The year in riding

I know I've been really bad about posting here.  There are things I've wanted to write about, but I just haven't been able  to make myself sit down and take the time to actually do it.  So, I figured I'd do a brief wrap up of my year in riding.  As you can see from the sidebar at left, I've done more riding this year than I have in a few years.  I had some motivation, Bill (my brother-in-law) started doing triathlons almost 2 years ago and we had talked about doing a half-marathon together in 2011, but due to knee problems, I was never able to really start training for that.  As a result, we revised our goal to doing a century in 2012 (my second, first since day 1 of TOSRV in 1997, his first).  We (I) decided we'd do the Hancock Horizontal Hundred since this is a very flat century that I've wanted to do for more than a decade.  I didn't really get into the training routine until late May, and then in June I started having back problems (see my upcoming Christmas letter for more explanation) and had to switch from the road bike to the recumbent.  I never really rode more than twice a week (with 1 or 2 exceptions) and I had breaks at inopportune times (like the Alaska cruise two weeks before the century), but I still managed to ride 830mi in 2012 including 5 organized rides (plus one more that I registered for, but then couldn't ride).  Below are some of the highlights & interesting numbers.

• Tour de Cause "Challenger" course - 41.69mi, 03:16:30, avg = 12.74mph, rainy and lots of hills
• Pedal with Pete - 47.61mi, 03:00:15, avg = 15.85mph
• Lancaster County Covered Bridge Metric Century - 66.46mi, 04:43:12, avg = 14.08mph, very hilly
• HHH - 100.85mi, 06:17:54, avg=16.01mph, really tough headwind section just after lunch, but fortunately found a group to ride with
• Trek Breast Cancer Ride - 42.54mi, 03:00:04, avg = 14.17mph, I had hardly ridden in a month

• Total # of rides = 28
• Total mileage = 830.02mi
• Total time = 56:03:44
• Avg. speed = 14.81mph
• Avg. length of ride =  29.64mi
• Avg. time of ride = 02:00:08

• Rides over 20mi = 20
• Rides over 30mi = 11
• Rides over 01:30:00 =  18
• Rides over 02:00:00 = 8

50@50 final update

There are a couple of other things I'd like to post on, but I'll save that for another time (mostly because I still can't bring myself to sit down and write about how fed up I am with this election season).
I accomplished my 50@50 goal when Sherry and I took our Alaskan cruise at the end of August.  It was a great trip and our first cruising experience was great as well.

Flight log 2012-07-13

Flight review complete. Temp was a very pleasant 23°F, but the wind got ugly for the final 2 landings. Winds 140@13G22. Alt. 30.19. Did the GPS28@4I3, cirle to 10, followed by 2 touch and goes, followed by VOR-A@KVTA, circle to 9, touch and go, and full stop. I used Foreflight on the iPad for the approaches, no paper plates in the cockpit.

Flight log 2012-05-18

I got checked out on the new G1000 C172 (I last flew the old one 3 or 4 years ago) today.  Next flight I'll have Harold help me get used to using the iPad with ForeFlight on the cockpit.  Temp 24°C, wind 100@07, altimeter 30.11, clear.  Just local flight, but the plane was up at Knox County (4I3) while they resurface the runway at KVTA.  1.0 on the Hobbs, beautiful day to fly.  The AMOD didn't lock on before take off, so I don't have the Google Earth track this time.

I'm still alive

I know I've been very quiet lately. There will be some new content comng soon.