Time to write some database code
So far this year, I’ve managed to ride my bicycle something on the order of 2200km. I don’t know exactly how far I’ve ridden it, because I don’t actually have any good way of recording how long I’ve been out on the line. I do have a [el-cheapo US$1] cycle computer, but I’ve clipped the sensor lines off it and I’m using it as a handlebar mounted clock. (I’ve found that if I have a speedometer gazing balefully up at me I tend to overpush myself early in the day and end up being a large peach-colo(u)red slug on the way back home. If I just have a clock, it lets me know when I need to turn around so I won’t run out of {sun|school day}, and then I can find my average speed when I get back home and plot my route on a map. This isn’t that great for actually recording it, though.)
I used an online social milage bookmarking website for a while, but after getting a couple of contacts there I found the record-keeping getting overwhelmed by the social aspects. Which are fine, I’m sure, but when it comes to bicycling I’m very much a hermit and I’m much more interested at knowing how close I am to getting back to being able to do 200 or 300km loops without either dying or running out of daylight.
I can write things down in a textfile, then manually run ploticus or some similar program to build graphs, but that’s not quite as pointy and drooly as I’d like it to be. So I guess I’ll have to sit down and make up some code to spit up a milage chart, do authentication, and edit that chart. In K&R C, or maybe in FORTRAN.
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I’ve thought about having a fitter look at me, but up here they’re pretty expensive and the Trek is pretty well suited for me as it sits, so I’m doing the slow process of diy fitting. I’d like to get into shape to ride about 400km/week (a 200km loop and a handful of 50km outandbacks) but I’m still far too slow for that (22km/h, which pretty much as to go up to 28km/h to compensate for traffic stops.)
My delusional dream is to ride one of the randonneuring death marches (not PBP, LEL, or BMB – a pleasant 1200km ride with 6000 of my closest friends seems like it would be 4 days of hell on earth – but maybe the out-to-Montana-and-back one the local group does, or the middle-of-the-summer one the Davis randonneuring group does) before I get too old and creaky to do it. 250-300km/week is, alas, not enough to convince my body that I’m serious about it.)
Of course, one of these days I’ll have to build up a bobtail bike for these long rides; I’m planning on stripping down the Xtracycle tail on the Trek in the next month or so so I won’t be riding around with 5+ pounds of completely useless surfboard, but the bicycle will still be over 30 pounds and that’s kind of heavy for long hauls with minimal sleep. Perhaps I’ll have to find some consulting gig that pays enough for health insurance and bicycle parts (I don’t have enough big-ticket items to sell on ebay any more; I’ve already pretty much cleaned out my computer stock paying for the macbook air, xtracycle, and the big pile of woolen clothing I’ve bought for riding in.)
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That’s about how many miles uncle John rides, if I’m calculating right. He said 155 miles/wk in his 3 rides/wk. I’d like to do the same but not enough daylight non-working hours yet - but next week there will be! Right now I’m probably getting 80 miles/week if I include lunchtime spin classes at the gym for 15-20 miles. I do run 5-10 miles too so maybe that catches up. I got a professional bike fit on Sunday and can’t wait to get out and see what it feels like to ride some miles with the new adjustments. Happy riding…! Anna