1/2 way to 1500, MJ goal met!

I'm over halfway to 1500 miles for the year! 767.50 to be exact!
Woo hoo!
KPT & I went out to P-Ville to ride 48 on the Pfinally Pflugerville route. It was windy...and not really pfun, but we did most of the ride...at mile 38 we realized there was no reason do do a 3 mile loop that went up a hill and would make us go further into the wind on the way back, so we were for the most part happy with 45! About 209 mins saddle time about 4 hours over all time (we had to stop & read the map several times and took a 5 min break in the bustling metropolis of Lund after having to outrun a dog.



We stopped several times to check the map, on rides east of Austin, there are many turns, need to figure out a better map holder than the big ones that look annoying.

We also rested at the store in Coupland, then had to stop to gaze at the striped horses! I really hope the baby on the ground wasn't dying, but with this heat, he probably was, sadness.

I also hit my minimum fundraising goal for the Mamma Jamma! We have 5 team members signed up, hope we can get 2 more so Team Austin Bike Chix can raise $3500 to help cancer patients here in Austin!
We are looking into bike jerseys, just need to create a logo. The weekly rides have been going very well.

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Miles for this ride: 45 (ok 44.66)
Miles for the week: 75
Total miles for the month: ?? (easily over 200)
Total miles for 2011: 767.5
Miles to go: 732.5 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10576 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)

176 miles since last post!

Can't believe I've logged 176 miles since the last post in May, of course there was that little 24 day vacay, so in 8 weeks since I've been back, I've been on the bike for 176 miles...wish it was more, but it took a bit to get use to the heat and decide to train for the Mamma Jamma century.

KPT and I decided to do a strong century, meaning you can still function afterwards! It would be nice to do something in less than 7 hours, but I'll be happy for 8!

For Sunday's long ride, we decided to join one of the Mamma Jamma training rides in San Marcos.

Before we drove to San Marcos we stopped at Mi Victoria Bakery (how have I missed this fantastic place that is less than 2 miles from my hood???)


MAD, KPT & I headed to San Marcos to ride one of the Mamma Jamma training rides. We did the 34 mile loop which turned out to be 35.5 miles, took us 2:38 ride time, but 3 hours overall (2--10 min stops). Great ride overall ,except for being chewed out...but we are trying to forget about that and hope those ride leaders are having a better day and don't have kids or a husband!

After out ride, we went back to the square and found a cafe for lunch. People in SM must night see many bike riders wearing their super hero outfits to lunch (it is a common occurence in ATx), so we had many stares and then even more stares when KPT came out of the bathroom in her bikini top and no tank top, oh well!

Then time to pick up beer and go tube the San Marcos river. Very relaxing after a hot ride.

All agreed that we must do this today!


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Miles for this ride: 35
Miles for the week: 65
Total miles for the month: ??
Total miles for 2011: 633
Miles to go: 867 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10433 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)

it's been a while

It's been a while since I've blogged. I have been riding, just not writing....

I'm on my 9th trip either to or from work. The first week of bike to work month was very cold for May in Austin, highs in the 50's, thus no riding that week. I didn't ride one weekend because of getting stuff together.

Looking at my current odometer reading 10,266, I'm trying to figure out where those 90 miles came from.. 3 trips to/from work is only 30 miles (at the most)...I know KT & I rode 22 on Saturday thru town, hitting some minor hills, though I was impressed with my strength going up 360, didn't have to use that granny gear! and one trip on Shoal creek, so that's about 62, I'm still missing 28 somewhere...hmm..getting old sux, you can't remember beans


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Miles for this ride: 22
Miles for the week: 30
Total miles for the month: ??
Total miles for 2011: 457
Miles to go: 1043 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10266 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)

"It's better than a hospital" Ride

Not being able to go on the Easter Hill Country Tour, I was needing a ride out in the country! Love that Kristen Theiler is available for these adventures! Every time we were in a position to "Embrace the Suck" because of the wind or a hill, our battle cry was "It's better than a hospital" which is where Kristen was a year ago after her bike bucked her on the way to work. So today was another one of those "I'm so happy to be alive" days!

After having a conversation w one of Fredericksburg's finest about my speed on Friendship and my obstructed license plate, we finally arrived at Lady Bird Park. Time to head out to Luckenbach. A little windy, beautiful country roads and sunshine.

Finished the ride, ate in town then went back to Luckenbach for a beer!


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Miles for this ride: 37
Miles for the week: 67
Total miles for the month: 201
Total miles for 2011: 367
Miles to go: 1133 to hit 1500!
Odometer: 10176 (it rounds and I round the other stats thus the difference)

M. Bonnell

Instead of doing a ride out of town KT & I decided to do the hills NW of the hood. First hill was going west on Steck to Mesa...just a gradual climb. Then we coasted down to Balcones. Lots of fun on the steep climb and another coast down to 38th...I looked at Kristen, "wanna do Mt. Bonnell?" "I don't know, how steep is it?" "not sure I've never ridden it." "well, if it's a wall we can always turn around." that being said we turned right instead of left and climbed Mt. Bonnell for the first time ever.
It wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been...I think Bee Caves on 360 is harder. So, Mt. Bonnell will now be added to the mix...next goal is the horrible hill of Highland hills where 9 yrs ago I bailed when my heart rate hit 185 and I was going 5 mph...I also didn't have the granny gear, i think I can do it, been doing some pretty steep climbs on the way to work.


On Sunday I went w/ Erwin to pick up Alison at the MS150, boy that brought back lots of memories of all the fun times I had riding w/ Diane, all 680 miles we rode and all 60+ port a potties we used. Miss ya lots D!
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Miles for this ride: 17
Miles for the week: 50
Total miles for the month: 134
Total miles for 2011: 300
Miles to go: 1200 to hit 1500!
Loved that the odometer is binary: 10110

already at 73

I'm already at 73 miles past 10K!
Completed the first bike home and to work of 2011 and it didn't rain!
For ABC, we did 10.5!
Then on Saturday, completed 31, the longest ride so far of 2011.
It was been very windy in Austin lately, not wanting to have to ride in the drops, I talked Kristen into driving South to start our ride, then once we were home, going back to pick up the car. I drove to P-ville where Kristen was dog sitting, picked her up and drove to Decker Lake. The Diva Dash was going on at Decker, so lots of people.
Wow! With the wind at your back you can go 20 mph without any effort! We followed part of the Danskin Route and they paved Lindig! it was so smooth! the skeet shooters were still there! After Manor we decided to head East for a bit! yes the wind was out of the SE and killed our average speed. Also came across a scary dog with teeth that decided to chase us for about 100 yards as the owner watched. Nice.
Riding with Kristen reminds me a lot of riding w D. She isn't afraid to take charge and knows how to operate MapMy Ride! It was only 21 from Decker to P-ville, but Kristen found an additional 10 miles so we would hit 30! By the time we got back to the house we ended at exactly 31!


Just a tad bit windy!
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Miles for this ride: 31
Miles for the week: 73
Total miles for the month: 84
Total miles for 2011: 250
Miles to go: 1250 to hit 1500!
Roadkill: a fresh skunk in the middle of a one way bridge.

10K

I hit the biking milestone of 10000 miles on Saturday. I had wanted the ride to be something memorable, instead it turned out to be appropriate. When I bought my first road bike in 1999 off a friend from work (a Vitus, all aluminum frame, dura-ace components, I think I put about 3,000-4,000 miles on that bike, bought the LeMond in 2004 and really increased the riding!) I'm sure the first ride I did was down Shoal Creek Blvd, so it was rather appropriate that 12 years later I hit the 10,000 mile mark on Shoal Creek Blvd. Shoal Creek has also been a major part of the stroke recovery and my training, it's nice & wide and leads to other roads and routes and then leads home.
But this SC ride was different. For starters, I had to detour (major storm drainage construction) so I wasn't able to ride my favorite part of SC, if I had to have a favorite section. Then on my way back, I barely made it from the detour back to SC when I hit 10K.
the odometer hit 9999.9 on the side street perpendicular to SC.

Then once I was on SC, it turned to 10000. As I kid I recall wanting to hit 1000 miles on my odometer on my banana seat bike. I'm sure I hit it on the 10 speed, but I can't recall, I just know I never hit it on the banana seat bike, I did hit 100, though.

Since hitting 10000 miles, I lost my tenths, so I had to go an extra mile to make sure the odometer still worked, it did!


Miles for this ride: 11
Total miles for the month: 11
Total miles for 2011: 177
Miles to go: 1323 to hit 1500!
Miles to go to 10,000 on the speedometer: -1