This last Sunday had to be one of the more spectacular days in the current 2012 year, with a mild breeze blowing out of the south east I decided to take a bike ride along the Jordan Parkway. I was surprised at the number of people out already on the trail at 11 o'clock in the morning.

After a short commute from my home North of the 1700 S. trailhead I rode along headed towards the South I made the choice take the loop down around Decker Lake, just about every nice weekend you will find the model boaters out there running their RC boats so if you have never seen it before then make sure to stop by.  They are very fast. But I was there for a different reason, the ride.   I  headed once around the lake and back to the Jordan Parkway trail and southbound once again. Good news for those that did not like the trail section from 3500 S. Curving along the river this section was rough from all the roots, smooth now!

Farther down the trail after crossing 3900 S. about 4/10 of a mile North 4500 S. you will find about 200 yards of dirt, it appears that they're doing some trail renovation there and  should be completed later when weather permits. If you riding a road bike or rollerblades this will be a section that you want to walk through. Continuing south you won't find much change in the trail system. One thing I found for sure was that the my conditioning was not as good as I had thought it was, so at the loop west of the Murray Park Willow Pond I made the turn you head back, 14.5 miles at this point leaving me slightly over 10 for the return.

On the way back I managed to spend some time pacing the River flow, about 4 miles an hour along the section just behind the Ox Bow prison facility. I was actually surprised to see how full the River was this early in the season and with more storms coming some of the lower lying areas could experience  flooding of the trail.

Late last year when using my Garmin with a heart monitor I found many heart readings missing.  After reading articles that elude to static from the clothing and a variety of other issues I just knew there had to be a better reason. What I found was causing the problem is when wearing technical shirts they remove most of the moisture rendering the sensor pad ineffective. I spent some time researching this and  found a product called ”Spectra 360” this is available from Amazon in a 8.5 ounce tube for just over six dollars.  You do not need very much this on the pads to work properly, this last time I applied it to one side and then rubbed the two together and had the same performance as if I had applied it to both.

Since using it on the last 4 rides I feel confident that the intermittent signal is now gone. My basis for that conclusion is found in the Garmin base camp software. When I download the information from the Dakota 20 no longer do I find lost heart rate information. Being able to compare the same ride and see the actual heart rate averages shows my conditioning as it changes. So if you're having trouble with your heart monitor and wetting the pads is not working for you get Spectra gel 360, you don't need to use very much I found. Any of the strap type heart monitiors could benefit from this, while my Polar was good it did become intermittent and I found moisting the strap again would help. Now its solid through out.

I noticed the other day that performance bike is opening outlet in the building that houses Office Depot in the West End. Rumor has it that the opening date is April 1. I know They Own Bike NashBar a well-known online supplier.

looking north on the dirt section