42

Today is 42! Yesterday was 38!

Today is one of 36 dates in the last 11 years that can be confused with a binary number and converted into decimal. Today is 42 in both American and European style dates.

That is, the date, as we usually express it in the US, can be read as if it were a binary number, rather than a date. This is not a conversion, we have to mis-read it as binary.

Most dates cannot be read in binary because they contain digits other than 0 and 1. My birthday,  11/18/63 could not be. It's got all those 8s & 3s and 6s which have no meaning in binary. Binary, base 2, has only two digits available, 0 and 1.  Another system, decimal, base 10, which we are more familiar with which has 10 digits available, zero through nine. (Actually the "di" in digit refers to base 10 (decimal) so that is not an accurate term to use with binary, but it helps to explain it. The correct word for binary digits, is BITS.)

First lets take apart a decimal number for an example: 7703. We know instinctively how big that number is: about eight thousand, or more specifically, it is almost eight times ten times ten times ten. In decimal, when we run out of digits, we increment the next column. When we have counted to 10 by ones, we increment the 10s column to indicate one ten, and we start over at zero with the ones. When we run out of 10s we increment the 100s and then the 1000s. So when we read it, or rather when we do math with it, we are actually reading this:
3 ones
0 tens
7 hundreds (10 to the 2nd, or 10 x 10)
7 thousands (10 to the 3rd, or 10 x 10 x 10)

We add that all up to get the total value represented by that number.

Now let's take today's date apart. In the US we express the date as month-day-year, which for today, Sunday October 10, 2010, we get 10/10/10. If we drop the dividers, that's 101010. It's not actually a binary number, but it looks like one. It's not a decimal number either, it's a combination of bases, but if we were to take it and read it in decimal it would translate like this:

0 one (10 to the 0th, or 1 x 1)
1 ten (10 to the 1st, or 10 x 1)
0 hundreds (10 to the 2nd, or 10 x 10)
1 thousand (10 to the 3rd, or 10 x 10 x 10)
0 ten thousand (10 to the 4th, or 10 x 10 x 10 x 10)
1 hundred thousands (10 to the 5th, or 10 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10)

0+10+0+1000+0+100,000 = one hundred one thousand and ten.

We do that instinctively with decimal.  We can do the same thing in binary, but we don't have ten digits to play with, only two!  So 101010 is

0 one (2 to the 0th, or 1 x 1)
1 two (2 to the 1st, or 2 x 1)
0 fours (2 to the 2nd, or 2 x 2
1 eight (2 to the 3rd, or 2 x 2 x 2)
0 sixteen (2 to the 4th, or 2 x 2 x 2 x 2)
1 thirty-twos (2 to the 5th, or 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2)

0+2+0+8+0+32 = 10+32 = 42

The powers of two have become more familiar to us recently because computers use them, so the sequence of values: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024..... up to 65536 are numbers that appear frequently in computer related topics.

If we render the date in the European style dd mm yy rather than mm dd yy we would get the same thing today, but something different most days.

The first date that works this was was Jan 1, 2000, it converts to 20 (5 in Europe). The last date that will work is Nov 11, 2011 which converts to 63 in both Europe and the USA.

It is of course arbitrary to choose one base or another. It's just fun because it LOOKS like a binary number, which that doesn't happen often and it converts into a fairly small (two digit) decimal number. We had a few days in January, October & November 2000, 2001 and 2010 that worked, and a few more in 2011, then no more for 89 years.

We could, of course read today's date 101010 in an infinite number of other bases.

In trinary (base 3), 101010 is 0+3+0+27+0+243 = 273 decimal.
or in octal (base 8) it's 33,288 decimal
or duodecimal (base 12) it's 250,572 decimal
or hexadecimal (base 16) it's1,052,688  decimal
or in base 72 it's 1,935,290,952 decimal
and in base 296 it's 2,272,288,717,608 decimal!


Here's the list of all the dates and the result when we mis-read it as binary.

date US style	binary		date Euro style	binary
01/01/2000	20		01.01.2000	5
01/10/2000	24		10.01.2000	6
01/11/2000	28		11.01.2000	7
10/01/2000	36		01.10.2000	9
10/10/2000	40		10.10.2000	10
10/11/2000	44		11.10.2000	11
11/01/2000	52		01.11.2000	13
11/10/2000	56		10.11.2000	14
11/11/2000	60		11.11.2000	15
01/01/2001	21		01.01.2001	21
01/10/2001	25		10.01.2001	22
01/11/2001	29		11.01.2001	23
10/01/2001	37		01.10.2001	25
10/10/2001	41		10.10.2001	26
10/11/2001	45		11.10.2001	27
11/01/2001	53		01.11.2001	29
11/10/2001	57		10.11.2001	30
11/11/2001	61		11.11.2001	31
01/01/2010	22		01.01.2010	37
01/10/2010	26		10.01.2010	38
01/11/2010	30		11.01.2010	39
10/01/2010	38		01.10.2010	41
10/10/2010	42		10.10.2010	42
10/11/2010	46		11.10.2010	43
11/01/2010	54		01.11.2010	45
11/10/2010	58		10.11.2010	46
11/11/2010	62		11.11.2010	47
01/01/2011	23		01.01.2011	53
01/10/2011	27		10.01.2011	54
01/11/2011	31		11.01.2011	55
10/01/2011	39		01.10.2011	57
10/10/2011	43		10.10.2011	58
10/11/2011	47		11.10.2011	59
11/01/2011	55		01.11.2011	61
11/10/2011	59		10.11.2011	62
11/11/2011	63		11.11.2011	63

How Many Monkeys

Every week at the Thursday Night Volunteer Repair Parties at Bike Works, we put down the tools for a few minutes to introduce ourselves and chat a little. There is always a question for each person to answer to help get to know people, to get us talking. Usually it's a bicycling question, but not always. Sometimes it's very serious, other times funny, often it's about a favorite food or favorite ride.

A couple of weeks ago a volunteer named John asked the group this question:
How many monkeys do you think there are in the world?

It was a fun question.

There were guesses as high as 3 billion and as low as 100,000. Most people guessed between 5 and 80 million. I guessed "under one million". But here's the thing: John doesn't know the real answer, he just uses it as an ice breaker.

 Well, this data geek couldn't let that THAT go... so when i got home i started searching and creating a data model. I surveyed the primate fact sheets at animal info.org and the Univ of Wisc Primate Info Net. I included some mathematically modeled estimates since some species don't have detailed population numbers on the factsheets, but the numbers seem pretty solid.

There are three genii of primates: Lemurs, Monkeys (distinguished by having a tail) and Apes (distinguished by not having a tail). I have removed one of the species of ape from the totals, and have listed it as separate category: Homo sapiens.

There are 67 species of monkey. I found primate fact sheets on 24 of those species (18 of which are endangered).  There are currently 826,166 individuals among those 24 species. Mathematically modeling (using the median), for the species missing fact sheets, gives an estimated total of about 950,000 monkeys in the world.

There are 15 species of ape (excluding humans). I found primate fact sheets on 10 of those species (9 of which are endangered). There are currently 691,525 individuals among those 10 species. Mathematically modeling (using the median), for the species missing fact sheets, gives an estimated total of about 810,000 apes in the world.

There are 24 species of lemur. I found primate fact sheets on 4 of those species (almost all of the 24 are critically endangered). Among those 4 species there are currently 51,180 individuals. Mathematically modeling (using the median) for the species missing fact sheets gives an estimated total of about 100,000 lemurs in the world.

There are roughly 7,100,000,000 humans in the world.

So i found that there are several answers to John's question. How Many monkeys are there in the world?

• 950,000 - if we use only the genus Monkey.
  
• 1,750,000 - using the standard colloquial definition, (monkeys and non-human apes).
  
• including Lemurs, there are just under 2 million non-human primates in the world.
  

It's very disturbing to me that on this planet for every monkey there are about 3,800 human beings!!!

	distinction	species w #	species	actual count	est total (using median)
monkeys	have tail	24	67	826,166	950,000
apes	no tail	10	14	691,525	810,000
total		34	81	1,517,691	1,760,000
lemurs	3rd family	4	24	51,180	100,000
humans	apes			7,100,000,000	7,100,000,000

A Hard year on The Divide

(originally published on Kent's Bike Blog in June 2010.
While Kent was away racing the Great Divide Mountain Bike Race, i was substitute blogger.)

The most important thing anyone has ever told me is what my camp director Tay Gillespie repeated constantly when i was a kid: "Happiness is a path, not a destination." As i've rolled through life since then i've discovered frequently that she was correct. I can't seem to always live by those words, but i've never heard better advice.

This is a very challenging year on the Divide, due mostly to lots and lots of mud, but also to cold. I spoke to Kent yesterday and he said that he's in as good or better riding shape than 5 years ago. But the trail is in worse shape.

The snow and mud not only slow riders down, often to the 24 inch gear (2 feet, aka walking), but the deepest mud can strip off derailleurs, break chains, snap spokes, trash brakes, and just generally clog the bike to the point of making it luggage, a load to be carried rather than the most elegant transportation.

It took Kent 4 days to cover what took 3 days in 2005. Most of the other veterans are experiencing a similarly longer ride, and most of the Rookies are staggered and amazed.

An awfully lot of them, including some still riding, were not NEARLY as well prepared for this race as Kent was. Over a dozen racers have dropped out, so far. (More than 1/4 of the starting contingent.) Many dropped out because of the physical challenge - it's a REALLY hard race; some have had equipment failures. But for most, it was mental. The goal paled against the challenge of the road.

Kent stressed that he's having a great time -- just talking to him made me wish i was there riding with him. He's riding, and walking, hard. He is motivated by the finish line, but he's enjoying his trip through the mountains. He's gaining strength from the fantastic scenery.

About the fast guys way out front, he said, and i will quote in full: "holy cow".

This is a race, have no doubt, and Kent is pushing himself hard. He's got goals and dreams of the finish. But the Mountain Turtle knows, and constantly remembers my camp director's mantra. It's about the road. Who knows what the destination will be.

Kent is enjoying the road. Every time i have ridden with Kent over the years, he has embodied this philosophy (although he's never stated it in those words). That's the key that makes it so much fun to ride with him. He enjoys the ride, the road, the path. And that's why he's such a good Divide racer.

Hasten Slowly Mountain Turtle!

Mark

tidal cycles - waves around the world

I made these pretty charts and learned something about the tides from them. I really like them, they seem like art to me, and i didn't really know what to do with them, so i figured i'd post them here.

This started initially with an observation that the summer highest tides seemed to be always right around lunchtime, while the winter highest tides were around midnight.

Here in Seattle we have a 16 foot daily tidal range -- large enough to be very noticeable. We are on a fjord called The Salish Sea or Puget Sound; it is teaming with life: at low tide it is fascinating to wander the intertidal zone and see the crabs, mollusks, fish, plants and even octopi that live at the edge of the underwater world. A biologist friend and i often gave guided tide tours to travelers at the lowest tides, so i was alert to what time these tides happen.

The extremes happen during the 2 or 3 full or new moons closest to the solstice. That means that once in May, once in June and once in July. And also once in November, once in December and once in January.

The lowest and highest tides happen on the same day! It's pretty amazing to walk a couple hundred meters from 'shore' on the sand and rocks, knowing that in just 6 hours the water will be three times my height deep where i am! The entire fjord fills up really fast. That's a lot of water.

I tend to think of the highest high tides being in the winter and the lowest low tides being in the summer, but that may have more to do with what i see in daylight. And THAT gets me to the question i had...

Tides vary significantly from tide height to tide height and from day to day, month to month. A detailed tide table, made using very complex math, is required to predict a tide for any day.

There are four tides a day, a high high and a lower high, a low low and a higher low, although because the cycle is not exactly timed to 24 hours (i think it's 28 hours) every few days one tide is missed. The tide tables are sine waves, showing the tide rising a falling.

Every year when we would plan our low tide walks, we would consult the tide tables to find out at what time the lowest tides each month would be. And after about 10 years i noticed that those super low tides in May, June & July were always right around mid-day.

So i wondered, is that a rule of the system? Is it just a coincidence of Seattle's location (47 degrees latitude), of era (1990s & 2000s), or is there something that governed that.

Tides are caused by a gravity interplay of the three body system of the sun, the moon and the earth. They effect our bodies and the rocks and mountains, but in such tiny amounts that it is not noticeable. However water is both fluid and heavy and there's a lot of it. The moon's pull, the sun's pull and the force of the earth swinging around the sun sloshes the oceans around, keeping big bumps of water underneath the moon and the sun, and opposite the sun (from the swing).

Tide is also effected by latitude (because the earth is tilted, tides are smaller near the equator) and by the depth and shape of various inlets.

I have several good tide prediction websites that i regularly use, notablyNOAA and the WWW Tide Predictor at the University of South Carolina. I

Initially i got data from both places, but i wanted to be consistent and i really like the US National Oceanic an Atmospheric Administration, so i used only data from there. I picked 28 sites around the world. I tried to get a good spread, but i can't say this is random in any way; i leaned towards places i had visited or knew of and i only picked 28 data points.

I used the tides data for two years, from both 2010 and 2011 superimposed on each other to get  fuller and more consistent data.  That's a couple thousand tides (about 4 per day 730 days) for each site!   I graphed only the most extreme tides, and color coded them according to season.

The graphs helped me to answer my question.  This phenomenon is pretty much world wide, it's not unique to Seattle.  The highest highs in the winter and summer are about 12 hours apart, and the lowest lows the same.  Some places it's not noon and midnight, but the pattern is the same. (Studying the physics of tidal motion further i was able to determine those super low tides in the summer will in fact always be around mid-day, and the super-highs in the winter around mid-day.)

I was finished with the graphs, but i found that the images were so beautiful i wanted to keep them.

Here they are, arranged from south to north, regardless of longitude. I hid the spring and fall and only plotted the summer (pink) and winter (blue) tides. You'll notice a solid line through each graph, that's the mean low tide line, or zero. The scale changes, often enormously, from graph to graph. I am not trying to compare the amplitude of tides from place to place, only the patterns, so i chose a different  scale for each graph so they are all comparable in size.

Davis, Antarctica

Ushuaia, Argentina

Lady Barron Harbour, Tasmania, Australia

Omaio Bay, Motunui Island, New Zealand

Sydney, Australia

Durban, South Africa

Fortaleza, Brazil

Port Royal, Isla Roatan, Honduras

Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico

Hilo Bay, Hilo, Hawaii

Isigaki, Okinawa

Key West, Florida

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Charlston, South Carolina

Inner Harbor, Long Beach, California

Coney Island, New York, New York

Tokati, Hokkaido, Japan

Casco Bay, Portland, Maine

Skipanon River, Warrenton, Oregon

St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada

Seattle, Washington

Dover, England

Llandudno, Gwynedd, Wales

West-Terschelling, Netherlands

Zehnerloch, Germany

Wick, Scotland

Leaf Bay, Ungava, Bay, Quebec

Knik Arm, Cook Inlet, Anchorage, Alaska

Perfectionism and the "Good Enough" gauge

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the inability to be satisfied -- although that can be frustrating.

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the unwillingness to start things because you could never do it well enough -- although that's terribly deblitating.

The problem with perfectionism is NOT the cutting yourself off from everyone and everything that is not perfect, since nothing is -- although that is so destructive.

No, the problem with perfectionism is not having the ability to judge good enough.

We all have an inbuilt gauge of what is good enough. Call it the sufficient gland, or the appropriate gauge, the satisfactory meter, or the acceptable index or whatever. Is 75% good enough, 65%? 90%, 10%?

Many people have a fairly well calibrated acceptable index. The rest of us envy them. Some peoples' gauges, are clearly set far too low, and we are all annoyed with those people. And other peoples' are set annoyingly high.

But with perfectionists, the gauge is pegged at the top, full-on all the time. There is no variation, it never reads anything different so it is USELESS, leaving that person with NO GAUGE of 'good enough' AT ALL.

You either stupidly stare at the gauge, and everything will always fall below the topped out meter, so nothing is ever good enough, or, with awareness of the malfunction, you ignore the gauge and have to GUESS what is satisfactory with no guide or ruler at all. It makes it really, really, REALLY hard to judge anything in any part of your day, in any part of your life.

How many flaws can i allow in someone i'm dating? Is alcoholism too much? My 'good enough' gauge is pegged so i'm in the dark. When can i stop working so people will think i've done enough. How many times do i need to re-edit that piece about perfectionism that i wrote before i can show it to someone. And on and on.

Insult by Punctuation

Punctuation can entirely change the meaning of a sentence.   We've all seen their (possessive) when the writer meant they are.
 
There is an advertising campaign that's plastered the Seattle area for the last couple of  years, mostly on bus signs, that i find annoying because of bad punctuation.   Actually it's not annoying so much as incomprehensible.  I don't know who the ad it is for, i think it's an insurance company.  It says

                We're a lot like you.
                A Little Different.

The punctuation is completely wrong. They put a period between the two phrases.  Since it's obviously wrong you have to try to figure out what the correct punctuation should be and substitute that, only then can you understand it.  They leave that up to the reader.  Most people do that unconsciously but because i have Aspergers and i'm a bit obsessive, i'm very conscious of it every time i see it.

Honestly, the problem isn't that it's wrong, that's no big deal; the problem is that there are two different possible ways to punctuate it correctly and so there are two very different ways to understand it.  There is no way to know which is the intended one, and they have very significantly different meanings.

One meaning is very insulting, the other invokes a bit of camaraderie.  The first dozen times or so that i saw the advertisement i read it the insulting way.  Even now when i read it, the insulting way seems the more likely based on how it's written.

That period is wrong.

What should it be? It cannot be a period because the second phrase is not a complete sentence; it can't be a semi-colon for the same reason. So the only possibilities are: a comma, or a colon. 

The more uncommon, academic way of reading it would be with a colon.  I suspect this is the one they intended, even though it's a more rare use, and most people would be less likely to default to that.

     We are a lot like you: a little different.

Which means --  We are all in the same boat, and together we're special, not quite like those other people.


The more common, more readily understandable way to read it would be with the comma.   It would say:

       We are a lot like you, a little different.

Which means -- "Well, we may be a bit odd, but not as weird as you are! We're not that strange!!"

Every time i see it i think they are telling me (and everyone around me) that we're too weird for them.

Gaining Elevation During Lunch

This was written by request for Washington Trails, and was published in the March-April 2010 Issue.  The magazine is a publication of of Washington Trails Association. I volunteer for WTA in a number of capacities.  


I sat on the ridge high above the Hoh River at High Divide looking across the gorgeous valley to Mount Olympus. This was my reward after a very steep hike.  I slowly ate my lunch while enjoying the afternoon clouds. I glanced at my altimeter, which told me that I was climbing fast despite having been sitting on a rock for half an hour. I jumped up and hiked quickly back down to the lake basin. I got back to camp in time: I was in the tent when the downpour started.

Why did I dash for camp?  My altimeter had given me a clue that a storm was rolling in.  Altimeters use barometric pressure - the weight of the column of air above you, pressing down on you - to calculate your elevation; or more specifically, they use the CHANGE in pressure. Weather forecasters also use the change in barometric pressure. Rising pressure means clear weather ahead, falling pressure means storms. (The lowest pressures ever measured are in the eyes of hurricanes!)

My altimeter was unaware I had stopped hiking. Since I knew I hadn't actually gained any elevation over my lunch break, I judged that the weather was changing instead -- a storm was coming up the Hoh Valley.

In a good old tube barometer, barometric pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury. Normal sea level is 760mm, meaning that the weight of the air at sea level can lift mercury, which is pretty heavy, 76 centimeters (it can lift water 10.3 meters!). Other familiar sea level measures of barometric pressure are: 29.92 inches of mercury, 14.696 Pounds Per Square Inch and 1013.25 millibars; all equal to 760mm.

Have you ever drained a soft plastic water bottle on a peak, and once you got down to the trail head, hundreds or thousands of feet below, the water bottle looked like it had been crushed by a giant's hand?  It is actually crushed by the air outside the bottle.  The pressure inside is from elevation..  That's because the air pressure is lower at higher elevations, that column of air above you is not as thick.  That's why it is harder to breathe on a high mountain!

For the altimeter to work correctly, you have to tell your altimeter where you are starting. Altimeters detect the change in the air pressure and calculate your elevation change based on a KNOWN SETTING, called the calibration. Before leaving home I calibrate mine to my home on Capitol Hill which I know is at 322 feet.  I often calibrate it again at the trailhead or elsewhere when there is a sign indicating the elevation. The more often you calibrate the more accurate the reading is.

In an altimeter an altitude reading works AGAINST the barometer reading. That is, when there is a change in the pressure it is EITHER a change in the elevation of the unit, or a change in the weather.  Modern altimeters tend to be very good at guessing if a change in pressure is weather, or elevation, but it is still just a guess.  So you have to think about it when you look at the readout. For example, I woke up one morning during an extremely rainy night in the North Cascades and discovered that, according to my altimeter, my tent had gained 280 feet while I slept. I was pretty sure my tent had not been climbing by itself, usually I have to carry it.

Modern GPS units have an elevation component which works by using satellite timing rather than air pressure. They are not as accurate as barometric altimeters, but they are getting better.  You can check one against the other.  The GPS elevation is not susceptible to changes in the weather but it is less accurate than an altimeter using barometric pressure.

An altimeter can be pretty handy thing to have in the in the backcountry.  I use the altimeter when reading a map to get an idea of which topo line i am actually standing on; it's like having a third dimension for the map! Hikers (and cyclists) use them to gauge the amount of climbing on a day's hike or ride, and therefore the difficulty.  Skiers use altimeters to determine how far they have descended on a run, and even to count how many runs they've made.  I've even used it to report the location of an injury when a party i encountered needed a rescue.

Just for fun, here are some calibration points around Washington for you:  (all are in feet above sea level)

•      33 Lake Samamish State Park (boat ramp)
•      39 Puyallup Fair Grounds
•      112 Tatoosh Island (lighthouse base)
•      117 Washington State Capitol (north door)
•      117 Pike Place Market (Rachel the Pig)
•      272 Rainbow Falls State Park
•      481 Hanford (main building)
•      482 Salish Lodge
•      520 Space Needle (observation deck)
•      569 Maryhill (Stonehenge)
•   1,047 Pot Holes Reservoir
•   1,310 Grand Coulee Dam (top)
•   1,768 Winthrop (main street)
•   2,368 Mt Constitution (lookout)
•   4,314 Johnston Ridge Visitor's Center (Mt St Helens)
•   4,551 Upper Lena Lake
•   4,790 Rainy Lake (SR 20)
•   5,858 Mt Spokane Lookout
•   6,409 Sunrise Ranger Station
• 14,410 Columbia Crest (Mt Rainier)

The Ultimate Cycling Food

I was riding with a great bunch of tree-huggers on Boxing Day.

Most of the time i'm middle of the pack, but this bunch was fast, i was the second slowest; and midway through our 64 hilly miles the slowest guy got dropped. It was fast, but it was fun. Right after we dropped the guy from Kansas (Vashon is not flat!), we came to the highway and turned left. Jon, who had never been on Vashon Island before asked which way the food was. He sighed when Kent said that it was the other way. I needed food too, but i didn't say anything. I usually eat almonds or granola bars on the bike, but my pockets were empty.

It took a little extra effort, but i stayed with the group on the loop south and back around on West Side Highway. When we turned back north, Brad turned off to catch the ferry from the south point of the island. I was having a really great time but eventually it happened: i bonked. And it was a serious dropping-off-the-cliff bonk; one minute i was powering up the hill with these randonneurs and 4 minutes later i could barely the turn the cranks a flat half mile to the highway.

They waited for me. On the last hill up into town Mark rode up next to me, put his hand on the small of my back and just pushed me up the hill. I really don't know how i would've made it otherwise. I was extremely thankful, but i could only grunt one word: "Milkshake".

At the top of the hill Jon and Kent were standing there pointing to a sign on a quaint little local burger bar. The sign said: "Come in and eat or we'll both starve!" Even forgetting the economy for a moment i found that to be very deep. It was advice that none of us could resist.


In addition to a garden burger and fries, i got my milkshake. It made me happy, but more importantly, it brought me back.

Once we were at the table stuffing our faces i explained why i believe Milkshakes are the ultimate cycling food.

First of all it's got fat. Fat is the oak log of energy. It burns slow and it burns long. This might not be so great if you're sitting at a desk, in a car or on the couch, but it's exactly what you want on the bike. It stays with you. For most people a milkshake will continue to fuel you for about 35 miles. For me it's about 20, but i'm weird.

Second, it's got sugar. Simple sucrose. This is the kindling, the fast burning twigs and paper of energy. It burns very quickly; you feel it almost instantly. (It goes away very fast too!) So if you're starting to drag, it gives you power to sprint down the road, if you're bonking, like i was, it restores you.

Third it's got lactose which is a complex sugar, about half the way to a carbohydrate. It's a medium burner, the dry pine log of energy, and will last longer than the sucrose.

And as the American Dairy council never misses a chance of telling us, milk has protein. Not only does that help restore overused muscles, but it helps to create the enzymes that regulate how quickly the energy, the glucose, is fed in to your bloodstream over time. It regulates your fuel flow.

Of course a milkshake also has fluids which you always need on the bike, no one ever drinks enough. And it's easy and quick to consume, i've even carried them in my bottle cage!

All of that is really important, but there are two other very important reasons why milkshakes are the ultimate bicycling food. They taste good. This sounds basic, but it's actually really key. I don't know how many times i've seen folks, even some who were actually bonking, holding on to a Power Bar, a gel, or some other gross non-food. But they weren't eating it, they were staring at it, and that doesn't fuel your body. So tasting good is great because you eat it: you actually consume it, probably quickly; and you finish it.

And lastly, in the US at least, you can find a milkshake almost anywhere. Every town, no matter how small, is going to have a restaurant, burger bar or establishment of some sort where you can get a milkshake, often a good one. Even between towns on the lonely roads there is often a possibility. This might be the most important feature. Showing up is 80%. If it's not there, it can't fuel you. Milkshakes are great fuel, they are yummy and they show up.

The rest of the day i rode hard. I had half the milkshake at the burger bar and the other half went in my bottle cage for me to enjoy on the ferry. We rode until the shadows were long. It was a good day.

Photos from the Boxing Day ride

I did a wonderful ride on frosty roads on Vashon Island Saturday. Kent wrote about it.

Burma road was one of the most glorious roads i've ever been on, and in the icy conditions it was exciting.  Undoubtedly a hazing ritual for the Kansan.

I've got a more in depth post coming, but i wanted to get some of the nicer photos up.

Mark Van De Camp greets the Olympic Mountain sunrise from the ferry.

Liam Moriarty is in awe of Burma Road.

We stopped at the famous Vashon Island Tree Bike.

Tree Huggers!!  Tom, Liam, me Jon, Kent, Brad, Mark

Jon, Liam, Tom, Brad & Mark hug the tree just to prove Kent's son right.

Burma Road

Sunshine and mist, quiet roads, calm water, and sea lions.

Mark Van De Camp and Kent Peterson on the frosty pier.

Brad Hawkins contemplates the calm Salish Sea.

Tom Moriarty and his brother Liam enjoy the exercycle artwork on the edge of the water.

I'm racing Liam Moriarty!

 
Brad, Jon, Mark, Liam, Kent & Tom at our mid-day stop at the Robinson Point Lighthouse.

new annual milage record

I really don't want to be a mileage weeny. I want to not care about miles ridden at all. But i do. I'm naturally a statistic fanatic, i love numbers, i love math, i love playing with numbers, i love making graphs, and i always have. Tracking my bike miles comes naturally to me. I try not to be too obsessed with it, and i try to use numbers to observe and record what i DO, rather than do things to effect the numbers.

Mostly these days i track my mileage by the month rather than the day. I find it a more relaxed way, a compromise i guess. I've found a way to mount my cyclometer underneath my handlebars so i can't see it while i'm riding. I only reset it on the first of the month. I reset it yesterday, so i was aware of what happened today while riding home from Gene's house in Bremerton.

I passed my all time annual mileage record of 3,450 set back in 1980! I outrode my 16 year old self!! I have to admit i'm very excited.



In looking at the significant increase in my miles recently, i have to wonder why. I think i have discovered that there was an important change in my riding style. When i moved to Seattle in 1992 i had only the one bike, a Bridgstone RB-T, which i loved. It was a touring bike, kind of a cyclocross bike, but i had it set up as a road bike and used it really only as a road bike. I quickly found that i didn't like riding it in the city. It didn't feel like the right bike for conditions. Once i realized that i wasn't riding regularly, i gave in and bought a second bike, a Univega Rover -- a basic hardtail mountain bike with slick tires, i called it my Urban Assault Vehicle and i loved zipping around the city, hopping curbs, skirting along gravel trails and what not.

I soon noticed that my annual mileage jumped significantly. I was riding more. That was good. I had two bikes for different conditions. I had a transportation bike and a recreation bike. I had a bike that i hopped on with whatever shoes and clothing i was wearing, and a bike where i had to wear the right shoes, clothes, everything. I continued in that system for about 15 years. I had one bike that i used only for 40 miles or longer, and another that i used for 3 to 12 mile rides.

Last year i set up my Bianchi Volpe as a regular riding bike. It's a great bike, technically a cyclecross bike, it combines the best aspects of a road bike and a city bike, a mountain bike and a racing bike. It's durable, fast, comfortable. For the first year i had it i didn't really have it set up for me. It wasn't comfortable, it didn't feel right. But once i put some work into it, put a new stem on it, made it fit me and my riding style, i started riding it.

The real change happened when my Univega frame cracked in November 2007. After that the Bianchi became my primary bike. It quickly became my primary city bike, but since it is so comfortable and versatile, i slowly started using it as my primary road bike too. AND it goes off road on trails too.


Here's that same graph as above, only color coded by bicycle.



I think the biggest difference, the thing that most caused that big jump in mileage this year was getting rid of the distance restrictions on my bikes. Before, with one bike for 40-100 miles and one for 0-10, i didn't have any way to ride 10-35 mile rides. So... i didn't do any. Now most of my rides are in that range. More flexibility, more riding, more often. I like it.



I even sold the Bridgestone, so i am a one bike guy again. Sure, i sometimes wish i had a folding bike, or a neighborhood cruiser, or a hard core mountain bike, a feather light event bike or a big old cargo bike; and it's always nice to have a backup -- if something goes wrong. But i like just having one bike, it more reflects the way i live, my philosophy.

I'm not suffering, this bike does it all, and does it pretty well. It's a cargo bike, a city bike, a road bike, a touring bike, a neighborhood bike, a mountain bike. And i've found that having one bike, no choice, get on and ride, one bike that does everything, means that i ride more often. And that's good.