Archive for January, 2009

Winter in Kansas has been a mild one. I think it has only snowed three times and no more that 1 inch if we are lucky. Growing up with the snow and now hardly ever seeing it i have realized how much i miss a really good snow. The other day it actually snowed and before it melted i had to go take a few pictures.

So, one of my goals for the new year is to make sure that i write three blog posts for the month. They can be written at any time and any length about anything. My first month trying to reach this goal shows that I have much room for improvement seeing it is 11pm on the last day of the month. Hopefull next month will be better! I dedcided that i wanted to spend a little more time keeping this blog updated with events and the little things that happen in the Bailey Family not only to take time to appreciate and recognize the blessings that i have been given. Also I have so many thoughts that i can never seem to put words to and i hope that this will help me to better express myself………..two more posts to go!!!!

In the summer of 2008 I attended a “Woodbadge for the 21st Century,” which essentially the eagle scout for adults. It is a week long outdoor training event designed to help adults in the BSA program become better Leaders. Thoughout the couse we learned how a troop “should” be run, and many helpful ideas of how to get ours running better. We also learned skills for teaching, listening, and helping the youth in BSA reach their potential. That is the first part of Woodbadge. The second part is where this post comes in.

To become woodbadge certified, you must not only do the week of training, but during that time you choose five items which will make up a “Ticket.” These are goals that you are given 18 months to complete from the end of your week course. One of my five ticket items was to help encourage me to get back into cycling, something I enjoyed when I was younger. My goal is to ride 500 miles… not in one ride… before the 18 months is up. While this may not be a lot for most avid bike riders, I figured with school, work, family, and 4 other items on my ticket to complete, 500 would be enough.

To track my miles, and the journey along the way, I decided that I would not only write a post for each ride to keep track of my stats, dates, and experiences, I also would try to take a photo from some point in the ride as well. With tonight being the first ride, I amost wanted to skip adding it to the list.

As I came home from work tonight, I could not help but notice how nice it was. It is still mid January, and the high temperature was about 64 degrees. As I left work it was probably still in the 60′s. I was thinking it would be a great night to ride. When I got home, Kristen had to do some visiting teaching and would be gone for a couple hours, so that sold me on going on a ride.

Since it was last minute, and months or maybe a year since I have used my road bike, it took a lot longer to get all my things together and my bike shirt and shorts a lot more snug than I prefer. Once the tires were aired up, and I was ready to go, I hit the road. Getting used to my clip in shoes again took me a little bit, and since Wichita is not a biker friendly city, I stuck to the sidewalk for a half mile while I got used to the bike again. I finally reached a nicely paved road on the west side of the Arkansas river, got on it and took off.

I am used to riding my mountain bike to and from work (.5mile) so riding the road bike with clips was a lot of fun. I could easily get up to speed and was free to cruise. At first I was doing great, cruising between 22-25mpg. I made it a little over 2.5 miles at that pace before my legs decided they didnt like this “excercise” thing they had to do. I made it to Central, which is where I got the photo of the glowing tubes and decided to turn back. It would be my “test” run to make sure everything worked right. It was dark out already and was down to 50 degrees, which at 22mph in tight shorts and shirt is kinda chilly. Plus I was out of breath and could bearly keep going… pretty sad. So I took a bike path that runs along the river and headed back home at a much more leasure pace.

I stopped at the Keeper of the Plains exhibit located on an Island in the river and got a drink from a fountian there and also got two more photos. Although the distance I rode was embarrassing, it was even more so that it wore me out so much. But this has not hurt, only helped my determination to get back out onto the road and get back into shape. So to finish things up I will list out my stats for the ride and will continue to do so for all future rides.

Current Ride

Ride Number: 1
Ride Time: 34:58 (min:sec)
Distance: 5.81 miles
Average Speed: 10 mph ~ sidewalks : )
Max Speed: 25.1 mph

Overall Numbers

Same as above, it was my first ride. In the future I plan on keeping a total ride tally.

I am not sure about other states but it seems like it’s spring in Kansas right now… the only problem is that its still January. Last year we moved downtown, only five or six blocks from my work, so I decided that I would try to ride my bicycle to work instead of driving. It would help to save money, get excersize, and it is faster to ride to my work than to drive a couple blocks to my parking spot and walk to my office. I figured that I could bike most of the year with the exception of rainy day and winter… nobody wants a soaked co-worker. Today, mid January, as I rode home for lunch with my jacket unzipped, I realized that it is unusually warm out for this time of year.

Growing up in Kansas, I remember having ice storms in October, this year the first ones didnt seem to come until late November and early December. But after a handful of really fridgid weeks, here we are, back in the mild temperatures again. Today the high was around 58 degrees, which for Kansas is a bit warmer than usual. Since today is not over, I am not able to get todays high and low temperature records but I was able to get yesterdays, which I imagine are similar. The record high was set in 2002 at 75 degrees, about 17 degrees warmer than today! The average is 39 degrees which is about 19 degrees colder than today, so although were not breaking any records, its still quite a bit above average. And for all those people in Haiwii, who this 58 degrees is the end of the world, the record low was set in 1979 at -11 degrees.