... a time of great contrasts

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." - Charles Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities". I guess we all end up living in great paradoxes, a time of great contrasts. I'm just amazed at how much it looks like the history I learned in school. Yet many don't see it. Am I imagining it? Are others that blind, is it both?

Happy New Year? I know it has been a while since I posted. While I have neglected my Linux HA web and blog pages I haven't stopped with HA. I have completely switch over to Home Assistant and it's the best HA I've ever setup, extremely stable.

On a happier note, I just let GitHub Copilot Pro ($100/yr) create a new repos for gblog (note previous blog entry: Sample My Blog Post Title, okay not very original title). It went from nothing to working code in 8 minutes. I do need a few changes but they are really minor. I'll ask later. I still need to figure out how I want the start of my blog related code to go from bash (calls Emacs with the correct elisp code), the elisp code (handles the blog format and calls python) and the python (handles posting to the Blog API). As a software engineer this impresses and scares me. I've recently used Copilot to create documentation for a repos I knew little about (C#), fix up my JS on an internal app I use at work (still testing) and a few other things. I couldn't get it to work with Kicad but I have seen services that do this. I need to be really careful not to just let the 'vibe' coding run by itself. I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can about LLMs, Deep Research and other AIs. Plan to build a local AI at our makerspace (CDL.

On the subject of the makerspace and HA, I haven't yet automated it. I really get around to that. I have a nice Raspberry PI 4 for that. At the makerspace I've been playing with my retro computer projects, Meshtastic and a bunch of new tools. So, for now things aren't so bad, I have plenty to keep me busy.

Pi Zero Ethernet gadget

So I'm sitting here on Labor Day weekend (US) waiting for Hurricane Hermine to reach NJ. It's predicted to follow a similar path as Sandy. Needless to say it's making us all a little nervous in the North East. All's quiet on the Eastern Front (that's a weather joke).

While waiting I decided to give the Raspberry Pi Zero a try. I followed the directions at Andrew Mulholland's Setting up Pi Zero OTG. I loaded up Raspian Jessie lite, config'd it as a Ethernet gadget and plugged it's USB into my Debian box. Up popped USB0 with a link-local address (169.254.x.x/16). I can then ssh pi@raspberrypi.local to reach it. Cool, I have a nice Tardis USB hub that the Pi will fit perfectly into.

Now comes the fun! I want to update the software. But the link-local addresses aren't really route-able (to simplify the discussion, don't do it). So how do I get the Zero connected to the internet? Well one easy route is with several networking statements and a sub interface (USB0:1). I'd put this under the category of more advanced network setup for Linux because I'll be configuring 3 machines to handle this. I've decided not do use NAT as it's unnecessary on the inside of my network. So here is the configuration commands for the various servers:

Notes: Let me start by saying that I've got a lot of networking experience and I do a lot of experimenting on my network. I've built IP tunnels, VRRP, RIPv2, OSPF and IPv6 on my systems. I'm skipping a lot of details I don't think you'll need but hopefully I haven't ignored something important. I've arbitrarily chosen to give the Pi Zero the IP address of 192.168.3.14 (USB0:1), the USB Host: 192.168.3.1 (USB0:1), the USB Host Ethernet: 192.168.0.10 (the eth0 or wlan0), The firewall is 192.168.0.1 and it also has a DNS server on it. You may need to adjust the network addresses for your own use. Also I have Quagga with RIPv2 running (not required) so I could add static routes there and my other servers would learn the route. Finally, I've not made any of this permanent except for the firewall.

For the Pi Zero (as root):

 # On the Pi Zero
 sudo bash
 ifconfig usb0:1 192.168.3.14
 echo -e "#\nnameserver 192.168.0.1" >/etc/resolv.conf
 route add default gw 192.168.3.1 usb0:1 

Bonus statements for the Pi Zero, I mounted a Samba server (my NAS) to the Pi. You'll need to define the SMB_USER, SMB_PSWD and I've used the user pi and group pi in this example. On the Pi Zero (as root):

 # Make sure that cifs-utils is loaded
 mkdir -p /cifs
 mount.cifs //samba/{$SMB_USER}/zero /cifs \
   -o user=${SMB_USER},pass=${SMB_PSWD},\
   dir_mode=0755,file_mode=0755,uid=pigid=pi 

For the USB Host (as root):

 # On the USB Host
 echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
 # Or
 sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
 # vi /etc/sysctl.conf
 # net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
 ifconfig usb0:1 192.168.3.1 

On the firewall I've translated the commands to the typical Linux commands. You'll need to adjust these for your particular router. Mine is actually a Ubiquiti ERLite-3 and uses very different statements. On the firewall (as root):

 # On the router
 route add -net 192.168.3.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.0.10
 # Or
 ip route add 192.168.3.0/24 via 192.168.0.10 dev eth0 

Now that all has been said and done I'll let you know that the Pi Zero still supports the ssh pi@raspberrypi.local. I'm working on 2 different Tardis USB Hubs. I think one will remain a USB hub with the Pi as an Ethernet Gadget while the other I will turn into a remote USB Hub (a Pi, Wireless Dongle and the remote USB code).

Canceled ride, Feb 5th

Well I had planned on riding today but thought better of it as I noticed the roads were still a mess. I did show up at Village Park to meet my riders. Mark and I were there, Drew's ride had 4 people and there was Barry. Drew informed me that Barry isn't supposed to be riding until he gets a doctors note (good to know). Drew decided to ride, I thought it best not to chance it. There was water everywhere and with water there's bound to be black ice. I'm still dying to get my miles in but not at the cost of not being able to ride for weeks or months into the year. I still have March and April to get my miles up there. I'm planning on at least 1 double metric for June and possibly another for late May.

Stressful month but my mind is still on Home Automation

I finished the article for Linux Magazine about Misterhouse (called King of the House). I didnt get a copy of the magazine, so I've ordered a copy of issue 178, which should be here soon. I've created a web page for the article and I'll add an errata in a short time as it needs a few minor things fixed up. I've been busy for the last month or two with all the things going on at work, around the house and at home. But in the back of my mind is always HA. Lately I've wanted to design a PCB based on the PIC32 chips. This will satisfy my electrical engineering background (I have a degree in electronics). These boards would form the basis for my HA remote nodes. I'll return to that shortly but in the meantime I mean to solve an issue with getting the remote nodes to be as dynamically configurable as possible (as reasonable?). I already have the PIC32/W550io board running a DHCP client. I'd love to see the board connect to a cloud MQTT service from a remote location (such as from IXR at Camp Evan (InfoAge)). The issue is dynamically configuring the topics (and eventually the IO). This requires a bit of coordination between application such as Misterhouse, MQTT and some kind of configuration Manager.

I've written a simple configuration manager in Node-Red/Node.js. The device publishes a hello to a given server and topic (device/hello). The manager then looks up the information and publishes the information to another topic (device/<mac>/cfg). Now I'll need to figure out how the device will interpret the information (then I can format the information properly such that it's easy to handle and easy parse).

I've also decided to setup a bridge between my MQTT and a Cloud MQTT. This will require a bit of planning but I can see this working well to allow remotes to share data and commands with Misterhouse which will only be connected to my local MQTT (not that it has to). While the very basic mqtt.pm is working very well in Misterhouse, it does need additional work (error correction and failure recovery). All this means I need to work on my Mosquitto setup so that bridging, SSL/TSL, login/passwords and ACL are working properly.

The campaign to revoke Gust, Gail and Windy's bike club membership!

I hereby put forth, before the board, a request to revoke Gust's, Gail's and Windy's club membership for abuse of rider members on club rides!

Wow, I thought last week's ride was windy. It was supposedly a stronger wind with higher gusts but this week's ride felt worse. I guess it really does have to do with ride selection. I was forced to start heading south into the open prairies of the NJ flat lands. This was the only way I could really get my mileage up to the 65 mile ride we did and ride to where I wanted to ride. Yes, I like to site-see while I ride, it's important. The hard part in selecting a ride is not only figuring out where you want to go but also figure out how to get there. My ride is called "Which every way the wind blows" because I tend to get head winds at some point. I try to adjust the ride as we go (hence cue sheets are useless on my rides). Yesterday's ride required I toss in a few extra miles and zig-zag through some tree lined and hilly roads (Province Line Rd outside Allentown NJ). One other part of ride selection is that I have hundreds of rides in my head and thousands of variations. This led to one funny incidence where a rider congratulated me on never getting lost to which I replied: "Oh $#!7 we took a wrong turn 3 miles back. We're doing the wrong ride.". I still get chided about that.

So other than the wind was there anything special about yesterday's ride? Well there were 3 other riders on my ride. Because of the mileage I tend to get only 1 or two riders. And the second, which was really exciting (okay, not really) was Hockamik Rd was being ground up. Never heard of it? Not surprised it's a bit off the beaten path near the Ft Dix Artillery range. We decided to ride down the road only to find it was extremely soft. Our tires sank to a depth of about two inches. Not what we expected from ground up road. We had expect a gravel like material. Boy were we disappointed. Another special thing about the ride was the gorgeous weather. It was in the mid 60's and I would gladly take the wind and that temperature vs the winter we had. The coldest ride I did was 26F which was only slightly better than being stuck indoors. Well next week I have a 78 - 82 mile ride down to the edge of the Barrens (Mt. Misery Rd and New Lisbon). Hopefully there will be less wind and my avg. speed can get to a respectable level. Besides putting on too much weight and asthma and wind and getting older and not getting in as much base miles as I usually do I can't understand why I'm so slow.

Who invited Gust, Gail and Windy?

Yup, Saturday, Sunday and Monday's rides were very windy and the usual trio decided to ride with us (Gust, Gail, and Windy). Of course now it's going to rain for the next few days (wish I could ride with Gust, Gail and Windy instead). Despite the 20+ mph NW winds it was nice to have warm day to ride. Saturday started out like any other ride, I wore out the rear tire and needed to replace it before we could leave Cranbury. I created a 50 mile loop that would first take us East, then turn North and allow us to zig-zag north and west to the Griggstown Canal. The 50 miles was important since I suffered a nasty asthma attack a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to build up my miles as much as I'd like. So how strong were the winds? Well I managed to get pushed up the hill at the quarry in Kingston (no pedaling required). Made this flatlander feel like quite the climber. ;-)

Our first rest stop was 36 miles into the ride at the Main Street Kingston Eatery on Rt 27 in Kingston. We met up with Wendell and his friends (they were riding fixed gears, ouch). It was nice to meet up with a bunch of cyclists who don't look at you funny when you says your only doing 50 miles. ;-)

Next month I have the CJBC's Farmlands Century. After that I start training like I'm doing the CJBC's Longest Day ride (210 miles). I won't actually be able to do the ride but I do love to do the training. So all these base miles should help smooth out that first Century. I'm also expecting that it will have an effect on my weight which I've allowed to get too far from healthy.

Riding with my peeps

The last few days have been some of the nicest to get in some mileage. But the signs of spring are there. Various birds have arrived (boy does it get noisy, I love it) but most of all, the tree frogs having begun their mating calls (some folks call them peepers because that's what it sounds like). They're wonderful frogs (unless you're trying to sleep), I found one climbing on my house last year.

2 weeks ago I started what has to be the worst asthma attack I've had in years. I had to work to breath (extra push on the exhale). I would walk around the block gasping. Now I'm up to 30 minute walks with my dogs and almost 30 miles on the bike today. Hills still cause me to gasp but that's because I'm a flat lander not my asthma. I've learned an important lesson that I must continue to exercise on a regular basis. I can't let everything else get in the way or I'll have to spend weeks working out to get back to where I can breath again.

Winter rides 2015

It is Wednesday, mid-week, between last Sunday's 42°F, Tuesday's near blizzard and Saturday's predicted high of 21°F temperature and I'm trying to plan out my next outdoor ride. ;-) Perhaps Sunday's predicted high of 29°F will allow for a few miles. I will have to watch out for ice though.

My friend Mark and I have been suffering from cabin fever. We haven't been able to get out on the road as much or as far as we'd like as it has either been too cold, rainy or we've had snow. So when it hit 42°F last Sunday, we took off for a short 20 mile ride. Wow it was nice. The roads were a bit crowded (narrowed by snow, potholes and puddles) but we managed. We did get wet once or twice but we expected that. Still it was just nice to get out and ride. Let's face it winter miles aren't really about speed or distance so they might as well be about enjoyment. Now for Sunday we'll be looking at a similar ride except it is below freezing. Wet roads will be salty and puddles could hide ice (the infamous black ice). We've done it before but we'll have to be careful. With the 6 inch blanket of snow on the ground any wind will be a cold one. Still it's outdoor mileage.

I (heart) MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)

I'm pretty excited about learning and that's a good thing as I'm in the STEM field and the technology barely lasts 3 to 5 years before it's replaced. I'm now taking free courses on subjects like Statistics, Data Science, Learning (I suffer from ADD and will do anything to make learning easier) and the IoT. These MOOCs are allowing a new generation of people the resources to learn without the heavy load of student loans. One thing about a MOOC, you need to participate in the course for it to work. The Professors, Instructors and Assistants are few and can't do all the work, so some work is offloaded on to the students and is part of the grading. So far this is working well (from what I can see) and I don't mind helping as it makes me feel like I'm actually learning and helping others. In addition to the free aspect there is the certificate aspect (which you pay for). Good certificates look good on your resume. The Data Science specialization costs as much as one of my single 4 credit course, from 30 years ago.

Right now I'm watching a course in Coursera called: "Learning How to Learn" by Dr. Terrence Sejnowski & Dr. Barbara Oakley, excellent course. It is helping me to learn and explaining things like: why exercise helps me to learn. I'm also taking a Data Science specialization on Coursera, current course is R programming language. I'm certain I need this for future employment and I am interested in the topic. I'll experiment more with MOOCs, so far I'm thrilled I can learn in a formal, organized way.

Does this qualify as a Hill Slug ride?

So Saturday (8/16/2014) I decided to ride to Ringoes. Normally I lead a flat B to B+ ride (15 - 16 to 17 - 18 mph) this one ended up as 14.7 mph avg over 82.6 miles. As a flat lander I try to avoid 'real hills' like the Sourland Mountains but lets face it. It's a great riding area. Besides I don't want to exhaust my rides into South Jersey by doing the same routes over and over again.

So we left Cranbury, for Ringoes, by heading East, North, then West (Ride leader logic, must get in my miles and have rest stops every so often). We started the real hills when we cross the Griggstown Causeway (mile 31). We headed to Dutchtown Zion, boy was I out of shape and my lungs hurt at the top! I decided not to try to bomb down Lindbergh but instead cut over to Rileyville Rd. Rileyville Rd has a better surface and a better line of sight and I love to bomb down hills :-). We then stopped at the Carousel Deli in Ringoes where we met several other rides from all over. :-) We spoke with one group out of Bridgewater and talked them into looking into the Longest Day. We left the deli and proceeded to Boss Rd where we were greeted by an immediate hill and headwind and this was good as this meant we mostly had a tail wind from Hopewell to Cranbury. On Queen Rd we encountered recent chip seal (July?) and I hopped that Mt. Airy wasn't done recently also and we lucked out. The climb up Mt Airy was prefect chip seal (no loose gravel!). We turned left at the High School and rode the quiet back roads. Again we reached Rileyville Rd but this time we took it down to Hopewell (bombs away). The ride from Hopewell to Rockyhill was nice (tail wind). A stop in Kingston at the Deli/Bakery (boy were they packed) and off to a then a quick sprint down Plainsboro Rd into Cranbury.

A few weeks ago I was poking around Laura Lynch's web site: Hill Slug Chronicles. She posted a link to Ride With GPS to one of the rides we did. I took a look at the site, tried out the free part of the site and download their app. I planned out the route and it laid out the cue sheet (you need a paid account to print the cue sheet), turn by turn. Gives the elevation, grade, avg speed, the steepest grade, calories burned (I posted my weight to the site's stats) and fastest speed. Cool, too much information for a info junkie! Actually I thought the information about the grade was interesting. I used it to judge my efforts climbing (yup, flat lander). I really need to work on my climbing. ;-) I'll play with it a bit more and I'll be signing up for a subscription. Here's the link to Saturday's Cranbury-Ringoes ride.

More On the road again

More nice weather in NJ for my 5/17 ride. It started out a bit cool and I left my sweater in the car. I planned out a nice 103 mile ride from Cranbury to Lacey to Tabernacle and back. I was surprised at how warm I felt in the cooler temperatures (high 50's) I usually need a sweater for that. The week before we'd experienced hot weather and I didn't fare well until the thunderstorm cooled us down. I still get a bit winded by the small climbs (this is the flat lands, these are small and could barely be called hills). I need to work a bit more on my stamina and recovery. Our first stop was at mile 38.7. I tend to not stop early but I do have more stops later, if needed. We stopped at the Lacey WaWa, a very busy place but it has pretty much everything we need (restrooms, junk food, sandwiches, etc). We then proceeded to Pasadena Rd. I recall Pasadena being rather rough (crocodile cracking). But it wasn't too bad or I hadn't been on it in such a long time I didn't care ;-). The sand mine was rather busy as there were about 8 dump trucks going in the other direction. This is also probably why the railroad crossings on Rt 539 and Pasadena/Savoy Rd were replaced with new crossings. The intersection at Savoy Rd and Rt 72 was very busy but manageable. When we hit Chatsworth our old friend the westerly wind was there to greet us. It normal for the wind to be out of the west at this time of the year which makes Tabernacle-Chatsworth Rd (Rt 532) a very good road to train for the Longest Day ride. The ride from Chatsworth to Tabernacle was pleasant. That might be why it didn't feel as long, especially early in the season. So when we reached Nixon's and we found that we had a pace of 17.1 mph I was ecstatic. We owe that to Rich who was feeling good and helped us keep the pace up (I wasn't sucking wheel this time though ;-) ). Lunch was quicker (we knew what to do at the lunch counter).

The ride home was pretty good though my legs had been pushed pretty hard. Surprisingly I was able to climb short hills and overpasses better than I had been able to in the past 5 years. Normally after mile 75 I'd hit the hill an I was forced to shift to a 39x25 as I had no strength. Don't get me wrong I was tired and sore still but I was climbing these hills much faster than 1.5 mph (sometimes I'd even hit 4.5 mph ! ;-) ). We skipped stopping at Allentown so we road the last 40 miles straight back. While I was sore and tired (no so more than normal) I was feeling pretty good. We avg'd 16.9 mph which was a 1mph avg jump over the previous week. I'm very please with my progress so far. Especially when I'm carrying more weight than I every have in my life and that I've had a messed up riding schedule for the last 3 years. Next week (5/24) it's a double metric riding from Cranbury to Griggstown, down part of the Longest Day route to Chatsworth, then over to Tabernacle and Back to Cranbury. I think I'll start that ride 1 hour early (7AM).

We rides again!

It's been a tough few years and I'm hoping that this one will be a bit quieter. With that in mind I've been building up my mileage. Last week I did the CJBC Farmlands century ride. I was pretty sick at the start of the ride but fared better as the day went. Of course I was sucking wheel all day, I don't normally make a habit of doing that. We averaged only 15.4 mph (mea culpa) but I did finish with a bit of something left. Yea, first century in 2 years!

Jump ahead to this week, I led a ride yesterday (Saturday, 5/10) for a century from Cranbury, NJ to Tabernacle, NJ. We started out slow as pollen was causing asthma problems (not to mention I have some serious weight to lose). We made okay time on the first half. Temp's jumped into the 80's by the time we hit Pemberton (Pine Barrens). And it was a bit windy (normal for NJ and this time of year, steady 8 - 12 mph winds out of the SW). The stretch from Chatsworth to Tabernacle wasn't too bad despite the wind and that I hadn't been down here in 2 years (mentally challenging). We stopped off in Nixon's for lunch (at about mile 60), dead tired. Not unusual for early training rides. So we ate, got back on the bikes and started back. We now had a tail wind and that helped a bit (might have helped a lot more than a bit). We managed to get just east of Columbus when we ran into a downpour. We reached the general store in Chester and hid under the porch for a while. When it appeared to be letting up we took off again only to go about 500 ft and be driven under a bank's drive through by a surge of rain and wind. We had roughly 20 miles to go and the worse seemed to be over (though it didn't stop raining), so we headed out. With the cooler temperatures we seemed to be feeling better and we started booking it. We hit several more pockets of heavy rain but just kept going. We finished with an average of 15.9 mph, not bad for 2 rest stops (and a few hide from the rain stops).

Not quite a century

My rides are still a bit inconsistent (riding one weekend, not riding the next) but they are starting to get back to the century mark. During the week I'm squeezing in more miles, which is helping. It's been more than a year since I've done a century. I've been fighting health, weather and other problems just trying to get in any rides at all so I'm quite pleased that I managed to get in my 92 mile ride yesterday. Two weeks ago I got in an 80 mile ride with an avg. pace of 15.8 mph. No where near my usual 17 - 18 mph avg. This week it was hotter and we rode longer (92 miles) and faster (16.3 mph). I also just had the first step of a tooth implant put in so I'm on anti-biotics. That played havoc with my digestion yesterday but only small problems (I was queasy most of the ride). Despite this I was just happy to be doing any riding! Approaching the century mark and averaging 16.3 was icing on the cake.

I decided to head down to Whiting and ride Pasadena Rd from Village Park in Cranbury, NJ. The day started out warm, the way I like it. But I did worry it might be too warm (high expected was low 90's F). We had 3 stops planned, Whiting, Pemberton and Allentown. The first 25 went quietly, the busiest stretch from Plumstead to Whiting (New Egypt - Whiting Rd) was not bad. A quick stop at the WaWa for a break and we were on our way. Pasadena was nice except for the one guy who buzzed me. I was riding 2 wide (oops) but there was no one else on the road and no visibility problems. He could have gone a bit more wide and a beep before hand would have been a good idea too. After that it was quiet and we enjoyed the scenery. When we reached Chatsworth we turned North to Sooy Place. While I enjoyed the scenery I was surprised to find that there was much less shade than what I was expecting. I wonder if they widened the fire break along the road? On this ride I decided to check out a 'new' road called Avenue Rd (it's listed as just Avenue) if for no other reason than it's name. It appeared to be a nice back road and it was. Also it dropped us right into Ong's Hat (I love these names :-) ). Avenue is a nice road despite no controlled intersection on Rt 70 (we had no trouble crossing). After much sun, nice scenery and being entertained by a crop duster in the fields not more than 100 ft away from us, we made it to the WaWa in Pemberton. The next section is the return to Cranbury via Allentown, we've done this section hundreds of times and such familiarity at the end of a ride is a comforting thought. Unfortunately the bridge over the Turnpike was closed so we were diverted (added 1 mile, oh woe is me ;-)). I'm glad to see that we may have access to the new bridge soon. The older narrower one was uncomfortable with a large group. I decided to detour along a nice back route that avoided much of the traffic in Hightstown (and the nice down hill :( ). It felt good to be back but better that we had done the ride and that we had so many positives. I'll need to see what I can come up with for next week's ride.

Second ride of 2012

It's been almost a year since my last post. My new job has done a pretty good job of messing up my schedule. The hours are very long and I've had to endure way too many weekends working. This has severely cut into my mileage. I'm going to have to be very creative to get in my miles. But I made it out this weekend, the third ride of the year.

Today I did a nice ride out of Village Park, in Cranbury NJ (Central part of the state), rode to Hightstown, Allentown, Chester (Mansfield), out to Columbus, Springfield and stopped in Wrightstown for a break, 55 miles in total. We started out at 9 AM near the freezing mark but oh what a gorgeous day it was, not withstanding. I used several, low traveled back roads. Roads we usually don't use. One of the problems with rides under X miles (you fill in the X) is that you tend to travel the same roads over and over). It's hard to find something you haven't visited lately. Worse yet is that I need to try and ride routes that my friend, Larry, won't use the next day. Oddly enough we tend to think alike which may be due the the time of the year and weather patterns. Hopefully the NJ Turnpike will have a bunch of the bridges reopened soon so it will open up more of the area to our old routes that have been closed to us for the last two years (Turnpike widening, South of 8A).

On the wild life side we did manage to see a bunch of basically well behaved dogs, A nice Red Hawk glided along side of us on our way out to Columbus and a Turkey Vulture more interested in someone's lost lunch that us riding a few feet from it.

Farmland 2011

Okay so I haven't blogged in a while (sorry). Well, so far this winter and spring have not been good for getting in miles, but spring is getting better. I just did my first century (May 7^th) on the CJBC Farmlands ride. The club laid out new routes and, with few exceptions, they were a very nice change (don't worry I'll get those roads fixed). It was a gorgeous day, starting out cool (~55F) and ending up mild (~70F, I like it hot). My average time was in the high 16's and considering my lack of riding that's okay. I did manage to get in one of my 'long pulls' way above pace. Afterwards I felt terrific and my leg problems of the last few years doesn't seemed to have surfaced. Additionally the stress of getting and learning a new job and the lack of miles have allowed me to put on too much weight. All things considered the average speed and the day-after feeling says I'm well on track for the longest day. My friend Mark and I rode well together and it looked really good for us on the Longest Day. Unfortunately Mark had a bike accident on a Sunday ride. He and another friend collided. Ken went down with a concussion and cuts above and below his eye. Mark ended up with lots of road rash and a broken clavicle. I'm wishing them both a speedy recovery and not to go nuts during their time off the bike.

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.).

Can't wait for the 2011 Longest Day!

Oops, something got messed up in the editing, this should fix that right up.

Yup, despite the problems I had running the event, I'm still looking forward to running and participating in next year's Longest Day. There are a number of problems I need to resolve such as communications (when I'll be at the Days Inn, from what time to what time, what to do if x, y, or z). I'll start working on all of that plus a whole lot more. I've seen my mistakes and I've figured out how to improve the experience. So we'll see how next year goes.

So this is the way things went; starting Monday, June 7^th through Thursday June 10^th I was busy with the last minute details (and there are a lot of them). On Thursday, I put down road markings at a few unmarked intersections. I plan to do that again next year. I nearly got busted twice (I didn't have permits) and the Federal officer was very polite and let me go. Friday, I had to run around and drop off the goodie bags to the folks who would hand these out at the Century and Double Metric starts. Since I had very little sleep this week I was a little dain bread and couldn't remember the house numbers (ARGH!). My Windows cell phone was useless as it kept locking up and returning no useful information. I was so tired that I forgot about 411 (information). I arrived late at Port Jervis at 7:30 PM. From 8:00 PM until 10:30 PM I was busy with handing out everything and answering questions. Unfortunately not everyone was there as several people were coming from out of state (WA, MI, OH and AR). At 10:30 PM I finished my dinner and went to bed. I had to be up by 3:00 AM to do the ride. At 1:30 AM I received a call on my cell. Unfortunately I was totally out of it and didn't really wake up and missed the call. So much for sleeping! Next year, clearer directions and I'll better prepared.

At 4:00 AM I was out the door and prepping the bike. By 4:38 AM Team Are We There Yet? (Our SAG Greg, Mark, Kevin and myself) left the Days Inn. I turned my helmet camera on (yes in the dark) and began recording our ride. It worked rather well and I'll post a montage later. Our initial 100 miles were uneventful. One rider did report and short encounter with bears (yes real bears). We saw many deer but had no problems. It was a comfortable morning but the fog kept us a bit wet. As we road we crossed the paths of many teams. We road with some, passed others and were in turn passed by others. While the camera gave you a hint of the speed we were descending it didn't really give you the feel. By the time we arrived in Manville we were feeling pretty good. Up to this point we had done some work in pace lines but the roads, hills and traffic are not really conducive to doing pace lines. Once we got on Canal Rd we kept a steady diet of pace lines. Also starting at Manville the wind was much more noticeable. A wind out of the south, expected to be 15 mph in Central Jersey and increase as the day goes on and we head further south. Head winds are a part of the Longest Day and this year didn't disappoint. The ride into Allentown went smooth though the wind was more noticeable. We had trained for winds up to 18 mph but this was worrying me a bit. The Chatsworth section is where we first start seeing head winds and they're usually mild but because your mentally fatigued you notice them (they're unrelenting). The lunch stop outside of Allentown (at the Soccer Fields) was a welcome stop. We had food that wasn't bicycle food and drinks that weren't Gatorade or water and Potato Chips that were salty and delicious! ;-) As we were in the final stages of leaving Will Bayley came up to us and asked if he could join us. Since we had trained with him we had no problem with him riding with us.

After lunch we left at the same time as several other teams. I think we came across Team Liberty, Team Major Taylor and a few others. Again we decided not to give chase and possible ruin our day. There was still 106 miles to go. The ride went smooth and we really began to enjoy the gusts of wind that would drop your speed 3 mph. Usually this occurred when someone (Kevin) was just coming to the front of the pace line. But other than that it really was a nice ride to the Ranger's Station. At this point the sun began to really come out and the temperature began to rise (as expected). A 10 mile break in Jenkins was very welcome. Unfortunately several teams had passed us while we were stopped. Including a team of about 20 people. Once we were back on the road we caught them rather quickly. They seemed to be doing about 14 mph in the heavy winds. My team didn't want to be slowed to 14 so we attempted to pass. While we were able to pass the entire train was able to latch on to our rear wheel. We weren't too happy as they could keep the pace we needed and we weren't thrilled with having to work with 20 tired people we don't know doing a pace line. That meant we (Will, Mark, Kevin and myself) were stuck with dragging the train the last 10 miles through the Barrens to the Mullica Bridge, another quick 5 minute rest stop. We then got back on the road and picked up the pace again. Along the way we picked up Kenneth from Team Major Taylor. Ken had completed the entire Chatsworth section solo (ouch) and we invited him to tag in. So we rode to May's Landing for another quick stop at McDonald's. As we were about to leave Team Major Taylor stops by the CVS next store and we discuss what Ken will do. He decidef to continue riding with us to the WaWa (mile 185). So we're off again, and the next 11 miles went pretty smoothly. The wind was still there and were dealing with it pretty well. The pace lines and chit-chat seemed to make the time go by quick. Once in Tuckerton we rode down a nice tree covered road for a few miles. It was nice to get out of the direct sun and the different scenery was also welcome. I don't know about anyone else but I was feeling pretty good as the miles ticked away to the WaWa. I picked up some extra food (not bike food) at the WaWa and we left after 6:00 PM for our last 25 miles. Up to this point we had maintained a 17.1 mph pace. The last 25 miles were brutal! We maintained the pace line but our final average dropped to 16.8 mph for the day. The winds felt like they were in excess of 20 mph. We noticed white caps on the inland bays and water ways. The only relief was that we were near the end and we knew we could make it. As we crossed the canal in Cape May the bridge didn't seem as steep (but still wasn't easy) and the final miles went better than expected. When we reached the light house (a welcome sight) we reflected on our speed with some delight and some disgust. 16.8 mph for the day, low by any standards but high when you consider that we just traverse 140+ miles of real head winds. In that light, a very respectable number. Overall an excellent ride!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

Just got back from Halter's Cycles (Rt 1, Monmouth Junction, NJ) and they were able to fix my favorite bike the Giant TCR Advanced (see my stable) for tomorrow's ride. I haven't had a chance to get it in to the shop due to work, family, The Longest Day Event and training. I expected it would be in the shop for more time than I like (separation anxiety) so I put back together my Mongoose Ti RX100 road bike. By the end of today I'll have 3 working bikes (yeah!). That should lessen the separation anxiety a whole lot.

So far the Longest Day event is going along pretty well. Since this is my first year and I haven't a clue as to what I'm doing. I actually expected a lot more problems. The majority of the registrations came in at the last minute and have kept me up late dealing with them. I have some small things to deal with but we're pretty much ready. Kevin Tatoris did me a huge favor and took over the Jersey (next year it will be part of the event from the start). He's doing some redesign work and changing the Jersey enough so that it is distinguishable from the previous Longest Day Jerseys. Thanks Kevin,

This week end I really need to put up the information on Longest Day teams.

Well more training tomorrow! I have a 124 mile (double metric) planned and 62 mile (metric) planned for Sunday. The heavy part of my training is done and afterward just some light road work (miles) to actively rest for the Longest Day. Looks like it will be a good year.

Longest Day and a ride to Tuckerton

Longest Day update: Well the registration forms keep coming in and I'm busy processing them. Wow did I get a lot of last minute registrations. I'll have the last in by tonight and the vest order will go out tomorrow. The Longest Day Jerseys are now the next order of business but I need the entire email list complete. The Jerseys will be $60 and pretty much exactly like last year (updated date of course). Sorry but I didn't have a lot of time to handle this. There has been a lot of interest in the Jerseys and they will be a part of next year's Longest Day instead of a separate part. The route review is going well I've got 150+ miles complete with a minor change at the Bridgewater Foothill Rd section. The second part of Foothill Rd is notorious for it's pot holes. This year we're going around it. While Bridge St is not one of my favorite roads it's better than Foothill (narrow, dark, cratered, too much traffic for conditions). Well I've got more work to do.

So this weekend as part of my training I took a ride down to Tuckerton. We started out in Allentown because I didn't want to make it 130+ miles, 117 was quite enough. :-) There was Lane, Will, Mark and myself. Will, Mark and myself will be doing the Longest Day. Will expects to keep a 16 mph average speed while Mark and I should keep at least a 17.5 mph average for the day. Lane has other business to attend to that weekend but if his riding is any indication of his speed he could do it faster than 18. Lane only had his heavy commuter instead of his nice carbon fiber. We told Will to hang at the back so he had a chance to survive. He did come out for his turn at a pull but we made sure he wasn't on there too long. Better to survive and ride than drag and possibly get lost on the way back. I don't like loosing riders.

The ride started out in all the familiar places: Waln, Emiley's Hill, New Egypt, Whiting. Common enough places for my rides. We then headed down to Tuckerton and passed through Lacey. As always there were plenty of pine trees (Pine Barrens). We saw the section of devastated pine forest from a few years ago. Nothing taller than 3 ft for miles in all directions. And as is common in such devastation, new growth pine trees, thick as can be. It was a 3 ft tall blanket of Pitch Pine trees. Eventually the forest will thin out and we'll see the more familiar 15 to 20 ft tall Pitch Pine Forest. It will be interesting to watch this grow over the next few years.

I was surprised at just how busy Rt 563 to Tuckerton was. It was heavier than I liked but not enough to worry about (this ain't Rt 206 between Pemberton and Hamminton). Once we reach Tuckerton we discovered that it was busy (not surprising). There is enough of a shoulder where it's not a problem but summer weekend traffic must be a nightmare. Once we reached our turn (Stage St) we were quickly out of the traffic and quickly back into the quiet Pine Barrens (nice). The forest down there was a quite a bit thicker. We crossed over several bridges over the Mullica and picked up the Longest Day route below the Green Bank Mullica Bridge. Lots of folks out fishing! We 'ran into' a cyclist in full mating colors riding a carbon time trial bike riding on the wrong side of the road (???). That was weird! As we started heading up towards Chatsworth we picked up a tail wind. One that would last most of the way home. In the Chatsworth Barrens we saw (and heard) a convoy of Corvettes, a group of motorcyclists who didn't know where they were going (Mark pointed them in the right direction). We checked out Mick's Canoe Rental and they're ready for us (they stay open until 5 PM). We also checked out the Ranger's Station. It looks like it will remain open, this is good news. In the end we averaged 17.8 mph had no problems with the route and enjoyed the day. Overall the Tuckerton ride is a keeper so I'll post that with my routes soon.

Beautiful weather for riding

What beautiful weather we had this weekend (Sat. 3/19 and Sun. 3/20). Saturday was the first day of spring and it reached a balmy 72F. Since early December we've had early snow storms, heavy accumulations, melt off, refreezing, flooding, and then heavy rains. It seems that every other week we had a change of weather to the opposite extreme. There are still many damaged and fallen trees in need of being cleaned up and many areas are still flooded or exhibit flood damage.

Despite all this we have been able to get out and do some riding. With all this on and off riding I've managed to pull a muscle in my quad. It seems to happen every year and I think I may have finally figured it out. It only happens when I push the pace up and it might be related to my habit of pedaling with my right foot toes down. I've found that this aggravates the tendons behind the knee and the muscle in the middle of the quad. So yesterday we go out for what was supposed to be a 50 mile ride. I really felt like doing a 72 mile ride to Pemberton. I did warn my riders that the speed would be less than the advertised mid 17's average. The ride turned into a 62 mile ride and the weather was most cooperative. Never did we hit a strong head wind. The sun shined the whole time, the birds sang, everything was ready to start budding. We kept a pretty good speed (mid 16's average) and I finished with no leg problems. I even went was far as riding today with the group out of Cranbury. We had another great day with the same wonderful weather. Still didn't have any leg problems. I am tired but I've put on over 110 miles in two days. Much more than the recommended 10%/week increase. :-)

I'm going to have to work out some additional exercises to help with the quad issue and take off some additional weight (yes, I'm also eating better). I've already started with the rest of my program. Still a few more days like this and I'll be in mileage heaven. I'm now looking forward to higher temperatures (I like it hot) and I hope to start commuting to work to build up mileage and improve my climbing. Turns out I more hills on my 40 mile commute than on the 210 mile Longest Day ride.

PS: Ah, I forgot this bit. I brought my new Tachyon Helmet Camera and put it on my handlebars. I had thought it was pointing upwards a bit but viewing the recordings showed it wasn't. I do have to devise a better mounting. It was allow to bounce around pretty good. As I've said before the camera works great. As I'm finding out the mount is a little tricky.