Day 7.0

Had a good ride today, it was my first day out on my new bike! It was pretty hot out when I was in the sun, but it was comfortable over all. Its incredible how much smoother my new bike rides. The carbon fork and zertz inserts really make it. Its easier to ride a lot faster, but I think I'm going to have issues pushing to hard. I was pretty beat on the last few miles just because I'd been riding so hard. Overall it was a nice ride and I love my new bike!

Todays stats:
32.24 miles
1 hour 57 minutes 29 seconds
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Out at the trail head with my new secteur!
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day 6.0

Glad I finally got out again today, it had been a bit to long. Ride to school was pretty hot, I've never really appreciated how hot it was everyday till I had to ride in it. Got home and cleaned up and watched a few episodes of It's alway's sunny before I headed out again. I took the Olentangy path and on the way back took the alternate trail head route and back to get a few more miles. I still had to do a couple laps, but it was much more pleasant. It was pretty cool by the time I headed out which was nice. I'm heading to the bike swap at the crew stadium on Friday, I hope I can find what I'm looking for at a good price!

Todays stats

31.26 Miles

2 hours 5 minutes 26 seconds

Day 5.1

Made it to class pretty fast today, While I was home for the weekend I got a pair of biking briefs. They are proving to be very helpful! I got caught in the rain on the way back and stopped at Alex's house till it cleared up. Had my closest experience with a car door on high today by sushi rock, apparently the fact she drove a Lexus means she can open her doors whenever. Luckily it looks like there won't be any rain tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to get out again.

Todays stats:

12.23 Miles

1 hour 2 minutes 15 seconds

Update

I was home for the weekend and didn't have a chance to get out this past Friday. I keep trying to head out today but every time I get a few blocks from my place the rain and lightning pick up again. There is still plenty of day light left so hopefully it will clear up and I'll be able to make it outside!

Day 5.0

Once again, today was a real scorcher. The commute downtown was a little more comfortable than yesterday, but heading home was awful. I believe it topped at around 94, and the humidity was unbearable. After I got home I tool Alex M to the airport, it was my first time really driving Columbus since I began riding everyday. I forgot how bland landscapes are in a car, I also forgot how comfortable and relaxing seats and an air conditioner can be. After I got home, I headed over to Robot house to meet Mike for a ride. On the way there I was waiting at the Neil and 9th light when a fellow cyclist decided to not stop and rather roll forward to make sure there were no cars coming and continue through. Unfortunately for him, there was. He was luckily going slow enough to "stop" in time, however he stopped using his face. He got up and appeared to be ok, it was hard for me not to say "thats why we obey stop lights". I opted to take the high road and ask if he was ok, he made up some bullshit excuse and then said yes, thanks. Me and mike headed down the Olentangy path once more. Made it to the trail head pretty quick. The picture is of Mike and his vintage Shwinn resting on the giant stone we rest at before we start on the journey back. This was Mike's second ride with me, he has some interest in pursuing my dream Columbus to Cleveland bike camping trip in the future. I'll once again have to face the heat on my commute tomorrow, but then it's back home for the week with a few Columbus friends to show then country living!

Todays stats:

30.23 miles

2 hours 1 minute 37 seconds

Day 4.1

Man, all I can say about today is the commutes are not fun in 95 degree weather. Headed downtown for class at about 12, when today was at its hottest. The ride in was ok on the way in, not to much traffic. I've started using First to cut over instead of Buttles to get to Park street, it's a lot less crowded and the roads much better. It was nice to get to class and sit inside the air-conditioned room for a few hours. The ride back was really treacherous, very hot and uncomfortable. Unfortunately I have to do it again tomorrow and Thursday, but of which are supposed to be just as hot. My 30 miles certainly won't be done till dusk tomorrow!

Todays stats:

11.93 Miles

46 Minutes 32 seconds

Day 4.0

Today's ride was great, despite the crazy heat. It was still around 88 when I headed out this evening, but it wasn't to humid so it was manageable. Once again another sunny dusk here, I haven't seen Clevelandesq cloud cover since....I was in Cleveland. The first stretch of the ride was really quick. I pushed pretty hard to get out to the trail head and made it way faster than I previously have. The first hour of the ride I made it a little more than 16 miles, which beats my previous personal record at a little under 15. Today was the first day I had any real pain on a ride due to a cramp I had after me and a few other gentleman took turns drafting/leading, which is more common an occurrence than I even would have thought. Without even speaking or knowing one another we create these line's and take turns facing the wind. It's a pretty cool thing to be able to do that with strangers. I finished up with laps once again today. Unfortunately the bike path is closed heading south when it gets to Campus, they are doing a lot with the roads by the medical center so I guess they decided to do the bike path with it! I'm sure it will be nice once it's finished, but for now it means more laps are in my future. I really hope to get a pair of bike shorts in the near future, I feel my comfort level will drastically increase with them. Still in the process of getting a new bike, hopefully there will be some good deals at the bike swap at the Crew stadium in a couple weekends!

Todays stats:

29.12 miles

1 hour 54 minutes 29 seconds

Day 3.0

Today was a pretty comfortable day. I slept in, did some school work, and dreaded today's ride. I was pretty sore this morning from two back to back 25+ mile rides, and was worried about getting today done. Alex Mulac and I set out at 6:30 for a nice ride. The weather has been absolutely perfect here the past few days, and today was no exception. The Olentangy path was pretty quiet today; for some reason Mike and I saw a ton of people last night. We kept a pretty steady pace and actually finished today's ride faster then Monday's. The last four miles of today's ride was the first time this week I really started to feel sore. The constant riding has put a lot of strain on my legs, but they held up fine. I'm glad the Alex's and mike joined me some this week. This project will be a lot more fun with the company of friends.

Today's stats:

28.06 Miles

1 hour 51 minutes 29 seconds

The weeks stats

128.42 Miles

9 hours 12 minutes 29 Seconds

Day 2.1

Well, today turned out to be a very interesting day on my bicycle. I did my normal commute: went to class and then headed home. I stopped by a possible employer once again with no luck, then headed to Robot House because Mike wanted to go on another ride today (I think/hope he's caught the bug) so we set off on the bike path. We went a route that I hadn't taken before and discovered that the bike path goes way farther then I thought (what I originally rode out to was an alternate trail head at a much shorter distance and far less beautiful). We made it to the real trail head and turned around. That ride alone was about 25 miles, which on top of my commute is way more than what I will be doing tomorrow...and this was on my off day!

Today's Stats:

34.28 Miles

2 hours 37 minutes 21 seconds

Day 2.0

I switched around my school schedule so now instead of only having class Tuesday and Thursday, I added a Wednesday class as well. I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to incorporate my commute into my miles for the day. I road downtown for class via Neil. Unfortunately, the Olentangy path going south is closed by the Drake. My storyboarding class is going to be interesting, I'm a little nervous about my drawing ability, but I think it'll work out. After class I rode up to Clintonville and test rode a Specialized Sector and a Jamis Aurora. I've gotta say, the Jamis was the first bike I've really felt a connection with. It just felt right when I was riding it. The bike was incredibly comfortable and climbed like a champion and the ride was just super smooth. After that I visited Liz at work and then headed to robothouse. Alex Ward, Mike, and I then headed up the Olentangy path to finish off my day. The ride was slow and comfortable, but definitely not as fast as it could have been. Now we're finishing off the night with some Chardonnay and hopefully a good flick.

Todays Stats:

27.09

2 hours 23 minutes 13 seconds.

Day 1.1

I was all over the town today, and then fell back relaxing watching "A Bug's Life". It was a pretty basic commute: I headed downtown for my first day of class and then came home. The weather was iffy; very hot and overcast. I stopped by B1 bikes to see if they had any thing that caught my eye, and I must say, the GT Peace Tour is quite intriguing. I'm probably going to give it a ride soon. I took Neil in and High home; both were pretty quiet.

Todays stats:

12.93 Miles

1 Hour 2 minutes 27 seconds

Day 1.0

Well, I didn't make it back to Columbus today until around 8 P.M, so I was a little nervous about how I was going to get my ride in. By the time I had brought all of my stuff back inside and made it out on the road it was about 8:30. The only riding I've really done at dusk and onwards has been commutes through campus/downtown via High, so I never really knew how wonderful of a time it is to ride. The temperature was great; it's a beautiful time. I actually ran into a few guys I would ride with up and down high last quarter because we all had about the same commute time. They we're heading up to worthing so I rode with them lots of the way. Their pace was quite a bit faster than I was used to, but it was quite nice. I never really understood the allure of racing no matter what the vehicle was, but tonight sort of gave me a glimpse. It's a great feeling to kick up gears, push yourself hard, and move up in a group. It started to get pretty dark, so I turned around at about the 6 mile mark on the path. By the time I made it to the Buckeye Lot I was at about 13 miles. The lot is very well lit and one lap is about .80 miles, and it's a very fast comfortable ride. The rear wheel wobble on my Trek is really starting to be a problem. I'm in the process of finding a new bike, however. The last few laps started to get to me but once again: overall the ride was pretty comfortable. Well, I head to my first day of class tomorrow downtown, but other than that it should be a pretty uneventful day!

Todays stats

26.06 Miles

1 hour 58 minutes 9 seconds

Day 0.1

I had to head downtown today to drop off some stuff for a client. Instead of taking the bike path I opted to ride the streets. I had to stop at Robot House to fill up my tires because my pump was there from when we had our mini Bike co-op day working on all of our friends stuff. My tires lose air pretty fast, which is a pain especially since I got a new tube/tire a month or so ago. After a week my tires lose about 30% of their air. Oh well! I took high street going downtown. I love riding through short north. There is a real sense of community, it looks nice, and most cars are willing to give bikers the space they need. As soon as I passed Nationwide, my gear side pedal actually snapped off. The end cap fell out a couple weeks ago so I figured it was only a matter of time. It was only a couple blocks over to B1 Bicycles and they hooked me up with some new pedals for a pretty good price. I really like B1. It's mostly young guys who just love bikes that work there and are always nice and willing to help. While I was there I looked at a couple CAAD 9's and some Bianchi bikes and talked to one of the guys about what I should be looking at. I really like the Bianchi's, and a few are in my price range, but I also really like the specialized Allez, which I should be test riding sometime next week. I made it to the south side on 3rd to drop off the DVD's to the client and started back via High. I'd never really ridden high street that far south and there's quite a bit more traffic, but the road is also much nicer. I made it back home pretty quick and now I'm waiting to head back towards campus to meet up with some friends before going to a Kevin Smith show I've been anticipating for months. I'm heading back to Geauga county tomorrow to help my aunt with her landscaping for some extra cash (most of which will go in my new bicycle fund!). I'll probably do a little riding while I'm home, but not too much. My bike there doesn't have a cycling computer so I wont be able to track anything. However, once I'm back next Monday I'll start with my 26 mile ride and get ready to keep my nose at the grindstone!

Todays stats

15.32 Miles

1 hour 22 minutes 26 seconds

Day 0

Just got back from the test ride. Ended up doing almost exactly 25 miles. Unfortunately, the Olentangy path from where I get on (Lane Ave.) to the end of the path in and back is only 20 miles, so it looks like I'll have to go to the end and then some extra going south towards downtown too as I add miles. The ride north on the path is great though, Columbus has done a great job with it. It is a great example of Urban nature. I would have tried heading the other way today but it was starting to rain, so I decided to finish the last 5 miles as laps on the road behind the schott so I could get home quickly if it got really bad. I won't say the ride was a piece of cake, it certainly took a little out of me, but it was still comfortable and I think it's a realistic starting point for this project. So it looks like next Monday I'll be starting with 26 miles!

Todays stat

25.09 Miles

1 hour 55 minutes 29 seconds

Ideas

Well, I had this idea on the drive back down to Columbus with Liz on Father's Day. I've started riding a lot again since April, thanks to a hand-me-down Trek road bike from Frank Jacobson. I've done quite a few 20+ mile rides during that time but have yet to really push myself. So here's the idea: today I am going to ride a comfortable distance that I feel relatively safe riding. Chances are I'm going to start off at 25 miles, riding mostly on the Olentangy Green Way Path. Assuming the 25 mile ride goes fine, starting next week, every M W F I will do a similar ride, the difference being I will add one more mile each day. On T TH and weekends I will also try to ride as much as time and my body allows, but I don't want to end up killing myself. So, this is what I'm planning on doing right now. I'm about to head out for my ride actually. Normally, I'll try to get out long before 1pm, just had some work to catch up on this morning and I also like to sleep in!