Year in Review

As all their are many year end in reviews, below is mine in pictures.  The word to summarize this year is: Change.

The Year started with dinner in January with some ex-co workers and friends

 

Fast Forward to April 2012

 

 

 

 

My bike frame of cross country fame came to an unexpected end

 

 

 



In May, it was time to say goodbye to friends and colleagues.







 

In June, it was time to start on a new adventure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In September, I had a little bicycle accident that left me unable to ride for a few weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To close out the year, some traditions continue (that you Matt)





 

Starting in the afternoon, to close out the year, and you must PLAY THIS LOUD



 

 

 

And finally as this is a blog about biking a summary of my last 4 years of riding 

  

 

	Miles	Days rode	Ave
2012	7,377	188	39
2011	11,743	244	48
2010	8,741	203	43
2009	12,194	245	50
Total	40,055	880	N/A
Average	10,014	220	46

 

 Have a Happy and Healthy New Year   !!!

 

 

 

Jim

I have recently started biking again and decided to bike to the beach. As I arrived at the half way point I saw a familar face.

Jim was biking with his group and it will not be surprising to people who know him that he was waiting for his group as he was first to arrive at thier stopping point. 

 

Six Weeks

The recovery time is six weeks and I am a few days shy, but since it was the weekend I decided to ride my bike over to the library.  I am a little nervous about falling (even at a slow speed), but I want to get back to riding. So far...So good....

Cutters

I have entered week 3 of recovery and everytime I see a cyclist past, I think I will be out there soon.....

A different chart

I guess it is bound to happen to every bicyclists and for me I was glad it was a short decline and I only was going around 10 miles an hour.  Below is where I spent the next 2 days. The chart below is of my body and not my mileage. I wanted to decrease my miles this year and I guess this is one way of doing it, but I am not sure whether the 3 cracked ribs were worth the price.  At a minimum 6 weeks off of the bike.....

Been a long time

I actually could not ride my bike for a month from mid July to Mid August so not much to blog about as not much biking going on. I  really missed not riding and it took me about a week to get "back in shape".

I was riding along and one of my Saturday morning riders asked me if I ever thought about riding cross country again and my response was "Every day". By coincidence when I was riding home the same day I was reminded of one of our fellow XC09 riders. He visited a lot of first responders in every town we stopped in any many of those places were fire stations. He once told me he never saw a "live" Dalmation at any of those fire stations. The picture below is for him:

The picture below is for another cross country rider who once rode with his Dog. This reminded me of him.  Check out that passenger's sunglasses.

Harry in France

As I cannot email pictures, below are Harry's pictures
 

The old one is the new one

As followers of the blog will know, my downtube on my cross country bike frame cracked.  I am not one to pay attention to warranties, but somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered that Trek has a lifetime warranty on the frame.  I took the old frame in and Trek did honor the warranty.  The old bike is the new bike.

I thought about keeping the old frame as a memento of the cross country trip, but the more I thought about it I wanted to look forward to new memories with the new frame.  Now about those new brakes ....

Old Friends

I went down to the Manhattan Beach Pier today to see the new group leave. 

Tracy looks fine and I think she as recovered from her operation as she almost crushed me when she hugged me at the pier.

I saw Rick again this year. This is his 15th year doing this and he told me that as long as he can ride a bike he is going to do this every year. 

Tom D and his wife Robyn will provide support.  As in 2009,  Denver played the Lakers in the basketball playoffs and lost (Sorry Tom). However, I do not think the Lakers will win the championship this year as they did in 2009.

I also spoke to Carol (Hank's better half). I told her she should ride a few days so she could see if she could bike across the country next year.

Randy from XC08 comes every year and it was good to see him. Scott from XC08 was also there.

It is a strange feeling, but anyone who has done the trip seems like and old friend even if you did not actually bike with them. 

As for me, while it was good to see everyone I hope to one day make another long distance bike trip. 

Some pictures, courtesy of Jim.

End of an Era

I was commuting to work and I felt that my suspension was a little off.  Upon further inspection you will see why this has happenned.

I guess this is the end of an era.  We had good times together. We were the object of much ridicule, but you and I still made the trek cross country.  I will never forget the memories we shared together.  Farewell, my trusted friend.

Night 2

I was not planning on going to night 2, but thanks to a special friend I was able to go. I appreciate the thought and I will not forget your friendship.

\

Set List

1. No Surrender
2. We Take Care Of Our Own
3. Wrecking Ball
4. Badlands
5. Death to My Hometown
   (With Tom Morello)
6. My City of Ruins
7. Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?
8. Jack of All Trades
   (With Tom Morello)
9. Youngstown
10. Prove It All Night
11. Darkness on the Edge of Town
12. Easy Money
13. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
14. Apollo Medley
15. Racing in the Street
16. The Rising
17. Lonesome Day
18. We Are Alive
19. The Ghost of Tom Joad
    (With Tom Morello)
20. Land of Hope and Dreams
    (With Tom Morello)
21. Encore:
22. Rocky Ground
    (with Michelle Moore)
23. Bobby Jean
24. Born to Run
25. Dancing in the Dark
26. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
    (With Tom Morello)

A video from tonight's show

Bruce

As anyone who knows me I am a big fan (as in fanatic) of Bruce Springsteen.  I went to see him yesterday in concert and all I can say is "wow".  It was a fantastic concert. One of the best of his shows that I have attended.  3 hours of not worrying about anything, just listenting to the music, singing along (badly) and dancing (even worse). 

Setlist

1. Badlands
2. We Take Care Of Our Own
3. Wrecking Ball
4. The Ties That Bind
5. Death to My Hometown
6. My City of Ruins
7. The E Street Shuffle
8. Jack of All Trades
9. Something in the Night
10. Candy's Room
11. She's the One
12. Easy Money
13. Waitin' on a Sunny Day
14. The Promised Land
15. Apollo Medley
16. The Ghost of Tom Joad
17. The Rising
18. Lonesome Day
19. We Are Alive
20. Land of Hope and Dreams

Encore:

21. Rocky Ground
22. California Sun
23. Born to Run
24. Dancing in the Dark
25. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out

Some pictures of the concert.  Apparently I was too close on some of these photos and they are blurry, but hopefully you can see Bruce.

Cologne

I have not been biking as much as last year. Part of the reason is that on a few of weekends it has rained and that is when I usually do the majority of my miles.  Still, I am up to 1,500 miles for the first 3 months of the year which still puts me on a pace to bike around 6,000 for the year.

Last weekend I went on a business trip to Cologne, Germany.  The business part of it is 2 days and the travel portion s 2 days.  Surprisingly, not much jet lag as it was such a short trip my body never adjusted to the time difference.  Oh, and a lot of coffee drinking does not hurt.

A view of the Cathedral from the front and the back. 

In crossing the bridge from one side of Cologne to the other side,  you notice that people who get married affix these locks to the fence (below the picture of the train) with their names. As you can see this stretches the full length of the bridge.

The Rhine is a river that flows from Grisons in the eastern Swiss Alps to the North Sea coast in the NetherlandsAn overview of the Rhine River



Rhine River, Cologne another view

Rhine River, Cologne



Factoids

As I usually do not drive to work, but bike I do not really pay much attention to my car odometer.  However, below is either an interesting or crazy statistic:

Odometer reading on my 11 year old car   40,900
Last 3 years biked:                                      32,678

During 2011, I was able to ride 11,743 miles which was only 451 miles less than my personnel best in 2009. 

I think I need a little more balance in my life as I believe I rode past Jim on the beach bike path two Thursday ago.  It looked like Jim and I yelled "Jim" and he did respond,  but did not stop, but that could have been too much time on the bike.

I hope that everyone had a Happy New Year.

Please be safe, happy and healthy.