Added all the commuting days ...now just need to add the training rides and we'll be good

So...probably about another 100 miles to this one, but this Green shows all the riding that I've done pretty much just commuting to and from work:

Green Stats

Total Workout Days: 69
Distance Traveled: 690.52 mi.
Gas Saved: 38.36 gallons
Money Saved: $133.50
Carbon Offset: 742.7 lbs. of CO2

Stats fpr the year so far:

Awesome:

Green Stats

Total Workout Days: 34
Distance Traveled: 347.51 mi.
Gas Saved: 19.31 gallons
Money Saved: $67.19
Carbon Offset: 373.8 lbs. of CO2

Week Review

Rode last week three days out of the week. Can't complain. The weather has been cold, but I like these cold rides, even if it hurts my hands a little bit.

This weekend, Dimitrios got the Miyata together with her new derailer and I took her out on a spin on Sunday to Lenny's (our favorite breakfast spot) and Target. She rides like a champ and is pretty comfy too. No clips on her (as she is the beater/commuter) but I've got 'rat traps' and those work just fine with tennis shoes. Now we just need to get the rack on the back and she's good to go!

This week we'll be doing lots of trails and riding on Friday/Saturday/ and Sunday up in Tallahassee, FL. I cannot wait!

Toodles!

Week Review (11/10-11/16)

Week was good. Best thing to talk about this week was my ride on Sunday to my friend Melanie's house.

Melanie lives about 10.92 miles from my house and I figured instead of having a bazillion cars at her house for moving purposes, all she really needed was arm muscle (plus, where to park all those cars in DT St. Pete where there are alleys and such?). So I work up - started my ride at 11am and got to her house by noon. It was a nice brisk ride and no honking horns or rude people whatsoever.

That ride made me realize that I can, in fact, ride pretty much anywhere and everywhere if I just take the time out for it. That's the catch - you have to prep for rides, bring a change of clothes, etc. And depending on what you're doing, it's not a bad thing, but if you were going to the symphony - for example, you might want to rent a car...but yea, it's doable. Totally.

Didn't ride in this morning as I have a headache and was pretty worn out from the ride yesterday, but this week's commute schedule is Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (possibly Wednesday too - we'll see if I'm up for it). I brought clothes changes today so that I could if need be on Wednesday even . So yea, looking forward to it.
And next weekend. We'll be in Tallahassee with my good friend Brendan and we plan on doing a nice ride through my mom's neighborhood and possibly all the way up into Georgia if we can. Awesome.

The new derailer for the Miyata is on it's way. I cannot wait to get that bike up and running and ready for commuting!

End of October

The end of October had me not cycling as much.
Riding Stats for October are as follows:
Total Distance for the Month: 65.20 miles
Total Calories: 2,158
This does not show the rides we did in Portland however, add about 40 miles to this and we're set.
(note: All information is logged on the http://www.mapmyride.com page under the name Ritapita or bikingbettie@gmail.com

There was a vacation to the Portland, Oregon area planned, and it was a blast. We did lots of commuting there via bicycle and walking (thanks to the lovely Seth and Kaya for letting us borrow their bicycles on our days there). Bottom line: I loved it there. And am going to try as hard as I can to get up there to move. Starting at the beginning of the year, the wheels are going to be put in motion to get up there.

Had a 'equipment' failure right before we left for Portland. One of the rear bicycle lights broke and the clip for it is no longer attached to it. Bummer, but fixable.

And I have a new addition to my family. Her name right now is unknown (still can't think of one), but she's a 1988 Miyata Road Bike. Got her on Craig's List for 100 bucks:
She needs some work and some TLC. The wife hadn't ridden her in about 10 years. So the tires are dry-rotted. But I think I can put about 40 bucks of love into her and sha-zam! I will have a commuter bike for the work week. Complete with a rack and lock holder. I am pretty excited about this. The Trek I can then spruce up and do some cool stuff with to make it more of a 'race' bike and this one can be used for errands or going downtown, to work and/or the movies.

Today is the beginning of November. Ride schedule to and from work is every 5 days for now on, weather permitting of course. I will be riding this week from Monday-Wednesday. Driving in on Thursday with clothes change and then Friday-Wednesday the next week. Riding will probably happen a lot more as the weather is staying cooler and nicer.

Haven't posted in awhile...so let me sum up.

Training Summaries by Mileage/Calories Burned:
August: 82.80m/1,444c
September: 79.60m/2,331c
October: As of today, 65.36m/1,776c

Weather:
Weather has been ok. The signs of fall appeared the first week of October which made me think that the weather was going to get nice enough to ride daily, but it has now warmed up. I'm still riding 3 times a week to work and then somewhere on the weekends. It's been great.

Moments of Annoyance:
Two weeks ago, someone decided they thought it would be awesome to slam on their horn for about 60 seconds while driving behind me and The Greek on 66th. We were a) in a construction zone with no area to get out of their way, b) following all traffic rules of the road and c) really?! Do you think that does any good. The Greek and I just continued on our way as fast as we could. When they passed, they did NOT give us the 3 foot as required by law. If I didn't have clips in, I would have kicked the side of their car. Being rude like that is just...NOT COOL.
Other than that, no major annoyances from other drivers. Be it car, or bike.

Skills:
Learned how to change out a tube on a tire. I think I will actually have to use that skill tonight as currently, my tire was flat when I woke up this morning. Kind of bummed me out as I was hoping to ride into work everyday this week since my gas allowance is a little low (ran too many errands the weekend before). Hopefully just the tube is the problem. I filled it with air this morning to make sure it will be empty by the time I get home. I'll go to the gym this afternoon to make up for it.

Gear:
Used a pannier for the first time yesterday to get some objects I needed at work at work. It wasn't too bad. Feels a little awkward having stuff hang off the side and you do have to consider it when turning, etc...but it is a nice way to transport things and not have it on your back or bag causing you to sweat up a storm.

So that's that. Still riding, hopefully even more when I get back from Vacation (this weekend and next weekend) as the weather will be starting to cool off for the year. Really looking forward to this. Trying to get it where I only drive the car at the most, once during the week to work and once during the weekend (if necessary) for trips to Tampa, recycling, etc.

Gear Upgrades

Got a new blinky back light for the bike. Dimitrios was awesome and attached it to my frame on the right lower side. Makes it more visible to traffic on the road for me. That works out just fine.
Got a new seat. It's Dimitrios's old seat, but it works a lot better than the factory seat that came with the bike.
Also, got a new stem. This made the top tube, drop area (if I'm saying this correctly. I learned this lingo from this website: http://www.vimeo.com/848558
a bit longer for me. Which is good. My bike is a 47cm, but it actually would be more comfortable for me to be on a 49 or 50...so we just added the inches with a stem. It's helping. When I go into the drops, I don't feel as scrunched up on my legs and when I go to push with my legs, I actually have some leverage now to go faster. The stretch is making me work some muscles I didn't work before, but that's ok. Probably the ones I should have been working all along.
On the ride this morning, it felt good.
Man, I <3>

Beginnings of fall are here and my ears are cold to prove it.

Got on the bike this morning for my commute to work!
Man! Was it brisk out! Really makes you look forward to the day!
Hardly any sweating on the entire ride. Awesome.
Hopefully it stays this way! It was fantabulous riding into work this morning.
If this keeps up, I'll only be driving in one day a week (maybe two if I have doctor's appointments. Which - that time of the year is coming up...)
Riding tomorrow too. To make up for the days I didn't ride this week due to a migraine.

Fall go BOOM! Loose a light too (*Frown*)

Did the usual weekend ride to Lenny's. All was said and fine. Until we got on the trail we came across (the trail runs parallel to US HWY 19 so it's a lot nicer to take that than getting killed on 19.).
Got to a stop sign. I didn't clip out fast enough. Down I went.
Again, I think my ego was bruised more than anything.
I can't seem to get this clip situation resolved/figured out. I do so well...but I've had this clips since what...May? And still, I fall. Is this normal? Shouldn't I have figured this stuff out by now.

Anyways, get up, brush myself off. The rest of the ride is fine. However, my handlebars are now eff'd (well the tape is anyways). Finally broke it. Nothing electrical tape won't fix.
We get to a main intersection and I get ready to turn on my back light that's usually attached to my saddle bag.
Except it's not there.
Which sucks.
We keep going to Lenny's. Ride back. Can you believe in an hour's time, somebody had already found the light and taken it home with them (bastards). Sucky.
Those lights aren't cheap (LED awesome). And I got mine as a set for a really good deal via amazon.com. Now I'm going to have to go and buy one seperately, which means that one will probably cost the same amount as the two. Poop.

Ride In...Drive Out

Rode into work on Thursday. The Greek and I both have hair appointments this afternoon so it makes more sense for him to come pick me up in the afternoon instead of taking two cars.

Today I learned how to get resistance training in a relatively FLAT area. Ride AGAINST the wind. HA ha. Seriously. The ride in even took longer than usual because with how windy it was...it had slowed me down to about 12mph!! That's rough!

The Greek bought me a new battery for my cat-eye wireless. Awesome. I can now see how many MPH I'm doing - what's my average speed, track my mileage for trips, etc. Makes riding fun again to see your progress while you ride.

Speaking of -- when I first started riding in Feb, my average pace was 12mph. Now, my average speed has moved up to 17mph. I think that's pretty impressive. At one point on the ride in on Thursday, I was going as fast as 19mph and it didn't even wear me out like it used to. Hopefully with the weather cooling off, I can start the training rides again soon (right now I'm mainly just commuting to and from places).

Work Week Update: Only today has been screwed up

Rode into work and home on Monday. The weather was nice for the most part. HOT!! But nice.

I'm concluding my ride in is fine. Sure, I get sweaty, but no where near like when I come home. There are TONS of areas on my ride that are not shaded AT ALL. Plus waiting in traffic at 5pm on black asphalt with no shade is just...UGH. I get home and all I want to do is collapse. But that's no good either. Gotta walk around just a bit so I cool down and then jump into the shower.

Today (Wednesday) ...normally the day to ride in, but the rain chance said 60% and Hurricane Ike is looming around us (you can see the bands occasionally). So no riding today.

Tomorrow, I ride in the am and then Dimitrios will pick me up at 4 so we can commute together to our hair appointment(s). Possible dinner with some friends in Oldsmar after that.

The rainchance...with the exception of today this week is 30%. I'll be riding the rest of the week...for sure.

Weekend in Review

Friday night: Rode to my friend Beverly's house and back (about 3-5 miles away). Got home REEALLLY late and was riding REEAALLLY late...but it was awesome riding home at 3:15 in the morning. There was hardly anyone on the roads and the people that were, didn't even bother or taunt me.

Now I honestly want to make a point of it to go to bed super early on the weekends (say...Friday nights..) and wake up super early (like 3-4am) and go for rides! Something to consider...

Sunday we rode to Dimitrios's uncles house in the afternoon for a cookout. Left his place by about 10:00 and again, night riding = AWESOME. I really enjoyed it.

So not too bad. This weekend I think we're going to shoot for riding to Country Inn Pizza on Friday night for our dinner outing, Lenny's in the morning on Saturday or Sunday and maybe even try to do a training ride on Sunday evening...
Kick ass.

Riding this week has been postponed due to Womanly Failure

Yea, getting on a bike today would be a bad idea for personal reasons (that, thankfully only come every three months).

Riding on Friday will be safe, so I will ride that day and probably Saturday and Sunday as well to make up for it. Thinking of maybe doing an actual 'training' ride on Sunday and not just a commute ride only (ride will probably be a 30 mile to the beach and back).

Weather seems to be holding up for the most part when the hurricanes are not in effect (there are three right now they are watching), which makes me think the rainy season of the year is over and the riding more than three times a week will be in effect as well.

This tri-monthly situation however, is making me wonder...what can I do on days like this if I am carless?? Will need to figure out a solution soon cause when the car dies, I am going to go completely carless for at least six months. OR if I move to where mass-transit is savvy, then I will be selling the car. That's for sure.

This weekend rides have been postponed due to Gustav

Was able to get in one ride today to Chick-Fil-A and back. That was even kind of hard for me to get into.
The weather was rainy all weekend. Which meant me being pretty non-motivated to do any riding, or anything else this weekend for that matter.
But the ride today helped get me back. And I'm sure I'll sleep good tonight because of it.

Last Week

Was awesome.
I rode three times last week and drove the car twice.
It felt good, to get back into riding again. I was more focused at work and it made me happier throughout the week.

This week coming up - Wednesday and Friday to ride...unless of rain, of course.
New Decision based on weather...if the rain chance is 50% or less, then I'm riding...anything more, not riding.

Total Amount of riding: 30 miles this week (10 miles a day)