Ridin' Steady

Been a while since I posted, time for an update....

I haven't been riding as much as I'd like to these last few weeks, but I am back on the bike, and I've ridden 4 of the 5 days this week. I'm trying to make up my massive sleep deficit, and trying to reduce my caffeine intake. Well, I'm not succeeding that well on either count, but having a couple cups of coffee did make it easier to ride home the other day. The important things are that I'm still under 250 lbs and I'm riding again.

I'm now at 504 miles for the year, which is better than last year. I haven't ridden anything over 40 miles yet, but that'll probably change this weekend. The big change is that I now have clipless pedals and "proper" biking shoes. I didn't think I'd ever become "clipped in", but I find that I'd like any advantage I can get for my upcoming suicide ride (Cycle Oregon).

You know, I don't think I talked about that earlier in the blog - I'm doing Cycle Oregon this year, a 7-day fully supported ride, 481 miles long with 28,000' of elevation gain. Yes, I'm apparently insane. They say you should have goals, and yes, I apparently took that seriously. So, I decided to spend $800 of my hard-earned tax refund (ok, we decided - the spousal unit approved it) to try to kill myself riding up some of the most beautiful land God put on this green Earth. I'm really looking forward to it, and I know it'll be the ride of a lifetime and something I'll never forget. At 2,000 riders, it'll be somewhat smaller than Seattle to Portland, which has 9,000 riders, but still a pretty populous ride.

So, the stats:

This morning:
12.42 miles
12.3 mph average, 30.1 mph maximum
1:00:38 riding time
45 degrees F, wet pavement, overcast skies, no precipitation

2007 Total-to-date:
504.42 miles (7.42 miles/day average)
10.5 mph overall average
48:54:46 total riding time

Mechanical/Equipment changes:
New clipless pedals
New cycling shoes
New rain jacket
New saddle
New brake pads (rear)
New 1.5" reinforced road tires
Replaced broken spoke
Replaced frayed rear shift cable
Bike completely broken down, cleaned, and lubed

I will likely need a new wheelset, chain and cassette before Cycle Oregon. My bike is a 2004 Gary Fisher Wahoo, and currently has about 4,000 miles on it. I previously replaced the bottom bracket, chain rings and crankset, and I've gone through 2 sets of brake pads and a chain since purchasing it.

2004: ~100 miles
2005: ~400 miles
2006: 3022.03 miles
2007: 504.42 miles so far

This morning felt really good to bike. I did something I haven't done before - I rode with headphones. I kept them low enough that I could hear everything around me, and that seems to work ok. I even heard the Prius come up behind me on SE Umatilla, and those things don't make much noise. I didn't hear one of the cyclists come up behind me on the Springwater, but he didn't "on your left" me and I wouldn't have heard him normally anyway. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable enough with having headphones on to continue doing so, but it was nice riding today with my music. I probably freaked out the other cyclist, though, since when he passed me I was singing about eating people's brains (Jonathan Coulton's song Re: Your Brains, which is about a pack of zombies. Hillarious, click the link and take a listen).

Anyway, that's it for now...