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.

35 Miles - Attempt Number 2

Well, I decided to try the same route that I attempted last weekend. However, my bike is now outfitted with a spare inner tube and an air pump. Fortunately, I didn't need either of those today. In spite of a very strong 20 mph wind from the north, I managed to finish the route after a fun ride of 2 hours and 45 minutes. Click the map below for the route!

32.3 Miles And A Nice Walk!

Q: Whats the origin of the word "tire"?

I started out this morning with a plan of riding 35 miles, my longest ride so far. This didn't work out quite as planned, but I still did manage to ride longer than my previous best of 20 miles. The weather was a bit chilly with some wind, but all considered, it was a nice, relatively easy ride....But then, less than 3 miles from the finish, I heard a POP and my otherwise smooth-riding bike became noticably not-so-smooth! My first flat tire! That's OK, by this time, the temperature had warmed up a bit....perfect walking weather!

A: The earliest tires were strips of metal placed around wooden, spoked wheels. The metal was heated and wrapped around the wheel and then both ends of the strip were fastened together. As the metal strip cooled, it would shrink and tighten around the wheel, serving the purpose of "tieing" the wooden spokes into the wooden wheel. In spite of metal tires not surviving the ever-changing progress of technology, the original name of tire did surive the test of time.

Auld Lang Syne! It's 2009!

Q: January 1st has not always been the date recognized as New Year's Day. What was the original date?

Ok, so I've done my part to begin a trend of staying fit in the new year...but just barely so! I biked just a short 5.4 miles today. I will likely have less time for riding during the next 6 weeks due to my involvement in First Robotics. However, I'll get in as many rides as possible and I'll let all of you know about it right here on this page. So check back here when you can!

A: The old Roman Calendar recognized March 15th to be the beginning of the year. Seems a bit strange until you realize that March 15th signifies the time of year when warmth is returning, trees are starting to turn green again and farmers would soon be planting new crops. So that seems like as good a time as any to recognize the birth of a new year! However, that all changed in the year 153 BC, when New Year's Day was officially moved to January 1st. For more weird calendar trivia, check out the entry for October 6th at one of my other webpages HistoryByTheDay.com.

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!"