585 miles in 23 days?

Forty days ago, I set a big goal - I wanted to finish my first round of Commute for a Cause with 850 miles in the last 60 (or so) days. Well, there are 23 days left in this first go (including today, since I'm writing this at 7am) and I've got 585 miles to go. Looking back over my bike log, I've been on my bike only 13 days since I set that goal 40 days ago. Thirteen days of riding in 40 days?! Really?? Why?? Flipping through my bike log for those days, here's what I had pencilled in on the days that I didn't ride. Keep in mind that every day that I didn't ride doesn't have an explanation:

• Disneyland (3 days)
• First big storm of the season, biggest since 1962 (1 day)
• Work stuff (2 days)
• Texas (3 days)
• Charlotte, NC (5 days)

So a little bit of travel and a little bit of work stuff has kept me off my bike recently.

If I'm going to make my goal of 850 miles in 60 days, then I need to average 27 miles per day for the next 23 days. The challenge with that, which I'm just now discovering, is that the type of riding I do doesn't support 30+ miles per day. I commute to work and I ride trails. I don't own a fast road bike - one that I can hop on and cover 50 miles in a few hours. That type of riding has never interested me, and if I had that type of bike I wouldn't be writing this post. So whether or not I make my goal, I've learned one thing - that I'm still doing the type of riding I love for the right reasons for a good cause.

And speaking of a good cause, take a minute to check out the Homeless Garden Project's current wish list. You can also click here to donate to Commute for a Cause. All the money I raise is going to support HGP. Thanks!

keep it simple

I'm sitting in the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina right now waiting to board a plane back to California. I've been out here all week for work, and managed to squeeze in a mountain bike ride on Tuesday.

I rode with a guy I know who lives here. Turns out my timing was perfect, because for the last 15 years or so, he's been organizing a Tuesday night ride with his friends. One of the guys owns a local bike shop and hooked me up with a bike - the Kona Hei Hei.

This bike, in many important ways, is the exact opposite of my mountain bike at home. This bike is full suspension - mine is a hardtail. This bike has gears - mine has but one. Needless to say, it took me a while to settle into it.

The group turned out to be a big one - larger than I have ever ridden with - 14 guys. There were a few guys named John, so by about the middle of the ride I was calling everybody John. They didn't care, and in return they called me the "new guy." During the ride we lost three Johns, because one of the Johns crashed real good and it took two other Johns to get him out.

We rode a great trail at the National Whitewater Center.

I was impressed with a couple of things on this ride. First, this group hammered the entire time. We started off fast with few stops and never slowed down. In an hour-and-a-half of riding, we stopped less than five times to regroup. That's rare in a group ride this big, and due to the fact that they ride so often together, I reckon. I was also impressed with the quality of the trails we were riding. Fifteen miles of singletrack with lots of climbing and tight turns. Didn't hurt that it was also a full moon that night.

So now the big question...do I want to go back to a geared, full suspension bike? The answer is a solid "no", and that makes me happy. Keep it simple.