A Whole Lotta Nothing Matt Haughey’s Personal Blog

Bikes, bikes, bikes

For the past few years I’ve been getting back into cycling in a big way. Though I’ve spent all my life riding bikes, after college I rarely had time or a place to ride. Now that’s all changed as I live in a relatively flat small town with plenty of roads and a healthy cycling scene.

A couple summers ago I got my first road bike and went on a few 15 mile rides with the local bike shop group. Last year I raced in a couple cyclocross races and got my ass thoroughly kicked, but had a blast. Thanks to the MetaFilter cycling challenges over at We Endure, this year I decided to stop hanging my bike up every winter and just power through it.

This year, I’m aiming to do quite a bit more. This fall I’ll do the whole cyclocross series. I’m also doing the 500 miles in one week of Cycle Oregon. I’ll do a century or two (or 3) during the summer as well as the Portland Short Track series on my new mountain bike. Today I had fun doing the Worst Day Ride as well as hitting the North American Handmade Bike Show. Though I’ve only ridden 600-800 miles a year for the past three years, I’m hoping to put down about 2,000 in 2008. My three favorite blogs right now are Bike Portland, Bike Design, and Bike Hacks.

I mention all this because you might see a few more bike-related posts here and I’m actively trying to lose another 25lbs this year by watching what I eat and exercising more. It also adds some motivation to meet my goals, so if you see me in six months on the street or at a conference, go ahead and ask me how many miles I’ve ridden and how much weight I’ve lost.

Check out Belgium Knee Warmers too: http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/ it’s a great read, especially if you’re getting into cyclocross.

Looking forward to seeing more cycling content! Knowing your past - could this lead to your own bike blog, a la PVRBlog?

Gonna do STP?

Oh, man. I wish I’d known about the MeFi challenge before I started Ironman training.

Gonna do STP?

I never thought about it, but maybe. Seattle to Portland seems kind of fun for a long two day thing.

Get yourself up to Iowa for RAGBRAI this summer! You’ll probably end up eating 25lbs worth of deep-fried heaven, but low blood pressure is overrated.

The start of the second day of STP might have been the worst I’ve ever felt in my life. The end of the second day of STP is definitely up there with the best.

I’m already registered again for this year, now I just have to actually start training…

I’m glad to hear that you like my bicycle design blog. Thanks for the link.

I’ll second Joshua’s comment about Belgium Knee Warmers. It is a great blog. In fact, there are a lot of great bike blogs out there.

Hm. You’re already biking? Have you seen the weather lately? You’re making me feel guilty for sitting inside, in front of a computer!

Yeah, JD, I’m working on a post about how to ride in the winter here in Oregon. It’s all about getting the right clothing.

Man oh man do I love me some cyclocross. Unfortunately in Dallas we don’t have the poor weather that makes it so fun. So the organizers just throw in staircase after staircase to beat us into submission.

It’s the perfect cross training between XC seasons.

My goal is 100/miles a week this year… so far so good!