31 Dec
A Month on a Bike
Just noticed that my 2007 hours ridden was 625.
That’s 26 days, just shy of the entire month of February spent on a bicycle.
Ain’t life grand?
Archive for December, 2007
31 Dec
eleventy1eleven(.eleven)
And there it is: 11111.11 miles for 2007. The .11 was kinda sorta on accident and 111% on purpose.
I went out for a path ride since it was sunny and finally went over 40°. I needed 18.54 miles and a complete path loop from my house is 16.5(ish). To get the other 2 miles I went up north of the house to get on the path instead of taking the closer access to the south.
Despite the sun and slightly warmer temps, I dressed a little heavier than the last two days on purpose. I wanted to keep this ride light and easy. I’m plenty spent from the previous day and wanted to to a Monday Stroll and enjoy the sunshine. That and think about what to do with 2008.
31 Dec
Reaching the Light
There really IS light at the end of the tunnel. I have been able to see it for first months, then weeks, then days. And now the dark tunnel is at it’s end, the light has been reached.
It’s unbelievably rewarding, and an overwhelming relief, to achieve a goal. And this goal is especially sweet. All the hard work. The blood, the sweat the tears. The hard work. The mental and physical stresses. All culminating in a final push to cross the finish line.
30 Dec
Another cold one
Went out for a basic, winter afternoon ride on my Bradford loop. With 48 miles to go I wanted to get 25-30 in, and I ended up with 30. I didn’t have much of an agenda other than covering the miles, but as I got to the edge of town on the bike path, I kinda sorta felt pretty good. I was more positive than I’ve been in a while. The overall stiffness and soreness I’ve been feeling from so many hours on the laptop had faded just a bit, and the legs felt good.
So I found myself pushing the pace and actually making a ride out of my ride. I dressed the same as the day before and the conditions were the same, but instead of being chilled the whole time I was actually starting to cook a bit.
30 Dec
myspace sucks
Just for fun I signed up for a myspace account. Why? I wanted a quick way to look at the various bands I like to go see. What they’re up to, when/where the shows are, etc. Figured I’d also link it to my blog site. But never mind.
I’ve spent a couple hours poking around in it and it’s completely unintuitive to figure out a) how to do anything and b) how to actually make ‘myspace’ look like MY space. HTML and CSS? Great. No big deal. I can HTML/CSS circles around most people. But HTML/CSS where? Why the hell does anybody use that stupid ‘website’? How did they ever manage to sign up a dozen accounts, let alone millions?
29 Dec
Shall We Dance, Lance?
Just saw today’s poll on bicycling.com…
After doing the NYC Marathon, what should Lance’s next challenge be in 2008?
29 Dec
Cold Cut in Half
I was going to write this blog about what a crappy day it was. Cold, windy, cold, gray, cold, ugly, cold. The whole time I was out there I was thinking about Craig and Crilli riding down in Albany to the tune of 70 degrees… plus. Bastards!
I tried to make myself feel better by thinking, “at least I don’t have to sit in the car for 10 hours to come home after my ride. When I get off the bike, I’m home.”
28 Dec
Stuck on 93
Two days have gone by with no riding… I decided I’d build a little suspense. Will I make it?
OK, since I can go out and ride 93 miles at just about any time in the next 3 days, maybe it ain’t all that suspenseful.
Basically I just never got around to it. Thursday was pretty much work until your body aches, and today I had other plans and it was a crappy rainy day anyway.
27 Dec
Weather Stickers (updated)
I added a couple of Weather Underground current conditions panels to the sidebar there. I really like the fact that WU has the capability for people to add Personal Weather Stations. That New Carlisle one is out on our Green Rt. and the temp is a damn good indicator of what our daily rides will really be like.Unfortunately, the wind indicator on that particular PWS seems to be way too low all the time. Not only compared to personal observation, but to other WU locations and other websites.The other thing I don’t understand is why have a panel that only shows temp and wind. Then they have that big ugly static icon and no indication of what the weather (precip.) conditions are! There are other choices for the panels, but none fit my column width. I’d switch to weather.com or some other, but the whole point is to have the PWS that are actually local and and hopefully accurate.Guess I’ll keep looking into it…
Just figured out what I’m doing wrong here. If I want current PWS information AND forecast conditions, I shouldn’t use two PWS stickers. Duh. I should use the New Carlisle PWS and then a forecast sticker for Tipp (or Troy or Piqua).
26 Dec
Cold Path
Got in a quick ride just before sunset.
All day long the sun looked warm and inviting, and the temp hit mid-40s. But my non-work work-day dragged on longer than I expected. I headed out for an hour long ride on the path here in town. I dressed for the 45 and sun, which was kinda silly with it being so close to dark.
As a result I was a bit cold and uncomfortable. I kept the cadence up and made the best of it, and came in with just shy of 18 miles and just shy of an hour.
25 Dec
11 Kilomiles
Got an invite for a noon X-mas day ride out at Process, but I was pretty sure I couldn’t swing that. Instead, after I replied that I couldn’t swing that, I thought I’d go out for a Christmas Eve Full Moon Nite Ride and search for Santa Claus.
The more I thought about it, the less interesting that idea sounded. The bike and half my stuff was out in the team car, it was only 23 degrees, and I figured the in-laws, who aren’t quite as used to my silliness, might freak out if I was going in and out of the house that late at night and/or would worry.
25 Dec
Happy Anniversary, Heart!
Forgot to mention that Sunday was the 5 year anniversary of my Angioplasty.
Every time I get/read/see/hear/give myself advice on what I ‘should’ do, or what I ‘need to do’, or what I’m doing right, or doing wrong, I just look at [today] vs. Dec. 23, 2002. Better yet, I look back at June 30, 2002; the day before I started my Atkins diet and got (back) on a bike.
