Road ID

Watch this....

[Road ID News Story]

Between commuting over 100 miles a week by bike, and running close to 30 miles a week while training for my first marathon, I've no doubt dramatically increased my chances of being struck by a moving vehicle or having some sort of other injury happen to me while out on the trails and roads. So, I invested in a little piece of mind.

What I got is a bracelet called a Road ID that I now wear whenever I head out riding or running. Truthfully it's something I should've gotten a long time ago, but I kept forgetting to order. Fortunately I've escaped any incidents thus far, and haven't been in a situation where emergency medical and contact information may be needed. However, you never know what can happen out there, and at least I'm now more prepared to get the right info to any emergency medical responders if something were to happen. Hopefully my Road ID won't ever have to be used, but just in case, I now have one and would certainly recommend anyone else who runs/walks/bikes/rollerblades/somersaults/etc on the trails and roads to get one as well.

You can choose from a number of different colors, and get up to 6 engraved lines to convey the info you need someone else to know. When ordering, the website helps make recommendations about what info you should put on each line. The blurred out area has where I live, my date of birth, and then two different contacts' phone numbers. My blood type is then listed, along with the fact that I don't have any known allergies, or drug allergies. The last line is a lyric from a Coheed And Cambria song that I used to sing to myself while swimming in college to get me through the really hard workouts. The full line is "Pain is only a pulse, if you just stop feeling it", but I didn't have room for the second half of the line. When my legs are on fire from climbing a hill, or pounding the pavement and I dont have any energy left, all I have to do is look down to get that simple reminder that pain, is indeed only a pulse if you just stop feeling it, and then I press onwards.

Road ID

You're welcome friends and loves ones!

New Biking Gadget

I've mentioned in a number of posts over the past 3 months that I'm really making an effort to get my butt back into full on biking shape. Its been a number of years since I've ridden on a consistent basis, and after adding multiple bikes to my two-wheeled fleet, I am back in the saddle. 

One gadget I've had my eye on for a short while is the Garmin Edge 500 cycling computer. Now, this isn't your basic $25 computer that tell you time/speed/distance and that's it. No, this baby is for real. Similar to my Garmin watch I bought a few months back, this thing is packed to brim of features that I plan on using to the utmost of my cycling ability. Naturally it has gps navigation/tracking features, that will allow you to track your bike rides and workouts, but it will also spit out a whole slew of other data, a lot of which is still above my head, but some of the more common bits are: speed, distance, heart rate, calories, pre-planned workouts, courses, cadence, elevation, grade, power output, etc, etc.

Using the Garmin Connect website, and Garmin's desktop software, Garmin Training Center, you can dive really deep into planning your workouts and then analyzing the data afterwards. Like I said, a lot of this is still a touch over my head in terms of understanding the full capabilities and how to get the most out of all these features, but I'm learning more and more every day. After picking up the computer yesterday evening, I tinkered with it [as I naturally would with any new gadget] for about an hour before bed. One really cool feature is the computers ability to display 'courses' that you preprogram and send to the device via your computer. 

In just 65 days I'll be riding in this year's Tour de Cure for diabetes, and I'll be riding the 100 mile route. In my preparation for such a ride, I found this years actual 100 mile route listed online, which you can view for yourself here. When looking at the map that pops up, you'll see a tab called 'share' which will allow you to download various file versions of the map for sending to devices [such as, you guessed it, cycling computers.] I downloaded the .gpx file that has the entire route, and markers in it. Unfortunately, the Edge 500 doesn't recognize .gpx files [at least to my knowledge] so I did some brief research and found this nifty little site, that will convert that type of file to an array of different file types, included .crs files, which is the file type you need to import into the Garmin Training Center software, which will then allow you to send it to your device. Did you follow all of that? Good. 

At any rate, it worked flawlessly and I now have the 100 mile route for this year's Tour de Cure loaded onto the computer, which you can see in the pictures below. I won't ramble on too much longer, but needless to say, I'm very excited to finally have a true dedicated cycling computer that will undoubtedly make my riding and training more fun. If you're still curious or for some reason want to know more, I highly suggest heading over to the fitness related [and much much better] blog DC Rainmaker. That guy's blog and posts blow mine out of the water. If you have a training or fitness question, or perhaps are looking for some new fitness gadgets yourself, I guarantee you will find your answer over there. Since that's where I first read about the Edge 500, I felt it was necessary to give that blog a shout out. 

Alright, enough rambling. On with the pretty pretty pictures of my new toy. Enjoy!

Pretty tight little package for the amount of work this thing does.

Garmin makes it, in case you hadn't figured that out yet.

Self explanatory.

Got my bike's 'personal data' loaded up.

Courses loaded onto unit. [100 mile Tour de Cure]

Course map. [Notice similarity to this]

Course overview. [Preset at a 16mph pace]

Get out there and ride!

The Ride: No Opportunity Wasted

This morning I was listening to a radio interview with the host of 'The Amazing Race', Phil Keoghan. Phil was talking about the upcoming season of 'The Amazing Race' and all things involved with that, but that isn't what this post is about. It's about something far more awesome. Riding a bike across the country, and for a worthy cause. 

Phil organized and rode in a ride across America raising money for MS. In all, they raised over $500,000 on the way. I love stories like this, because this summer I'll be taking part in my 3rd Tour de Cure for diabetes. It's a great cause and I'm really looking forward to riding farther and challenging myself more than I did last year, but more on that event later on. 

The other reason I love this story is that he got to ride his bike across the country, which is something that I would love to do someday. Now Phil has slightly different circumstances than I do, being a TV personality and all, no desk job commitment, and a support crew and trucks along for the ride [at least it appears that was the case], at any rate though, it's an incredible feat and one that I hope to complete one day myself. 

As of right now, the documentary film that was produced isn't scheduled to play in this area, but in the event that it does, I'll more than likely make it out to watch. Stories and films about sports, and the human willpower are some of my favorites, and very inspirational. They tend to bring you back to reality and help you realize that no matter how bad you think your life may be going, there are always others out there living under far more difficult circumstances. Here's the trailer for the film, hopefully it'll be available on netflix or something if it doesn't make it to a theater near here. Enjoy.

[The Ride: No Opportunity Wasted]

Movember

This post is a tad late, but better late than never. For those unaware, men all across the world are currently growing out their mustache's for the movement known only as Movember. Unfortunately, due to my current area of employment, growing out a mustache would probably be frowned upon, or at least look extremely unprofessional. All is not lost though, you can still donate [as I have] to Movember teams across the country. If you feel so inclined, I highly suggest you donate to the team I'm supporting: The Funkamedics! ....And you only thought we were good at dodgeball, and hiding beers in our gloves while wasting time in the outfield during intramural softball! 


HERE IS THE LINK to donate to my good friend Sean, he is captain of the Funkamedic Movember team, and if you donate directly to him, it still goes to the Funkamedic team overall. It's for a good cause. Do it. Do it. Do it.

USA! USA! USA!

2010 National Tour de Cure, Ride For Diabetes

A couple months back I mentioned how I was going to be riding in this year's Tour de Cure, joining the fight against diabetes. Well, the event was yesterday and all I can really say is how awesome it was to participate in such an event....as a rider. [I volunteered and was a motorcycle escort last year.] But this year, as a rider, I felt much more responsible and helpful for actually riding and putting my legs to work!


Our team, Team Bam Bam, was definitely one of the crowd favorites, which was incredible. Everywhere we went we heard just total random strangers yelling out "GO TEAM BAM BAM!!!" and at the various rest stops other riders saying how much they loved our jersey's and that they've seen more of us than any other team out there. It was pretty special to be a part of all of that. 


Hands down though, the absolute highlight was crossing the finish line AS A TEAM. Our team was comprised with a wide range of cycling fitness and skill, and the ride was easier for some than it was for others, but we stuck together, stopped for teammates, helped each other out, and even gave fellow riders a tow when needed. And when we finished, we rolled back into Reston Town Center as a team to a huge cheer from all the friends, families, volunteers, and spectators. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for next year's ride and have already commited myself to stepping up the mileage and doing at least the 63 mile ride, possibly the 100 miler [but that will depend on my personal level of fitness at the time.] I highly recommend you get involved next year if you haven't already done so. There are rides of all mileage including a 10 or 12 mile ride for those who are worried about the longer rides. And if actually moving while riding scares you, then they have a spin class 'ride' as well!


All in all it couldn't have gone any better, and we raised almost $8,000 as a team. To anyone who helped support me and help me achieve our team's fundraising goals, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Here's some pictures from the event. Enjoy!

Team Bam Bam before the event

Getting ready to roll out

Couple pictures of me while riding

Coming across the finish line

2010 Tour de Cure - Diabetes Awareness & Fundraiser

Last June I [kind of] participated in the American Diabetes Tour de Cure. I say kind of, becuase I didn't actually ride in it. Instead I volunteered and was a motorcycle marshall patrolling the course making sure all the riders were safe at all street crossings and checkpoints. I had a lot of fun, but felt like I could've done more.

So this year, I've signed up to be IN the tour. I've joined a team with some of the fine folks over at DCSBN called 'Team BamBam." Greg 'Bam Bam' walker, was a good friend of some of my friends, who lost his battle with diabetes on September 11, 2009. One of my good friends from that site has a brother who currently has diabetes, and in honor of Greg and all those currently fighting, my friend and his wife started the team.

I've been blessed with good health my entire life [despite all the crazy stuff I do] and it's something most people tend to take for granted and not really think about until it affects them personally. But that most certainly doesn't mean those of us not fighting a disease can't join the cause and fight for a cure. So on June 20th I'll be riding the 33 mile course with the rest of Team BamBam to help raise funds for the American Diabetes Association.

I've already sent out a big email blast to a lot of friends and family, but for those of you who weren't on that list, and also happen to be reading this right now, please consider chipping in whatever you can to help! Below are two links, one to our team page where you can read a little more about Greg, and one link will take you directly to my personal page. Thanks very much in advance to anyone who is able to contribute!

Team BamBam

My Personal Page

Oh, and I almost forgot, we're getting custom bike jersey's made [which I designed] as well, which you can see right here:

Tyler's Fiero

Okay, it's Christmas Eve Eve, and I decided the previous post cannot be the only post for today, and we need to turn it around. It's the Christmas season which tends to really bring out the goodhearted-ness in people [unless you live in philly] and I just found this pretty incredible story about a young man with a form of terminal cancer who got a pretty incredible gift from a bunch of total strangers. I said it before in the Toys For Tots post, but the car community and true gearheads across the globe really are about the best people around. It's still a sad story, but it can't help but warm your heart and bring a tear to your eye to see a group of people come together to do something memorable and life changing for another human being. Here's to you Fiero.com members who helped on this project, thank you.

This Is Why You're Fat

I don't really know what to say about this post, other than I found this website and decided to share it. http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ In the past 2 weeks or so, I've found myself trying to not eat fried and fatty foods, and sticking more to the lean meats, that's a good thing right?! I've also started drinking mainly water. And if you've gotta have some flavor, I suggest the Gatorade propel water. I've also now completed one full week of CrossFit classes. [More on that later]

Anyway, watch what you eat folks. I don't want to be the Bobcat operator who gets called in to tear down your wall and lift you out of bed.