Saturday was an awesome biking day. I left my house at 6:50 and got to Bill’s around 7:30. We started the Middlesex Century around 8:10. It was hot and humid, but felt good most of the day as long as I kept on moving.

I guess I’m strange (perhaps the mohawk gives it away?), but after lunch I got an energy boost – just when everyone else was starting to drag. After taking an impromptu break, we learned that the other crew of bikers was already at the meeting point – so I booked it from there and met up with everyone around 3:40. I arrived at the meeting point reading just over 100 miles on the odometer. Ah, time for a break. Ok, time’s up. Switch bikes, connect the tag-a-long and trailer, put the helmets on the kids, and back on the road for another 15 hilly miles.

We ended the day with an awesome BBQ and lots of pictures. On Sunday my daughter and I went to church and had our first service with our new minister, then we had dinner and a awesome jam session over at Gordon’s. I think we’ve got a little band formed – gotta start thinking of names. Maybe, “Bike Me,” or “Fraggle Hair.”

Now I’ve got to start training for the Rodman Ride for Kids in late September. The Staples Soul team is riding for the John Andrew Mazie foundation. This century happens to be on the same day as Bill’s bachelor party, but I figure I should be able to fit everything in. Start biking at 7, be done by 5ish, have a shower, some BBQ, then dash up to Boston and eat and drink some more!

This past weekend I joined in on the Charles River Wheelmen Climb to the Clouds. I pedaled 115 miles and climbed 2,000 feet to the summit of Mt. Wachusett. I did this along with 2 weeks of 30 mile days in order to hit my goal of 6,000 miles by 7/23. I hit my goal a few days early, and now I can continue to quote my average of 3,000 miles per year.

So, what’s next? I need to start planning what kind of big rides and vacations I’ll be doing the next year. I’d like to do more family friendly vacations, taking the wife and kids with me. I’m trying to convince my wife that we should take our Labor Day cape vacation without car. We could bike to Boston, take the ferry to Provincetown, then rail-trail it down to Nickerson State Park. Read this story: 6 Ferries and a Bike (PDF) by Tony Barrett.

Currently, the next big bike event is the Middlesex Century. This is the ride that my friend Bill arranges every year to raise money for AA&MDSIF for bone marrow disorders. As you will recall, last year I had a goal of raising $300. That was aiming a little low, as I quickly received much more than that – and also quickly received a mohawk. This year my goal is $900 – if you’d like to be one of the first to donate please either let me know our go directly to our donation page.

Thanks go to Carl for the action shot.

When my father got into his motorcycle accident during morning rush hour a few weeks ago, the emergency and hospital staff could not find any of his personal contacts information. It wasn’t until he was conscious later in the day that he could tell the staff his name, my mothers name and home phone number. Of course, she wasn’t at home, and they didn’t have her cell number – so, she didn’t find out about the whole thing until evening. By that time, he was already out of surgery!

My father’s identification card was locked in his motorcycle trunk, and I don’t know if he had any emergency contact info available. So, in honor of the good samaritan motorcyclist who helped save my father’s life, I present you with the, “Kevin Michaels Good Samaritan – Steven Peck High Side Emergency Information Card.”

• Emergency Info Card – PDF, 59.5KB
• Emergency Info Card – Microsoft Word Doc, 38.5KB

I suggest entering all your contact information, printing on bright colored paper, maybe even laminate. Keep it with you in an easily noticed and accessible place when you motorcycle, bicycle, mountain climb, etc.

Biking has a lot to do with color. I find that when I wear mismatched colors I don’t ride well. When I have complementary colors, I do great. But, when everything matches, the biking experience and the color become one.

My color this year is blue. My bike is blue and black. My helmet is blue and black. My tires are blue and black.

I had a great ride today. 16 miles to meet up with Susan (red) and Ken (yellow) near the Wachusett Reservoir, 15 miles around the reservoir, and 14 miles back. Just under 46 miles for the day at an average of 16.39mph. I topped out at 39.5. Church street from Boylston to Northborough is a 5 mile descent, but not tremendously steep. So, even with a 110 cadence I couldn’t hit 40. I think this year I might try to hit 50, but need a real steep hill and maybe a nice big time trial chain ring.

When I got home I cleaned up a bit, so that I could go out and start mowing the lawn. Most of the backyard hadn’t been mowed yet this season, so it took two passes with the mower. Took about three hours to do the whole thing. Then made lunch, got my son to take a nap, and then worked on my bike. Gave it a good wash down, then swapped out my old tires for the new blues. What a pain! 700x20s are not easy to mount.

In other biking news, Bill, Ken and I finally came up with a name for “Bill’s Century.” This is the century in August that Bill started seven years ago. It benefits bone marrow diseases, of which a friend of Bill passed away from in 2000. The ride will now be called, “Middlesex Century.” The ride is in a cloverleaf shape, and just makes a big sweep through the county, starting and ending in Maynard. We are starting to assemble our own web site at MiddlesexCentury.org. We’ve got some more marketing materials to create, some more info pages, routes, cue sheets, donation form – we’ve got some work to do. Hopefully we’ll be able to get lots of riders this year, and hopefully lots of pledges to go with it. There is no fee to ride, and no minimum donation – and ride as much of it as you like. We are a small group, and can accommodate just about anything.

Today was our first day of the year riding to school and work. This was also the first time we connected my daughter’s trail-a-bike to my road bike. It took a little while to get used to, after having it only connected to my mountain bike. Definitely had to brake early and keep it slow, not sure how my 20mm tires would react to trying to stop this amount of bulk at high speed.

Talking about road vs. mountain bikes, I noticed a strange phenomenon. It started near the end of last season, when I transitioned from riding my road bike to riding the mountain towing the trail-a-bike. It felt awesome! Big fat tires, cushy ride – felt like you could go anywhere. I was all comfortable with this, when a few weeks ago I finally got to ride on the mountain bike solo, without the trailer. I felt unleashed! It was awesome, I could go fast, I could accelerate, brake, turn, etc. And then this past weekend, after having my road bike cooped up on the trainer in the basement most of the winter, I took it out. It just plain flew! I didn’t even feel like I was pedaling and I was whipping around at 30mph.

So, I think that having one of each bike is great, and the key is to enjoying both is to transition between them. You forget how nice the features of each one is until you ride it again.

I’ve also started a google spreadsheet of all my biking data from my bike computer, heart rate monitor, topo software, comments, etc. You can see it here or RSS subscribe to it here.

It’s January 6th, 68 degrees outside in New England, what shall we do? Shall we think about greenhouse gases, the polar ice caps melting, rising sea levels, floods, droughts, heat waves, tornadoes and hurricanes (more about global warming at wikipedia)? An Inconvenient Truth is next on my netflix queue, but I managed to put all this aside, and go for a bike ride! Whoo hoo!

I biked from Marlborough to Maynard to meet up with Bill and Ken. We did a 14 mile cut of Bill’s century ride, basically the beginning and end chopped together. Together we averaged probably about 14 mph, by myself I averaged 17. My total trip was 36.5 miles. My legs have got 4,567 miles on them since July 2005.

When I got home I found all three kids playing in the yard with our neighbors, so we and the neighbors all set out to go to our local playground. Apparently that was what everybody else was thinking too, because it was swamped! We had some good fun there, then headed out to Chuck E. Cheese for some barftastic pizza and partying. Chuck E. Cheese is what it is. First you get your tokens, then you play the games and go on rides, which in turn give you tickets. You put the tickets in a different machine which gives you a receipt voucher. You then trade that in for a plastic ring that looks like a bug. The kids had a great time. We thoroughly sterilized them when we got home.

I took tons of pictures as usual. I also got a few videos, one of this guy that looked like DJ Qualls leading the kids in some birthday dancing with the big scary mouse.

Twas the night before the night before Christmas, and all through the house, we were busy wrapping presents, drinking coffee mixed with beer and listening to loud music. The kids were all packed full of sugar and running around at Grandma and Grandpa’s, but they brought this upon themselves thinking it was a good idea to give the kids M&Ms before bed time.

The temperature was 50 (Fahrenheit), and the rain had stopped falling, so I put on my supersuit, took the bike off the trainer, put on my outdoor wheels, pumped up the tires, had a swig of beercoffee, made some gatorade, grabbed a spare tire and put some heat pads in my gloves – then hit the road.

It was nice to be outside, real riding is so much more real than riding on the trainer in the basement. I am definitely not in as good shape as I was during the season. I really felt it going up some of the minor hills. I took the rail trail out to Hudson, then took roads back. Just a little workout, 11.72 miles, 45 minutes averaging a measly 16.12mph, 30.6 top. I did notice my cadence is staying up there, usually in the 80s to 90s. My total odometer since July 2005 is now 4,530.

I had a great weekend! I swapped out my workout routine Friday night. Getting up early to work out (as opposed to biking) has just not been working for me. I’ve been out of energy and feeling craptastic all of the time. So, I figured I should do what I did last winter, work out at night after the kids go to sleep. And, pack in both workouts at one time, and only do it every other day. So, I popped in a DVD (watched Donnie Darko again), hopped on the bike trainer for 30 mins, then did weights.

My parents came up to visit Saturday – we met for lunch, then they took the kids while I got a chance to go for a bike ride (a real ride, in the out of doors!). Perfect weather, did a nice leisurely 28 miles – up through Sudbury towards Concord, jogged over past Acton and stopped at Bill’s in Maynard to say hi. Then I headed home through Hudson and on to the bike trail to Marlborough.

Saturday evening was a pot luck dinner at the church, another great time as usual. Lots of awesome food, beer, dessert and church coffee (which I don’t understand why Brent uses that term in a negative way – our church has awesome coffee). Then my parents took the kids for the night.

I actually managed to get some sleep, in fact I woke up late and ended up having to run around like a chicken with its head cut off in order to get to church, get the recording equipment all setup and still make choir rehearsal on time. I did cheat a bit on my way to church, stopped at Ariba coffee in Hudson for a grande dark roast. I’ve been trying to not buy coffee at all, so much more cost effective to brew it yourself – but I was totally dragging this morning after getting too much sleep. In any case, Ariba is awesome! Free wifi, they actually have food (like sausage egg and cheese on a croissant), awesome coffee, modern starbuckian/panera breadian atmosphere, and the local/non-chainism appeal.

In any case, got in some good churchin, then came home, put all the kids in bed, bought some steaks at the supermarket and made a fancy schmancy dinner with wine and bread and real metal utensils. Put the kids to bed and then it was workout time again. Finished Donnie Darko and started up Matchstick Men. I’m going to need to get Netflix going again – and I need to get my DVD recorder fixed, craptacular POS. Had to record Heroes on (yikes) VHS last week. Anyone want to donate a subscription free or lifetime Tivo?

We had work on Columbus day, but no school. So, I took the opportunity to bring my wife’s car into the shop, and to ride my road bike to work. I haven’t been on the road bike since my trip to NY, as it needs an overhaul – which will be one of my winter basement projects. On Tuesday I worked from home. I was lazy in the morning, so I drove Lily to school. When it was time to pick her up I took my mountain bike (with the trail-a-bike attached). Wednesday and Thursday were rainy, and today was lazy.

I think the change of season has brought cooler temperatures, accompanied with less daylight – which make me lazy lazy lazy. It takes quite a bit of effort to bike my daughter to school – getting everything ready and set up. So recently I have started giving up on it, not enough time in the morning. So, I call for an official end of Biking Season.

This means that I’ll set up the trainer in the basement, only bike on the weekends, and move on to my winter exercise routine. I’ll be alternating weight days and aerobic days, either exercising early morning or after the kids go to sleep at night.