Flipping tractor tires...

Friday, April 5, 2013

Dan called to let me know he’d managed to get the hood on the Jeep to release, but only after taking out the headlights and going through a series of gyrations to reach the latching mechanisms that were on the outside, front edges of the hood.  I got home and prepared for the bike ride, struggling slightly with what to wear.  It was in the high forties and sunny, but the wind was blowing hard.  I decided against tights, but did wear gloves, two pairs of socks and two layers on my upper body. 

The wind normally comes from the south, but today it was out of the northeast and blowing hard.  I was riding north and east, and uphill.  It was shaping up to be a bitch of a ride…and it became all of that.

I chose to follow Mulberry east to Fowler’s Mill.  I know this road and knew that it had the longest, hardest climb on Cleveland’s east side, but it was also lightly traveled and I was riding at the going home hour.  I geared down and climbed.  The wind, knowing I was vulnerable, pushed back hard and I cursed it more than once, which had no effect.

When I finally arrived at Dan’s 80 minutes later, I felt like I’d ridden a century.  Since my time was limited though, I liked that it had been so hard.  He arrived shortly after and we loaded the pressure sprayer I was borrowing to clean Mimi’s deck when I noticed the tractor tire in his garage.

“What in the hell is that doing in here?”

“I’m using it for a workout.  I flipped it to the end of the drive and back last night.  Wow…what a workout!” he said.

“And it weighs?…” I asked.

“400 pounds,” he answered.

I told him this was just the thing for Jason’s rugby team.  What a perfect combination of strength, muscular endurance and development of core power…all critical ingredients to their sport.  New, they cost around $1,000, so I’ll tell Jason he should go for used.  The only problem is storage.   They’re kind of something you’d want to leave in one place and I don’t think the Metroparks, home of their practice field, would be in favor of it staying in their field for safekeeping.  Anyway…I wouldn’t mind having it around to incorporate into the Survival Workout, either.  Maybe we can hide it?

Bike duration:  80 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  1125.