Homemade Parallettes

So after my first attempt of making a medicine ball I caught the bug to make my own parallettes.  This week has been crazy busy with school so after I finished my test this morning I was itching to release some creativity.  I found a good free reference on the Crossfit Journal that you can find here if you're interested.  Then I went to out the home store and bought my supplies.  I only needed the PVC which came out to $23ish.

Once I had everything all that was left was to measure, cut, and piece together.  You could cut the PVC with a fine tooth hand saw, but I ended up using my saw-zaw.  It buzzed through the pipe like butter and made for quick work.

There are two 24 inch, four 8 inch, and eight 5 inch sections when it's all said and done.

Here is everything after I cut it all up.  You'll notice that I'm missing two 5 inch sections.  Well I'm not sure how it happened, but I didn't cut the last cut.  You can see the left over pipe on the top corner of this picture.  Good thing I didn't mess up because every inch of the 10 foot pipe was used.

After cutting all that was left was gluing and fitting it all together.  Here is one drying on the drive way.

And here are both of the completed parallettes.  I'm very excited to use them.  The Crossfit article even provides a nice list of exercises that they can be used for.  I originally was just thinking full range of motion push ups, dips, and L sits.  Turns out there is a lot more you can do with these.

Anybody else have experience with parallettes or making your own workout equipment?

UPDATE: Road I.D.

So I'm coming up on three months of owning a Road I.D. and I have to say that thus far I'm impressed.  I can honestly say that I have faithfully worn it 98% of the time I've owned it.  The only times I can recall NOT wearing it is when I had to get really dressed up.  Other than those times it has been around my wrist morning to night.  That being said, due to its light weight and soft feel I hardly register it being on my wrist.

It's also held up better than I  expected.  I've worn other bracelets made from similar material (talking to you Live Strong Bracelet) that broke in a month.  The Road I.D. has proven to be very good purchase.

First ride with the Road I.D. (end of July)

Stroking it hard down the Slalom River (August)

Apple Orchard Adventure (September) 

Missouri Warrior Dash w/ the Crossfit St. Charles crew (October)

Since nothing is ever perfect I do have to comment that the while the stainless steel i.d. part of the band is practically bomb proof.  It does cause the band to rotate on my wrist at times and the information part faces the bottom of my wrist.  This isn't a big deal since scratching the i.d. portion of the bracelet is nearly impossible during normal use, (I have yet to put a scratch in mine) it is frustrating at times.

Okay so there you have it.  From bike rides to mud runs and everything in between this could be the best $16 I've spent in awhile.

Homemade Medicine Ball

Have you looked to see how much medicine balls are online?  Holy cow they are expensive!  One site that I looked at had 20# balls (hehe) for $100+!!  Now I know that there are some out there closer to the $30-$40 mark, but I like to do things myself and often times make things more difficult than they should be.  Sometimes it works out and sometimes it's a miss (my wife loves my little adventures) but I'm happy with the results this time.  The pictures aren't the best my lighting was terrible this evening.  None-the-less check it out!

So I went to Wall-Mart and picked up some supplies.  A rubber basketball, Gorilla Tape, a box cutter, and liquid nails, and sand that isn't shown.  I think everyone knows what sand is.

First thing I did was deflate the basketball.  Hind sight it didn't really make a difference, but safety first!  Ok so then I cut a triangle in the ball at the valve cut off the valve and placed an empty bottle in the hole I made.  This served as my funnel for the sand.

So from here I just filled it to my desired weight of 20# and then I had to seal the hole I made.  Insert liquid nails.

I know it's not the most good looking seal, but it's functional.  Once the seal dried I began to wrap the whole thing in the gorilla tape and BAM.  Done!

It's not the prettiest thing, but it cost me around $10.  Can't beat that!

Thursday August 25 2011

Bike

Yesterday I went for a leisurely early evening bike ride with Stacy and my biking buddy around our neighborhood.  Sticking mostly to the back roads to avoid the rush hour traffic we meandered around and were able to clock 11 miles in under an hour.  Like I said it was more of a "cruising" ride than actively biking.  I wasn't going to complain though because prior to our ride I had been finishing reading my Microbiology homework and re-writing notes from class earlier that day.  After 4 hours hunched over my kitchen table exercising my mind I was ready to stretch my legs and exercise my body!

This morning I was resolute in waking up and hitting the road on my bike at 5.  I wanted to see how well my new lights worked on my bike.  Good thing I woke up and tossed my butt outside because it was beautiful this morning.  Dark, quite, the sky full of stars, crisp air, and no vehicles were even on the road.  It. Was. Awesome.  I have never seen the stars as bright as they were this morning since moving to Missouri.  Back home I saw it all the time because the light pollution was practically zero; I grew up in a small town.  There wasn't a cloud or even a haze in the air this morning everything was in High Definition!

Gear (quick light review)

I jumped on my bike and took off going what felt like a million miles an hour.  It's awesome how much faster it feels you're going at night and you can't reference objects.  I had to make a small adjustment to my front light and point it down a little farther, but because the straps are only velcro it was easy to do on the fly.  I didn't think I would like the velcro straps, but they've proved to be handy already.  The white front light is blindingly bright and the rear red light is better than nothing.  I'm a little disappointed in its brightness, but with the flashing setting used I think it does the job.  It's better than nothing and if I was going to be on back roads with absolutely zero ambient light I would upgrade to brighter and larger lights.  You cannot ride (without difficulty) with only these lights.  They don't illuminate the path ahead of you far enough in my opinion making avoiding potential hazards difficult and last minute.  

Bike

My ride was nothing special, clocking just a hair over 9 miles, but it was a good time and great stress reliever.  Anytime on my bike in my mind is awesome no matter how quick it is.  There is nothing like starting your day on the right foot and biking or running is my "right" foot in the morning.  It puts me in the correct frame of mind to tackle my day and it's safe to say I'm addicted.  I've never been a morning person and still to this day if I wake up early and do nothing I'm miserable.  Throw in a light workout during the morning and I'm feeling great; it's crazy.

Have a great day everyone!

Spok Light Set

New gear!  So with darkness beginning to set in earlier and sticking around longer, I picked up a Spok LED light set for my bike from the REI in Boise, ID.  

I had a couple hours to kill before my flight and rather than sitting in the airport I decided to look for things I can't get at home.  Anyway I've attached the lights to my bike and I'm satisfied with the mounting.

It's definitely not the best mounting system - I use the word "system" loosely - but it will suffice.  The lights mount to your bike via a long tooth velcro strap.  This allows for great flexibility for differing handle bar thickness but might be viewed as lackluster to some.  For $20 bucks though I'm not going to complain to much...yet.  OK maybe just one quick "observation" on the rear mount.  The light mounts to the bar that your seat is on which forces it to be sideways.  Time will tell if this will work or if I will have to rig my own mounting to move the light somewhere else.

I won't regurgitate the specs, you can find them here.  I will say however that the lights are very bright and will work well for drawing motorist attention.  If you're looking for an actual light to brighten your path when riding then these aren't for you.  I'm taking them out tomorrow morning for their first ride and will have a review on them afterwards.

Road I.D.

Is it Christmas!?  A new bike seat and drum roll please...I just received my Road I.D. wrist band!  This week has been pretty awesome. 

OK so maybe I'm a little excited about this thing, but it's such a great idea.  For those that don't know what the Road I.D. is the name says it all.  For the times when you have no identification on you the Road I.D. has you covered.  Depending on the style you prefer I'm sure they have something to cover your needs.  Shoe tags, three styles of bracelets, and the list goes on.  They are customizable with colors and the stainless steel identification is custom engraved with what you want.  The Wrist I.D. slim runs $15.99 and the bracelet part feels exactly like the "Livestrong" bracelets.  I am excited to see how long it last, because in past when I've worn bracelets made out this material they would only last a couple months.  Granted I in the past I only paid a couple bucks for them, unlike what is currently filling up real estate on my wrist.  If you missed the link at the top you can check out the link below and I will have to add an update down the road with my thoughts as I put it to the test.

 www.roadid.com

New Bike Seat!!

All right so I'm not officially signed up yet, but I have my eye on a couple of century bike rides in my area. When I was younger I rode 50 miles on my mountain bike and it sucked!  I'm hoping that 100 miles on a road bike will be better.  Either way it should be a great experience and should be fun.  In preparation for my 100 miles in the saddle I've decided to invest in a softer seat than my original shown below.  This thing is more of a racing seat and even with padded biking shorts longer rides can literally be a pain in the "sitbones"!

Enter my new seat.  A Serfas MH-RX Performance seat with I.C.S. (infinite comfort system) and let me tell you it's awesome.  It's a split seat design so that each side can move independent of the other.  This also makes the seat a anatomical channel to reduce pressure in the special areas.

The comfort is what you would expect from something like this.  I would equate it to a cloud cushioning your backside.  Pair it with padded bike shorts and you have one nice ride!  It's waterproof, breathable and made from anti-microbial microfiber.  I would definitely recommend this seat if anyone is looking to upgrade to a long distance seat.