MoMiles - Road to 3,000

With all the excitement of the April 30^th marker, the 3,000 mile marker came and went with a boring thump.  Mo and I were within 5 miles of each other on May 13^th at about 2,900 miles.  I announced to Mo publicly that I would be riding in and out both Monday and Tuesday, and cross 3,000 miles on Wednesday morning, the 15^th on my way into work.

As predicted, Mo did a round trip on Monday, but took the whole day off on Tuesday.  I was a bit anxious all day Tuesday that a big number would pop up for Mo at the end of the day, but nothing showed up.  When I woke on Wednesday, still no Tuesday data from Mo.  So my ride to work on Wednesday was uneventful and I won the title with no competition.

This is a good thing as I really did not want to go hard the week of the 13^th.  More on this later …

Liar's Dice - Confirmation and What's Next

The world is good.  Mo conceded the April title with little fanfare.  My 18 mile effort last night caught everyone by surprise, and it sealed the deal.  Mo was a gentleman in his defeat, and I have been rubbing it in his face all morning none-the-less (I have very low self esteem and I take pleasure in other's failures).

Mo and I both agree that we are excited not to ride home this afternoon and are anxiously anticipating the Ferry commute across the Bay.

God only knows what antics will be in store for the next milestone.  Since we are both at 2600ish miles (I lead by 2 miles if anyone is counting), we are both riding a century this weekend (Mo claims to be doing extra) and we both did north of 800 miles in April, it appears that the next trophy will be the 3,000 mile marker. The only question is when?  Doing a little math in my head, watch for some more fireworks around May 10th.

Liar's Dice - April Culmination

Mo is a worthy opponent.  To no one's surprise, there were some fun schenanigans to end the Mo Miles April cumulative title.

I opted for the full ride home plus a little sum-sum and posted a 29 mile ride home to Strava this afternoon.  I posted a comment to Mo, "Uploaded 5.21pm: WD - 2,575.5 - Mo 2,572.3.  Your move, Mo" knowing full well that my 3 mile lead was only the beginning of the fun.

Mo responded at 7.01pm by posting the 9 mile ride that he did at 12.12pm.  This was a clear violation of the rules (the rules which are unwritten and being made up as we go along) posting a ride on tally day more than 60 minutes after the ride's completion.  He then almost immediately followed up with another download of a 10 mile ride that he started at 5.48pm (completely rule abiding).  

These two rides gave Mo a formidable lead  of 16 miles - 2,591.5 to 2,575.5 - with only five hours left in the day.  Furthermore, Amy was at work and I had no way to get on the bike as I was on Daddy duty.  

I made the executive decision to make a much-needed appointment to have my car serviced.  And I decided to drop the car at the dealership as soon as Amy got home from work.  I threw my bike in the back of the truck and waited patiently for Amy to return home.

At about 9.15pm, Amy returned home, I slapped her a high five and I ran out the door - lights, fluorescent jersey and iPod in hand.  From the dealership in San Rafael, I headed back home (4 miles), blew by the house and continued to Butterfield Drive.  This is the straightest and flattest route that I could think of - a two mile, one-way road, slightly uphill heading north and equally gentle slopping downward heading south.  Three laps of Butterfield, 4 miles each, and I had my 16 miles in the bag.  Another couple of miles and I was home in about an hour ten of riding and 18 total miles.10.52pm.  Up by 2 miles!!

I anxiously went to the computer to see if Mo had logged any additional miles since our few texts and emails earlier.  Nope. None.  I jumped in the shower and then sat down to my computer.  As I write this post, it is 11.40pm and I have to upload the ride data to Strava within 60 minutes of finishing the ride, 11.52.  I don't want to upload too early, just in case that Mo sees the rides, jumps on his bike, and gets the 2 miles in before midnight.

Wish me luck.  I will report the final results tomorrow.  

Mo, if you outsmart me on this one, you truly deserve the win. 

As of 11.51pm:

Side by Side Comparison

Cycling Running

ACTIVITY
Avg Rides / Week	11	10
Avg Distance / Week	208mi	199mi
Avg Time / Week	14hr 2m	13hr 33m

YEAR-TO-DATE
Distance	2,591.5mi	2,593.6mi
Time	175hr 25m	178hr 39m
Elev Gain	114,478ft	122,825ft
Rides	132	157

Liar's Dice - Update

As predicted, Mo turned a 4 mile bike ride getting his kids to school into a 12 mile jaunt around town.  10am update has Mo up by 26 miles for the day.  The ball is in my court.  Do I ride home (21 miles) and lose April?  Nope that would be silly.  Do I ferry home (6 miles), concede April but save my weary legs? That makes some sense - I neglected to mention that the first Century of the year is this weekend.  Do I add a few miles to the commute home to take the 6pm lead?  Maybe.  But if I do that, mo is certain to ride to the grocery store at 8pm to grab a few extra miles.  Let the game playing continue.  Catch up in the morning.

Liar's Dice

This mileage bet with Mo has taken a life of its own.  It is damn fun to compete with Mo, and even more fun to talk smack about it.  Some of the email chains are hilarious.

From Mo - "I signed up for (Death Ride). Gonna be painful and boring since I know no one who’s doing it. And I’m also going to OR at some point this summer. But I’m going to leave before my family does, and they’ll pick me up about 600 miles north of Sacramento to vacation. And for (Waves to Wine) I plan on riding Saturday only, but starting out with a pre Mt Tam assault before hand.  And if you believe any of those prior statements ...

On top of the 'total mileage for 2013' bet, we have also added a few new wrinkles.  We are also keeping track of who gets to each 1,000 mile marker and who leads on the last day of each month.  These middle markers create a fun 'game-within-the-game' of the jousting for the final days of each month.


For example, at the time of this publishing, the morning of the last day of April, Mo leads me by 13 miles.  Mo and I both know that my normal ride home - 21 miles - will get me the April title should he not ride at all today (Mo works from home and does not commute on Tuesdays).  Of course, there is no chance that I will take the Ferry home tonight, getting only 6 miles, and let Mo win April without a fight.  But knowing that I will take the lead this afternoon by riding all the way home, it is a given that Mo will do something to try to maintain his lead.

For the record, Mo won the January title and 1,000 mile mark (he invented the titles on the fly, without me even knowing that we were competing for these middle marks) and I have since won the February and March cumulative titles and the race to 2,000 miles. 

Again, Mo leads by 13 miles as of this morning.  My ride home is 21 miles.  So Mo will probably drop at least 10 random miles to maintain his April lead.   But maybe I will ride a bit farther than just my normal 21 miles home.  Maybe Mo will ride 15 miles to get himself a buffer, but I may do an extra 10 on my commute home in anticipation of the fact that I know Mo is watching.  Or maybe Mo will not ride at all (conceding the April victory to me unknowingly), but still make me ride home (or a little extra), just to rub it in (not likely).  Or maybe I will concede April without telling Mo (just to f&$k with him), take the Ferry, and hope that Mo does something crazy in anticipation of my doing a big ride home.

Good fun, Mo.

All right, stop whatcha doin', cuz I'm about to ruin, the image and the style that ya used to

My natural tendency is to get into the big ring and power up short little hills.  This minimizes the pain and time required to push the FatGuy up elevation.  But to prepare for long distances, I am focusing on gearing down, using the little ring, and just spinning up hills. 

With this in mind, I was poking along on my commute home when I got in a little bunny hopping action with three guys along Bridgeway.  I would pass them in the flats and they would catch me on a rise.  Then I would pass them on a downhill or the flats and repeat.  I committed to myself that I would let them go passed me for good on Camino Alto, northbound.  As I made the turn onto Camino Alto, ahead of the other three guys by a few hundred yards, Digital Underground took over my headphones. 

I was groovin' to 'Humpty Dance', spinning in my smallest gear.  Having forgotten about the guys behind me, I started singing out loud, another technique I use to calm down my pedaling, keep a steady pace, and not push too hard that I start panting.  At the perfectly opportune time, I was feelin' the beat and busted at the top of my lungs the lyric "I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom, I'm crazy" ... just as the guys were passing me on my left.  The lead guy did all he could to stop from laughing, but I managed to get a chuckle as they rode past.

Having provided my comic relief for the day, I continued on my merry way up and down Camino Alto.  Reaching the bottom, I caught up with the crew of three.  I got a triple thumbs up as I passed them for the last time. 

Mo Chronicles - Bunny Hopping

The bet with StravaMo has become a fun additive to my cycling.  We can each, on a daily basis, look at each other's stats and see who does what and who leads the bet.  As of Monday last week, I was comfortably 100+ miles up on Mo, and I was enjoying watching him try to catch up.  However, with my little Fender Destroyer incident on Wednesday, I had to take off a few days (two commutes and the FOG ride - probably 100 miles of riding) to recover.  Mo jumped at the opportunity to attack while I was down (Contador/Schleck?!?) and went for a few bonus rides - over 100 miles from Thursday through Sunday - and recorded his biggest week of miles (203 miles) in the last 52 weeks.  Well done, Mo.  ((You are still going to lose)).

Now for the fun part.  I have been meaning to buy a little trophy that Mo or I an keep on our office desk as a symbol of who leads the bet.  I suggested that the trophy needed to be relinquished on demand should the Strava data lead change.  The demand for the trophy could be made at any time, on any day, so long as the leader showed up in person to collect the goods.  So for all of January, that trophy would have been safely on my desk.  But Mo took the lead yesterday with his commute to work.  I took it back this morning as of about 7.30am when I logged in my commute.  If Mo rode to work today, however, he would take back the lead.  This bunny hopping should continue for a short while until either a) one of us is able to get a long ride in or b) one of us takes a little break.  It is for these situations that the trophy would be a  new facet to the bet.

My knees hurt too much for me to take on any big rides, so the window is still open for you, Mo.  Take the opportunity while it exists.  Kick me while I am down.  I won't hold it against you.  And it will only hurt you more, come December, when I am comfortably in the lead.  We can then look back and reminisce about how you tried to take advantage of a paraplegic.