2022 mileage: 3815.0

After taking yesterday off, I got back to it today on this holiday (which is also my daughter's birthday—the picture below shows her in costume on her first birthday) with an indoor ride,   

as it's been a rainy day here in Ann Arbor. I rode 37.1 virtual miles in 2:55, while watching one of my all-time favorite movies, The Sound of Music.

When we were in Switzerland this July, my son John and I mimicked the well-known opening of the film by Julie Andrews. However, as a friend accurately noted, "Julie does it better."

Trailer for The Sound of Music

102nd outdoor ride of 2022 - Saturday, 10/29/2022

2022 mileage: 3777.9

After taking yesterday off because I was just inexplicably tired out, I planned to do a long ride this morning (30-plus miles for the round trip to Matthei Botanical Gardens). However, when I left at 8:00, it was quite miserable ... a heavy blanket of fog was blanketing all of southeast Michigan, and the moist air combined with the 34° temperature to make me quite aware that summer is now long gone.

By a few miles into the ride, even though it's supposed to reach 60° and be sunny this afternoon, I had changed my plans from that long ride to doing my routine route (and just trying to survive it). Going around the Platt/Packard Square, then (13.6 miles in 1:53), I was absolutely delighted to finish and return home.

Relive video of today's ride

101st outdoor ride of 2022 - Thursday, 10/27/2022

2022 mileage: 3764.3

Today, I lazily allowed myself to do an extremely lightweight ride, just doing a route that I'm calling the Briarwood loop, for 5.6 miles in 45 minutes. About the only good things were (1) nice weather—brightly sunny and 50°, and (2) having aired my tires up before the ride, I was good, and proved that that was, indeed, the problem yesterday. It was the front left tire that was way down, however—the same one that I changed a couple of weeks ago—so I'm suspecting that the valve stem has some problem that's allowing it to release air. I'll obviously have to keep a close eye on it.

Relive video of today's ride

100th outdoor ride of 2022 - Wednesday, 10/26/2022

 2022 mileage: 3758.7

First of all, I am highly disappointed at myself, to have only reached the 100th outdoor ride of this year 299 days into the year. I like to think of myself as riding 6 days a week, but THAT clearly isn't happening!

And then, today's ride was also a challenging and frustrating one, for a couple of reasons.  The first was mechanical. I neglected to check the air pressure in my tires before starting out, and I think they must have been considerably sub-optimal, as pedaling was hard, and my ride was super slow (by far the slowest I've ever ridden that route—13.6 miles in 2:07, whereas it usually takes me roughly 1:40-1:45). I'm going to try diligently to avoid repeating that error in the future.

The second thing was the weather. It was gloomy, with unbroken cloud cover, and super moist. Whereas I was able to avoid the rain most of the way, but a light rain began in the last several miles, turning my glasses into a prism.

Relive video of today's ride

99th outdoor ride of 2022 - Monday, 10/24/2022

2022 mileage: 3745.1

Our amazing weather continues! I didn't take advantage of the bright sunshine and low seventies conditions yesterday afternoon, as we continued our annual fall tradition of visiting the Plymouth Orchard.

But I did get in a nice ride this afternoon, leaving at 2:30 in 74° partial sunshine, and riding the Platt/Packard Square (13.6 miles) in 1:48.

A cute moment occurred about 8 miles into the ride when I passed a group of five kids who appeared to be about 4 or 5 years old. They all looked at me with wide-eyed surprise, and then one girl (evidently the alpha female of the group) turned to the others, crossed her arms, nodded, and told them authoritatively, "It's both a bike AND a wheelchair!"

As I neared home, I saw this colorful shrub along Eisenhower Blvd. in front of Briarwood Mall.

                                                      Relive video of today's ride

98th outdoor ride of 2022 - Saturday, 10/22/2022

2022 mileage: 3731.5

Taking advantage of our absolutely SPECTACULAR weather today, I round a round trip to the Matthei Botanical Gardens for only the third time all this year (previously on April 23 and September 10). However, I chose a shorter, more direct route (instead of going down to Textile and through Marsh Park as I usually do), and this lessened my mileage significantly. I finished with a total of 21.8 miles in 3:02, nearly 10 miles shorter than my usual ride there.

I rode in glorious bright sunshine the whole way, 63° when I began at 8:30, and up to 68° at the end.

Relive video of today's ride

97th outdoor ride of 2022 - Friday, 10/21/2022

2022 mileage: 3709.7

After two days of having to ride inside due to the scummy weather we were experiencing (cold, windy, and rainy), it felt glorious to be able to ride outside today. Even though I was battling the wind, it felt heavenly to enjoy the bright sunshine, and the surprising, unseasonable warmth (63° when I started at 2:00, up to 68° at the end).

Accordingly, I rode the Platt/Packard Square (13.5 miles) in 1:47.

Relive video of today's ride

Thursday, 10/20/2022

2022 mileage: 3696.2

Today, we are again enjoying badly suboptimal weather conditions—right now, at 2:15 p.m., it's 36°, raining, and breezy. So again today I climbed on our stationary bike and rode inside. A couple of weeks ago, on the Detroit sports-talk radio station I listen to (97.1, The Ticket), I heard much praise heaped on the Adam Sandler and Burt Reynolds football-based comedy movie "The Longest Yard." So I watched it during my ride today. However, it didn't do much for me, until the last few minutes, which were good. This gave me a ride of 25.2 virtual miles, in 1:47.

Trailer for The Longest Yard

Wednesday, 10/19/2022

 2022 mileage: 3671.0

I had really hoped and planned to ride outside today. But as it is, once more, cold (low forties) and very windy, with intermittent rain, I didn't want to risk another miserable ride, like Monday. So instead, I'm climbed on the stationary bike and rode while watching the movie For Love of the Game, which stars Kevin Costner as star pitcher Billy Chapel of the DETROIT TIGERS! (I had watched roughly the first half of it back on September 26. Today, though, I watched the entire superb movie, for a ride of 36.0 miles in 2:29.

Trailer for For Love of the Game

Tuesday, 10/18/2022

2022 mileage: 3635.0

Yesterday’s ride in a cold windy rain was the most miserable one I’ve ever experienced. I was going to try to ride today, but I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. My doctor is very impressed with my riding, and when I explained to him about yesterday, and how I was wavering in my commitment today (on another cool, windy day), he encouraged me to take a day off, saying, “In light of all you do, a day off here and there certainly isn’t going to hurt any.’ So I’m going with that.

96th outdoor ride of 2022 - Monday, 10/17/22

2022 mileage: 3635.0

Today I went out at 11:15 and rode in about the most MISERABLE riding conditions I've ever experienced. Even when I rode on a 17° day a few winters ago, it was more tolerable than this. It was cloudy, quite breezy (16 mph), and cool (42° when I started, falling to 41° during the ride), with rain impending.

It was a grave error in judgment for me to ride without gloves, as my hands were stinging before very long at all. And that "impending" rain started up before long (thankfully, however, it remained fairly light most of the time). All in all, I returned home fairly wet and severely chilled—very glad to heat up some lunch and crawl into my recliner and throw a blanket over me.

These conditions persuaded me to alter my plans and settle for a fairly brief ride—a round trip to Marsh Park (10.2 miles, in 1:15).

Relive video of today's ride

95th outdoor ride of 2022 - Saturday, 10/15/2022

2022 mileage: 3624.8

Michigan (ranked #5 nationally) plays Penn State (ranked #10 nationally) in a high-stakes battle at noon today. Accordingly, wanting to get my ride done early enough to get home for the pre-game show, I left at 8:45 (wearing gloves for the first time since March!) in 42° sunshine (that climbed to 46° during my ride) and went around the Packard/Platt Square (13.5 miles) in 1:46, soaking in the fall color and anticipating the big game to come.

Relive video of today's ride

94th outdoor ride of 2022

2022 mileage: 3611.3

My cousin James Harris ("JimboCousin") is in Michigan this weekend for his annual tradition of taking in s Michigan football game with his brothers (Dave and Rich). They will be at the big contest tomorrow between Michigan and Penn State.

My brother JB and I had made plans to meet him for lunch today at Outback Steakhouse, a little over a mile from our home. As it was a beautiful sunny day (though with a fall feel to the air, at 48°), I decided to ride over to meet them.

Jimbo arrived with his sons David and Rich, named after his brothers), a couple of grandsons, and a friend. And we had a wonderful meal together, visiting animatedly about Michigan football.

After the lunch, I rode home—s less direct route than I had taken there, but also a less challenging one than I had at one point considered. This gave me a modest total of 3.5 miles in 31 minutes.

Relive video of today's ride (I) - Outbound

Relive video of today's ride (II) - Return home

93rd outdoor ride of 2022 -

 2022 mileage: 3607.8

Today I waited until 1:00, and then went out and rode the Platt/Packard Square (13.7 miles) in 1:43, beating the rain which is headed our way. During my ride, however, the temperature was enjoyable (67° at the start, and rising to 69° during the ride), beneath cloudy skies.

Relive video of today's ride

92nd outdoor ride of 2022 - Tuesday, 10/11/2022

2022 mileage: 3594.1

My weak month for riding continues. Today I was coming off another three-day break: I took Saturday off in order to have a more relaxed day, watching football; Sunday I had a long morning church, leaving home before 7:00 and not getting home until 12:30 after working my new job as Audio Streaming Technician, and then Michelle and I went to Danny's 1:00 soccer game. By the time it was dome, I was all in, and chose not to try and ride. Then yesterday, we had a long and late day, going to an 8 p.m. concert in Detroit (Michael Buble), so in order to be able to stay awake for that, I took a good nap during the day.

Today, then, it was good to get back to it, on a quintessential Fall day—mostly sunny, cool (51° at 9:00 a.m., up to 63° by the end of my ride) and with color emerging quite nicely.

I rode the Packard/Platt Square (13.5 miles in 1:35).

Relive video of today's ride

91st outdoor ride of 2022 - Friday, 10/7/2022

2022 mileage: 3580.6

The weak start to the month in riding that I commented on Wednesday continues—I didn't ride yesterday, as I had to take the trike to Wheels in Motion for brake issues. Today, though, I went out at 9:30 a.m. and rode the Platt/Packard Square (13.6 miles) in 1:38.

I experienced a dramatic moment as I rode north on the Platt Road Greenway, about a mile before I got to Lillie Park. Two deer bounded out of the subdivision on the right (east)—roughly two hundred yards ahead of me—and, hitting nothing, they leaped across Platt Rd. and continued on their way. It all happened much too quickly for me to be able to get a picture, of course.

Temperatures here in Ann Arbor have remained amazingly summer-like, hanging on into the 70s for most of this week. But last night, it just fell off a cliff, and my ride this morning featured breezy and chilly 45° conditions. It made this hoodie feel just right! I got it a few years ago, and love the way it proclaims me a Lifetime Member of Team Allen.

Relive video of today's ride

90th outdoor ride of 2022 - Wednesday, 10/5/2022

2022 mileage: 3567.0

This has been a dismal week for my cycling. I took Sunday off, as I frequently do. But then Monday, I was cold and exhausted, and just read and napped instead of riding. Yesterday I had to livestream a funeral from church (a responsibility of my new part-time job there, as Audio Streaming Technician) at 11 a.m., and by the time I was done, I was inexplicably beat, and so took a third straight day off.

Today, then, I was awfully glad to get back to it, and rode the Packard/Platt Square (13.6 miles) in a slow time of 1:58. Additionally, my brakes went out, as they did a few weeks ago during a Sunday afternoon ride with Christy, so once I discovered that, I made my way carefully home, and made plans to take the trike in to have the brakes adjusted. (Fortunately, as this is not a trike-specific issue, I don't need to go the roughly 40 miles to the dealer in Dearborn, but can just take it to Wheels in Motion, the bike shop here in town.)

Relive video of today's ride

89th outdoor ride of 2022 - Saturday, 10/1/2022

2022 mileage: 3553.4

Yesterday I was unable to ride due to tire problems. At the end of my ride Thursday, I got a flat, so yesterday morning I went out at 9:14 and executed my first-ever totally solo tube change. It seemed to go smoothly, and I was congratulating myself on getting this done.

Then I went back out at noon, and was highly disheartened to see that it was flat again. Initially, I was tempted to let it go for the day, but I quickly realized I'd need to deal with it at some point anyway, so I decided to "man up" and get it done. Then when I went back to check on it around 4:15, everything was still in good shape.

I was glad to be able to be back to it today, enjoying an utterly splendid ride with my daughter Christy, who came over at 8:00 a.m. Even though we kept it modest, only riding a round trip to Marsh Park, the beautiful weather (45° and sunny) and the peace of the early morning combined to make it a memorable experience. We got this photo before starting off, while we were still fresh and energetic.

Then we got this photo in front of the pond we passed, about 4 miles into the ride.

Relive video of today's ride