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For every pound that you gain over the holidays, I challenge you to do a minimum of 10 miles by the end of January. Of course, I shall do the same. I’ll tally up the pounds on the 7th of January (that should cover all the leftovers from New Year’s Eve), and I’ll set the goal.

It will be a race to see who returns to pre-holiday weight first.

PS – You may wish to start riding now to minimize the riding after. I’ll also allow you to count your commuting miles towards your goal (that means for every pound, I just have to ride my bike to work 2 days — it’s a win win!).

I’ve set my sights on my first century of 2007; call it my New Year’s Resolution.

On Saturday, May 19, 2007, I plan to start at the new location (Scholl’s Heights Elementary) and ride to Pacific City. It’s a new starting location that, as far as I can tell, seems to start past the 7.5% grade hill just west of Murray (on Scholls Ferry Rd) [lightweights!].

Riders also now have the option to start in Corvallis and ride 110 miles — I’ll stick to just 100. The 100 miles doesn’t really bother or scare me; it’s the last 10 miles into the headwinds that terrifies me. Last year, I did the 55 miler, and it was a breeze — that is, until the wind (of the head variety). I’ve challenged El Cap to ride with me, and now, I’m making that challenge public. The Mrs. Samwise and Cap have already decided to do the 55-miler, so I think we’re committed. We shall see. I’ll keep you posted.

 

I got my bike up to 35 during the commute last Wednesday, and you can too! Let me tell you how.

First of all, you need to somehow accidentally erase everything on your bike computer, so that it asks you to enter the circumference (this trick works best when riding in the dark so that you don’t realize you’ve reset your computer or have begun to type in a random circumference).

Next, you press a few buttons on your computer trying to see if you can set it to scan or some other setting that you want to monitor (also in the dark).

The final step is the most important: you need to set your computer to kph (kilometers per hour).

The only problem with this is once you figure it out, the novelty of riding 35 – 40 wears off after a day or two. Then, unfortunately, once you restore your computer to mph with the circumference correct, your next ride will be like a severe hangover (so I’ve heard — that is about the hangover).