Walkabout

I was reading my regular bike blogs and found an interesting site on Bike Commuting in Columbus. The site is called Walk Score - How walkable is your house? and the idea is to enter your home address and it locates facilities within walking distance. Your neighborhood gets a score out of 100 on how accessible places are by walking. The Griffith area in Owensboro rated 68 out of 100. Pretty good. There are grocery stores, drug stores, gyms, schools, the library, gas stations, hardware stores, etc all close by, There are also restaurants, but they are mostly pizza places and Starbucks (IMHO part of the evil empire). This could also be used for biking, but the radius should be expanded because biking is more efficient and quicker than walking.

Spirit of Racine Sprint Triathlon

Saturday was a beautiful day for a triathlon. I went
to SE Wisconsin for another sprint triathlon. It was a
comfortable 68 degrees, with little humidity, and a
lovely blue sky. Everything was perfect...right up
until we entered the crystal blue Lake Michigan
waters.

To say there were waves is an understatement. It was
very choppy and I couldn't get any rhythm going. Many
people even had to hang onto the boats and boogie
boards to catch their breath. Luckily, I didn't do
that, but I probably could've a few times. When I
finally got out of the water, I hopped on the bike for
a 20k ride on a fast, flat course. That was so much
fun. I had a nice pace going and even hit 20mph on the
way back. After that, the 5k run went on a bike path
along the beach and past the Racine zoo.

I managed to improve my times a bit - finished in 2
hours 5 minutes. I think some of that was due to my
family cheering section, from my parents, nieces and
nephew and sister and brother-in-law. I was exhausted
by the end, but after a nap, I am ready for the next
one, as long as it isn't so windy.

This weekend's Mileage: 12.4 miles
2007 Year to Date Mileage: 185.7 miles

Went for a quick ride after work. It's been a heck of a week - a dead server, that hasn't been revived yet and network traffic that is affecting IP Phones and a whole department that relies on them. Anyways, I got some relief tonight and then some. I set out for a quick ride around the neighborhood and a little bit of hill training in the city. I have another triathlon next weekend and need to keep my bike legs ready. However, I got a surprise when it started to sprinkle halfway through my ride. It felt good, though.

In other biking news, News25 and Gerling Law in Evansville are sponsoring free bike helmets for kids under 16 years old.

Free Bicycle Helmets

Dates of giveaways are:

July 12 and 13 from 2-6pm,
July 14 8am – 12noon.

Helmets are to be given away at Gerling Law Offices 519 Main Street, Evansville, Indiana.

"Parents must bring children to receive helmets so that all children can be fitted properly.”

Today's Mileage: 5.6 miles

2007 Year to Date Mileage: 173.3 miles

Ride with Friends

Went for a ride with a couple of friends today. We started at the east trail head of the Horse Fork branch trail at Yewell-Heritage Park. We rode west onto the South Trail all the way to Frederica Street. We turned around and rewarded ourselves with a "Cool Treat" at the Dairy Queen on New Hartford Road. Luckily, the Horse Fork trail goes right past it! It was a little warm, but their was some cloud cover which kept the temp down to the high 80's.

Today's Mileage: 10 miles

2007 Year to Date Mileage: 167.7 miles

Hills, Hills Hills

Trying to get back into training mode. My next tri is Spirit of Racine sprint tri, 21 July 2007. On the last few rides, I really faded fast on the hills. So, I'm trying to incorporate more hill/interval training to make sure my legs can keep pushing up the hill. I'm also trying to push myself more to keep my average speed at least above 15 mph. I rode my normal route down Griffith to Shifley Park and got on the West Owensboro trail of the Greenbelt. On the way back I did circle routes up and down the short hills on side streets between Parrish Avenue and Griffith. Not much of a hill workout, but in the city it'll do until I can get out to the rolling hills of the county.

Today's Mileage: 10.5 miles

2007 Year to Date Mileage: 157.7 miles