Tag: stats

The End of July

See previous post for summary.

Photo of the Day

July 2009 Photo of the Day

Running

(intentionally blank)

Cycling

New kit

July 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 40.3 Mile 8 5.0375 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 166.44 Mile 4 41.61 Mile
Total 206.74 Mile 12 17.2283 Mile

January – July 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 394.9 Mile 86 4.59186 Mile
Big Red 12.07 Mile 4 3.0175 Mile
El Fuego 54.42 Mile 7 7.77429 Mile
Pocket Rocket 201.17 Mile 29 6.9369 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 1257.06 Mile 31 40.5503 Mile
Total 1919.62 Mile 157 12.2269 Mile

Swimming

Riverboat

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
March 19.5224 Kilo Meter 7 2.78892 Kilo Meter
April 13.3502 Kilo Meter 6 2.22504 Kilo Meter
May 12.7806 Kilo Meter 7 1.82579 Kilo Meter
June 17.15 Kilo Meter 8 2.14375 Kilo Meter
July 15.55 Kilo Meter 6 2.59167 Kilo Meter
Total 95.1782 Kilo Meter 43 2.21345 Kilo Meter

Walking

Angle

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
July 29.52 Mile 10 2.952 Mile

Scooter

Urbana welcomes you

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
July 13.4 Mile 4 3.35 Mile

The End of June

Photo of the Day

June 2009

Blog

The top searches leading to my blog are largely the same as last month. Here are some of the less frequent, yet funnier searches:

  • bicycle bald tire picture
  • boys wrestling camel clutch
  • female camel clutch hold
  • sexy camel clutch
  • “farmer blow”
  • eighties instrument keyboard worn over the shoulder
  • maple syrup drinking contest

Running

I only ran one time at the beginning of the month, and it was enough to injure my right knee (my good knee). I’ve been struggling with knee pain all month, and that means no running. I swam farther than I ran in June.

I find it very frustrating that every time I work my way into great shape (typically when my 3-mile time drops close to 17:00) I injure myself and wind up losing months worth of training. Grrr.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
February 55.83 Mile 7 7.97571 Mile
March 108.792 Mile 10 10.8792 Mile
April 74.85 Mile 8 9.35625 Mile
May 64.5669 Mile 9 7.1741 Mile
June 7. Mile 1 7. Mile
Total 420.378 Mile 45 9.34174 Mile

Cycling

Rob at summit of Mt. Diablo

Despite my knee pain I haven’t given up on cycling. Yet. I still commute to work and I’ve been averaging one or so training rides per week, but my fitness is fading. Fast. My total distance for the month was a pathetic 209 miles, less than a typical week last summer.

Fortunately, I was able to get in a couple good rides while we were in San Francisco. Cycling in California is always one of the highlights of my year.

June 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 61.1 Mile 15 4.07333 Mile
Big Red 4.9 Mile 1 4.9 Mile
Pocket Rocket 80.24 Mile 4 20.06 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 62.97 Mile 3 20.99 Mile
Total 209.21 Mile 23 9.09609 Mile

January – June 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 354.6 Mile 78 4.54615 Mile
Big Red 12.07 Mile 4 3.0175 Mile
El Fuego 54.42 Mile 7 7.77429 Mile
Pocket Rocket 201.17 Mile 29 6.9369 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 1090.62 Mile 27 40.3933 Mile
Total 1712.88 Mile 145 11.813 Mile

Swimming

I was swimming pretty well before the knee problem. Then I took a few weeks off. Now I’m getting back into the swing of it. If I can somehow manage to salvage most of my fitness through swimming until this knee thing goes away… it will be a miracle.

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
March 19.5224 Kilo Meter 7 2.78892 Kilo Meter
April 13.3502 Kilo Meter 6 2.22504 Kilo Meter
May 12.7806 Kilo Meter 7 1.82579 Kilo Meter
June 17.15 Kilo Meter 8 2.14375 Kilo Meter
Total 79.6282 Kilo Meter 37 2.15211 Kilo Meter

The End of May

Photo of the Day

May 2009 Photo of the Day

Blog

The top searches that led to my blog in May:

  1. dahon helios [xl]
  2. my name is rob (or: rob is my name)
  3. bike friday pocket rocket
  4. mathematica 8 (again, doesn’t exist and I’ve never mentioned it)
  5. iPhone camera remote
  6. highest point in PA
  7. camel clutch

Running

Rob at start of Rockford Marathon

Most of my training and racing efforts in May were geared toward running. I raced four weekends in a row (sprint triathlon, 5K, marathon, 5K), all of which were quite successful. Now comes the time of year (i.e. the heat of summer) when I scale back my running and work more on cycling and swimming.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
February 55.83 Mile 7 7.97571 Mile
March 108.792 Mile 10 10.8792 Mile
April 74.85 Mile 8 9.35625 Mile
May 64.5669 Mile 9 7.1741 Mile
Total 413.378 Mile 44 9.39496 Mile

Cycling

Rob finishes the bike

I did no cycling races (aside from the triathlon) and only a little training in May. My bike mileage was half of what it was in May of last year and I’m a good 800 miles behind where I was last year at this point. I’ve completely given up two of my four/five weekly training rides from last year to spend more time with the family.

Having said that, I’m doing surprisingly well on the bike. I think it’s mostly my running fitness carrying over and making up (slightly) for my lack of training miles.

May 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 48. Mile 12 4. Mile
Big Red 3.2 Mile 1 3.2 Mile
El Fuego 14.5 Mile 2 7.25 Mile
Pocket Rocket 7.2 Mile 2 3.6 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 274.93 Mile 7 39.2757 Mile
Total 347.83 Mile 24 14.4929 Mile

January-May 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 300. Mile 64 4.6875 Mile
Big Red 7.17 Mile 3 2.39 Mile
El Fuego 54.42 Mile 7 7.77429 Mile
Pocket Rocket 120.93 Mile 25 4.8372 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 1027.65 Mile 24 42.8188 Mile
Total 1510.17 Mile 123 12.2778 Mile

Swimming

The spring session of Masters Swimming ended with another practice meet. I dropped my 500 yard freestyle time from 7:10 at the last meet to 6:48 at this meet.

After a couple weeks of little-to-no swimming the summer session of Masters Swimming started up and it has been going well so far. The morning schedule works out better for me (i.e. doesn’t conflict with group run and/or bike workouts), so I may be swimming as many as four times per week (rather than two times per week throughout the school year).

This bodes well for my chances at the Olympic distance triathlon(s) this summer. This category of race is more swim-heavy than other distances. Between July and September of last year I dropped my 1500 meter swim split from 28+ minutes to 25+ minutes, and I’m already doing much better than that so far this season. It’s conceivable I could swim four minutes faster, bike the same time, and run one minute faster at this year’s Evergreen Tri, knocking five minutes off my time from last year. I would be extremely pleased with that.

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
March 19.5224 Kilo Meter 7 2.78892 Kilo Meter
April 13.3502 Kilo Meter 6 2.22504 Kilo Meter
May 12.7806 Kilo Meter 7 1.82579 Kilo Meter
Total 64.7782 Kilo Meter 30 2.15927 Kilo Meter

The Twitter

I’ve been using the Twitter micro-blogging service for around 16 months now. I’m a fan. I’ve spent a bit of time recently data-mining Twitter (mostly work-related). I took a quick glance at my own usage patterns in this blog post. I’ll spare you the mathematical details and provide the condensed version here.

I’ve been using Twitter for 1 year, 3 months, and 21 days.

I’ve posted 1487 status message updates (tweets).

I’ve averaged 3.125 tweets per day.

Ragfield Twitter usage

I’ve typed a total of 107,442 characters.

I’ve averaged 72.25 characters per tweet (roughly half the allotted amount).

My shortest tweet was “bed”.

I’ve used 19,188 unique words (18,528 if you don’t count numbers).

My most commonly used word is “the”.

I’ve used 7,883 unique nouns.

My most common topics are: bike, work, time, ride, think, run, like, morning, race, mile(s), home.

I’ve used 4,300 unique verbs.

My most common actions are: bike, work, ride, think, run, race, see, know.

The users I mention most frequently are:

melissa_raguet 84
spoonshake 69
esmithrunner 32
erik_d 28
dbfulton 18
gutzville 14
ultrashea 11
erik__d 9
adamengst 9
chockenberry 6

The End of April

Photo of the Day

April 2009

Blog

The top searches that led to my blog in April were:

  1. hillsboro roubaix [2009][results]
  2. bicycle commuters blog hardman
  3. my name is rob
  4. frederick marathon
  5. dahon helios
  6. mathematica 8

Interestingly, Mathematica 8 does not exist and I’ve never mentioned it on my blog (before now).

Cycling

Photo by John Bennett.

The Hillsboro Roubaix road race was at the the beginning of the month. Aside from that I took it pretty easy on the bike last month, only doing four hard rides. I’m a good 500 miles behind where I was at this time last year. I can think of at least two reasons for that…

April 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 56. Mile 10 5.6 Mile
Big Red 1.97 Mile 1 1.97 Mile
Pocket Rocket 55.23 Mile 9 6.13667 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 258.98 Mile 7 36.9971 Mile
Total 372.18 Mile 27 13.7844 Mile

January – April 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 245.5 Mile 51 4.81373 Mile
Big Red 3.97 Mile 2 1.985 Mile
El Fuego 39.92 Mile 5 7.984 Mile
Pocket Rocket 113.73 Mile 23 4.94478 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 752.72 Mile 17 44.2776 Mile
Total 1155.84 Mile 98 11.7943 Mile

Running

Rob 3 miles into marathon

The Illinois marathon came and went. My running mileage was down a bit in April due to the pre-marathon taper and the post-marathon recovery. Looking at these numbers, even I’m fairly impressed that my average run length this year is 10 miles. Compared to this time last year, I’m 135 miles ahead. That’s one of the reasons my cycling mileage is down.

Anyway, I’ve decided that I want to try to run another marathon this spring. I’m just not happy with the race I ran at the Illinois marathon. I can do better. I’m leaning towards the Rockford marathon on May 17.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
February 55.83 Mile 7 7.97571 Mile
March 108.792 Mile 10 10.8792 Mile
April 74.85 Mile 8 9.35625 Mile
Total 348.812 Mile 35 9.96604 Mile

Swimming

I even cut back on the swimming around the marathon, but I’m back at it now. My first triathlon of the season (Tri the Illini) is this Saturday on campus.

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
March 19.5224 Kilo Meter 7 2.78892 Kilo Meter
April 13.3502 Kilo Meter 6 2.22504 Kilo Meter
Total 49.6976 Kilo Meter 22 2.25898 Kilo Meter

The End of March

Photo of the Day

March calendar

Blog

The top searches that lead to my blog in March were:

  1. my name is rob
  2. camel clutch
  3. time lapse photography 555 timer circuits
  4. dahon helios
  5. bike friday pocket rocket

Camel clutch

I’ll note that my Flickr photo was on the first page of Google results for “camel clutch” and my blog entry was on the second page of results. So I’ve been getting some pro wrestling traffic.

Other humorous searches include:

  • $5 camera
  • jerry seinfeld hair
  • steamy novel
  • 5 men walking at same pace riddle
  • fallking
  • short shorts boy 1980

Interesting stuff.

Cycling

Jay descends into Makanda

Despite the lousy Smarch weather the past few days, we had some decent weather earlier in the month and I was able to increase my cycling mileage.

March 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 45.5 Mile 11 4.13636 Mile
Pocket Rocket 34.7 Mile 8 4.3375 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 331.7 Mile 7 47.3857 Mile
Total 411.9 Mile 26 15.8423 Mile

Jan – March 2009

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 189.5 Mile 41 4.62195 Mile
Big Red 2. Mile 1 2. Mile
El Fuego 39.92 Mile 5 7.984 Mile
Pocket Rocket 58.5 Mile 14 4.17857 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 493.74 Mile 10 49.374 Mile
Total 783.66 Mile 71 11.0375 Mile

Running

Finishers keychain

I ramped the running mileage back up in March. I had a good race at LBL and I’ve been doing some good quality training. The marathon is only 11 days away.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 109.34 Mile 10 10.934 Mile
February 55.83 Mile 7 7.97571 Mile
March 108.792 Mile 10 10.8792 Mile
Total 273.962 Mile 27 10.1467 Mile

Swimming

Transparency

I wore out my Speedo

I’ve also been swimming really well lately. I’m able to swim farther and faster than at any other time in recent years. This could mean good things for the upcoming triathlon season.

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
March 19.5224 Kilo Meter 7 2.78892 Kilo Meter
Total 36.3474 Kilo Meter 16 2.27171 Kilo Meter

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 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