Moonlight Ramble -- Tour de Donut

Me and 1500 of Houston's fine cycling denizens went out at 2am on Sat night (ok Sun morning). It was a pretty cold ride. There were a lotta folks out there not used to riding in packs. I'm not great at pack riding myself-- but I'm alright at screeching "slowing" and "stopping" appropriately. Note to you Memorial Loop folks-- uhhh it would help if you'd do it too. I was almost in a pile up on the Ramble and tonight on the Loop.

I don't wanna be in a pile up. I have enough troubles without borrowing more.

Mister and I signed up for the Sun and Ski Sports MS 150 team. I was surprised no one from the Metro bike team signed up (besides us). There are some perks to the Sun and Ski thing, so I'm hoping we'll get good support. I'm aalso hoping we can fundraise money for it. We've each committed to raising $500/each.

Sunday is the Tour de Donut . http://www.tourdedonut.com/ There is a 28 mile race that Mister is doing. For each donut he consumes, it knocks 5 minutes off his time. He can, conceivably, finish before he starts. There is also a 55 mile route. I'm not racing. I am torn on whether or not I want to attempt the 55 mile ride or not.

The farthest I've gone is maybe 30 miles in a day. I'm averaging 12.5mph-- which is still slower than I want to be. I have no idea if this route is going to be hilly or not. I'm afraid I'll do the 55 mile route, get 30 miles and then use the SAG Wagon.

I've still got a few days to think about it. I know Mister will finish wayyyyyyyy before me. He will have to patiently wait in the parking lot for me to finish.

Moonlight Ramble Tonight

I'm excited, tonight is the Moonlight Ramble at 2am. The 2am thing is kind of scary-- I hope Idon't get hit by some drunk moron!

Weekend with no car- bike:1, jeans: 0

Hmmm. I did it. I only cheated a leetle by having pizza delivered Friday night. I stayed at the house pretty much all of Saturday. On Sunday I did several errands on the bike. Over all I think i was pretty successful. I kept wanting to start Christmas shopping, but since I don't have any panniers on my bike-- I was pretty much SOL. I alos got my jeans caught in the bike chain, and ripped them. Oops.

Random Good news:
I think I've lost another 1.5 inches on my waist since October 1st!
I am cleared from my knee doctor to train for the MS 150-- and he is muy impressed with my mad cycling skills!

Finish Line Girls Sculpture
http://www.terrybicycles.com/detail.html?item_no=7447254
I am totally in love with this sculpture from Terry Bicycles. I simply adore it.

2 mile challenge- so far- sort of good

OK, so I biked to breakfast yesterday. I worked from home. Then I walked to the bar, and had a couple of pints and then walked home. Then I had a pizza delivered. Um, that was sort of not cheating about the car thing. I didn't drive anywhere!! So today (after eating the pizza), I plan on tootling around quite a bit. After I get cleaned up.

I wish I had a map of the bike routes in my area, so I can avoid major streets. Gah! It is scary out there, and I really tend to defer to Mister's expertise. Part of the reason I'm glad he is out of town, is that maybe I will learn to trust my instincts. That is hard!!!

Clif Bar 2 mile challenge- modified

I've been hemming and hawing about starting a new household rule. Bicycling to anything less than 5 miles away. So far, I haven't done it. I mean, sometimes I run errands on my bike-- but most of the time, no. Living in Houston is kind of a challenge, since it is not so bike friendly. I think I heard once that owning a Ford F150 is a status symbol, not a BMW.

Poking around the other day, I found a Clif Bar Challenge. http://2milechallenge.com/home.html They want people to bike all their errands that are 2 miles or less. They even help you Google Map the area so you can see all the super cool things you can do on bike. Lucky for me I live in Montrose, a pretty hip neighborhood with plenty of local stuff. The only thing is that I wish Google Maps would help me find the smaller side streets, or bike routes, since I'm not quite ready to tackle cycling on Westheimer or Montrose or other bigger streets.

Here's the deal. Mister is going out of town this weekend. I'm working from home on Friday. I have decided this weekend I'm all bike, all the time. If I go anywhere it will be on bicycle or on foot. (I'd look dumb biking to the bar around the corner.) This is the 3 days that I will see how this works out. It might make me housebound. It might make me thinner. It might make me braver! Besides, I'll make sure to stop at Specs on my way home tonight so I can have some tequila on hand. Margaritas and scary movies are definitely on the agenda! Unfortunately, Mister is taking the camera-- so I won't be able to photo all the interesting sights I will see.

Let's talk cycling gear

I am frustrated at how expensve this hobby is becoming. I dropped over $1000 just on the bike! The clothes are upsetting me -- as I do not want to spend $70+ on a jersey I hope to shrink out of in a few months. Also, let's face it-- the fat chick's jerseys are definitely form over fashion. I have prowled online and found some good links. The team jersey I am currently using is a men's XXXL. Is it so wrong I want something cute and orangey to match my bike?

For plus sized clothes I have found this site to be fun and helpful: http://www.beautypluspower.com/ Lisa knows her schtuff!! She has a whole section devoted to athletic apparel.

Lisa sent me over to Terry Bicycles http://www.terrybicycles.com/ Their stuff seems kinda cute. I managed to find some Terry full length tights through another site on clearance. The tights rock! The other cycling shorts are some I inherited from the formerly fat Mister. My fat squishes out the top and the bottom of them. I am not especially impressed with the padding either. (REI brand cheapish shorts).

Another product I adore is Chamois Butt'r. Buy yourself a giant tube, and then the "trial packs" are fabulous for tossing into your jersey pocket. http://www.athletegift.com/products/chamoisbuttr.htm

I tried the Body Glide stuff, and found that IMHO it does nothing for the chub rub. http://www.gotbody.com/public/b_SHOP_BY_BRAND/BODYGLIDE$1924/p_BODYGLIDE_ANTI-BLISTER__CHAFING_STICK$BGREG.aspx

If anyone has any suggested places I can get cheapish jerseys for my chubby self-- I'm all ears! Thanks!!

26 miles on Saturday

We went out to George Bush Park on Saturday. The team did about 23 miles. Mister and I pushed and did a whopping 26 miles. I am officially a week ahead in my training goals. I love that feeling.

We are now officially registered for the Moonlight Ramble. I am very excited, as it means I must buy a new light for my bike. Don't want me to get run over.


P.S. In Weight Watcher's news I lost 3lbs this week. I like that game!

Ugh, cancelled ride

We signed up for the First Capital Ride in West Columbia, TX on October 28th. http://www.wchbt.com/

Then we were also planning on doing the Moonlight Ramble that night at 2am. http://www.totem-media.com/bikehouston/BH2007MBRflyer.pdf

It was going to be a momentous cycling day for me. 47 miles of self-propelled action! Alas, the First Capital one was cancelled. *snarl* That has been the sort of day I am having.


It also looks like Mister and I are the only ones from our Metro Bike Team to sign up and do the MS 150. I was hoping more people would do it-- but I know it is a huge committment and costs a bunch of money. We're thinking of joining a local store's team to get extra training rides in, have support while we're out, and "private bathrooms" in LeGrange.

By the way, if you're curious about this BP MS 150 ride that I'm all hot to trot on, here is a link: http://www.ms150.org/ms150/

It looks like registration is closed now. I'm very glad we signed up early! Now on to raising money for it, training for it, and following through on it!

Getting to know me.

This is me after one of my first successfully completed event ride. I biked 24 hilly miles. Sorry if my pic is huge and frightening.

This is my Mister Tinkerham. He did the 60 mile route.

This is the Jamis Ventura Elite I ride. It is orange, and obnoxious looking- just like me.

This is the silly logo I made up for myself.


Why did I name it Team Tinkerham? Well, I seem to kind of be everyone's pet fat cyclist. I am reveling in it, too. It also seems to me that it will probably be a team effort to raise the money for the MS Society, get my hiney from Houston to Austin, and generally look after my well being.