Friends

This is Rob Landes. He is a friend of mine. In fact, Rob is a friend to many cyclists in the area. He's always ready to ride with you, always ready with a word of encouragement, always ready to give you great advice to enhance your cycling experience. He's a good friend to have.

Rob owns Nature's Answer Health Food Store in Marion Illinois. He gives local cycling club members a discount on Hammer Nutritional Products. He gives me deeper discounts beyond that. I couldn't afford to use such a quality product without his discounts. Sometimes I worry that he's not making money on the things he sells me, so I try to buy other things with a better margin to make up for it.

Much of the cycling equipment I have has either been an outright gift from Rob, or I've bought from him at pennies on the dollar. I owe a large debt of gratitude to Rob.

Friendship is the only thing that brings sense to bicycling. None of the men (or women) that I ride with will ever set national or international records for cycling. Most of them won't ever win any races or awards that amount to anything. Riding just to win makes no sense. It's just not that likely.

I have several cycling friends. Mike McKee rode with me on the coldest day yet. And we rode for over 9 hours to finish a 126 mile ride for credit - for me. The only thing he got out of it was a big toe that went numb for nearly 2 weeks.

Jordon Graf rode with me on what was probably the hottest day last summer. The roads were melting and both of our bikes were covered in tar. We had to stop to scrape the tar off of our tires when it became too heavy for the wheel to pass through the forks.

Michael Schoenecke rode with me on my longest ride last year. I rode 223 miles on a day last August, but Michael was my companion for 110 of them. Without him, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish what was my biggest goal for the year.

Matt Gholson drew the logo I use for my randonneuring group. It's completely professional (he is an art teacher) and was completely free. In fact, he does all of my "computer stuff" pro bono as well. (I'm only slightly computer literate.)

Kevin Turner and Dale Moore have a usual lunch time ride during the riding season. They included me several times when my schedule allowed. These two friends made room for one more. In fact, for the last couple of years, Kevin, Dale and others have included me on an annual bike camping trip to Cave In Rock that they make each June.

Chris Whitley gave me an indoor trainer. Larry Sanders has included me in the Tour De Hope ride which takes place in Marion each year. Mike Dunaway helped "pull" me for many miles last year during my big August ride when the road turned uphill and against the wind. Joe Schmitt helped me start and promote our bicycle club a couple of year ago.

I could go on. (In fact, if I didn't mention your name, you're probably hoping I will go on.) But you get the point. I don't bring any special gifts to the table. I don't bring any money to the table. I don't even bring much leadership to the table. But all these people are at the table, and have been most kind to me. They have treated me as if I were their friend.

They are my friends. And that is the gold at the end of the cycling rainbow. Not high mileage. Not fast times. Not epic hill climbs. Friends.

Humble Beginnings

This is how it began. Mere perception - no real substance. I often said WE when talking about the bike club. People thought there really was one. Unless they specifically asked. Then I had to admit that the WE was me. I kept moving forward. I created a web site and posted pictures. I made brochures and business cards. Forward. Always forward.

Now there is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation. River to River Bicycle Club. A really cool web site. A new club jersey with optional arm/leg warmers, gloves and socks. There will be window clings and bumper stickers. Mere perception - no real substance. Forward. Always forward.

Perhaps this year, perception will become reality. Maybe this year.

It's a daily (or nearly daily) thing.

I decided to go out for a ride today. There were three main reasons. 1. I need to. I'll get fat if I don't ride. 2. I need to. I won't reach my goals this year if I don't ride. 3. I need to. I really wanted to stay inside with Rinti and eat candy while looking at pictures of fat people shopping at WalMart. But if I do that, I'll lose the desire and the ability to ride.

Now that I look at those reasons, it occurs to me that there is only one reason I ride: I need to. It's true that bicycle riding is fun for me. Although it takes longer now for the happy brain chemicals to kick in. Sometimes I have to ride for an hour and a half before I start to feel happy. But I need to continually push myself out the door. The alternative is dying a slow death indoors. A death so slow that no one, not even me will notice that it's happening. Just a gradual loss of flexibility, a gradual loss of muscle tone, a gradual gain in weight. Then one day - boom. I'm dead. They'll say it happened suddenly, but I will know as I lie there in my grave waiting for the resurrection day that it wasn't sudden at all. It was gradual. It was slow. It was because I didn't ride my bike every day, or at least nearly every day.

New Year - More Goals

Happy New Year. This was how 2010 started for me - on my bike and frozen. True to my last posting, I did delete all the mileage on the League of Illinois site. I stopped competing with those unknown other riders for collecting the most mileage. In fact, I was scrupulous about not checking at the end of the year to see how they did and compare myself to them as a lurker instead of a poster. Gotta exercise that willpower somehow, don't you know.

Last year (and continuing on to this December) I started an effort to obtain the RUSA R-12 award, http://www.rusa.org/award_r12.html . It will take 12 months of disciplined riding, much of which will be over the same course. And you know how much I love riding the same course. I'll post the lies and pictures here http://chasingther-12.blogspot.com/ .

I also have an annual mileage goal for this year. I managed to hit 9000 miles last year. However, I had 42 days on which I logged no miles. 42 No Ride Days! That's a month and a half! So one of my goals this year is to have NO no ride days. I want to log 365 days of riding. I decided that since my commute is only 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), that will count as a ride. So even if I have a project to work on, or family coming over for a visit, or am in the bed with pneumonia, if I can get out for 10 kilometers (about 25 minutes) then I'll count it. By doing so, and by increasing my mileage a little each week I plan to ride at least 10,000 miles this year.

Let's see - 9000 in 2009. 10,000 in 2010. Hmmm. What about 11,000 in 2011? 12,000 in 2012? Wow! The future could be really awesome!

Anyway, I do plan this year to focus on long-distance riding with RUSA. I will ride a 200 kilometer ride each month (some months more than once) for the R-12 award, then I'll pursue the Super Randonneur award http://www.rusa.org/award_sr.html by completing all four standard brevets in March, April, May, and June. I also have been given the opportunity to organize and hold two brevets - a 200 kilometer and 300 kilometer - in May and June, respectively. I'm hoping to find a way to find riders willing to come and ride here, and thereby develop a cadre of long-distance riders in Southern Illinois.

Finally, despite all of this cycling, I plan to continue to develop into the fine husband, father, grandfather, and friend that I have been and am becoming (if there is time left).

That might be the easy way, but it wouldn't be the cowboy way.

I went to the website for the League of Illinois Bicyclists today and deleted all my mileage posts. There were a couple of reasons for this. First of all, Mrs. Stoneman has repeatedly pointed out that the other riders may be lying. She is usually quick to believe that people lie, while I tend to accept the word of others at face value. (Except for government officials. I know they are lying to me.) But even if the other riders weren't lying, there is no way to tell if they are counting indoor miles. And as far as I'm concerned, indoor miles don't count.

The label "miles" cannot be correct because you don't travel forward (or backward). Therefore, you would have to use the label "mileage equivalent distances". But nobody wants to log two numbers, one labeled "mi" and one labeled "med". Or worse yet, nobody wants to place an asterisk after their numbers to indicate that the total is not accurate because it contains "mileage equivalent distances". All major sports records now seem to include some with asterisks beside them. That might be the easy way, but it wouldn't be the cowboy way.

There's another reason why I decided to delete my mileage log. I recently heard a clip from the George Clooney movie, "Up in the Air". In the clip, the character that Mr. Clooney plays collects frequent flyer miles and is aiming for one million miles. A female character, who is also a collector, engages him in a conversation about his frequent flyer miles annually and encourages him to "impress" her with his number for this year. As I listened, I thought about my annual cycling mileage and whether or not it was "impressive" to anyone. The previous post was about Tommy Godwin and his amazing mileage. I'll bet you've never heard of him. I hadn't until recently. Now that we've heard of him, and been properly impressed, we can quickly forget him and get on with holiday shopping.

Cycling logs and total mileage do count for something. If you don't measure something, you are not likely to manage it. Cycling growth, as any growth, requires 5 key elements: overload, recovery, specificity, individuality and progression. Without a logbook, you would not be able to meet those targets and your results will not be as satisfying. A logbook can also get you on the road when you just don't feel like it. Empty days on the log calendar look really bad, especially if there are many consecutive ones. Tracking, not collecting mileage is the goal.

Now you can see the reason for the blog title. It's not just about "cycling" as in riding my bicycle, it's also about "cycling" as in changes like the seasons or the tide. (Not like bipolar disorder, regardless what you are thinking.) As I grow through the second half of my life, I will have to pass through these cycles and phases in just the same way as the first half. Hopefully, I will have gained some maturity during the first 50 years so that the cycles of the next 50 will be less stressful and pass more quickly.

In the meantime, I still have a complete record of my mileages. If you want to be impressed, or perhaps just make fun of my small numbers, ask me some time what my annual mileage is so far. I'll be quick to tell you. That's the cowboy way.

It's all relative.

2. 1. World endurance record for distance cycled in a single year

In 1911 the weekly magazine Cycling began a competition for the greatest distance cycled in a single year. The first holder was Marcel Planes of France, with 34,666 miles (55,790 km). The record has been established nine times. ^[2] A tenth claim, by the English rider Ken Webb, was later disallowed. ^{[n 1]}

Year	Record holder	Country	Distance
1911	Marcel Planes	France	34,666 miles (55,790 km)
1932	Arthur Humbles	Great Britain	36,007 miles (57,948 km)
1933	Ossie Nicholson	Australia	43,966 miles (70,756 km)
1936	Walter Greaves	Great Britain	45,383 miles (73,037 km)
1937	Bernard Bennett	England	45,801 miles (73,710 km)
1937	René Menzies	France	61,561 miles (99,073 km)
1937	Ossie Nicholson	Australia	62,657 miles (100,837 km)
1939	Bernard Bennett	England	65,127 miles (104,812 km)
1939	Tommy Godwin	England	75,065 miles (120,805 km)

I've been tracking my mileage all year against other riders on the League of Illinois Bicyclists' website. As of today, here are the standings:

2009 Mileage Totals for All Users
Rank	User name	Home town, state	Miles
1	Bill	Alamo , TX	12,936.0
2	Bentrider	Wilmette, IL	12,669.0
3	PBM	Palatine, IL	8,544.4
4	AttitudeOfGratitude	Neptune, OH	8,475.0
5	BigBlackDog	Marion, IL	8,430.0
6	safetydon	Gardner, IL	8,416.0
7	WECoyote	Chillicothe, IL	8,189.2
8	Pedaltoo	Normal, IL	7,538.9
9	MathiasBareback	Milan, IL	7,499.4
10	erp4599	Naperville, IL	6,657.9

I'm the BigBlackDog. I've been as high as number 3 and as low as number 7 all year. But compared to Tommy Godwin, I've not been riding my bike at all. At the bottom of the list (I only copied the first ten riders) are riders who are only showing 10 - 30 miles for the year. I've often wondered why they bother to post at all. Then I saw the list for the world record holders. Now I question why I even bother at all. I suppose it's just because I like cycling.

There is no prize for high mileage (and as you can see, my mileage is not that high). There is no money involved (except for the money I spend to keep doing this). But there is satisfaction for me. And at the end of the day, that's all that keeps me moving forward. Satisfaction.

A high mileage year requires a fair amount of deal of deal-making. I have to fit all those miles (at about 15-16 miles per hour) into an already full schedule. Since my work schedule is not something that can be compromised, and I need 8 hours of sleep per night to stay healthy, then the time left, let's call it "home time" is the time which I take to ride. Hence the deal-making.

This year, I hope to hit 9000. I set a goal for myself of 8500, and I'll do that this week. But to hit 9000 would be nice. Next year, I want to ride more, but I may need to schedule off time during the holidays to keep from feeling pressured when "family time" encroaches on riding time during visits.

In any case, you can see by the first chart that no matter how many miles I ride, no one will care but me. And I do care.

Next control: 26.1 miles.

I've never been very competitive on the whole. That doesn't mean I wouldn't like to have been, it's just that I really hate losing, and have been convinced most of my life that any competition that I might enter would have that result. So I've avoided losing by not competing. I have not managed to avoid feeling like a loser, just managed to avoid losing.

As I grew up daydreaming about being a winner, I cast myself in the role of the hero of any adventure story that I read. I was Jim Bridger, mountain man. I was Admiral Byrd as he traversed the frozen north. I was anyone who, in the story, fought the elements and a natural desire to quit, but in the end came through. That's why long distance cycling fascinates me.

There are two main long distance cycling national organizations: UMCA the ultra marathon cycling association, and RUSA randonneurs USA. The former focuses on long distance cycling races, the latter on long distance cycling events. I use the word events because they are not races. The results are posted alphabetically not by finish time. There are time limits, both upper and lower limits. You cannot ride too fast, nor to slow in order to be successful. And yet, while the results are posted alphabetically, they also post the finish time. That's where the competition element comes in. Now you can compare yourself with all of the other finishers.

In the literature of RUSA they specifically state that it is not a competition against other riders, and yet in a recent quarterly newsletter they printed a ride report, essentially a rider's narrative of the event, in which the author made sure we knew he finished first. And the most famous event on the randonneuring calendar is the Paris-Brest-Paris ride. 1200 kilometers (744 miles) of cycling fun. Believe it or not, while the alphabetical rule applies here, there is a special award for the fastest finishers. Imagine that. Doesn't that make it a race?

What is my point? Just this: for reasons known only to God and certain enlightened anthropologists men need to compete against one another, not just the elements and themselves. And this drives me crazy. I still hate losing, and haven't found that one thing in which I can be a winner. There is always someone taller, richer, faster, stronger, happier, smarter (and in the words of the king of Siam) et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I have a friend who is a missionary in Viet Nam; he is saving the world. I have friends who are successful pastors and they are saving their worlds. I have friends who own businesses, or work for the government, or have multiple college degrees. I have friends who hold racing licenses and race bicycles successfully and one who even races motorcycles at a semi-pro level. Daydreaming you're Admiral Byrd seems pretty lame against all that.

I don't really have a good closing to this post. I wish I did - some real pithy way to say that none of this matters and I'm not bothered by the disparity between the success of others, and my apparent underachieving. But I can't come up with anything at the moment.

Here's my big finish: The key to riding long distance is to break it up into small distances. Just focus on riding to the next control. By doing that repeatedly, at some point the distance will be covered, and you will have finished successfully. You may not win (of course they say it's not a race but we know better), but you can at least finish. Of course, make sure to finish within the time limit.