Spring Fever

The weather has turned pleasant. I've been bicycling intensively in preparation for my first century. (Your can check out my bike blog). Alas, today is too rainy to ride, but tomorrow, the Saturday before Easter, I'll be doing a super long ride.

The family is all well. We finished a wonderful visit with Rachel, Jeff, Jason and Elizabeth Salomon to celebrate Elizabeth's arrival into the world. There are great pictures of Grandpa and Ms. E cuddling together. My granddaughter arrived into the world on March 26th, exactly on schedule.

Winter Cold and Snow

Argh. We got a dusting of snow overnight. We've really dodged the snow bullet, especially compared to others. This time there as a storm to the South followed by a storm to the North, but Washington, DC was the hole in the donut.

The average temperature, however, will not reach "normal" for a week, and the long range forecast shows it will only be warm briefly, followed by another sub-normal cold spell. At this rate, glaciers are going to re-form!

So, January is going to be a very light cycling month. I really consider riding in temperatures as low as the high 30s. But, today's wind was so brisk that riding was just out of the question. At least the roads are not covered with a permanent layer of snow and ice. If and when it does warm up, one can ride safely -- at least on asphalt. The trails will take a while to be rideable.

Meanwhile, I'm off this weekend to visit my daughter's family -- along with grandson -- and to ride a bit in (warmer) southern New Mexico. At least I'll get some miles for the month of January!

My suitcase is a total loss. It's a Swiss Gear. The local repair depot can't fix it -- it needs parts that only Swiss Gear has. Swiss Gear (Wegener) says that, without the original sales receipt, they will not honor the warranty. Thus, it goes in the trash. At least I got my stuff out of it! Caveat emptor: Don't buy a Swiss Gear.

My century season is beginning to form up. I'll likely do:

• Tarwheel in NC on April 30.
  
• Tour de Stooges, IL, May 6
• Firecracker, KS, July 4
• Lobster Ride & Roll, ME, July 23 (Picture at top of page is from Rockland, ME)
  
• Shore Fire, DE, Aug 27(?)
• Sunrise Century, Clarksville, TN, Sep 4
• Apple Cider, MI, Sep 27 (?)
• Festivelo, SC, Dec 3 (?)

This will bring total states to 29.

My Impounded Laundry

So, I returned on New Years Eve from a bike run to Florida. I carry a large suitcase with my clothes, bike tools, and other items. This case is getting quite heavy as I add miscellaneous bicycling items. When I got it back from the airline on Friday night, the zipper was jammed shut. Try as I would on Saturday -- actually all weekend -- I could not get to my gear. Unfortunately, the authorized repair place was closed on Sunday and Monday, so today was the first day I could bring it in for repair. Now I have freed my dirty laundry and I can rebuild my bike. It appears the case is probably a total loss, but we will see how well Swiss Gear warranty works.

Lesson: Spread the weight out among your cases so that they are not operating at "maximum capacity"!

Meanwhile, the cold weather has closed in again. I had every intention of biking over the weekend, or perhaps getting in a late afternoon ride (the sun sets at 5PM now -- whoopie!). But, with temperatures barely above freezing, the urge tends to pass pretty quickly. I even went out the other day to try out some new cycling shoes. I turned around before I went a mile -- hands were turning to stone. Alas, it's beginning to look like I won't be able to achieve my 200 mile goal for the month of January.

At least I have a trip to southern New Mexico over the long weekend to look forward to. That will get me some mileage for this unusually cold month.

Well, Happy New Year, dear blog. I realize my blogging audience -- both of you -- are eagerly awaiting my observations and resolutions. Here goes:

- Like 92% of the US population, I have a weight-loss resolution this New Years. I'm not going to let that deter me, nor am I going to let the premature end of previous resolutions sabotage this one. If we dwell on our failures, changing ourselves is harder. And this is hard enough, so I will get things back on track. Of course, weight loss mind games are highly personal, so I won't bore you with mine (like I just did).

- I'm going to have the best bicycling year ever. I've included a chart that shows how many miles I bicycled in the years 2002-2005 and 2010. So, bicycling is my exercise of choice. In 2002, I lost 70 pounds doing mostly biking and Weight Watchers. My "planned" line in light green is based on several centuries and short biking vacations I plan to take in the coming year. In January and February, for example, I plan to do at least one weekend where it's warm. That will help to overcome the winter "shutdown" that we all experience in this region (and the Northern marches -- where winter lasts much longer!).

As you can see from the chart, last month was the best December I had accomplished in my bicycling history. I took two trips to Sebring, FL to catch some warm weather, and rode over 120 miles on each trip. Sebring is a great biking location because it has quiet, traffic-free roads and pretty reliable weather.

Merry Christmas!

We've just opened all the presents and had a traditional waffle breakfast. In fact, for most of this day we all decided we would not just 'bend' our diets, but to blow them to Kingdom Come.

I've had a great year. This is mostly because I was able to bicycle over 1300 miles since August. (Right: my planned and accomplished rides so far in 2010.) I've done over 300 miles a month in October and November, and if current plans continue I'll roll over 300 miles in December. (How? Glad you asked: I've used spare Mileage Plus miles to send myself to Florida next week, where the temperatures are in the 60s and 70s.)

So I'm putting myself in a position to ride four more centuries (and 3000 miles) in 2011. To do this I need to:

- Ride in the cold
- Ride in the morning
- Ride in the wind
- Ride when I don't feel like it

Upcoming rides: Escape to El Paso in January (Bike & visit grandson and his family), flight to Sebring, FL in February (ride 120 miles), and wander through a Wine Country Tour in March (one week, 250 miles). First century: Tarwheel Century on April 30th. Will I be ready? Watch this space!

It's been a pleasant summer so far. I went off to Afghanistan in June. We've taken a too-short vacation at Cornell Adult University in July. We visited with old friends from college (!). They came to see us on a return visit.

In the coming month, I will travel off to Winter Park to see our condominium and meet with old friends. And, later this fall Robbie and I will take a short trip to Amsterdam to see art museums.

The World Awaits Our Empty Blog

I have a new computer. I have chosen to name my new laptop Laplace, after Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), a French mathematician and physicist. Laplace applied Newtons laws to the movement of the planets, and was instrumental in founding the metric system. Laplace was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes. Laplace also described a method of inductive reasoning and probability theory that we, today, would call Bayesian statistics.