I use dailymile.com to track my miles. It’s nice to be able to see what I got done last year and when I did it. 1500 miles is pretty good, but I bet I can beat it in 2011.

Pedal Power 2010, March 20, 2010: Pedal Power is an event that promotes moving to a more sustainable lifestyle and taking simple steps to reduce energy consumption coupled with an electricity-generating contest among 2-person teams of cyclists. There are demonstrators on site with information about sustainability and conservation as well as promoting fitness through cycling. I did it last year and it was a lot of fun. Ethan Seltzer, the guy who came up with the idea and puts on the event, is a good guy and a pal of mine.

Monument Av. 10k, March 27, 2010: With over 35,000 entrants and prizes offered for best costume, this is much more of an event than an actual race. Yes, there are real racers that sign up and compete but the fun of the morning, for me, is in getting out for a good run and taking in the sights along Monument Avenue. I used to run this alongside Michelle as pace support but I made the switch last year to see how fast I could run it at my own pace. This year, I am spending some time training and I hope to cut a good chunk of time off of last year’s result.

Cycle North Carolina Spring Ride April 9-11, 2010: I rode this last year for the first time and it was an absolute blast. CNC sponsors a Fall ride that runs from the Western mountains of NC to the beach on the East Coast. It’s a bicycle tour of the state stopping in small towns for the night along the week long tour. The Spring ride is different in that there is one host town and all of the rides begin and end from the same place. It’s a 4-day, 3-night weekend of camping and riding and nothing else. It’s a pretty exciting feeling to wake up in the morning and not have anything to do but eat, drink, and ride bike. I’m looking forward to this one most of all.

I have a pretty ambitious event schedule I’d like to follow through on in 2010. This is the just the first leg. It’s going to be a good time.

Since the start was a pool swim you had to submit an estimated swim time for 100 meters. I had no idea what to put so I just guessed at 2:30. That meant I started back where the poor swimmers were so I ended up passing 7-8 people in the pool. I probably could have listed my time as 2:00 and been okay. There were also some hangups in the pool just from people stopping and walking in the middle (the water was only 5 feet deep) but it all seemed to go off pretty smoothly.

Got to the first transition okay but was just slow getting into my bike gear. I didn’t really have a plan, just a neat pile of my stuff, and I was pretty slow as a result.

Once I got on the bike I felt really good. I passed a bunch of folks that I should have passed and the folks that passed me were all clearly very strong cyclists (and apparently poor swimmers). I was moving pretty good but lost a little steam at the end because I ran out of water on the ride.

I had a much smoother 2nd transition since there were fewer moving parts but I was pretty gassed. I tried to make up my hydration deficit on the way out of the transition area. This plan backfired since I ended up with a lot of water in my stomach right at the beginning of the run. It got pretty sloshy which isn’t a good thing.

My left calf was threatening to cramp out on every step for the first 50 yards of the run so I had to stop and stretch it out on the curb for a full 30 seconds. My calf was much better after that but my tank was on E. I’m not a very accomplished runner and I don’t particularly enjoy it. I probably got passed by 25 people (and that’s a conservative guess) on the run portion. With some serious running training I would have been much better on the 3rd leg but I just won’t get out there and mash the miles. I walked a lot.

Things to work on for the next one:

* timed swimming training. I didn’t really do any serious training outside of biking so I will definitely do some real swimming so I start where I belong.
* T1 practice. I could get 1:30 back with a tight, well-rehearsed plan for T1. T2 is just changing shoes. I can change my shoes.
* running miles and miles. If I could go the whole 5k without any walking I’d be 10 minutes faster
* electrolyte consumption. I hit my Gu marks well and felt the boost from them, but I ended up dehydrated and it killed me in the 2nd half of the race.

I finished last in my group (Novice Male) but not last on the Male side. I think there was a really old guy I beat, and maybe a couple of other people who were just slower. I also beat some non-finishers. I wasn’t the last guy on the course, which was really my only goal.

I hit home for a quick shower and then we went to Millie’s for brunch. Then I took a 2-hour nap. It was a good day.

I’ve been riding my bike a lot since last summer and I have been meeting folks who ride in bike races and who race in triathlons. I’m no racer but the idea of completing a triathlon, of any length, is especially intriguing. It turns out that I have spent 2009 doing things I’ve never done, so now I’m all signed up and ready to go do a triathlon. I’m a decent swimmer and I am okay on the bike. I’m not much a runner, though, so that’s the bit of the day I am anxious about.

If this goes well, and I really expect it to be fun and exhausting, I’m going to try something with an open-water swim soon after. We have a full triathlon calendar here in the Richmond area. It’s pretty cool.

My poor, poor little piggies are still thawing. I might need a ride home…

This is what my normal bike commute will be once I break down and make this a new habit. 5.5 miles is completely reasonable. I would almost say it was borderline pleasant.

To answer a couple of questions:

1) I’m not sure what model I have, but my mountain bike (which I am using as my commuter for now) is a Trek. It’s a sturdy hardtail that I will need to get serious about maintaining if this commuting thing sticks.

2) Sweat management hasn’t been bad at all. I wear an UnderArmour long-sleeve shirt under a windbreaker so I stay just warm enough and I am basically dry when I get to work. I take about 10 minutes to cool down once I get here and then I get work-dressed. I change all of my clothes but my socks so I don’t have to worry about wearing sweaty clothes. I get pretty sweaty when I exercise but I haven’t suffered any post-exercise follow through sweat. I assume it’s because of the cold weather. Man, that sounds sexy. Follow through sweat. You’re welcome.

I don’t have any illusions that I will be able to stay dry once it warms up. I’m lucky in that we have a shower here at work. I’ll just need to stock it and be in and out of it before people come into work. It should be easy.

I think I can shave another couple of minutes off the ride with some route tinkering but I’m not trying to set any records. On a bad traffic day it could take me 40 minutes to get to work in my car and I only had to leave the house 20 minutes earlier than normal. Not too shabby.

It was cold, but I dressed right. I rocked an UnderArmor long sleeve under a $10 WalMart windbreaker and I was fine with the wind and temperature. I have some nice full-finger gloves that kept my hands in good shape, and bike shorts under some Carhatt cotton work pants were fine for my bottom half. I wore my work shoes on the ride so I wouldn’t have to pack them and the leather kept my feet snug like bugs.

I need to find something that will breathe better than that windbreaker, though. My UA layer kept me pretty dry but there was nothing to move the, um, humidity out of the windbreaker.

I’m curious to see how the ride home goes. It will be dark for almost all of it so this will be the first road test of my new headlight.

Here’s the 26+ miles I knocked out:

I really like the run out to the Battlefield on Osbourne Tnpk. so I stretched it out to get all the way to the boat landing. It’s a really, really pretty ride and it caught me completely by surprise. One of the things I love best about these bicycle excursions is that I get to see parts of the City that I don’t know anything about and I get to really see them because I’m not flying by at 50 miles an hour. I took small detours up around the boat landing and again into the Battlefield Park before heading back into town via Route 5. I definitely prefer making a loop as opposed to going A<->B because the scenery changes are nice but more because you don’t have to slog up and down the same hills twice.

I want to mix it up a bit now and I might look to head out West for my next ride or maybe North to Ashland. So many roads!

Caught an easy 14+ miles after work today. Man, it feels really good to be out on the bike on a late Summer evening. Shadows were long, the air was warm but not hot, and the road was relatively open.

I need to get some more of these in before winter gets here. And then I need to get a hat so I can get some more.

Today I plotted out a longish (20+ miles) ride from the Capital building to the Fort Hoke/Fort Johnson/Fort Harrison part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park. I was feeling pretty good when I left the house so I figured I would start a couple of miles from the capital to really make a ride of it. As it worked out, between the detours I had to take through downtown and my experiments to find a reasonable path back, I added almost 10 miles to my overall ride. It was a monster. Well, it was a monster for me. And I rode it with confidence because I had a spare tube in my pack and a pump attached to my frame (look at him learn! – ed.).

Add in a couple of hours at the pool, some meager yard work as a result of the first rain in more than a month, and a cookout and I am happy to report a wildly successful Labor Day.

Cheers.