Training crisis averted

As I breezed along Old Apex Road just north of High House Road this morning, the zip ties on my cadence counter failed and the cadence counter dropped into the road. Within 10 seconds I was off my bike and moving back toward the flat, half-dollar sized device. I needed four cars to pass before I could retrieve it. Three cars went beside or over the counter. The fourth car, with me about 15 feet away, crunched it. Shades of the Garmin 301. I affectionately picked up the pieces, completed my ride and went immediately to Performance. Not only did they have a counter, it was on sale. Not having the counter would put a major crimp in my workouts, as I use it to determine speed and distance on the trainer. I also use it as a reminder for what gear I'm in on the road.

Accounting for 4278.7

Put on your helmet, grit your teeth and get ready for a rush like few you can have. It's time to crunch numbers. It may offer all of the excitement of, well, accounting.
Today's as good a day as any to share the distances of cycledork. On June 10, 2006 I bought a new bike computer, a Mavic Wintech FS. In the year since I've racked up the miles enumerated in the title of this post. That total also includes the mountain bike miles I've cranked out. So, to rateify the number:
• 357 miles per month
• 82 miles per week
• 11.7 miles per day
Over that time there have been at least five complete weeks when I did not get on a bike.

In 2007 I've pedaled 1,819 miles. Rateified, that's:
• 343 miles per month
• 79 miles per week
• 11.3 miles per day
There was one week I was off all bikes, another week the Trek 2100 was in the shop and several weekends I could have been riding but did not.

Where is all this going? My goal for the year is to ride 5,000 miles. I'm 392 miles behind pace, or about 17 miles per week. Basically I need three 550-mile months to get back on track. I'm hoping to catch up over the summer but I already know of one entire week and another four-day period including a weekend between now and August when I will be bikeless.

As for the previous computer, a Garmin 301? In April 2006 it flew out of its handlebar mount in the center of a major intersection. As soon as I realized what I happened I dropped my bike on the side of the road and ran back just in time to see it get run over. I continued running, into traffic, to retrieve it anyway. Trust me, it was cool enough to risk death for.

The good news for you is that even I monitor all this minutia every day, I only plan to victimize others with the complete overview once a year. Be warned that there will be periodic but undetailed progress reports. Be grateful. My family has said since I was a kid that the most hideous torture they could think of was to be tied to a chair and have me recite facts, particularly statistics, that I considered of interest. I will try to not keep you in the chair very long.

How it turned out

I was able to get in rides yesterday and today after all. There was a little mist while I was out in the middle of nowhere but the rain so confidently predicted by my favorite source for weather information never materialized. Neither ride was the jaunt CD's Friday Ride Guide envisioned. Instead Saturday's and Sunday's rides were truncated versions of Friday's vision. I just had to feel like a champ on Farrington Road before I turned at Hollands Chapel Road.

Like so many weekends this one did not turn out as planned. A friend who's covered my butt called and needed help moving Saturday. My only questions were where and when. The two hours — don't get me wrong, they were well spent helping a friend — were hours originally planned for the 2100. But we haven't been on the back side of the solstice long enough for that benefit to show up in terms of noticeably increased light for weekend rides. With threats of rain for today, I figured Saturday's ride would wrap up 2006 for cycledork. The predicted rain still hadn't started by 1 p.m. Sunday so I pulled myself together and cranked it out at a little more than 19 mph.

I bought a new cycle computer in early June. The odometer reading after I got in today was 2,456. That's about 100 miles per week and factors in three weeks when, for a variety of reasons, I did not ride at all. But after May 15, when I went to work I rode a bike every day except two: May 22 and June 14. On the first of those days I got a flat down the street from cycledork central so I took the easy way out by coming back to headquarters and getting in the car. On the second, as Tropical Storm Alberto came through, it was clear to me I was unequipped to deal with the weather. I have both worked and spent to equip myself properly since and the work is still in progress. We're all familiar with cycledork's aversion to wet feet, the miraculous arrival of the secret weapon and the plusses and minuses of various rain pants (don't be surprised if a rain-pants review shows up soon).

So what's the payoff for all of this, particularly over the last seven months and the miles? It's that cycledork's healthier than he has been in my adult life. I'm a rock and my doctor gushes when he reviews my lab results. It's a finger to an employer's auto-insurance requirements so subtle it will likely never be noticed. It's everything learned about how to ride and how to commute, two related but separate activities. And it's the rush — the only ones cycledork's had that are better are sex and skiing. See you on the road.