You say anthracite, I say bituminous
O.K. I did the bike ride. The loop up the Green, through Black Diamond and down the Cedar.
I bought a "computer" for Fidelio.
A computer is like a wristwatch with a little radio in it that picks up signals from a magnet on a wheel spoke and measures revolutions and calculates distance and speed.
Here's what it calculated for me. 56 miles in 5 hours: 30 minutes: 34 seconds.
Avarege speed 10.1.
Highest speed 34 mph
I'm sixty five years old! Sixty five!! I can kick!, stretch!, and kick! and pedal!
Take that, whoever I might be competing with in that particular arena.
Anyway the trip to the G.R. trail is where I got the high speed. It's a steep downhill run in traffic with no bike lane. From the trail to Auburn was where I managed a 11.4 mph average.
Two hours from Rainier Beach to Division and Main in Auburn.
Out of Auburn to Black Diamond was a long slight upgrade where I didn't average hardly nothin' 'cause I walked a lot. A 20 minute stop in B.D. for food and "hydration"screwed up the avg spd even more.
But, the nice thing about following river trails is that when it's time to head back, it's all downhill. Sorta.
Had to stay on the highway for a while 'till I found the Cedar River trail, and that was fun. several long down hill bits at speeds up to 28mph along side large road work trucks zipping by at 50 or so while the bike lane varied from six feet to six inches.
Lots'a road construction goin' on
Back on the trail again, I coulda' kept up a better average but I wuz tired. Still managed to pedal home.
Still can't imagine two trips like that in one day. Although , I was in better condition at the end of this run than I was after last years Lake Washington circuit.
But not much.
Possibly because I had breakfast this time (6 little sausages and two slices french toast)
Today, I get to take care of the dirty dishes strewn about the already disheveled kitchen, then work some more on the cabinets, trying to reduce aforementioned dishevelment.
Soon......another Lake Washington trip. I'm getting to like this stuff.
I bought a "computer" for Fidelio.
A computer is like a wristwatch with a little radio in it that picks up signals from a magnet on a wheel spoke and measures revolutions and calculates distance and speed.
Here's what it calculated for me. 56 miles in 5 hours: 30 minutes: 34 seconds.
Avarege speed 10.1.
Highest speed 34 mph
I'm sixty five years old! Sixty five!! I can kick!, stretch!, and kick! and pedal!
Take that, whoever I might be competing with in that particular arena.
Anyway the trip to the G.R. trail is where I got the high speed. It's a steep downhill run in traffic with no bike lane. From the trail to Auburn was where I managed a 11.4 mph average.
Two hours from Rainier Beach to Division and Main in Auburn.
Out of Auburn to Black Diamond was a long slight upgrade where I didn't average hardly nothin' 'cause I walked a lot. A 20 minute stop in B.D. for food and "hydration"screwed up the avg spd even more.
But, the nice thing about following river trails is that when it's time to head back, it's all downhill. Sorta.
Had to stay on the highway for a while 'till I found the Cedar River trail, and that was fun. several long down hill bits at speeds up to 28mph along side large road work trucks zipping by at 50 or so while the bike lane varied from six feet to six inches.
Lots'a road construction goin' on
Back on the trail again, I coulda' kept up a better average but I wuz tired. Still managed to pedal home.
Still can't imagine two trips like that in one day. Although , I was in better condition at the end of this run than I was after last years Lake Washington circuit.
But not much.
Possibly because I had breakfast this time (6 little sausages and two slices french toast)
Today, I get to take care of the dirty dishes strewn about the already disheveled kitchen, then work some more on the cabinets, trying to reduce aforementioned dishevelment.
Soon......another Lake Washington trip. I'm getting to like this stuff.
posted by Lane Savant at 8:27 AM
2 Comments:
Hi, Lane!
Glad you're still alive after going down hill @ 34 mph in traffic with no bike lane!! You need to live long enough to experience Stephen Wadswoth's staging of "Iphenegia" in the Fall. I now look forward to this Saturday's opening of Purcell's "König Artur" in my German translation from the early English original in Münster, where I#ll be accompanied by the "Lovely Librarian" who always says "Grüße an Meredith and Doug" (and from me, too)!!
-- Anonomann
How incredibly exciting that you and trusty stead Fidelio are really cranking, pedaling, and counting off those miles. Great stats for anybody, let alone a 65 year old duffer like your fine self.
Black Diamond used to be this tiny tiny town in the deepest and most rural part of Maple Valley. Now I suppose it is a suburb of Auburn and or Kent.
Anthracite (Greek Ανθρακίτης, literally "a form of coal", from Anthrax [Άνθραξ], coal) is a hard, compact variety of mineral coal that has a high luster. It has the highest carbon count and contains the fewest impurities of all coals, despite its lower calorific content.
Anthracite coal is the highest of the metamorphic rank, in which the carbon content is between 92% and 98%. The term is applied to those varieties of coal which do not give off tarry or other hydrocarbon vapours when heated below their point of ignition. Anthracite ignites with difficulty and burns with a short, blue, and smokeless flame.
Other terms which refer to anthracite are blue coal, hard coal, stone coal (not to be confused with the German Steinkohle or Dutch steenkool), blind coal (in Scotland), Kilkenny coal (in Ireland), crow coal (or craw coal from its shiny black appearance), and black diamond. The imperfect anthracite of north Devon and north Cornwall (around Bude) in England, which is used as a pigment, is known as culm. Culm is also the term used in geological classification to distinguish the strata in which it is found and similar strata in the Rhenish hill countries are known as the Culm Measures. In America, culm is used as an equivalent for waste or slack in anthracite mining.
Bituminous coal is a relatively hard coal containing a tar-like substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than anthracite coal.
Bituminous coal is an organic sedimentary rock formed by diagenetic and submetamorphic compression of peat bog material.
Bituminous coal has been compressed and heated so that its primary constituents are the macerals vitrinite, exinite, etc. The carbon content of bituminous coal is around 60-80%; the rest is composed of water, air, hydrogen, and sulfur, which have not been driven off from the macerals.
The heat content of bituminous coal ranges from 21 to 30 million Btu/ton (24 to 35 MJ/kg) on a moist, mineral-matter-free basis.
Bituminous coal is usually black, sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material. Bituminous coal seams are stratigraphically identified by the distinctive sequence of bright and dark bands and are classified accordingly as either "dull, bright-banded" or "bright, dull-banded" and so on.
For your first big solo bike ride, this one was impressive. Please be careful out there. Cyclists are rammed by cars and trucks on a regular basis, and usually you are left in the ditch where you fall. Do you have the proper gear and attire. Did you ride in biker shorts or levis or what? What does your helmet look like?
Nice to hear that you did not bump into any dead bodies along the river pathes and trails. When you stopped at Black Diamond, was it at the service station, or the Black Diamond Saloon a couple blocks away; great pool tables in there. Having that cycle computer is terrific; all those stats to throw around, and happy about, or depressed about; heavy duty stuff.
Maybe you should take water bottles and protein bars with you, big boy. Or did you? How about a cell phone so that you could dial 911 if you need to?
One fine day soon those kitchen cabinets will be completed, and filled with dishes, and life will go on.
Glenn
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