Oh?

The furthest west I've been on I-40 was in the Albuquerque area. But that was long ago, when I was a ute.

In other I-40 vicinity transportation news . . .

Just like how when you drive I-80, sometimes you're also driving over previous alignments of the Lincoln Highway and/or Overland Stage Line route.

It got cold again! It’s 29F. Time to ride.

Screw that. We are going to be in the 60s by noon.

Cycling content.

We should get in to the 60s, too, but it's the wife's day off, so prolly no ride for me (she likes to get out to do stuff together, while we don't have to cater to/put up with the foot-dragging by the kids).

Last weekend, my son (who will be 15 in a couple months) went out on his bike with his friends. I was a little pissed when I saw that he ended up almost 5 miles away, which was well outside of the disclosed/approved plans prior to him heading out. I ranged a hell of a lot further than that, in my day, so the distance didn't really bother me, but not clearing it with me did. That, and the fact that I had recently seen him riding off, down our alley, with his helmet hanging from his handlebars; he swears that he put it on when he realized, but he's in a phase where he's so goddamned concerned about his hair, looking the just right amount of unkempt, that I have doubts about how consistently he's wearing it.

How far did you range as a ute?

I can only imagine how uncompliant we'd have been with helmet laws back in the late 60s/early 70s when I was a ute riding around Northern Adams County on my Ten Speed. Back in those days I had hair, and lots of it.

I had an appropriate amount of hair as a ute.

I have a beard and have stopped cutting my hair until further notice. I'll be retired this summer so who cares.
#Rebel

It's kind of sad when olde people just let themselves go.

My best buddy and "twin separated at birth" texted me from the hospital yesterday. His watch detected an irregular heartbeat, so it contacted 911. He was helicoptered from the boonies to UCSD Medical.

This morning, he's "converted to sinus rhythm". A relief. Looks like classic atrial fibrillation, the bane of us aging endurance guys.

With all the riding I do, atrial fibrillation is the one thing I worry about the most. Risk increases with total training volume.

When exercise becomes risky for AF:

• > 2000 lifetime hours of exercise
• > 10 hours per week
• male

Check, check, and check.

To divert from food, cars and non-cycling sports:

Had a good group ride on Monday with 15 of the usual slackers with the temp hitting 70.. Did 48 miles with 2000’ gain. The group must have been feeling good since I wracked up a bunch of PR/PBs on a well ridden route. Split off from the group at mile 43 to visit a bike shop to see what SWorks bikes and high end Specialized they had of which they had one in size ‘tiny’. So was sad that they had nothing for my 6’1” self to test ride, so continued the ride on the Bianchi. Decided to explore the tony area north of the University of Washington, called Laurelhurst. Simply gorgeous old school wealthy homes, many with views of Lake Washington. Went down a few steep hills to see if I could ride along the lake-front to keep running into dead ends with hefty climbs back up. It was worth it anyway and got directions out of there from a wonderful woman working in her garden - which must be an exception considering the army of landscape vehicles I saw on just about every second street. Finished the ride after riding 21.5 MPH average for 5 miles since the legs still had it. It was a good day.

Good book to read is “The Haywire Heart.”

Luckily Afib is not a life threatening heart arrhythmia.

Do you patronize Ye Olde Bike Shoppe before going to the theatre?

Warner weather coming our way too. We won’t be here to enjoy it, heading to California on Friday in the wee hours of the morning.

Haven't been to either in a long time. Even if I did it's unlikely I would combine the two in one trip.

Not sure. Probably in the 8-10 mile range. Looking at a map, I was about 6 miles away from home when I broke my collarbone and had to ride, one-handed, all the way back. That was at the end of summer, before 5th grade. Ah, good times.

I am fairly certain that the first time that I wore a cycling helmet was shortly before joining BF. Never as a child through to being a young adult, commuting 12 miles, each way, to work. It just never occurred to me until I decided to get back in to it, while living in NYC.

There's a Lake Washington in Washington?

There's also a Mt. Vernon, WA; and a George, WA which has a gorge a couple miles to the west.

Yes! I bought that book when I was having lots of PACs (PVCs?) and edema in my legs. Lots of good info there.

I'm glad Afib won't kill you outright. But it can mess with our ability to do our favorite pastime. A super strong guy I know got Afib, had a stroke that messed up his vision, and now he can't ride.

I bought my first helmet with my first grownup bike, back in 1995 or so. By that time most riders seem to have adopted them. AND a coworker who was a much more serious rider than I was had an accident and busted his helmet, and it occurred to me that I'd rather bust a helmet than a head!