Bicycle 5,000 miles in 2007

Whew!

Despite the pineapple express, I eked out 91 miles this week. Off next week to the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco (I haven’t decided whether to try to bring the foldable). Barring injury, mechanical or climate catastrophe, I will finish this goal on the 21st.

After a break yesterday, I took the long way to and from work. I felt like a snot rocket, but really needed the riding time.

44 for the day, 306 for the month, 4,810 for the year.

I have four days next week when I can ride, then I’m off a week at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting. It’s gonna be close.

The second half of the month went well, too. On paper, this goal looks attainable if I can muster 4 commutes/week the first half of the month, a week off for obligatory holiday festivities on the ice planet Thoth, then 3 commutes/week through December.

As the days have been getting progressively darker and colder, I’ve had to remember how to ride in crappy weather. I’ve been taking advantage of my employer’s “flex time” to minimize the night riding. Reverting back to standard time this weekend will force the issue, though.

The first half of the month went pretty well, culminating with a beautiful ride led by John Calnan with some help from Claire I plan to ride as much as I can this month because the days are getting very short and the weather progressively worse. As I type this, I can hear the wind gusting. Tomorrow, the streets will be littered with leaves and branches. Ah, fall…

Didn’t hit 400 last month, but with today’s commute, I eked past the psychological four oh-oh-oh mark.

Last weekend’s RAPSODY helped me with mileage, at the expense of giving me spaghetti legs for this week’s worth of slooooooow commuting. I’m taking the holiday weekend off.

In 16 cycling days of August, I accumulated 608 miles. Year to date: 3,610 miles (123 days of cycling), 37.4 miles cumulative ascent.

Though July was travel-abbreviated, the extended morning commutes, Tour de Peaks, and an errand to UW pushed me past 3,003 miles through the end of July. The evening ride home from UW was fantastic. Cool weather + great sunset + protection from Sammamish River gnats = cycling bliss.

August will be my make-or-break month. I’ve already taken a week off for travel (unfortunately, two short hops, making it impractical to take a bike). I plan to get some of the mileage back by doing RAPSODY at the end of the month.

Me and my artificial benchmarks. As of Wednesday, I was 45 miles short of the midway point for the half of the year. I couldn’t ride Thursday because I had to do a dog and pony visit with a vendor, and Saturday I’m gone for a few days camping.

I rode around the top of lake in the morning. Glad I did, too, because the weather in the afternoon was terrible. I’d been watching the weather radar, hoping that I’d time my departure home in between waves. The radar was inaccurate. I got drenched.

For variety, after I went up Kamber, I continued until I hit 164th Ave, a north-south route Claire had recommended as an alternative. This was a nice change, until I picked up a thorn near SE 2nd. The street was kind of busy, it was raining, and I didn’t have the usual spare tube to swap out while the other one’s patch dries. The second hole made it more difficult to get a good seal. Eventually I used a small patch, peeled the additional plastic off it, then glued the second patch on top of it and the second hole. To be safe, I headed back west to hit the Performance shop for a couple of tubes.

The spare tube mojo work, the patch held. 2,501.7 miles YTD, which is exactly where I need to be halfway through the year. Travel takes over for the next couple of weeks, then I can get back to it.

Year-to-date seems to be on target, and I’m 133 miles ahead of where I was this time last year. I won’t be able to spike my mileage next month because of some travel commitments, but I’ll try to make some headway by packing my foldable bike on the Cincinnati trip.

As John noted, 4Q is going to be the biggest challenge.