Father of Six

Danielle is in Louisiana as part of celebrating her 21st birthday. She just sent me this picture of the best place on earth to get a po-boy.

It’s pretty obvious that I’m challenged at regularly posting. As much as I’d like to remedy this condition, it probably isn’t very likely to change. I know this bums out a lot of you. It bums me out too. Sorry.

Meanwhile, since we last talked, I completed my first week of riding my bicycle to and from work. It was a lot of fun and I can’t think of any reason not to do it for the rest of the summer.

I was on business travel from June 8th through June 13th. I was part of a cargo transport that drove from Sacramento, Ca. to Jacksonville, Fl. It was an intense assignment, and I don’t think I’ve fully recovered yet.

Back to normal work this week, which means I get to ride my bicycle. I love riding to and from work. Yesterday on the way in, I had a couple of wildlife encounters. I saw a couple of small beavers swimming in a pond. And then I crossed paths with a young coyote. I don’t know who was more shocked - me or Wylie.

I’ve been listening to some new music (new to me, anyway) during my bicycle commutes. I’ve taken a strong liking to Snow Patrol and Jason Mraz. Anyone else like these guys?

One final note. Most of you might be aware that I am riding the Colorado edition of the MS 150 bike ride on June 28th and 29th. I think my fitness level is at a point where I should be able to complete the mileage. My goal was to do the 75 miles each day and feel fresh. I’m not sure that will be the case, but I think at least I won’t struggle and suffer. And if you’ve made a donation to the National MS society on my behalf, I’m truly appreciative. This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and the responses I’ve received have been encouraging and unexpected. Thanks a ton.

First things first - R.I.P. Bo Diddley

Now –

I’m registered to ride the Colorado edition of the MS150 bike ride at the end of June. It seems lately that I haven’t been able to get any bike riding/training in during the Monday through Friday work week. As a consequence, all of my training miles are crammed into two to three days on the weekends. I don’t think this is a preferred method for training for this 150 bike ride over two days.

So I found inspiration to ride my bike to and from work.

Here is the plan.

On Monday I load up my truck with clothes, shower kit, food, bike gear, and bike and drive to work. After work, I go over to a building which has our company “Wellness Center” and change into my bike stuff. I leave my truck in the parking lot and the ride the 16 miles home.

Tuesday through Thursday I ride into work, shower and dress and head over to my office for the day. After work is the same routine as Monday pm – bike commute home.

Friday mornings I bike to work, shower, dress, and hit the office. Friday afternoons, I load everything back into my truck and drive home.

This will give me 128 miles of riding/training time for the week, and should allow me to do one long ride on weekends and maybe take the other day off.

You all are probably thinking about saving on gas, and I am too. I’m not going to get into the gnats-ass of exactly how much I can look forward to saving. For a normal M-F work week I would normally drive 10 trips (120 miles) and now I’m only doing 2 (24.) That’s a good enough analysis for me.

Ok, so it’s Tuesday, how did the ride home Monday afternoon and the ride in Tuesday morning go?

Well I was pretty anxious all day yesterday about the ride home. My pre-ride plans went off well – prepping for Tuesday’s arrival and getting ready for the ride home.

Off I went.

Then I had a significant spoke issue with my back wheel which caused it to violently wobble and rub hard against my brakes. There was also some risk that the wheel would fold in half – because the wheels only have 20 spokes in pairs of two and I had broken a spoke each in adjacent pairs.

I managed to crank all the way home without incident, but then there was a mad rush to get the wheel repaired that evening – or ruin the plans for the rest of the week while I waited to have it taken care of at normal pace (2-3 days.)

Luckily the good people at Littleton Cyclery appreciated my sense of urgency and had the job completed in less than an hour.

This morning was beautiful. I left the house at 5:15, with the official sunrise at 5:33. There were small patches of light and low fog all through the South Platte River valley and the air comfortably cool in the low 50’s F. My pre-planning and preparations worked like a charm and I was sitting in my office at 6:40.

So the bike to work plan is officially classified as “so far, so good.” I hope the weather stays stable for the rest of the week. The forecast is calling for rain off and on all day on Thursday. I suppose I won’t mind too much – as long as it isn’t severe with lightning and hail.

Yesterday was my birthday. Here’s how I spent the day.

I got up early, got dressed and did the grocery shopping.

Then I changed and went for a 60 mile bike ride.

Then I had a shower, got dressed and had a bbq in the back yard.

Thanks, everyone, who helped make this occasion special. I had a great day.