first bike ride of spring

It was a little cool this afternoon - in the 40s, I think - but the sun was shining so I decided to get my bike out and take a spin. It's always interesting how much time it takes to get ready for a bike ride when it's the first one of the season. Pumping up the tires, finding my bike shoes, shorts, jersey, tights, jackets, gloves, helmet and shades. Reattaching the bike computer and searching for a replacement battery, then resetting the computer so it's ready to record the season's mileage. I traveled about 10 miles today. I say "about" because I'm not sure of the exact distance. The computer wasn't recording during the first mile or two. Then I had to stop and reset it because I realized it was displaying kilometers instead of miles. It felt good to be out. A couple of the steep hills proved to be a good workout, with me standing on the pedals.

A dive to remember

We're on the Caribbean island of Dominica for vacation, and doing a lot of diving and hiking. Yesterday was a memorable dive day -- when the dive boat swamped and nearly sank. It was a combination of factors. Being Sunday and because we were all experienced divers, the dive shop scheduled a less experienced boat captain and dive master. Since there were only 5 divers, they used a small boat. Everyone was back into the boat after the first dive except for one guy -- the heaviest diver. (He should have been the first to board.) He climbed the ladder on the side, the boat tipped and swamped. The captain and dive master ran the bilge pump and had us all go forward, but it kept taking on water so they told us all to jump overboard. Mary swam to shore. I grabbed a spare gas can that was floating in the water and waited near the boat so I could record the adventure. No one was harmed, except for the pride of the dive master and boat captain.

Downhill ski racing

I'm not a great downhill skier but I enjoy it, especially when I get a chance to ski gates in a race. That opportunity came this past Saturday evening. There was a fundraiser race for our B.O.L.D. program so I got in a couple of timed runs. Here's video of one of them. I didn't win, but I did beat Lindsey Vonn's time that day by more than 50 seconds. :)

More fun with my GoPro HD camera

cross-country skiing at Pike Lake State Park

Nike+ report

Ken Braband ran 2.04 mi on 2/16/2010 at 11:59 AM with a pace of 7'32"/mi

Nike+ is a nice motivator while running

A couple of years ago I bought the Nike+ kit to go along with the iPod I had at that time, a first generation version. It worked fine but for some reason the battery in the sensor that you put in your shoe died after only a week or two of use. I took it back to the store for a replacement and the same thing happened to the replacement sensor so I returned it once more and got a refund on the entire Nike+ kit. Then last fall I got a new iPod because the old one finally died. So I decided to try Nike+ again with my new iPod. Now it works great and so far, no problems with the sensor dying. I use it for outdoor runs as well as indoors on the treadmill. It's nice to have the music playing as well as hearing a pleasant voice tell me when I've reached my halfway point, or have 400 yards to go, and so on. The remaining problem is that the armbands you can purchase for the newest generation iPods are inadequate. They must be made for thin women because the one I got won't even fit around my bicep -- and I'm not a bug muscular guy. I have seen that Apple offers a new armband holder for the iPod so I may have to check that out.

Ran 2.03 mi on 1/29/2010 at 11:39 AM with a pace of 8'14"/mi http://nikerunning.nike.com/n/r/en_US/2028907368/1886747844/?sitesrc=fbk_ab_plus

My first winter kayaking on the big pond

I've been wanting to kayak on Lake Michigan during the winter, and today the opportunity presented itself because the weather was too crappy for x-c skiing and some experienced kayakers were planning to go out, so I decided to join them. It was a enjoyable experience. In fact, it's kind of a kick to do something that most people think is crazy but is really not -- as long as you have the proper equipment, training, and people to provide support. It was also a good opportunity to try out my new GoPro HD camera on the water. It worked well, despite the constant drizzle that blurred the lens at times. Here's a sample.