2700km, well that's 90%

So been behind on biking and blogging. Hit 2700km mark tonight, that's 90% of my goal of 3000km for 2013. It will have to do.

Goal for 2014 then is 3200km.  I don't have to start working on that till tomorrow :)

- Peace

Christmas Music 2013

For those who don't know, I started collecting Christmas Music years ago from traditional to punk.  I try to expand the collection a bit every year.

Adding two albums this year:

One of my favourite bands has a new Christmas EP: The Choir - Peace, Love & Light ($5.99 mid page)  The title track embed below.

The Last Bison's rendering of Carol of the Bells & Nick Lowe's Children Go Where I Send Thee from The Paste 2013 Holiday Sampler make it an easy pick, especially since it's free on NoiseTrade.

- Peace

2400km in Edmonton

Hit 2400km mark tonight on Edmonton's High Level Bridge.  Brought a flood of thoughts.  It was in Edmonton that I first started tracking my km per year.  My best Edmonton year (in the 90s) was 2500km, so 2400 km in Nov would have felt great back then.

Now have 7 days to do 190 km to hit the original goal of 2600km by the end of Nov.  As I'v averaged 200km/month for most of the year that will be a stretch.  Need to do just over 27 km a day, for seven days strait.  Right now biking to Heritage and taking the train to work and then biking home makes just over 27km a day.  So it's possible.

If I make 160km this week then I've made up half of the 60km I was behind from Oct.  Also means I've done 430km in Nov and if I do the same in Dec then I'll hit 3000km for 2013.

130 km means I make my goal of doing 400km in Nov, but still need to make up the entire 60 in Dec, that would be tough.

That's what I'm thinking.   Next update at 2500km.

- Peace

2300km done, 35km short of 2400km

The good news is that I hit the 2300km mark on Friday before the big snowstorm.

 The bad news is that the plan had me hitting 2400km tonight, and I'm 35km short of that goal.

 Most of that would be from not riding Monday as it was colder than predicted and I couldn't find the gear to keep me warm in time to ride. 

Heading to Edmonton after work tomorrow, will see how much riding I can get done while visiting family and friends.

 - Peace

2200km: 60km short, 11 days late & 1 broken crank

Hit the 2200km mark on Monday.  For those keeping score, I wanted to hit 2200 before the end of Oct.   Didn't happen.

My shoulder was bothering me after Not Exactly Goat Creek, leaving me 60km short at the end of Oct.

Returned from San Francisco to all out winter conditions here in Calgary.  Commuter bike wasn't winterized yet, did get a few KM with the mountain bike, but it was a slow start to Nov.

Got the bike winterized and started to make good progress, when I wiped out while heading towards FishCreek park.  One good thing about biking in snow is that wipe outs can be gentler than on pavement.  No damage to me, but managed to destroy my left crank.

Walked the bike to Pedal Head, called Kim to pick me up.  Went home to get the mountain bike and headed into work (taking the bike on the train most of the way, was running way too late).  Headed out after work to get the final few km to make 2200km before taking the train home.

Now there are two voices in my head, one says I can still make 2600km by the end of Nov and 3000km by the end of the year.  The other says I could be happy with making 2600km by the end of the year, as that would be 100km over last year.

For the optimistic voice to win, I'll need weather, bike, health and self discipline to stay in alignment.  I'll need to hit 2300km by tomorrow (Friday the 15th)  , 2400 by Wed the 20th, 2500 by Tue the 26th & 2600km on Sat the 30th.

Good news is I'm on track to hit 2300km by tomorrow.  Thanks to PedalHead for getting the bike back to me in <48 hours.  We'll see how long I can keep up this pace.

- Peace

Not Exactly Goat Creek & 2100km

Most years I gather a group of people in June & October to ride Goat Creek Trail. Just after the ride in June the Goat Creek bridge was washed out in the epic floods that hit southern Alberta.

The bridge is still out, so yesterday we rode from Canmore to Banff via the Rundle Riverside trail.  A far tougher trail.  That 8km section took about 2hours to do.  Roots, rocks and mud.

Still a good time was had by all, and we found these cool rocks at the Banff end of the trail.

The 50km ride wasn't quite enough to put me at the 2100km mark, so I got a lift up to Whitman's pass and came back down to the Nordic Center to finish things off.  Hit the 2100km with a beautiful view of Canmore in the early evening.

We then hit the Grizzly Paw for supper.  You've got to try the Elk Burger, that's good eating!

Next Goal is to hit 2200km by Thursday, cause I'm off to San Francisco on Friday.

- Peace

2000km in the Dark

Hit the1999km mark Sunday night on the way home from Thanks Giving Dinner with friends.

Did a 1km loop in the neighbour hood to put me over the 2000km mark.

Had aimed to hit the 2000km mark on the 10th, but life got in the way.

Next goal is to hit the 2100km mark on Saturday when we'll be doing the "Not Exactly Goat Creek" ride between Canmore and Banff.  Let me know if you'd like to come.

- Peace

One Million Views on Flickr

Hit the one million views mark on my flickr account yesterday.  Don't know what it means.

I remember 10cent passing that mark years ago.

D'Arcy Norman hit the 2m mark before giving up flickr, and then coming back.

Don't know what view put me over, but my most viewed picture for the day was Question Mark, racking up 17 views for the day.

So I hit the million views with a big question mark.  That fits :)

- Peace
Dave

Ride for Refuge & 1900km

Rode the Ride for Refuge yesterday as part of Team Converge. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us; we raised $2515 for ACT Alberta.


Rohadi and I signed up for the 50km version of the ride. I would have been happy with any time in the 2:30 - 3:00 hour range.

With a couple of detours (missed a sign, stopped at the 40km to say happy birthday to a friend) the ride was just under 54km and I came in at the 2:31 mark :)

Hit the the 1900km while passing cheering volunteers.

Next goal is to hit 2000km by Oct 10th.

- Peace