea of what needs to be done.

11-21-2010 to 11-23-2010

No rides. I was busy running around with Jamie and the family as well as trying to get some work done. I made some great pot roast on 11-22 though.

11-24-2010

Jamie and I went to Knobbies and Slicks in Colleyville and spoke with the owner, Bud, for about an hour on what I want to do with my Monocog upgrades. I wanted to see a Niner fork, but was treated to a air carbon fork and frame! The bike was super light and felt awesome. The fit and finish on this bike is phenomenal. I can't wait to eventually to buy one. It was kind of strange because I went in looking for the fork and came out wanting a wheelset and a fork.

11-25-2010

Thanksgiving got cold! It was 61 degrees at 6:30 AM and the temp dropped into the 30s by 8. Jamie, my sister, my brother in law, my nephew, my brother, and I participated in the Fort Worth Turkey Trot 5k "run". There were tons of people out and participating at this event. We all had a good time and walked and jogged where we could. Jamie and I finished together at about 42 minutes. Not a fast time, but she and I certainly haven't been running in some time (years). It was great to get out with my family for the event and I found out Jamie and I can participate in sporting events without getting on each others nerves!

We spent the afternoon getting ready for dinner and preheating some food. We had a big dinner with my parents and siblings, my nephew, as well as my grandma and aunt.

11-26-2010

I drove the wife to work and I got quite a surprise on black Friday when I was driving down 287. I pushed the clutch and it was rock hard. I pushed again and it was on the floor. AA and Eric came to bring the Jeep back to the house. 

We took some interior things out of the jeep to gain access to the transmission.

11-27-2010

Since I had replaced the clutch master cylinder earlier this year or late last year I didn't think the master cylinder could be the problem, which left the slave cylinder as my primary suspect. The slave cylinder is very handily located inside the transmission. In order to get the transmission out all you have to do is remove the front and rear driveshafts, the starter, the shifter, the center console, skid plate, and the 8 bolts that range from 19mm to torx to 1/2.

After we took it all apart and put it back together all while laying on a very cold floor for 8 hours, the bleeder valve would not budge. Eric and I both worked on it for a half an hour and couldn't get it to move. At 6, we called it a day and by 6:30 I was showered and asleep. We were both cold, sore, and very tired.

11-28-2010

The bleeder valve was a non issue today.  It came off immediately! Eric and I wrapped up the clutch issues and had everything back together and working by 3. We gathered borrowed tools and returned them. I was back at the house and getting ready for dinner by 4.

11-29-2010

Today was spent wrapping up things around the house and getting ready for my trip back to Florida.

11-30-2010

I was able to get everything together and packed before I had to leave for my afternoon flight. I'm ready to get back to riding in a warm climate!  I was able to clean my messes up at the house and even get the tree into the house and set up for my wife to decorate.