This post is only a year late!

It just occurred to me that i posted a 'teaser' post on here about some upcoming big news...well, that was over a year ago! I didn't remember to follow that post with the actual BIG NEWS.

Well, the news was that I decided to hop on my bike for a short, little, solo bike ride. And by a "short, little, solo ride", I mean just me and my bike going nearly 900 miles and 13 days cycling across the largest state in the continental US: Texas!

 While on the road, I kept a daily journal of all the things I saw and the people I met. Read all about it at this LINK.

I would very much welcome any comments or questions you have about the ride! I am planning (hopefully) on doing a similar ride in the future...perhaps next Summer/Fall.

Thanks for reading...please let me know who, if anyone, is still following this blog.

Jim

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/CXT

One Tenth of the Daytona 500!

Today I participated in my second organized group ride. It was the Ride To The Rescue bike ride starting at Tom Bass Park on the southern edge of Houston. I didn't get the exact count, but there were several hundred riders participating in todays ride. The ride was a fundraiser for area animal rescue groups. There were three routes to choose from: 30 miles, 50.1 miles and 63 miles. My neighbor and I chose the 50 mile route. Until today, my longest ride had been 35 miles, so I was anxious to see how I would handle the increased distance. As it turns out, I did just fine! In fact, my average speed for the 50 mile ride (15.0 mph) was faster than the average speed for the 35 mile ride (12.7 mph) from 2 weeks ago! I completed the 50 miles (one tenth of the distance of the upcoming Daytona 500) with an average speed of approximately one tenth of the average speed of last years Daytona 500 winner (152 mph). Watch out Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon...here I come!

After todays ride, my tally of total miles on two wheels since I started this adventure is: 313.5 miles.

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!

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.

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!