Two days in and I’m an app junkie. I’ve got 12 so far. Once I cross that line and start actually paying for them, the floodgates will really open. I’ve got my eye on one that keeps track of the length of lines and availability of fast passes at Walt Disney World. I can’t wait to use that puppy when we go in December. Possibly the coolest app I’ve gotten so far will actually do dictation. I say something to it and it turns it into text and I can email or text it. Pretty freakin’ cool.!
Of course, I still haven’t bought a case for the thing yet, and since you cannot get insurance for IPhones I really, really, really need to put it in some protective covering. If you search back in my archives you’ll see a post about wanting an IPhone and about what I managed to do to an IPod Touch that almost got me fired when I bought it. I cannot, repeat, cannot do the same thing to this IPhone. I’ll curl up in a ball and cry myself out of existence. My wife ordered an Otter Case for me online and hopefully it will get here in the next couple of days. In the meantime, I carry it around like it is made of crystal. I always hold it with two hands and try never to take it out of my pocket over a bare floor—always over carpet. I hyperventilate when my 5-year-old uses it as a light saber—seriously.
I think my absolute favorite app is one that I’ve wanted to have for quite a while. It will keep track of how far you’ve ridden your bike. It’ll track the route, and calculate your speed, calories burned, etc. And, it will save them for you in an archive. And I can tweet the results of each work out directly to my adoring public. I know you are out there hanging on my every move. I understand and I am trying to do my best to feed you the information about me that you desperately need. IMapMyRide will help me do that. It is really a public service.
Since I started riding seriously a few weeks ago I’ve really wanted to know how far I actually ride my bike. Well, today was that magical day. I got to hop on my bike with my IPhone in my pocket and my IMapMyRide app fired up. Of course without a case, I was a little nervous about taking the phone on my bike. I’ve never crashed, but I’ve only been riding for two weeks. It’s going to happen sooner or later. And I don’t want it to happen while I am riding around with my IPhone unprotected. I need an IPhone prophylactic. Really, using it unprotected is just plain irresponsible. Absent a prophylactic, I knew I had to treat my phone with kid gloves. Really, I wrapped it in three pairs of my kids’ gloves. Sure, it was a little bulky in my pocket. It looked like I had an armadillo in my trousers. It was really quite frightening. (That’s ripped off from This is Spinal Tap).
The ride was really great and I went farther than I thought I would—more about that in a minute. I have to tell you about something that happened along the ride. It made me realize that I am finally entering the world of a real cyclist. I am sure this happens to other cyclists all the time, but this was the first time for me. I was riding along when a car filled with enthusiastic youngsters suddenly pulled up beside me. They opened the door right next to me and let out a high pitched scream. Sure, I was startled but I felt much better when I realized that the youngster’s shriek surely was intended as encouragement and a note of appreciation for my hard work. The wild enthusiasm in his eyes (yes, he was close enough to me that I could see the crazed enthusiasm in his eyes) and the sheer joy in his face made it clear that he meant to spur me on to greater heights. This spontaneous burst of admiration came at the perfect time during the ride. I was about 10 miles into it and I was starting to wear out a bit. This shriek of affection boosted my spirits and gave me that bit of motivation (the love of fans is very motivating) to press onward. Nothing is more gratifying than having people express their appreciation for your efforts through spontaneous, sudden, loud screams of praise.
When I got home after lap 2 of my loop, I checked my IMapMyRide to see how far I had gone. After carefully unwrapping my IPhone from its layers of kids’s gloves, I found that I had ridden 16 miles! Since I didn’t tweet the full results, I’ll report them here. I know my fans will want to know that I rode for 1:15:48 and covered exactly 16 miles. I averaged 12.6 mph and burned 789 calories.
All kidding aside, I am really stoked about how far I rode. Next time I want to ride 20 miles and my goal before le Tour is to have done a 30 mile ride. Right now I am tired, sweaty and my legs are killing me. I need a shower and some food. And I need to read some to my kids.
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