Saturday, December 31, 2011

Last Post of 2011

Well, there's only about two hours left of the year 2011 so this seems like a pretty good time to reflect on the year's accomplishments. There have been a good many things to savor in my cycling life this year. I met my goal of 5000 miles plus another 226 or so. This exceeded 2010's mileage by about 200 and I did it in about 25 fewer rides. My average speed was faster than ever before. I am feeling incredibly healthy and stronger than ever. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I did not cash and get hurt.

I rode in some beautiful places this year, the most noteworthy being my week in Montana in June.
A number of "Bike, Wine, Food" events held by Omaha's Bikemasters 
bike shop were extremely enjoyable.
Meeting and introducing my new Chinese friend Jinli Liu to the joys of road recreational cycling was a really great experience and I have already posted about that. 

We are now getting into the indoor riding season: a chance to rest up a bit from a year of long outdoor rides and gain the benefits of short but intense training sessions indoors. For the last month a group of us from UNO have been training twice a week in our friends' "Velo Garage". This is really a blast and highly productive. I will be posting more about the Velo Garage experience soon.
More than anything though, I think it's the plain old enjoyment of the everyday rides that have made this year's cycling experience mean so much to me. I don't seem to get tired of that. Most of these everyday rides are solitary experiences and I guess I enjoy that too. But good people and special places do add something very special at times. There is a lot to look forward to in 2012.




Monday, December 26, 2011

A Perfect Ride on Christmas Day

(Viewers: you can click the pictures to enlarge them)

It has been a couple of years since the weather around here has been suitable for outdoor riding at Christmas. It looked like that was going to be the case this year too, but that all hanged last week and a great weather pattern settled in for us in Omaha. Not only did I ride outside on Christmas Eve (32 miles), but Christmas afternoon was simply gorgeous. There was a lot of sunshine, moderate temperature, and just a little wind.


 The views from the hills on the outskirts of town were just wonderful 
and I stopped to savor them a couple of times.

While riding, I really enjoyed some music on my new iPhone, something I have never done before and generally am pretty cautious about for safety reasons. My legs felt strong for most of the ride and Elton John's Rocket Man was especially enjoyable with a little tailwind behind me!
 Just a few other riders and dog walkers were out... family duties I would guess.

It was the kind of day when you really feel sorry for people who don't ride bicycles!
A little out of shape for long riding, I did start to fatigue a little near the
end and settled for a total of 33 miles.



Thursday, December 22, 2011

October and November: Rides with Jinli Liu

During late October and through November I had the opportunity to mentor a guest faculty member from UNO's sister university in China, Hangzhou Normal University. For about six weeks, Professor Jinli Liu shadowed me through many of my classes and we had many good academic discussions as well as general talks about cultural practices in the US and China. What a wonderful opportunity that was!


In addition to our professional relationship, Jinli and I developed a close personal friendship and both of us were sad when he had to return home early in December. Probably the most fun we had together was on bicycles checking out the roads and trails around Omaha. Jinli runs occasional marathons and weighs 150 pounds, so he took to the bicycling very well indeed! I'm sure he would soon be dropping me if he rode a bike regularly.

 In November we sure rode in a lot of wind! There were days when I might not have ridden if I had not had a riding partner to share the ride with.
Our last ride together on December 3rd was truly a memorable one. Riding at Chalco Hills Recreation Area, we started out in just a light mist but finished our ride about an hour later with snow on the ground and ice causing our chains to slip over their gears. What good fun that was!
One thing I learned in our discussions was that Jinli's hometown Hangzhou has one of the world's largest bikeshare programs (over 200,000 public bikes). But bicycling for recreation and fitness seems to be somewhat uncommon there. It was pleasure to spend time with Jinli and I learned a lot from him.



 I hope to visit Jinli in China someday to continue our cycling adventures and he 
is welcome to return to Omaha to visit me anytime. 
Ride carefully my friend... I hope to see you soon!



Tuesday, December 20, 2011

October 16th- Bikemasters "Bike Wine Food" Event

A Taste of South Africa
My favorite bike shop, Bikemasters, is about as far from my house as it is possible to be and still be in Omaha. Three or four times a year they have a "Bike, Wine, Food" event for customers and all of these have been excellent. It's basically a wine/food tasting with a fairly short ride before, and tequila and beer have been substituted for wine at two of the past events. Anyway, on October 16th the wines of South Africa  were featured.


Since I had already ridden pretty hard earlier in the day I just decided meet up with the group for the tasting this time. I did drive along and shoot some pics of the group en route, which was fun.


Here are a few shots taken at the event, including one of our wine guide, Jerry Rambo. The Goats Do Roam was pretty popular!


This is maestro Rambo doing his thing. He's always very knowledgeable.
We have enjoyed talks with Brian and Kathy at several of these events.
 
Did I mention that there is food between each wine?

Monday, December 19, 2011

August 26th- Birthday at Margaritaville

More catch-up blogging... sorry!

Just a few miles from us here in Omaha lies the Wabash Trace Trail which runs about 65 miles south to the Missouri state line. Just a few miles down the trail lies a site in the woods known locally as "Margaritaville", a popular party spot for thirsty cyclists. There is a grill, various benches, and lots of bike racks as you will see in the pics below. My friend Steve Macklin likes to have his annual birthday bash at Margaritaville and this year was no exception.






It was not a long or difficult bike ride, but a very good time was had by all the usual suspects.

 

August 6- A Ride on Iowa's High Trestle Trail

Catching up on the year's events

On August 6th I met up with Al, from St. Peters Missouri (aka "Retro Grouch" at Bike Forums 50+) for a ride on the High Trestle Trail outside of Des Moines, Iowa.


We met up in the small town of Woodard and rode to Ankeny and back for a total of about 50 miles. The scenery and Al's company were both excellent, but the highlight of the day was the old train ridge over the Des Moines River. Wow... it was impressive and, well, high!

I had never ridden with a guy on a recumbent before and Al made real good time on his bike and we moved right along at a very good pace throughout the day. We met up with a local guy on the way back from Ankeny and all had lunch together at the Flat Tire Lounge in Madrid.



Thanks for the ride Al! I'm up for it again next year!