I am very excited for today’s guest post… I’ve talked about Dan on the blog many a time, but today is the first time you get to hear from the man I’m about to marry!
Howdy, Savvy Eaters, Dan here. Julie has been asking me to write a guest post for a while, so we figured this week was an opportune time. Naturally, I will gravitate towards a topic I can talk about forever anyway, so I wanted to give Julie’s readers a little background of how I became the bike nut I am. Hopefully, Julie will have a story like this in a few years too, if I have anything to say about it.
I started biking in the summer of 2005. I had just graduated high school and my parents had just bought me a new bike to send me off to college. This was my 2005 Giant Cypress, a hybrid/comfort bike. Bike Count: 1 I hadn’t formed my identity as a road rider yet, and this bike offered the comfort of an upright riding position, but a bit lighter and with a thinner tire than a mountain bike. That summer, I set two biking goals. First, I wanted to bike 1000 miles. This number was completely arbitrary, and I didn’t think much before setting this goal. Second of all, I wanted to bike from my hometown just outside Milwaukee, WI to my college town of Madison, WI. Milwaukee and Madison are about 80 miles apart, but are connected by a nice converted railway trail. I came nowhere near 1000 miles that summer (I biked 458 miles, but on top of playing hours of varsity baseball per day most of the summer, not too shabby.), but my brother and I did ride from Milwaukee to Madison. What better way to move a bike to college than to ride it there?
After the ride from Milwaukee to Madison, Josh and I were exhausted after an 83.2 mile day, but the distance cycling bug had bit me. The next summer, I kept my 1000 mile goal, but again came up a bit short. I rode 771 miles in the summer of 2006. 2006 was a fairly uneventful cycling year, other than that in August I became the proud owner of my first road bike. After talking road biking with Julie’s dad, I decided to give it a shot after I got a good deal on a Takara that was older than me. Bike Count: 2 2007 is when the real transformation began from casual cyclist to addicted. This year, I was finally going to reach my 1000 mile goal (and I did, I rode 1027 miles). I finally got to start really riding my road bike regularly, and got in some good rides with Julie’s dad.
Look how happy I look! I don’t have the slightest idea that my tire is going to explode in about 30 miles… A week after that training ride in Minnesota with Julie’s dad, and with a photo finish on the delivery and installation of my new wheelset, I rode my first charity bike tour, a 150 mile weekend. Looking back on 2007, this was also the year of the flat tire. I got at least three flat tires on each bike that summer, but if anybody needs a lesson on changing a bike tire, you know who to talk to.
Look how happy I look! I don’t have the slightest idea that my tire is going to go flat in about 20 miles… Thankfully, that’s the last flat tire story for now. But bikers can be a superstitious group, so let’s not use the “f’ word anymore. (Flat, that is.)
In 2008, I kept adding to the mileage, and I started commuting to work by bike. I rode 1396 miles, and I rode the Minnesota MS 150 with Julie’s dad. Day 2 of the Minnesota MS 150 is still one of my favorite days of riding from my early days of riding, as we rode with a stiff tailwind, and flew through 75 miles before noon.
2009 was another big biking year. Starting off in January, Julie and I experienced one of our coolest bike rides to date, riding a tandem across the Golden Gate Bridge.
I think of 2009 as the year of equipment upgrades, even though the first upgrade was really in December 2008. First came the road bike that really allowed me to become a significantly better rider, my 2007 Trek 2100ZR. Bike Count: 3 Julie and I then lived in Minnesota for that summer, and the combination of having equipment almost on par with her dad’s, and living in the same house, pushed me another level of riding. After all, this is a house where 65 mile Sunday rides are routine. Another notable achievement from summer 2009, I rode my first century ride, taking a 100.2 mile ride in one day with Julie’s dad.
2009 was also the year where I got Julie into road biking. I bought her a starter road bike for her birthday to see if she was going to enjoy road biking, before committing to a significantly nicer bike (which she now has). We took our first charity ride together in October, and rode about 57 miles through the rain.
Shortly after that ride, Julie and I learned we would be moving to Ithaca upon graduation. Seeing the hills out here called for another equipment upgrade, as I needed a commuter bike that could actually make it up the hill I have to ride everyday (I had been commuting on the old road bike, climbing is not one of that bike’s strengths.). Into the picture now comes my 2009 Trek 520 my touring bike that I bill as “bombproof” Bike Count: 4. It’s not built for speed and low weight like my 2100 is, but is incredibly comfortable and can handle me strapping 20 pounds of gear to it every morning. I love this bike. I closed out 2009 with an additional 2523 miles under my belt.
Now I’m here in Ithaca anxiously awaiting the cycling season. I’m getting in rides whenever I can, at least when the roads are relatively clean. Just last week I rode up a gigantic hill to go visit a state park. I was one of two people there, and I think the woman in the car was a bit surprised to see me pedaling through the slush into the parking lot.
Mileage goal for this year: 3000 miles. Coolest thing I’ll do on a bike this year: Holy crap, Julie and I are riding through Italy! Doesn’t get much cooler. My goal for Julie this year: Make this the year where she goes from casual cyclist to addicted.
Bike Count goal for the year: Don’t have five bikes at the end of year! I don’t know where to put any more!
Now Julie has been telling me that her readers have been wanting to hear from me, so I’ll close with an invitation. If you want to see more guest posts from me, leave a comment and request topics. Naturally, I would be happy to answer any bike questions, but I can’t write answers without questions!
Don’t forget, only a few days left on the Open Sky coupon, good through Friday!
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