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.