trike-ab-trike-2019

2019 mileage: 2047.8 IWhat an absolutely LOVELY  spring day for a ride! Skies were partly sunny throughout, and I was able to ride most comfortably in shorts and a t-shirt, as it was 62* when I began at 9:15, and up to 71° when I finished a few minutes before noon. The only drawback was that the MapMyRide app on my phone malfunctioned again—doubly so, in fact. First, and just shy of 5 miles into the ride, it reset itself to zero, wiping out all the stats I had accumulated to that point. I made sure it was going again, and then, inexplicably, it slipped into Pause mode a few minutes later, so that when I got to the midpoint and turned around to come home, I checked my stats, as I always do, and found that, although I know from past history that I had ridden just over 10 miles at that point, it showed me with 1.8! Anyway, this was no crippling blow, but it did mean that I ended up with no Relive video of my ride today. I am putting down that I rode 20.3 miles in 2:40/

2019 mileage: 2007.5 I haven't ridden since Saturday morning, having been gone over the weekend. I went to the Indianapolis 500 as a guest of my friend Dale Eckart, as Indianapolis is his boyhood hometown and tickets to the race have been in the family for 4 decades. We drove down Saturday afternoon, attended the race on Sunday, and returned to Michigan yesterday—a drive of between 4 and 5 hours. Dale has been to probably about 20 of the races over the years, and he has a whole regimen of things he likes to do, including spending the morning at the speedway (gates open at 7 for the 12:45 race—we arrived just before 9) to watch the various festivities. (Dale is an alumnus of the Purdue Marching Band, so he naturally finds them of special interest.) The picture below shows us just after arriving at the track, after a walk of nearly 2 miles from the place where we parked. Anyway, just before leaving, I noticed that my left brake wasn't working well, and was able to observ

2019 mileage: 1996.0 IAs my friend Dale Eckart (pictured below) has invited me to attend tomorrow's Indianapolis 500 with him (he is an Indianapolis native, and has family has had tickets since about 1980), and we are leaving early this afternoon, I needed to ride early today. So I left at 6:30 (in mostly sunny, calm, 58° conditions—it climbed to 73° by the time I was done, around 9:15) and rode again the round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter). MapMyRide malfunctioned, but only slightly ... whereas my outbound ride, to Baker Rd., is just over 10.1 miles, for some reason unknown to me, it measured it today in just over 9.5. But the return leg was OK, and I'm counting today's ride as 20.2 miles, in 2:30. As I write this, a couple of hours after finishing the ride, my Relive video has not yet come in (although it usually takes less than 15 minutes) ... perhaps I'll be able to add it later. I did, indeed, get the link later - Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

2019 mileage: 1975.8 I rode once more today a round trip to Baker Rd. However, once again my battery pack was not working properly (or at least the cord connecting it to my phone, though I just bought the cord last week), and so in an attempt to make it home before the battery died, I took a very slight shortcut in the last few miles (like I did on Monday), coming south down Maple Rd. My efforts, however, were futile, and the phone died about 4 miles from home. Hence I have no Relive video to share today. Based on my stats at the halfway point (of which I took note) and those from my identical route on Monday, I'm saying that I rode 19.6 miles today, in 2:25. Tomorrow's weather looks somewhat problematic, but I sure hope I can ride in the morning. A good friend of mine is an Indianapolis native, and his family has long had tickets to the Indianapolis 500. We are driving down tomorrow afternoon, and returning Monday, so for sure I'll miss at least Sunday, and quite poss

2019 mileage: 1956.2 After the weather drove me inside to LA Fitness yesterday, it was good to be back outside this morning. However, rather than ride to Baker Rd., into the teeth of the stiff wind from the west (20 mph), I chose to ride to Marsh Park. This gave me 10.3 miles in 1:13. Also, at 68° and partly sunny when I began, at 10:30 (up to 70· when I finished), it was my first ride of the year in shorts, and that felt awfully nice! Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

2019 mileage: 1935.9 Today, I left shortly before 10:00 and rode again the round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter). It was 51° and partly sunny when I began (climbing to 59° when I finished).  It seems crazy to me that in mid- to late March, I still need to wear a fleece for my rides; but it felt awfully good today. My wife Michelle frequently tells me I am "clueless." To be honest, I have to concede the accuracy of this charge. Whenever I ride by a business on Jackson Rd., one of whose signs follows, I have to smile and think, "MY PLACE!" For my listening today, I enjoyed a curious pair. On the way out I listened to noted popular singer Billy Joel. And on the way home, I listened to superb Christian artist Sandy Patti. Since I love working with numbers, after I finished today's ride I consulted my records and learned that, since being able to return this year to my rides to Baker Rd. (on April 5), I've done it on 17 of the 47 days, or 37% of the time. T

2019 mileage: 1915.7 I really did not  want to ride today. But, after having to go to LA Fitness for the last two days because of weather and schedule, I pushed myself out the door anyway, with dogged determination, and, leaving just minutes before noon in solidly gray 55° conditions, I rode another round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter), heading out into the teeth of a healthy ( 15 mph and up) wind coming from the WNW.  Every flag I passed (both the numerous smaller ones, and the couple of gigantic ones) were stiffly extended, giving me a reminder of what I was in for. I just kept pushing, though, and by the time I returned home, I was (of course) glad that I did it. And it pushed me over another mileage milestone for the year - 1900. The one concession I did make to the day, though, was that in the last 3-4 miles, I took a slightly shorter route, cutting almost a mile off my total ride. (Came south on Maple Rd., rather than following Stadium around to the Big House as I do most days.)

2019 mileage: 1863.7 Today I set off about 10:45 and rode another round trip to Baker Rd. During the ride, it was 66° and cloudy. But I was glad to be able to push ahead with it, and as I ride these days, listening to my "Mary Poppins" playlist (containing the soundtracks from both Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns ) on Spotify has become my most frequent aural accompaniment. It was today, too. I generally do my blog immediately following the conclusion of my ride, but today that was not possible, as I went to see a showing of the current movie Tolkien , which depicts the famous author's youth, the beginning of his academic career, and his courtship of Edith Bratt, who was his wife for the rest of their lives (over fifty years, from their marriage in 1916 to their deaths in the early seventies). Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

2019 mileage: 1843.9 Having taken yesterday off, in order to focus my energy and concentration on my first rehearsal conducting the players at Emerson on my composition that's on their concert program next Thursday night, I was happy to be able to get back to riding today on another SUPERB day ... when I left just before 11:00, it was already 63°, and when I finished a little after 1:15, it was up to 74°. Skies were partly cloudy throughout, but the warmth made it seem sunnier then that. Atypically for me, I desired some variety today, but I also wanted the 20 miles of my usual ride to Baker Rd. So I repeated a ride I did last September -- to Marsh Park, and then down to Saline, and out west (towards Clinton) as far as I could before the sidewalk ends and I have to wheel about and come back home. This gave me 20.4 miles in 2:22. And this picture comes from the west end of Saline, just before I turned around to come back. Today's ride also contained one notable occurre

2019 mileage: 1823.5 What a spectacular day for a ride—easily the nicest conditions I've experienced since sometime last summer. When I began, just past 11:00, it was 59°, and brightly sunny, and that climbed to 68° by the time I finished. It was evidently a day for teenage machismo, too, as I witnessed in two separate incidents: 1) On the way out, when I was a little over two miles into the ride, I was barreling down the hill along S. Main, headed north (toward Michigan Stadium), and just as I was passing Pioneer High School, a young man headed north on S. Main cut blithely and blindly into the high school lot, without signaling or ever looking my way. I squeezed the brakes with every ounce of strength I had, and was barely able to avoid a collision. Then, as he whooshed past me, he finally looked at me about to hit him, and from his open window I heard him belatedly holler, " WOW !" 2) Just after I turned at Baker Rd. and started back toward Ann Arbor, I saw a bu

2019 mileage: 1803.3 Conditions today were tolerable, though they were enough to make me wonder when, if ever, nice spring weather is really going to arrive. It was another cool day (49° during my ride, which began at 11:15), though at least the early morning rain had cleared out. And a bit of breeze to manage, but nothing too ferocious (NNW at 11 mph). As I rode, I wrestled over whether to do two round trips to Marsh Park, or merely one. But what finally settled it for me was remembering advice given to me by my friend and former Addison High School teacher, J. Larry Roberts (shown below -- Larry died in July 2016). In an email exchange we had a few years ago after I was wrestling similarly during a ride, he told me, "You need to build on your strengths. You're not likely to make your mark in the world as a cyclist." So, remembering this, I allowed myself to be content with a single round trip, giving me 10.2 miles in a relatively good time of 1:04. Link to (R

2019 mileage: 1780.5 Yesterday I took the day off from riding, composing during the morning and then making the drive of a little over an hour midday to have a nice visit with my 95-year-old mother and take her the gift and card we had gotten her for Mother's Day. In light of this day off, I was particularly eager to get back to it today. I set off at 6:30 a.m. for what proved to be a fairly brisk ride—39° when I left (it climbed to 49° by the time I finished), with a bit of a wind (11 mph from the ENE), but brilliant sunshine to buoy my spirits. Clouds increasingly moved in during the ride, so that by the end it was mostly cloudy, though there was still a bit of sun left, here and there. And riding in a fleece over a hoodie ... and, thankfully, I remembered my gloves! ... I was perfectly comfortable. I rode another round trip to Baker Rd. (Dexter), for 20.4 miles in just a few seconds under an even 2:30. Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

2019 mileage: 1760.1 With a busy day today, I knew I would have to ride early if it was going to get done. I'm going to the 1:00 Detroit Tigers game with my friends Roger Kappler and Tim Wilson, and they are picking me up at 11:30. So I set off just before 7:30 in gray, 56° conditions, intending to ride consecutive round trips to Marsh Park. However, the alluring call of composition proved too strong to resist, so I altered my plans and decided to settle for a single round trip (10.2 miles in 1:14). Link to (Relive) video of today's ride

2019 mileage: 1749.9 After taking Sunday as a rest day, and then beginning a major new compositional project Monday morning and being very excited about the good progress I was making on it, I took the last two days off also in order to devote more time to composition. So I strongly felt that I really needed to ride today before my hiatus stretched out to an intolerable degree.  So I left just past 11:30 (even though I was, again, making great headway on my composition this morning) and rode another round trip to Baker Rd. It was 52° when I began, and 57° when I finished, with mostly cloudy skies. And three negative factors affected me today. 1) Just as I was beginning, I had an "adventure." When I leave our complex, I have to cross Lohr Rd. in order to reach the sidewalk that (eventually) takes me clear out to Dexter. However, just as I began to cross the road (on a slight uphill), the chain came off the front gear, so that I could make no more forward progress beyond t

2019 mileage: 1729.6 Since I worked out indoors on the stationary bike at LA Fitness yesterday due to the weather, I was eager to get outside today if possible. But this meant an early ride, as we have a busy day. Our niece, Lauren, turned 16 on Thursday, and we are going up to Mason today to celebrate with her and the family. In this picture from the spring of 2014, Michelle and I are with Lauren and her younger brother, Grant. Needing to ride early was no problem for me, with my extreme morning hours. I rose at 4:30 and spent some nice time composing, and then as sunrise was at 6:27, I left on my ride at 6:30 in pale early morning light, and 46° conditions. I was glad to have a fleece on over a hoodie, and gloves—with this apparel I was perfectly comfortable. And today is Commencement for the University of Michigan at Michigan Stadium, so, as I had to do on the first Saturday in May back in 2013 (precisely 6 years ago today, on May 4, 2013), when I was riding a regular bike a

2019 mileage: 1689.2 Yesterday's weather drove me inside, to ride the stationary bike at LA Fitness, so I was very glad to ride outside today, doing another round trip to Baker Rd. Conditions were quite nice, so that I was able to ride comfortably in a short sleeve shirt. When I left a bit past 9:00, it was 52°, and up to 55° when I finished. Though it was cloudy, it was not oppressively gloomy; and there was a bit of wind, but not too much (about 5 mph from the south). My MapYourRide app on my phone malfunctioned again (something that seems to happen every few weeks), About a half mile into the ride, it inexplicably slipped into Pause mode, and I didn't discover this and get it restarted until about eight tenths of a mile later, thus costing me both a bit of distance and time in my final stats. However, estimating, and extrapolating based on both past rides, and the data I did have, I'm saying that I rode 20.3 miles in 2:32. Although I was still able to get a video of