Come out to Durham Saturday night, July 18th and join me and other riders participating in the “Bull Moon Ride”.
The ride is a low speed night time ramble through downtown Durham. It’s a fund raiser for a great cause, the Habitat for Humanity of Durham. There are two options:
8 mile route
17 mile route.
Pace is only 12 mph or SLOWER. The ride supported with rest stops and escorted by Durham County Sheriffs.
And it’s at night, how much cooler can that be!
It starts and ends at the DBAP.
You will need:
I was looking at the objects in this picture and making a connection I hadn’t made before. What you see is the AV system we have been using at our house for several years. Recently, I added the labels as my wife continuously has problems getting it to work.
Despite setting up the excellent Harmony remote control, there simply are circumstances where one of the devices does not turn on or switch as expected. And then my wife cannot watch TV without my help. The labels match the names the remote use when you walk through a sequence of questions while it tries to get the components switched and turned on as needed. I am not making fun of my wife here. I am making fun of the arcane interfaces a lot of modern technology uses. My wife has a degree in English and a Masters in Social work. She is no dummy.
However, when she wanted an iPhone, I admit I was concerned she would never be able to use it. I thought she’d be stuck out on the road somewhere with a broken car and not able to call me for help. Boy was I wrong. You see, despite the rich features and technological complexities of an iPhone, the interface makes it incredibly easy to use.
At first, my wife wanted to read the manual to learn how to use her new gizmo. I told her to just play with it. Of course, she had no problem mastering the device and uses nearly every feature. She uses the bluetooth when she’s in her car to take calls. She uses the camera extensively and emails photos to her friends. She uses apps she has downloaded from the app store. She loves the visual voice mail, and I could go on. All these features, she has used without having to read boring manuals or sit down with an ‘expert’ for a learning session. She just sorted it out. What I realized is that technology shouldn’t require a boffin to use. It just needs some serious thought on how to allow real people to interact with it. Anyone can make feature rich smartphones. But it seems Apple is the only company that can make them work organically.
You don’t have to be a cycling fan to appreciate how Lance Armstrong is using social media to get his message out.A relative newcomer to twitter, Lance has nearly 900K followers.He is only following 73 but nonetheless, he engages in daily conversions with his followers.His responses can vary from answers to simple questions about the protocols of bike racing: posted by those unfamiliar with the sport: to acknowledgements of a mutual appreciation for a rock band or restaurant.
He also posts photos regularly, even sometimes from the bike, and he is now publishing a video cast before each stage of the Giro d’Italia ( A major three stage bike race currently taking place in Italy). Things I have learned from following his twitter stream:
What the metal plate and screws in his right shoulder look like.
He likes to rib his teammates, especially Chris Horner, who he gave the nickname ‘redneck’.
What this has done is humanize a big celebrity, and bypassed a lot of the mainstream media in the process. We now get to see an unfiltered view if this amazing man. The way he has used social media is a good example of how to do it right, and a model for others to follow.
This afternoon, a storm moved through the area, and part of the spectacle were some great rainbows. As I noticed the reports of the rainbows from those I follow on twitter, I did a quick search on twitter and easily yielded 15 local captures of the rainbows. Below are the twitter users and their captures. As Spock would say, Fascinating!
It started from a twitter post from beebo_wallace:“So I’ve decided that I am going to go to the local running track, mark off 200 meters and then compare my results to Bolt’s 19.30 #Olympics about 24 hours ago from web “
Then I suggested we turn it into a twitter event, the twitter 200m.
I think we all realise how extraordinary Usain Bolt’s world record of 19.30 for the 200m is, but we are going to bring this remarkable speed into perspective by running the distances ourselves.
How fast will it take an average person to run 200 meters?
The beauty of the undertaking is it doesn’t require any training. Anybody of sound body should be able to run at least 200m. Just find a local running track, and run half a lap*
Record your time with a stopwatch and share it with me. I’ll post the results of anyone who wishes to make their results public. This is not really a race amongst us; this is a race against one of the most accomplished sprinters of our time. For most of us, the time will likely be at least TWICE what Bolt required to cover the distance.
I am going to do the distance twice.
The first time, I will run the 200 meters as fast as I can, and time my run.
The second time, I am going to stop when 19.3 seconds has been reached, so I can see how far behind I’d have been had I shared the track with Mr. Bolt.
*Many middle school and some high school tracks are still marked in yards and not meters. However, the difference between 220 yards (half an English units track) and 200 meters is small, so don’t worry which distance your local track is calibrated in.
Quick update. I have been managing to still get in approximately 100 miles a week on the bike. There have been some weeks and weekends where the weather has made riding tough. A couple of weekends back, one of my daughters was involved with a service project to rebuild a trail at the Hemlock Bluffs park in Cary. I needed to take her there from Chapel Hill, and planned to take my bike and ride the roads around Jordan Lake. However, as luck would have it, that day came with 30 MPH winds, and I chose to run instead. I managed to run one some of Raleigh’s greenways whilst my daughter toiled with wheelbarrow and wood chips.
I also got to run on the Reedy Creek trail, which is the one that has the bridge over the Raleigh beltline. I was glad for the chainlink fence on the bridge as I might not have run across in the fierce winds fearing I’d fall off on to the cars below!
I have learned from the Chapel Hill Cycling group as well as from the Tri-Cyclists web site that the Meadowmont Criterium will no longer be held. This is truly a shame. Having been held for the last 5 years, this exciting race had become a tradition in the early racing season. The recent addition of speed bumps on some of the streets that made up the course is the reason the race can no longer be held.
Unlike a lot of flat, boring races held in parking lots, the Criterium was held on the streets of the Meadowmont community in Chapel Hill. The course was challenging and had lots of features.
The start/finish straight was on a downhill so the spectators saw the bikes speed by, nearly at maximum speed. At the end of this straight, there was sweeping downhill turn that lead onto a wide boulevard. Because of the width of the turn, some competitors could take the turn without touching the brakes. It was a test of skill and bravery. There were two significant climbs on the course as well. Some sharp right angle turns and a weaving section that connected the two climbs. Riders were challenged over the entire length of the course, and the climbs served to burn the legs, and thin out the pack for the final lap of the race. I participated in the race one year, as a beginner Cat 5 racer. I am glad I got a crack at this unique event.
I don’t know how the organizers pulled it off in the first place; Entire streets in the neighborhood would be closed to vehicles during the various classes of races, which lasted the better part of the day. But for fives years, they managed to pull it off, and the race gained a respectable reputation. It is a shame that ‘road furniture’ such as speed bumps, are even required in a neighborhood full of children, walkers and joggers, but the residents of the community must have felt they were necessary. I will miss this race, as I am sure some of my fellow cyclists will as well.
I’m getting a lot of training done right now. I rode Saturday, Sunday and now today, for a total of 130 miles over the three days.
Today, I knew I had to do some work starting at 7PM, and it was going to take a while, so I took some time mid day and got out on the bike. The weather was perfect; I was able to ride in shorts and short sleeves. However, it *was* windy, and I nearly got blown off the bike a couple of times, especially heading back towards Carrboro on old NC86. I saw a lot of other riders out there today, taking advantage of the good sunny weather. I even came upon what appeared to be the UNC cycling team heading out on a group ride as I rode in on Cameron. I tried a new pre-ride ‘energy food’ today. Cocoa flavored marshmallow Peeps. Mmmm, yummy!
In preparation for riding up Mt. Mitchell, I need to do increasingly longer rides. I also need to do more rides in groups. It’s hard sometimes to go out solo and ride for 3 hours or more on the bike. Fortunately, there are often organized rides of 60 – 100 miles in length each weekend. This Saturday, I participated in the Capitol Cycling Clubs “Ride for the Rock” a charity event to raise money for brain injury research. It was a sunny, albeit windy day, with gust in the 20’s
Approximately 100 cyclists turned up, and fortunately for me, there were plenty in my current state of fitness. The Mt. Mitchell ride is going to have a LOT more riders, and brushing up on my group riding skills is going to be important. It was especially important Saturday; the course made its way on roads around Jordan Lake. The headwinds were brutal.
When riding in a pack of cyclists, each rider takes a turn at the front of the pack, and all the other riders do their best to tuck in behind them. When the lead rider has had enough, they pull off the front and gradually drift to the back of the pack. There is no set point in how long each cyclist ‘takes a pull’ at the front. It is important not to bear the headwinds for so long they tire and then are dropped from the pack.
I was able to take several pulls in my group. And I was glad for the shelter from the wind when I would slip back into the pack for a brief rest.
Saturdays ride met all my goals I had set out. I finished the ride in 3 hours and 15 minutes, I rode in a well organized pack, and I also got to ride in some tough winds and a few challenging climbs. Now, I just need to convince my legs I need to go out again TODAY!
Come out to Durham Saturday night, July 18th and join me and other riders participating in the “Bull Moon Ride”.
