2022 mileage: 731.5
This morning I rode 25.0 (virtual) miles in 1:39, while enjoying a virtual ride in the hills and sunshine of Norway. On the wall beside our stationary cycle resides this collage of pictures from our family trip to London and Norway in July 2019 so I am flooded with happy memories while I ride.
2022 mileage: 706.5
I am very excited to be going today to have lunch with my daughter and my vrandchildren at their home in Dexter, and then after that to go to Danny's 1:00 basketball game. Because of these plans, I needed to ride early, so I began just past 7:30 and rode 23.2 miles in 1:34, while watching a documentary on the Apollo phase of the U.S. space program that I found on YouTube.
2022 mileage: 683.3
This morning, I did one of my biggest rides ever—45.2 miles (in 3:07) while watching the 1997 movie Titanic.
2022 mileage: 638.1
This morning, I did a brisk ride of 36.7 miles in 2:50 while watching My Fair Lady.
2022 mileage: 601.4
Yesterday I took the day off, spending it on music instead. Today, our cold persists, with today's high being 16°. But I gladly climbed on our stationary bike this afternoon, and rode 38.3 miles in 2:56 while watching The Sound of Music, and was able to reach another mileage milestone for the year, too (600).
2022 mileage: 562.1
This morning I rode while watching the 1995 movie Mt. Holland's Opus, a perfect fit for me and immensely moving to me given it's strong emphasis on music. This gave me 30.0 miles, in 2:20.
2022 mileage: 531.2
Today I was happy to get my ride done early, beginning a little before 7:30 and riding 27.1 miles in 1;59 while watching The Notebook, the 2004 movie based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, an author whose writing I like very much.
2022 mileage: 504.1
After Googling "movies about bicycling," I learned of the 2017 movie The Racer, and watched it during my ride this morning that began just past 8:00. Much of the movie was in French, but the English subtitles made it work out just fine, and this gave me a ride of 22.0 miles in 1:32, putting me over another mileage milestone for the year (500).
2022 mileage: 482.1
Today has been kind of a goofy, unpromising day for riding, and as a result, I've decided to give myself the day off. Following her band concert last night, Michelle decided to sleep in and begin her day later than usual. While this in itself would not have prevented my riding, it did begin a chain of events, including late completion of a number of errands I had to do, and a late start to the ride (only shortly before noon). Then, just a few minutes into it, my phone rang, and it was Michelle asking me to locate some health items she wanted me to bring to help Christy, who is not feeling well. At that point, I got the hint that it was not meant to be a riding day for me. And as I have plenty of other ventures clamoring for my time, I am not at all troubled by this.
2022 mileage: 482.1
I had hoped I might be able to squeeze in an outdoor ride today. But our winter cold remains firmly fixed in place (at 3 p.m. it is 19*), so I thankfully climbed back on our stationary cycle and rode 90 minutes (23.2 miles) in virtual Norwegian sunshine..
2022 mileage: 458.9
I am hoping I can work in at least one outside ride this month. However today was not the day, as our high temperature occurred early this morning, and it has been falling all day. (Currenly, at 1:50, i5's 36°.
I gladly climbed on the stationary bike and rode on sunny, hilly round around Lake Garda, Italy, for a ride of 30.0 miles in 2:06.
2022 mileage: 428.9
At the end of March 1978, I went on a long road trip with three friends from our St. Olaf College (in Minnesota) down to Arizona's Grand Canyon. On Easter Sunday (March 26) we hiked from the South Rim of the Canyon down the Kaibab Trail, to the Colorado River, and then climbed back out the same day. (Ah, the energy of youth!) This was just a couple of weeks past my 21st birthday, and as this picture shows, not only was I much younger then, but much thinner, too.
i always do my rides on the stationary bike while watching either a movie, or a virtual bike ride that someone has posted on YouTube. Today, however, I found a video that YouTube described as a "Virtual run to River down South Kaibab Trail" ... the exact route we took in 1978! It was tremendously enjoyable to revisit this trail. I rode while watching this, and while after nearly 44 years my memories of specific views or checkpoints is gone, I did remember the numerous switchbacks, with their hairpin turns.
Though the video is described as a run, and a slow jog seemed evident much of the time, roughly half was what I would be more apt to describe as a brisk hike. This was good, though -- the trail is quite uneven, and the thought of tripping, and falling (over the edge, and down ...) was quite unnerving. Also, the video shows the easy part—the descent—but not the ascent. I'm guessing he did NOT run back up and out.
2022 mileage: 405.3
This afternoon, I took it easy, and just rode a single lap virtual ride around the circumference of Mackinac Island. This gave me 13.8 miles in 58 minutes -- considerably more virtual mileage than the actual mileage around the island (8.2), due to the speed and intensity of my riding.
2022 mileage: 391.5
I climbed on the stationary bike this morning and rode exactly 2 hours (26.0 miles), doing a virtual ride in New Zealsnd. The country's renowned and iconic mountains (which provided so much of the scenery for the movies in The Lord of the Rings series) were visible on the horizon, but the route of the ride was on a flat, broad highway that ran alongside a large body of water (it seemed to be a lengthy river) The ride itself was not challenging, and I enjoyed seeing the bright blue sky arching over me.
2022 mileage: 365.5
This morning, I did a virtual ride on western Norway's famous "serpentine" road, the Trollstigen ("Troll's Ladder"). We enjoyed it during an excursion on a family trip we took to London and Norway in July 2019. Five of us went—Michelle and I, my brother and sister-in-law John and Darlene, and my sister Marianne. The excursion, "Norway in a Nutshell," was on Thursday, July 25, 2019.
Today's virtual ride had me climbing the road, whereas on our excursion, we were coming the other way, descending. On that occasion, I'm glad we were in a bus rather than on cycles! I took this picture as we began our descent.
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The video was short enough (a bit under 50 minutes) that i did it twice, for a total ride of 22.7 miles in 1:42.
2022 mileage: 342.8
Today, I was a lazybones, and settled for an hour ride (13.5 miles), while doing a virtual ride in Rome.
2022 mileage: 329.3
Following on yesterday's movie, I found another one featuring Jack Reacher (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back) today, and it gave me a ride of 25.0 miles in 1:56.
2022 mileage: 304.3
I have read quite a few novels by Lee Child (having been introduced to them by my brother)—they are action-oriented thrillers, grounded in legal and military backgrounds. They also feature a character named Reacher, and today I rode watching the movie Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise. This gave me a ride of 25.7 miles (putting me over a new mileage milestone for the still-young year, 300) in 2:03.
2022 mileage: 278.6
Today, wanting to enjoy at least virtual sunshine somewhere, I rode to a video of a virtual ride in California. The blue sky lifted my spirit, as I rode south along a largely coastal highway, so that the Pacific lay on my right most of the time (although there were a few inland stretches). I did an 83-minute ride (20.1 miles).
2022 mileage: 258.5
Did just a tiny short ride today. I was unable to ride until tonight, and then, rather than push myself, I just took it easy. In a few weeks, at the end of March, Michelle and I going for a few days vacation in Orange Beach, Alabama, right on the Gulf of Mexico. I thought I'd see if there were any virtual bike rides from Orange Beach available on YouTube, and voila! It was only a short video, which helped cause me to keep the ride short, but it was fun to look ahead to the warmth and sunshine we'll get to experience then. I only rode for 5.4 miles (25 minutes) -- but I tell myself that this was better than nothing.
2022 mileage: 253.1
I didn't ride yesterday, as Michelle's father turned 80 on Friday, and we went to celebrate this big milestone birthday with her parents at their home (a little over an hour from us). Today I was glad to get back on it, and rode while watching a video of a virtual ride in Maine. I have to say, however, that it was a bit disappointing. While I had hoped that much of it would follow the coast and give me a scenic ride, instead almost all of it was landlocked, largely in or between small towns, and I only got 2 brief glimpses of the Atlantic. Still, I was glad to get in a ride, doing 21.0 miles in 1:25.
2022 mileage: 232.1
This morning I was kind of crunched for time, sandwiched between an early morning dog care appointment for my daughter, and an early afternoon appointment for oral surgery (extraction of a badly abscessed tooth), so I chose to ride while watching a shorter, but extremely appealing movie‚The Greatest Showman. This gave me a brisk ride of 22.4 miles, in 1:37.
2022 mileage: 209.7
Today I rode while watching The Music Man. While this 1962 film is, of course, a bit dated, it had been a while since I had seen it, and I had forgotten just what a superb overall production it is. Many of the individual pieces are absolute masterpieces of composition, arranging, and choreography. While this movie was considerably shorter than yesterday's viewing of Gone With the Wind, it still gave me a ride of 33.2 miles in 2:32, and combined with yesterday's big ride, it helped me to achieve another milestone for the young year -- 200, a level I didn't reach last year until January 13.
2022 mileage: 176.5
Today I adopted the motto "Go big or go home" for my ride (even though, of course, I was actually staying home anyway to ride on our stationary bike), and rode while watching the big sprawling 1940 epic Gone With the Wind. It was a long ride, but glad to be inside, I just kept pushing, for my longest ride yet—51.7 miles in 3::49.
I have to say, too, that I tried to watch with understanding (but not sympathy) to see how Southern culture, centered around the monstrous wickedness of slavery, could possible be glorified and called "noble" ... but I was completely unable to understand this in any way whatsoever.
2022 mileage: 124.8
Today I finished up the final of 75 minutes of Camelot that I began yesterday but did not finish. Then, wanting to ride 30 miles, I listened to the radio for a while in order to complete a ride of 30.2 miles in 2:08.
2022 mileage: 94.6
This morning, I was especially glad for our stationary cycle. I rolled out of bed at 5:13, and after practicing the piano (with the earphones on, of course), I came out to the living room and flipped on the TV, to hear the weather person in Detroit say, "Well, Ann Arbor is the loneliest number at this hour: 1°." Even though by this hour (10:30), it's heated up to 17°, I'm glad I could ride indoors.
I watched the (1967) musical Camelot during my ride, and settled for just the first 1:35 of it, which gave me a ride of 22.7 miles.
2022 mileage: 71.9
This afternoon, I rode while watching one of my favorite musicals—My Fair Lady. This gave me a ride of 42.3 miles in 2:51.
Also, I've updated the following graph with the data from last year.
2022 mileage: 4651.2 On this final day of 2022, I rode 27.6 virtual miles in 2 hours even early this afternoon, while watching Star Wars: ...
