April and YTD stats

So far this year I have done almost 750 miles 272 of that was during the month of April alone. My goal this year is 1500 miles which at this point I should easily surpass. I think I may need to shoot for 2500. I have already surpassed last years riding by over 100 miles.

Month  Miles    MPH Avg/Max      Time         Calories   HR AVG/Max    Cadence Avg/Max
April    272.44     15.94/28.28     16:52:22       16589        155/183                       75/127
YTD    728.32     14.94/24.69     47:28:37       45631        167/172                       75/127

2011 Ride #30 Easy Bridge Ride

So Ana and I finally got the chance for us both to get out and ride. It wasn't without some idiots behind us smacking into the back of each other and then the other lady rolling into the bike rack. Thankfully there wasnt so much a scratch.

Tomorrow I will be doing 50 miles with Alex, likely the last ride before the MS 150. It certainly is heating up, it was much warmer than last weekend. I do feel my endurance and power going up (I actually only used the small ring once, uphill into the wind on the Clearwater pass bridge.

Ride Map and Stats:
Started: Apr 30, 2011 1:55:42 PM
Ride Time: 1:31:02
Stopped Time: 15:23
Distance: 21.41 miles
Average Speed: 14.11 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 28.46 miles/h
Ascent: 305 feet
Descent: 361 feet
Calories: 1249


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2011 Ride #29 - MS150 Training Ride - Metric Century - Check!

I knew that today would be met with some firsts - Riding road with a big group, my first metric century. I am happy to say I completed both of them and then some.

Everyone Getting Ready to head out:


The ride started off pretty awesome, the Clermont police blocked off all the major intersections in Clermont. From out of the parking lot and for the first mile or two, the ride was downhill. Very much downhill. It was at this point I saw the fastest time of the day - 41 miles per hour. Let me tell you what - that is hauling ass on a bicycle. I almost decided to just stick with the 35 miler and up to the point where I hit about 45 miles or so, I loved it. From about mile 34 to mile 50, the wind was just unrelenting. It was at about mile 50 when someone having fun, swapped the directional sign telling riders where to go sending me the wrong way...unfortunately I didn't notice for about 5 miles, so I ended up with an extra 10 miles. Unfortunately that also mean that I had to traverse about 5 extra hills both ways. That sucked. I went so far as to call the bike shop and asked to be picked up in a support vehicle, but they told me I'd have to make my way back to the official course. I did manage to make it back and with about 7 miles left to go, I met the guys in the SAG van. The gave me ice cold gatorade and water (and I poured a great deal of it on me to cool off). They encouraged me to ride on because there was only one more really steep hill (as I am looking at the hill from beside the van thinking no freaking way). At this point I said to myself, just do it, and they reassured me that if I finally gave out, that they would be about 5 minutes behind me. Now that I was paranoid about going the wrong way, I kept pulling out the GPS and checking, just to be sure. There was really only one more seriously challenging hill that they neglected to mention on the way back, but it was like an eighth mile from the shop and the glorious payoff to the climb was the major downhill on the other side (which without pedaling had you doing 32mph).

I ended up doing 74.93 miles (I went past the metric century (100K/62.5 mi) by more than 10 miles).

Ride Stats and Maps:

Ride Time: 4:35:26
Stopped Time: 1:06:45
Distance: 74.93 miles
Average: 16.32 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 41.46 miles/h
Ascent: 1785 feet
Descent: 1785 feet
Calories: 4258





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2011 Ride #28 40 miles back to back

I did it! 41 miles on Saturday and 41 miles today! It was even more windy than it was yesterday, but this time the wind was worse on the trip out (it was nearly non-existant when you were going south.

This was a mixed blessing. While my average speed was substantially less than normal on the way up, on the way bay we more than made up for it. On the southern end of the ride I actually saw 7 miles that were averaged over 20mph. While I thought I would end up bonking, I stayed through it and was rewarded with my fastest 40 mile average to date.

We changed up the ride a bit today, instead of returning to the lot we proceeded to the southern terminus of the trail and returned back up. At this point it is where Alex went to his car (around 33 miles) and I kept going. There were several points where I thought my legs were going to explode, but then on the return trip I ended up with three of my fastest average miles to date.

Next weekend I will be going on a group ride in Clermont - with options to do 35 or 65 miles. The distance isnt a worry but the hills are...we shall see.

Ride Map and Stats:
Ride Time: 2:28:01
Distance: 41.41 miles
Average: 16.78 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 25.59 miles/h
Ahead of Best Ride: 5:56
Ascent: 856 feet
Calories: 2483


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2011 Ride #27 Forty Miles with Nathan

This weekend begins the true ramp up for the MS150 next month. Nathan met up with me today and we did my usual 40 mile trip. While he hadn't ridden in a while. it certainly did seem that way, he motored along just like had been for months.

The weather on the way up was great - but the wind on the way back was insane. I hope the wind subsides for tomorrows 40!

Ride Stats and Maps:

Ride Time: 2:33:08
Distance: 41.44 miles
Average: 16.24 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 30.16 miles/h
Ascent: 443 feet
Calories: 2839


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2011 Ride #26 Forty miles and falling

It was another beautiful Florida morning today, a nice cool 68F. Alex and I had decided ahead of time that this would be a 40 mile day. Today I was also experimenting with the "Endurance Fuel" from Infinit Nutrition. My goal has been to find a product to replace having gels, bars and everything else on each trip. We got rolling around 7:45 and agreed to keep the pace between 16-18mph so we wouldn't kill ourselves with the distance.

So it happens to all bikers eventually...you cruise up to the light and stop. Except you didn't unclip and fall over, or your riding buddy forgets which side he unclipped from and falls on you, which isn't bad if your opposite foot is unclipped...So we got to the light at SR52 and Alex forgot he unclipped on the right and not the left...and then leaned to the left. Standing to his left, I was unclipped on the right...he fell onto me and while I still managed to unclip my foot to prevent from falling completely, the bikes both got to kiss the pavement (and so did Alex). Of course the cagers sitting at the light had their laughs, and the other roadies told us we had earned our badges. Neither of us were hurt, but it was funny.

The Infinit nutrition products worked out great - not once did I feel fatigued, and I had plenty of energy (without making my teeth feel disgusting at the same time).

We keep rolling up to County Line Road and turned back:


Ride Stats and map:

Ride Time: 2:33:57
Distance: 41.89 miles
Average: 16.33 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 44.41 miles/h
Ascent: 1104 feet
Calories: 2508


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2011 Ride #25 quick and dirty thrity..broke 500 miles on the year

Today Alex and I met up at the suncoast parkway to get in 25-30 miles at a good clip. Alex had a surprise this morning - he rolled up and pulled out a Trek Madon 5.2. One sweet freaking bike. Alex has really picked up the pace over the last few rides and being on a new bike certainly showed. We rode up the parkway about 14 miles, turned around, headed through Starkey park (till it was flooded) and headed back. This netted us a simple 31 mile ride that we both felt great having completed.

I also passed 500 miles for the year and considering I haven't been able to ride both days a week this year, it's not a bad thing.

Ride Stats and Maps:

Started: Apr 3, 2011 8:12:57 AM
Ride Time: 1:50:23
Distance: 31.65 miles
Average Speed: 17.20 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 27.09 miles/h
Ascent: 33 feet
Descent: 125 feet
Calories: 1919

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2011 Ride #24 Friday Afternoon ride

I had taken today off to get our cabinets installed and have some new fence installed in the back yard. I got a call on Wednesday saying that the cabinets would be late coming in and that they needed to install it on Saturday. Great. Too bad I had scheduled the fence work, else I could have had one of the most beautiful days all to myself.

Alex and I had planned on riding on Wednesday, only to find out that one of the worst storms to hit our area planned on coming in early. I metioned that I was going to be off Friday as well and we planned on going riding up at the Suncoast trail because Flatwoods would have been underwater (it always is in places during the summer).

So we met up at around 3:30, I decided not to bother with the ipod tracking today and soley go by the bike computer. Unfortunately, this would be the first of many little grrr moments during our ride. We got rolling only to see my speed was not registering. I look down and see that my speed sensor had slid down the spokes. I readjusted it a bit, and speed was registering...but now it was rubbing on the staps that hold the sensor to the bike frame. At this point I moved it out of the way, but it wasn't close enough to register speed. I finally said the hell with it so we could get on our way.

The weather today was spectacular, 80F, slight north wind - perfectly blue skies. We rode up about 7 miles and Alex asked if he could swap bikes so he could decide if there really was a difference over the other bike. Of course he immediately noticed the difference. We got about a mile down the road and then his bike started to feel wobbly, I looked down - the tire had flatted out. This is the second time this had happened to him since we had been riding out there. I flipped it over and changed the tire.

We continued to head up to 52 and then turned around. At that point we put a little more air in his rear tire and continued on. All in all it was a good ride, we did approximately 20 miles give or take 1/2 mile.

Since the speed sensor and all were not working quite right, I dont have the specs today...