Laughing all the way to the playoffs!

I admit that I'm not the sports fan I once was, but I still follow the Kansas City Chiefs pretty closely. I didn't give them much of a prayer of making the playoffs today, but thanks to the *hated* Bronco's CHOKING against the 49ers in OT, the Chiefs beating the Jaguars, the Bengals losing to the Steelers, AND the Titans losing to the Patriots, the Chiefs are IN THE PLAYOFFS!!! Yeah, they probably won't get far, but I'm happy they will be playing next Sunday!

Cost per Mile of Operating a Vehicle

In the midst of "torturing" my children today by making them clean up their rooms, I decided to sit on the couch and look up something that has been weighing on my mind for quite some time: "How much DOES it cost per mile to drive?" Well, the answers were both interesting and thought provoking at the same time.

I will let you do your own research into this area to make your own conclusions, but for somebody who drives 10,000 miles or less per year in their vehicle actually pays more per mile than somebody who drives considerably more when you figure in the operating costs and the ownership costs.

One site broke it down this way:
Operating Costs
Gas per mile multiplied by total miles drive equals total gas. Add to that the cost of maintenance and tires and you have total operating costs.
Ownership Costs
Adding Depreciation, insurance, taxes, license and registration, and finance charges gives you total ownership costs.
Other Costs
Washes, accessories, etc.
Adding Total Operating Costs to Ownership costs along with other costs gives you total driving costs. NOW, divide that by total miles driven and you have costs per mile.

With the above formula, I guarantee you that my costs per mile driven are really high for as little as I drive. Why did I research this in the first place? As you might have guessed, it's a little self-esteem builder for the cyclist. If by bike I can do most of my commuting, going to the dome to work out, going to the store, going to the recycling center, I like to feel good about it. What could possibly make you feel better than knowing that you are probably saving 50-75 cents per mile WHILE getting a good workout on top of it all?

Another site brought up the points I was hoping to see monitarily but wasn't sure I'd find a definitive answer, and I probably still haven't: The social cost. What about the amount of pollution I don't put out, the cost of road maintenance and upgrades, and not needing a parking space. One site I found that I think aimed at a much more urban setting than ours (talking about the cost of congestion, etc) had the cost of driving as high as $1.19 (http://www.commutesolutions.org/calc.htm).

It's not that I needed an excuse to ride my bike to work and for errands, I was just hoping to put an approximate dollar amount on it for me and for anybody else who is interested. Food for thought...eat well.

2007 Fitness Goals

1. Goal: Ride 7500 miles in 2007 – Stretch Goal: 10,000 miles. This includes ALL miles, commuting, stationary, spin class, and training. I teach a 40 minute spin class and I’m going to count that as 10 miles. I don’t think that anybody in my class would argue that it’s at LEAST that much.

2. Ride the SD Gut Check – Stretch Goal: FINISH. I’ve never completed 200 miles in one day let alone 412 in 48 hours, so I realize this will take a different approach to my normal training.

3. Weight: 190 lbs by June – Stretch Goal: 180. The stretch is definitely a stretch for somebody who has been 200+ for quite some time. At the height of my chubbiness I was 230 pounds but due to a much better diet and learning when to put the fork down, I’ve hovered around 210 for awhile.

4. Improve time on 14 mile Intramural Course to sub 36 – Stretch Goal: Win Intramural Race in the process! – My four year reign as individual champion came to an end last year and I’d like to regain the title at age 40. Cycling against “kids” under half my age can make that quite the challenge as I found out last year. 14 miles @ sub 36 would only take a 23.3 average speed, but there are rolls in this course that you will definitely feel towards the end.

5. Improve 10 mile TT time to Sub-25 minutes – Stretch Goal: Sub-24 minutes The average to break Sub-25 on the out and back time trial (turn around in the middle) is a healthy 24mph average—to break 24 would take 25mph average. To do this I see two things that have to happen: my weight has to drop and I have to have a fairly calm wind day.

6. Have 30 riders on Team Road Kill for the MS Bike Tour – Stretch Goal: 40 – Last year we had 23 riders and raised over $14,000 between the Sioux Falls and the Black Hills WRATH rides. I would love to see that climb to 30-40 riders and close to $20,000 raised to help find a cure for this dreadful disease. If you are reading this and would like to join our awesome team on this ride, let me know!

7. Ride Tour de Kota - Stretch goal: Ride from Watertown to Vermillion on Day 7 - Day seven doesn't currently exist on the TDK, but I have one person who will ride at least to Sioux Falls with me on Saturday (the 7th day). It would be a good test to see how my mind will handle the pain of the SD Gut Check ride.

8. Finish Masters Degree – I know, not exactly a fitness goal, but more of a “mental” goal. I’ve been done with coursework for about three years and now I just need to finish my Professional Report to graduate. If I fail at this task, I’ll start losing credits from courses taken due to time limitations so that is added motivation to finish.

How Many Goals Will I reach?
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	ALL 8 !!!
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Christmas Comes Early!!

My kind of Christmas happened today. My orders from Deep Discount DVD and from Amazon arrived! I got one of the cycling classics (believe it or not it was on back order!) from Deep Discount DVD: Breaking Away. Apparently there is currently a huge demand for $5.99 cycling movies from 1979.

My Amazon order is mainly book order was what I deem "books to help my body act like I'm about to turn 40". The Cyclists Training Bible, The American Physical Therapy Association Book of Body Maintenance and Repair, and The Sugar Solution. Trying to cover it all; training, body maintenance, and a decent diet (don't worry, I still have my Carmichael "Eat Right/Train Right" too!).

We (cyclists) all need some off season motivations, so here's hoping that "Merry Christmas to Me" present helps me have a great cycling season for the "40th" year of my life!

...and the streak ends....

Originally I meant to keep track of how many straight days I rode my bicycle to work but I lost track along the way (I'll try again starting tomorrow!). With that being said, I'm sure that you know that I didn't ride my bike today. I'm not a huge fan of riding to work in the rain and being a "speckled-back-mud-skipper" for the rest of the day, and I'm certainly not a fan of rain when it's a whopping 32 degrees out. The temperature is actually warm for this time of year, but not so much when it's raining. After watching "Who Killed the Electric Car?" last night I feel like a major hypocrite driving to work today.

Who Killed The Electric Car?

If you haven't watched this documentary...do. It is quite possible that I may ride my bike even more than I already do. One movie made my hatred of the following EVEN stronger than it already was:

1. Government
2. Oil Companies
3. Automobile Manufacturers (most of them anyway)

If you need to borrow it, get in touch with me. I'll be glad to get it your way.

The Brady Christmas Rhyme

I'm not exactly certian when I started to do a Christmas Letter as a rhyme, but I think it was actually pre-2K. It has been one of those traditions that people seem to like so here is this year's edition. **writers note - I've done better, but I'm tired!!***

2006 With the Brady’s – Now THIS is Living
(It’s the Christmas Rhyme that keeps on giving)

Fear not all you worriers; you’ll get your fix,
It’s the Brady Christmas letter of two thousand and six!
Only a few days until Christmas and Kevin’s behind in his quest,
To bring you a letter that’s one of the best!
No boring letters here, so sit back this time
And enjoy the Brady Family Christmas-time rhyme!
Let’s start at the top, with the boss of this clan,
Thanks to last Christmas, she’s had quite a plan.
Since our gift that keeps giving, a nice massage table,
She’s enrolled in massage therapy school and she’s really quite able!
Already licensed in South Dakota, her certificate up,
So let us all fill our glasses and raise up our cup.
When not working or with family, Kevin usually has a bicycle ride planned,
This summer the biking of our MS Team raised over fourteen grand!
We are so proud to be a part of this charity as we bike on with ease,
But life is not so easy for those who endure this disease.
Austin is now ten and his interests are vastly growing
His work at school is important to him, his maturity’s showing.
He dabbles in so many things it’s hard to mention them all at this time
It would take up the remaining space of our Brady Christmas Rhyme.
In a world that seems so caught up in hate
Enter our ray of sunshine, Marissa, now eight.
She loves to include others that are often left out on the side,
For this we are proud, a fact we won’t hide.
During this holiday season it helps keep this in mind too:
Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.
Carson is now three and is at such a cute stage,
But is more of a challenge than the two others at this age.
He pushes the limits, but usually knows when to stop,
What might push with Mum, he won’t push with Pop!
Church is busy for us, from the praise band to even preaching a time or two,
There’s almost nothing in our church that a family member doesn’t do.
That’s the abbreviated version of our life through this year,
But if you want more frequent updates don’t shed a tear.
Kevin keeps random thoughts about things on a blogging site,
Go to bikingbrady.blogspot.com when you can’t sleep at night.
I was told that I must stop when this rhyme hit the bottom of the page,
I tend to ramble on as I get “up there” in age.
So we bid you great things from our corner of Heaven,
We wish you the best for two thousand seven!

Stupid Ice...

My dislike of rain this time of year is for obvious reasons. It nearly instantly turns to ice. It had misted/lightly rained Monday afternoon as it was above freezing. It didn't *seem* bad as I left work to go home. I turned from a stop sign and got a few good pedal strokes in before BAM! down goes Kevin. Not just down mind you, skating on an icy surface at about 15 mph. Oh well, I shook it off and rode VERY CAREFULLY home.

The next morning I told Laura that the kids better not ride their bike to school and that she better give them a ride. I should have taken my own advice. I looked out and seen that the streets had been graveled so I would have some traction on the street. Well, unfortunately, the driveway was no so forgiving. As I coasted down the driveway to the street…you guessed it….BAM! It happened so fast this time that it was nearly funny, just not to my butt.

I am toying with the idea of getting out the studded tires, but with 50 degree weather in the forecast, that seems a little silly at this point. I am happy to report that it’s not nearly as icy now so I’m “up to speed” biking around town again.

Tour de Vermillion with my Garmin 301

I had an hour to kill before going to the USD Women's Basketball game so I decided to do a "tour de Vermillion" on my mountain bike. I also wanted to try to put my Garmin to the test by not constantly going in a straight line. Well, it did "okay" but I wouldn't say it did a great job. There are a couple points where it looks like I drove over a church and a couple houses. I still love it as it seems to be real accurate with total mileage ridden, but I wish that it was more accurate on the mapping side of life!

Buddy is Getting Old

Our dog of 10 years is starting to show his age. He had been really whiny as of late so Laura took him to the vet yesterday. Poor Buddy has arthritis. He seems a little better, but it's tough to coming to the realization that your pet is getting old.

OFFICIALLY a Massage Therapist

Okay, a short, but important post: My wife is now a licensed Massage Therapist in the State of South Dakota. Not only is she licensed, but due to the fact that licensing in the State of South Dakota is new, she is one of the first! WAY TO GO LAURA!

Eventually you will be able to visit her on the web as we get time to get a page up at http://www.body-in-balance-massage.com or by click on "The Best Massage" link on the side of my blog :-)

USD Theatre Department - Urinetown

I'm by no means an aficionado when it comes to plays and/or musicals, so it wasn't surprising when I had never heard of the musical "Urinetown". It seems that nobody else had heard of it either though. A graduate student from the Student Christian Community was in charge of the set, our church organist/pianist was playing piano for it, and the musical director recently sang at our church, so I had to check it out.

Sunday afternoon Laura and I sat FRONT AND CENTER (QUITE figuratively might I add)for the musical. I have to tell you, not only was I impressed with the play, but it was one of the best plays that I've ever seen here at USD. They always do a great job, but this one was just plain fantastic. Kudos on such a great presentation! For those who didn't get to see it, if you ever get the chance, see Urinetown!

Baker's (Popliteal) Cyst

Yesterday (Dec 4th) about 2:00 in the afternoon I got one of those heart stopping phone calls from one of my Mother's friends: "Your Mom was in the Doctor's office and she passed out so they took her by ambulance to the hospital. You should come as soon as you can, but drive carefully."

Wow, talk about putting a guy into a panic. I finished up the last update on a call I was working on, let everybody know I was leaving and I was on my bike to home, grabbed the car, and was on my way to Yankton. So many thoughts were racing through my brain on the way over: Did something happen with the mechanical valve in her heart? Is she having trouble with her meds?

When I got there, Mom was getting X-rays and some other tests done. She had been having some severe leg pain (second time now) and she was getting that checked when she passed out. When she got back to the room she was her usual happy self and acted like nothing major was going on. The doctor was supposed to be in by 5:00 to give us some kind of word but he wasn't and I had to get back to the USD Women's and Men's Basketball games (they won both by the way!). I called back during the games and Mom said that he had never come in, but that she was resting comfortably. When I checked in today she told me that the doctor had informed her she has a Baker's Cyst. I had to look that one up as I admit I hadn't heard of that, but it's not as serious as it may sound. I let you read about it from the link provided as I'm far too lazy to type all that.

At any rate, Mom is doing fine and will be back to her normal ornery self in no time I'm sure. Sure puts a scare in you when you get a phone call like that though.