2009 Review

A bit of a fizzle...but let's try to find the bright spots, OK?

Trio's Metric Century A Month Challenge...I did 10/12. Still, I think it was pretty good considering my New England environment, though I succumbed in the end to knee pain, not weather.

My knees have always been an issue for me, so it wasn't really a surprise that my right one started to become very sore in August. That pain, on top of generally feeling lousy in the hot weather, led both consciously and unconsciously to me putting energy into other things that were easier than getting on the bike and also kind of refreshing mentally (though I still love cycling!). Unfortunately, my knee continues to be sore despite all the rest with pedaling and stairs being the most problematic.

Here is my overview table of riding by month.

And, here are the graphs, just because they are fun and easy to make and what else am I to do with all the lists of numbers? This year's graph, with all the riding at the beginning is basically the opposite of 2008's graph with all the build up at the end! As pretty as it would be to have an even graph, I don't think it's something I can happily do. I think it's in my nature to have, er, cycles of cycling.

For the first time, I tracked the percentage of rides per bike/trainer as shown in the pie chart.

And the percentage of miles per bike/trainer as shown below.

I just wondered what I made the most use of and I like justification for a house full of bike stuff too ;)

So, thinking about 2010...After 10 (!) weeks off, I want to build up very slowly and see how it goes on the trainer. I would be happy with a much lower total mileage this year if my knees held up. I hope to spend some of the time I would have spent on the bike doing more walking.

Let's hope I keep on adding to my 'life' miles without too many huge gaps. Here is the updated table of my miles by year since I started recording them.

This last chart shows the distribution of the above miles by week. I know the font is too small to see, but you get the idea...the vertical axis is miles in increments of 50, the horizontal axis is weeks 1-52 repeated for each year. The color key is blue=outside, red=trainer.

Happy Riding in 2010, everyone!!!

Best Wishes!

I have been a horrible blog slacker, but wanted to sign in to wish everyone a happy Christmastime and New Year!!

No biking to report on lately with a painful knee and too many distractions! But you can see lots of winter fun is being had, including playtime in the snow with the dogs, on my general/not tracking fitness stats type of blog =)

(Scan of a vintage card from my Grandmother's scrapbook.)

Jamestown Classic 2009

Monday, Jeff and I met up with Chris and Debby at the Jamestown Classic, a road race. We left the truck at one of the parks and rode our 'cross bikes over to the bottom of Hamilton Hill so we would have 4 chances to see Chris go by during his 2 laps of the island.

Once again, we played Where's Waldo Chris? It was a little more challenging this time as he was in a plain jersey. His new team is waiting for the new kits to arrive. Here's the first time we saw him on lap 1, waving in response to hearing me scream something like 'Go Chris'. Apparently, I really startled a few people watching near us, but Jeff managed to keep his wits about him and get quick shot.

I've added a couple of arrows to Chris in the following two shots. We actually saw him really easily, but weren't lined up right for pictures.


No arrow in this one, but he is in there on the inside of the curve.

How cool is this?! They were filming the race!

Here's the camera guy out in front of the breakaway group for the race Chris was in.

Chis was in this bunch, but hidden.

These pics show the racers crossing the causeway (from various Cats).


Jeff shot a few neat pics of the racers approaching the causeway.


This seemed like the hardest way around the Island to me...

There is an album of more random race pictures here, though sized a bit smaller. Btw, if you are a racer and have found yourself in one of the pics, let me know via a comment and I can arrange to email you a larger format image (free).

Check out the race recap by Chris here.

October Metric Century

No procrastination this month. Got the metric done on October 1st! It sounds like I was all fired up, right?! Actually, I dragged out the door thinking I was going to try to get 20 miles. Luckily, I grabbed a cereal bar on the way out, but I was so lazy I went out with the 1/2 a bottle of water leftover from yesterday thinking I wouldn't really want it on a short ride anyway.

13 miles out I was feeling in a biking zone and started to think about going for the metric. By 20, I'd committed to the idea. I figured since it was cool I wouldn't need too much water and when I texted Jeff about my predicament, he said he'd bring me water if I needed it later on in the ride.

It was a little chilly feeling at times with temps ranging from about 54 to 58 F. I was wearing shorts, a very light, long sleeve jersey and a windbreaker jacket. Initially it was nicer as there were some areas of sun, but the clouds blew in thicker as the ride went on.

I stopped at 3rd beach for a couple of shots of the clouds, just with the camera phone. Looking back the way I'd come:

And across the beach to some moorings:

The ride was pretty much like the one last Saturday. My back really began to spasm at about 48 miles out and I had to struggle on through to the end. Jeff brought me water in the truck at 57 miles which really saved me. After he dropped water off with me, he went to fuel up the truck, then drove back along my route to pick me up just after I reached my goal for the day. Here's the Garmin profile showing 62.36 miles:

We are to the season where when I come back from a ride, I need a hot shower to warm up. No more cooling off showers at the ends of rides!

Well, just 2 more metric centuries are left in the challenge: Novembrrr and Decembrrrrrr! I won't be wearing shorts on the next one!!

September Metric Century

It's hard to believe that the goldenrod is blooming and it is officially fall! I am so happy with the drier weather. Saturday, I had a beautiful, sunny day for my metric. Once again, I postponed it toward the end the month and started to worry if I'd get it done, especially when I canceled one attempt due to lack of willingness to fight regular gusts of 30mph for 63 miles!

I felt great for about 45 miles averaging over 15mph and not feeling the pains I'd been having lately. After that, the foot numbness and a backache started in together and sapped all my energy. Fortunately, Jeff came out to join me for the last 23 miles, so I had some company and we tootled along enjoying the good weather and sights since there won't be as much opportunity for that soon.

The evidence from Garmin, showing 62.23 miles (just enough!).

It's getting a bit embarrassing to post the same route over and over, but it's what I manage to get out to ride...

Fall Is In The Air...

But last Sunday, on a summery though gray day, Jeff and I went to cheer for our friend Jamie competing in the Firmman RI half-Ironman. It's tricky to pick a good spot for watching those kinds of endurance races, but looking at the bike course map, I realized that we could drive to Ninigret Park and leave the truck there while we biked out to Rte 1 where we would actually get to see Jamie 3 times if we timed it right and pedaled back and forth on Rte 1 a bit. Driving out to Ninigret, the bike course looked more hilly than ever before! At one point, there was an huge snapping turtle crossing the road and we hoped it would be clear of the bike lane by race time!

As we biked to the first lookout, we saw the first riders coming through and hurried to cross the 4 lanes of Rte 1 and get the camera and cowbell out of the pack. We hoped we hadn't missed him! But soon we spotted him coming and looking really fast and comfortable out there.

I was having fun cheering for everyone because you can't stand there on the side of the road with a cowbell and not ring it for people! Some people were in a 'zone', but most smiled and waved and many actually thanked me as they rode by! Too funny! I was thinking, 'If you can be talking to me, you can be pedaling faster!' Awhile after seeing Jamie go past we went to our next lookout where the riders were coming downhill and using one of the on ramps to get back on Rte 1. Jamie came flying down the hill and cornering while at the same time reaching for a water bottle to throw to me! Yeah! Swag!!! You can see the pic on his blog along with his full race report. Again, we moved on to the next lookout for one more sighting about 16 miles from the finish where Jeff got this picture:

And I snapped this one of him waving and getting ready to throw another bottle:


It was a busy day for biking with all the tri riders, but also some people just out for their usual loops. Then, we saw this peleton go by both ways on Rte 1! I think they must have been part of the Bob Beal Omnium Master's races going on at Ninigret that weekend. They got some cowbell too, of course!

I have not managed to build up from summer yet, but I am enjoying the cooler weather and feeling like I will start getting out more again. I've been having numb feet on my rides and some knee pain, so that can make me feel reluctant to head out for a ride a lot of days, but I think I need to just get out there and ride through it and I'll start feeling good again. I was very happy to be out for 20 miles earlier today!

August Metric

A break in the humidity happened just in time for me to get my August metric century with a few days to spare! I rode X6 and started off very well, but mid way my feet got very sore with a pins and needles sensation and it killed my tempo. I also ran out of water and was painfully dry as the weather was still pretty hot.

Jeff kept me company for much of the ride, joining me 22 miles in and, fortunately, with eight miles still to go, Jeff took the turn to the house, grabbed some water and brought it to me in the truck. What a relief!!

At Sachuest Point, I stopped short to get a photo of this buck with velvety antlers. He wasn't at all frightened, even walking toward me a little! This is the closest I've gotten to a deer out there as they are usually out across the field more.

Garmin actually shut off on me during the ride, but I managed to notice pretty quickly and you can see I still got a distance of 63.30 miles. With the crazy pains in both feet and being dehydrated, my speed ended up at 14 mph overall...which was disappointing especially after a fairly zippy start to the ride. Oh well, I just don't do well in summer weather!

I'm really looking forward to the fall and starting to ramp up mileage again. I had a good 20 mile X6 ride today. I think the next metrics will feel a lot better, assuming we don't have early snowstorms or something!!