Weekend updates

Last weekend I kind of put off the work I need to get done outside because I was busy playing. :-) That Saturday I led a bicycle ride and we tested out a new route. It was nice to have Bikely.com to help plan out the route (I did that on Friday night). I really like the satellite feature as it helps me envision what the area generally looks like as I ride the roads. Since my 3D perception is pretty good I understand what the area should look like from the ground as well as above it. I now have a nice smart phone that I hope will be useful when we're out riding (for short cuts or alternate routes). We'll see how that goes. Sunday I spent a lot of time trying to organize my various information sources so I could reach them using the smart phone (I'm still working on that).

Now, I really wished I had drank more as Sunday I was slightly dehydrated. It would have also been nice to have had the GPS working on my Android based Samsung Captivate (bug in the firmware) to test out and get use to using the feature. I was able to use the phone to check the radar for the area though it really doesn't give you a good idea of the way the headwinds are blowing in the various areas (yes it comes from various directions). On Saturday, my friend was able to text me that she was running a few minutes late and to not leave without her. I've since added Facebook and Twitter to my phone so I'll be able to post inane information for all to see! ;-) Despite the fact there is a lot of junk posted, both Facebook and Twitter have their uses. It allows me to keep up with friends, family and acquaintances. What I'd really like to do is to figure out how to post pictures and information from my rides like my friend Lane does. I often see interesting things along the way and wouldn't mind sharing them (most of NJ doesn't look like the start of the Sorprano's). I'm glad I've met people who have given me these ideas. Now I just need to figure out how to implement these ideas.

This past weekend I did the Princeton Free Wheelers - Princeton Event. It's one of the area's big rides. We managed to get a break in the weather as it only reached 85F but starte out at 65F @ 7AM. The previous weeks before were very humid and the temperature started out at 84F and rose quickly to as much as 103F. This break in the weather was a nice relief. This year the event took a different series of roads, as it always does. They took us out to Columbus NJ, down to New Lisbon, over to Turkey Swamp and back to Mercer County Park. It was a gorgeous route. I'll have to take advantage of some of those roads now that I know them. On the hydration front I decided to learn from my previous mistakes and drink a lot more. I still went out and stayed on the front too much so at the end of the ride I was very tired. We finished with a 17.3 mph avg. Not bad considering the previous weekends air quality alerts (I'm asthmatic) and that heat & humidy limited both our speed and distances. I'm hoping that we'll continue to get a break for the rest of the summer and I'll be able to get down to Chatsworth (107 mi.) and Tuckerton (131 mi.).