The Oracle of Apollo
Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

Happy Birthday, Jody. You’d be 28 today. If I could, I’d get you a cake with candles a mile long.

Actually, I kind of did. Since you can’t eat cake and I don’t eat cake, I thought about what I could do instead. A mile long. How about a mile of asphalt, Jo? And, instead of putting them on your birthday cake, which neither of us can eat, I thought I’d go ahead and add them to my mileage chart in your memory. To wit:

28.16 mi in 1:37:36 (17.3 mph avg / 29.5 mph max)

I decided that I couldn’t do your 28 birthday miles at a half-assed pace, so I went ahead and destroyed my 2004 average speed record for you. I also broke my 2004 single-ride distance record. And I’m happy to tell you that your birthday miles have put my May chart over 300 miles.

I hope this makes up for the fact that I was too wimpy and broke to do your big ride this year. The year after next, we’ll try and throw you a really nice 30th birthday party in Alamogordo.

Mon 26 Apr: 10.34 mi;   40:56 (15.8 mph avg / 23.0 mph max)
Tue 27 Apr: 12.24 mi;   46:47 (15.6 mph avg / 29.5 mph max) [4400.0 odo]
Wed 28 Apr: 14.40 mi;   52:08 (16.6 mph avg / 27.0 mph max)
Thu 29 Apr: 15.33 mi;   55:40 (16.5 mph avg / 28.5 mph max)
Fri 30 Apr: 17.67 mi; 1:06:39 (15.9 mph avg / 40.0 mph max)
Sat 01 May: 17.67 mi; 1:06:41 (15.9 mph avg / 40.0 mph max)
Week 17   : 87.65 mi; 5:28:51 (16.0 mph avg / 40.0 mph max)

I was, originally, a little worried about making my goal this year. My riding goal for 2004 is 4000 miles. This is week 17. As of the end of Saturday’s ride, I have 373.81 miles on my chart. This leaves 3626.19 miles left this year. There are 35 more weeks left this year. 3626.19 / 35 = 103.61 miles a week.

I just did some math a little bit ago and determined that, if I follow my 10% Focused Training Schedule and extend it another three weeks (so my last ride is over 100 miles long), I will get almost five thousand miles. So, I should be okay.

Sure feels good to be getting some miles in again.