schedule

I received in the mail yesterday my official welcome packet for my membership in the UltraMarathon Cycling Association. So now I have my member number, the official welcome letter and a submission form for submitting my rides. In case you don't know how this works, and I've no reason to assume you do, for the Larry Schwartz Award as a Year-Rounder, I have to ride a least a century in each calendar month of 2008. As I posted below somewhere, I didn't get one in in January, so I already need a make-up ride (you get two make-up rides a year) There are two types of rides that qualify, organized rides and personal rides. Organized rides are the easier of the two. You sign up for an organized century (with a published name, start/finish time, route plan, sign in, organizer, etc.) and have someone associated with the event sign off at the end that you did, in fact complete the ride. For personal rides, you ride alone, or with friends. You document these ride by obtaining a receipt (purchase or ATM or something) at points along the route that states the location and date / time. For centuries, you should get a receipt at the beginning (or within 10 miles), 1/3, 2/3, and end of the ride. More paperwork involved in the personal ride category but there aren't organized rides around here some parts of the year, so I'll be doing some of those.

That said, I thought I'd post my planned event schedule so I'll have some personal accountability to actually get off my ass and ride. This will evolve as things happen (vacations, work, schedule changes for the rides, etc.) but here's where I stand now.

January, 2008: none
February, 2008:
Feb. 10: I plan to try my hand at a personal century. Robyn's flying out to DC that day, so I have the free time. If something happens to keep me from riding Sunday, I'm taking off work on Monday, I can try again then. (We're having warm - upper 30's low 40's - temps and sunshine for a change, I've got to ride!)
Feb. 23: the Zion Country Early Spring Century down in near St. George, UT. This is dependent on me talking my friend and riding buddy, Jason, into riding this with me (so I can talk him into driving!) and whether we can get down to St. George on Friday night (start time is 8 am Saturday.)
March, 2008: nothing scheduled.
April, 2008:
April 26: the Cactus Hugger Century also down in St. George.
May, 2008:
May 3: the Ghost Town Riders Century in Tooele, UT. This one is personal. The 2007 Ghost Town was my first attempt ever at a century. We had temperatures in the low to upper 20's, sleet, snow and 20-30 mph winds. We (Jason and I) abandoned after ~68 miles. Thanks again to the family from southern Utah who graciously picked us (and a few other riders huddling by the side of the road) up in their mobile camper.
May 17: the Cycle Salt Lake Century (the 2007 ride was my first completed century)
June, 2008:
June 28-29: the Bike MS Harmon's Best Dam Bike Ride in and around Logan, UT. I'll ride the century ride on the first day.
July, 2008:
July 12-13: the Dual State, Dual Century Challenge in Tremonton, UT. A century on Saturday up into Idaho. A century on Sunday in Utah. Should be a good test of the legs!
August, 2008:
August 9: ULCER around Utah Lake.
August 23: the Desperado Dual my first ever double century. Two hundred miles around beautiful Panguitch, UT.
September, 2008:
September 27: the Heber Valley Century
October, 2008:
October 25-26: the Livestrong Challenge in Austin, TX.
November, 2008: nothing scheduled
December, 2008: nothing scheduled

So, that's 11 organized rides (the dual state ride counts twice, the Desperado, only once) so I'll need to ride at least one personal century. However, since I've already missed January and there are no rides that I know of yet for March, November and December, I'll need to ride at least two. And I need to ride one in March, and one in either November or December, since I can only not ride a century in two months. If I actually ride a personal ride this coming Sunday, that'll make it three personal centuries I'll need this year.

I'll let you know how it goes...


wish me luck.

cycling goals

I mentioned in my first post that I have a couple of cycling goals for 2008. The first of which is to ride a century a month. The second is to ride the Desperado Dual. Since January is just about over, I thought I'd make a little progress report.

For the first goal. I'm failing. I've ridden a grand total of ~170 miles this month, mostly in 4 1/2 mile segments, the length of my commute each way. I think my longest ride this month was a little over 21 miles. Barely a fifth of my goal. But, consider this...to qualify for the Larry Schwartz award for riding 12 century or longer rides, you're allowed two make-up rides. They do this to account for people like me, who live where there's snow on the ground this time of year (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!) and it's freezing. That means that I can now ride two centuries in some up-coming month and I'll still qualify. This is good, because it's supposed to snow again tomorrow and I have to work anyway so a hundred mile ride is out. I just wish I didn't have to mis a month already. Not a good precedent. But, I'm still excited by this goal. I'm going to do it.


For the second goal, I haven't registered yet because the registration has been suspended. Apparently, the main organizer of the Dual died after a ride at the end of December and the Color County Cycling Club, who puts on the event, has put it on hold. So, hopefully it'll still go on but I can't commit to it yet because, well, I can't. It's still in the plans, though. It'll only count as one ride toward goal #1, though.

As for where most of my January miles came from, my commute, I'll tell you a little about that. As you probably remember, it's about 4 1/2 miles each way. I leave my house about 6:20 am. It's cold and dark then. Very cold lately. The coldest actual temperature that I've made the commute in, that I can remember, was about four degrees (Fahrenheit). Wind chill? Colder.

During the winter months, I'm riding my old '81 Miyata 710, outfitted with a pair of Tioga Bloodhound cyclocross tires (ever try finding a studded 27" tire? Not easy.) They barely fit with the brakes I installed (Shimano 105's) and I had to remove the cool fenders that Robyn gave me for Christmas to make them work, but I opted for traction over dryness. Because I don't want to loose my 710 to the rust and salt gods, I wash her regularly as best I can.

What I wear is some combination of the following. Bike shorts, knee warmers, tights, winter shoe covers, arm warmers, long sleeve base later, standard bike jersey (or two) and a rain shell. Along with a balaclava, helmet, and a pair or two of gloves. I don't have much by way of proper winter cycling gear, actually/ It's all about the layering. One of these days, I'll break down and go shopping for a few choice items that I really want. If you're so inclined as to want to buy me a present, post a comment and I'll give you the list. (kidding) (unless you aren't, then post away!)

My "real" road bike is a Specialized Allez Comp, I think about a 1999. I bought it last June through a friend from CA for an ungodly reasonable price. After a winter of the Miyata, it makes me feel like I'm riding on air. It's not the best bike in the world, the prettiest, or the lightest. But she's mine, she was affordable and she hasn't let me down yet.

So, as you might have figured by now, I'm more of a cyclist wanna-be than anything all too serious; but who knows what I'll become over the course of the year. That's one of the reasons for this whole blog thing, to chart what happens. Who knows, I may take up racing! (I'll admit...I'm a little intimidated to start as a 40 year old cat-5, though.)

Hell, I may even shave my legs this year...

Hi

Welcome to my blog. Both of you.

Here I plan on discussing, so to speak, things that I'm interested in, like cycling, beer, politics. Maybe my cats. We'll see what mood strikes.

A little about me: I'm 40. I'm married (hi, Robyn!). We have four cats (three of which are black, the other is tortoise-shell, I'm told) - two boys and two girls. We also have one-three cats who've adopted our porch as a place to live - probably because I've built an insulated cat house out there for them and we feed them every day, but that's a whole other story...

We moved to Salt Lake City, UT about four years ago because of my job. Before moving to Utah, I lived my entire life in Texas, most recently Austin, though I grew up in San Antonio. My wife, she's from Long Island, NY but lived in Austin the 10 years before moving here as well.

Since moving to UT, I've taken up cycling passionately. I commute to work on my bike (even when it's 6 degrees out and snowing) and don't get a chance to ride as much as I'd like to. Oh, I only road ride, not mountain bike, though I'm thinking about someday taking that plunge. I've got a few cycling related goals this year:

1. ride a Century a month (that's 100 miles) and earn a Larry Schwartz award from the Ultra Marathon Cycling Association. More on this later.
2. ride the Desperado Dual double century down in Panquitch, UT (though the event seems to be on hold right now.)

I've also taken up home brewing (in Utah, the most repressed state in the nation, of all places). We call our "brewery" Black Cats Brews. Beer is good food. Enough said.

Hmmm. I'm sure there will be more. Like me ranting incessantly about political issues, local and national. But for now that's it. Since I kind of feel like I'm writing this to myself anyway. That said, don't forget to pick up some orange juice today. And some cat food for Squeaker.

That's it.