2010 Mileage Report

Back in 2006 I took a statistics class at a local junior college as part of my transfer program to finally finish  my college degree. I needed to find a statistically interesting set of stats to study for my final class report. It took a while to decide but I remembered something weird. My wife learned a habit from her father: when you fill up with gas, always write down the information in a note pad for future reference. She records gas fill-ups, oil changes, brake and tire replacements, any service done on the car, etc. The information looks like this...

Car Mileage Recond 

It is a simple spreadsheet in a spiral notebook. The data fields are date, mileage, fuel cost, gallons purchased, and dollars spent. You will also notice the notation of an air filter replacement and tranmission fluid flush/fill.

Using this data I came up with a range of interesting statistics:

1. Miles per gallon
2. Average miles driven per day/month/year
3. Dollars spent per day on fuel
4. Miles/time between oil changes

Since I always buy gas from the same place (when possible) the data also show the historical price per gallon in a fairly accurate way (regular unleaded). One of these days I'll post on my blog the results of the study I did regarding the relationship between gas prices, my driving habits, and my fuel buying habits.

Since putting all this data into Excel is a bit arduous I do it about once a year. This time around I found it had been 3 years since my last update to my ever-growing spreadsheet. I did buy the car new 14 years ago! (1998 Subaru Legacy L wagon)

What did I find out this year?

1. Average miles driven per day: declined 3 years running to 19.71. This is the lowest level since 2003 (18.84) and a significant drop over 2007 (27.33).
2. Total miles per year: same decline as #1, following the same trend. The high in 2007 was 9974 while the low in 2010 was 7195.
3. Gallons purchased followed the same pattern as miles driven but the changes in dollars spent was amplified by the volitility of fuel prices. 2008 was a lower mileage year than 2007 but a spike in gas prices in 2008 raised total fuel purchased to $1416, a $91 increase over 2007, and $387 higher than 2010 ($1029).

Bike mileage -

• 2007-08: 1475, avg. 737 per year (missed about 300 miles before I purchased my first odometer)
• 2009: 1727 = 784 (old odometer) + 943 (garmin.com, includes 450 miles for 2009 Cycle Oregon)
• 2010: 950 miles

Conclusions:

1. I'm a major nerd. Anyone who knows me will confirm that fact.
2. Buying my bike in 2007 dramatically reduced the miles I drive per year. 2003 was the year after our twins were born so we didn't go very far that year (not much other than commuting, plus vacation and 1 month infant care leave, all spent at home).
3. As my bike commute miles stack up the miles driven in my car continue to decline.
4. Gas prices are fairly volitale but still below the high of a couple years ago ($4.35 on June 26, 2008)
5. My crash in August 2010 really put a dent in my annual biking mileage but not my car mileage.

The rest of this year should be even better than '09 as long as I stay injury free. I signed up for Cycle Oregon again this year, which should add another 500 miles, and I'm already above 200 miles for 2011 YTD. Maybe I can reach 2000 miles for the year?

Sorry Kris, I got nothin' on you...

Daily Mile Blog entry about Kris R, a guy I know from work.

Cross Training - Winter Edition

Cold Creek Trail, Snoqualmie Pass, WAThis past weekend I took "cross training" to the next level:  cross-country skiing!  The kids were at a birthday party all morning so I had some time to myself. With all the cold temps and rain/snow falling in the area a trip to the mountains seemed a better alternative to biking/riding.

I used to enjoy nordic skiing several years ago. As I drove up to the pass I kept having to go back further and further in my memory to find the last time I actually strapped on a pair of skis and hit the trails. Turns out it was 1996, a little further back than I anticipated, and it showed (more on that in a minute).

The drive up was uneventful except that the sun I was expecting turned out to be overcast skies. That turned to light snow flurries near the pass and moderate snowfall within a few hours.

The Nordic Center at Snoqualmie Pass is a great place to try out cross-country skiing. Within 10 minutes of arriving I was strapping on my rented skis and off on the beginner/training loops next the lodge. What a great place to "get my legs under me" and remember my technique. It took me close to an hour to be comfortable enough to venture out on the trails. As it turns out I should have spent that hour on the trail. The Cold Creek Trail (AKA USFS Road 9070), which starts just west of the Summit East lodge, is very much a "green" beginners trail or, as I'm sure the more experience skiers call it, a warm up trail. I could have easily gone straight to the trail and started there instead of the green loops.

Once I did make my way up there on the Cold Creek trail Self-portrait on the Cold Creek TrailI was greeted by wonderful views of Snoqualmie Pass and Keechelus Lake. The snow conditions were perfect for skate-style skiing and the temps were tolerable (20-25F). I was in seventh-heaven. The groomed trail made it so easy to move along even with my sloppy strides. The other people on the trail greeted me at every turn with smiles and a cheerful hello, expecially the long line of young kids out for a XC class.

...except for the fact that my lack of off-season training really started to show after the first 90 minutes. Looking at my GPS profile for the day the data doesn't lie: within just a few minutes on the flat course my heart rate was up above 170 BPM and stayed between 150-165 for most of the day. After only 2 miles on the trail it was obvious that I needed to turn around. The entire loop around Mt. Catherine is 15.5K/9.6 miles. I did need to be home by early afternoon so I turned around for an early return. Wow, am I glad I did. The last mile back to the lodge turned out to be the hardest/slowest time of the day. After only about 3 hours of actual skiing I was DONE. I was at the point where no amount of resting would allow me to continue for the day.

Recovery: Amazingly I was only moderately sore during day 1 and 2 of recovery. Here I am on day 3 and I'm ready to go back.

This was an incredible experience for me, reminding me of days long past when I would camp at Lake of the Woods in southern Oregon with my Boy Scout troop. The memories came flooding back time and time again: how we used to have races down the snow-covered trails, sword fights with our ski poles, and my all-time favorite, tree tackling! Tree tackling, you say? That's where you run up to a snow-laden tree, hopefully no more than 24" in diameter, and try to tackle it so that the snow falls off the tree all around you. Trust me, it's a hoot!

Anyway, now I'm trying to figure out a way to get back up to the mountain again this Friday/Saturday for a repeat performance. If I can only fit it in to my frenetic schedule... }B^)

Ride Report: Presidents Day Ride 2011

Every Presidents Day holiday for the past few years I have organized an informal ride with friends. Those of you from the Seattle area should be shaking your heads by now. Why? Well, the average temp range for Presidents day in Seattle are a bit on the chilly side (Hi: 52F, Lo: 36F). Since I typically leave before 8am the temps can be somewhat chilly. In '08 the temp was 27F when I departed at 7:15 am. With this in mind attendance ranges anywhere from 2-15. Suprizingly my luck with weather on this ride has been fabulous: nothing more than fog, typically with lots of sun. This year was not different with overcast skies, slight snow flurries, and some breaks in the clouds.

Each year the ride typically ends up on the I-90 trail from Sammamish to Pac-Med in Seattle. This year we decided to do something different at the request of my son (Boy #1): the John Wayne Pioneer Trail at Iron Horse State Park. With some intrepidation and snow in the forecast we loaded up the car at 7am and headed for the trailhead. Unfortunately I forgot our camera so we had to make do with my cell phone camera (i.e. not the best quality pics/videos). Iron Horse State Park

For those not familiar, Iron Horse State Park is a "rails to trails" park that has one of the best kept secrets in WA state. One of our friends on this ride, a long time WA resident, had heard of the trail but never actually seen it. The trail is a retired rail bed converted into a hiking/bicycle trail (At the time of this writing, 2/23/2011, you could also use it as a cross country ski trail with all the snow received this week). I took a group of Boy Scouts on a 3-day ride on the same trail back in '09. The ride is easy (never more than a 2% grade), well maintained, and quite scenic with views of waterfalls, the Cascade Mountains, high bridges over the canyons, and lots of wildife.

We met up with a couple of friends (bringing the group size to 4) and headed out on our adventure. Some highlights:

• The trail was smooth and frozen: warmer weather would have meant more mud to contend with.
• Although there were a few small sink holes the trail was in great shape.
• Lots and lots of ice on the cliffs and around the running streams but no ice over the trail. On one of the cliffs, where the ice covering the cliff face was beginning to melt, air bubbles were flowing with the runoff under the ice making it look like there were ants crawling underneath (I tried to take a video but it didn't turn out well).
• We had remarkable visibility, despite the overcast skies, which gave us great views of the valleys and mountains.Views of the Mountains from the Mine Creek bridge
• Best part of the ride (according to Boy #1): the fast ride down.
• Good conversations with our friends over the course of the day.
• We came across a mountain goat on the Deception Craggs climbing cliff. Very unexpected and cool.

Lowlights:

• Did I say it was chilly? BRRRR! (30F when we set out)
• Someone had taken some pot shots at the signs with a shotgun. We saw other rifle/shotgun damage to signs, posts, and rocks as well as some clay pigeon remnants. They even shot the "no shooting" sign.
• We only had 4 hours to do the ride, which meant we covered 8.5 miles before we had to turn around.

Lessons Learned:

• Next time Boy #1 needs a bigger bike: 26" tires would have made a big speed improvement for him.
• Drink more water. Although I brought 2x20 oz bottles, I didn't drink more than 10 oz.
• Breaks needed to be longer in duration for our two younger riders. At 90 minutes Boy #1 struggled a bit.

After just over 2 hours we decided to return. As you can see in GPS ride profile the return trip was a bit faster than the first half. On the way home we stopped in Fall City at "Small Fries", one of our favorite hole-in-the-wall burger joints. That's how we top-off after a great ride in the mountains!

Training with kids...

My boys have this book called Two Crazy Pigs. It tells the story My 3 Crazy Boys, Issaqua Tri 2009of 2 pigs on a farm that are really silly and slap-happy. OK, they are nuts: they play all sorts of silly practical jokes, bounce all off the walls, and wreak havoc everywhere they go. This book is the embodiment of my children.

While I love my "Three Crazy Boys" as much as any dedicated father they can pose certain, shall we say, challenges when it comes to training, racing, and touring. These challenges contribute to my #1 enemy: consistency, or rather the lack thereof.

Here are some ramblings about how I deal with being a Triathlete, a husband, and a Dad all at the same time.

1. Scheduling

With any family your most valuable asset is time. This incredibly precious commodity is not renewable, expires on a regular schedule, and is very unforgiving. In our family we have it down to a pseudo-science involving an Excel spreadsheet, an online calendar, and my wife's incredibly important daily planner ("THE calendar", i.e. if it is not on THE calendar, it doesn't exist/happen).

We start with the "can't move/miss them" items such as school, recitals, cub scouts, etc., add-in family events like baby arrivals, baptisms, and reunions, followed closely by the kids' sporting events. From there I have an idea where I can shoe-horn in my long rides, triathlons, foot races, and bike tours. It doesn't leave me a lot of time and I do a lot of hand-wringing trying to figure out which race to do.

I was marveling at DCRainmaker's race schedule the other day (A race a month? Seriously Ray?): wow, what would it be like to train/race without kids again? My tri career started when my twins were 4.

How do I choose my races? It all starts with an Excel spreadsheet

• List all races/rides/tours (RRTs) I have ever done or want to do arranged by date (i.e. brainstorming).
• Highlight the RRTs that I REALLY want to do again. I have yet to do a RRT that I have crossed off my list.
• Line those dates up with all the other family/school/church/scout events and you end up with... 3 triathlons, 1 century, and 1 week-long bike tour.

After this process is over some of my favorte RRTs don't make the cut. This year the Issaquah Tri had to be cut due to a family event, even though I have done this race 4 years running. My 9 year old was understanding but disappointed (he loves the Kids Tri).

How do I fit in training? When ever I can. It usually ends up being early-morning or lunchtime workouts with the bulk of it as bike commuting.

2. Training

When my kids were really small training was actually easier: they weren't communicating yet and I could very easily strap the twins into the double-jogging stroller while boy #1 rode his bike behind me. Have you ever tried to do hill runs pushing 40-50 pounds of giggling/wiggling cargo? Talk about a workout!

For bike commuting I'll write a more extended version of this later: I live 9 mile from work. My route takes me down a big hill, across a valley, and then up another big hill, then reversed 8 hours later when I go home. this happens 2-5x per week depending on schedules, weather (I don't ride when the temp is under 32F), and, of course, illnesses.

3. Illness

My kids dutifully bring home from school, play group, church, and the park every bug and germ known to man. Boy #3 has this annoying habit of putting a finger in BOTH nostrils and seeing how far he can... nevermind. When school is in session is gets 10x worse. I can count on 1 hand the number of "well" weeks I have had since last Labor Day. My off-season training has been terrible, thanks to both illness and injury.

How do I deal with it? I don't, really. At least I don't deal with it very well. I have resorted to an interesting combination of Mucinex-D, Ibuprophen, and, my favorite, NyQuil. The Mucinex and Ibuprophen allow me to function during the day and even commute via bike. The NyQuil knocks me over and allows for a minimal night's sleep (notice I didn't say "acceptable" or "decent"?).

What I usually end up with is an inconsistent but tolerable off-season, and, when school lets out and the illnesses subside a little bit, more regular training and actual progress during the summer. I did prove this works last year when I upped the ante and did my first Olympic Tri.

Summary

As you can see I have a long way to go. My race schedule is always written in pencil and open to modifications as our dynamic schedule evolves. This year is not very old but I already see better progress than last year.

Have you dealt these issues? Reply below with your comments, I'd love to hear how you deal with these issues.

Cat6 riders

One of the guys at work pointed me at an article from the NY Times Blog that addresses an issue I didn't know existed: commute racing.

...Or what some people "think" is racing but they don't realize they are doing it. Or maybe they know they are doing it but aren't officially racing. In the article they go as far as to call it "cat6 racing". If you know anything about bicycle racing you know about the various racer classifications of cat 1-5. With this in mind the reference to cat 6 references how slow and outside the normal racing structure this actually is. Yes, it's a joke.

When you get at least 2 guys together in some type of moving contraption (car, motorcycle, bicycle, horse, you name it) there will inevitably be some type of josteling for position, posturing, and even racing. It's just how guys think. We are wired to think that...

1. ...every time we get in the car we are driving in the Indy 500, even if our commute is 3 miles long.
2. ...when we pull up to a light with another bike we have to show how fast we can climb a hill.
3. ...when someone pulls up next to you on a motorcycle that is louder than yours, you rev your engine a bit to liven things up.

It's just how things work with guys. We are competitive. Even if we look incredibly stupid doing it.

Several folks at work took the idea of cat-6 a bit further, adding/subtracting points for various activies such as overtaking a rider in a team kit (points lost if the rider is a woman unless you get the woman's phone number), if the target is a carbon bike and you are on a recumbant, and if you overtook someone who jumped a couple of red lights to gain distance on you. (Thanks Raajeev and Bill!)

I pondered on this for a while and then realized that I was doing this too, to some extent. I ride uphill both ways in my commute. No, really, I do: I live on a plateau. So every morning I ride down a big hill, across a valley, and then up another big hill to my office. Then I reverse that course going home. Climbing those hills I find myself constantly trying to pace other riders. On my bike computer I use the virtual partner in an attempt to best my previous times commuting to/from work. And, yes, I even try to catch and pass people on the flats down in the valley. It gets really interesting on sunny summer days when the fair-weather-riders come out. I help them realize how out of shape they are while passing them on the 520 trail, a 6-8% grade for 1.3 miles. As they see me go by (it's hard to miss 250+ pounds going by at such low speeds) I'm sure they wonder if I'm trying to show off or if I'm trying to kill myself.

I guess it's a little of both.