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4,000 Miles and Counting…
Posted On Friday, September 19th, 2008 By David Veatch
Early in my ride this morning I hit 4,000 miles for the year. That may not be much to some, but it’s pretty damn good for me. Yay, me!
A Week’s Worth of Clothes
Posted On Sunday, June 8th, 2008 By David Veatch
I’m going to try something different this week. I think part of my burnout of late has been on account of missing the road bike. I like the Kona, mind you, and think it’s a fine bike, but I miss my Torelli. Spending 108 miles on it last week, and then another 75 in yesterday’s high winds (yeah, that was a treat ;) got me thinking. So tonight after dinner (spaghetti with meatballs… yummy the frak yum – happy spheres of cow), I’m going to drive (yes… drive) a weeks worth of clothing up to work so that I can take whatever bike I want to work and back this week. If it’s raining, I’ll go ahead and take the Kona. But if it’s not, you can damn well bet the farm I’ll take the Torelli. Instead of packing my panniers every evening before bed, I gather what I’ll need for the week and take it up there all at once. Pants, check. Shirts, check. T-shirts, check. Socks, check. Underwear, check. Belt, check. Shoes, check. In addition, I’m taking a (scentless) garbage bag for dirty laundry, and am keeping my unmentionables (which I’ve already so brazenly mentioned) in a backpack. more »
May the Month be With You
Posted On Monday, June 2nd, 2008 By David Veatch
Mileage Goals May wasn’t a bad month. I had 594.8 miles out of a goal of 437.16. That’s 136.06% of my goal. Not to shabby. It’s no 600, but it’s mine. Still, May was a good month for getting miles in, averaging somewhere in the rough neighborhood of 28.32 miles per day. Of those 594.8 miles, 356.35 were bike commutes to and from work, and 238.45 were training. May marked the month that I finally got ahead of the curve for my mileage goals. I’ve been playing a game of catch up since the steering wheel days of March, and on the 13th of May, I finally got back into the black. I closed the month at 36.11 months in the clear, with a 75.46 being the high point. Commuting Of the 21 work days in the month of May, I rode 17 of them, drove 3, and worked over VPN for 1. Not my best month (that would be March), but it’s tied for 2nd with both January and April, both of which had 17 days of riding as well. Training I went on training rides three of the four weekends, with the first weekend seeing back to back more »
Finally Back on Track
Posted On Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 By David Veatch
I’ve been in the red since the downtime of February in terms of keeping up with my goal of 5,000 miles this year. Tonight, on the way home, I expect to finally be back in the black! With only 4.94 miles remaining to break through the barrier into a mileage surplus, and at LEAST 7.8 miles ahead of me, only mechanical failure, a collision, illness, or a plague of flying howler monkeys will stop me! Tonight is my long route too, according to my training “schedule.” I’ll be pushing 16 miles on some leg busting hills tonight. A stiff southwesterly wind will help me on the northerly stretches, as well as the final leg home.
Taking a Peek Back at April
Posted On Friday, May 2nd, 2008 By David Veatch
Commuting to Work Great month for commuting to work. I took three VPN days and two drive days, but other than that, I was steady. I rode my Kona even on the day I had to wear a suit and give an InfoSec presentation to the Board. To date, I’ve saved $165 by riding to work instead of driving. It’s not monumental, but it’s not bad, either. Training April was a much better month than either March or February, and slightly better than January, but I absolutely have no choice but to make May and June stellar. The highlight of April was tracing the Spring Classic ’08 route from my house. A good ride, that one, especially considering I did it the day after helping the GF’s parents move. I was tired, but I was determined. Errands None to speak of. Still sans chain, so we’ll see how May works out. Thing is, I don’t get out much for errand type things, and when I do, they’re typically pretty far away. Anymore, the GF has taken it upon herself to get a lot of errandy things done, and while she does like to ride, she’s not the dedicated masochist that more »
Mileage Deficit… Increasing…
Posted On Thursday, April 10th, 2008 By David Veatch
I opted to drive to work today. I had a presentation to give at 7:30, and would have had to get up earlier than normal to get in and cool off in time to not be gross to the audience. Also, I was up late last night at Pool League. Also, I expect my new contacts to arrive today and would like to pick them up without having to take an extra hour to do so. Also, I want to take my phone in and have it repaired b/c it’s face is a little broken. Enough also’s. The upshot is that I got to within 184 miles of my target mileage yesterday for the first time since mid February, and today will see me back up in the upper 190′s again. With the weather appearing to slide into the nasty for the weekend, I may have some climbing to do again to get back below 200. We shall see. It might really be time to break out the rollers and get the indoor mileage gauge working. The GF will be proud of me if I do. I just need to find a place to put it now. Things are a more »
A Look Back at March
Posted On Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 By David Veatch
Commuting to Work March was a fantastic month for commuting to work by bicycle. The best so far, in fact. Since there are so many months in the running right now for Best Month, that’s saying a ton. Of the 21 work days, I rode 20, resorting to driving only once. The weather was much nicer. Though there were plenty of days below freezing, none got down to the tear-freezing negatives of January. It got misty a couple of times, and out and out rained on me once, but since I love that weather, it was a Good ThingTM. Training It was a terrible month for training rides. 28.07 on the first day of the month, and 56.2 the last weekend. The weather, oddly enough, was better for riding in January! I logged 147.39 miles on the weekends then. Not a fantastic number, but better than 84.27, certainly. Bah. Errands There were no errands run by bicycle for the month of March. This is probably the toughest part of cycling for me. Making a switch from recreational to utilitarian cyclist is difficult, and frankly, aside from commuting to work and back, I’m not sure I want to. I’m on the more »