Friday, November 28, 2014

Sunday Ride

Conditions look good (enough) to get out and burn off the Thanksgiving calories on Sunday. Some chances of scattered rain, but it doesn't look like any continuous downpours will soak us. Temperatures should be in the mid to upper 50s.

Hope to see you at the Fishback Elementary parking lot at 10am on Sunday.


Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Declaring No Joy for Friday

While the chances of rain or snow are very slight for Friday, the temperature is going to be too cold to be out on the bike for 3 to 4 hours and therefor I am going to postpone the ride.

Unfortunately, i am unavailable Saturday when conditions look better. Sunday looks to be so-so with a temperature in the 50s but with a stronger chance of spotty showers. Once I know for sure I am free on Sunday and can get a more detailed look at the hour by hour forecast I will make a call for that day. If it works out, I hope to see you there.

If not, I'll try this all again sometime in the early spring.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Post-Turkey Ride Update

Looking ahead at the long range weather forecast, it is currently not promising for the ride on the day after Thanksgiving. While it is still 12 days out and will likely change, I would prefer to hold the ride with the temperature in the 40s at the 10 AM start and with no precipitation. I will make a final call on Wednesday, November 26th and post it here and on Twitter. If necessary, I will take a look at the forecast again and consider moving it back a weekend.

Check back in next week for the final decision.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Day After Thanksgiving Metric Update

As previously announced, I am planning a "deliberately casual" group ride for the day after Thanksgiving. The ride will start at 10am on that Friday from Fishback Elementary, located at 86th and Lafayette Road. The ride should cover slightly more than 100 kilometers and riding near Eagle Creek, up to Lebanon, back through Whitestown and Zionsville, up into Westfield and then back down through Carmel before returning west along 106th Street through Zionsville again and Traders' Point, finishing back at the school. I test rode the route in two parts last weekend and think it should ride pretty well and for the most part avoid too much of the Black Friday crowds.

As long as the 10am temperature is above 35 degrees and there is no snow on the ground, the ride will take place.

Please take a look at the route in the link below, and let me know if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions. Hopefully if you are in the central Indiana area I will see you there.

Post Turkey Day Ride Map

Friday, October 24, 2014

Heading Into the Indoor Season and Another Pro to Attempt The Hour

Your feet push on the pedals causing them to turn the cranks and the cranks turn the chainring which drives the chain which in turn causes the rear wheel to spin and drive the bicycle, the earth also moves in a 'cycle.' Just as all of these elements move in a repeating cycle, so does the earth in it's orbit, and by extension the seasons. The long hours of summer have again given way to shorter days and earlier sunsets. While the weather hasn't been too bad by my standards, I still have to accept that I am now into the indoor season and will be spending at least the weeknights on the trainer. Weather dependent, I still will have the weekends out on the roads to help offset the many hours of staring at the inside of my garage that are ahead.

As I make the transition into the next part of the year, another professional rider has announced he will make an attempt at the Hour. As most expected, the dominoes are starting to fall now that the rules have been changed and the hour has been made attainable again. Jens Voigt's recent success of raising the record to 51.115 kilometers is indeed the catalyst most had hoped for. This time, it will be made by a rider from the IAM Cycling team, Matthias Brändle. The attempt will occur in Aigle, Switzerland on October 30th. It is very good, from my perspective, to see these attempts being made for two reasons: 1) it harkens back to the 1980s and 1990s, before the rules were changed to limit the influence of technological innovation on the record, when attempts were taking place frequently and a greater audience was interested, and 2) increased interest helps me with my goals.

Here is a short promo video Brändle's team created, followed by a link to the announcement about the attempt. I think I need to find someone with a camera to shoot a promo video for myself...



Matthias Brandle Hour Record Attempt/

Friday, October 3, 2014

Putting Together a Group Ride

I am in the early stages of planning a 100km ride to occur on either the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving. I am hoping this ride will keep myself, and others, motivated heading into the winter months. I picture it as a conversational  ~18mph pace and probably taking 4 hours to complete.

The preliminary route will course through the Eagle Creek area, up to Lebanon, back down alongside I-65 and then through Whitestown and Zionsville, picking up part of the Nebo Ridge route, over to Carmel, and then back through Zionsville and Trader's Point.

Check out the route plan below, and if you are in the Indy-metro area and have an interest in joining me, please let me know. I'll post updates as I finalize the plans and as the day draws closer.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The Hour Social

Planning to set up the trainer and hammer away on it today while watching The Jensie attempt at the hour.