A Quiet Winter

2009 was a good year for me on the bike. I completed a super randonneur series, (200k, 300k, 400k, and 600k brevets), rode several permanents, and totaled more than 5000 miles for the first time.

When compared to fellow randonneurs from other parts of the country, my numbers look pretty pedestrian. I routinely read accounts of people totaling up to and beyond 10,000 miles with multiple 1200 kilometer grand randonnees. I guess I'll just have to use the excuse of living in a northern intermountain climate.

This winter has been especially frustrating. My bike went on the hook in the garage sometime in October and has barely been off since. Warm days have been few and far between and the roads are slow to give up their layer of ice and snow. The rides I have gotten in have been short. It’s just not much fun for me enduring the wind chill factor of a 15 mph ride-no matter how many layers I have on.

In lieu of cycling I’ve tried to mitigate my annual winter weight gain by walking back and forth to work. My commute is only about 3 miles round trip, but the 20 minute or so walk each way wakes me up in the morning and relaxes me in the evening. I also get a few extra steps walking the dog. A little cross-country skiing here and there helps too. Despite my efforts, a few extra pounds have packed on (especially due to a bountiful supply of goodies at Christmas time), but I think I’ve peaked and now have it going back in the right direction.

2010 will be an interesting cycling year. I am really looking forward to hosting my first brevets in June and July. Now let’s just hope the Montana Department of Transportation doesn’t have significant portions of my routes slated for reconstruction (dang stimulus money!). Paved alternate routes are hard to come by.

Until the weather starts to turn, I will continue to stare at my lonely bike hanging on the hook in the garage. Oh well, it shouldn’t be ridden that much anyway-not until it gets a tune-up.

The Off-Season

Since my early January ride in Arizona, my riding has been somewhat limited. With no planned rides until April, I have lacked motivation. Even on nice days where temperatures get into the 40's, the nice window is pretty short. It'll start to warm up in the early afternoon, but start cooling off rapidly by 5 p.m. Riding is far from ideal and it's not hard to come up with an excuse to stay home. Unfortunately, indoor rides on a trainer sound even less appealing so I'm resigned to losing fitness and gaining weight waiting for spring.

I did get two significant rides in and mapped so far this winter. In late January I rode and mapped a ride to Willow Creek and back, and in mid-March I rode and mapped the Gallatin Valley Bicycle Club's Three River's Metric Century route(see below).

I proposed the Willow Creek route to the bike club's touring group and they scheduled it for June 21. I will also be leading the Tour de Spud for the 3rd year in a row on May 23. The entire bike club touring schedule is at the bike club's website(click here).

2008-The Year in Review

2008 was a banner year for me on the bike. I managed to stretch the season, increase my mileage, and-as documented on this blogsite-stepped into the larger world of randonneuring.

The year started off with a bang in January. I got to ride with my brother Travis and nephew Austin in the Savannah, Georgia area while I was out there on a short visit. After only logging 10 miles in December of 2007 my fitness was seriously lacking and I was on a borrowed bike with a torturous saddle. Despite the limitations I loved the 70 degree temperatures and had a great time of it-including doing a little criterium training with a big group of riders.

In April I rode my first Gallatin Valley Bike Club ride of the season in Yellowstone National Park. At that time the roads were cleared but still closed to motor vehicle traffic (except for service vehicles) so we had the park roads pretty much to ourselves. Besides us, there were hundreds of other cyclists taking advantage of the opportunity. It was a special day.

I logged 681 miles in May highlighted by the Gallatin Valley Bike Club's Tour de Spud in which I was the organizer, the Spring Cycle Tour in West Yellowstone, and the completion of my first randonneuring event-the St. Anthony Sand Dunes 200km Brevet which started and finished in Drigg's Idaho (see my separate blog entry about that ride).

In June I successfully rode my first Randonneurs USA sanctioned permanent (see my separate blog entry for this ride), a route I set up and mapped for the RUSA national database.

Through the heart of the summer I participated in several GAS/Intrinsik Race Team Thursday night rides.
The race team puts on the rides for the general public-often with a little clinic. It's always a fun time-even though sometimes I had a hard time keeping up when the racers were feeling especially frisky. There were more Gallatin Valley Bike Club touring rides including the Tour de Chico and Ringling to Martinsdale-all well attended and great fun. I also participated in the "Blazing Saddles" charity ride out of Livingston on a beautiful day in July.

For the past four years, the highlight of my summer has been the Gallatin Valley Bike Club's Three Rivers Century. With almost 100 riders, it's our biggest event and it's grown every year. I was on the organizing committee so to insure that I would be able to ride on the day of the event, I recruited wife Brenda, daughter Stephanie, and mother-in-law Mindy as staff volunteers.
My brother Clay and his family also met up with us and took a bunch of photos that made it to the Gallatin Valley Bike Club website. It was a real treat having my family help out and we had a great day with near perfect weather. I ended up riding most of the day with a group of guys from Helena who's pace suited me and I ended up almost breaking the 20 mph average speed barrier-something I can only come close to when drafting off other riders who don't go so fast that I can't stay in the draft.

Normally things wind down considerably in September. After the annual "Bikin' with the Eagles" charity ride to benefit Eagle Mount early in the month my miles usually become more limited with fall activities (football games), shorter days, and cooler and more unstable weather. But this year I was recruited by Bicycling Magazine to map local rides with a GPS for their website (see the Bicycling Mapping project blog entry). So instead of shortening and limiting my rides in the fall I put some lights on the bike, brought along an extra layer or two of clothing, and set out to map 15 rides, including two more RUSA permanents that I had gotten approved but didn't think I'd get to complete this year (see my blog entry about the Search for Plummer's Gold and Martinsdale Mail Run Permanents). I tested my skills, riding many miles after dark, putting up with cold weather and even frozen water bottles while logging over 600 miles in October alone.

With the completion of my permanents and 200km Idaho brevet, I only needed one more ride to earn an RUSA 1000km medal. So I extended the season into November by riding RUSA's Plains to Whitefish Permanent Populaire (see my separate blog entry for this ride).

I'm still getting in some shorter local rides here and there in December, but the final tally will show about 4800 miles in four states and completion of five RUSA rides. I now have a pretty good base built up to hopefully go farther afield in 2009. Next year's plan is to complete a full brevet series which includes rides of 200km, 300km, 400km, and 600km. All of these rides will have to take place out of state as there is no brevet series in Montana at this time. Of course I will also ride with the Gallatin Valley Bike Club and participate in other local rides as often as I can. Check back to this blog to see how it all goes.

To the Participants Belong the Spoils

Both my son Jackson and I are proud to display our participant awards in our most recent athletic events. I received my very cool medal for successfully completing my first 200k brevet bike ride, and Jackson received a participant ribbon for running the 400 meters in his school's 6th grade track and field day.

As is mentioned on any website dealing with such-randonneuring is not racing. Each participant who successfully completes a brevet or longer randonee within the time limit is congratulated. If results are published, it is always alphabetically and never by the fastest time. So by finishing my first brevet within the required time limit of 13.5 hours I was eligible for my medal-which I promptly ordered.

Randonneuring awards are based on finishing and the more prestigious awards are for finishing many and varied events. I'm just getting started-but I've got my sights set on the "Super Randonneur" award for next year. I can earn that by completing a full brevet series (200k, 300k, 400k, and 600k) within one calendar year. Once again-it doesn't matter who's the fastest-just that you complete the rides as per the rules and finish within the time limits. I think it's a neat way to go for riders like me who don't have the fast twitch muscles needed for racing-but still like to push ourselves, strive towards a goal, and be recognized for our efforts by an organizing body.

Not unlike my award-which was for participating and finishing my 200k brevet, Jackson participated and finished his 400 meter run. He didn't get a first place ribbon, or a second place ribbon...or any ribbon for finishing amongst the top in his class-but he ran the whole thing and he finished-and I couldn't have been prouder. You see-Jackson isn't an athletic kid and he is especially not a runner (neither am I). So it was with much concern that I heard him say he signed up for the 400. I asked him if he had ever run all the way around the track and he said he's only run on the straight-aways and walked on the curves. Oh great! I thought. He's going to be embarassed as he struggles around that track and holds up the entire meet waiting for him to finish...or worse he won't finish at all. So when the starter's pistol fired I was as nervous as I could be. Off they went-Jackson in the first lane started out at a nice steady pace. He kept chugging and even caught up to a kid who had started walking on the third turn. He plugged away down the stretch. And he crossed the finish line to the cheers of the entire class who was watching the race. I couldn't get out of the stands and down to the track fast enough to give him a high five. As I was walking with him every kid that we met said, "Great job Jackson! Way to go!"

Just like when I was a kid-everybody got a participant ribbon. When I got mine I usually discarded it right away-it didn't mean anything compared to the blue, red, or white ribbon for finishing in the top three. But Jackson's heroic effort changed that attitude for me. His participant ribbon represented an effort and achievement he had never attained before. I couldn't have been happier if he had been the first one over the line. Finishing strong and running around the track the whole way was a sweet victory in itself-just like finishing a brevet.