Tag: bike

The Grape Creek Hills

Saturday

Saturday morning several friends and I headed over to Kickapoo for a bike ride. We didn’t ride the mountain bike trails there, instead we did a long road ride up and down the Vermillion River bluffs. These aren’t mountains, but the hills are order of magnitude larger than any we have in Champaign county.

We started in Kickapoo and headed south, through the county fair grounds, out to Shangri-la, down to Catlin, over to Belgium, down to Grape Creek road. Once there we twisted and turned and rode up every hill we could find.

Kickapoo - Grape Creek ride

Eventually we wound our way through Westville and Catlin back to Kickapoo. It was cold, though much of the ride was perfectly tolerable where we were surrounded by trees and hills. The miles between Catlin & Westville were out in the open and the wind was brutal. It was a good ride. Afterwards I visited my parents in Danville for lunch before heading home.

Sunday

Sunday morning I took part in Second Wind’s 20 mile marathon training run at Lake of the Woods. Rather than running the trails as I usually do, we stuck to the paved 3.3 mile bike path. The wind was even worse on Sunday, gusting up to 30 mph. I had to throw on some additional clothes at the last minute because the wind made it feel even colder than I expected.

I ran with two or three other guys the whole way and we ran fast, averaging 7:20 per mile. On one hand, I don’t typically run my long runs this fast so it was pretty challenging for me. On the other hand, I hope to run the marathon even faster than this so I felt the need to prove to myself I could do it.

Sore Rob

I was pretty sore after the run. I ended up sleeping or lounging around the rest of the day. I was able to perform some household chores, albeit very slowly.

The End of February

Photo of the Day

February calendar

Bike

Illini Chill

The February weather wasn’t great, but there were a few good days when I was able to get a small amount of quality miles in on the bike. I had two good road rides and a good mountain bike ride.

February

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 74.3 Mile 14 5.30714 Mile
El Fuego 16.86 Mile 1 16.86 Mile
Pocket Rocket 23.8 Mile 6 3.96667 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 117.39 Mile 2 58.695 Mile
Total 232.35 Mile 23 10.1022 Mile

2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 144. Mile 30 4.8 Mile
Big Red 2. Mile 1 2. Mile
El Fuego 39.92 Mile 5 7.984 Mile
Pocket Rocket 23.8 Mile 6 3.96667 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 162.04 Mile 3 54.0133 Mile
Total 371.76 Mile 45 8.26133 Mile

Run

Runner Rob

I eased up on the running a bit after the Riddle Run. This probably isn’t great for my training for the upcoming Illinois Marathon, but my body needed to recover. I chose to focus more on quality than quantity. Last Tuesday’s Armory fun run was the fastest I’ve done all winter.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
February 55.83 Mile 7 7.97571 Mile
Total 165.17 Mile 17 9.71588 Mile

Swim

Rob starting 500 freestyle

In February I ramped my swimming back up with the start of Masters Swimming for the spring semester. We had another practice meet and I also swam the farthest I’ve ever done in one go (4300 yards).

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 1.87452 Kilo Meter 3 0.62484 Kilo Meter
February 14.9504 Kilo Meter 6 2.49174 Kilo Meter
Total 16.825 Kilo Meter 9 1.86944 Kilo Meter

Cross Country Skiing

No snow = no skiing.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 26.67 Mile 6 4.445 Mile
February 0 0 0
Total 26.67 Mile 6 4.445 Mile

The Insight

In 2002 Melissa & I bought our first new car, a Honda Insight. The little two-seater hatchback has a hybrid 3-cylinder gas/electric engine. The funny aerodynamic shape has the lowest coefficient of drag of any production car available in the U.S. (at least at the time of its introduction, and possibly still). It also has the lowest emissions and best fuel economy of any car, then or now. This thing is great. I would say that it was ahead of its time, but I think it would be more accurate to say all other cars are behind their time.

Buying Iris

Melissa named her car Iris, after her favorite flower. It was originally our second car, so the lack of a back seat wasn’t a problem. When we moved to Nicaragua we got rid of my Civic and since we’ve been back in the U.S. we have only the Insight.

Melissa with Iris

There have been a couple of times were it would have been nice to have a back seat (e.g. picking up people from the airport), but we’ve always managed to get by.

As you may or may not already know, Melissa & I are expecting a baby Ragfield this summer, so the lack of a back seat in our only car isn’t going to work for much longer. That’s why we’ve decided to sell our beloved Iris and replace her (probably with a much more luxurious, yet fuel-economy-inferior Toyota Prius). We test drove a Prius on Valentine’s Day… it was very nice.

So I’ve decided to pay tribute to Iris, who has been like a member of the family the past seven years…

Iris in the Smokies

Iris in the Smoky mountains

Iris packed for vacation

I still don’t know how we were able to fit all of our clothes, food, camping gear, and two bicycles completely within the tiny car.

Rob a little cramped in a very full Iris

Okay, so it may have been a little cramped in there

Iris packed up to move

Here she is packed up to move out of our old house

Iris with Christmas tree

Here she is with a Christmas tree

Iris with skis

and skis

Good fuel economy

We’ve had good fuel economy

Not as good fuel economy

and terrible fuel economy

That’s a pretty accurate range of the real world fuel economy we saw with Iris. In the summer it would regularly be in the high 50’s to low 60’s. In the winter it would regularly be in the mid-40’s. The seven year average is just over 50 miles per gallon. In the summer of 2004, when I was bicycling nearly everywhere and Melissa was in Nicaragua, I spent around $20 on gas the entire summer.

One of the great things about this car is the instantaneous fuel economy gauge (the Prius has this too) that shows you exactly how good the gas mileage is at any given time. This has helped me learn how to drive to best conserve fuel. Surprise, surprise, the most important thing to do is slow down. But it’s a little more complicated than that. It takes a light touch to get it just right. You have to connect with the car and feel how it reacts to the slightest changes.

Even with all the things we love about this car, she’s not perfect. I found her lack of cruise control frustrating at times, but I made due. How does a car produced in this millennium not have cruise control? Also, the gas tank is on the wrong (right) side of the car (now I’m just nitpicking, but seriously, all gas tanks should be on the left/driver side of the car). Fortunately, the Prius remedies both of these shortcomings.

We’d love for Iris to go to a good home, so if any of you are even the slightest bit interested in buying her, let us know soon.

Iris at night

Good night

The Epic Double

Illini Chill

Saturday morning was the annual Illini Chill winter bike ride in St. Joe. I rode it last year for the first time in some horrible weather. It was a pleasant surprise to see the forecast for this year indicated the high temperature would be in the 50’s.

I learned the hard way last year that the included lumberjack breakfast actually isn’t pancakes. Luckily, Melissa and I filled up on pancakes Friday night at IHOP.

Short stack

Melissa & I ate our own “lumberjack breakfast” the night before the ride at IHOP

The ride start in St. Joe is only 12 miles from my house in Urbana. Since the weather was so nice I just decided to ride over there. I had a nice cross-tailwind to help push me along the whole way.

Illini Chill

Don, Karl, Greg, & Gene at the ride start

The regular route was a 22 mile loop from St. Joe to Royal and back. There was a 20+ mile long route addition, which I assumed we would do. We started heading north with a strong tailwind. Before I new it we were in Royal and we kept going on the long route–still heading North. We were 15-20 miles north of St. Joe when we finally turned west and hit the first headwind. It was tough. Eight of us took turns leading the way, but our speed still slowed from 25 to 15 mph.

Illini Chill map

my Illini Chill route

We wound our way back to St. Joe, mostly into the headwind. I realized that 20+ miles actually meant 28 miles. That put me at 60 for the day… so far. I was fairly exhausted by the time we returned to St. Joe for the pasta lunch and I was dreading the final 12 miles into the headwind back to Urbana. Fortunately, one of my friends also rode over from Urbana and we were able to ride back together.

It took 4:30 to travel 72 miles. Not great, but it’s only February. This one ride was more than half as far as my total January mileage.

Clinton Lake

I returned home, showered, took a 30 minute nap, ate a snack, then started to prepare for my second adventure. A different group of friends was planning to run 10 miles at the Clinton Lake trail on Saturday night. Clinton Lake is one of the harder area trails to run under normal circumstances. At night (using headlamps and flashlights) it was going to be a new challenge. Additionally, we realized pretty quickly that the entire trail was covered in several inches of mud.

Clinton Lake trail map

Clinton Lake trail

There was a big turnout–18 or so runners. It was kind of neat in the early miles to turn around and see 15 flashlights lining the trail behind me. We slid all over the place. A few people fell. I managed to stay upright, though one time I took a step and when I lifted my foot up my shoe stayed in the mud.

Trail running

my muddy shoes this morning

Somehow I was way overdressed. I started with pants, a long sleeve shirt, and gloves. I took the gloves off almost immediately. Later I pushed up my sleeves and unzipped my shirt. Then I pulled up my pant legs above my knees. I was on the verge of taking my shirt off. I don’t know what the deal was… I’ve never been that hot when it was 45˚ before.

This trail usually takes me less than 1:30, but last night it took 2:20. There was an awful lot of hiking going on at times rather than running. After 6:50 of aerobic exercise in one day I was utterly exhausted.

After the run we all grabbed dinner at Dos Reales, where I consumed copious quantities of chips, salsa, & water. While I was nearly the last person to receive my order, I’m pretty sure I was the first to finish.

Needless to say I had no trouble sleeping last night.

The End of January

Photo of the Day

January calendar

Bike

Commute

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 69.7 Mile 16 4.35625 Mile
Big Red 2. Mile 1 2. Mile
El Fuego 23.06 Mile 4 5.765 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 44.65 Mile 1 44.65 Mile
Total 139.41 Mile 22 6.33682 Mile

The weather has been too nasty to do much recreational cycling. These miles were mostly commute. I got in one road ride and one mountain bike ride the entire month.

Run

Red arrows mark the trail

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
Total 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile

This was my highest monthly run total since I started running again.

Swim

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 1.87452 Kilo Meter 3 0.62484 Kilo Meter
Total 1.87452 Kilo Meter 3 0.62484 Kilo Meter

Not much going on here. I’m going to start swimming regularly again tomorrow.

Cross Country Skiing

Skiing Schroth Trail

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 26.67 Mile 6 4.445 Mile
Total 26.67 Mile 6 4.445 Mile

What the heck, I spent a lot of time skiing last month. I still don’t think I’m quite as good at it as I was last year. It hasn’t come back to me quickly enough.

The Domestic Travels

I enjoy traveling, and I love geography, so I was very excited when a friend of mine recently mentioned this website that allows people to track their travels, county by county, across the country. I spent a couple hours entering my data (thanks to some helpful information from my dad regarding trip routes from my childhood) and now I have this wonderful map.

Click to enlarge

I categorized the counties thusly:

In cyan (light blue) are places where I’ve traveled in an automobile (or other motorized land vehicle). These include:

  • Seattle/Olympic National Park
  • Silicon Valley
  • Grand Canyon
  • El Paso/Juarez
  • Dallas
  • Galveston
  • New Orleans/Baton Rouge
  • Nashville
  • Des Moines
  • Minneapolis
  • Green Bay
  • Sault Ste. Marie
  • Cedar Point/Sandusky
  • Washington DC
  • Wilmington, NC
  • Hilton Head, SC/Savannah, GA
  • Hawaii & Kauai islands
  • Most of Illinois, Indiana, and central Appalachia
  • Everything along the way to these places

In magenta (light purple) are places where I’ve been bicycling (and probably travelled by auto also). These include:

In dark blue are places where I’ve been, but only in the airport (i.e. I had a layover there). These include:

  • Los Angeles
  • Phoenix
  • Salt Lake City
  • Kansas City
  • Atlanta
  • Miami
  • Honolulu

It’s exciting to remember all the great places I’ve been, and just as exciting to think about all the places I have yet to explore. I’ve still never set foot in 19 states:

  • Maine
  • New Hampshire
  • Vermont
  • Massachusetts
  • Rhode Island
  • Connecticut
  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • Delaware
  • Alabama
  • Nebraska
  • South Dakota
  • North Dakota
  • Colorado
  • Wyoming
  • Montana
  • Idaho
  • Nevada
  • Alaska

I’ve got places to go. Hopefully I will keep the map updated along the way.

The End of 2008

2008 was one of the most successful years I’ve had for racing. I competed in running (5K to ultra-marathon), cycling (road, crit, time trial, cyclocross), swimming (50-1000 yard), triathlon (sprint & olympic), and duathlon races. I set new PRs (personal records) in 5K time, ultra-marathon time and distance, olympic distance triathlon time, 40 KM cycling time trial time, 1000 yard swim time, and yearly cycling distance.

In case you missed them, here were a few of the highlights:

Stats

This was the worst December weather I’ve seen in 30 years living in Illinois. Everything (streets, sidewalks, & grass) was continuously covered in ice for several weeks.

Icy streets

As a result I only did one recreational bike ride in December and fell short of my best case scenario year end cycling goals for 2008: 6,000 miles total & 366 separate rides (2008 was a leap year). For the purpose of my records, separate rides are two consecutive rides on different days, on different bikes, or wearing different clothes. This means I count riding to work in the morning and home from work in the evening as one single ride. I probably would have been closer to 600 or 700 separate rides using a different standard.

Despite not making my best case scenario goals, I’m still quite pleased with these numbers. 5,838 miles is much higher than my previous highest yearly total of around 4,600 miles.

Cycling: December 2008 by Bike

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Big Red 4.2 Mile 1 4.2 Mile
El Fuego 73.2 Mile 13 5.63077 Mile
Pocket Rocket 13.7 Mile 3 4.56667 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 16.43 Mile 1 16.43 Mile
Total 107.53 Mile 18 5.97389 Mile

Cycling: 2008 by Bike

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 682.99 Mile 109 6.26596 Mile
Big Red 299.04 Mile 22 13.5927 Mile
Dahon 164.63 Mile 29 5.6769 Mile
El Fuego 121.6 Mile 16 7.6 Mile
Litespeed 334.465 Mile 13 25.7281 Mile
Pocket Rocket 1051.23 Mile 64 16.4255 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 3184.03 Mile 89 35.7756 Mile
Total 5837.99 Mile 342 17.0701 Mile

Cycling: 2008 by Month

Month Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
January 136.72 Mile 21 6.51048 Mile
February 340.15 Mile 29 11.7293 Mile
March 590.33 Mile 29 20.3562 Mile
April 597.9 Mile 29 20.6172 Mile
May 665.06 Mile 36 18.4739 Mile
June 785.95 Mile 31 25.3532 Mile
July 774.115 Mile 36 21.5032 Mile
August 715.01 Mile 26 27.5004 Mile
September 591.615 Mile 36 16.4337 Mile
October 328.34 Mile 31 10.5916 Mile
November 205.27 Mile 20 10.2635 Mile
December 107.53 Mile 18 5.97389 Mile
Total 5837.99 Mile 342 17.0701 Mile

In early December I ran the Tecumseh marathon, which was my big goal for the end of the year. Then I eased up a bit on the running in order to recover.

Running: 2008 by Month

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 90.18 Mile 8 11.2725 Mile
February 23.35 Mile 4 5.8375 Mile
March 53.6469 Mile 9 5.96076 Mile
April 49.3 Mile 8 6.1625 Mile
May 28.3569 Mile 7 4.05098 Mile
June 21.25 Mile 4 5.3125 Mile
July 47.7537 Mile 8 5.96921 Mile
August 29.24 Mile 4 7.31 Mile
September 43.0637 Mile 8 5.38296 Mile
October 97.91 Mile 9 10.8789 Mile
November 94.17 Mile 10 9.417 Mile
December 77.49 Mile 9 8.61 Mile
Total 655.711 Mile 88 7.45126 Mile

I did very little swimming in December. I will probably not do a whole lot in January either, given the restricted pool hours on campus during winter break.

Swimming: 2008 by Month

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1.55448 Kilo Meter 2 0.77724 Kilo Meter
May 0 0 0
June 4.1148 Kilo Meter 5 0.82296 Kilo Meter
July 11.5446 Kilo Meter 10 1.15446 Kilo Meter
August 11.2774 Kilo Meter 8 1.40968 Kilo Meter
September 18.9329 Kilo Meter 13 1.45638 Kilo Meter
October 16.7335 Kilo Meter 6 2.78892 Kilo Meter
November 12.8016 Kilo Meter 5 2.56032 Kilo Meter
December 6.4008 Kilo Meter 4 1.6002 Kilo Meter
Total 83.3602 Kilo Meter 53 1.57283 Kilo Meter

The End of November

I only biked a measly 200 miles in November, taking 10 days off the bike in the process. The early cold weather and long Thanksgiving holiday made things difficult. I will have to ramp the mileage back up in order to make it to 6,000 miles in 2008. It also looks unlikely I’ll be able to make it to 365 separate rides in 2008.

On the bright side, I got a lot of good quality running in. As long as I don’t injure myself in the next four days I’ll be all set to run the Tecumseh Trail Marathon this Saturday.

Run

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 90.18 Mile 8 11.2725 Mile
February 23.35 Mile 4 5.8375 Mile
March 53.6469 Mile 9 5.96076 Mile
April 49.3 Mile 8 6.1625 Mile
May 28.3569 Mile 7 4.05098 Mile
June 21.25 Mile 4 5.3125 Mile
July 47.7537 Mile 8 5.96921 Mile
August 29.24 Mile 4 7.31 Mile
September 43.0637 Mile 8 5.38296 Mile
October 97.91 Mile 9 10.8789 Mile
November 94.17 Mile 10 9.417 Mile
Total 578.221 Mile 79 7.31925 Mile

Swim

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 0 0 0
February 0 0 0
March 0 0 0
April 1.55448 Kilo Meter 2 0.77724 Kilo Meter
May 0 0 0
June 4.1148 Kilo Meter 5 0.82296 Kilo Meter
July 11.5446 Kilo Meter 10 1.15446 Kilo Meter
August 11.2774 Kilo Meter 8 1.40968 Kilo Meter
September 18.9329 Kilo Meter 13 1.45638 Kilo Meter
October 16.7335 Kilo Meter 6 2.78892 Kilo Meter
November 12.8016 Kilo Meter 5 2.56032 Kilo Meter
Total 76.9594 Kilo Meter 49 1.5706 Kilo Meter

Bike

November 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 39.1 Mile 6 6.51667 Mile
Big Red 4.2 Mile 1 4.2 Mile
Pocket Rocket 66.13 Mile 11 6.01182 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 95.84 Mile 2 47.92 Mile
Total 205.27 Mile 20 10.2635 Mile

January – October 2008

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 682.99 Mile 109 6.26596 Mile
Big Red 294.84 Mile 21 14.04 Mile
Dahon 164.63 Mile 29 5.6769 Mile
El Fuego 52.4 Mile 4 13.1 Mile
Litespeed 334.465 Mile 13 25.7281 Mile
Pocket Rocket 1037.53 Mile 61 17.0088 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 3167.6 Mile 88 35.9955 Mile
Total 5734.46 Mile 325 17.6445 Mile

The Indy Marathon Chase

“Whoa, check out that guy! He makes Speedy Gonzalez look like Regular Gonzalez!” –Philip J. Fry

Melissa runs marathons. I chase them.

Saturday she ran the inaugural Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.

I rode my bike to several different places on the course to cheer her on and take pictures.

The marathon went rather well for Melissa, and as a result, less well for me. For you see, she ran so fast that half of the places where I went to watch the race I arrived too late and missed her. The first time it was clear that she had already passed so I didn’t wait around long. The remaining times I waited several minutes before I could be sure she had already passed.

We were both wearing GPS watches, so using that data I put together this animation using Mathematica that shows our locations throughout the race. Melissa’s path is blue, Rob’s path is red. It’s kind of funny to watch my red path wait around at a certain location while Melissa moves farther and farther away.

Update 2009-04-17: I have written an entry for my company blog showing in great detail how I made this movie.