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