Image c/o Sun-Sentinel.com

I checked the news this morning and had a strong feeling of deja vu. Another offshore oil rig exploded today 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana. 13 people were rescued from the water (read about it here).

My first thought was that it must be some sort of article reprint from last April, but it isn’t. This is a new potential disaster, and none of the political posturing, regulation, or boycotting that we all engaged in did anything to stop it. This is a tough pill to swallow, but the truth is that we are all to blame for these disasters. Every time we fill up our cars with gasoline we sanction dangerous high-risk offshore drilling and deepen our dependency on imported oil.

I’m not delusional enough to think that we can eliminate gasoline consumption entirely, but we can reduce it. How far do you live from your office? What about the closest grocery store? Post office? What errands do you run frequently that are within 5 miles of your home? Instead of turning on your car for these short trips, take a bicycle. If you committed to doing only this 2 or 3 times per week, you would eliminate the need for an entire barrel of oil (or more).

Let’s do a little math:

One barrel of crude oil contains 55 gallons. A refinery can turn roughly half of that volume into gasoline, so let’s say 20 gallons. (source) If you drive a car that gets 25 mpg in the city, those 2-3 5 mile errands per week (1000 miles per year) use up more than 40 gallons of gasoline. Two barrels of crude.

This doesn’t take into account any other driving. Just the short trips that could easily be made by bicycle. Make half of these trips by bicycle (500 miles of errands in a year) and you’ve saved an entire barrel of crude oil.

The US uses nearly 20 million barrels of oil every day. That’s more than 7 billion barrels per year. Each of us on average uses 50-75 of those barrels. Obviously eliminating 1 barrel from your annual consumption is a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start.

Ask yourself this question next time you start your car: Could I make this trip just as easily by bicycle, or on foot? If the answer is yes, then don’t start the engine. Start yours. The best way to decrease our dependence on oil and all of the risks that come with it is to change our own behavior. It’s not about politics or environmentalism, it’s simply common sense.

Just a quick update from two really fun Sunday rides!

A thank you out to Randy and Jan for making the 8am ride a real pleasure -  some rolling hills and great conversation at a Sunday morning kinda pace.  Enough to get the heart rate up, but no hammering allowed.  We broke a sweat, but didn’t push ourselves – the rule is, if you can’t talk, then you are working too hard, right?   I heard from a couple of other folks who could not make the 8am ride, but promised to return after the Labor Day weekend.  This 8am time seems to be gathering some interest, so we’ll continue to ride at this time

At the 1pm ride, with warmer temps and a threat of showers, Kellie and her husband, Emilio, showed up with a lot of energy and interest in burning some calories, so we packed a lot of cycling into the 90 minutes that we had.  A good energy-infused ride with some rollers and fun downhills – and they brought mountain bikes for added resistance on the ride.  Emilio shared that when he was a kid, he spent summers with his uncle in Italy. His favorite times were riding a used blue Bianchi.  Most of us can only dream about cycling in Italy…ciao!

On Sunday, September 5, we will have both the 8am and 1pm rides, so feel free to join us. It’s a nice recovery ride if you plan to ride the Clarksville Rotary Ride on Saturday…and a good way to burn some calories for the Monday b-b-que…

Take care and safe riding,

Terry

Oh wait. Yes we do.

While I’m sure this has beneficial therapeutic uses, the soundtrack and general enthusiasm of the main guy in this video can’t be taken seriously. Not even for a second. Wheeeee!

Each Thursday, from September 9-October 14, we will be supporting the Commit to Commute campaign by leading rides from two locations near downtown to Public Square Plaza for the Lightning 100/Team Green Live on the Green Concert Series.

Harpeth Bicycles and Nashville Bicycle Lounge are looking for ride leaders to lead cyclists from the start locations to the concert venue and back. Each ride is under 3 miles through the streets of Nashville, so safety and a good sense of direction outweigh speed.

The West Nashville ride will start from Centennial Park at 6pm and head downtown. The East Nashville ride will leave at 6pm from the Nashville Bicycle Lounge and cross the river via the Shelby Street Pedestrian bridge.

We need experienced riders to lead each of these rides. Ride leaders will be expected to outline the route to all riders, go over safety guidelines, and make sure all riders know to obey all traffic laws. These will be beginner friendly rides with no dropped riders. More details available here.

To volunteer to lead a ride, click on the link next to any of these dates and start locations. As we get ride leaders for each week we will post with the dates we still require help with. Please respond by September 1st.

Each rider must provide their own bike and helmet. Reflectors, bright colored clothing, white head light and red tail lights are highly recommended to increase visibility after dark. After the show, meet at the Team Green tent to ride with the group back to your vehicle, or hop on the MTA Bus (complete with bike racks).

Ten of our most dirt-oriented riders took to the trails at Montgomery Bell State Park yesterday for some trail riding. We had a great time – even after using up the entire group’s supply of tubes and CO2 cartridges fixing flats. (note to readers: Stan’s NoTubes tubeless systems really work. Call us and go tubeless!)

Here are some pictures from the day. Click the large image to see the next in the slideshow, or click here to see the full set on flickr.

Rachel Scott, Nashville native and former local bike racer, recently made the big move from the rolling hills of Tennessee to the mountains of Colorado. We’re following her adventures closely and will post updates from her periodically on this blog. This is the first report that we are featuring, but it’s Rachel’s second update. Read her first report here.

This post was originally published at http://rucasmcscoots.wordpress.com/ on August 17, 2010. Click the link to read the original post (more pictures)

Out-and-back basic rules to live by:  Always, always, always understand that once you go out, you have to make it back.  Sounds simple, right? I’ve done several out-and-back trips via bike, run, and the occasional reluctant swim, but for some odd reason, I continue to think that the further I get away, it will force me into more fitness if I ever want to make it home.  Never fails; I always forget about the difficulties encountered for the return trip. Short term memory loss from my college years I suppose.

Finishing up on Mt. Ida--apparently, I suck at walking.

Two quick examples of this–starting with today.  Woke up a little on the late side, and because my hand is still the size of a grapefruit(will explain my slacklining mishap in a few), I had to bag my ride and opt for a trail run.  My ankle is also still the size of a grapefruit, but I’ve been getting impatient as my injury occurred almost a month ago.

Instead of forgoing all physical activity, a nice, easy trail run seamed to fit the bill.  After looking up the top 100 best trails in CO, I decided on Lair O’the Bear in neighboring Morrison, due to the close proximity, smooth single-track, and it’s out-and-back nature to cut short if necessary.  I’ve been wanting to scope this out for mountain biking, too so everything seemed to work out perfectly.

Upon my arrival–which I still can’t believe I live surrounded by such beauty–I started out at Bear Creek’s(one of these in Nashville too!) water edge.  The trail was ridiculously populated with tons of mountain bikers, weekend warriors, and a couple backpackers. I knew the trail was over 6 miles out with the majority of it climbing up a mountain, and had not anticipated on going as far as I did; however, I completed almost a half-marathon of trail running above 8,000 ft over 2.5 hours.  Originally, ten miles seemed good for fitness sake, but after encountering a resting mountain biker, I began to ask, “So how much further to the top because I’m really running slowly today.”

My chagrin turned to temporary delight when told that the first 1.5 miles by the river were unaccounted for. So my slow pace wasn’t so slow and I happened to be less than a mile from the turn-around point.  I trekked on and sure enough, the trail stopped short of what appeared to be a busy highway in the middle of nowhere.  Also, at the end of the trail, a sign that told you how to fend off a mountain lion in their territory caught my attention too.  Dadgumit! The thought crossed my mind that I was in mountain lion country, and scenes of the Discovery Channel’s I Shouldn’t Be Alive kept flashing through my head.

Luckily the thought of being mauled by a huge cat with fangs motivated my return pace, keeping my mind off the fact that I was about to run a trail half marathon, my longest run of the year on untrained legs and an unhealed ankle.  Dodging a couple mountain bikers on the return trip, I began feeling the bonking sensation and was tripping more than normal.  Yup, was getting tired.  Somehow I made it back without being eaten by a mountain lion, bitten by a rattlesnake or falling off a sharp cliff.  And for finishing in a descent time–that and celebrating the fact of being alive–Morrison seemed like a cool place to rehydrate.

Stopping in a quaint Mexican restaurant with an upstairs patio, I planned on grabbing a quick, extra salty margarita doused with Gran Marnier and eating my weight in chips and salsa.  Apparently, I discovered the local hot spot complete with a one-man-band(Sax, electric drums, guitar–and tons of Journey), dancing, and biker hang-out.  Awesome!  Great food, drink and met some new folks who are members of my new career.  Talked with this couple for a while and accomplished some work research in a personal atmosphere.  Double score.

The run felt much worse on the way back, but I am glad I chose the out-and-back version just in case if I possibly needed to turn around.  Next time, I’ll remind myself periodically–no matter how good I feel–that there is a return trip.

My other out-and-back encounter was in my car this time.  Not such a big deal, but because I made this the topic of the blogpost, then I’m going to make the correlation.  In 2004, I fell asleep behind the wheel of my car after working all night trying to make it to my early class in school.  Flipped my car over an embankment on the Interstate going close to 80.  I should have died but came away without a scratch.  Anytime I get sleepy, I’m pulling over in a half heartbeat.  After working at the Lyons Rocky Mountain Folk Festival all weekend–if you call working playing on a slackline, teaching children how to tie knots, and demonstrating lightning safety on a Van de Graaff generator work all the while getting backstage passes to some killer music–I was exhausted and didn’t want to camp an extra night.  So after Swell Season I started home and the return trip was a nightmare.

Out here, I can’t see worth sh*t.  I love the fact there are no lights or visual pollution on the road but driving through mountain passes with no traffic and no center lines can get pretty scary.  Everything is much darker, and I can’t see very well at night either.  By now, you can tell I made it home, so no big deal–but it did freak me out a bit.  Ok-that’s the moral of the story–remembering the drive out goes much more quickly than the return trip.

Josh, our slackline guru. Yes, that's a backflip and he stuck it.

On another note, this festival was amazing! During the day, I with some other co-workers were manning the family station at the folks fest which included the above mentioned activities.  Worked next to the gorgeous St. Vrain river from about 10 to 5 with scattered breaks, but was able to catch all the music from 5 on.  The line up consisted of Ani Difranco, Marc Cohn, Jenny Lewis, Greg Brown and the Swell Season to name a few.  Our passes allowed us backstage to eat dinner with the artists, unlimited amounts of coffee, and the much nicer bathrooms.  At one point, I was sitting enjoying a 1554(New Belgium everywhere out here and much cheaper too!) listening behind the stage to Jenny Lewis’ funk-righteous band, and Glen Hansard of Swell Season plops down next to me to me.  Of course I act like a don’t know him, smile and carry on with my business, but the festival organizer comes up and mentions something about the Telluride Bluegrass festival, leading in with, “I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner, but….” and Glen screams, “But you just did!” The guy freaks out, but he assures him jokingly, “I’m just kidding,” in his accent.  Made me laugh and also glad that I didn’t say anything either.

The first evening of the festival, I had set up camp in an area that would put Nashville’s Tent City to shame.  Slightly nicer, but jam-packed full of Festavarians who smelled just the same. Luckily, I had the best night’s sleep since being here–with the exception of a midnight bathroom run, sans headlamp, contacts and sense of direction.  Yes, I fell onto several tents and probably stepped on someone’s head but I didn’t pee in my tent.

Though the music was incredible, my favorite part of the weekend besides the incredible organic food–Spicy dumplings, eggplant, ice cream–was the running of the festavarians to stake their tarp claim.  Everyday at 10 am, the gates opened to a rush of dreadlocks and tie-dyed tapestries resembling capes darting around obstacles to get a prime viewing location.  Another amazingly simple, yet rare occurrence–recycling and compost areas. Absolutely nothing from this 5,000 person sold-out concert was ending up in a landfill.  No, this is something you’d never see in Tennessee.

Yes, this is my job

Between the music–which several times brought tears to my eyes and filled me with such emotion, the food, the epic trail run, the camping(which I’ve never done by myself before, might I add), and the ever-awe inspiring Eden that surrounds me and is now my home, I’d have to say this weekend was a good one.  I can think of one thing that might have made it better, and that would be to have Lucas by my side; though, he was busy setting a PR at the Fall Creek Falls triathlon this weekend–a 2:12 on an undulating course with an uphill .5 mile run out of T1!