Queueing Q&A

Q: How many years during the average lifetime does a person spend standing in line or waiting?

I had to buy new tires for my vehicle today. This job usually requires a 2-3 hour BORING stay in the waiting room as the mechanics do their magic. Instead of reading a book or newspaper while sitting around with other similarly bored customers, I decided this would be a great opportunity to sneak in another bike ride; afterall, the weather was perfect! After 19.4 miles of riding, I pedaled into the parking lot of the shop just as my vehicle was being backed out of the garage...perfect timing!! As I was paying for my new tires, I noticed several customers, bored as could be, thumbing through the the kinds of magazines that litter waiting rooms everywhere! It felt good knowing that I had managed to find a way to make good use of time that would otherwise be wasted!

A: According to this webpage, the average person spends 3 years of their life waiting in various lines.

Snow In Houston!!

Ok, ok, so I'm violating my self-imposed rule of ONLY making entries in this blog that are related to biking and me preparing for the 2009 MS150. The reason for this exception is because of the rarity of snow in Houston. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve, 2004. The time before that was........who knows!?!?!? Well anyway, here we are on December 10th, 2008 and it's snowing...and snowing rather steadily and intensely (at least for Houston). It started snowing about 6pm tonight and its still snowing 6 hours later!

I'm currently brainstorming about ways that I can mount a snowplow on the front of my bike so I can put in another 30 or so miles this weekend!

Enjoy the pictures of a rare Houstonian Snowfall!

Here's a strange sight - A snow-covered banana tree!

Same Route - But MUCH quicker!

I decided to spend my Sunday morning cruising 19.6 miles (the same route I rode on November 15th...see map below). This is my first long ride with my new bike. I finished the route a full hour quicker than I did with my old bike! Wow! Way to go, me...and my new Felt Z90 bike! I'm now looking forward to more organized rides like the "Bike the Bend for Literacy" ride I participated in a few weeks ago in Rosenberg, TX! During that ride, I was among the very few out of approximately 400 riders who were riding mountain bikes. Needless to say, I got passed by nearly everyone. But with my road bike, hopefully I'll be the one doing the passing and yelling out "Passing on the left!"

Zoom-Zoom!!!

In spite of the reference to a television commercial in the title of this entry, my new Felt Z90 bike is not a Mazda! However, it sure is FAST! I didn't have much time on Sunday, but I did get a chance to get out and take my new bike for a spin. It was a very windy day, but in spite of significant wind, I was able to nearly double my speed compared to my mountain bike! I only had time for a ride of just under 7 miles along Highway 96 (from highway 146 to Louisiana Ave. and back), but WOW, what a difference it makes to be riding a real road bike!

Now, that I have my road bike and I'm well on my way to being ready for the LONG bike ride in the Spring, I guess this is as good a time as any to encourage all of you to donate a few dollars to help cure Multiple Sclerosis. At the top right of this page, you'll see a link that says "Click Here To Donate And Sponsor My Ride in the MS150". All of the victims of the nasty disease would be very grateful for any donations that you make....and so would I!

A Yellow Bike On Black Friday

After researching several different road and hybrid bikes during the past few weeks, I finally went and test rode several of them today after work! I settled on a new 2007 Felt Z90. After riding several, this one stuck out as feeling the most comfortable! Also, this was the last of the 2007 models that they had in the store, therefore, it was on sale so they could make room for the newer models. Here's a picture of the model that I bought! Hopefully, I'll get some time this weekend to give it a spin! My old mountain bike will finally get to take well-deserved vacation!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!!!

Trivia: On average, how much turkey meat is consumed by each American per year?

To make up for the pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes that I'll have later this afternoon, I decided to go for a bike ride this morning. I left the house about 8:20 and finished my favorite 10.0 mile route in about 62 minutes. Click on the map shown in the 11/11/08 entry below for a picture of the route I took.

Clicking a few buttons on the calculator tells me that I've cruised a total of 112.4 miles since I started on October 21!

Well, I better wrap up the entry for today. Afterall, like all other Americans, I have 18.7 pounds of turkey to eat during the next 12 months...and I'm going to get a head start today!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I Biked The Bend For Literacy!

TRIVIA QUESTION: What percentage of Americans are 'functionally illiterate', meaning that they read below a 5th grade level?

I participated in my first official group ride over the weekend. It was in Rosenberg, TX in Fort Bend County (about 45 miles straight west of where I live). The ride was called "Bike The Bend For Literacy." The ride was an official training ride for the MS150 and lots of money (over $30,000) was raised for the Literacy Council of Fort Bend County. There were about 400 riders in the event. Three different ride distances were available: 19 miles, 32 miles and 59 miles. I joined the 19 mile ride since I don't yet have my road bike. It may not sound like much, but 19 miles on an old inefficient mountain bike with solid rubber tires is quite a work out. As mentioned below, I rode about 20 miles last weekend as well. When I started this adventure a little over a month ago, I told myself that when I get up to doing 2-3 20 miles rides with my old bike, then I'd buy a road bike. I expected that I'd be ready for that in mid-to-late December. Well, by that measure, I'm about a month ahead of schedule. I'm definitely looking forward to getting the new bike within the next week or two.

The picture shows the route for the Bike The Bend For Literacy ride. Click it for a larger view!

ANSWER: According to survey results on www.ftbendliteracy.org, 21-23% of Americans are functionally illiterate. However, if we all support groups like the Literacy Council of Fort Bend County that number can be much lower!

20 More Miles!

Today, I decided to try a ride of nearly 20 miles. It was rather windy, but so it goes with living along the gulf coast! Here's a map of the route. I drove about a mile to the green arrow circle and started my ride there. The numbers along the red line count off the miles during the ride. Total distance: 19.6 miles (click the image for a larger view). A few more rides like this and it'll be time to upgrade to a road bike and give my mountain bike a rest! Total distance since I started this adventure about a month ago: 79.6 miles.

Veterans Day Ride - 11/11/08

Trivia: who remembers the origin of the Veterans Day Holiday?

I had the day off work on Tuesday (11/11/08 - Veterans Day), so I decided to try to dodge the rain drops and go for a ride. I went on a similar route (but slightly shorter) to my ride from 2 days earlier. 10 miles along highway 96 from 146 to highway 3 and back again. This time the wind was stronger than Sunday but from the opposite direction. Here's a map of the ride. Nearly exactly 10 miles.

I may not get any riding in this weekend. I may be off to Florida to watch space shuttle Endeavor blast off. There is a chance that rain may delay the launch, so we may not go.

And now, a bit about the trivia question. Many of the old-timers may remember that November 11th used to be called Armistice Day. After World War II, the holiday became known as Veterans Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day to those people living in the British Commonwealth and National Day to those living in Poland. So what is the origin of Veterans Day/Armistice Day? November 11th, commemorates the armistice signed between Germany and the Allies to end the fighting on the Western Front of WWI. In spite of the agreement, some hostilities continued in Russia and southwestern Asia for a little while afterwards. The armistice, which effectively ended the first World War, was signed at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918....now you know!

Got My Kicks on Route 96

Friday night, I took a small cruise around my neighborhood (about 1.7 miles) and then took a break on saturday knowing that I'd be pedaling like crazy the next morning for my longest ride so far!

So, Sunday morning I put my bike in the back of my jeep and drove a few miles to a convenient starting location just north of the intersection of highway 146 and highway 96.

My plan was to ride the entire length of highway 96 from 146 to interstate 45 and then back again! The one-way trip is 6.4 miles. So, for those of you who who flunked 2nd grade math (you know who you are), that is 12.8 miles round trip. The outbound trip went great. It was easy and relaxing and very little traffic. I finished it in just under 35 minutes. The return trip was a bit harder as it was against the wind. That portion of the trip took about 50 minutes (including 3 1-2 minutes stops for water). So 85 minutes of riding and a distance of 12.8 miles. Thats an average of just over 9 mph. During the outbound trip, I averaged just under 12 mph but the wind on the return trip slowed me down significantly. The lesson learned for the day...the wind doesn't blow! It sucks! :-)

Also, I just added up all the miles that I've ridden so far since starting on October 21. According to my log book, I'm at exactly 50 miles! Way to go, me!

Here's a map of the route for 11/09/08. I really liked this route. It's close to home and most of the route has big, wide shoulders to ride on. There are not many stop lights and not much traffic early in the morning. I have a feeling I'll be riding highway 96 alot during the next several months. Also, it has one big tall overpass along the route, which will provide me with good practice at climing hills. I'll need that! The race from Houston to Austin will have tons of climbing to do as I cruise through the Texas Hill Country.

Greg and Amy's On A Sunday Morning!

Here's a map of my ride from this past weekend (11/02/08). I went from my house to Greg and Amys house and back (7.2 miles). Not a bad start, eh?

The MS150 - First Entry!

My First Entry...hmmm. That phrase has two meanings in this case. On one hand, it represents that this is my first real blog entry about ANYTHING! On the other hand it also signifies my first entry into a bike race....ever! I'm going to ride the MS150 next spring. The MS150 is a fundraiser/bike ride (not actually a race really) from the Houston area to Austin to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation. Its approximately 150 miles broken up into two days of riding. I think that there are 3 different bike rides/fundraisers in Texas that go by the name "MS150". One is, of course, the ride from Houston to Austin. Another is from Frisco, TX to Dallas, and the third is from Corpus Christi to San Antonio. There may be others throughout the country, but I'll leave that as "exercise for the reader", as they used to say in all of my college textbooks!

I've been riding my old, inefficient mountain bike (I bought it nearly 14 years ago while in college at Texas Tech) now for about 2 weeks just to see if I actually had a reasonable chance to finish the event. I've been riding atleast a mile or two each night since then.....and the verdict is in...I think I can...I think I can...I think I can! My old decrepit knees seem to be much much more friendly toward biking than I expected.....running, jogging, playing basketball....not so much. But biking...yeh, I think this can work! I've pedaled approximately 32 miles during the past two week already! This weekend (11/09/08), I'm planning on a 12-15 mile ride Sunday morning! wish me luck!