New bike, new video, 43 days!

That's right friends, just 43 more days until B&B-Day! Flights have been booked, (almost) all of my gear has been purchased, and the only tasks I have left are to raise about $500 more, sublet my apartment, and do sweat equity! Woooo! I finally got my brand-spankin'-new Defy 2 and she is awfffffully purty! Check it out:



I can also add another 15 miles to the Training Total of Training(TM), bringing said TTT(TM) to 227 miles. Grand!

Bike and Build has also posted a brand new video (and if you haven't checked out any of their other videos, you definitely should), and you can check it out here. I will be adding a list of previous videos to this blog shortly - stay tuned!

Finally, to all of my valiant readers (you are out there, right?), I plan to be posting quite a bit more often starting... soon. More likely in a week or two, once exams are over. I've also added a button to this blog that will allow you to donate more easily than ever. Donating is awesome and will instantly increase your aptitude with the ladies (or gentlemen), make you more popular, and help you win the lottery*

*Disclaimer: Results not typical, but donate anyway.

AMAZING Weather!

Today's weather was INCREDIBLE! It was 70 and sunny with a light breeze - just PERFECT. Thus, it was very important that on this first BEAUTIFUL day of the year, I go on a nice ride! Having been off the bike for about 2 weeks, I was expecting my typical 15 mile ride to be a bit tough, but I did it like it was nothing - I think the awesome weather really helped.

In other news, as soon as all pending donations clear, I will have $1900 raised! This is AWESOME, and I appreciate every single dollar donated - it also means I'll be getting my bike very soon! I'm going to need another $100 by April 17th, so if you have a few bucks to spare, hit up http://www.bikeandbuild.org/donate and select "Katch, Allyson" from the list.

Again, thank you all so much for all of your support. Pictures of the bike will be up the second I get it out of the box.

Total mileage: 181.5

Madison to Cambridge: 33 miles, 0 emissions

So this whole weekend has been crazy! I rode 15 miles on Friday afternoon to pick up a few much needed supplies, then on Saturday I rode 33 miles from Madison to Cambridge.

This is the route I followed:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Madison-to-Cambridge

I got sidetracked a few times - tried taking an alternate route off BB and went a little too far down the Glacial Drumlin state trail, but in the end it worked out. The entire ride took me about 3 hours, 45 minutes.

My total mileage after this weekend: 56.3 + 15 + 33 = 104.3

Moving right along!

Desperate white female seeks cheapy messenger bags for a few hours of DIY fun

What an epic adventure I've had this day. Truly a fantastic frenzy of fabulous fun. My intention was to ride over to the Savers on the east side to purchase some cheapy messenger bags for to make my own panniers (because panniers are fscking expensive, doncha know). Little did I know that there is no longer a Savers on the east side, only one on the west side. Equally little did I know that in place of the awesomeness that is Savers was its polar opposite... Family Dollar. Ew. So I rode back to campus, thinking I'd go to the Goodwill on State Street. WRONG! About 3 minutes before I arrived, they had closed. No one wants to sell me cheapy messenger bags today, apparently.

So scratch that idea. I then went to Budget Bicycle (bless their LBS hearts) and purchased some necessary items for my lean mean purple machine; handlebar tape, cables, and a rack. Unfortunately, probably due to no fault of the kind people at Budget Bicycle, the rack was missing one single nut, and so I was unable to complete the installation completely. Oh well, it feels solid enough for now.

Today's mileage: 6.9 miles