Screw Loose?

Well, I just completed my longest ride of the year - 41 miles today. That brings my 2010 total to approx 650 miles. (I really do have to sit down and calculate this out, along with my cumulative miles.)

Today was the "Pre-Easter Ride". The Easter Ride is our club's annual invitational/fundraiser. Today's ride is for members who will be working next week to ride the routes. We had a decent showing.

Six of us decided to do the 38 mile route, with a shortcut thrown in. Since I rode 5 miles from my house (10 miles round trip) the route turned out to be around 31 miles. After starting out after the rest stop at Monee Reservoir I was having trouble getting my left shoe clipped into my pedal. So after stopping to investigate, it turns out there WAS a loose screw in my cleat, but it was completely gone - which would explain my difficulty clipping into my pedal. One of my co-riders discovered that you use the same screw on a shoe cleat as you do on a water bottle cage. Go figure. So a third rider who wasn't using his water bottle cage donated a screw to the cause. I don't remember either of your names, but I thank you. So, at the moment, I don't have any physical screws loose.

Confidential to the Cleveland Indians bullpens: ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Daylight Savings Time Starts in 6 Dayz

Then I'll be able to go out and do more than 15 miles after work.

Also, it's not supposed to go below freezing at all for the next week or so. With the rains they're predicting for the rest of the week, the trail should be ride-able.

Woohoo!

Well, I did my first outdoor ride today in 3 months today. Thanks to some Wii-ing (?) and weights over the winter (see, alliteration) my slightly broken down body held up to 23 miles. That is, no burning pain, no overwhelming need to stop and rest or those kinds of wussy things. That might not seem like much, but with some of the back issues I've had over the last couple of years, I'm actually pretty psyched about it.

Before today I had 305 miles for the year. My bike club miles run November 1 through October 31. I'll have to dust off my abacus to figure out cumulative totals but last year I ended up with a little over 2,500 miles. That is also what I had the year before.

So, on this bright, sunny, warm (for March in Chicago) afternoon, I am hoping to break 4,000 for the first time in three years.

Making Up for Lost Time

Well, so much for my pledge to blog more regularly. I'm sure both of my loyal readers will be hanging on my every word.

Ray and I went to see Julie and Julia a couple of weeks ago and it sort of belatedly inspired me to write. BTW- it's a good movie, Meryl Streep is fantastic.

Anyway, I'm finally starting to crank out regular miles - I have about 360 for the last 10 days. For most of those rides I was riding strong and keeping up with the old farts that usually smoke me. The miles caught up with me a bit yesterday when my knee started barking a bit. I guess that makes me an old fart, too. Sort of....

Anyway as of today I have 1,840 miles. I would like to get to 2,000 within the next 10 days or so. But depending on weather, I am probably going to end up with about the same mileage as last year, around 2,400. Sigh.

Maybe we'll have a nice long lingering mild autumn followed by a nice mild (by Chicago standards) winter.

Yikes, I've been Gone Awhile

Well, over a year has passed since my last post. I cannot even begin to talk about everything that's happened. Though you will notice I have hit a new milepost so to speak, as shown in the blog title.

Last year I rode around 2,395 miles. Work and health were the big culprits. I work for restructuring (bankruptcy) attorneys and business has been booming. I have also been recovering from back problems, some degenerative, some not. After two years of pain doctors, chiropractors and everything in between, a physical therapist FINALLY got me to a point where I didn't need ibuprofen to ride/recover. Thanks Julie!

I'm getting stronger again. I did a 65 mile ride with a lot of wind and we averaged 14.9 mph. If I did 28 mph with my colleagues, instead of 24 mph as we tooled down Huff road between Elwood and Manhattan, maybe I would've had 15+ average.

As I said, this year I'm feeling stronger but sadly, business is still booming. I have 892 miles for the year. I have been making the time to ride on Sundays, but I'm usually sucked dry during the week and too many times, I have a Saturday hangover (from work) to get out more. With a little luck (mostly that I don't have to work all next weekend, I'll have my 1000 by the Fourth of July.

I hope to start posting a little more consistently so my two loyal readers can keep up with my comings and goings.

I was going to blog earlier, but...

Been a little busy at work. Business is booming. If you don't already know, I work for restructuring (bankruptcy) attorneys and business really is booming.

But this morning when I was out riding, I told myself I would post something today. Just as I was sitting down at the computer, the tornado sirens went off. The tornado was still down near Wilmington and not expected near PF for about 30 minutes. I herded the cats downstairs and got on the other computer, not to blog, but to follow the storm warnings. Something passed near PF around 6:30 but I never heard/felt anything. I guess I wasn't a very good storm spotter today.

But I did get a nice 48 mile ride in this morning with Tony D despite the strong southerly winds. There was weather to the south and decided to do a loop and never got far from home. Reading the storm reports,, we were apparently riding through some areas that were hit directly with the storm/tornado.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Winds

This year, as I'm trying to get back into shape, I'm trying to do a little less on Saturday, so I don't run out of gas on Sunday.Yesterday, I did a nice ride with a couple of my friends. We pushed it a little and I ended up with just a little over 40 miles. But then I came home and worked around the house for about 4 hours.

Today, I was supposed to be the fast ride leader. I'm really glad nobody from the fast group showed up on time. My legs were like lead this morning.

I hooked up with the medium group, who were heading out to Pilcher Park. We had strong northwest winds to start the day which made Pilcher Park a good destination. Since I'm such a weather geek, I checked the National Weather Service and Tom Skilling's forecasts, and neither predicted a wind change.

After breakfast, we headed back east on the trail and lo and behold a head wind. I guess the weather gods thought I needed more of a workout. I got one. Fortunately, riding with the medium group helped. At least I wasn't going all out with head winds for 3 1/2 hours.