The year in riding 2014

Sigh...  Ok, I did some longer rides this year, I didn't come close to my plan to ride 2000 miles this year or to ride 3 days/week.  Having said that, it wasn't a bad year, just not what I had hoped for.  It turns out I was mistaken, I thought I had only riddent 1107 last year, so I thought my final ride to bring me to 1112 put me over last year, on closer examination, I guess I rode 1115 last year, so I ended up 3 miles short of last year.  I had 6 rides of 50+ miles,

Of course, the "highlight" of this year was my collision with the deer.  I guess I didn't really write about that here, so let me summarize.  I was 42 miles into what I had planned to be another 60+ miler doing about 22mph on a flat-to-slightly downhill stretch of Palmer Rd, when a 6 or 8 point buck came bounding out of a corn field on my right, one hop and it was right in front of me with no time to react.  I'm glad I was on my recumbent and not on by road bike or I suspect I would have been hit by the antlers instead of having them pass 6 or 8 inches in front of my face.  Also, fortunately for the deer, I was on the big chain ring or I think I would have ripped its abdomen open.  The buck absorbed most of my momentum so that when I went down, I had some road rash on my right shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee and a cracked rib, but did not rip the shorts or jersey.  The only real damage to the bike was a bent large chainring and the fairing was destroyed.  This was day 4 (Tuesday) of what I had planned as 8 straight days of 60+ miles, I took it easy thereafter, I rode 26.5 on Thursday and then the Pedal with Pete 47 miler on Saturday.

Anyway, I'll summarize my year again as I have the last several.  I actually did one more organized ride this year (6), than the last 2 years, but ended up with fewer total rides this year than last.

• Ride 2 Recovery Honor Ride - 36.24mi (58.32km) in 2:22:28 = 15.26mph (24.56 km/h), Erin rode the first half, some hills right after the rest stop
• Tour de Cause, Adventurer course - 64.70mi (104.12km) in 4:52:01 = 13.28mph (21.37 km/h), I paid for lack of base mileage, the hills (~1900 feet of climbing, max grade of 9.8%), and the heat (it was up near 95°F).  I lost 0.6mph just in the last 15 miles because my legs felt like jello.
• Delaware County Friends of Trails (DCFT) - 64.54mi (103.87km) in 4:22:23 = 14.76mph (23.75 km/h), I hadn't ridden in the 2 weeks between the Tour de Cause and this one, but at least there were fewer hills (only 1055 feet of climbing), though half the climbing came in the last quarter of the ride. This was to be the start of 8 days of 60+ mile rides, it didn't end up that way.
• Pedal with Pete - 47.56mi (76.54km) in 2:53:37 = 16.44mph (26.46 km/h), I cut this one short rather than do the metric because of the thunder I heard at the rest stop, I just beat the rain back to the finish.
• Steve Barbour Memorial Ride - 60.61mi (97.54km) in 3:44:34 = 16.19 mph (26.06 km/h), humid (foggy at the start)
• Ride Deaf - 64.93mi (104.49km) in 4:19:16 = 15.03mph (24.19 km/h), very chilly and windy (didn't reach 60°F until last 8 miles, and headwind for the first 36 miles)

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• Total # of rides = 36 (down from 43 last year)
• Total mileage = 1112.80 miles (down from 1115.10 last year)
• Total time = 72:22:41 (down from 73:16:41 last year)
• Total climbing = 19,281 ft (up from 18,033 last year, but down from 21,660 in 2012)
• Avg. speed = 15.37mph (up from 15.29mph last year)
• Avg. time of ride = 02:00:38 (up from 01:42:15 last year and 02:00:08 in 2012)
• Avg. length of ride = 30.91mi (up from 25.93 last year and 29.64 in 2012)
• Rides over 20 miles = 28 (same as last year)
• Rides over 29.75 miles = 16 (down from 18 last year)
• Rides over 50 miles = 6 (up from 2 last year and 2 in 2012)
• Rides over 01:30:00 = 23 (down from 24 last year)
• Rides over 02:00:00 = 10 (same as last year)
• Rides over 03:00:00 = 6 (double the 3 from last year)

Ride Deaf 2014

Yesterday, I rode the Ride Deaf Challenge metric century.  It was very chilly at the start. Not just the temperature, but the wind.  Also, it didn't help that for 15 of the first 20 miles, I had a very full bladder which made climbing torture. Temp 50-68°F (didn't reach 60°F until last 8 miles), strong wind from NW (meaning headwind for first 36 miles), max grade 5.7%, 1323 ft of climbing, HRM zones 3-5 2:56. 64.93mi (104.49 km) in 4:19:16, avg speed 15.03mph (24.19 km/h), max speed 28.5 mph (45.9 km/h).

Steve Barbour Memorial Tour 2014

This is a ride I've never done before.  They run 3 distances, a metric century (actually 60.6), an 80 miler, and a century.  I chose to ride the metric.  It was very humid today, by far the most humid ride of the year, the fog took over an hour to burn off, temp 68-86F, wind from NE @ 7, max grade 4.1%, HRM zones 3-5 3:11. 60.61 mi (97.54 km) in 3:44:34, avg - 16.19 mph (26.06 km/h), max speed - 32.1 mph (51.7 km/h). My goal was to complete the ride in under 4 hours and I accomplished that with plenty of time to spare.

 

Pedal with Pete 2014

I went out with every intention of riding the metric century despite the encounter with the deer earlier this week (maybe I'll do a separate blog post on that later), but when I heard thunder at the 24mi food stop and my knee was beginning to stiffen up, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and decided to try to beat the rain back to the finish (which I did), so I ended up doing the 47 miler again (for the 3rd year in a row).  I actually really like the ride and it is pretty flat.  This year, despite the crash earlier this week and being even heavier than last year (by 2+ lbs, making this the heaviest I've ever been for an organized ride :-( ), I shaved another 3:23 off my time, so I guess I'm in half way decent shape.  The temperature was perfect and I was under an overcast (as the rain tried to catch me) for the last half of the ride, so conditions were nearly ideal.

DCFT 2014 - 64 miler

My 3rd organized ride of the season already.  Of course, having spent the last week at Dad's to celebrate his 80th birthday, I haven't gotten any more riding in since the last organized ride (where I already paid dearly for the lack of miles).Temp 62.6-87.8F, moderate wind from S, shifting to W. HRM zones 3-5 3:37. 64.54mi in 4:22:23 (14.76mph). First hour I averaged 14.7mph, 2nd hour - 16.1mph, 3rd hour - 14.6mph, 4th hour - 14.1mph, last 22 min - 12.6mph. I have some words for the sadist who designed the course where nearly half the climbing was in the last 1/4 of the ride. There was a stretch about 10mi from the finish where I felt like a sprinter on Hautecam.

Tour de Cause 2014 - Adventurer course metric century

I haven't ridden anywhere near as much as I had hoped for the last 6 weeks and I really paid for it after the rest stop at 49mi today.  My legs just felt like jello and I ended up losing 0.6mph in that last stretch.  There was more climbing in the first 7.5 miles than what I have in my 30 mile loop (which I've only ridden once this year).  The temp ranged from 64°F at the start to reading 95°F at the finish, though it was probably just 89-90°F.  HRM zones 3-5 3:05 though it was a little flaky right after that second rest stop and was reading in the 90s-low 110s for a while when I'm sure it was in the 140-150s. 64.7mi in 4:52:01 for an avg of 13.28mph, max grade 9.6% (even worse than the Lancaster County Covered Bridge Metric from 2012 where max grade was 7.8%, though that had 1200+ more feet of climbing than this one in total).

Ride 2 Recovery 2014

Erin & me at the rest stop

Erin and I rode the Ride 2 Recovery Honor Ride this morning.  You can read all about it over on their website, but essentially, the ride is about supporting wounded veterans, which is appropriate on Memorial Day weekend.  It is also a good reminder that as we celebrate those who gave their lives in defense of our country, there are many who made it home, but not necessarily all in one piece and not all those wounds are visible.  Remember, in 2012 (I haven't seen the statistics for 2013) more active duty members of the military died due to suicide than died in combat.  I still thank God daily that Shane made it back from his two tours with no visible scars.  It turned out to be a beautiful day to ride, temp 60.8-84.2°F during the ride itself, though it was only about 50°F as we were putting the bikes on the car.  Winds were light.  Because Erin was with me (and because, with the lousy weather the last couple of weeks, I'd ridden a grand total of once in the last 2 weeks), I decided to ride the 35 miler rather than the 70 miler.  If you click through the widget below, you'll notice several very slow miles in there, mostly on the hills shortly after the rest stop.  I obviously had some issues with some of the hills (and the fact that my weight was actually the highest today that it has been in over a month due to eating out several times this week and no exercise to speak of), though overall, I did still average 15.3mph, 36.24mi in 2:22:28 (I spent the 45 minutes at the rest stop waiting for and then sitting with Erin).  I raised a little money for the cause and the website remains open, so perhaps I can reach or beat my goal, please consider helping out at http://www.active.com/donate/columbus2014/JClausing.

The year in riding

Just like last year I did a fair amount of riding this year.  I wasn't as successful in losing weight by riding this year, but I did enjoy myself.  This year I rode a bit further than last year, but only had 2 rides of 50+ miles (and neither were over 53) and 5 organized rides again (same number as last year).  I mostly rode 2 days a week (usually Tue & Sat), next year, maybe I'll try for 3 (add Thu).

• BikeMS Central Ohio Challenge 50 miler - 52.74mi, 03:41:22, avg = 14.29mph, some rain and thunder in the middle of the course
• Pedal with Pete 47 mile route - 47.47mi, 02:57:01, avg = 16.09mph, rain for the first hour of the ride, but beat last year's time
• Tour de Donut "Full Donut" - 30.71mi, 01:43:43, avg = 17.77mph, a race where 5 minutes gets deducted for every donut eaten, I finished 2nd in raw time in the recumbent division (4th in donut-adjusted time)
• CHA Pedal for Pets - 45.00mi, 02:56:42, avg = 15.28mph, very chilly 45°F at the start
• Ride for Reason Alzheimer's ride - 47.93mi, 02:59:48, avg = 15.99mph, very poorly marked route

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• Total # of rides = 43
• Total mileage = 1115.10 miles
• Total time = 73:16:41
• Avg. speed = 15.29mph
• Avg. time of ride = 01:42:15
• Avg. length of ride = 25.93mi
• Rides over 20 miles = 28
• Rides over 29.75 miles = 18
• Rides over 01:30:00 = 24
• Rides over 02:00:00 = 10
• Rides over 03:00:00 = 3

Ride for Reason 2013

I rode my last organized ride of the season this morning.  It was called the Ride for Reason, a fundraiser for Alzheimer's research (if you want to contribute to my effort, you can do so at http://act.alz.org/goto/jclausing).  It was chilly at the start, but nowhere near as cold as the CHA ride last month.  Temp 54-75°F, light wind from the ESE which meant headwind relatively early in the ride.  I have to say, the folks at the Trek store didn't do a very good job marking the roads for this one.  If I hadn't uploaded the route onto my GPS, I'm not sure I would have been able to find the route.  I think I can count all the arrows I actually saw on the rode on 1 hand (certainly on both).  They were purple and very difficult to see.  Having said that, it was a great day for a ride and a relatively nice route.  The distance was supposed to be 47 miles because the original ride 25 years ago was 4700 miles, I missed one turn (added less than 0.1) and ended up riding 47.93.  See the details here or below.

2013 Pedal for Pets

I had registered to ride this one last year since this is for the shelter where Shane & Jen volunteered at the time, but something came up late and I wasn't able to ride it.  This year, it was pretty darn cold at the start (especially considering that we reached 92°F earlier this week).  Temp at the start was 45°F and got up to 66°F by the end of the ride.  There was a light wind out of the SW.  45.0mi in 2:56:42 (15.28mph).

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1798136

Tour de Donut 2013

Rode the Tour De Donut Ohio on Saturday. It was perfect weather and a very nice course. This is why I love these organized rides (or, in this case, race), I was able to ride with/draft off some other riders (especially nice when I hit the headwind the last 5 miles). Temp 64-84F, wind from W. 30.71mi in 1:43:38 (17.8mph), my fastest ride of the season. I was 2nd in the recumbent division in raw time (1:54:47 including donut stops, 9:50 behind the winner in the division, scroll clear to bottom of this page) which put me in the top 90 overall out of over 1000, but only ate 3 donuts (5 riders in the division ate 12 or more which knocked an hour off their times), so didn't finish in the top 3 (I was 4th, scroll down to bottom of this page) in donut-adjusted time in the division. :-(

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1766618 

Pedal with Pete 2013

And my second organized ride of the season was the Pedal with Pete Cerebral Palsy ride.  Despite rain for the first hour, going 0.6 miles further than last year (due to where I parked) and weighing 10 pounds more than last year, I managed to cut 3 minutes off my time.  It was a fun ride.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1558867

Bike MS Central OH Challenge 2013

Erin and I rode the Bike MS Central OH Challenge a couple of weeks ago. I just found the pix online today, so I'm going to put some of them up here along with a link to the ride info itself.  Erin had a mechanical problem just past 15 miles, but still managed to make it to the 2nd rest stop at 30.8 miles before calling Sherry to come get her.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1516040

Yup, I'm still alive

As I commented last year, I don't tend to post here much lately, but I am still alive.  As you can see from the sidebar, I've started riding again this year (about a month earlier than last year, though I have no plans at present for a century this year), but have not flown in far too long, I hope to rectify that this week.  I still do plan to start posting more stuff here, but have had some issues with motivation that I hope to explain shortly.

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

And another ride in the books

Longest ride of the year, 15.13 miles in 1:04:21.  I was loving the "out" part of the ride, I made the turn averaging 16.4 mph, but the head wind on the way back "in" was brutal (final average speed was 14.1mph).  Ah, well.  I'm not posting the links to runs/rides that start from home though.

I'm riding again, sort of...

For the 1 person out there that reads this, you may have noticed that my Cycling Log has some new entries in there in the last couple of months.  I have been doing some riding (and some, little, running) lately.  In May, my brother-in-law and I were talking about running in the Columbus (Half-)Marathon in Oct.  Unfortunately, shortly after we decided to do that, I tweaked my knee in one of my very early runs and was basically unable to do any training for nearly 2 weeks.  As a result, we've scrapped the half-marathon idea, but we do plan to ride a century in 2012 (not sure which one yet, part of me wants to do the first day of TOSRV, but part of my wants to do the Hancock Horizontal Hundred, we'll discuss it when I visit my sister in Oct).  So, since the knee stopped hurting I've run a few times (including a couple of 5Ks, the first with Erin, Shane, and Jen, and Sherry and Maggie walking about 2 mi; the second I thought was going to be with Jen, but she and Sherry ended up walking with the dogs and I ended up running it alone).  Given that I hadn't done a competitive run in well over 25 years (and I was at least 40-50 lbs lighter then), I guess I can't complain too much about the results.  In the meantime, the legs are feeling a little better the last couple of rides, and the avg. speed is picking up, though not yet back over 15 for a full ride yet.  No, I won't ride through the winter (at least not outdoors), but it has been kind of nice riding again.  I've ridden the Trek three times and the Stealth twice.  I need to get a new saddlebag for the Trek, I'm not sure what ever happened to the one I used to have, but I can't find it now.  I also need to fix the fairing on the Stealth, I lost a nut during the last Stealth ride.  I'm also seriously considering getting a RoadID, that would be an improvement over the 15-year-old business card I carry with me now.  The new HRM is a Garmin with GPS, so I'm getting accurate maps/distances (including elevation changes that I never had before).  Maybe sometime I'll post a route map like my flight tracks.  I'll have to think about that some.  I probably won't do that for any rides/runs that start from home, but if I do anymore competitive/organized runs/rides, I might do it then.  Here's a picture (coming in to the finish line) from the Dash for Donations 5K in July.  I look better than I felt :)

Update: I'm including links to both of those 5Ks (neither of which were actually 5K).
Dash for Donations
Dog Jog

Hoops OD and first ride of the year

Yesterday, I enjoyed the Buckeyes win over Michigan State (after upsetting Wisconsin in the quarters) in the Big Ten tournament semi-finals.  Today, the temp is around 60°F, so I decided to get the bike out and take my first ride of the season.  You can see the info in the column to the left.  It was a bit chilly and I probably would have gone a bit further, but I got a headache about 0.5 miles into the ride, so I settled for the 6.4 mile loop.  Fortunately, the tail wind was for the last half of the ride (I like those), so it overall felt pretty good for the first ride of the year.  Now, I'm sitting down to watch the Big Ten championship game (Purdue-OSU), then the NCAA tournament selection show and later this week will be the annual hoops overdose days Thursday and Friday from noon-midnight (half days of vacation both days, so I don't feel guilty).  Spring must nearly be here.

A bad day flying beats a good day doing just about anything else

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted anything here.  I got the chance to go flying on 17 Aug.  I originally hoped to fly down to Charleston, WV to visit a friend from college that I haven't seen in about 20 years, but at the last moment, she couldn't get away to meet me for dinner, so I flew locally.  One of my goals, when I get the opportunity, is to land at an airport I've never been to.  On 17 Aug, I got the chance to fly KVTA-4I3-4I9-KMNN-KVTA which added 2 new airports to my list (which now totals 37, I didn't land at 4I3, but I've been there before).  I was, however, reminded of why I prefer not to fly in the afternoon in August.  Even though it wasn't as hot that afternoon (28°C, atl 30.04, winds calm) as it has been this week, it was still pretty bumpy at 3000 AGL.  It was a pleasant way to spend 1.2 hours (on the Hobbs).  I've also been trying (though not succeeding as much as I should) to ride my bike (I'll have to put a picture of it up here soon).  My last ride wasn't too much fun, for some reason I felt lousy before I even started and my legs felt like crap for the whole ride, but I still averaged over 15 MPH, so...  I didn't get lots of sleep during the Olympics, often staying up to watch some of the live coverage until 01:00 or 02:00 (occasionally 03:00) EDT, I haven't watched much of the Democratic convention, but I'll probably post something political tomorrow.

TdF

I probably first heard about the Tour de France when I was a kid, but I didn't really pay much attention to it until Greg Lemond won it in the early 80s.  I sort of followed it during the Lemond/Hinault/Indurain years, but it didn't get a whole lot of coverage here in the US.  In 1996, one of my co-workers at the time was into it and it was much easier to follow then after the arrival of the internet.  Of course, there has been a lot more coverage of the race in the last decade with Lance's arrival on the scene.  I must admit I haven't been following it as closely this year as I'd like to.  I haven't watched every stage on Versus like in past years, though I still check the results everyday.  I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that Contador and Leipheimer won't get a chance to defend their podium positions.  Especially since about half the Astana team are ex-Discovery.  I am, however, enjoying the fact that both American teams, Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle are doing very well (Kirchen rides for Columbia, and Vandevelde rides for Garmin-Chipotle).  I hope they keep it up, but things should really get interesting starting tomorrow (the first mountain stage) with  its finish at Hautacam.  That one, I will watch live.