Friday, June 30, 2006

Tour de France

I don't follow pro cycling closely until the Tour de France. So, I was extremely disappointed to see that many of the favorites won't be riding this year due to allegations of doping. This includes Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, two of Lance Armstrong's main rivals last year. Outdoor Living Network will broadcast the tour again this year. I'll be interested to hear what Lance has to say given all the heat he's experienced due to allegations of doping in the past.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Bike commuting #1

I've totaled up my round trips to work so far and figure I've made at least 12 roundtrips. At about 25 mile per round trip that's 300 miles! Given the price of gasoline (it was 2.99/gallon at the local cheap station tonight), and the gas economy of my '94 Nissan (about 30 miles/gallon highway) that's $30.00 saved so far. I need 100 round trips to break even on the cost of the bike.

I got rained on for the first time on the way home last night. It was also the first test of my new Blackburn Mars 3.0 Taillight. This thing is really painfully bright!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Dune Biking

I returned to cycling last summer when a injury kept me from running. I even rode to work a few times on the Trek 1400 my friend Jerry gave me. It got me excited about cycling again. Over the winter I bought a circa 1999 Specailized Hardrock from Craigslist Chicago . I changed out the knobby tires for some street tires and added a rear rack and poof...a commuter bike! I often work until 8:00 PM so I recently bought a Bike Light so I could ride at night. I've been commuting twice a week for about the past month. I should mention here that I've moved since last summer so my commute is more like 13 miles, not the 2 miles I rode last summer. I've also done a couple of longer Sunday rides. My friend Steve and I rode from Chesterton to Highland and back (about 60 miles) almost entirely on bike trails! Amazing! During this ride we chatted with a guy who commutes to his work in Burnham. It looks possible to get to Chicago. This Sunday (6/25/06) I plan to do Lorie's Ride which is put on by the Calumet Crank Club ( quite a name for a bicycle club btw). I hope adding the cycling to my running routine will improve my running, save my knees and provide another way to get a good workout. We'll see!

First Steps

Well, the first day of Summer is right around the corner. The cross country team ran the ridge at the Dunes State Park on Saturday. Oh, man did this trail kick my sorry butt. Trail #9 (aka "the ridge") is arguably the best stretch of trail in the park-not too easy but not insanely steep (that's Trail #8!). I was dogging it the entire way. It sure felt good!