Sponsored Bike Commuting

I was reading through my daily reddit bicycling posts and came across something quite interesting. Apparently a law in the US, which was originally supposed to increase users of public transportation by allowing companies to pay each person (tax free) $20 a month, has been updated to include bicycle commuters. You can read about it here.

The one huge catch is this isn't a requirement by companies. Under no circumstance can you simply say "I bike to work, give me $20". But, there are many reasons why your company might want you to. First off, a healthy employee is a happy employee. Biking, as we all know, helps keep people fit, which in turn, should lower your chances of getting sick. It will also help our environment by keeping people out of cars and using up gas.

Both of those are probably not enough for a company to hand over the $20. But, for me, I think I know what could. Parking spaces. The company I work for has a lot of employees. We have 6 buildings to occupy and the parking spaces are simply not enough. People park illegally every day, blocking fire lanes and basically parking anywhere they can. We do have a lot of bike commuters... but I know of quite a few who are on the brink of deciding whether or not to do it. I am certain that if they were given $20 to keep their bike maintained (or even to buy a bike) the number of commuters would triple. Hell, even more!

And Kungfoo - They even have something similar to this over in the UK. Check it out!

As for me and my biking to work... hasn't happened in quite some time. I did it once back in December, but the cold was too much. I simply don't know how MNBicycleCommuter and ArcticGlass can manage it! Perhaps if my company starts this incentive, I will join the hardened ranks of winter bikers!

Revolution Kids

Annapolis is taking part in a national contest by Brighter Planet to help make our planet more green. Annapolis submitted their idea of "Revolution Kids" which teaches elementary and middle school children about biking and bike safety while allowing children from low income families to earn bikes. It is a great cause and something that, if they win, I would love to assist in. You need to register on the Brighter Planet website and you can each vote three times. Take a look at the Contest Page and cast your vote!

Even if you don't decide Revolution Kids is the best choice, anything that helps keep our planet healthy is a good thing in my book!

East Coast Greenway

I had read about this awhile ago. It was posted on a sign along the B&A. I have a slight fascination with incredibly long distance trails. Having hiked a good portion of the central Appalachian Trail, I find the idea of a parallel bike route to be absolutely awesome. The East Coast Greenway is an attempt to create a complete trail from the northern tip of Maine to the tip of Key West, Florida. (The AT goes from Georgia to Maine). So basically, an East Coast bike path that I could get on and go visit my cousins in Florida or hang out with some friends up in Maine.

Their Maryland Section is coming along nicely, although I really question their want to go through inner city baltimore. I mean... gross. Either way they are using the B&A path and BWI Loop as segments along it. I really want to go out and ride the rest of this area, I've never heard of most of those routes!

And speaking of long distance cycling, check out some of the Bicycle World Records!

No room.

It saddens me to say that there just isn't enough room in the townhouse to fit another bike. My road bike is already jammed next to the dinner table, resulting in me having to slide in sideways to my seat. The only real option would be to store it at the in-laws house, but I really don't have much interest in dealing with that every time I take it out (and having to give it a thorough cleaning and drying afterwards). So for now, looks like I am outta luck.

I did get out and go biking around to the Baltimore and Annapolis Path yesterday. It was my first real "night" ride, although it wasn't even 7pm. I got in about 10 miles before the rain started coming down again, so I hauled ass back home for a total of about 15 miles. Took a nice hot shower to get some of my body heat back.

I brought in an extra pair of work clothes and a towel, so if tomorrow I wake up early enough I am going to attempt a ride into work... my first since the temperature has gotten below 70 degrees. Not sure exactly what I should be wearing, but its only 13 miles, so it really shouldn't matter all that much.

It is one month away from New Years, which means I need to start coming up with my New Year's Resolution. I have a terrible habit of not keeping them but figure any goal is better than no goal. I think I want to compete in an Olympic Triathlon, which is 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run. I think its a decent goal to set for myself. I know I can bike 40km without breaking a sweat and I am a decent swimmer, so the big area of focus will have to be the running. I can jog for about 5km, so doubling that should make for a pretty solid goal. There is one up in Cecil County every year called the North East Triathlon (that is from last year) held in August, so that is a pretty sound goal.

What about you? Have you thought about your goals for the upcoming year?



Weight: 156 lbs (although that Chik-Fil-A I had for lunch and the Japanese Steakhouse I am having for dinner might tip me over 160)

Felt Q520

I am in training this week which means I get to wake up 3 hours later than normal, but I have to travel to Columbia, MD for Cisco training (ICND1). I went to the mall two days ago, but they didn't really have much going on there, so I went to Race Pace Bicycles yesterday. I got to test drive two bikes, a Felt Q520 and a Trek 4600D. They both were good bikes, the Trek the clear winner in lightness and structure, but with a pricde tag of 150% of the Felt, I think the Felt would be a clear winner. For a $400 bike, it had everything. Disc Brakes are key for real mountain biking. Because when you go through streams or get mud on your rims, the V-brakes don't really grip very well and if you get any small rocks or grit caught you end up rubbing your rims down.

I asked the wife about getting one and she simply said "I don't care... just get rid of your old one first." Sounds like a pretty solid answer. Considering the wet season here, a mountain bike might be a good commuter bike.

So I'm going to ask some coworkers what they think about it, but I might be purchasing one in the next week!

I present to you the hard tail Disc Break Felt Q520:

Been awhile...

It has been awhile since I have visited this site. Truth be told, it is more because I just haven't been riding much. Ever since I did the metric century back in August I haven't had much motivation to go out and ride. Combine lack of motivation with the turning of fall and my own wedding, the bike has gotten a back seat to life.

And to make matters worse, when I finally mustered up the leg muscles to take the bike out last week during a cold wet day I rode over a storm drain and popped my back tire. Didn't realize it until I attempted to bike to work for an event sponsored by Bike2Work Central Maryland, at which point I just tossed the bike back on my car and drove to work slightly annoyed.

But there is a reason for this post. One is to attempt to get myself motivated to go out biking again. The other is to whore out a few new blogs I am following...

KungFooSausage is a new blog by a good pal of mine from a gaming site I participate in. His description is "A blog about my life, thoughts, computer gaming, anything inane and pointless I can think of that amuses me and lets not forget my recipe's." While so far his posts have been mostly about his biking (which is great!) I am sure he will be a good one to follow. His humor is hysterical and always makes us crack up! And he is from the UK, I am hoping he will eventually (hint hint) post some pictures of his beautiful country!

Gobo's World is a webcomic just started up by another pal of mine. While mostly focused on World of Warcraft, it is a great and funny read for any gamer familiar with RPG style games. I don't think he has a set-in-stone release schedule for comics, so check there often to see if anything new is up!

And finally, one of my best friends' girlfriends has had a blog running about being a female gamer. Great lengthy posts regarding all things gaming, it is a wondrous read and can be found at Ms. Slowski.

I urge any and all to check out these blogs and leave a quick (or not quick) comment for them! We all know how great it feels to see some responses to our work!

And since posts are always better with pictures... this is how happy each of the people would be if you read what they are writing and respond!

(Obligatory: That's what she said)

First event, done!

This past weekend I went out on my very first official bike ride, the Eat a Peach Bike Challenge, taking place in Westminster, MD. I went up there with my fiancee's friend's boyfriend.

Having never done a bike event before, I was very nervous. I had signed up for the 67 mile course, basically so I could claim I had done a metric century. My longest ride to date has been about 35 miles or so, but I had done that easily. One thing that I would soon realize was that 35 miles of flat terrain is nothing compared to 10 miles of non-stop hills.

I asked a good number of people about how to prepare for the event, and the most numerous advice I got was to carb load and hydrate. I went ahead and bought myself a pair of cycling shoes and clips. No cycling shorts.

We got to the event early, at about 6:30am. We walked around and stretched as the parking lot got filled with cars loaded with some very very impressive looking bikes. We got in line to register and talked with some people who sounded like they had done it before. They wished us luck as we grabbed our forms and off we took.

The first couple of miles we knew were going to be hilly. We had to drive them to come in. But, we both expected the hills to come to a stop and we would be able to set a relaxing 15mph pace. By mile 10 we gave up all hope of this being a flat course and we quit pedaling down the hills to save energy to go up. The first rest stop at mile 20 was a godsend. We refilled our water bottles with Gatorade, ate a PB&J and kept trucking along. By mile 30 we were in a lot of pain. Not our legs but our necks and back. We decided at the mile 40 rest stop we would take a lengthy break and get some energy back.

Unfortunately, the mile 49 rest stop wasn't marked well and it was on a side street. We missed it and by the time we realized we missed it, we were an extra two miles away. So we just pulled off into somebody's yard and relaxed. The next rest stop was only 10 miles away, so we made our way to that and took a much needed break. At that point we knew, with only another 12 miles to go, we would make it. As we ascended the final hill, which was the largest and aptly named "The Bitch Kate Wagner" (Kate Wagner being the name of the street) we realized we had made it. Cruising down the final stretch we leaned back and listened to the country band playing at the finish line.

It took over 5 hours to do. We averaged just over 13 mph, a far cry from what we thought. Amazingly, our legs weren't sore and after a good night's sleep I could have got up and rode another 10 or 15 miles.

All in all, it made me realize I have no interest in doing the 75 mile course of the Civil War Century, but might try the metric century as that doesn't go across the mountains.

I've been keeping track of my mileage on a spreadsheet, but so far for August:

Biking: 133 miles