Well, the year ended with a bit of a cycling whimper. Between a cold and rain and travel I barely hit half of plan for December, but no matter: I beat my annual goal pretty handily, so I’m happy.

Here are some nerdy charts that nobody other than me will be interested in:

First, mileage per month:

What this says to me is that in most months, I more or less hit what I was targeting. More more than less, and May and December are certainly outliers, but in general the amount of riding I did was about what I set out to do. So clearly for 2010 I need to set out to do more.

Here are the mileages for each individual ride I did:

Not too surprisingly, 19.8 mile rides — my commute along the most usual route I take — dominate. One 65, one 50, a few 40’s and 35’s. I’ve found that ~30 is a nice comfortable ride at this point, so I really need to start doing more 40-60 mile rides if I want to get any sort of exercise benefit out of cycling. Also, I really do enjoy the longer rides. They’re a fun way to spend the day.

So, on to goals for 2010. Here’s what I’m targeting:

• 3,000 overall miles. Following the same “add 1,000″ rule as last year, that seemed to work well enough. Although maybe I should be adding 1,000 miles to what I did this year. Hmm…
• Ride at least one century. Looking at calendars and schedules and just being realistitc, I think doing one of the various supported centuries (~100 mile rides) with Stephanie and maybe the Stan’s group is a more attainable goal than doing a 200km unsupported brevet.
• Ride at least one of the area’s well-known climbs. All the cool kids climb. I ride mostly on level ground. I’m really curious to see if I could handle GMR or Palomar or Crystal Lake or whatever. I certainly couldn’t today. This, I think, more than the other two is something I’ll have to work up to this year.

I’m pretty excited about cycling in 2010. There’s nothing quite like arbitrary goals to give you a good excuse to get out and ride ;)

Wow, a bit late on this one. Not a lot to say about November. The weather was great for commuting for most of the month. No horrible travesties at work that kept me off the bike. I got to do the Thanksgiving ride with the Stan’s crew (as well as Brad and Erich), and that was a ton of fun. Also, Fletcher was very excited to go out on a longer (a little over 40 miles) ride with me on a day off I had towards the end of the month, which was really pleasing. It wasn’t the longest ride he’s ever been on — he did a 50 mile ride during the summer — but it was probably the most challenging, as it wasn’t nearly as flat has the 50 mile ride. He did great and I had a wonderful time riding with him.

The year is winding down, and I’m already pretty well over goal. It was very, very helpful to have something concrete to work towards that didn’t necessarily involve riding to and from the office. I’ve also found that I really enjoy getting out for longer rides every now and again. Next year, I think I’d like to aim a little higher in terms of longer individual rides along with the annual mileage goal. (I’ll probably aim for 3,000 next year.)

To that end, I’ve been reading up on Randonneuring, which I think is pretty well described on the Randonneurs USA web site:

Randonneuring: Randonneuring is long-distance unsupported endurance cycling. This style of riding is non-competitive in nature, and self-sufficiency is paramount. When riders participate in randonneuring events, they are part of a long tradition that goes back to the beginning of the sport of cycling in France and Italy. Friendly camaraderie, not competition, is the hallmark of randonneuring.

From everything I’ve read, this fits in almost perfectly with my style of cycling. A bunch of folks on sport touring bikes set up more for comfort and reliability than for speed, carrying more tools than they’ll likely need, wearing more wool than spandex and riding more or less independently over long distances at a sustainable pace. Heck, to register with the US randonneuring authority, you have to fill out a paper form and mail it in go a guy who turns around and mails it to Paris. How cool is that? (In its own oddly anachronistic way.)

The local randonneuring group has a couple of 200k — which is pretty well the shortest these rides every are — “brevets” next year. That’s twice as far as I’ve ever ridden at one go, but it doesn’t sound entirely unattainable. And I have to train up for the Palm Springs ride with Stephanie and the Stan’s folk in Feburary, and that’s 80% of the distance anyway, so… who knows. Maybe I’ve figured out what my 2010 goals are ;)

October is the riding month that Stephanie and I had been planning for all year. We had signed up for the Livestrong challenge in Austin, planning to do the 90 mile route through Texas hill country. While we didn’t do the 90 — for various reasons that I’ll get in to soon enough — we made it to the ride, really enjoyed the event and had a great time in Texas. We’re almost certainly going to do it again next year, maybe in San Jose instead of Austin. Fletch wants to do the ride as well, which I think is pretty cool.

First things first about the trip: a bunch of people helped us out with the event. Stan loaned us bike boxes for the trip, Erich and CLV loaned us their truck so we could get to and from the airport with our bikes, Randy and Karen put us up in their beautiful loft and loaned us a truck while we were in town, Jeni hung out with Fletch while Stephanie and I did the ride, she met us at the finish, drove us around all the day before the ride and put us up for the last night of our stay, and she, Jason, B., Jesse, Julie, Boris and Tanya schlepped out to the Salt Lick for lunch on Thursday. Add to that the big bunch of folks who donated their hard earned greenbacks to the LAF. We are truly overwhelmed by the generosity of our friends and family. You’re all the best. We’re lucky to know you.

Out trip started out way too early on a Friday morning. Throw everything in Erich and CLV’s truck, turn up the Elvis station on the XM, get almost to the freeway before we remember that we forgot Fletcher’s phone, drive home to discover that no, it’s in his pocket, hit the road again to LAX, check the bags have breakfast get on the plane fly to Denver have lunch and a beer fly to Austin and see this at the airport:

Which is pretty strong, greeting wise. Randy and Karen picked us up from there, showed us around town, helped us drop off our stuff and then took us out for dinner and beers. Stephanie and Fletch have met them just once before, and I think I’ve seen them maybe two or three times in the last ten years, but family really is family and we had a grand time hanging out with them. From there we went back to their place, they took off for their ranch, and we turned in for the evening.

The next day we had a nice walk around Austin. We went on the obligatory pilgrimage to Mellow Johnny’s bike shop, where Fletch got to see some of that Lance guy’s TDF jerseys.

We had a leisurely breakfast in town, walked around some more and then met up with Jeni for the drive out to lunch. Since her research trip in 2008, Stephanie has been telling us about the Salt Lick and its many wonders. It did not disappoint. Great food, great company, we got to see people we haven’t seen in years. Hard to ask for more than that.

From there, Jeni took us on a quick spin over to Dripping Springs where the ride would start the next day. Always handy to get the lay of the land, especially with a 7:45 start time. (We aren’t morning people.) After that we went back to Austin, had the obligatory pasta dinner, and turned in early. (Although we were serenaded by the good people of Austin re-enacting “Thriller” right outside of Randy and Karen’t window.)

We woke up obscenely early the next morning to make the start time. Dropped Fletch off with Jeni, raced over to Dripping Springs, parked the car, rode to the start line and holy crap this place is a zoo!

We were part of the Fat Cyclist team that won the fund raising competition — Fatty raised over $780,000 for the LAF this year — and were entitled to start at the very front of the ride, but since we were late, we just hung out at the back of the 90 mile group and rolled out with them.

Now, a ride like this isn’t something to take lightly, as clearly indicated by me doing the serious face before the start:

Stephanie also was taking things very, very ser… no, actually she was just having a good time.

And the obligatory couple shot:

We were really excited to do this ride together. It was a bit of an early anniversary celebration for us. (Our 3rd wedding anniversary was just three days away.) We don’t get a ton of time to go on long rides together, and whenever we do it’s a really good time.

The start of the ride was along highway 290, which the good people of Dripping Springs had kindly closed down a lane of for us. It was a bit of gridlock along that part, but it opened up soon enough.

When I originally looked at the ride — in particular the elevation profile — I thought that wow, it looks almost exactly like the rides we do out here. In terms of distance and elevation, it would be like riding from home to Rancho and back. Not a huge deal. What I failed to consider is that the Texas hill country has that name for a reason. While there are hills here, there are also flat stretches. Not so much in Texas. The other thing I failed to consider is that Stephanie has been training really hard for the last few months, so while we rode at about the same speed in the summer, she’s cruise along at about 5mph faster than I do now, especially on hills. (And as you’ll recall, there are only hills in that part of Texas.) So the ride was more… challenging than I expected it to be.

That said, we reached the first “power stop” together and one of the other riders was kind enough to take our picture.

The race organizers handed out “in honor of” and “in memory of” bibs for people to write dedications on. Stephanie’s, for example:

There were also “I am a Survivor” bibs worn by cancer survivors. They were pretty inspiring. Strong, in a “I’m not taking any shit off this disease” sort of a way. This was my favorite:

Ten miles or so down the road was the second “power stop,” which was kind of crazy because it happened right there on the road. This was the only poor logistical decision I saw the entire day, so that was cool.

A few miles after the second stop, things took a turn for the worse. Towards the top of a climb, my rear wheel stopped. Completely. Brakes were fine. Tire was fine. Stephanie touched the hub and it was burning hot. Not good. Funny thing is that, relative to the normal road rider, I was carrying every tool under the sun. I had spare tubes for both my and Stephanie’s bike. Spare spokes. I could tighten pretty much any part of either of our bikes that might come loose. (Including crank arms, which have come off on us during rides before.) I had more or less everything I needed to completely service a bike. But I wasn’t prepared for a wheel failing.

After fiddling with it for a bit, the hub cooled down and we decided to give it another go. That lasted maybe a quarter of a mile before the wheel made a horrible high-pitched noise and stopped spinning for good. One of the ride’s on-course bike mechanics stopped by and chatted with us for a bit. Eventually one of the SAG wagons picked me up and took me to the next power stop where there was a mechanic with a full set of tools.

Note the morbid onlookers. (The guy in the Mellow Johnny’s jersey had three spokes go out on a cattle grate, which ended his day.) After a few minutes he was able to get the cassette off the wheel, gave the never welcome pronouncement of “you’re screwed” and offered his condolences to my ride. “Shit happens” was the best that we could collectively come up with to explain why a wheel with less than 2,000 miles on it would just stop working.

The other two riders with day-ending mechanicals were anxious to get back to the start, so Stephanie and I had a brief talk, decided that she’d finish the ride and I’d get the bike to the car and meet her at the finish. I took the camera with me, so she doesn’t have any pictures of her ride, but she had a great time. At the next rest stop she met Philly Jen, the Team Fat Cyclist co-captain for the Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge. They rode the last 30 miles of the 65 mile course — because she spent so much time with me and my mechanically-challenged bike, Stephanie missed the cutoff for the 90 mile course — together and had a grand old time.

Here’s Stephanie coming down the home stretch to the finish:

One very cool thing at the finish is that Eldon Nelson, aka the Fat Cyclist, was waiting there to try to meet as many of the Team Fatty riders as he could. We’ve been following his blog for a while, and it was really cool to get to meet him in person. He runs a mean cycling team and does great work getting people motivated. We were proud to be even a small part of his great efforts.

We hung out at the finish for a while after that, then headed to Jeni’s place for dinner and to catch up. It rained that night, thunder and everything, which was a fun change of pace for us. We had one last Salt Lick meal in the Austin airport before we left, and the flight home the next day was wonderfully uneventful.

Oh, and Stan told me yesterday that the Surly is ready to roll again. I’ll probably pick it up this afternoon.

import urllib2, hashlib

TWITTER = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/public_timeline.json'

def hashed(seq):
    sha1 = hashlib.sha1()
    for x in seq:
        sha1.update(x)
        yield sha1.digest()

def words(wordsize, seq):
    for x in seq:
        for i in xrange(0, len(x), wordsize):
            yield int(x[i:(wordsize + i)].encode('hex'), 16)

def twitrandoms(wordsize = 4, chunksize = 37):
    def infinite_twitrandom():
        while True:
            data = urllib2.urlopen(TWITTER).read()
            for i in range(0, len(data), chunksize):
                yield data[i:(chunksize + i)]
    return words(wordsize, hashed(infinite_twitrandom()))

Well, an exciting month for certain. I made my goal for the year this month. Just this morning, in fact. I left the house with 1,995 and 3/4 miles, which put me just past The Arboretum when I crossed 2,000. Here’s odometer for the day at the first safe place to stop after then:

Also the intersection in question:

And proof that I was there:

So, yeah. Mission accomplished, I guess. I like counting by miles a lot more than counting by trips to and from the office. Longer weekend rides with Stephanie and Fletcher are so much more fun. Although I have to say that I don’t at all miss the alternative to bike commuting:

I have no idea what the state budget issues will do to this list, but as of September 19, 2009, this is what the California State Parks web site has to say about Hike & Bike camps.

Not quite sure why I’m managing my own install in this day and age when I can have somebody else do it for free. Oh well. At least this is just a stupid personal site and not anything I depend on.

It had to happen some month, and I would have bet at the beginning of the year that it would have been August. I missed goal this month. By less than six miles, too. Which is pretty dissapointing. Thing is, I was at 161 a week ago today. That pesky Station fire made riding somewhere between hazardous and stupid. So I didn’t.

That said, I’m still over 1,800 miles on the year. That’s a ride from my garage to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I’m pretty pleased by that. I’m definitely going to make it to Chicago (which is 2,000 miles from Monrovia) by the end of September.

I think I may revise my goal for the year. The Empire State Building is 2,775 miles from my house….

I know it’s still July, but I’m not riding tomorrow, so whatever.

August was the month that I worried about. It’s often damn hot for three or four weeks straight in August. I love riding, but I’m not commuting in that sort of heat. Anyway, August happened in July this year. For a couple of weeks the highs were over 100, plus I had some other nonsense going on — watching the Tour, which is just about the worst excuse I can think of for not riding a bike — and I ended up not commuting at all for three weeks.

That said, I still made goal, so I’m happy about that. Credit a ride with the good people from Stan’s, a run down to the Arcadia bike path with Stephanie and a Saturday in Ventura with her and Fletcher for actually getting some miles in. Fletch and I also did a couple of evening bike runs over to Sierra Madre for ice cream. It was pretty fun to do some different types of riding.

I’m not sure how we’re going to work it, as it’s more than likely to be hot, but Stephanie and I need to start getting some serious training miles in for the Livestrong ride in October. I feel like we could both do the metric century (65 mile) option today, but we really want to be fast enough to do the 90. (There’s no way that I could make it within the time limit.) It shouldn’t take that much work to get there, so here’s to hoping that the weather cooperates. (Clearly we need to start summering in Portland or Ghent or something like that.)

Slow going last month. I spent a little more than a week dealing with a cold and then a few days after that traveling. Add a few “hey, wear a tie” days at work to that, and I wind up barely making my goal.

That said, June definitely had its memorable riding momemts. Most notably, Fletcher’s scout troop finished up the cycling merit badge, including a 50 mile ride from Monrovia to Seal Beach. I’m really proud of how well he and the rest of the boys did with such a long ride. The farthest I ever rode as a kid was maybe 15 miles. The bike path down there was also really great. From our house, it’s about 40 pretty easy miles down to the beach — we had to circle around Monrovia for a while to stretch it out to 50. I’d like to do the down and back some time, just for grins.

July, likely as not, will be hot. I’m not looking forward to it. Stephanie and I already had a heated stupid cyclist moment this weekend, waiting until mid day to leave for a ride. Turns out that the middle of the day is a bad time to ride. Who knew! My hope is that it stays cool enough in the mornings for me to keep riding in to work. Otherwise, I’m glad that May worked out as well as it did, otherwise I’d have no chance of keeping up.

May was, far and away, the biggest cycling month I’ve had. The stars really did align in terms of great weather, not too many “business casual” days at work, getting the bike situation straightened out, and a couple of opportunities for longer weekend rides. I also did my first metric century (100km) in May, and it wasn’t that bad at all. Stephanie and I are talking about doing a 100 mile ride in September and are doing 90 miles for the Livestrong ride in October, so that’s something to work towards.

This was my first full month on the Surly. It really is a great bike. Riding it feels like driving a giant Caddy with big comfy bench seats, but still a good suspension and a reasonable-enough gear box. I was a little worried about moving up to 700×37 tires as opposed to the 700×25’s I’ve been riding for the last year, but if anything that seem to roll better than what I’m use to. I am also slightly ashamed to admit that I quite like the indexed shifting for the rear derailler. Sure, it lacks the flexibility of friction shifting, but man is it a lot easier. (I’m not changing out the silvers on the Bstone, though.) Perhaps most importantly, I bought the biggest frame that would plausibly fit me. This, more than anything, is likely why it feels quite so nice to ride. I recommend buying big to everybody. Anyway, I’m quite happy with it. If you’re looking for a commuter bike or an around-town bike or a touring bike (which is what it’s built for), you’ll be hard-pressed to do a lot better than a Surly Long Haul Trucker.

If it’s like every other June, next month should be pretty ideal for riding as well. Fletcher’s scout troop has a couple of rides planned for the month, and Stephanie and I really want to find time to ride out to Claremont for lunch at the Back Abbey. Should be another great month!

I rolled in to the REI-sponsored stop at the Allen gold line station at about 8:30. They said that they had talked to a lot of riders today.

Gift bags and free mechanical checkups were the order of the day. Also picture taking, it seems. I declined the checkup, but gladly accepted the gift bag.

Quite excited about the REI coupon — new helmet? wheel truing stand? — and the water bottle/patch kit/sun screen. We get out to Claremont often enough that I’ll definitely be able to use the Jax coupon. Those Clif bars look yummy as well. I’m not at all sure what to make of the TMZ-branded combination pen/bottle opener.

The Pasadena city hall pit stop looked pretty mellow from the street.

Inside, though, it was much more of a scene.

They seemed much more geared towards letting city and other very local employees know about alternative transit options. Metro and Fuller had tables set up. I think Pasadena Cyclery was holding a drawing for some sort of Gary Fisher city bike. I really wanted to hit the South Lake pit stop before it closed, though, so I grabbed the nice shopping bag they were offering and was on my way.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the South Lake stop. I rode up and down the street from Colorado to just south of California and back. Nothing. I guess it was getting on towards the end of the time they were to be there. Perhaps they packed up early?

Most disappointingly, this is what I saw when I got in today:

Oh well. I guess we won’t be getting those new bike racks after all. (We were running out of room pretty regularly last summer, and “there isn’t enough space” is a much more compelling argument than “these are crappy stands and they scratch up my down tube so I don’t want to use them.”)

Either way, though, a fun ride this morning. There were definitely more bike commuters than usual out on the road today, and it’s nice to see the city and local businesses help out cyclists. (Even if it is just marketing.)

April was a rough month, riding-wise. My commuter finally bit the dust, and I was without a bike for the better part of two weeks. After that we were out of town for spring break — we had a lovely trip to Monterey — during which I picked up an ugly head cold that kept me off the bike for another week. Good times.

Either way, and despite missing the troop ride, I was able to make it to within 1/10^th of a mile of my monthly goal. Which is pretty spooky if you think about it.

I’m set to get back on track in May. I finished the Bridgestone, and Stephanie bought me a new commuter bike. (More on that later on this week.) So even if I completely destroy one in the name of “fixing” it, I’ll still be able to ride to work.

My other big cycling acquisiting for April is a Road ID, also courtesy of my loving wife.

The general idea is that if I get hit by a bus and can’t account for myself, the EMT’s or whoever have a few people they can call to figure out who I am. Given that one of Stephanie’s riding buddies was in an accident and was only identifiable because of his Road ID — his bike was crushed under a bus and the EMT’s cut his jersey away (he came through everything just fine and is back on his bike again!) — it seems like a more than fine idea. (P.S.: Carter: if I get hit by a bus and they can’t get a hold of Stephanie, expect a call.)

When I looked in to how much they cost, I was shocked to see a huge difference between the UK prices and the US prices. The Guv’nor, for example: GBP795 (USD1167) in jolly old, and USD1795 here in the states through Gold Country Cyclery. (And nobody else seems to carry them.) That’s more than a 50% markup. I can’t imagine that shipping cost makes up all of that. Maybe there are onerous import duties on British bicycles? Who knows.

Either way: amazing looking bikes.

Here’s the original, for compare/contract purposes:

A quick note regarding the name: Riv sells decal sets for old bikes made new. There’s lots of resurrection and phoenix motifs in them. Here’s a closeup:

And the seat tube decal:

I quite like them.

For the final push of getting it from assembled to “no really: ready to ride”, I had some help from Ken down at Stan’s Monrovia Bicycles with the bar tape. I wasn’t sure how to wrap the end of the bars such that the shifters would still fit in (turns out that you just don’t tuck the tape in to the bars), was impatient, and knew that Ken help me put a bullet in the project.

The blue tape is, I think, an extra-nice touch. Thanks, Ken!

The other thing I’m rather happy about is finally getting to use the saddle that Stephanie gave me for our anniversary last year.

Overall, I’m just really, really happy with the way the bike turned out, and I’ll probably do another sooner or later. (Definitely not until I get the garage cleaned out and tools organized such that I can avoid taking over the entire garage. No really: cars go there. It’s true.)

Building up a bike from parts — especially an old bike — was a really educational experience. I got to learn all about the difference between 27-inch and 700c wheels, and between recessed brake caliper mountings v. nutted mountings, and which parts screw in left-handed, which parts really, really need grease before you install them. Etc. It was a lot of fun, but I think I’d do a few things differently next time. (In particular, I’d not paint it until I was 100% sure that all the components fit. Trying to MacGyver in brakes on a freshly-painted frame is more angsty than I’m down for.)

I was able to take it for a short ride this afternoon. You know, shake down the components, make sure it’s adjusted correctly, etc. The seat is angled a little far forward, and I’m going to have to make a new shim (the first one is too thin) for the seat post. Also, I really don’t need a 52t chainring. I’ll never use it. So probably I’ll swap it out for the 42t “small” chain ring and put a 34t or something on as well. (I know that I forfeit any roadie kred by doing this. Oh well. I can still hang out with the touring crowd.)

Without question I would be remiss if I did not thank the people who helped me out with this project:

• New Belgium, for the best seat-post shim stock on earth
• Rivendell Bicycle Works, for a gang of parts and inspiration
• Sheldon Brown, for an endless stream of maintenance and repair tips
• Stan’s, for more parts, advice and making Monrovia a cool town to ride in
• My parents and in-laws for helping me avoid tragic technical errors along the way
• Fletcher, for being a shop hand without comparison
• Stephanie, for limitless inspiration, creative consultation, support and that just-right amount of ass kicking to get me to finish the damn thing. I love you!

Top Six Gender-Appropriate Outfits I Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead Wearing In Public (pics required)

Ok, this one I think I could do. First off, I can’t see myself wearing a dashiki.

I don’t know. Just not my thing. For similar reasons, the Canadian tuxedo doesn’t really work for me, either.

Sorry, Jay.

Since I’m not European, I’ll say that the speedo is right out as well.

I’m beginning to think that the Euro Speedo Dude is a myth, as they only Euro Dude beach frolicking stories I’ve every heard involved beachgoing au natural, which in its own way is better than the speedo. More honest, at least.

I can never remember the Safe Word, so the Gimp look is out.

Perhaps the most regrettable look ever — that I would not for a moment consider rocking, unless it was really, really funny, in which case maybe — is the frat-boy multiple collars, some popped, some not look.

What on earth are those guys thinking?

Finally, I’ll call upon the good doctor to let me know what not to wear:

“I’d like to get hold of some priests’ robes,” I said. “They might come in handy in Las Vegas.”

But there were no costume stores open, and we weren’t up to burglarizing a church. “Why bother?” said my attorney. “And you have to remember that a lot of cops are good vicious Catholics. Can you imagine what those bastards would do to us if we got busted all drugged-up and drunk in stolen vestments? Jesus, they’d castrate us!”

So I’ll not be dressing as the Pope, either.

Top Five “Top Ten Lists” That I Found Outrageously Wrong

No. Just… no.

Top Four Things I’m Really Bad At Doing

1. Golf. Lord almighty am I bad at golf. Often I give up scoring with numbers and use symbols. One time I made the 7th hole in lightning bolt after making the sixth in pentagram. I attribute this to the fact that 95-99% of the time I’m golfing is at bachelor parties and I’m three or five beers in to things by the fourth hole. Or at least the fourth hole for me. I usually hit six or eight or whatever the maximum is on at least half the holes, so it takes me eight holes to actually sink four. Anyway, yeah: I’m awfully bad at golf.
2. Corresponding. You’d think what with the email and the basically free VOIP and the atomic hover video chat, it’d be easier to keep up with the people I’d like to keep up with, but I just don’t do it. So everybody who doesn’t live in Southern California who wonders why I never write/call/atomic video yell, it’s just because I’m bad at that sort of thing.
3. Crossword puzzles. I just don’t have the patience/mind for remembering trivia.

I’m tired this evening, so I’m not really going to try. Sorry.

1. Rockport
2. Vasque
3. Adidas

Wow that was lame.